The Answer to World Hunger Is Not GMO Food
$MON
Industrial agriculture is more profitable for large-scale operations where production can be mechanized and pesticides can be applied aerially despite the fact that food science consistently shows that small farms are more productive than large farms.
Small-scale farms produce most of the world’s food, but are squeezed into less than 25% of the world’s farmland, or less than 20% if you do not include China and India.
A sure way to worsen world hunger is to destroy people’s capacity to feed themselves, which is what industrial agriculture has done overall. When financial support is channeled to big agro-corporations, small farms are put out of business, making the poverty problem not better.
There is likely no more profound example of this than the farmers in rural India where 1 farmer kills himself every 30 mins, typically by ingesting the pesticides he can no longer afford.
More than 250,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide over the past 16 yrs after their crops fail and they are left in financial ruin, largely as a result of Monsanto’s (NYSE:MON) genetically engineered seeds (especially Bt Cotton).
Bt Cottonseed is much more expensive than traditional seed, requiring more water and pesticides, and has failed to produce the increased crop yields promised by Monsanto.
This situation is made worse by the fact that the Indian government has largely abandoned its small farmers, discontinuing support programs, and failing to address factors such as lack of rural credit and poor access to irrigation. New government programs have not scratched the surface of this crisis.
Stay tuned…
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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