Like many, I baulk at the idea of genetically modified food. I tend toward heritage seeds and good soil, and get irrationally - or perhaps very rationally - angry at Big Agriculture and their use of poisons, monocrops and pesticides to increase yields, in the process destroying the land beyond repair, clearing forests and creating monopolies on seed and fertilisers. It seems to me that genetically modified seeds are more of the same, and Big Ag will use the excuse that with increasing population and the effects of climate change such as drought necessitates the use of genetically modified foods.
Some of the arguments for GM do seem to make sense. For example, using CRISPR to create crops that can resist temperature extremes. It is little wonder Kenya reversed a ten year ban on it to address a looming food crisis - GM crops are presented as an anathema to insect infestation, disease and poor crops due to water shortages. It's not the only country looking to this as a solution either. My concern is who is controlling the data that says these crops are the answer. Whoever controls the technology has a great deal of power in this situation in the same way as Monsanto has previously. If GM companies have control of the production of crops, it'll affect the livelihoods of the armers who rely on it. Food crops have the danger of becoming intellectual property. Furthermore, though companies have touted GM foods as being pesticide resistant, this hasn't always been true - and selling pesticides or herbicides along with seeds is a known strategy for these companies to profit.
We may need technology that can help address food shortages brought about by climate change, but I'm not convinced this is it, nor am I convinced that what the people who own the technology are telling us is the whole story.
One of the arguments for GM foods is that it can make food taste better. To me this carries the risk of sweetening foods so that they sell better, and ignoring the fact that we need a taste for some bitter foods as they contain nutrients that are equally good for us. The idea of multinationals deciding on what tastes are appropriate for our palate is just insane. It also seems to ignore the known argument that if you enrich the soil with organic matter, bacteria and good fungi, you're going to get better tasting food. There's also a whole heap of nutritional content in food that we don't even know about - I've heard it described as nutritional dark matter - and I don't believe this is the realm of experience, expertise or concern of big companies developing a sweet corn to force on our palate.
It does appear that some GM crops might be valuable if it has as one of it's goals tackling climate change by capturing carbon and storing it in their roots. I can't deny that we might need to really look toward GM to adapt to a changing climate. And if more food can be grown on less land to support animal and human feed, then perhaps more land is then saved for forests.
It seems to me that it's not the only answer though - there seems to be so many that would also be beneficial. I wish governments would mandate or campaign the reduction in meat eating, for example, which we all know is bad for the environment. I'm not advocating we give up meat altogether, but we eat far too much of it in the west with little regard for the environmental impact. Another argument is that we actually do have enough food for everyone, but not everyone can afford it. It's not always an environmental issue, but a social hierarchy one.
The bottom line is that I don't trust multinational companies to get it right, as I don't believe their motives are to save the world, but to profit, and that's a dangerous game. What we do need is better agriculture systems that are also ecological systems, and these systems must have biodiversity, healthy soils, the right plants for the right environment, and so on. There are other answers to GM.
Meanwhile, I keep adapting my own gardening methods and plants to suit the environmental challenges that I'm working with. Most home gardeners are finding solutions in their own backyards - soil health, wicking beds, swales, biodiversity, microclimates, and so on. It's an ongoing challenge.
I don't pretend I have all the answers, and certainly I'm not self sufficient enough in my food production to have food sovereignity from the agricultural powerhouses that supply our food. I do know that we have to be educated and conscious about where our food comes from and how it's grown, and aim toward at least a little independence. That's going to vary according to where you live, your economic status and access to growing spaces. But I tend toward the small movements that are aiming for change - community gardening including education and shared growing spaces, farmers brave enough to go pesticide free if not organic and pesticide free, eating seasonally and what is available, changing our diets to include foraged food when available, and so on.
Anyway, that's enough from me. I have some brassicas to plant.
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
Less and less people are remaining on the trusting side, but they eat what the companies bring because it is affordable and looks good. I'll be honest though, the string beans in your picture look real good. My mother-in-law takes care of her own farm. Most of it is rice, but she has such a variety of vegs. She then trades vegs with her friends and sends the good ones to us. I don't trust the big corp veggies either, but they do look more pretty and taste sweeter than my mother-in-laws.
A lot of the farms in Korea are small family farms and more millennials are going out into the country. Sometimes I wish we were out there too.
Yeah they sure know how to manipulate us!
Why is that?
Healthy food is the basis
Your vegetables are tempting
I am studying food engineering precisely for several reasons you have raised in this post, I need to know much more to be able to give an opinion, however, you got me and I agree! :D
gen modulated food tastes terrible. i dont eat any supermarket vegetables anymore. it is just toxic, nothing more.
i only collect herbs for myself in the nature.
and got my own growing fungi.
i think anyone should get an own garden.
no more food shortages problems and delivery
no more state which can control the bodies of each individual.
climate change isnt the problem. the problem is the state.
Another big aspect that gets swept underneath the rug is indigenous food and the accompanying indigenous knowledge systems. I am from the Western Cape area where the Fynbos biome is located, one of the densest plant kingdoms in the world. But it is slowly dying out due to various factors but one of them being grazing grounds for animals and crop grounds for either wine or food. The fynbos biome sustained the locals before the colonizers landed and it is still today used for food and medicine, but no one is writing the knowledge down nor are they viewing it as potential. So sad the times we live in; our obsession with and preference for sameness over diversity will be our demise.
Samemess over diversity. Yep. And all the literature and common knowledge argues for diversity yet governments will always preference the money. If big companies promise economic security via crop production they'll lean to that over other options because these companies will have the money to push it.
It's the same in Australia with dying Aboriginal knowledge of country. Even the words for things are lost. There's push to recover it but it's too little too late.
Sorry for the very late reply! Ugh, time.
Yes, it is so sad. In my philosophical jargon, it is called epistemicide or just neo-colonialism. It is the marginalization and rejection of difference. It is so sad how the people who still harbor this knowledge internalised western modernism and the drive toward sameness so they see their own knowledge as inferior. So many people here where I live still know the names of these plants and their medicinal properties and so on, but they keep it to themselves because they feel it is inferior and "backward". It is really so sad.
This has been my issue with GM for some time now. Traditionally, farmers have been able to recover seeds from their crops to replant, but new GM 'agreements' state that they are not allowed to do so. Taking ownership of the crop on someone's field just seems incredibly wrong to me, from at least a moral standpoint.
It's so wrong. And Monsanto did the same thing! Look at what happened with Indian farmers - they had hugely high rates of suicide due to Monsanto's practices which did NOT benefit them or the land in the end.
I love this statement: "I do know that we have to be educated and conscious about where our food comes from and how it's grown, and aim toward at least a little independence."
It is up to each and every one of us to do the best we can for our families. I agree with so many of your concerns @riverflows and I understand creating disease-resistant varieties but, for me, I will do as you have and stick to the heritage seeds that work well here in western, N.Y. Education is key to the future generations if they are to live long and healthy lives. Awesome article!
Thanks, I thought I was rambling a bit but yeah, the more I think about it the more anti I get. There's so many people that don't have the means to educate themselves or to afford it and that's what they'll rely on.
I started taking in consideration all this matters after changing my diet to a low carb and finding out that its more expensive to eat this way and unfortunately it gets to a point that not everyone can afford it, every day real healthy food prices goes higher not the one that comes in a bag with the name healthy makes me think that there is a population doom to eat unhealthy because they cant afford it, yes life is hard and is set on stair levels but feels like corporations are trying their best to make it harder pushing this ideas as you mention having them to say what's the best taste for food?? when I hear that all I can think is a ton of sugar and carbs into what ever product they label "better taste"
Yeah it's just wrong on so many levels. It's like how there is sugar in EVERYTHING, you can't get brekky cereal without it!!!! Make em addicted equals profit.