Studie "The GMO-emperor has no clothes" (engl.) - Nabu

I. INTRODUCTION
Dr. Vandana Shiva*
People who point out the emptiness of the pretensions of powerful people and institutions
are often compared to the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s fable who says that the
emperor has no clothes.
We have been repeatedly told that genetically
engineered (GE) crops will save the world by
increasing yields and producing more food. They
will save the world by controlling pests and
weeds. They will save the world by reducing
chemical use in agriculture. They will save the
world with GE drought tolerant seeds and other
seed traits that will provide resilience in times of
climate change.
However, the GE emperor (Monsanto) has no
clothes. All of these claims have been established
as false over years of experience all across
the world. The Global Citizens Report “The
Emperor Has No Clothes” brings together
evidence from the ground of Monsanto’s
and the industry’s false promises and failed
technology.
Failure to Yield
Contrary to the claim of feeding the world,
genetic engineering has not increased the yield
of a single crop. Navdanya’s research in India
has shown that contrary to Monsanto’s claim of
Bt cotton yield of 1500 kg per acre, the reality
is that the yield is an average of 400-500 kg per
acre. Although Monsanto’s Indian advertising
campaign reports a 50 percent increase in yields
for its Bollgard cotton, a survey conducted
by the Research Foundation for Science,
Technology and Ecology found that the yields in
all trial plots were lower than what the company
promised.
Bollgard’s failure to deliver higher yields
has been reported all over the world. The
Mississippi Seed Arbitration Council ruled that
in 1997, Monsanto’s Roundup Ready cotton
failed to perform as advertised, recommending
payments of nearly $2 million to three cotton
farmers who suffered severe crop losses.
Failure to Yield, a report by the Union of
Concerned Scientists in the U.S., has established
that genetic engineering has not contributed to
yield increases in any crop. According to this
report, increases in crop yields in the U.S. are
due to yield characteristics of conventional crops,
not genetic engineering.
Australian research shows that conventional crops
outperform GE crops.
Yield Comparison of GE Canola
trials in Australia
2001
Conventional 1144
Round Up 1055 (Two application
Ready GE
of Round Up)
977 (One application
of Round Up)
(Source: Monsanto, as reported in Foster (2003)
– http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/documents/GM
Canola report-full.pdf
New South Wale 2001
In Vigor (GE) 109
Hyola (Conventional) 120
(Source: Bayer Crop Science Website)
Despite Monsanto adding the Roundup Ready
gene to ‘elite varieties’, the best Australian trials of
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