Monsanto’s perceived or real evil a creation of capitalism, biotechnology a scapegoat

Monsanto, an American agro-biotech giant with several operational offices and products across the globe has been every Activist’s reference in their attempt to convince ordinary people from accepting the products from biotechnology.For a long time, Monsanto have been known for their non-selective herbicide, a glyphosate commonly known as Roundup. Roundup has been used in land preparation because it burns down most weeds except very few stubborn ones. A farming system referred to as minimum tillage or no till cultivation was coined around roundup herbicide. In Uganda, until recently when the cheap versions of glyphosates that perform the same functions as round up appeared to the Market from china,the name roundup was synonymous to the active ingredient glyphosate it contains. Monsanto began to focus more on seeds. In Uganda, Monsanto’s maize hybrid is very popular with the farmers because of its high yield and early maturity and performance in harsh conditions.

Monsanto applied biotechnology to add value and buy back clients who had abandoned roundup for other glyphosates. Farmers have always applied herbicides to control weeds. The best advantage of herbicides is when it clears only weeds and leaves the intended crop. Roundup, a glyphosate just like its name, rounds up every crop in the field. The Advantage that Monsanto’s roundup ready traits have is that it allows the crop with that trait to withstand the non selective properties of glyphosate. It’s a big advantage to non-organic farmers but it implies that more farmers would get to weed their fields using chemicals hence reducing on the cost of production and time spent in weeding.

It is not true that every GM technology brings about increased use of chemicals, in fact most GM products that are developed to withstand pests or diseases lead to a drastic decline in the use of herbicides. E.g, the Bt trait for insect resistance in maize and cotton.

The selective mention of Biotech products brings a skewed picture of the benefits or the relative disadvantages of GMs. In Uganda, several crops are being developed using GM technology. These crops are always grown organically without any need to spray, e.g. Cassava, banana, sweet potatoes and millet. Cassava, banana and sweet potatoes also propagate vegetatively and the issue of having to go back and buy planting materials as the anti-biotech activists would like to portray does not arise. That would also imply profit making companies cannot invest in crops like that other than non profit making public institutions of the state. Indeed, when Uganda adopts these GM staples, it will go ahead to demystify well coined lies against modern biotechnology. One of those lies here being traded in the country sides is that GM corn produces babies. No shame at all.

Realities of Capitalism and Civil society elites crying more than the bereaved

In most African countries including Uganda where I come from, when the economy was liberalized, it opened doors to free trade and statements like private sector led growths became fancy. Stopping capitalism without the policy frame work is like non-uniformed traffic cop trying to stop a reckless driver. The elites cannot shield the rural farmers from the thorny wings of capitalism. Either they teach the populace with techniques to sail along or propose laws that would clip the excesses of capitalism. But as it stands now, the market forces of demand and supply cannot work in favor of the poor farmers who don’t have storage facilities and who cannot process their farm products so as to increase the self-life of their products. The war of the pros and cons of GMOs that the tremors have reached Africa with excitement is a result of American and European farmers, organic and non-organic farmers fighting to keep their market. Biotechnology is a tool that one side has used to edge out the other from the market and those that think not using it would give them advantage are not sleeping less the myths about biotech being propagated get demystified to their demise. This is seen in the falsehood of making biotech crops, sprayed or not sprayed not organic, a line not sustainable and believe me the organic movements with their record of shifting goal posts will one day make some biotech crops organic.

We in Africa we have our unique problems and challenges of pests and diseases, drought and these challenges can be addressed through biotechnology. As the saying goes a bad workman blames his tools, the European farmers and some organic farmers in both the US and Europe should find an appropriate way of using biotechnology or other technology to address the real challenges facing agriculture. This they did, when they failed to outcompete the chemical companies,they resorted to certifying certain pesticides and called them organic. They always readjust the standards to suit them. Recently, Uganda was threatened with a ban by the European Union because of a pest that needs spraying, part of the European market are saying they don’t need spraying and at the same time they don’t need pests from outside Europe and that’s the fallacy from having several options which are becoming less and less every other day. A farmer in the under developed country is left swinging in between the persuasion of local Agents who benefit from this capitalists who are hiding behind man’s desire to live long and reaping them off in the process.

American and European farmer verses African farmer

American and European farmers cannot be compared with the subsisting African farmers who still use hand hoes to till land. The American and European farmers own chunks of land and their farming are highly mechanized and themselves are capitalists who are trying to jealously guard their market niche. Activists from mostly Europe have made biotechnology the worst thing that has ever happened yet their countries are consuming tons of GM maize and soya products in various forms and investing heavily in pharmeutical and medical biotechnology. A Ugandan farmer who can benefit from the advantages that the biotech crop offers is deceived by the elite that it is harmful when that elite goes to the supermarket stall in the mall buys Maize flour from South African GM maize.

The basis of Biotechnology

The science of biotechnology is universal and a continuation of scientific discoveries and understanding of the genetic makeup of living organisms. The father of genetics, Gregory Mendel referred to DNA as a factor when he saw results of his crosses with disturbing variants that came from crossing two parents. Modern biotechnology of genetic engineering also known as Recombinant DNA technology arose as a result of the discovery of the possibility of gene splicing and recombining. These knowledge and understanding of DNA has been applied not only in Agriculture but in health, pharmaceutical, environment and in manufacturing.

Capitalism is the Monster and Monsanto the benefactor

Capitalism, like the laws of the jungle which is survival for the fittest is not new. Monsanto’s challenges are coming from the fact that they are operating in the food sector and have invested so much in coming up with technologies that advertise themselves. Monsanto, just like any corporation operating in liberalized economies tries to protect its interests at the same time making it difficult for rivals or potential rivals to compete. One way to do this is to buy competitors. There are several companies that have bought competitors or potential competitors.

Technology is the strength of capitalism

From Asian youths sleeping in queues to spend their money on the latest apple phones; An African business man entering the bank to withdraw money only to be told the network is down; Ugandan MPs abandoning papers for ipads rendering paper vendors and typists jobless; Capitalism removes money from the general population and concentrates it in the hands of the few making the few very reach and the revenue collecting state happy and not complaining. You cannot blame this on technology but on the providers who should be responsible and fair to the users and consumers of products generated through modern technologies. Most corporations have funds that support social initiatives that make them appreciated falsely or otherwise and its what they call ploughing back.

Isaac Ongu is an Agriculturist and Consultant on Agricultural information dissemination and an advocate on science based intervention in solving Agricultural challenges in developing countries. Follow Isaac on twitter @onguisaac