Flash in the Pan

A story in The Scientists discusses a devastating banana disease that virtually wiped out the Gros Michel - "by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish" - that seems to be coming back. The only difference is that this time, the Cavendish doesn't seem immune from the new strain of what is called Panama disease:

Panama disease is so virulent that a single clump of dirt tracked in on a tire tread or a shoe can spark a country-wide outbreak. It isn't hard to imagine that a stray banana box from the Philippines, loaded into a Dole shipping container could be left unloaded at Long Beach, California, and continue on to Guatemala, where it could infect that nation's crop and tear through Latin America.

The big fruit companies seem to be living in denial and aren't publicly addressing the problem. Scientists are looking at genetic engineering as a solution. Great, from blight to GMO.

Labels: farming, fruit, news

I was actually shocked when I read this story in Vanity Fair about how Monsanto tries to bully and threaten farmers throughout this country. The cause of this behavior is the company's efforts in genetically modified (GM) foods - specifically, seeds designed to resist Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The idea is to make it easy for farmers to spend money on the weed killer and know that the crops will survive it. Those who use the seeds have to sign a licensing agreement, which includes provisions that prohibit them from saving any of the resulting seed to replant. In other words, Monsanto doesn't want farmers to be able to save any money by using the ages-old practice of saving part of a crop to provide seed for the next year. Forget about whether the farmers really get that they're not allowed to do business as usual. (When was the last time you fully read a loan agreement, let along an intellectual property license?)

The article opens with a story about someone going into someone's general store and threatening the owner that there was proof he had used the GM seeds in violation of the patent, and that if he didn't settle with Monsanto, they'd go after him:

Scenes like this are playing out in many parts of rural America these days as Monsanto goes after farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers—anyone it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. As interviews and reams of court documents reveal, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country. They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops; infiltrate community meetings; and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.

The company is also busy in acquisitions, clearly trying to own the seed market and, as a result, as much of the world's food supply as it can. Secret investigations? Threats? Economic hardball? Is this the kind of organization you'd trust to control your food? This article is a must read for anyone concerned about what goes onto their plates.

Labels: farming, food, Monsanto