The food on our plates
Since its creation at the start of the 20th century, US group Monsanto has developed and marketed saccharin, commodity chemicals, plastics, PCBs and, during the Cold War, toxic pesticides and herbicides, including the defoliant Agent Orange (containing dioxin, banned in 1970, and the herbicide 2,4,5-T). Agent Orange was used on a massive scale by the United States army during the Vietnam War, with catastrophic ecological and human health impacts affecting millions of Vietnamese civilians and US army veterans (cancers, congenital disorders, etc.). Monsanto subsequently produced glyphosate (the weed killer Roundup, which claims to be biodegradable), then the first GMO plants in the early 1980s, and finally a transgenic bovine growth hormone (Posilac). Today, hundreds of millions of tons of glyphosate are used each year (91 producers in 20 countries) and 185.1 million hectares are planted with GMO crops, mostly soya used to feed cattle and poultry. Analysis shows that both are present in water, air and neighboring non-GMO and untreated crops. WHO classified glyphosate in the category of products that are probably carcinogenic for humans. The company’s 2017 Annual Report reported revenues for the year of USD 14.6 billion, with gross profits of USD 7.9 billion and net profits of USD 2.3 billion. Its success is based on the North American productivist, export-oriented industrial agriculture policy model, followed in Europe (supported by the Common Agricultural Policy [ CAP ]), India (green revolution then cotton), Argentina and Brazil (soya) and finally in Africa (cotton). Within this model Monsanto deploys every means at its disposal to build a dominant market position (intellectual property, lack of transparency, scientific fraud in certification processes, lobbying, conflicts of interest, intimidation, lawsuits, corporate communications on a massive scale, trolling, etc.). This model has benefited substantially from weak health agencies (United States and European Union), a failure of public expertise, and the pre-eminence accorded to economic rationality over the precautionary principle and the duty to protect.
Independent scientists, NGOs, farmer associations, journalists, victims and citizens have mobilized via whistleblowing, victim support, lawsuits, and achieving recognition of the crime of ecocide by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Monsanto’s merger with Bayer, approved by the European Commission in March 2018 (following investigations focused solely on economic criteria around distortion of competition), created the world’s largest agrochemicals and seed group, endorsing – with absolute impunity – the monopolistic model of an agriculture that is unsustainable in ecological, health and social terms.
Genetic engineering and world seed market
Comment: The map and diagrams have been compiled using data from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an international lobbying organization for the development of GMOs in countries of the South. Together, they show the global development of GMO crops, which is dominant in the Americas and increasingly in Asia, particularly for soy – a staple for animal feed and the international meat market – and corn. Countries of the South, with their urgent food needs, represent new markets for biotechnology and glyphosate multinationals.
- Cold War
- Period of ideological, geopolitical, economic and cultural confrontation between the United States and the USSR from the late 1940s through the end of the 1980s. Vigorous debate is still ongoing among historians regarding the precise dates of its beginning (the 1917 Russian Revolution? 1944? 1947?) and end (the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or the collapse of the USSR in 1991?). These two superpowers formed two blocs of varying degrees of cohesion around them. This bipolarization of the world to some extent masked other political, economic and social dynamics.
- GMO
- Genetically modified organisms are the result of investment, research and development in genetic engineering. They are obtained when one or more genes are deliberately inserted into an organism’s genome (transgenesis). Modification of the genetic heritage of some plants (chiefly soy, corn, cotton and rape) makes them more resistant to insects and more tolerant of herbicides. The Monsanto company is the primary producer of GMOs. Their use, which is requires authorization and is banned in some countries, is growing rapidly worldwide and becoming increasingly controversial.
- productivist > Productivism/Productivist
- A method of economic organization that seeks to promote production over every other possible goal of the economy. Productivity is improved through innovation and the modification of production techniques (e.g. Fordism and Taylorism in the automobile industry). In agriculture, it involves the massive use of fertilizers and pesticides. When productivity becomes an end in itself, disconnected from any consideration of the risks of exhausting natural resources (raw materials and fossil fuels), we can speak of productivism. Global debates on this issue are particularly complex because emerging countries want to have their own opportunity to benefit, either through their own efforts or through offshoring by European, American and Japanese companies.
- industrial agriculture > Intensive agriculture
- Agriculture characterized by the massive use of synthetic inputs (plant protection products such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.), extensive mechanization (for plowing, processing, harvesting, treating animals), varietal selection and now also genetic engineering (GMOs). It increases agricultural yields over the short and medium terms, at the cost of harming biodiversity, the environment and health (soil contamination, groundwater and underground water courses, erosion, and desertification). Alternatives include sustainable agriculture, organic farming, agroecology and permaculture.
- CAP > Common Agricultural Policy
- The Common Agricultural Policy is a cornerstone European integration that was set out in the 1957 Treaty of Rome and came into force in 1962. It promotes the development and modernization of agriculture (food security and self-sufficiency, modernization, increased productivity, stable markets and the development of exports). It represents a third of the total EU budget (compared to 70% in the 1970s) and has made the EU a global agricultural power. Criticized for being expensive, favoring large-scale operators and agribusiness over small producers, encouraging productivist agriculture at the expense of the environment and distorting markets (protectionism and export subsidies to the detriment of developing countries), it is frequently called into question, despite being endlessly reformed over the years.
- green revolution > Green Revolution
- The rapid transformation of agricultural production launched in the countries of the South (notably Asia) in the 1960s by governments, development organizations and agribusiness to combat malnutrition, poverty and the spread of communist revolution. It involved the use of fertilizers, pesticides, the sowing of selected seeds, mechanization and highly increased yields, and led to a global quantitative reduction in malnutrition. It also had major consequences for social organization (debt-induced eradication of family farming) and the environment (pollution and deterioration of soils and water, reduction of biodiversity). The subsequent step has been the widespread use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
- intellectual property > Intellectual Property
- This term covers the rights of use of an “intellectual creation” such as copyright in literary and artistic works and industrial property rights, such as trademarks and geographic origins, the protection of inventions (patents) and industrial models and designs. At a time when ideas and knowledge constitute a growing proportion of the added value of goods sold throughout the world, these rights are intended to protect investment in research and development and ensure long-term funding. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), signed in 1994 as part of the foundation of the WTO, harmonizes these protections in internationally recognized laws that oblige member states to combat counterfeiting and pirating.
- lobbying > Lobby
- Pressure or interest group whose aim is to influence political authorities so that they make decisions in the interest of that group’s members. Lobbies are recognized and accepted in varying degrees within the political cultures of different countries – and their methods and actions can involve varying degrees of transparency and legitimacy. Given the increasing technical complexity of trade negotiations and the intricacy of decision-making levels and processes, today lobbyists are amassing funding proportional to the interests they are defending and using high-level experts to prepare their dossiers. They play an important role in legislative development processes in the United States, in the institutions of the European Union and in the WTO.
- precautionary principle > Precautionary Principle
- The precautionary principle is invoked when science cannot establish a degree of risk with certainty. It proposes that lack of scientific certainty should not serve as a pretext to avoid taking the measures necessary to prevent the risk or to counter its potentially damaging effects. According to the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), the precautionary principle should only be invoked when there is a threat of “serious or irreversible damage.” However, international environmental law features several definitions of the principle, leading to variations in its interpretation, scope and implementation.
- recognition > Recognition
- The validation by an individual, group or institution of a practice, situation or identity that has been claimed. Intrinsically relational and a factor in socialization, recognition can be formal or informal, reciprocal or unilateral. Theories of recognition have an important place in philosophy (Hegel in particular) and have been more recently developed in the social sciences around the “struggle for recognition” (Axel Honneth) and the denial of recognition. International recognition is a discretionary act through which a subject in international law (usually a state or international organization) grants legal status to a situation or an act (a government’s accession to power by non-constitutional means, unilateral declaration of independence, military intervention, etc.).
- International Criminal Court > International Criminal Court (ICC)
- The Rome Statute, adopted on July 17, 1998, was the treaty establishing the ICC. The Court has the power to judge war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and, since 2010, aggression committed after the Statute entered into force on July 1, 2002. Crimes can be referred by the Security Council, the public prosecutor, or a state party, and the court function according to the principle of complementarity (i.e. it does not replace national legal systems and only intervenes in cases where the latter are unable or unwilling to act). The ICC has been bypassed (particularly by the United States), criticized (for its inefficiency, or because of the high number of African cases), and has received notifications of withdrawal. By spring 2018, only Burundi had left (withdrawal of the Philippines comes into effect in March 2019).