Between old and new GMOs, monocultures and environmental and population abuses, ‘Soyalism. The new documentary film by our friend Stefano Liberti, whose equally unmissable essay ‘Land grabbing. (1)
Feeding the planet, the unresolved issue
How to feed the planet. It was talked about at Expo Milano 2015, between aperitifs and official dinners. Just forgetting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eradicating hunger and extreme poverty – which have obviously failed. Except to be reproposed, under the new acronym SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals), in the run-up to 2030. Malnutrition has meanwhile increased, exacerbated indeed byfurther deprivation of water resources. With substantial contributions from the Western war industry, which still claims victims just a few miles from our seas. And just beyond that, even in Yemen so close to Expo Dubai 2020.
European and international policies continue to neglect food waste, which exceeds one-third of global production. (2) Theimpact of monocultures on biodiversity, that of agrotoxics on soil desertification are neglected. Even worse, they are silent on land robbery and deforestation, international crimes against humanity and the environment still perpetrated to make way for palm and soy monocultures, the first two causes of such atrocities.
‘Soyalism,’ the imperialism of GMO soybean.
Stephen Liberti is a food chain tracker, following them in detail on intercontinental and local routes. All the way back to the economic significance and socio-environmental implications that only each of us can judge if compatible with our own conscience. And perhaps, change one’s consumption choices so that the supply chain is forced to change as well. No palm oil, no GMOs, no caged animals or antibiotics, for starters.
‘Soyalism,’ the latest docufilm, moves from pork production. Pork animal husbandry has literally exploded, thanks to rapidly increasing demand in the world’s most populous country, China. Thanks to the reduction in social inequality that only the People’s Republic of China has been able to achieve within the timeframe of the Millennium Development Goals. But feed is needed to produce pigs, and the soybean dictatorship reasserts itself with unprecedented violence.
From Brazil to China, via the US and Mozambique. The supply chain of globalized exploitation of peoples, the environment and workers is being exposed, that’s all there is to it. The concentration of power in a handful of corporations that control everything and everyone, causing peasant agriculture and local communities to disappear into the acid of misery. Rural landscapes are being razed to make way for GMO soy monoculture, to be flooded with Roundup (glyphosate) and other agrotoxics that poison soils like waterways and living things.
The Amazon rainforest is being relentlessly ravaged, with renewed stimulus under the Bolsonaro presidency, to supply giant hog factories on the opposite side of the planet. Realizing this is the basis for making sure that this havoc can come to an end, only through pressure from below from global consumAtors. Who can make responsible decisions, such as deciding to exclude from their groceries all products containing palm oil as well as meats and dairy products that do not guarantee that they are derived from animals fed non-GMO feed. By law, in organic production, and by choice by wise operators (including suppliers of Coop Italia brand products). The #votocolportfolio is the only force that forces supply to change, remember.
Screenings of ‘Soyalism‘ take place in various countries. Upcoming dates in Italy are in Turin on June 12, Milan on the 20th and Belluno on the 21st. (3)
NBT, the new coming of age
Some meanwhile urge deregulation of GMOs, old and new. Eliminate rules established to protect the health of humans and animals, ecosystems and biodiversity. Under the guise of ensuring the security of food supplies. A story we have seen before, which has not even scratched food security but has instead increased the imperialist dominance of the agrochemical giants. The Big 4 now control more than 60 percent of the global seed and pesticide market. Capable of buying or bribing almost anything and everything, in institutions and politics, the ‘intermediate bodies’ (e.g., agricultural and industrial confederations), the press, universities and research centers.
The new GMOs are disguised with a reassuring name that recalls breeding according to nature, New Breeding Techniques (NBT). But in both hypotheses-transgenesis (‘classical GMO method’) and cisgenesis (NBT)-the natural sequence of genes is modified through alien, i.e., human, intervention. The only difference being that in the former case genetic material is inserted that comes from a non-sexually compatible species, in the latter the plant’s own gene is modified, including by transferring material from other plants of the same species. Therefore, the EU Court of Justice affirmed in its ruling 25.7.18 that new GMOs must also be subject to the rules established in Europe for all genetically modified organisms. (4) Authorization and monitoring, risk assessment, traceability, labeling.
On 4.6.19 Paolo De Castro – in his capacity as pro-tempore chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee – opened the first meeting of the Agriculture Council under the new legislature by bringing up the very topic of research and innovation through ‘genome editing. Declaring NBTs crucial for ‘reducing water consumption, fertilizer consumption and pesticides, but also reducing risks to farmers, who are cyclically plagued by old and new pathogens.’ (5) The same arguments that Monsanto lobbyists proposed 20 years ago to demand that Europe de-regulate GMOs, as they had already achieved in the US. A propaganda later belied by data on the extraordinary increase in pesticide consumption, as we documented in thefree ebook ‘GMOs, the Big Scam.
Curious coincidences, Paolo De Castro’s role-in the previous legislature, in the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development-as rapporteur for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). And the recent green light to reopen negotiations. In the Wild West of propaganda, they want to convince the people of Europe that NBTs are the solution to be urgently cleared to remedy the broader problems that have been caused by that same failed model of intensive agriculture. Supported by a Common Agricultural Policy that favors large-scale agriculture at the expense of small-scale local production.
‘It’s the market, beautiful’? I wish it were! It is rather the Soyalism of the ‘Food Lords,’ to quote Stefano Liberti. The new advancing finds bipartisan support from a hetero-directed policy that aspires to turn Europe into a permanent incubator of Franken-seed. But is this really the solution to the food issue that has never been seriously addressed? ‘A system of exploitation of natural and human resources that, in order to meet the needs of the monopolistic seed and agrochemical market, must apply every technical and genetic solution that can guarantee production. Regardless of the presence of natural threats‘. Is this the new paradigm of agriculture in Europe?
#Égalité!
Dario Dongo and Guido Cortese
Notes
(1) Stefano Liberti, Land Grabbing (2011, ed. Minimum Fax)
(2) Gustavsson et al, 2011. Bio Intelligence Service, 2010
(3) Soyalism. The trailer and screening updates
(4) See dir. 2001/18/EC, reg. EC 1829 and 1830/03. For once, the ECJ disregarded the findings of its attorney general. Who had insisted on taking the new GMOs out of the rules established for ‘classic GMOs.’ See the article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/salute/nuovi-ogm-nessuna-regola
(5) SEE http://www.ansa.it/canale_terraegusto/notizie/istituzioni/2019/06/04/de-castro-per-la-pac-ricerca-e-innovazione-senza-incertezze_683270d2-2526-4795-9cbd-b4b5d3d14051.html
(6) So it would seem. And the approach taken by Europe in the Xylella case, unfortunately, is another tragic example. See https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade .it/consum-attori/xylella-e-decreto-emergenze-dibattito-e-petizione
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Computer scientist and professional beekeeper. A former conscientious objector, he served and then volunteered in a canteen for the homeless in Turin. He deals with the right to food, food policy, food sovereignty and biodiversity. He founded the association of Metropolitan Pollinators with the aim of defending biodiversity through specific projects of social and environmental regeneration. He represents the Slow Food Community of Metropolitan Pollinators. He promoted the birth of the national network of urban beekeepers. He directs an independent agricultural market, collaborates and writes for Egalitè (Onlus Rome) which deals with defending the rights of disadvantaged people, and with the newspapers Great ItalianFood Trade, Qualiformaggio, L'apicoltore Italiano and minor magazines.
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