Save our Seeds

Thousands of Chileans have rallied against a bill dubbed the “Monsanto law” that would let multinationals patent GMO seeds. Activists say it will not only compromise food sovereignty in Chile, but will also harm consumer health.

The largest German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung has today published a shocking article that reveals how Monsanto, the US Military and the US government track both anti-GMO Campaigners and Independent Scientists who study the dangers of GMOs. In a very detailed article the Süddeutsche Zeitung journalists reveal information on how the US Government “advances the interests of their corporations” using Monsanto as an example.

Monsanto has made a "quiet decision" already in 2011 to no longer promote GM crops in Europe, a story of Danish investigative journalists reveals. "We will not spend any more money to convince people to plant them," states Monsanto Europe's Brandon Mitchener in an interview published on youtube. He continued "The policy is we will sell it where people want it. If the farmers want it and if the government wants it and if there is a functioning, science based regulatory system." That was only the case in Spain and Portugal, where sales would continue. "We will be happy to bring it back to Europe at such time as the European public wants it". The announcement comes after Bayer, BASF and Syngenta had already made similar announcements and withdrew their GMO research from the EU last year.

Because of the very strong anti-GMO-movement and anti-GMO stance in Germany, 87% of Germans are against GMOs in agriculture and food production. In 2012 there were no commercial GM crops grown in Germany, and this will remain the case in 2013. Monsanto´s Mon 810 maize has been banned since 2009 and BASF´s Amflora potato was an economic disaster from the very beginning – authorised in 2010 for cultivation, it was grown by just one farmer on 15 hectares in 2010 and 2 hectares in 2011, and then never again.

It has become crucial to defend seeds. In the past 20 or 30 years, what was once seen as normal – peasant farmers growing, selecting, saving and exchanging seeds – has come under attack from corporations seeking to control and commodify the very basis of agriculture. This was the subject of the session at the World Social Forum in Tunis on Peasant Seeds jointly organized on March 28, 2013 by La Vía Campesina, GRAIN and the ETC Group. There are four pillars of agriculture, says Nandini Jairam, a member of La Vía Campesina and a peasant farmer from Karnataka, India, “these are soil, water, seeds, and peasants.”

Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly closed a three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America’s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn. Despite a splash of press coverage when the investigation was initially announced, its termination went mostly unreported. The DOJ released no written public statement. Only a brief press release from Monsanto conveyed the news. The lack of attention belies the significance of the decision, both for food consumers around the world and for U.S. businesses. Experts who have examined Monsanto’s conduct say the Justice Department’s decision not to act all but officially establishes the firm’s sovereignty over the U.S. seed industry.

The International Rice Research Institute, IRRI, based in the Phillipines has corrected recent media stories that the 30 year old GM rice, which is supposed to provide beta carotine to vitamin A deficient mothers and children, was about to be planted and disseminated this year. The rice would only be commercialised if it was deemend safe and proven to actually improve the vitamin A status of its consumers. This was still to be proven: "This process may take another two years or more."

Yet the 75-year-old farmer from southwestern Indiana will face off Tuesday against the world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, in a Supreme Court case that could have a huge impact on the future of genetically modified crops, and also affect other fields from medical research to software. At stake in Mr. Bowman’s case is whether patents on seeds — or other things that can self-replicate — extend beyond the first generation of the products. It is one of two cases before the Supreme Court related to the patenting of living organisms, a practice that has helped give rise to the biotechnology industry but which critics have long considered immoral. The other case, involving a breast cancer risk test from Myriad Genetics, will determine whether human genes can be patented. It is scheduled to be heard April 15.

Stagnating acreage is prompting Bt cotton seed makers to diversify into food crops such as hybrid rice, corn and vegetables, where they see a big market potential. Companies such as Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd and Rasi Seeds (Pvt) Ltd, which currently earn a major share of their revenues from Bt cotton seeds, are aggressively charting plans to scale up exposure to food crops. The Rs 500-crore firm [...] plans to scale up its breeding programme to introduce more hybrids. Rasi Seeds has partnered with Israeli firm, Evogene Ltd, to develop yield-enhancing and drought-tolerant rice varieties.

Séralini’s team and CRIIGEN have just filed complaints of defamation against claims of “fraud” and “falsified data” that were respectively published in “Marianne” and “La Provence” by Jean-Claude Jaillette and Claude Allègre who is a member of the French association for plant biotechnologies (AFBV).

In 2013 Séralini’s team and CRIIGEN will launch other legal actions to force disclosure of hidden and poor quality toxicological data. To set an example, we are arranging the formal delivery of the raw data of our last study to a notary. We will make these public as soon as the regulatory agencies or Monsanto do the same for their data, or when governments consent to publish the industry data.