Sir, - Prof Tom Raftery (May 12th) asks us to ignore the scare-mongers and believe the views of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution. It comes as no surprise to learn that Borlaug is a big supporter of the very same agro-chemical companies that were the driving force behind the Green Revolution and who are now, having re-invented themselves as Life Science Industries, desperate to promote genetic engineering as the solution to world hunger.
In the early 1960s the agrochemical industry, backed by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, raised the spectre of increased famine and malnutrition in order to push governments and farmers into intensifying agriculture. Then, as now, projected increases in world population were used to argue for massive increases in output; then, as now, new technologies were hailed as the only practical solution; then, as now, the structural causes of poverty and hunger were downplayed; and then, as now, the myriad ways in which food production could be increased using labour intensive, organic and sustainable methods of agriculture, were steadfastly ignored.
Although the Green Revolution undoubtedly increased yields of certain crops, its effects were unevenly felt. More significantly it singularly failed to address the problem of world hunger. Thirty five years after the Green Revolution was launched, there are more people undernourished today than at any time in human history - despite world cereal yields consistently outstripping world population growth since 1980.
The social and environmental costs of three decades of Green Revolution agriculture are well documented: pesticide and herbicide poisoning of people, soil and animals; land degradation; excessive demand on scarce water supplies; the loss of plant diversity; profits for big farmers who could afford the inputs - bankruptcy and landlessness for those who could not; the replacement of local economies and traditional farming techniques with an export crop economy; the marginalisation of women farmers.
Many of us working with Irish development organisations and research institutes who are dealing with issues of poverty and food security believe that the Gene Revolution in agriculture may exacerbate these problems if allowed to develop unchecked. Only this week, Christian Aid UK (hardly a bunch of environmental elitists with no track record) released the results of a major study on the introduction of genetically modified crops to the world's poorest countries. They concluded that GM crops are irrelevant to ending world hunger, will concentrate power in too few hands and will strip small farmers of their independence.
Genetically engineered seeds will not reduce the reliance of farmers on expensive inputs, which drive farmers the world over into debt. Monopoly control over seeds by biotech companies, aided and abetted by intellectual property legislation, will force small farmers to buy transgenic seed every year, increasing their dependency. The incorporation of terminator technology will make it impossible for farmers to grow food from seeds they have saved. Genetically engineered food crops, furthermore, will do nothing to alleviate the problem of people not having land on which to grow food for themselves or to sell, and instead will further concentrate land ownership in the hands of the few.
The millions of dollars that are being spent in developing and promoting biotechnology could have a far greater impact if invested in strengthening the huge variety of sustainable agricultural systems that already exist in the world. - Yours, etc., Tom Campbell,
Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor, Dublin 12