New GMOs, the big bluff

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Published by Dario Dongo on 4 July 2020

GMO, the young empire

The empire of GMOs it has established itself on a planetary scale in just two decades. And allowed 6 Corporation, now 4 (the cd Big 4) to achieve absolute dominion over the agricultural production of poche commodities on which today human nutrition is based. Through direct control of over 60% of total pesticide and seed sales. And so, on the subsistence of populations as well as the economy of the various countries.

'Whoever controls the oil controls the states, whoever controls the food controls the people'. (Henry Kissinger)

Almost the whole of the GMO seeds used so far - as has been demonstrated in the ever present ebook free 'GMO, the Big Scam' - responds to the sole need to allow the plant (and only it) to resist spraying the fields with broad-spectrum poisonous herbicides. As the 2,4-D (ingredient based on Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used by the USA to devastate Vietnam and its populations) glyphosate and dicamba, destined to succeed you.

Agrotoxic, the core business

Production and sale of GMO seeds, in hindsight, is instrumental to that of agrotoxicants. Which in fact represent the core business with Big 4, of triple value and infinitely higher margins. The prices of GMO seeds must be kept in line with those of traditional seeds, so that farmers can believe in the convenience of choosing the former.

The agrotoxicants vice versa they can be sold at prices well above the production costs. All the more considering that:

- farmers converted to agrotoxic and GMOs abandon traditional agronomic techniques (eg green manure, rotation) in the name of the 'new that advances' (cit. Michele Serra),

- the soils regularly treated with agrotoxins accumulate toxicity and wither irremediably. (1)

It is generated thus an absolute dependence of farmers on agrochemical giants, in a relationship of invincible strength. The yields of agricultural production have not increased, in defiance of false promises. Costs have instead increased and continue to increase, drop (of herbicide) by drop, while agricultural commodity prices have remained stable.

Consumption of glyphosate and other agrotoxicants on GMO crops are increased to an extraordinary extent. (2) 2 to 4 times more than commercial promises, on crops of GMO soy RoundUp-Ready (o Glyphosate-Tolerant, GT) which represents 94-100% of the productions in the American continent, 77% globally.

Il core business with Big 4 it is therefore unfavorable to their own clients, who among other things expose themselves and their families in the first place to serious health dangers. As warned, among other things, in UN reports (2017) and UNICEF (2018).

New GMOs, identical risks

The new GMOs, like the 'classic' ones, they are made through genetic engineering activities. A branch of science whose evolution is in itself compatible with the public interest in developing new species of potential interest in various sectors, especially the medical one. Biotechnologies - defined as'technological applications that use biological systems, living organisms or their derivatives to produce or modify products or processes for a specific purpose'(2) - have reached an appreciable level of maturity, particularly in the laboratory production of some drugs (eg insulin, vaccines).

The new techniques di editing genomic, however, require just as many precautions - following the adoption of new risk analysis criteria - before organisms are deliberately released into the environment.
Scientists are not at all able to predict the interaction of their 'creatures' with a complex matrix such as the ecosystem, especially in the medium and long term. How has it highlighted among other things, one of the greatest genetic engineering experts, prof. Michael Antoniou of King's College London.

The great bluff

The pounding rhetoric on new GMOs, most recently taken up in Communication 20.5.20 of the European Commission on the Strategy Farm to Fork (f2f) - echoes the same lies used to promote the de-regulation of 'classic' GMOs in the late 90s of the last century. Now as then it refers to the extraordinary prospects of genetic engineering to increase crop yields, reduce input in agriculture (and in particular the agrotoxicants, as falsely promised with Bt corn), to solve the problem of food security.

Beyond the rhetoric and of the general and abstract interest in the evolution of science, however, it is necessary to understand the concrete objectives of the individual projects. And unfortunately it is here that the donkey falls. Where the first NBT entered (outlawed) in Europe since leader sector seed is aendive genetically modified to resist glyphosate. And the latest NBT to hit the overseas chronicles is the corn MON 87429, designed by Monsanto to withstand - it alone - 5 of the deadliest broad spectrum herbicides. Glyphosate, dicamba, 2,4-D, glufosinate-ammonium and quizalofop. New GMOs, old logic, same protagonists.

The eco-agriculture - or organic farming - is the only way of salvation from this florilege of the planet and of those who live there.

# Égalité, #NoPesticides!

Dario Dongo

Note

(1) The intensive and constant use of agrotoxicants renders even the land used for the cultivation of oil palm completely useless. See paragraph Despair and poverty Article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/olio-di-palma-reportage-filippine

(2) United Nations (1992). Convention on Biological Diversity. https://www.cbd.int/convention/text/

(3) Gesine Schütte, Michael Eckerstorfer, Martha Mertens et al. (2017). Herbicide resistance and biodiversity: agronomic and environmental aspects of genetically modified herbicide-resistant plants. Environ Sci Eur. 2017; 29 (1): 5. doi: 10.1186 / s12302-016-0100-y

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