GM crops are unlikely to benefit anyone but corporations who will gain control over food production, experts warn
They say a few major agricultural corporations like Monsanto, which infamously produced the defoliant Agent Orange and have refused to accept responsibility for actions that poisoned millions of Vietnamese people and devastated its agricultural infrastructure, are the major promoters of GM crops. Their aim is to gain control over food production, the experts alleged.
However, the Association of Concerned Scientists, a science-based nonprofit organization in the US, has pointed out that several million acres of GE soybeans and cotton in the US are now infested with glyphosate-resistant and tolerant weeds. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also reported that the number of glyphosate applications by farmers has risen considerably, and the amount of herbicides used on HT soybeans now appears to be considerably higher than it was prior to the introduction of the HT crop.
“Such a concentration is a big danger for farmers and food security over the world. The way for these companies to maintain their domination is to add ‘intellectual property rights’ to their market dominance... Why do rich countries try to impose the domination of their big biotech leading firms through intellectual property rights? We are confronting a new ‘bio-imperialism’,” he said.
“The outstanding question about GM crops/foods is their safety. Food safety testing is difficult to do and is expensive. Companies don’t want to spend that money so the safety of these foods remains in question,” she said.
She noted that the US is an aggressive biotech giant that has not signed the global Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
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