Genetically Modified Food, Children and Hunger
We always have good crowd of people in Sri Lanka busy impress on white men and their way of living. Bash on GM food in Sri Lanka also belong to that group of people. They may looks like Environmentalists, Nationalists, hardcore traditionalists or even Buddhist monks – whatever their appearances are, they always love to talk about white men’s way of living in TV and News papers as that is their own – as that is our own. I was looking at this unfair bash on GM food for last couple of years. Let’s see if the devil dark it they says.
GM food is not natural?
Almost all the food we consume today comes from genetically modified sources. Those plants may change inside a lab or inside a farm over the years. But one way or another we always modify plants to produce more, tastier and use less resources.
We humans survive today because of our ability to modify plants. Even the plate of Rice you eat today came from modified plants. My favorite modified rice is BG 360 created by Bathalegoda Rice Research center. That is absolutely delicious, 105 days maturity duration, required less water and produces more. Common name is “Kiri Samba”. Give it a try next time with Pol Sambol.
I do agree Organic food is better, “Natural” and healthier than GM food or any other food we buy from Village Market. Also I agree Benz looks better, faster and safer than a TATA bus. There is no hunger in Western European and American white community. They have more than enough food, now they have luxury of “choosing” better and healthier food. But we don’t have that luxury. We are not there yet. TATA buses are loud, uncomfortable and unsafe. It is true. Benz are safe and comfortable. It is true too. But only an idiot can tell us not to go in a TATA bus. And only an idiot can tell us not to produce GM food.
GM food is unhealthy?
Most of the natural plants are not edible for humans. Even the edible plants, we can’t eat right away. We need to boil them first, so delicate human stomach can handle it. Majority of the natural plants are not healthy for humans.
Then we produce selective plants - mostly grass varieties inside farmlands. They are not all that healthy either. Some have short-term effect and some have long-term effect. If you really want to experience short term effect, dine at the halal restaurant in Town Hall front of Muslim mosque (and HNB, and 128 bus halt) ;)
When it comes to Long Term effects, every food we eat have some sort of long term effect. Some food increase cholesterol, some increase blood pressure – some increase blood sugar, some food simply makes you fat. Some may increase sex drive and some decrease. Some even can create cancer. There is no perfect food out there. Every food genetically modified or not, has some sort of after effects. You can pick any food any time, do some research on it and find some bad after effect.
Then what is the big Deal?
In 1930s America and much of Europe faced great depression after Wall Street Crash in 1927. People were hungry, no money, no jobs, no international trade and everyone went bankrupt. Just like everyone invested on “.Com” business couple of years ago, back then everyone invested on Coffee, especially coffee in Brazil. With huge interest coming in to coffee market, every Brazilin farmer produces coffee and more coffee. Eventually the supply went bigger than the demand, causing sharp price drop and investors loosing their money originally borrowed from somewhere else. This creates a chain effect ultimately end up in Black Thursday Wall Street Crash. Increase food production not that good for Wall Street.
World food production dominates by few companies. More production means low prices and less profit for them. They don’t want that to happen. They want to maintain the demand vs the supply. They don’t want us farm wheat in Sri Lanka (or any other country in that case). They don’t want rice price to drop significantly than the wheat price.
So what they do? They use the Steve Jobs iPod trick. When every time someone asked Steve about mobile video device, he always said “bad idea! It will never work! People will never watch movies in a tiny screen”. Doing so he discourage his competitors enter in to the market until Apple released an iPod with video and iPhone with video. Bash on GM food also works the same way. That gives time for big companies to develop their own technology and ultimately dominate the food market on their own terms.
60% children under 5 in Sri Lanka suffer from malnutrition. Look at them. They are dark, skinny and hungry. They need food. They need more food. They need milk and eggs. Even it comes from chickens with three heads. When we have more than enough food, then we can talk about health food or organic food in TV. But till then, Bathalegoda must use whatever the technology available to produce more and better plants.
“The right time to eat is: for a rich man when he is hungry, for a poor man when he has something to eat” ~ a Mexican Proverb
GM food is not natural?
Almost all the food we consume today comes from genetically modified sources. Those plants may change inside a lab or inside a farm over the years. But one way or another we always modify plants to produce more, tastier and use less resources.
We humans survive today because of our ability to modify plants. Even the plate of Rice you eat today came from modified plants. My favorite modified rice is BG 360 created by Bathalegoda Rice Research center. That is absolutely delicious, 105 days maturity duration, required less water and produces more. Common name is “Kiri Samba”. Give it a try next time with Pol Sambol.
I do agree Organic food is better, “Natural” and healthier than GM food or any other food we buy from Village Market. Also I agree Benz looks better, faster and safer than a TATA bus. There is no hunger in Western European and American white community. They have more than enough food, now they have luxury of “choosing” better and healthier food. But we don’t have that luxury. We are not there yet. TATA buses are loud, uncomfortable and unsafe. It is true. Benz are safe and comfortable. It is true too. But only an idiot can tell us not to go in a TATA bus. And only an idiot can tell us not to produce GM food.
GM food is unhealthy?
Most of the natural plants are not edible for humans. Even the edible plants, we can’t eat right away. We need to boil them first, so delicate human stomach can handle it. Majority of the natural plants are not healthy for humans.
Then we produce selective plants - mostly grass varieties inside farmlands. They are not all that healthy either. Some have short-term effect and some have long-term effect. If you really want to experience short term effect, dine at the halal restaurant in Town Hall front of Muslim mosque (and HNB, and 128 bus halt) ;)
When it comes to Long Term effects, every food we eat have some sort of long term effect. Some food increase cholesterol, some increase blood pressure – some increase blood sugar, some food simply makes you fat. Some may increase sex drive and some decrease. Some even can create cancer. There is no perfect food out there. Every food genetically modified or not, has some sort of after effects. You can pick any food any time, do some research on it and find some bad after effect.
Then what is the big Deal?
In 1930s America and much of Europe faced great depression after Wall Street Crash in 1927. People were hungry, no money, no jobs, no international trade and everyone went bankrupt. Just like everyone invested on “.Com” business couple of years ago, back then everyone invested on Coffee, especially coffee in Brazil. With huge interest coming in to coffee market, every Brazilin farmer produces coffee and more coffee. Eventually the supply went bigger than the demand, causing sharp price drop and investors loosing their money originally borrowed from somewhere else. This creates a chain effect ultimately end up in Black Thursday Wall Street Crash. Increase food production not that good for Wall Street.
World food production dominates by few companies. More production means low prices and less profit for them. They don’t want that to happen. They want to maintain the demand vs the supply. They don’t want us farm wheat in Sri Lanka (or any other country in that case). They don’t want rice price to drop significantly than the wheat price.
So what they do? They use the Steve Jobs iPod trick. When every time someone asked Steve about mobile video device, he always said “bad idea! It will never work! People will never watch movies in a tiny screen”. Doing so he discourage his competitors enter in to the market until Apple released an iPod with video and iPhone with video. Bash on GM food also works the same way. That gives time for big companies to develop their own technology and ultimately dominate the food market on their own terms.
60% children under 5 in Sri Lanka suffer from malnutrition. Look at them. They are dark, skinny and hungry. They need food. They need more food. They need milk and eggs. Even it comes from chickens with three heads. When we have more than enough food, then we can talk about health food or organic food in TV. But till then, Bathalegoda must use whatever the technology available to produce more and better plants.
“The right time to eat is: for a rich man when he is hungry, for a poor man when he has something to eat” ~ a Mexican Proverb
posted by Sam at
12:20 AM
5 Comments:
don't have much time but will make a longer comment later...
"Majority of the natural plants are not healthy for humans." - not entirely sure..the real problem is that we only utilize a few of the many thousands of edible plants and focus on the few varieties to provide our dietary needs. This is especially problematic when plants like wheat are attempted to be grown in climates where there are more suitable alternatives...the monocropping that results from our dependence on these few species also leads to disease issues and a greater need for GM crops.
I am by no means against GM crops and I do not see them as "Frankenstein food" but caution has to be utilized in using using GM foods from sources like Monsanto and other big multinationals because this is often at a price of being dependent on these companies for seed, etc. The need for a fair amount of GM foods could be eliminated with better crop and pest management and a diversification of what we eat.
Of course not many of us will eat kurakkan instead of bread...
n,
Caution is always needed. Specially if you in a TATA bus, instead in a Benz. Totally agree.
Regarding Monsanto. I think that is why institutes like Bathalegoda should enter in to this area instead. They are doing very good job so far and I think they have lot more to do – specially in GM area - and need more encouragement.
There is a distinction between the biologically accepted practices of hybridization and cultivars (which is what Bathelagoda and other research institutes in SL do) - and genetic modification. To equate the two practices is an inaccurate oversimplification. There is simply no way in which hybridization can introduce characteristics which are not already present in the species. This is precisely what GM does to food crops. We've been doing hybridization for thousands of years. GM? not quite so long. The implications of crossing over genes to other species is not completely understood. Remember how smoking was seen as harmless in the 50s? Yeah.
Secondly, Monsanto and other multinationals ship their GM seed with a timebomb - which makes them incapable of reproduction and require refreshing of seed crops every few years. Although not universally the case; these timebombs are the reason why farmers are dependent on multinationals for recurring expenditure on seed crops. Include a legal requirement to remove the timebomb (as the EU is debating right now) and you reduce the dependence. Or you can do what India and Brazil are doing with drugs and pharmaceutical companies and simply reverse engineer what you need.
Hasn't the problem with hunger always been due to an imbalance in transport and distribution? It's true even inside Sri Lanka. Not all regions can afford quality vegetables trucked in from Nuwara Eliya. Not all farmers can grow enough for a varied diet. At some point, you need to specialize in a few crops in order to increase yields.
And then there is the mudalali mafia which loanshark the farmers and keeps prices artificially low. Inside Sri Lanka, a bountiful harvest usually rots because the structure of distribution and purchase cannot cope with the influx. How will that change with GM food?
Yes. Hybridization is better than GM. But how far we can stretch hybridization? Aren’t we at the edge of it? Even traditional farming has environmental damage - Huge Environmental damage. We know that as a fact. But we still do that. We do that because we need to eat.
Yes. Smoking is bad. It kills. TATA bus kills too.
Regarding Monsanto, totally agree. That is exactly my issue. All that criticism on GM food, keeps away governments investing on that. That create open playground for private companies. And that is what those companies want too. When the time comes, there won’t be any other alternative than depend on those companies, just like how we depend on oil companies right now. You can hit somebody’s head with a bible – but that is not the fault of the bible. Just because Monsanto do bad stuff with GM, it do not mean GM is as bad as Monsanto. Why not we get good guys in Bathalegoda to work on GM instead?
Unbalance of transportation and distribution: It is an issue we have to address. But that is not exactly the main issue. Look at coconut in Sri Lanka. What is the price? Do we waste any coconut? Hell No. simply we don’t have enough coconut states any more. We need more coconut from a tree and we need fast - Or give up eating coconut.
Let’s say we perfectly fix the imbalance somehow. Still we will face a time very soon that we must get more Kilo per a hectare. Sri Lanka is the 53rd most populated nation in the world. We have free healthcare. Our birth rate is 15.63 per a 1000 people - Death rate is 6.4. From 2001 to 2005 we have add million more mouth to feed. Do we have any other options? We already have more than 60% malnutrition under age 5.
Not an expert. Am aware of heirloom vegetables etc. grown and cultivated within a specific region and suited to the region's climate etc. In western countries, attempts are being to preserve these varieties through seed savers networks.
Also heard that in Iraq after the US invasion, a law has been passed restricting farmers in the country to a list of varieties, mainly from European and US companies including genetically modified varieties.
With regard to Sri Lanka and some benefits of seed saving, this article may be of interest.
In the rice paddies of Sri Lanka, a new enemy: salt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/christmasappeal2006/story/0,,1968127,00.html
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