Argument: Corporate control over GM foods threatens food security in poor countries

Support

“What’s wrong with GM?”. Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) – GM crops are produced for corporate profit. Seeds, and the chemicals that are required to grow them, must be bought from the
multinational biotech corporations. Farmers are prohibited from saving and sharing seeds: every year they must buy more seeds and the associated agrochemicals from the corporations.

The majority of farmers in developing countries struggle to afford even the most basic inputs (seeds, fertilisers, etc). Their survival depends on the age-old practices of selecting, saving and sharing seeds from one year to the next. GM crops do not allow farmers to do this.

By patenting GM seeds and their associated technologies, biotech corporations will consolidate their already worrying control over the world food market. They will exercise a monopoly over what we eat and what we plant – with devastating effects, particularly in developing countries, for food security (people’s ability to have access to safe and nutritious food at all times).