ISAAA hype and propaganda

Here's the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY which will be of particular interest to all those who have watched the industry-backed ISAAA promoting its GM bubble-type reports year after year

ISAAA has not publicly announced the source of its information in any of its annual reports since 1997. In their 1996 report, they acknowledged that their statistics, particularly for developing countries, are largely gathered "through informal contacts". Hectarage figures are very difficult to estimate accurately without proper official sources, and many governments in developing countries neither keep track of nor monitor the areas planted with GM crops. As a result, verified official statistics cannot be obtained from countries such as South Africa, the Philippines and Brazil.

Analyses by several authors have found ISAAA data on biotech crop area to be vastly inflated. ISAAA's 2002 estimate that South Africa had 100,000 hectares of biotech crops, for example, was 20 times higher than the figure provided by other biotech industry organizations. In the Philippines, ISAAA claimed that it had obtained the figure for the area planted with biotech crops from the government, but the Department of Agriculture there denied that it kept such statistics and one official rejected ISAAA’s estimate as superfluous. Even in the United States, it has been reported that ISAAA inflated the figures for GM crop cultivation between 2 and 9% from 2000 to 2004.--

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Who benefits from GM crops? Monsanto and the corporate-driven genetically modified crop revolution

Executive summary

introduction

This report analyzes the way in which GM crops have been introduced into our environment between 1996 and 2005. It describes how the rapid penetration of GM crops in a limited number of countries has largely been the result of the aggressive strategies of the biotech industry, particularly pushed by top GM crop leader Monsanto, rather than the consequence of the benefits derived from the use of this technology.

The hype about the advantages that GM crops provide to the environment, consumers, and farmers is also predominantly the result of propaganda by the biotech industry and industry-sponsored organizations including the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). ISAAA's annual reports, published at the beginning of every year since the late 1990s, have misrepresented the performance of GM crops. They have lauded the benefits that have accompanied the introduction of GM crops everywhere, and have ignored the negative impacts and other problems. In fact, as this report shows, the reality of GM crops has been strikingly different from Monsanto and ISAAA's claims.

This report illustrates how Monsanto, a multinational corporation and the world's leading producer of GM crops, has managed to attain an unacceptable influence over national and international agricultural and food policies in many countries around the world. It describes how Monsanto was in the driver's seat when the United States, Brazil and other governments developed legislation relating to GMOs, resulting in industry-friendly policies. Monsanto has used other improper strategies as well: bribing officials in Indonesia in order to obtain regulatory approval, and running misleading promotion strategies in India and other countries. Monsanto's products have also been found in areas where they were forbidden, including Brazil, Paraguay, and India, paving the way for eventual legal authorization.

Monsanto's influence over governments is so large that many of them, including United Nations bodies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), have adopted the company's claims that GM products are good for the environment and will contribute to the alleviation of poverty and hunger.

In addition, Monsanto is in the midst of a huge push to introduce new intellectual property rights regimes over its GM seeds in order to enhance its domination over the global seed and food supply.

This report shows that Monsanto's pesticide reduction claims are unfounded, and that in fact GM soy has dramatically increased pesticide use. Claims that GM crops will contribute to poverty reduction have also thus far been unfounded, as have claims that consumers benefit from GM products. Ultimately, it is Monsanto and other GM companies that profit the most from the aggressive promotion of their GM products.

It is time for governments to take responsibility for the unethical behavior of the proponents of GM seeds and food, putting the interests of people and the environment first. Governments must stop giving unacceptable privileges to companies like Monsanto, and stop endorsing the misleading claims of organizations like ISAAA.