GM-free Scotland

April '08 | The profitability equation of GM crops

How do you make biotech profitable?

In the face of consumer rejection, plus the huge R & D costs, plus farmer disadvantage from contractual obligations, the seed premiums and the necessary high chemical inputs, making a profit from selling biotech seeds must present something of a challenge.

Readers of GM-free Scotland will be aware of the illusions generated by the biotech industry's PR hype, not to mention the government collusion which supports it by keeping the end-user in the dark. But, there's a lot more than that going on.

The easiest way to bolster GM agriculture is to subsidise the crop. Early in the game, US farmers growing all the main crops now commercialised in GM form (maize, soya and cotton) were in a win-win situation because of government subsidies: the situation hasn't changed. In South Africa 85% of farmers who tried to grow pest-resistant Bt cotton had given up within four years due to pest problems (!). Those farmers who still grow the crop do so at a loss, continuing only because the South African government subsidises them and there's a guaranteed market for their cotton.

Government subsidies can be disguised as charity to drive a particular GM crop onwards and upwards. USAID is quick to include the introduction of GM crops on its agenda of 'aid' to developing countries, giving local farmers such as those in Mali, who are successfully producing high yielding crops without GM, something extra, and unnecessary, to worry about.

A recent form of subsidy for GM crops has emerged in the form of carbon credits. One biotech company has persuaded the Chinese government to award carbon credits for growing GM crops which require less nitrogen fertiliser.

Taxes can be used to make or break biotech profitability. Argentina is using export taxes of only 2.5% to encourage farmers to shift over to biofuels (GM crop a la mode) and away from (yesterday's crop of choice) GM soya which is taxed at 35%.

The most important factor on which GM profits hinge is, of course, their patents.

Patentability is needed to enable fees to be charged for the privilege of growing GM, to excuse the ongoing policing of anyone in possession on GM, and for successful litigation of anyone with GM growing on their land, besides the prevention of competition.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (a founder of GE Food Alert) has commented on the importance of patents in a global market, and how international corporations are taking advantage of low patent standards in the US and elsewhere. Though patents are granted by national governments, free trade agreements and World Trade Organisation agreements contain patent rules. The Institute is concerned that the patent system excludes public interest, even when publicly funded research has developed the patented products, and is calling for patent reforms that assert the primacy of public domain, protect traditional knowledge and fit within a human rights framework.

Last, but not least, there's good old-fashioned bribery and corruption as practiced by Monsanto's officials in Indonesia, which was also the scene of Bt cotton seeds introduced with the army riding shotgun beside them, but we like to think such tactics are not normal.

OUR COMMENT

Any science leading to a patent, whether within a university or in industry, will tend to be very secretive science. The shaky science which neglects the holistic value and interactive nature of life at all levels, by identifying 'isolated' functional units of DNA which can be mixed and matched and tweaked in a test-tube, is also the basis for all the patents on GM. Is this a sound basis for our future food supply?

Without the concerted efforts of government funding and the legalisation of patents on life, GM crops would probably not exist. Their benefits to you, the consumer, the safety of GM food, and the practicality and sustainability of the whole technology are not factors in the profitability equation.

For action on patents on seeds check out www.no-patents-on-seeds.org.

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