Genetix can really spoil your day

HARDLY A DAY goes by without some new article or revelation in the press about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in food or Genetic Engineering (GM). The fight against this pollution of our food is growing and international. The whole issue brings into stark relief many of the less pleasant features of life in modern neo-liberal capitalist society. It shows how the power of international capital is becoming more powerful than that of many states. It shows how these companies use their power and influence to ride roughshod over the needs of working class and peasant people the world over. Furthermore the whole debate has become caught in up in a trade war launched by the USA aiming to remove from the scene such minor imperialist powers as Britain and France.

What they are doing?

Despite claims to be producing new variants of crops that will enhance productivity and crop yield, improve resistance to pests and save millions from starvation, the truth behind the biotech companies efforts the simple effort of all capital to produce more profit.

The most famous of the GMOs being used at the moment is soya produced by the American food giant Monsanto. Their soya has been 'engineered' to make it resistant to the insecticide Roundup - also produced by Monsanto. The idea is simple. Farmers who plant Monsanto's soya can spray the crops with no fear of them being damaged by the chemicals employed. Only bugs die. Monsanto then profit twice. Firstly they sell the seeds, then they sell the insecticide! Farmers are locked into a cycle of only buying from Monsanto.

Another well-known GMO is tomatoes. These have been altered by the incorporation of a fish gene. The effect is to keep them "fresh" longer. This was sold to consumers as a way of ensuring longer shelf life and hence reducing the chances of buying rotting food. In practice, agricultural businesses switched production of tomatoes away from high wage US farms to low wage South American areas. They were still able to pay to transport the tomatoes to the American market and still make extra profits.

A third and less well known example is the use of "Terminator" genes in seeds. This gene has the effect of stopping the plant producing fertile seeds. They claim that it will increase the yield of the crop and will provide more choices for the farmer by selecting high yielding seeds. The reality, of course, is to tie the farmers into dependency on Monsanto. Farmers are not able to save part of their seed crop to use to grow new crops the following year. This technology is being applied to cotton, particularly in India. It represents the final triumph of agri-businesses attempts to produce sterile crops.

The dangers

Some of the dangers of these crops are obvious:

* Pollen from GMOs can cross fertilise with non-GMO crops. The result is that all crops are GMO.

* Gene pollution cannot be 'recalled'. Once out there, it is there for good.

* GM crops can take more pesticides. This leads to greater pollution of the waterways.

* If all the bugs that feed on the crops are killed, what happens to the birds that feed on the bugs - or the other animals in the food chain?

Other dangers are less apparent:

* Genes cannot simply be inserted into plants. They need some means of getting inside the plants' cells. Often this is done by first attaching them to viruses. Scientists involved claim that the viruses are themselves modified to prevent dangers to health. There has already been evidence that some of the viruses used retain harmful effects. How will this effect the human immune system?

* Genes can spread from one species to another. This can lead to the growth of super-weeds.

* Genetic engineering is often linked with efforts to make plants and animals resistant to bacteria. The result can be the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Resistance

Peasant farmers in India have recognised the dangers posed by the efforts of Monsanto. They have a long history of saving seed for use the following year and of giving seed to neighbours in need. As Monsanto have patented the seed and claim to hold copyright over it, they are now saying that the farmers are breaking the law if they try to retain some for future use. In Canada and the USA Monsanto have successfully prosecuted farmers. The reaction in India of the farmers has been to launch a Cremate Monsanto campaign, which has taken direct action and burned whole fields of GM cotton!

In Britain a campaign is well underway. Genetix Snowball have adopted the non-violent tactic of digging up some GMO crops. They have done so in the attempt to gain publicity and have courted arrest in their actions. So far they have been quite successful in getting their message across. They have also entered supermarkets and walked off with GMO foodstuffs, saying it was contaminated. Their actions in Manchester have caused embarrassment to Marks and Spencer who subsequently became one of the growing band of supermarkets to say they will source from non-GM suppliers. Other spectacular actions are planned. Other campaigners, often around local Earth First! Groups have gone in for the less public but equally effective tactic of simply trashing fields which contain GM crops.

The Government

Monsanto are now privately admitting that they are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the British public. They are relying heavily on their friends in the government. The British New Labour Government has close links with biotech companies. This caused serious embarrassment to Lord Sainsbury, but less obvious are the efforts the biotech companies put into lobbying. The majority of the public may be against genetic engineering but 70% of MPs are said to be in favour!

Despite all the opposition, the state is only talking of a voluntary moratorium for a couple of years. Even this has less to do with worrying about us and more to do with nationalism and the looming trade war between Europe and the USA.

Banana Wars

In recent years, US foreign policy has aimed to displace British and French imperialism from Africa and replace it with US domination. This was the reality behind their support for the Tutsis in Rwanda and for the uprising in the then Zaire. These areas were within the French sphere of influence, now they are coming under US domination. Now they have turned their sights on the Caribbean. Here they aim to take the area out of British domination by the destruction of that region's main export, bananas. The destabilisation that will bring will provide the US with the excuse it needs to intervene financially or militarily, whichever is most convenient. Not only does this give the US the chance to get rid of the Brits; it also serves as a warning to the increasingly integrated European Union, which the US fears will become a real rival in years to come.

Hence the Banana Wars. The European response has been to increasingly adopt the line of a moratorium on the introduction of GM crops. This has a number of advantages for them:

* It is a stick to hit the US with, whilst at the same time being popular with populations already scared by BSE,E-Coli and Salmonella and who are understandably hostile to GM food.

* A moratorium allows them to pretend to do something but also to allow GM crops in at a later date when all the fuss has died down.

* It gives European biotech companies a chance to catch up in the development of new crops.

Against this background it becomes easy to see why the media, including an almost united press and the Tory Party are playing the anti-GM card whilst at the same time using it to whip up nationalist, anti-US feeling.

The danger is that popular opposition will fall victim to this con and will accept the almost inevitable moratorium when it comes as a victory. This will allow GM food in at a later date.

What can we do?

It is important to keep the campaign going. We would suggest that readers get in contact with their local Earth First! Group or Genetix Snowball and get involved with what is already going on. There are plenty of opportunities for action and they don't have to be scary direct action if that is beyond a person's abilities. Campaigns need support in many forms. Even collecting petitions outside supermarkets can be an effective way of talking to people and serves to further embarrass the shops and local government.

Above all, we must not be conned into thinking that a temporary halt in the planting of GM cops in this country is going to change anything. The fight needs to be to get rid of all GM foods before it is too late. Workers in Britain could do well to follow the lead of the Indian peasant farmers!

However, GM foods are just another example of the way that capitalists contaminate the food of working class people. Writing in the 19th century, Karl Marx noted that workers' flour was frequently mixed with chalk by shopkeepers. At the end of the 20th century the bosses have just got more clever! Most of the GM contaminated food is the cheaper processed food that busy working class people buy.

The only way we will ever be able to ensure that our food is healthy enough to eat is to get rid of the profit based system that encourages production to make money for the few rather than to satisfy the needs of all of us. When we have created a libertarian communist society, it will be the responsibility of the human community to make decisions as to whether science should be allowed to tinker with the basic genetic make-up of food. No doubt those will be difficult decisions to make, but we can be sure that they will be made on the basis of what is in the interests of the planet as a whole not to make a fortune for private investors or corporate employees.


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