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Check out my blog, “approaching the table” at:
http://columbanmissionlife.blogspot.com
Questionable Quick Fixes: GMO's for Food and Ethanol
Amy Woolam Echeverria
For years Columban missionaries have raised a voice of concern over the moral and ethical application of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and subsequent patenting of seeds in agriculture. There are also scientific, environmental and health reasons to question the use of GMO’s. Now, as the debate turns to the role of biofuels like GMO-based ethanol to fight global warming, we raise our voice again to caution against quick fixes and smokescreen solutions.
The agribusiness industry claims that GMO’s will feed the world and end global hunger. However, while living and serving around the world Columbans see that GMO patented seeds keep local farmers, their families and communities, and the Earth excluded from the Table of Life. Farming communities and the environment are unfairly paying the real price for “cheap” food by being unable to afford the patented seeds, or losing their farms to cheap imports, or seeing the rural landscape altered to suit the needs of large agribusiness and monocrops.
Today, we are faced with two crises: skyrocketing food prices and rising temperatures. The agribusiness industry has seized this moment as an opportunity to continue to promote GMO seeds, corn in particular, as the solution to the world’s food needs. In addition, agribusiness claims that it has the answer to global warming in the form of corn-based ethanol production. As a result, a global food crisis has emerged.
Recently, some of the biotech industry’s biggest players, including Monsanto, teamed up to form the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy (AAFE), www.foodandenergy.org. According to the AAFE, “Meeting the food and energy needs of an evolving planet are challenges that can be met simultaneously. The answer lies not in scaling back agricultural innovation and biofuels but continued investment in them.”
We can be skeptical about the motives of such an alliance when the participating companies have such large financial gains at stake. The agribusiness industry sees ethanol production as a world of opportunity to increase profits while simultaneously appearing environmentally progressive. A top scientist at DuPont affirms this notion when he said, “New strains of genetically modified corn will play a key role in meeting soaring demand as U.S thirst for ethanol fuel cuts into supplies”.1
The connection between biofuels and rising food prices is confirmed by a World Bank study released in July 2008, “The increase in internationally traded food prices from January 2002 to June 2008 was caused by a confluence of factors, but the most important was the large increase in biofuels production from grains and oilseeds in the U.S. and EU.”2 We can take the link one step further and say that if the U.S. is one of the world’s leading GMO corn for ethanol producers3, then the U.S. is also one of the leading contributors to the global food crisis. This connection has serious implications for both our trade and agricultural policies.
GMO corn-based ethanol is not the only culprit contributing to the food crisis. GMO tree plantations are contributing to the cellulosic ethanol market which in turn is impacting local communities’ ability to meet their food needs. For example in the southern region of Chile, indigenous Mapuche communities are being pressured by the Chilean government to hand over their land used for farming to make way for GMO pine and eucalyptus plantations which are then used for cellulosic ethanol. By altering the Mapuches’ traditional way of life, they are loosing their right to food sovereignty and being forced deeper into poverty and hunger.
We believe that communities around the world have the right to food sovereignty, to choose what and how their food sources are used. We believe that GMO foods and GMO-based biofuels deny people both of these two essential human rights. Columban missionaries, based on 90 years of sharing the table with communities who have been pushed to the margins of society because of the global systematic prioritization of profits over people, raise our concern yet again for any solution offered such as GMO’s for food and ethanol as the silver-bullet answer to some of Earth’s most serious challenges: climate change and world hunger.
Time and time again, Jesus invited the vulnerable, marginalized, and outcast of His time to come to the table to share in life-giving food and fellowship. We, as disciples of Christ, are called to keep the Table sacred.
1“Dupont Sees Key GMO Role in Ethanol Corn Challenge”, Reuters, February 9, 2007.
2Mitchell, Donald, “A Note on Rising Food Prices”. World Bank, July 2008.
3According to Co-Op America, 61% of the 2005-2006 corn growing season consisted of GMO variety corn. “Corn Ethanol isn’t the Answer”, Co-Op Quarterly, Summer 2007.
http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/Summer2007cornethanol.cfm
4A paper by Global Justice Ecology Project and Global Forest Coallition, “GE Trees, Cellulosic Ethanol & Destruction of Forest Biological Diversity”.
http://www.wrm.org.uy/actors/BDC/SBSTTA13/GE_Trees_Cellulosic_Ethanol.pdf
Columban Response: Organic Demo Farm in the Philippines
Fr. Brian Gore, July 2008
Columban missionaries offer an alternative model to petro-chemical farming in the Philippines at the Negros Nine Demonstration Farm. Fr. Brian Gore, Director of the Columbans in the Philippines shares more about the farm and how Columban benefactors in the U.S. have contributed to creating a more just and sustainable world.
You can view the organic farm at www.youtube.com and searching for JPIC Organic Demo Farm. There are four clips about the farm. This farm goes a long way to teach the local community about the benefits of organic and sustainable farming and fair trade.
With generous contributions from our Columban benefactors in the United States, we were able to buy animals needed for plowing the farm, such as carabos (water buffalo), in addition to pigs, goats and ducks. With the help of members of our organic cooperative, we planted rice, corn, bananas, coffee and a variety of vegetables.
Recently, local government officials displayed our produce at the province-wide Organic Agricultural Show in the capital of Bacolod.
We have planted numerous indigenous trees, coconut trees and native vines. Our purchase of adjacent land for reforestation has meant we can better protect our farm and small forest. We plan to plant thousands of native seedlings on the land. New fencing protects the vegetation.
The organic cooperative, comprised of 62 families from five small Christian communities, will market their organic produce in the coming year to local consumers. With the entire island of Negros designated as an “organic island,” the local government is committed to helping residents grow quality organic produce.
Climate Change News
The Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious came together in August at their Joint Assembly in Colorado where they approved a resolution on climate change.
Columban Fr. Sean McDonagh was quoted in the opening of the resolution, “In theological terms this is a kairos moment, because the decisions taken by this generation will have huge consequences for future generations. If this generation fails to confront this issue, then no future generation will be able to undo the damage. Every human being and every creature in successive generations will suffer.”
To read the full resolution visit: http://www.cmsm.org/ and click on, “CMSM-LCWR Joint Resolution on Climate Change”
To read the full resolution visit: http://www.cmsm.org/ and click on, “CMSM-LCWR Joint Resolution on Climate Change”
Resources
Check out a great resource by our European colleagues for understanding climate change through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching, “Climate Change and the Church’s Social Teaching: Between the Flood and the Rainbow.”
It is produced by Operation Noah with support from the Columban Faith and Justice office (England), CAFOD, and the National Justice and Peace Network.
It is available at: www.operationnoah.org
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