Dear Editor,
With regards to the Letter to the Editor: “Prosser’s Wilmot Simmons answers Bill Lindo,” dated January 22, 2013, I feel the need to put in my two cents.
I am a Belizean living in the US. There has been a major battle for GMO labeling here, and there was even a ballot initiative in California to label GMO’s. To us it is known as “Prop 37”. Prop 37 failed to pass last year because corporations such as Monsanto, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Conagra, General Mills, Kellogg, etc. paid close to $50 MILLION US dollars to lobby against it. They scared the people into thinking that our food prices would go up because they would have to change the labels on their products, when in reality companies change their labels quite frequently.
Many companies have since started proudly labeling their own products with the “NON-GMO Project (Verified Products)” tag. If these GMO companies were really so proud of their product, why did they fight so hard to avoid labeling it?
Some GMOs have been banned in many countries. These countries include France, Germany, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, New Zealand, Egypt, Brazil, Paraguay, …the list goes on.
I understand the farmers of Belize would like nothing more than to be able to haul in higher crop yields, but I do not believe they understand the risks involved.
Despite what corporate giant Monsanto would have you believe, there was NO prolonged testing done as to the effects on humans who ingested GMO products. A recent lab study done
in France, the longest independent study of its kind (was actually done over a TWO-year period) showed that the lab rats who were fed a GMO diet became riddled with tumors.
Because of this French study, Russia banned the import and sale of GMO corn and has vowed to conduct its own TEN-year study. If Monsanto was so sure this food was safe, then why did they not conduct their own long term studies and why do they try to stop anyone who does? The answer? Corporate greed! The French scientists had to conduct this lab study in secret. What Belizean farmers also fail to realize is that Monsanto has quite a reputation for suing the small farmers who planted NON-GMO seeds BUT, due to nature, their crops cross-pollinated with GMO crops.
Monsanto sued for patent infringement, and won many of these lawsuits, forcing the small farmers to pay up, switch to a different crop entirely (to prevent this from happening again), declare bankruptcy or simply close down their farms.
Mr. Simmons writes “Yes, some farmers (very few) do save their seeds for the next planting season.” Is he planning on informing the farmers that Monsanto frowns upon this practice for their GMO seeds? On Monsanto’s own website, they say, “When farmers purchase a patented seed variety, they sign an agreement that they will not save and replant seeds produced from the seed they buy from us.”
They go on to say, “A very small percentage of farmers do not honor this agreement. Monsanto does become aware, through our own actions or through third-parties, of individuals who are suspected of violating our patents and agreements. Where we do find violations, we are able to settle most of these cases without ever going to trial. In many cases, these farmers remain our customers. Sometimes however, we are forced to resort to lawsuits. This is a relatively rare circumstance, with 145 lawsuits filed since 1997 in the United States. This averages about 11 per year for the past 13 years. To date, only 9 cases have gone through full trial. In every one of these instances, the jury or court decided in our favor.”
More and more countries are starting to reject Monsanto’s seeds; it was no surprise to see them now trying to lobby for new planting grounds…in our fertile Belizean soil. This earth thrived long before Monsanto’s engineers developed this bio-technology; their scientists keep trying to play God and keep promising that this is the answer to all the farmers’ prayers, when, in reality, all they want is the farmers’ money. (Oh, and in the US, their nickname is “MonSatan”).
It is my wish that the Belizean farmers become aware of all the risks before they start lobbying for the import of GMO seeds. In 2011, Belize made news in the organic consumer circles in the US for having burnt an entire field of GMO corn. Many of the non-GMO groups saw this as a victory for the small countries who were standing up to Monsanto, something not even the US has been able to do yet.
It is my hope that the GOB will reject the importation and cultivation of GMO seeds/crops.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Vasquez