2009-08-10 | permalink

Pursue GE crops with care and respect, says U.S. National Catholic Rural Live Conference

By applying precautionary principles to transgenic plants, we believe this technology has a role to play in food production and security.
Failure to abide by precautionary points will:
- Accelerate the decline of agricultural biodiversity in local areas, where vast crop varieties have already been lost in the past century to monocultural practices.
- Allow a few dominant seed companies to control the supply of seeds worldwide, reaping a greater share of the food dollar at the expense of farmers and primary producers.
- Deny farmers of the world their just benefits to the development of genetic resources by their experimentation and local application.
- Threaten the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and indigenous people who depend on open access to resources, such as the traditional saving of seeds for future sowing.

• The Des Moines Register, USA: Guest column: Pursue transgenic crops with care, respect