[LINK] The Main Problem With GM Food Is The Patent, Not The GM

[grove at zeta.org.au]

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Jim Birch wrote:

> On 10 January 2013 11:40, Janet Hawtin <janet at hawtin.net.au> wrote:
>
>> I think the numbers of Indian farmer suicides is a striking outcome of
>> GM and corporate control of seed.
>>
>
> How many Indian farmers?  Can their suicide be specifically be attributed
> to GM seeds or is that just their or someone's story?  I don't know much
> about this stuff, but there's obvious potential for attribution error, not
> to mention disinformation from anti-GM religionists.  Has the suicide rate
> actually increased (or decreased) with GM seed use?  Or is this what is now
> held to blame in this particular situation where it might have previously
> been (eg) a lack of a good dowry for the daughters.  Even if these things
> were covered off, there's a faulty logical link in the chain: this is a
> problem with patentable seeds, not with GM.

Given that ~46000 Indians die per year due to snakebite, must put those 
numbers into some kind of perspective.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-06/india/30481201_1_anti-venom-krait-snake-bites


I am not belitting the suicide of Indian farmers, but the numbers are just 
indicative of the scale of the population there.

As for MonSanto, I worry that their GM seed goods will weaken the 
natural diversity and should some catastrophe befall their product
lines, we will be forced back to the natural strains, which 
hopefully seed banks around the world are collecting 
and maintaining.   I dislike the concept of patenting natural products
including GM seeds and so on.  In my pathetic utopia these patents would 
be shared among the research institutions of the world and used to 
solve food security issues, not profits.

I do not care about GM crops as a food source 
unless they are mixing animal genes with plants and so on.  Plants have been "genetically" modified
for centuries as anyone who knows about things like colchicine (a plant with a mutagenic toxin) 
can tell you.

My chief concern
with GM is that the products are a bit like the "Other MS" - designed to 
be "just good enough", works best only with their own product lines,
harsh licensing and governance and promises a lot more than it delivers.

There are already plants which have evolved to be Roundup tolerant,
so where is the gain there?


rachel

-- 
Rachel Polanskis                 Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
 	The more an answer costs, the more respect it carries.