Posted by jossc — 24 October 2008 at 11:53am
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Chinese farmers are discovering that resurrecting the old tradition of keeping ducks in their rice fields allows them to cut down on the amount of pesticides and artificial fertilisers they need to use to grow their crops.
Last November, the Government's advisory body, the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission (AEBC), published a report entitled "GM Crops - Coexistence and Liability".
This report examined whether GM crops might contaminate conventional and organic crops and/or the natural environment; if such contamination was acceptable and who would be liable to compensate for such damage?
The report has highlighted some serious problems regarding the commercialisation of GM crops, and found very few solutions.
UK research confirms that GM crops will harm the environment
In October 2003 a study published by the UK Royal Society substantiated Greenpeace's warnings that genetically modified (GM) crops can be harmful to the environment; this according to a three years study carried out by that independent scientific organisation. For years Greenpeace had warned about the risks GM crops pose to environment and challenged the benefit promises of industry as being myths.
Research published today by Greenpeace exposes the Bush Administration's use of the famine in southern Africa as a marketing tool to push GM food in the continent. The document details how the offer of GM food aid by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the latest move in a ten-year marketing campaign designed to facilitate the introduction of US-developed GM crops into Africa. In addition, the US food aid programme effectively channels a huge covert subsidy to American GM farmers through the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
Greenpeace today accused the world's governments of failing to fulfil their commitment to reduce world hunger (1) while ignoring the methods of agriculture that are environmentally sound and proven. Nutritious, high-yielding crops are already being grown. It is the commercial power and political influence of the chemical companies promoting GM farming that prevent proper investment in these real solutions.
