The Answer is in the Seed

By Bob Phelps*

A small cartel of agrochemical and seed companies now owns much of the world's seed supply. They send seed and food where they are most profitable, not where they are most needed. So the work of independent heirloom and open-pollinated seed producers and seed savers is critical to food sovereignty and security for our children and grandchildren.

Monsanto is now the biggest agrochemical and seed company in the world. It owns 27% of all commercial grain, fruit and vegetable seed and over 90% of all the genetically manipulated (GM) varieties of soybean, corn, canola, cotton and sugarbeet. Other seed giants are Dupont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow. https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/seedindustry.html

Through cross-licensing agreements for GM herbicide tolerance, Bt insect toxin and virus resistance traits, these companies concentrate their collective ownership and control, and promote their patented, PVR and hybridized products. Farmers and gardeners are forced back to seed merchants every season to pay grossly inflated prices.

As oil and phosphates deplete over the next 50 years, arable land and water become scarcer, and the climate changes, broad-acre industrial food production will become non-viable. A transition to agro-ecological systems is essential and the sooner we start, the better. United Nations' models for necessary change include the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) http://tinyurl.com/nqlhqg3 and the UNCTAD Trade and Environment Review 2013, "Make Agriculture Truly Sustainable Now for Food Security in a Changing climate" http://tinyurl.com/kly4c3r

Seed is the genesis of all life on Earth and the bedrock of our food supply, developed for us by farmers and seed savers over the past 10,000 years. Half the world's food is still produced by peasant farmers on small plots of land. The corporate hijacking of our publicly-owned and shared biological commons is not yet complete. Thanks to small seed producers and seed savers for nurturing a rich diversity of cultivated plant varieties for all to share.

* Bob Phelps is Director of Gene Ethics:
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