Record Harvest - Record Hunger: Argentinean experience shows genetically engineered crops contribute to poverty

Rome/Buenos Aires, 9th June, 2002 As the world's government representatives were gathering in Rome for the UN World Food Summit to tackle causes for hunger and malnutrition, Greenpeace today released a case study "Record Harvest - Record Hunger" highlighting the experience in Argentina, that shows favouring growing of genetically engineered (GE) crops increases poverty and fails to address hunger.(1)

"One of the great promises made by the GE industry is that GE crops will help to feed the world but experience in Argentina points to exactly the opposite conclusion. By surrendering to food dictators such as Monsanto and Syngenta, who seek to dominate the world's food production from fields to fork, Argentina has put its food security at risk," said Emiliano Ezcurra from Greenpeace Argentina speaking in Rome.

Greenpeace appealed to the World Food Summit delegates today by unfolding a 50 square metres banner which said: "Food Dictators won't feed the world" in front of St. Angels Castle, near the famous St. Peter's Cathedral, in the historical centre of Rome (2).

Since their introduction in 1996, Argentina adopted GE crops more enthusiastically than any country other than the United States. It is now the second largest producer of GE soy, exporting most of it as animal feed. The land used for soy cultivation has nearly doubled (3), which subsequently has increased the soy harvest to the record level of nearly 30 million metric tonnes. During the same period, food insecurity has greatly increased and half the population, 18 out of 37 million, now live on the edge of starvation or are unable to meet their basic needs, according to official statistics.

"There are many causes for the current Argentinian crisis, but GE crops aren´t the solution. They have locked the country into a trade model that favours export oriented agriculture at any cost and undermines the food security of ordinary people, " added Ezcurra.

Experience in Argentina shows that GE crop cultivation has led to a massive expansion of land used for soy cultivation and to a record concentration of land ownership to hands of a few. Small and medium size farms disappeared in record numbers at the end of the 90's, and large numbers of people were displaced from rural livelihoods.

The GE lobby has recently started a controversial project, "Soja Solidaria", to donate GE soy to charity organisations, which then distribute the supplies to those in need. The project includes training people to use this single crop as the main ingredient in food. (2)

"At best, this project can only offer temporary relief for those in desperate need. Such an approach goes against advice of medical experts who recommend a diverse diet - not one based on a single crop. The truth is Argentina has enough non-GE soy and a wide variety of other food product that could be used to fulfil the aims of this project and provide those in need a varied diet without exposing them to risks of GE. Most importantly, Argentina is a fertile country that could feed its entire population if only it shifted its focus to more sustainable agriculture and gave up its obsession with growing GE crops to export for animal fodder," added Ezcurra.

For more information: Greenpeace in Rome at the World Food Summit:
Emiliano Ezcurra, Greenpeace Argentina, Mob: +39 333 3313 725;
Luca Colombo, Greenpeace Italy, Mob. +39 348 39 88 618;
Miges Baumann, Greenpeace International, Mob. + 41 79 773 86 73;
Greenpeace International Press Office, Teresa Merilainen, Mob. +31 62503 1001
Pictures available from Greenpeace International, Tel: +31653819255.

Notes to the Editors:

(1) "Record Harvest - Record Hunger" can be downloaded from http://www.greenpeace.org/%7Egeneng/reports/food/record_harvest.pdf
Also available Greenpeace backgrounder "Food Dictators won't feed the world" on http://www.greenpeace.org/%7Egeneng/reports/food/dictators_problem.pdf
"Empty Promises - the Rome declaration on World Food Security in 1996 and today's realities"
http://www.greenpeace.org/%7Egeneng/reports/food/wfsummit.pdf
For cases of ecological farming around the world check Greenpeace report "Recipes against Hunger" on http://www.greenpeace.org/%7Egeneng/reports/hunger/brochure.pdf and web site
http://www.farmingsolutions.org/

(2) At the World Food Summit, 10th - 13th June 2002, Greenpeace calls for:
· To ban the release of GE crops and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
· To enhance food sovereignty and security within the next decade by giving priority to sustainable agricultural practices that respect traditional knowledge and the environment
· To ratify immediately both the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
· To recognise and implement the sovereign right of countries to prohibit imports of genetically engineered organisms and to protect national genetic resources from contamination by GE, especially in centres of biodiversity
· To stop patenting life forms and to ban any 'genetic use restriction technologies', in particular Terminator technologies, as well as to maintain and increase public control of agricultural biodiversity
· To eliminate environmentally destructive government subsidies in the agricultural sector

(3) The land area used for soy cultivation in Argentina increased from 6002155 in 1995/96 to 10665160 hectares in 2000/2001.

(4) According to the organisers' of "Soya Solidaria", the soy needed for the project accounts for 0,3% for the total Argentinean harvest. Given that 5% of the soy harvest is non- GE, the project could run on non-GE. Argentina is the fifth largest food exporter in the world: it is world's largest exporter of soy meal, soy oil, sunflower oil and pellets, lemons and pears, honey, apples.

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