Failure to Yield

[Staff]

Failure to Yield
Biotechnologies Broken Promises
Union of Concerned Scientists
July 2009

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/failure-to-yield-brochure.pdf
excerpt from above:

Genetic engineering has been touted as a major solution to the global hunger problems that are expected to worsen as the world’s population grows. But a new analysis of this industry’s nearly 20-year record in the United States shows that, despite proponents’ claims, genetic engineering has actually done very little to increase the yields of food and feed crops. Given such a track record, it appears unlikely that this technology will play a leading role in helping the world feed itself in the foreseeable future.
There is a new urgency, prompted by recent spikes in food prices around the world, to boost global food production in order to feed a rapidly growing population. In response, the biotechnology industry has made optimistic claims about the ability of genetically engineered (GE) crops—in which the plant DNA is changed using spliced genes that are often from unrelated organisms—to substantially increase farmers’ yields. But are those claims valid? For the answer, the Union of Concerned Scientists carefully examined the industry’s record in the United States, where GE crops have been commercially grown since the mid-1990s and where the best and most extensive data are available.

Because our focus was food production, we reviewed the data on soybeans and corn, the main GE food/feed crops. Soybeans engineered for herbicide tolerance currently account for...

[Staff]

10 Years of Failure: New film documents struggle of farmers deceived by biotech industry
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer

10 Years of Failure: New film documents struggle of farmers deceived by biotech industry
excerpt from above:

It has been 10 years since the Philippine government approved the country's first genetically modified (GM) crops for commercial cultivation, and its farmers are now far worse off becauseo f it. In the new documentary film 10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM Corn, the farmer advocacy group Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development, or MASIPAG, reveals the plight of GM corn farmers in the Philippines who were hoodwinked by the biotechnology industry and are now suffering from massive debt, poor yields and even starvation as a result.

The 25-minute film, which is available for free viewing on YouTube, was released on so-called "World Food Day," the day that Monsanto and Syngenta were given awards by the World Food Prize Foundation for their abominable transgenic creations. It tells a much different side of the GMO story, one you will probably never hear from the mainstream media or the bought-and-paid-for politicians that go around claiming that genetically engineered foods are the saviors of humanity.

On the contrary, GM crops, and particularly GM corn in the Philippines, has all but...

[Staff]

10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM Corn

10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM Corn - YouTube

Published on Oct 16, 2013

The film entitled "10 Years of Failure, Farmers Deceived by GM corn" shows the dire situation of corn farmers in the Philippines who have adopted GM corn. Amidst protests from farmers, scientists, consumers and basic sectors, GM corn was commercialized in the Philippines in 2003. At present, there are about 8 varieties of single, stacked-trait and pyramided GM corn approved by the government for direct planting. It is now planted in about 685,317 hectares of agricultural land allotted for corn.

The film documentary is based on the study done by MASIPAG on the socio-economic impacts of GM corn on farmers' lives and livelihood after more than 10 years of commercialization. In the film, GM corn farmers relate how they became indebted because of the rising cost of GM corn seeds and increasing cost and quantity of inputs being used. The film also shared the farmers account on the effect of GM corn farming such as emergence of new pests, soil erosion, corn contamination and human and animal health impacts. Farmers also shared the difficulty to go back to traditional or organic corn farming because of the loss of traditional seeds and practices replaced by GM corn farming and the effects of neighboring GM corn plantations. The film documentary covers the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

For more information on the study, please visit Masipag.org | Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development).

Film produced by Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) and KI Multimedia

[Staff]

USDA green-lights field trials of Monsanto drought-resistant corn after admitting it performs no better than natural corn
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

USDA green-lights field trials of Monsanto drought-resistant corn after admitting it performs no better than natural corn
excerpt from above:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) does not even pretend to legitimately evaluate genetically-modified organisms (GMO) before approving them anymore, having recently green-lighted approval for a new variety of "drought-resistant" GM corn produced by Monsanto that admittedly grows no better under drought conditions than natural varieties do.

According to the Washington Post, APHIS fast-tracked the corn, known as MON87460, without ever conducting an appropriate environmental risk analysis on the crop's efficacy, which includes determining whether or not the crop is even safe for humans or the environment. In fact, in accordance with the Obama Administration's new hands-off approach to regulating GMOs, APHIS decided to actually approve MON87460 even after a cursory evaluation of the data exposed it as a...