Posted on 04/17/2009 9:28:02 AM PDT by Squidpup
South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation. Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged 'underfertilisation processes in the laboratory". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems.
Urgent investigation demanded However environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods, blaming the crop failure on Monsanto's genetically-manipulated technology.
Willem Pelser, journalist of the Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport, writes from Nelspruit that Monsanto has immediately offered the farmers compensation in three provinces - North West, Free State and Mpumalanga. The damage-estimates are being undertaken right now by the local farmers' cooperative, Grain-SA. Monsanto claims that 'less than 25%' of three different corn varieties were 'insufficiently fertilised in the laboratory'.
80% crop failure However Mayet says Monsanto was grossly understating the problem.According to her own information, some farms have suffered up to 80% crop failures. The centre is strongly opposed to GM-food and biologically-manipulated technology in general.
"Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory, however we say that biotechnology is a failure.You cannot make a 'mistake' with three different varieties of corn.'
Demands urgent government investigation: "We have been warning against GM-technology for years, we have been warning Monsanto that there will be problems,' said Mayet. She calls for an urgent government investigation and an immediate ban on all GM-foods in South Africa.
Of the 1,000 South African farmers who planted Monsanto's GM-maize this year, 280 suffered extensive crop failure, writes Rapport.
Monsanto's local spokeswoman Magda du Toit said the 'company is engaged in establishing the exact extent of the damage on the farms'. She did not want to speculate on the extent of the financial losses suffered right now.
Managing director of Monsanto in Africa, Kobus Lindeque, said however that 'less than 25% of the Monsanto-seeded farms are involved in the loss'. He says there will be 'a review of the seed-production methods of the three varieties involved in the failure, and we will made the necessary adjustments.'
He denied that the problem was caused in any way by 'bio-technology'. Instead, there had been 'insufficient fertilisation during the seed-production process'.
And Grain-SA's Nico Hawkins says they 'are still support GM-technology; 'We will support any technology which will improve production.' see
He also they were 'satisfied with Monsanto's handling of the case,' and said Grain-SA was 'closely involved in the claims-adjustment methodology' between the farmers and Monsanto.
Farmers told Rapport that Monsanto was 'bending over backwards to try and accommodate them in solving the problem.
"It's a very good gesture to immediately offer to compensate the farmers for losses they suffered,' said Kobus van Coller, one of the Free State farmers who discovered that his maize cobs were practically seedless this week.
"One can't see from the outside whether a plant is unseeded. One must open up the cob leaves to establish the problem,' he said. The seedless cobs show no sign of disease or any kind of fungus. They just have very few seeds, often none at all.
The South African supermarket-chain Woolworths already banned GM-foods from its shelves in 2000. However South African farmers have been producing GM-corn for years: they were among the first countries other than the United States to start using the Monsanto products.
The South African government does not require any labelling of GM-foods. Corn is the main staple food for South Africa's 48-million people.
The three maize varieties which failed to produce seeds were designed with a built-in resistance to weed-killers, and manipulated to increase yields per hectare, Rapport writes.
No, Monsanto really is the devil.
Central Planning.
you don’t have seed for the next year.
To understand the result, one only needs consider the
Terror Famine in Ukraine during the 1930s , the government
confiscated all the grain including that used as seed.
Millions of people starved.
How would Monsanto compensate for that??
Thanks for a reasoned analysis.
There are lots of delusional comments on this thread. Anyone who knows nothing about seedcorn could be easily sucked into believing this misinformation.
Bah. Marian Mayet is an ignorant savage hugga bugga-merchant. Monsanto said they will make good f'r chrissakes. What do these witch doctors want anyway? Six year old virgins to cure AIDS with?
People get panicked by weird science fiction "franken-food" fantasies. Don't worry, Killer tomatoes don't really exist.
Single-generation seed.
Augie, I don’t understand why you are saying Monsanto=devil=single-generation seeds.
Many of the plants you buy at Walmart, K-mart, Home Depot, etc. are hybrids, which are single-generation seeds.
Does that make every hybrid seed company the devil in your opinion? That would include Pioneer, Northern King, Burpee to name a few.
Like pharmaceutcal companies, seed companies spend millions on research and like any other company, they don’t want their patents stolen & research given away for free, so why would they allow for farmers to buy the hybrid seed and then harvest seed and plant free next year?
Farmers are welcome to buy heirloom seed, but they don’t have the engineered resistance to drought, insects, disease, etc. like hybrids.
I like to garden and I use both hybrid and heirloom & I just budget to buy new hybrid seed as I need it. I do like hybrids because I know what I am getting & can get fast growing, seedless, big/small, etc.
Would you really want the GOVERNMENT in charge of seed production and distribution? Because if you are opposed to seed companies being in charge, that is the alternative :(
Augie doesn't understand, either. That's the problem.
Ruh-roh!
(w.r.t. upcoming Congressional restrictions on "non-govt. approved" farming in the US).
Cheers!
So they really didn't get little Timmy? That's a relief.
I have read articles on studies that indicate that this is happening. They even give the percentages of genes being replaced.
the seedlessness spreads and within a few generations, you have crops that won’t produce more seeds.
I haven't read of this yet, but who knows ? Perhaps just lower crop yields to start, as not all seeds would have the flawed genes.
at which point, famine is within sight
Famine is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Perhaps this is the means by which is happens.
Totally Man Made.
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