Did the Green Revolution Fail? (Part 3)

Dear Friends

Why has the green movment failed…so far?  We have discussed the first green revolution and its focus on technology and science. The intention was to feed the whole world, but the results unbalanced ecosystems, destroyed soils, and displaced peasant farmers to urban slums.  A good example of the problematic side of the First Green Revolution was their addition of GMOs into their strategy— with the accompaning reduction in  plant and food diversity, the manditory use of herbicides and pesticides with the GMO seeds, and the sociological (legal, finanical and psychological) problems they have brought about.

The problems are so serious that many countries have banned the use of GMO in agriculture.

• See in Green Facts below how our own U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned their use in the national parks.
• See in The Last Quiz Answer how bee populations are dying because of their pesticides.
• See in Clinical Notes about our Phyto Power, a product that delivers fruit and vegetable ingredients that are far removed from these GMO and Industrial Agricultural issues; product that is grown in rich, clean, natural soils, and provides the healing power that potent foods can only provide.

Today we realize the lessons and damage from the use of genetically modified seeds in agriculture. A consortium of transnational corporations (grain traders, processors, seed companies, chemical companies, biotech companies- the industro-agro-food complex at a global level) have convinced peasant farmers from all over the world to give over to these corporations their ancestral drought resistant seeds. Peasant farmers have naturally developed and saved their seeds for generations. This consortium’s members, in exchange for these hardy, natural seeds, sold the farmers GMO seeds and pesticides. They have enticed the farmers with visions of modern new agricultural imputs, promised successful yields and increased profits.  (See this very important University of Hawaii lecture by Vandana Shiva).

The GMO giants are trying through their governmental influence around the world to lobby countries to pass policies outlawing the private ownership of seeds.  Their business model is to sell their technologically enhanced seeds and collect royalties on their use.  Total ownership on seeds of life is their goal.  Get to know Vandana Shiva, an activist for the cause of “Seed Sovereignty” – the right to privately own seeds. A global movement for seed freedom.

As Vandana Shiva relates, a PR program by bio-tech corporations was strongly put out to convince peasants to give Bt cotton seeds a try.  The campaign went so far as to tell the farmers that their particular Gods had ordained the use of these seeds; and the peasants went for it by the tens of thousands mortgaging their land to get  the seeds along with the herbicides and pesticides that went along with them. (Shiva’s Hawaii Lecture)

The first year the crops failed.  they increased their pesticde imputs and the second year was not so bad.  However, the third year was worse, causing a finanical ruin.  The seed company and the chemical company representatives came in and took the land of the peasants as a payment for their unpaid debt. The seeds were not strong as the native seeds to fight and thrive in draught conditions. They were supposed to. Unfortunately, the bio tech companies did not take any repsonsibility for their failure to produce draught resistant seeds.

The sad facts gathered by Shiva’s organization is that since the introduction of the Bt cotton into India, 270,000 farmers have committed suicide because they have lost everything. They drink the pesticides, lay down in their fields and die.

Here are the facts Shiva found:  The hybrid seeds into which the Bt gene has been introduced, need intense irrigation and therefore due to drought conditions more crop failure occured.  And, it doesn’t control pests as evidenced by a 300% increase in pests where the Bt cotton grew.  This caused a 13 fold increase in the use of pesticides.  In the soil to which the Bt seeds were grown, scientists have found a 22% reduction of the beneficial soil organisms.  Particularly killed were the bacteria that decomposed organic matter.  1900 animals were found dead who had grazed on the Bt cotton fields. (Hear the full story)

GMO seeds were supposed to feed the starving world.  The overall results are quite another story—larger numbers of starving people, the destruction of topsoils, the destruction of biodiversity, a reliance on limited diet of 6 to 8 plants as our sole source for nutrition, the loss for thousands of indigenous peasants their farms, their seeds, livelhoods,  food sovereignty, and a worldwide food system under the control of a handful of bio-tech, chemical, and food distribution corporate giants.

What does all this mean? Not only are we losing the freedom to privately farm with our own seeds, we also find an uncontrollable rise of chronic illnesses around the world, which many scientists and physicians now believe is due to this increasingly toxic world.

This is one of the examples why the Green Revolution is failing us.  It doesn’t embrace the totality of nature, the symbiotic and systemic reality of nature.  So, what is a viable alternative to feed the world and reduce chronic disease?  I call this the Second Green Movement where farmers use technologies that embrace the biodiversity of life.  That work with nature, that don’t poison nature. We have labeled these methods of farming as Eco-Farming.

But I must ask the question, if these other farming modalities are so good why do we still have starving people, increasing numbers of chronically ill people?  Why is this system failing also?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

Clinical Notes:

The Therapeutic Foods Supplements embrace the concept and importance of biodiversity in our diet. For example, the Phyto Power not only provides three powerful plant source of wild crafted foods but multiple species of them. In each capsule there are 100mg of 4 species of whole blueberry (including a small amount of leaves), 200mg of 3 species of rosehip (including the seed where all the catechins reside) and 200mg of 4 species of dandelion (including the roots, leaves and flowers).  Two capsules a day provides a powerful addition to your diet.  Read More

The Last Quiz Answer:

How important is the honey bee?  Albert Einstein said, “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live.”  Bees pollinate at least 80% of the food crops we rely on for sustenance. Without bees, many of these crops would not produce fruit, which means no more food for humans.

For the past 10 years, beekeepers, primarily in the U.S. and Europe, have been reporting annual losses of 30% or higher, far above what is normal or sustainable. Many U.S. beekeepers have experienced losses of 40 to 50% or more.

The cause is pesticides and herbicides and it is very serious.  In response, both the U.S. and Mexico have recently taken steps toward banning the use of pesticides and GMO crops that have been strongly linked to the widespread bee die-offs. (See Food Rev. Net.)