Feature story - 9 June, 2002
As governments tackle the problem of hunger at the UN World Food Summit, Greenpeace released a report showing how genetically engineered (GE) crops increase poverty, while failing to address hunger.
The report, called "Record Harvest - Record Hunger" focuses on
the Argentinean experience. Despite promises from the GE industry
that GE crops will help feed the world, events in Argentina
illustrate the opposite is true.
Emiliano Ezcurra of Greenpeace said in Rome that, "by
surrendering to food dictators such as Monsanto and Syngenta, who
seek to dominate the world´s food production from fields to fork,
Argentina has put its food security at risk."
Greenpeace appealed to the World Food Summit delegates today
with a banner that said: "Food Dictators won´t feed the world."
Since the enthusiastic introduction of GE crops in 1996,
Argentina has become the second largest producer of GE soy,
exporting most of it as animal feed. The land used for soy
cultivation has nearly doubled, which subsequently has increased
the soy harvest to the record level of nearly 30 million metric
tonnes.
However, during the same period, food insecurity has greatly
increased and half the population, 18 out of 37 million, now live
on the edge of starvation or are unable to meet their basic needs,
according to official statistics.
Small and medium size farms disappeared in record numbers at the
end of the 90s,
and large numbers of people were displaced from rural
livelihoods.
View the report:
Record harvest - record hunger