ustxtxb_obs_2001_11_09_50_00011-00000_000.pdf

Farmers are now using from six to 10 times more chemicals because what has happened is that we’ve developed a new super-weed from genetic engineering. It has moved into grain fields and all other fields besides canola. And you’d be hard pressed to find a field in Western Canada that’s not contaminated. t. P.S.: That’s right.YOu can imagine how far-reaching that decision is. Think about farmers all over the world, people that own trees or plants or flowers: Gene gets in…. T O. : What sort of agreement do farmers enter into when the buy seed from Monsanto? P.S.: You sign a contract, and in the contract it says you must allow Monsanto’s police to come on your land for three years and you’re not allowed to save your own seed. You’ve always got to go back and buy your seed each year. T O.: Why would a farmer sign an”agreement with Monsanto? P.S.: In Canada, farmers were told by Monsanto that if you grew Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Canola, it would be a bigger yielder, more nutritious, but most of all would need less chemicals. And I think that issueless chemicals really got the farmers’ ears because we’d been using chemicals by the hundreds of tons since the war. Our land is polluted, we’re doing damage to the environment, our water’s contaminated…. T O.: Monsanto was marketing it to do all these things? P.S.: They also said, “Now we’ll all have sustainable agriculture, we’ll now be able to feed a hungry world.” Now, in four years, what happened? They never developed canola, they just put a gene in, you see.They just took a crop from another company, put a gene in, and through patent law it was theirs. Taking an old variety doesn’t give you more yield. The quality was a lot poorer and farmers that grew it found out they were only getting half the price of conventional canola. T O.: OK, how about Monsanto’s claim that you’d use fewer chemicals? P.S.: Farmers are now using from six to 10 times more chemicals because what has happened is that we’ve developed a new super-weed from genetic engineering. There are about five companies, maybe there are more, but about four or fivethat sell GMO canola. So if you had “farmer A” growing a GMO canola from a company over here and “farmer B” was growing a canola from another company and “farmer C” over here was growing Monsanto’s, what has happened through cross-pollination is that you now have the three genes in one plant. So it’s now become a super-weed that takes different chemicals to kill. It has moved into grain fields and all other fields besides canola. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a field in western Canada that’s not contaminated. T O. : Do you think farmers view Monsanto less favorably now? P.S.: Very much so. But the big issue too is their police and how they harass and intimidate people. They also advertise in brochures that if you think your neighbors are growing Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Canola without a license, you should rat or squeal on them. And then Monsanto will send out their police force to this farmer, although he may never have grown any. They interrogate him, they harass him, they intimidate him, they say, “We got this tip or rumor that you’re growing Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Canola without a license and that if you don’t come clean we’ll get you.” So talk about Gestapo-type methods! So when those people leave this farmer’s home, what it has done to me, is one of the worst things that could happen because it’s breaking down the social fabric of our rural communities. So the trust, the working together, that’s all broken down. To me, it is dragging down our farming communities to that low 11/9/01 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 11