February, 23 2010, 09:30am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Europe: Kirtana Chandrasekaran, GM campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7566 1669
GM Crops Failing to Tackle Climate Change
WASHINGTON
On the day of the release of
annual industry-sponsored figures, a new report from Friends of the
Earth International reveals that claims made by the biotech industry
that genetically modified (GM) crops can combat climate change are both
exaggerated and premature.[1]
The report, 'Who Benefits from GM Crops?', examines the evidence for
these claims, and exposes that GM crops could actually increase carbon
emissions while failing to feed the world. This is because, GM crops
are responsible for huge increases in the use of pesticides in the US
and South America, intensifying fossil fuel use. The cultivation of GM
soy to feed factory farmed animals is also contributing to widespread
deforestation in South America, causing massive climate emissions.[2]
The
report also exposes that globally GM crops remain confined to less than
3% of agricultural land and more than 99% are grown for animal feed and
agrofuels, rather than food. There is still not a single commercial GM
crop with increased yield, drought-tolerance, salt-tolerance, enhanced
nutrition or other beneficial traits long promised by biotech
companies.[3]
Ongoing concerns about the negative impacts of GM
crops means many Governments are still cautious about adopting them.
India has placed a moratorium on the planting of its first GM food crop
due to widespread concerns on its health, environmental and
socio-economic impact. In Europe the area planted with GM crops has
declined for the 5th consecutive year for the same reasons.
Millions
are being spent by Governments on GM crops, and, promoted as a solution
to climate change, they could be funded in the future through the UN
climate emission reduction Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Friends of the Earth Europe GM campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said,
"GM
crops are being promoted as a solution to feed us in a warming world,
when in reality they are wiping out forests, damaging farmers'
livelihoods and increasing harmful emissions. Given the damaging track
record of GM crops to date, and unfulfilled promises to feed the world,
we would be well advised to disregard claims that GM crops can combat
climate change."
In South America, a cocktail of pesticides is
being applied on GM soy, which is poisoning communities and
contaminating the environment. GM crops, and the corporate control of
seeds, are also hindering the development of real solutions by starving
them of funding and restricting farmers' access to seeds and knowledge.
Genetically diverse, ecological farming and traditional knowledge have
been identified key to facing future challenges.[4]
Friends of the Earth International food coordinator Martin Drago said,
"The
reality is that GM farming is not a success story. Small farmers across
the world are already using planet-friendly methods to feed themselves
and cool the planet. These methods must be supported rather than
environmentally and socially destructive GM farming."
For more information please contact
Europe: Kirtana Chandrasekaran, GM campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7566 1669 and +44 (0) 79619 86956 (UK mobile)
Sam Fleet, Communications officer for Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel: +32 (0) 2 893 1012 and +32 (0) 470 072 049 (Belgian Mobile)
Martin Drago GM campaigner REDES, Friends of the Earth Uruguay
Tel: (+ 5982) 9022355 - 9082730 and Uruguayan Mobile: (+ 598 99) 138559
NOTES
[1] The Friends of the Earth International report is released to
coincide with the annual release of the 'Global Status of
Commercialized Biotech' report of the industry-sponsored International
Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) -
which promotes GM crops as a key solution to hunger and poverty.
'Who Benefits from GM Crops 2010?'
https://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Who_Benefits/who_benefits_full_report_2010.pdf
[2]
Recent US Department of Agriculture data has shown that compared to
pesticide use in the absence of GM crops, farmers applied 318 million
more pounds of pesticides over the last 13 years as a result of
planting GM seeds. In Brazil pesticide use increased 5 fold between
1995 and 2005. In 2008, GM crops in the US required over 26% more
kilograms of pesticides per hectare than conventional varieties. In
Argentina, more than two hundred thousand hectares of native forest
disappear every year, mainly due to the expansion of GM soy plantations.
[3]
99% of biotech agriculture consists of four crops with just two traits,
herbicide-tolerance and/or insect-resistance. The vast majority of GM
crops in the pipeline are also herbicide tolerant or insect resistant
crops.
For more info see FoEI, 2009, 'Killing Fields', https://www.feedingfactoryfarms.org
[4] UNEP, 2008 Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa. See
https://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditcted200715_en.pdf
IAASTD, 2008 Agriculture at a Crossroads Key finding 7. See
https://www.agassessment.org/reports/IAASTD/EN/Agriculture%20at%20a%20Crossroads_Global%20Summary%20for%20Decision%20Makers%20%28English%29.pdf
Document Actions
Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 74 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, FOEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues.
LATEST NEWS
US Abstains as UN Security Council Demands 'Immediate Cease-Fire' in Gaza
"This resolution must be implemented," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. "Failure would be unforgivable."
Mar 25, 2024
The U.S. on Monday declined to veto but still abstained from a United Nations Security Council on Monday to adopt a resolution demanding an "immediate cease-fire for the month of Ramadan" in the embattled Gaza Strip, a move that came amid an ongoing Israeli genocide in which more than 114,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded and hundreds of thousands of others are starving.
The Security Council voted 14-0, with the U.S. abstaining, to approve a resolution for the cessation of hostilities during the Muslim holy month after member states overcame a sticking point over the removal of the word "permanent" from an earlier draft version. Instead, the resolution calls for an "immediate" cease-fire.
The U.S. had vetoed three of the previous four cease-fire resolutions.
"This resolution must be implemented," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said following Monday's vote. "Failure would be unforgivable."
As the U.N. Newsexplained:
The resolution is a bare-bones call for a cease-fire during the month of Ramadan, which began on March 11. It also demands the return of about 130 hostages seized in Israel and held in Gaza and emphasizes the urgent need to allow ample lifesaving aid to reach a starving population in the besieged enclave.
The demand to end hostilities has so far eluded the council following the Israeli forces' invasion of Gaza in October after Hamas attacks left almost 1,200 dead and 240 taken hostage.
Since then, Israel's daily bombardment alongside its near-total blockade of water, electricity, and lifesaving aid has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the health ministry there, where a recent U.N.-backed report showed an imminent famine unfolding.
Palestinians—especially children—are starving to death in Gaza. Hospitals are under attack, with Israeli forces reportedly executing large numbers of people inside al-Shifa Hospital.
Meanwhile, the approximately 1.5 milllion Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah—most of them refugees forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza—are bracing for an anticipated ground invasion, which Israeli leaders say will proceed despite a warning from U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris that such an operation would have "consequences."
Monday's vote followed intense negotiations over the measure introduced by 10 non-permanent Security Council members—Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Korea, and Switzerland.
The United States—which, despite growing frustration over genocidal atrocities, still arms Israel—brushed off a threat from far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a planned visit to Washigton by a high-level Israeli delegation if the U.S. did not veto the resolution.
The Associated Pressreported Netanyahu followed through with his threat and canceled the trip.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Death Sentence for Thousands': Israel Bars UNRWA Food Aid to Northern Gaza
"By preventing UNRWA to fulfill its mandate in Gaza, the clock will tick faster toward famine and many more will die of hunger, dehydration, and lack of shelter," UNRWA's commissioner-general said.
Mar 25, 2024
Israel will no longer permit the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to drive convoys bearing food aid into northern Gaza, even as the area is on the brink of famine.
Israeli officials informed the U.N. of the new restrictions on Sunday, prompting outrage and dire warnings from U.N. officials and other human rights advocates.
"By preventing UNRWA to fulfill its mandate in Gaza, the clock will tick faster toward famine and many more will die of hunger, dehydration, and lack of shelter," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on social media. "This cannot happen, it would only stain our collective humanity."
"I have urged Israel to lift all impediments on aid to Gaza. Now this—MORE impediments."
In his response, Lazzarini said that UNRWA was the largest organization operating in Gaza with the greatest capability to distribute aid.
"This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine," Lazzarini said. "These restrictions must be lifted."
The news comes as medical workers and international aid organizations have sounded the alarm about famine in Gaza. At least 23 children in northern Gaza have already died from starvation or dehydration, and one-third of children under two years old suffer from acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations' International Children's Emergency Fund. A new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report published on March 18 found that famine was "imminent" in Gaza's northern governorates and likely to begin "anytime" between the report's publication and May. In the northern governorates, where around 300,000 live, almost two-thirds of households endured at least 10 days and nights when they did not eat at all in the last 30 days.
"Blocking UNRWA from delivering food is in fact denying starving people the ability to survive," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media. "This decision must be urgently reversed. The levels of hunger are acute. All efforts to deliver food should not only be permitted but there should be an immediate acceleration of food deliveries."
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths also called for Israel's decision to be "revoked."
"I have urged Israel to lift all impediments on aid to Gaza. Now this—MORE impediments," Griffiths posted on social media, calling UNRWA the "beating heart of the humanitarian response in Gaza."
UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma toldBBC World on Monday that a quarter of a million people in the north rely on UNRWA food aid, yet the agency has not been able to deliver to them in two months. An attempt on February 5 had to turn back after the Israeli Navy fired on an aid convoy even as it traveled along a pre-approved route.
Touma told BBC World that more than 1 million people in Gaza now live in UNRWA shelters.
"They lost everything, and they need everything," Touma said.
Touma added that the most important commodity people in Gaza need is food, but they also need "safety, and they need protection, above all, and a cease-fire, which is very, very much overdue."
The U.N. Security Council finally succeeded in passing a resolution on Monday calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the release of all hostages as the U.S. abstained from the vote.
Outside the U.N., former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said on social media that the food aid decision showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's "starvation strategy at work," as well as his "vendetta against Palestinian refugees."
CEO of Medical Aid for Palestinians Melanie Ward also decried Israel's decision to permanently block UNRWA convoys from the north.
"This would be a death sentence for thousands," Ward said on social media. "They cannot be allowed to do this."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'The Law Is the Law': EU Investigates Apple, Google, Meta for Anti-Monopoly Violations
"the days of these tech giants exploiting monopoly positions in different markets are over," said one expert.
Mar 25, 2024
The European Commission signaled Monday that it has no intention of waiting for powerful tech companies to change their practices in order to comply with a landmark anti-monopoly law passed by the European Union earlier this month, as officials informed Apple, Facebook parent company Meta, and Google parent company Alphabet that they were being investigated for potential violations.
"The law is the law," Thierry Breton, E.U. commissioner for internal market, told reporters at a press conference in Brussels announcing the probe. "We can't just sit around and wait."
The commission told the tech giants it is investigating whether Apple and Alphabet are complying with the Digital Markets Act's (DMA) measure requiring companies to allow users to be directed to offers available outside the firms' own app stores. The two companies may be imposing "various restrictions and limitations" on users to unfairly favor their own stores, including by charging fees to prevent apps from promoting offers outside the Apple and Google app stores.
The commission is investigating Meta's practice of allowing users to pay a monthly fee for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram, which allow them to avoid having their personal data used for ad-targeting.
"The commission is concerned that the binary choice imposed by Meta's 'pay or consent' model may not provide a real alternative in case users do not consent, thereby not achieving the objective of preventing the accumulation of personal data by gatekeepers," said the European Commission.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the commission, said in Brussels that the companies have announced some steps to comply with the DMA, which took effect on March 7, but that some of the measures "fail to achieve their objectives and fall short of expectations."
Compliance "is something that we take very seriously," said Vestager.
The DMA identifies Alphabet, Apple, and Meta as three of six digital "gatekeepers" that are required to end anti-competition practices. New regulations require the companies to allow third parties to operate with the gatekeepers' own services, allow business users to access the data they generate when using the companies' platforms, allow users to un-install any pre-installed software or app if they choose to, and treat their own services and products equally to those offered by third parties.
The commission has 12 months to complete the investigations and could fine the multibillion-dollar companies up to 10% of their global revenue if they find them to be in violation of the DMA.
John O'Brennan, professor of European politics at Maynooth University in Ireland, said the investigation signals that "the days of these tech giants exploiting monopoly positions in different markets are over."
The E.U. fined Apple $1.8 billion earlier this month for suppressing competition from rival music streaming apps such as Spotify. The company is also under scrutiny in the U.S., with the Department of Justice joining 16 states last week in filing a lawsuit accusing Apple of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular