continue a dialogue on the issue of GMOs in agriculture. I post a chapter of the information pack produced by the Coalition Italy GMO-Free Europe, which is part of the Province of Pisa.
The problem of hunger in the world today is the challenge of our millennium. Technological progress with the development of biotechnology research is trying to give an answer to solving the problem but the use of genetically modified organisms to solve hunger in the world brings with it a series of questions on which we have to think before give the green light to a practice that is likely to prove a new form of slavery, especially for poor countries but also for our developed economies. The Pontifical Council Cor Unum
answer to the question of hunger in the world as it says, "It's an illusion to expect ready-made solutions, we are in presence a phenomenon linked to the economic decisions of executives, managers, but also of producers and consumers and it is deeply rooted in our way of life. " And yet "The food security of individuals depends essentially on their purchasing power, rather than the physical availability of food."
To evaluate both the existing and potential relationships between hunger and GM is particularly useful when you consider the stresses the FAO points out that "the vast majority of hungry people live in rural areas of the developing world." It is therefore useful to start reflecting on the implications of the use of biotechnology on food safety right from the specific in rural areas, in order to better understand how to get out of this "paradox of the campaigns hungry.
Starting then from the world every year since thirty million people die of starvation and hundreds of thousands are victims of diseases, epidemics and lack of any kind caused by malnutrition, but the food resources of the planet, paradoxically, could feed almost double its population, one may wonder how it is possible that this should happen, and how to prevent it.
To answer the question and to address the topic in a more descriptive text a good comes to us by Jean Ziegler, entitled "Hunger in the world explained to my son," from which take some extracts in order to facilitate understanding of the fact that hunger is a problem that needs to be addressed by means such as GMOs and that the presentation of the latter as potential solvers has the sole purpose, by companies and multinationals to take over large areas to be cultivated to increase its budget.
The phenomenon of hunger in the world is not unknown, the media provide comprehensive statistics and give ample space to reports of international bodies that deal with the problem, but despite everything he talks about too little.
Above all we never talk about its causes, responsibilities of public and private institutions, specifically chargeable therefore, certain persons who may also indicate if there was no intention, with your full name. Indeed, these responsibilities on the mainstream media not only hide the truth but they say deliberately false.
The most striking example of this is the concealment of the truth about the actual availability of food resources in the world.
"Over fifteen years ago, says Ziegler, the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) had already submitted a report comforting: the world, according to the current state of the agricultural productive capacity, without any problem could feed more than twelve billion human beings. Feeding means ensuring every child, man or woman on Earth a daily ration of food that ranges between 2400 and 2700 calories, depending on the nutritional needs of each individual variable on the basis of his work and the climate in which they live. "
As the world population today is six billion, it is clear that, as anticipated at the beginning of paragraph, there are food resources to feed twice as many humans alive today. And obvious also that the now dominant economic system works in such a way that each year nearly one billion people starve; other five billion suffer and fall ill to food shortages, while at the same time, a mass of food enough to feed six billion people is thrown into the garbage.
Examples of news about it, on which the media of all types deliberately silent, are, among many others, described below.
Every year a quarter of all the world's cereal harvest is used to feed cattle in the rich countries, to note that in these countries to boost cardiovascular disease are increasing. The agronomist René Dumont has calculated that half of California's feed-lots (bovine herds with air conditioning and a system of food distribution rate) annually consumes more corn than they used to meet the nutritional needs of a country like Zambia, a victim of chronic under-nutrition, where maize is the staple food essential.
"the European Union requires periodic incineration and by chemical destruction of mountains of meat and thousands of tons of agricultural products of all kinds."
The costs of the destruction operation cost each year to the astronomical sums of taxpayers.
regard to the fact that schools in wealthy countries there is a real taboo to talk about their problem at hand, we read the opinion of Josué de Castro, author of the famous book Geopolitics of Hunger, which already in 1952, observed:
"people are ashamed to know so much that a large number of their fellows die due to lack of food, covering this scandal with total silence. This shame continues to be shared by schools, governments and the majority of us all. "
But not enough. The FAO, which is also in possession of precise information, he feels compelled to spread some optimism, totally unfounded, about the possibility of solving the problem. If it does not the public in rich countries refuse to pay substantial sums to the See of Rome, which would ultimately be judged a useless investment. "Lying is useful" the author concludes bitterly.
In this regard we know that, recently, at the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Committees and Agriculture of the Italian Senate and the House, the Director-General of FAO, Jacques Diouf, was heard on the issue of rising food prices and the impact it has on world food security by stating that the FAO food price index has recorded between 2005 and 2006, an increase of 12%, 24% in 2007, and about 50% up to July 2008. And even better forecasts for world cereal production, prices will remain high for several years and the food crisis in poor countries will continue. Diouf also said that "before the surge in prices in 2007-2008 were 850 million undernourished people, but only in 2007, this number increased 75 million. " The solution according to the FAO is "increasing global agricultural production to overcome the crisis in prices," or "greater investment in agriculture."
easy to see that the proposal of this body is in stark contrast to what we just said the current amount of excess production which would allow very feed twice as many inhabitants of the planet, without the need for massive agriculture, GMO or other technologies to increase even further the amount of food. Silence and lies more or less pathetic then allow the consciousness of the inhabitants of rich countries suffer less opposite the description of the kind of shows of which it is said in the aforementioned text by Jean Ziegler.
"In Cairo, almost all the cemeteries are inhabited. Immigrants in the Fayum, Upper Egypt and Sudan, squatting the tombs of the bourgeoisie. Protected by the marble mausoleum, assemble their boards, they explain their plastic sheeting. They build a hut, they cook their meager meals over a fire. Women and children carry food from the rubbish tip that is there in the vicinity: leftovers thrown every morning by the garbage trucks from the elegant districts of Cairo. "
The same thing happens, of course, with variations, in all megacities of the Third World. Ziegler provides us with brief descriptions, but sufficiently gruesome consequences of such living conditions for health (especially children): blindness, rickets, insufficient development of the capacity of the brain, intestinal worms and so on. Turning to the causes of the problem, the paper says that with a more abundant harvest of data:
'main cause of malnutrition and hunger in the world is the unequal distribution of wealth. Negative dynamic inequality: the rich are getting richer, the poor get poorer. In 1960 the richest 20% of the inhabitants of the earth had an income 31 times higher than 20% of the poorest inhabitants. In 1998 the income of the richest 20% was 83 times higher than 20% of the poorest. The 225 largest fortunes in the world representing a total of over one million dollars, the equivalent of the annual income of the poorest 47% of world population, 2.5 billion people. In the U.S., the total net value of the fortune of Bill Gates is the same as that of the 106 million poorest Americans. "
We can dwell in particular on two of the causes for which are determined to conserve and are aggravated these inequalities.
First on speculation on the prices of food staples led by a "bunch of bankers" that control the world market for food products by means of the Chicago Stock Exchange. A consequence of this is speculation:
- the inability of poor countries to buy food for the high sale price,
- the need for these countries to abandon traditional crops to devote to monocultures that they can find an outlet ;
- in short, the total dependence of the population suffering from hunger by the decisions of that group of bankers whose sole objective, pure and simple profit maximization.
Secondly, we can dwell on how much weight to cause hunger in the world the support of the West, through the provision of weapons, wars in developing countries, where wars are squandered funds for humanitarian aid.
After doing is courageous and clear analysis of the characteristics of the causes of hunger Zigler's book also puts forward some proposals about the remedies by stating that
"It is therefore the current jungle of savage capitalism that is necessary civilize. The global economy was born out of production, distribution, trade and consumer protection. To affirm the autonomy of the economy than the hunger is an absurdity, or worse yet, a crime. Can not be delegated to the free market to combat the scourge of hunger to satiate humanity. " "It's murder changed the order of the world."
And again
"urgent humanitarian aid to suffering from a hidden tare: donors rarely wonder about the quality of the social structures of the country receiving the aid. In other words, emergency assistance are often dumped on countries whose social, political and economic trouble, unjust or dominated by corruption. With this method donors reinforce the power of the wealthy, unjust social structures and cement the poor return to their misery and exploitation of a century-old. "
At this point in the reading goes without saying that the use and dissemination of GMOs is not a concrete and valid solution to the problem, not so much in terms of health but for the economic impacts, social and political issues that they bring.
From another book by the same author we read that:
"WFP had started distributing thousands of tons of cereals, in particular genetically modified maize, 1'80 per cent of these supplies came from American surpluses. The president of Zambia said that the distributions were interrupted. He called this maize poisoned food, poisoned food. "
Ziegler's reflection on the decision of the President of Zambia is explained as follows:
" An African president has the same rights of a French president and German and can, therefore, refuse to let in free of GMOs in its territory. In the case of Zambia there was another problem: in the years when the harvest is plentiful, the country exports its surplus maize in the EU countries. If Zambia's maize was genetically modified, may no longer be sold to those countries, since the European Union bans the import of GMOs. The President of Zambia won its battle and WFP had to return the U.S. corn genetically modified with natural corn. "
" Behind the humanitarian operation conducted by the supply of genetically amended, there was the will of the multinational Monsanto to penetrate the market in Zambia. In fact, farmers in Zambia by levying the humanitarian part of corn that will be used for the next planting. If the humanitarian aid consisting of genetically modified maize, the crop the following year and all other events will be collected from GMOs. "
" But genetically modified seeds are protected by worldwide patent held by Monsanto trust. The farmers in Zambia, as poor as Job, were strangled by taxes that the corporation would have the right to demand each year for the use of its patent. The refusal by the President of the Zambia has therefore avoided a financial disaster for farmers. "
The transfer of control of agriculture by the public sector, managed by national and international agricultural policies, the private, run by private companies supra, following only the rules of profit , involves considerable risks.
on subsistence follows a model of development based on agro-food sustainability, respect for biological diversity and traditions and, consequently, food sovereignty of the people who practice these forms of agriculture and, through them, they choose what to grow and then what to eat. The identity cultural products linked to the "mother land" produces a principle recognized by the United Nations and is absolutely basic, could be called "sacred" for the people in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
forms of agriculture to high inputs of capital and technology have a major impact on biodiversity as they tend to reduce and standardize the number of cultivated species preferring those who best meet the marketing in global markets and production cycles and transformation. The same research
private sector concern, of course crops and traits that are commercially attractive to farmers in industrialized countries where The market for agricultural products is strong, profitable and still subsidized.
Instead, virtually non-existent research in developing countries, which do not have the resources to independently develop GM products tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of its territory.
Earth, water, energy, credit, technical assistance, primary education are not secondary to the speech elements of food safety but are a starting point for much more structured, comprehensive and complex than mechanistic equation that is to say corporations "more GMO, less hungry. "
The security of land tenure, for a farmer who practices agriculture of subsistence, is the first step for social redemption. Water and energy are major assets. In developed countries access to these resources is taken for granted, but in Africa, in many parts of Latin America and South-East Asia, certainly not. Improve, or better, ensuring access to land, water and energy is the first step must be done to create a base for the sustainable solution to the problem of food security.
provide primary education to millions of people who work every day in the fields would increase the chance for them to gain access to forms of microcredit we confirmed as a valid tool for development. All this would improve the quantity and quality of crops, through technical assistance provided by industrialized countries, in order to deal in an effective manner the problem of food insecurity.
Sources used for this chapter: The land is life. The objectives of the Millennium Development Goals and the global South, Marelli S et al., 2006 Hunger in the world explained to my son, Ziegler J, 1999 - Practical Publishing - www.estovest.net the weak, the right to ' power, Ziegler J, 2004 - Marco Tropea Editore FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization - www.fao.org
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