Behind Monsanto’s Marketing: Why We Really Don’t Need GMOs to Feed the World
Biotech companies like Monsanto have generated a myth that GMO crops are necessary to feed the rapidly growing world population. It’s a brilliant marketing platform built around their patented technology, but research has proven that we already have all the necessary technology to double food access in a way that is safe and better for the environment and all of our health.
The chief causes of global hunger today are poverty and small farmers’ lack of access to basic resources such as fertilizers and roads to market. So why do Big Ag and biotech companies keep insisting that the solution to meeting the demand for food is investment in their genetically engineered seeds?
Investing in infrastructure in developing countries would significantly reduce food waste. About a third of the food grown in developing countries is lost due to lack of storage or inability to get it to market. Improving roads, transportation and storage facilities is crucial to reducing waste and increasing the incomes of poor, small farmers.
On top of that, a recent case study in Africa found that crops that were crossbred for drought tolerance using traditional techniques improved yields 30 percent more than GE varieties.
Given that creating just one genetically engineered crop variety can cost upwards of $130 million, you’d think Big Ag companies would invest in strategies that have been proven to work and less on GMOs that may not even increase crop yields. But what corporations really care about is their bottom line, patenting these inventions, engineering them to be used in conjunction with a portfolio of their synthetic chemical products, in an effort to increase their profits, feeding shareholder return, not feeding a hungry world.
This short video walks you through the claims and through the solutions.
Source: Feeding the World Without GMOs http://www.ewg.org/research/feeding-world-without-gmos
