Steve Abel: Non-consenting subjects of a global experiment

COMMENT

If genetically modified crops were so wonderful for the environment, Greenpeace would not be campaigning against them.

Just how negatively we regard the impact of GM crops is reflected in the determination with which we are seeking to stop the contamination of the world's last major non-GM-soy-exporting nation, Brazil.

And last week's non-GM feed policy announcement by McDonald's New Zealand reflects the unending global tide against GM foods.

Contrary to the claims of Monsanto and apologists such as Francis Wevers, articles in the New Scientist and independent analysis of United States Department of Agriculture figures confirm that GM soy is actually yielding less than conventional soy, and has led to significant increases in herbicide use in the US and Argentina.

Coupled with new weed problems and the widespread and unwanted contamination of conventional and organic crops, GM soy is proving to be an environmental nightmare.

Mr Wevers seems to take much delight in stating that it is becoming more difficult to source soy that doesn't have some presence of GM varieties. But the illegal contamination that robs us of the GM-free choice is exactly what was predicted of GM crops - that they would spread and uncontrollably contaminate conventional crops.

It is almost as if trace contamination is the last hope for unwanted GM crops to penetrate our food chain.

But much as Mr Wevers would like us to regard GM as inevitable, he is in denial over the inevitability of public opposition - something that even Monsanto has conceded in shelving its GM wheat development in Canada.

Several factors counter Mr Wevers' claim that Brazil will be GM-ridden within 18 months. First, the illegal Argentine imports are not suited to the more tropical northern regions of Brazil. Secondly, market demand for GM-free is a compelling reason for Brazil, whose biggest export competitors are overrun by GM soy, to remain GM-free.

Thirdly, weed problems are beginning to emerge for those farmers in the south of Brazil who have been illegally growing the GM seed. To these farmers the GM industry's heavily promoted myths of increased yields and less herbicide are proving false.

More than 80 per cent of the world's GM crop is produced to feed animals. In New Zealand, as in most of the world, where no GM crops are commercially grown, imported GM soy feed is the single biggest means by which GM enters our food chain. It does so unannounced because animal feed products do not have to be labelled with their GM content.

This surreptitious entry of GM into our food chain is one of the few means by which it can pass global consumer opposition. Monsanto has shelved GM wheat in Canada and GM canola in Australia because of farmer and customer rejection. Wheat joins flax, tomatoes and potatoes on the GM crop scrapheap.

So what is the problem with GM soy? One company - Monsanto -owns 91 per cent of the world's commercially grown GM seed. Seventy per cent of these crops are genetically modified to be "herbicide-resistant", meaning they won't die when chemicals are sprayed on to them.

Monsanto claims this is a convenience for farmers - they can douse the whole field with Monsanto's Roundup herbicide and kill only the weeds. But this practice makes weeds herbicide-resistant as well. While results in early seasons may look good, farmers soon use more chemical to get the "kill" they want and eventually resort to older, more toxic chemicals to combat the superweeds that result from GM farming.

The chemical nightmare unfolding in Argentina, where GM soy covers half the arable land and millions of litres of herbicide is sprayed over whole fields, accords with figures from the US that show a 23 million kilogram increase in herbicide use since GM crops were introduced.

GM seeds are patented, so farmers have to go back each year to buy the GM seed and also pay a royalty fee for the right to grow it. Seed-saving is an important tradition that ensures food security in poorer parts of the world. GM seed patents, alarmingly, make seed-saving illegal.

With GM crops we are being forced to participate in a global experiment on our food and environment, without our consent. We and the environment are being forced to take all the risks, and bear all the costs, while chemical companies such as Monsanto make all the profits.

Just as we put our boats between the whale and the harpoon, or blockade the shipping of endangered rainforest timber, Greenpeace will continue to inform the public and take non-violent direct action to stop the unwanted and destructive farming of GM crops.

But the global campaign would not be so successful if not for the huge public support - something that Monsanto cannot answer.

* Steve Abel is the GM campaigner for Greenpeace New Zealand.