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1.'Zombie' seeds will punish farmers and worsen global food crises
2.Greedier than Exxon: Where's The Outrage?
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1. 'Zombie' seeds will punish farmers and worsen global food crises
The Independent, Letters - GM farming 3 June 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/letters/letters-gm-farming-838897.html
Sir: As someone who works with poor farmers in Latin America, I find it deeply ironic that UK ministers will be attending this week's food crisis talks in Rome while at the same time the EU and, by implication, British taxpayers are contributing to the development of a new GM "terminator" technology that would put the livelihoods of 1.4 billion of the world's poorest farmers at risk.
The EU is developing what are known as "Zombie" seeds sterile seeds that can be brought back to life with the application of a chemical. This puts at risk the traditional practice of saving and re-sowing seeds, which is how many families survive here in Ecuador. With Zombie seeds, farmers would have to buy chemicals each year in order to restore seeds' fertility. The large companies that control the $19bn global seed market would be the only beneficiaries.
While the UK and EU are contributing to the development of this technology through a GBP3.4m EU research project, groups such as the national seed-saving network, in Ecuador, are fighting to protect their native seeds and biodiversity.
Poor farmers in Ecuador don't want to be forced into a long-term cycle of dependency on large seed companies.
If world leaders are genuinely committed to tackling world hunger, they need to support agricultural practices that promote self-sufficiency and autonomy of poor farmers, not invest in Zombie technology that will make the global food crises worse.
Michelle Lowe
Development Worker,
Progressio, Quito, Ecuador
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2. Windfall Profits for Big Food: Where's The Outrage?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/79701-windfall-profits-for-big-food-where-s-the- outrage
[good chart with this comparing Monsanto's profit increases to Exxon's]
WILLMAR, Minn. (AP) - The steepest run-ups in food prices since 1990 are hurting grocery shoppers, restaurants and school cafeterias but they're making others rich.
The winners in the new food economy include crop farmers selling corn and wheat for near-record highs after years of crushingly low prices. Ingredient makers like Cargill and ADM (ADM) are rife with profits. Fertilizer and tractor companies are cashing in.
Profits at seed and pesticide maker Monsanto Inc. (MON) reached nearly $1 billion last year - a 14-fold increase since 2003. They've tripled to $1.1 billion at agrichemical maker Syngenta (SYT) and agriculture divisions of DuPont Co. (DD) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) have also seen their earnings balloon. Cargill, which makes ingredients, boosted its profits to $2.3 billion, up nearly six-fold since 2001. Meanwhile, profits at agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland Co. have more than quadrupled to $2.16 billion during the same period.
Question: Why don't the "obscene, windfall profits" of Big Food get the same attention as the profits of "Big Oil?" Where are the Congressional hearings and proposals for windfall profits taxes on Big Food? After all, the increase in profits for major food companies from 2005 to 2007 are ridiculously and obscenely higher than the paltry 12% increase in profits for Exxon Mobil (XOM) (see chart above).