Salmone.org

Nel rapporto ISAAA relativo alle coltivazioni di OGM del 2009 ancora numeri da record.

Sono stati coltivati altri 9 milioni di ettari in più dell’anno precedente (l’intera superficie agricola italiana è di 13 milioni di ettari). Il 90% dei coltivatori di OGM appartiene a Paesi in via di sviluppo. Il Brasile diventa il secondo Stato che coltiva più OGM al mondo, facendo piazza pulita di chi ancora si illude di trovare angoli del pianteta dove avere commodity OGM-free. (leggi highisaaa2010 e isaaa2010)

Tutti questi dati sono una sottostima del successo degli OGM in quanto informazioni gia’ disponibili da mesi mostrano come Pakistan e Cuba dovrebbero già essere considerate nazioni che coltivano OGM.
Anche i dati del 2009 mostrano come l’Europa sia insignificante nelle sue scelte oscurantiste e autarchiche ed il mondo sia già andato in direzione opposta.

Con due semafori verdi in una settimana la Cina lancia una nuova stagione di coltivazione di OGM. L’attacco va diretto alla produzione di alimenti per consumo umano in particolare del riso. Al di là delle organizzazioni pseudo-ambientaliste il dato che ha convinto le autorità cinesi sta nell’aumento delle rese del 8% e l’abbattimento nell’uso di insetticidi dell’80%.
Con la politica di dismissione dell’agricoltura portata avanti da Zaia e Coldiretti, fra tre anni non ci saranno più coltivatori italiani ad arginare l’arrivo delle derrate cinesi da OGM.

China Approves Biotech Rice and Maize In Landmark Decision

- Clive James, Chair of ISAAA and author of the ISAAA Annual Brief on Biotech/GM Crops.

‘China completes its approval of a troika of key biotech crops - fiber (Bt cotton), feed (phytase maize) and food (Bt rice)’

In the ISAAA 2008 Brief, I predicted “a new wave of adoption of biotech crops–providing a seamless interface with the first wave of adoption, resulting in continued and broad-based strong growth in global hectarage”. This prediction started to become reality in the latter half of November 2009, when within the short span of one week, China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) granted two biosafety certificates, and approved biotech Bt rice, (rice is the most important food crop in the world that feeds half of humanity), and biotech phytase maize, (maize is the most important feed crop in the world).

The two approvals have momentous positive implications for biotech crops in China, Asia and the whole world. It is important to note that the MOA conducted a very careful due diligence study, prior to clearing these two critically important biotech crops for full commercialization in about 2 to 3 years, pending completion of the standard registration field trials which applies to all new conventional and biotech crops. It is noteworthy that China has now completed approval of a troika of the key biotech crops in a logical chronology - first was FIBER (cotton), second was FEED (maize) and third was FOOD (rice). The potential benefits of these 3 crops for China are enormous and summarized below

* Bt cotton - China has successfully planted Bt cotton since 1997 and now over 7 million small farmers in China are already increasing their income by approx $220 per hectare (equivalent to $1 billion nationally) due, on average, to a 10% increase in yield, a 60% reduction in insecticides, both of which contribute to a more sustainable agriculture and prosperity of small poor farmers. China is the largest producer of cotton in the world, with 68% of its 5.6 million hectares successfully planted with Bt cotton in 2008
* Bt rice offers the potential to generate benefits of $4 billion annually from an average yield increase of 8 %, and a 80% decrease in insecticides, equivalent to 17 kg per hectare on China’s major staple food crop, rice, which occupies 30 million hectares (Jikun Huang et al, 2005). It is estimated that 75% of all rice in China is infested with the rice-borer pest, which Bt rice controls. China is the biggest producer of rice in the world (178 million tons of paddy) with 110 million rice households (a total of 440 million people based on 4 per family) who could benefit directly as farmers from this technology, as well as China’s 1.3 billion rice consumers. Bt rice will increase productivity of more affordable rice at the very time when China needs new technology to maintain self-sufficiency and increase food production to overcome drought, salinity, pests and other yield constraints associated with climate change and dropping water tables

* Phytase maize. China, after the US, is the second largest grower of maize in the world (30 million hectares grown by 100 million households); it is principally used for animal feed. Maintaining self-sufficiency in maize and meeting the increased demand for more meat in a more prosperous China is an enormous challenge. For example China’s swine herd, the biggest in the world, increased 100 fold from 5 million in 1968 to over 500 million today. Phytase maize will allow pigs to digest more phosphorus, resulting in faster growth/more efficient meat production, and coincidentally result in a reduction of phosphate pollution from animal waste into soil and extensive bodies of water and aquifers.

The above advantages of Bt cotton, Bt rice and phytase maize, (importantly, all developed by Chinese public sector institutions) also offer similar benefits to other developing countries, particularly in Asia, (but also elsewhere in the world) which have very similar crop production constraints. Asia grows and consumes 90 % of the production from the world’s 150 million hectares of rice, and Bt rice can have enormous impact in Asia. It could not only contribute to increase productivity but could also make a substantive contribution to the alleviation of poverty for poor small farmers who represent 50% of the world’s poor.

Similarly, there are up to 50 million hectares of maize in Asia that could benefit from biotech maize. China’s exertion of global leadership in approving biotech rice and maize will likely result in a positive influence on acceptance and speed of adoption of biotech food and feed crops in Asia, and more generally globally, particularly in developing countries . The approval and deployment by China of the most important food and feed crops in the world, biotech rice and maize, to maintain “self-sufficiency” as opposed to “food security”, (the distinction is important) can serve as a model for other developing countries which could have substantive implications for:

* a more timely and efficient approval process for biotech crops in developing countries;
* new modes of South-South technology transfer and sharing, including public/private sector partnerships;
* more orderly international trade in rice and reduction in probability of recurrence of 2008-type price hikes, which were devastating for the poor;
* shift of more authority and responsibility to developing countries to optimize “self sufficiency” and provide more incentive for their involvement to deliver their share of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

Finally, Bt rice and phytase maize should be seen as only the first of many agronomic and quality biotech traits to be integrated into improved biotech crops, with significant enhanced yield and quality, which can contribute to the doubling of food, feed and fiber production on less resources, particularly water and nitrogen, by 2050.The approval by China of the first major biotech food crop, Bt rice, can be the unique global catalyst for both the public and private sectors from developing and industrial countries to work together in a global initiative toward the noble goal of “food for all and self sufficiency” in a more just society.

NOTE # of avian species in 1968 was 12.3 million, in 2005 13 billion !!!
# of Pigs in China, 508 million, is approx half of world swine herd at about 1 billion

Le stesse persone che combattono l’HIV, cancro e la malnutrizione vivono come una autoflagellazione l’opposizione agli OGM che sempre più si dimostra come una oculata scelta che maschera interessi economici.

Se le proiezioni restano stabili il 2010 potrebbe essere l’anno in cui il 10% di tutte le coltivazioni mondiali deriveranno da OGM. In 14 anni una tecnologia che ha avuto troppo successo e si è diffusa su tutto il pianeta non poteva non infastidire coloro che contavano su nicchie personali e locali. Pensate per un attimo quanto tempo ci hanno messo le automobili o i telefoni cellulari a diventare il 10% del mercato dei trasporti o della comunicazione…

Leggi articolo sul Forum Barilla

Sia l’Economist ( http://www.economist.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=14904184 ) che il Washinton Post (leggi qui sotto) segnalano che Monsanto è sotto inchiesta da parte del governo federale per capire se ha violato le leggi sull’antitrust. Nella stessa procedura sono entrati anche Google ed IBM: pensate se in Italia ci si facesse la stessa domanda per FIAT o altri!

Credo in generale che questa sia una buona notizia.

Molta della ostilità verso gli OGM deriva dal fatto che si tratti di una specie di referendum pro o contro Monsanto e non del giudizio verso una tecnologia: se piu’ attori avranno interesse nella tecnologia e nella commercializzazione delle innovazioni forse ci sara’ migliore disponibilita’ del pubblico che non si sentira’ piu’ di aver affidato il prorio avvenire ad una unica company.

Sopratutto in questo momento in cui gli OGM stanno abbandonando il settore feed ed entrano nel settore food.

Il riso cinese GM (http://www.salmone.org/2009/11/23/il-mais-da-ogm-cinese-invece-del-balsamo-di-tigre/ ) sta andando in campo ed il grano GM ha ricominciato un percorso interrotto 5 anni fa. Il pubblico è sempre meno spaventato dagli OGM come mostra l’indagine al mercato in Svizzera dove il 20% dei consumatori hanno acquistato pane con OGM anche senza essere invogliati dai bassi prezzi (http://www.salmone.org/2009/11/27/il-pane-al-mais-ogm-si-vende-bene/) .

Lo stesso documento della Royal Society sulla accettazione del pubblico, coltivatori, NGO, comunità locali ed altri nell’implementazione delle innovazioni tecnologiche è un segno di dialogo possibile (http://www.salmone.org/2009/10/26/la-royal-society-lancia-gli-ogm-sostenibili/).

Infine il documento dell’Agricoltura biologica USA che mostra la caduta dell’uso di pesticidi sulle coltivazioni Bt (http://www.salmone.org/2009/11/19/lagricoltura-biologica-gli-ogm-del-tipo-bt-riducono-luso-dei-pesticidi/) termina difatto il dibattito sul tema testimoniando come gli OGM sono nemici dei pesticidi.

Infine sia Monsanto che altre company come Bayer, Pioneer e Syngenta stanno per arrivare sul mercato con nuovi prodotti (ad esempio SmartStax che portano fino ad 8 resistenze contemporanee), non piu’ in competizione ma con joint venture: un’apertura quindi a piu’ attori potrebbe garantire un maggior progresso ed una maggiore adesione alle aspettative dei consumatori.

US: Monsanto’s Dominance Draws Antitrust Inquiry

- Peter Whoriskey The Washington Post, Nov, 29, 2009 http://www.washingtonpost.com

The vast majority of the nation’s two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn. The seeds represent “probably the most revolutionary event in grain crops over the last 30 years,” said Geno Lowe, a Salisbury, Md., soybean farmer.

But for farmers such as Lowe, prices of the Monsanto-patented seeds have steadily increased, roughly doubling during the past decade, to about $50 for a 50-pound bag of soybean seed, according to seed dealers. The revolution, and Monsanto’s dominant role in the nation’s agriculture, has not unfolded without complaint. Farmers have decried the price increases, and competitors say the company has ruthlessly stifled competition.

Now Monsanto — like IBM and Google — has drawn scrutiny from U.S. antitrust investigators, who under the Obama administration have looked more skeptically at the actions of dominant firms. During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case under antimonopoly laws regulating a dominant firm. But that stretch seems unlikely to continue. This year, the Obama Justice Department tossed out the antitrust guidelines of its predecessor because they advocated “extreme hesitancy in the face of potential abuses by monopoly firms.”

Monsanto says it has done nothing wrong. “Farmers choose these products because of the value they deliver on farm,” Mon santo said in a statement. “Given the phenomenally broad adoption of these technologies by farmers, such questions are normal and to be expected.” “During the same period, our competitors . . . largely ignored biotech,” the company said in a statement. “Monsanto took risks our competition chose not to take.”

Although farmers have grumbled about Monsanto’s regular price increases for Roundup Ready technology for seeds, it is DuPont, a Monsanto rival, that has pressed the antitrust case.

Farmers and seed companies “are afraid to speak in public, worried that they will become victims of retaliation,” Thomas L. Sager, DuPont senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. “That’s why it’s so important that antitrust investigators move quickly — to learn the truth before even more harm is done to America’s farmers.”

In court papers, DuPont argues that Monsanto has used the dominance of the Roundup Ready brand to prevent competitors from bringing innovations to market. Several farmers said the cost of Roundup Ready seeds seemed to rise faster than their own margins. But that doesn’t mean, at least just yet, that they’ll stop using them. “Everybody likes Roundup Ready,” said William Layton, a grain farmer on the Eastern Shore. “Maybe it costs a little more than we like. But everybody’s going to keep using it.”

In un nuovo documento (royalsociety 2009) la Royal Society traccia il disegno globale per combattere l’insicurezza alimenatre di questo secolo facendo i conti con le materie prime non rinnovabili e propone uno scenario in cui varie tecniche tra cui anche gli OGM si devono muovere in un nuovo disegno organico ed integrato di produzione sostenibile del cibo. Tutt’altro che un documento ideologico o di parte, con nuovi ed interessanti spunti di dialogo che superano le stantie categorie tra pro ed anti OGM che andrebbero abbandonate insieme alle ideologie dello scorso secolo

UK Urged to Lead on Future Food

- Richard Black, BBC News, Oct 22, 2009

The world’s food supply has to rise by about 50% in 40 years, the report says. The UK should plough £2bn ($3.3bn) into crop research to help stave off world hunger, says the Royal Society. It says the world’s growing population means food production will have to rise by about 50% in 40 years and the UK can lead the research needed.

Approaches it endorses include genetic modification, improved irrigation and systems of growing crops together that reduce the impact of diseases. It says that rising yields have brought “complacency” over food supplies. Earlier in the year, the G8 pledged to spend $20bn (£12bn) improving food security for the developing world.

The Royal Society’s report, Reaping the Benefits: Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture, concludes that science has to have a significant role if the food supply is to be maintained in 2050, when the world population may have reached nine billion.

The Green Revolution that created new high-yielding strains of crops such as rice and maize in the 1950s and 60s reduced hunger and improved food security, it says, but a new push is needed quickly. “We need to take action now to stave off food shortages,” said Professor Sir David Baulcombe from Cambridge University who chaired the study. “If we wait even five to 10 years, it may be too late. “In the UK we have the potential to come up with viable scientific solutions for feeding a growing population, and we have a responsibility to realise this potential.”

GM divide
In June, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said there were now one billion hungry people in the world - “the first time in history” there had been so many.

Although it said rising unemployment and lower incomes were to blame for recent increases in the number of hungry people, investment in science to increase the supply of food was also needed.

The Royal Society says the UK should spend £200m per year for the next 10 years on food-oriented research. Short-term plans could involve improving irrigation so water is used more efficiently, and promoting management patterns where plants are grown together for the benefit of crops. Techniques include growing plants around the edges of agricultural fields that attract predators of insect pests. Investment should also go into advanced plant-breeding technologies, including genetic modification.

Although acknowledging the approach can lead to problems such as the unwanted spread of inserted genes into neighbouring wild plants, it says the genetic modification can in principle produce crop strains resistant to disease, drought, salinity, heat and toxic heavy metals.

Experimental strains resistant to drought and salinity are showing promise, it says - conclusions that were we
“Food security is one of the biggest challenges we currently face,” said ABC’s chairman Julian Little. “Advanced crop breeding using biotechnology and GM methods– are already being used by more than 13 million farmers around the world and helping to deliver higher and more reliable crop yields while mitigating major threats to crop production, such as damaging effects of pests, diseases and droughts.”