Further notes on organic farming, GM and agriculture policy more generally

On October 2, 2010, in Public policy, by

In continuing my analysis of organic farming, GM crops, and a few other issues to inform my next FF article on agriculture, this post lists a few thoughts from various books/articles. If you have a strong views against any of these issues, please let me know.

By digging up boxes of books lying in the garden shed, I've rediscovered my copy of Eco-Imperialism by Paul Driessen (that I referred to here). I'm pleased that a few extracts of his book are available on Driessen's website for me to share PDF extracts with you (I recommend you buy this book which can be obtained in India from the Liberty Institute).

Sharad Joshi on agriculture (GM, etc., etc.)

"Economic reforms in agriculture should include abolition of all restrictions on the movement, storage, trade, export and processing of agricultural produce, and recognition of futures markets rather than the APMCs as default mode of agricultural marketing, supplanting the CACP-FCI-PDS racket." (Business Line, here)

"Restrictions on export and trade, inadequate storage, processing, transport has kept Indian agriculture mired in poverty." (here)

"If India is to develop drought-resistant and salinity-resistant strains, innovations such as Bt brinjal should not be obstructed." (here)

(and other articles summarised at Liberty Institute. Sharad Joshi is spot on, regarding the barriers that are harming Indian farmers).

C.H. Hanumantha Rao on agriculture

(from his article, "Reform Agenda for Agriculture" December 2002, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies)

Food security: "Procurement price should be set by the market conditions in competition with the private trade." (p.3).

Removal of restrictions: "Restrictions on movement, storage and processing have outlived their utility [In my view these always had very limited utility anyway] and have become counter-productive, denying fair prices to producers as well as to consumers and inhibiting much needed investments in technological upgradation and modernisation in processing, storage and marketing." (p.2)

"The Essential Commodities Act, Agriculture Produce Marketing Acts, the Small Scale Industry reservation, and so on, need to be thoroughly reviewed with a view to abolishing all legal impediments under these Acts that restrict the entry of big private sector, including FDI, in marketing, storage and processing." (p.2)

Removal of export restrictions: "Most agricultural commodities (cotton, onions, sugar, etc.) continue to be under severe export controls and quotas. These destroy any chance of building up a sustained international market. Exporters should have the freedom to enter into long-term contracts." (p.4).

Normal Borlaug on organic farming

You must have heard of Norman Borlaug? The Nobel laureate and father of the Green Revolution – that saved at least ONE BILLION people from starvation. He wrote thus: “There are 6.6 billion people on the planet today. With organic farming we could only feed 4 billion of them. Which 2 billion would volunteer to die?” (here)

Paul Driessen on GM crops

"Over 34 percent of all US corn and 78 percent of its soybeans are genetically modified, as are many other crops". (here)

Greenpeace co-founder and ecologist Dr. Patrick Moore on GM crops

He underscores the “huge and realistically potential benefits” that GM crops could bring “for the environment and human health and nutrition.” He believes that "the war on biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) “perhaps the most classic case of misguided environmentalism” in memory." (here)

Dick Taverne on GM crops

"The public is led to believe that GM technology is not only unsafe but harmful to the environment, and that it only serves to profit big agricultural companies. Seldom has public perception been more out of line with the facts. The public in Britain and Europe seems unaware of the astonishing success of GM crops in the rest of the world. No new agricultural technology in recent times has spread faster and more widely. Only a decade after their commercial introduction, GM crops are now cultivated in 22 countries on over 100m hectares (an area more than four times the size of Britain) by over 10m farmers, of whom 9m are resource-poor farmers in developing countries, mainly India and China. Most of these small-scale farmers grow pest-resistant GM cotton. In India alone, production tripled last year to over 3.6m hectares. This cotton benefits farmers because it reduces the need for insecticides, thereby increasing their income and also improving their health." (here)

‎"In 2001, the research directorate of the EU commission released a summary of 81 scientific studies financed by the EU itself—not by private industry—conducted over a 15-year period, to determine whether GM products were unsafe or insufficiently tested: none found evidence of harm to humans or to the environment." (here).

Gurcharan Das on GM crops

http://gurcharandas.org/?p=431

CONCLUSION

I think this material (and some more that I've read but have no time to extract sections of, for this blog) have confirmed my views developed over many decades, in relation to agriculture, and this should be sufficient to finalise my FF article in the coming week. I am convinced along with Macaulay that "There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces; and that cure is freedom."

Our agriculture sector is BADLY CHOKED BY REGULATION AND MISPLACED ENVIRONMENTAL FANATICISM. I do not see any future for India if it doesn't reform Agriculture – rapidly. More suicides are inevitable without significant reform, as PRICE signals are totally suffocated by an interfering government, making any investment by farmers a gamble, a game of chance.

ADDENDUM

Parking Space for the Poor: Restrictions Imposed on Marketing & Movement of Agricultural (PDF).

Government vs Weather: The True Story of Crop Insurance in India , Jennifer Ifft, CCS Working Paper No. 0010, 2001 (PDF)

Kisan Credit Card , Danish Faruqui, CCS Working Paper No. 0011, 2001 (PDF)

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3 Responses to “Further notes on organic farming, GM and agriculture policy more generally”

Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

October 2, 2010 at 3:55 am

Further notes on organic farming, GM and agriculture policy, more generally: I'm continuing… http://goo.gl/fb/QiNbO
Vijay Mohan says:

May 21, 2011 at 6:40 pm

Hi Sanjeev
Extract from the link below
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1388888/GM-food-toxins-blood-93-unborn-babies.html#ixzz1MtahcBxf

Toxins implanted into GM food crops to kill pests are reaching the bloodstreams of women and unborn babies, alarming research has revealed.

A landmark study found 93 per cent of blood samples taken from pregnant women and 80 per cent from umbilical cords tested positive for traces of the chemicals.

Millions of acres in North and South America are planted with GM corn containing the toxins, which is fed in vast quantities to farm livestock around the world – including Britain.
However, it is now clear the toxins designed to kill crop pests are reaching humans and babies in the womb – apparently through food.
It is not known what, if any, harm this causes but there is speculation it could lead to allergies, miscarriage, abnormalities or even cancer.
To date the industry has always argued that if these toxins were eaten by animals or humans they would be destroyed in the gut and pass out of the body, thus causing no harm.
Food safety authorities in Britain and Europe have accepted these assurances on the basis that GM crops are effectively no different to those produced using conventional methods.
———————————————————————————————————————–

Also many grazing animals were dead after consuming BT Cotton in India … The Same BT is implanted in many Crops

What is the classical liberal solution for this effect. ??

Even I dont want regulation and Control over new researches .. Like FDI has done more ham than good by blocking more of Good medicines than blocking Bad ones.

Such are the very few examples ..which dictates regulation and Control … Anyhow even High regulation in USA couldnt stop GM foods into Food Chain .. But GM could be FATAL…

If we want lots of case studies and lots of proofs before letting stuff into Market .. This is wrong..

Isnt this Genetic Sector is like Economics where we dont want any interference.. same way we may think that Genetic engineering is interference with the natures evolution process..

At the same time Ginetic engineering is very useful

I have no answer..

Thanks
Vijay
Sanjeev Sabhlok says:

May 22, 2011 at 8:12 am

Dear Vijay

The classical liberal solution is evidence based. As you are aware there have been many medicines that were approved at one time but later found to be dangerous. Similarly there have been cases where public outcry based on faulty research led to banning certain chemicals (like DDT) which were later shown to be overblown, thus leading to the unnecessary loss of millions of lives by malaria.

In this case the question is what level of trace has been found in infants? What is the likelihood of harm? Etc. (I’d like to see evidence that animals have died – pl send link).

The benefits of GM are obvious – that it is able to support a much larger human population, without which hundreds of millions will starve. Like everything in the world there are trade-offs. We want millions of people to at least not starve, and reach an old age (and then possibly get cancer), or not to reach an old age all.

The EVIDENCE BASED cost-benefit of these calculations must inform the decision on this and all other matters.

S

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