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The Problems Of GMOs And The Role Of The Civil Society In Facing Them
In a world ruled by the market economy, dominating multinational companies everyday develop new means and products that increase their capitalist monopoly, which consequently impoverishes and enhances the exploitation of the poor and the marginalized groups in the Third World. Genetically Modified Seeds are one of the most important new products of these companies, which leave a direct impact on the peasants and the poor people and affect the sustainable economic development in the Third World. Accordingly, the problems of GMOs is a merely technological or agricultural one, it is rather a multifaceted problem with political, economic, legal and health sides. A country such as Egypt lies in the heart of this problem, as the size of its imports of genetically modified seeds increases one year after another. The pressure exercised by certain international organizations, such as the USAID, forces Egypt to open its market for GMOs, which affects farmers’ rights and the course of sustainable agrarian development.
Genetic Engineering interferes in agricultural produce by genetically modifying seeds and fertilizers, aiming to double the harvest production or improve the shape and size of the fruit, the same thing applies on genetically modified animals and fish, as genetic engineering interferes by modifying genetic information in the DNA. The results of this process are called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).
Genetically modified seeds are advertised in global markets, claiming that they will solve the food insecurity problem in the Third World. For instance, the FAO has issued several reports that support widespread adaptation of these seeds in Africa and Asia, assuming that they would increase the size of the annual agricultural produce. The FAO issued a report, for example, in 2004 on the agrarian technological diversity and how it might satisfy the needs of the poor in support of using GM seeds by the Third-World farmers. This report was harshly criticized by several advocacy groups in Europe, Latin America and the USA. In response to it, some experts affirmed that the food problem in the Third World does not need genetic engineering to be solved; it rather needs more attention to water problems in some areas and improving the infrastructure in others.
If we look at the political aspect to this problem, we will find that it is closely tied to market economy issues and the hegemony of the multinational corporations (MNCs) on world economy. Third World governments adopt neo-liberal economic reform programs and they, consequently, respond to global market rules and pressures by opening local markets for MNCs’ products. Certain MNCs monopoly producing and marketing GMOs in the Third World, there is one company, Monsanto, that owns the technology of GM seeds that are cultivated in more than 90% of the areas adopting GMOs in the entire world. This company funds scientific research in this field, and it is sued by farmers from several areas of the world, especially Canada and Europe, on grounds of Monsanto’s seeds polluting the agrarian environment. There are five other companies that produce 100% of GM seeds introduced to the international market, and there are four countries that dominate the GM seeds’ market: USA, Argentina, Canada and China.
In a country such as Egypt, the USAID’s policy of spreading the use of these seeds works through funding scientific research programs in the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR) since the 1990s. It is needless to affirm that the USAID advertises for GM food, especially in Africa and Asia, which is produced by the scientific research laboratories funded by the MNCs one way or another. The USAID has a huge program for agriculture liberalization in Egypt that works on eliminating central planning and subsides and on directing the agrarian policies toward certain cash crops like fruit and vegetables -- on the account of other substantial crops like wheat in order to ensure the place of the American subsidized wheat in the Egyptian market. The USAID invests in this program about $1.3 billion and gives away about $2.4 million as loans to support small farms. In 1989 – 1990, USAID cooperated with the MALR to establish the Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI); this institute is considered one of the most important places of adopting and developing GMOs technology in Egypt. In addition, USAID carries out ongoing cooperation with the Egyptian government to implement the policies of privatization and free market in agriculture, which opens the Egyptian market to imported GM seeds. Furthermore, from 1995 to 2002 USAID has also funded a program called “Agricultural Technology Utilization and Transfer” (ATUT) that aims at adopting and improving the use of new technologies in agriculture. USAID also funds a program to support Intellectual Property Rights in Egypt. In 1996, USAID has provided $5.8 million for a project titled “Strengthening Intellectual Property Rights in Egypt” (SIPRE), and it supported the same program with $1.4 million in 2001. Part of the goals of this program is to reserve these rights to genetically modified seeds for the MNCs and monitors illegal acquisition of GM seeds at low prices by the poor farmers.
There is another international organization that supports the widespread adaptation of GMOs in the Third World, that is, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). This is an organization works on delivering new creations of the Agri-biotechnology to the developing countries, claiming that it will help the agrarian development and solves the food insecurity problem. This organization has cooperated with the MALR in Egypt to establish the Egyptian Biotechnology Information Center (EBIC). Some sources confirm that part of the produced crops as experimental samples in the laboratories of the EBIC are smuggled into the dishes of the Egyptian people.
The problem of GMOs also has legal/commercial aspects, mainly related to the WTO’s trade regulations. The WTO has a committee that puts those proper criteria with regard to trading in food products. It puts strict rules on trading in GM food, and the European countries refuse to import these crops using these rules. The closeness of the European market is a big loss for the Third World farmers who are politically pressured to use MG seeds. Thus, while some claim that spreading GM seeds support exports to the European Market, the opposite happens and leads the developing countries to lose more of their share in the global market. Moreover, European countries use this issue as an excuse not to be committed according to the WTO agreement to open their markets to the products of Third World signatories, such as Egypt whose market is open widely to European and American products. As a matter Of course, the only looser in this situation are the poor farmers. The developed industrial countries subsidize its farmers by billions of dollar a year at the expense of hundreds of millions of small farmers in the Third World whose countries have abolished subsidies as part of implementing the neo-liberal World Bank and the Washington Consensus economic liberalization programs. Subsistence agriculture is the norm now for most of Third-World peasants harmed by these programs, as these peasants do not have the capacity to apply industrial and commercial agriculture. They bear more financial burden and looses by buying GM seeds.
Under these considerable political, economic and legal conditions, it has been proved that using GM seeds leads to violating farmers’ rights in managing their resources and leads to more rural poverty. In addition, it leads to disturbing the course of sustainable rural development, many observers note that using GM seeds in Egypt has actually led to the deterioration of the agrarian production, to harm the main national industries based on agricultural produce, and to more food insecurity. There is a certain type of technology called “Terminator Technology” which works on improving and spreading seeds that generate crops that cannot be used in re-cultivation, and they must be bought from the producing company every year. This type of seeds will lead farmers to be completely and continuously dependant on the external market. In addition, they cause health problems. It is ironic that the multinational companies sell seeds that cause diseases such as cancer and kidney failure, and at the same time they sell medicine to cure these diseases. Furthermore, using these seeds leaves harmful effects on the environmental balance, as natural agriculture preserves the environmental diversity and balance. Using GM seeds in agriculture might eliminate the existence of plants and insects important for farmers, birds or animals.
The Role of the Local and International Civil Society Organizations:
Implementing market economy policies in Egypt means the gradual withdrawal of the state from regulating the trade and applying the “laisssez passez, laissez faire” under the American hegemony on the world economic system. This in Egypt simply means that a huge task fell on the shoulders of the civil society associations and organizations to pressure both the state and international organizations that put the free trade rules, mainly the WTO, in order to face the MNCs and, thus, the dangers of GM seeds and products. It looks like that there are not many civil society organizations in Egypt that are aware of this problem. Thus, there is a gap that must be filled to treat this problem by NGOs. It is worth mentioning that the civil society organizations in Canada, Latin America, Africa and the European countries play a huge role in spreading awareness about the dangers and impact of GMOs on deepening the food crisis for poor farmers and marginalized people in the third world, and on increasing the environmental unbalance that results into long-term effects. These organizations also play a significant role in politically pressuring governments, the WTO and FAO to put regulations on GM seeds and products. Therefore, the civil society organizations in Egypt must follow suit in order to protect farmers’ rights and reinforce sustainable agrarian development.
Egyptian CSOs must seeks to raise farmers awareness and reinforce sustainable development by teaching farmers more about the following issues:
The political, economic, legal and health aspects of the GMOs.
The impact of GM seeds in particular on food security, public health, farmers’ rights and sustainable rural development in Egypt.
The role of the national civil society organizations in facing the domination of the MNCs and international organizations that spread GMOs.
Reinforcing the role of the civil society in putting strategies to handle the risks of GMOs and implementing them. This might include spreading awareness, pressuring the policy-makers, conducting research, filing lawsuits for victims, networking with other interested local and international organizations, advocating rules and mechanisms for bio-safety to contribute in making a better, more faire and humane future.