The GM debate: What the fuss?!

Why is there such a rush to get GM crops onto our fields nowadays?

Tanzania is at that point where agricultural investors have come-a-knocking! The media coverage in the past few weeks has been noticeable. In fact, if one were to start reading about GM crops today and made deductions based on the argument brought to the foreground, they would be an instant propagator for the use of GMOs as the savior of all that is famine in Tanzania.

Alas, the country doesn’t allow for the use of GM crop tests but the pressure is starting to bubble up to the surface, this year alone parliament has held, on more than one seasonal session, debates around the endless possibilities and benefits that come from GM crops and how this could be the right direction in combating several farming problems in the country, and farming as a whole. But there are those who oppose it as well.

Now for me personally the biggest doubt comes when I hear the corporations associated with GMOs and their history as related to other activities altogether, corporations like juggernaut Monsanto. If you are not aware, Monsanto are the group responsible for the creation of Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War and its effects were noticeable, reports of people affected being in the thousands. This is only one case, there are several others.

This isn’t the only concern, the Community Alliance for Global Justice has been quoted saying, “Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well being of small farmers around the world… [This] casts serious doubt on the foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa.”

Let’s bring this argument closer to home, let us compare what would be a possibility of inviting the patented seed company into our fields by looking at the number of people in India for example who have killed themselves thanks to crop failure, the GM crop was offered by Monsanto. And then the huge debate in Europe over Monsanto seeds. There was even the guilty verdict on the charge of their herbicides poisoning a French farmer last year.

As to whether the effects are full proof is still questionable and skeptics are not the least bit silent about it. Some reports show how mice have gotten growths from GM corn within a matter of months of testing the effects of GM crops on the rodents.

I am no farmer but I have worked with them in the past year, and if the solution to failed crops and engulfing droughts is Monsanto, I would rather we go back to the drawing board and get some other group on it, as the choice of the mega corporation could be a regrettable one. But that’s just my opinion.

Here is the Agriculture Non-State Actors Forum, ANSAF, report on the benefits and risks of Genetically Modified crops.

This post was cross-posted on Profesy’s Version.