Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
companies to work closely with one another, making it easier
for them to collude and behave like a single seed monopoly.
A Monsanto executive is said to have remarked in 1996 that
the entire food chain is becoming consolidated, not just the
seed industry. However, if the purpose of cross-licensing
agreements really is to create better crop varieties, they may
be good for the consumers as well as the companies.
Are We Losing Crop Diversity?
Some feel this corporate hegemony in crop seeds threatens
our food supply by reducing the diversity of plant varieties.
The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1850) was caused, in part, by the
planting of the same Lumper variety of potatoes throughout
Ireland. So little genetic diversity existed that virtually all the
potatoes were destroyed by one pathogen. To breed potatoes
resistant to this pathogen, it was necessary to return to the
land of potatoes' origin (South America), where thousands
of different varieties were grown. In 1970 a leaf blight struck
much of the US corn crop, reducing corn yields by more than
20 percent. The same variety of female corn plants had been
used to produce the hybrid seeds that most farmers planted,
and the varieties resulting from this cross were particularly
susceptible to the blight. Crop breeders quickly learned they
needed greater genetic diversity if their seed varieties were to
remain popular. The vast majority of bananas come from one
variety currently under assault from the Tropical Race Four
fungus. The banana case is a particularly interesting example
because bananas can only reproduce asexually, creating an
extreme uniformity of plant genetics. The lesson is clear: when
crops lack genetic diversity a greater portion of the food sup-
ply is vulnerable to damage.
My problem has been less about health and safety of
the [GM] technology than it has been about the politi-
cal economy of GM and what it has done to American
