Sustainable Agriculture

For thousands of years farmers have selected higher yielding, better tasting crops to produce successful new varieties.

This natural process of plant reproduction involving the gradual exchange of genetic material, usually between closely related genera, has been the norm for millennia. Initially such exchanges were determined by wind borne or animal borne dispersion, but as humans changed from hunter gatherers to farmers, by saving seeds and discarding others based on plant characteristics, selective breeding became a safe method for developing new seed strains.

The process of planting, harvesting and saving seeds for the next season has enabled generations all over the world to maintain a sustainable existence and produce healthy and trustworthy food whilst protecting the environment and wildlife.

Unsustainable Agriculture

Genetic modification lets scientists alter a crop plant's characteristics by inserting genes, often from completely unrelated species.

The root of genetic engineering in crops lies in the 1977 discovery that soil bug Agrobacterium tumefaciens can be used as a tool to inject foreign genes into plants. After 30 years of research and 10 years of commercialisation, the industry has delivered only two GM traits: herbicide tolerance and insect resistance. Evidence from around the world shows a host of negative effects on the environment from growing GM crops. Whilst the long term implications of GM crops are uncertain, worrying research is emerging about potential impacts such as the creation of new allergens and unintended changes to plant DNA. GM crops have increased corporate control of global seed supply. This is achieved by enforcing Patent Rights or in the case of herbicide resistant crops, biotechnology companies produce both the GM seeds and the associated weed killer, so maximising their profit.

Unnatural

It is important to remember that GM is the random insertion of genetic material into living organisms in order to produce a profitable product, not the hijacking of natural processes. GM technologies are still insufficiently researched, understood or regulated to be considered safe.

Nature does it best

We don't need GM crops to feed the world, there is enough safe and healthy food. Hunger is caused because people cannot afford to buy food or are denied access to it. The problem is intensified by the GM industry who profit from designing crops for industrial, export-driven farms.