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Opinion FORUM Sacramento Bee Other views: Food security, not biotech By Tewolde Egziabher -- Special to The Bee Published 1:57 p.m. PDT Tuesday, June 24, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO - The best way to ensure food security is to advocate for policies that enhance local food production systems. I do not believe that the U.S. government's agenda of advancing industrial agriculture methods of chemical use, food irradiation and genetically engineered crops is in the interest of Ethiopia or any other developing nations. First, the world has never grown as much food per capita as it is doing now, yet the world has also never had as many hungry. We have plenty of food; it's just not reaching those who need it most. Next, to my knowledge there has not been one commercially grown genetically modified organism, or transgenic crop, that out-yields all other varieties of that crop. What the transgenic crops have done so far is tie the farmer to specific chemicals and a specific company. For example, farmers in developing countries who use genetically engineered seeds that cannot reproduce - and so can't be saved and used for next year's crop - become tied to transnational companies such as Monsanto. As a result, farmers are tied to a technology that is controlled from another country and therefore subject to decisions outside their control. Let me give an example: Ethiopia just had a war with Eritrea that provoked a trade embargo. Suppose we had become dependent on some crop variety from the United States, Japan or Kenya. What if, during this political fracas, our trading partners had said, "No more seed?" Without local control, local availability of food can never be certain. In Africa there are many politically unstable countries. If every time there was a breakdown of law and order, the system of food production were to suffer, it could mean death to millions. The biotech industry is suggesting that food security will come through the farmer's loss of control of essential agricultural inputs. Do you see the lie? This is food insecurity. Ultimately, it is the people's voice that is going to make a difference. My people want to be free to use the alternatives that already exist: local, organic, biologically diverse, environmentally sound and sustainable agriculture that focuses on meeting the needs of local populations and is under local control. It can work as well in California as in Ethiopia if the U.S. government and biotech industry allow it to. Dr. Tewolde Egziabher is general manager of the Environmental Protection Authority of the government of Ethiopia and a board member of the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization. Web site: www.ifg.org FAIR USE NOTICE: This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The International Forum on Globalization is making this article available in our efforts to advance the understanding of environmental, corporate accountability, human rights, labor rights, social justice issues, etc. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |