world.
He said that the real prob the genetic food industry by a lew prolit bungry monopolies, and he proposed instead democratic control of the He thinks that demands such as a five-year morato. rium on cultivation, sale and genetically modified plants, pur forward by many campaigners are] reactionary, andanpres techniques.
I do not agree.
think that genetic modifi cation must be put into context. Genetic modification is can be used in a constructive It is more than that.
When issues as important principle of caution must be applied. We should not do things if their consequences cannot be forescen.
The discharge of genetically modified organisms into the environment is an which can have endless conYes. As opposed to other kinds of pollution - oil, or even radioactivity - genes do not become weaker® over organism, which then reproduces itself, from one generaWith this in the back of my head I become terrified when purée made out of Zeneca's modified food. This can have farmers, as this development threatens to turn their status of seridom The farmers will be forced to buy both the seeds and the insecBut isn't this necessary? What if the proponents of genetic foods are correct? multiply the yields of crops such as rice or wheat with the new technique. Is it not sacrifice of the farmers in order to eliminate world starvation?
This question is the wrong Task. The problem is not lack of food. Already If you go doen to the tooods today, you'd better go in protectice gear ... today is it possible to feed of discase and bad barvests the whole world's population are much more serious than were tributed cqually. diversity.
The problem is the absence Powerful companies during of justice. The solution is not new supercrops. This ence to tie the granting of the credit from, for instance, the experiences from the so- World Bank, to the use of called Green Revolution of their own seeds. cal fertilisers and profitable exacted today by the genetic grains were introduced into industry. Genetic modificaunderdeveloped countries. tion is simply not the answer Today more people are the problem, and definitely not the future, at least The number of not the future I want to live crops that are being planted - in.
The struggle for a just and of rice in India - have been ccologically sustainable significantly reduced. future can only be fought by This means that the effects people - not genes. modification? Genetic modification, GM, is a manipulation of the hereditary factors of living natural, way. In most cases some parts of the genetic material of one organism transferred into aercurtaly another organism. Sometimes the hereditary taken our, changed, and then put back again.
technique makes it possible to transfer different attributes between species of plants and animals, could not be combined in a atual way Why do companies want to genetically modify our food? mously large thereby vor empunk to suas seca ing more and more profits.
One 'advantage' with GM. techniques is that modified crops and animals, even certain genetic lines can be ability parcaica patent gives the companies and possibilities of DUWCE profits that Convencon plant refinement and animal Which companies are involved?
Monsanto (USA), Pioneer (USA), Novartis (Switzerland) and Astra/Zeneca well as a number of large chemical and sceds companies. tomato. Genetically modified food in the shops?
The first GM-food in the food storo which to stay fresh matured and acquired more 184V008 For some reason all of them have been turned into purée. The purce has been keted in Britain but nowhere eise in the EU.
Thus far mainly soya beans and soya-based products are genetically modified.
Lecithin is one soya-prodincluded in about 60 CCHE of the ready-made food and semimanufactured products that Even Tofu-cheese which is not branded to say so can be made out of genctically modified soya Some breweries ase GM-yeast (produced in a closed process) to brew beer.
So how can we avoid genetically modified food?
No-one knows. Products are only marked if the food 'significantly conventional products, or if the product contains a live GM-organism (raw corn, potato, whole fruit, etc.).
such products exist coday on the Swedish mar(from the Swedish Trotskyist paper Internationalen. Translation: Linn Hort)