GM-free Scotland

News | August '08 | Splurge of GM spin


Image of a square peg in a round holeEight days in April saw a flurry of pro-GM media releases surrounding the publication of two extensive, and damning, reports on GM crops. The first report was prepared by the Soil Association and described the generally disappointing yields of GM crops to date, and the second was the results of a four-year study by the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) which concluded that GM crops do not have a role in a sustainable future (see GM SPIN AT ODDS WITH THE EVIDENCE – News, May 2008).

The following two months saw rising food prices hitting the headlines hard, paralleled by a rising tide of claims that GM would sort everything. The various ills that GM was going to cure ranged from lack of oil, disappearing land, bad weather and low grain reserves, to the (too many) Chinese and Indians now eating meat, and the biggest problem of all, Europe's REJECTION of GM feed (see CONSPIRACY? NEVER! - News, July 2008).

A global plot to make GM appear our only hope of salvation?

For the sceptics, or those who can't make up their minds whether they are really witnessing a conspiracy to mislead or just paranoia on the part of GMFreeScotland, consider the on-going splurge of spin unfolding.

 Our National Farmers Union (NFU) has been lobbying the supermarkets to drop their non-GM feed policies, spinning us a tale that our major suppliers in Brazil, “... are not going to bother growing non-GM just for the UK”. This notion was flatly rejected by sources in Brazil who, being good businessmen, said “We produce to satisfy our clients. We are not going to produce something they are not going to buy.”

Ten days later, the NFU's vice-president claimed to be “fascinated” by “the significant environmental benefits ... actually offered” by the GM crops during the UK Farm Scale Evaluations (that's right, he was referring to the field trials in 1999 – 2003 which demonstrated environmental damage, and resulted in the rejection of two out of the three GM crops proposed for cultivation).

Needless to say, the politicians have also been very busy.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, called on the EU to relax its rules on importing GM feed after his Environment Minister had had some meaningful private talks with the biotech industry. Suddenly, another public debate seems to be on the cards over whether GM crops should be grown commercially in Britain (The GM Nation? Debate we had only six years ago didn't come to the right conclusions, so let's have another one?).

The British Farming Minister took another tack and called on the EU to speed up its GM approval process.
The Cabinet Office Strategy Unit produced an analysis on food matters 'Towards a Strategy for the 21st Century' which, impossible though it may seem, turned a blind eye to the highly relevant 22 key findings of the IAASTD, and fussed over the time involved for the EU's GM feed approval process.

The Chairman of the European Parliament agriculture committee publicly suggested that rising food prices would make us “more realistic” about GM.

The European Commission voiced its frustration at the pesky national governments who were refusing to play GM ball when biotechnology could be used to help solve the food crisis. But, in the same breath, it seemed to say that the culprits were actually perfectly right because even if the Commission approves GM, “it doesn't mean anybody would eat them”.

On the other side of the Atlantic, US President, George Bush, decided the time was right to include GM crop development in his aid-package to ease the developing world food crises, apparently on the strength of imagined higher yields and drought-resistance.

Scientists of course have had quite a lot to say, and haven't, of course, read the biggest report ever prepared by the biggest number of scientists on the subject (the IAASTD).

To the former UK Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir David King, GM crops hold the key to solving the food price crisis. To the Scottish Crop Research Institute, what's needed is a 'grown-up debate' on the crucial role GM crops could play in feeding a growing planet. In a rather erratic piece of journalism, “leading scientists” backed a discussion on the need for GM foods, but three paragraphs later they become “some” scientists and then got whittled down to one, the Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland, who is quoted as still believing in the same position she held on taking office two years ago, that GM could address global hunger.

And the world of commerce hasn't been quiet either.

The World Bank wants a revolution: that is a revolution based on GM. And Nestlé doesn't think we can feed ourselves without GMOs. (If we continue to feed ourselves so overwhelmingly on processed maize and processed soya, Nestlé may have a point.)

Lest we be accused of lack of balance, there have been a few dissenting, non-conspiratorial voices apart from the usual green groups.
 
One very pro-GM professor made a bluntly realistic statement that “The cynic in me thinks that they're just using the current food crisis and the fuel crisis as a springboard to push GM crops back on to the public agenda. I understand why they're doing it, but the danger is that if they're making these claims about GM crops solving the problem of drought or feeding the world, that's bullshit.”

Even the chairman of Syngenta thought the claims for the GM solutions were over the top, pointing out “the current industry focus on farmers in rich countries meant it would take 20 years to launch crop varieties designed to address the problems of the developing world. GM won't solve the food crisis, at least not in the short term.”

OUR COMMENT

So, that's the evidence. And note that most of these news reports emerged during only six days, 19th - 24th of June.Are we seeing a living example of Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine' that the harnessing of shocks and crises to by-pass democracy is today's preferred method of reshaping the world in the interests of multinational corporations? Are we being subject to a systematic exploitation of the state of fear and disorientation that accompany moments of great shock and crisis?

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