Ecology Documentaries by Susan Hayward

Author:Susan Hayward [Hayward, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies
ISBN: 9781000478792
Google: 1z1KEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-11-29T01:02:13+00:00

When, in 1969, by way of legitimising the use of Agent Orange – a Monsanto and Dow Chemicals product, by the way – during the Vietnam War to destroy food crops and deforest land, Henry Kissinger declared that ‘food is a weapon’, who could have imagined that half a century later we appear to be in a very similar relationship with food?18 Not only have the former chemical agents, used in twentieth-century warfare, been re-morphed into pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers, the food chain is so affected by these dangerous elements of the much-heralded Green Revolution that all aspects of the environment including humans and other-than-humans are at risk, to say nothing of the many species of flora and fauna that have already been destroyed.19 Killing as an agricultural growth-economy is really a bizarre outcome of humanity’s ingenuity, until you stop to consider the huge economy of the war industry with which the agro-chemical industry is so closely identified – then, presumably, it seems less perplexing.

Embedded within these issues above, and linked to the agro-chemical industry’s orders of economy, are GMOs. World-wide, 10% of arable land grows GMOs. In terms of hectare usage, the USA is the largest (75 million ha), followed by Brazil (51 million ha), Argentina (24 million ha), Canada (12.7 million ha) and India (11.6 million ha).20 Just 38 countries ban GMO cultivation, 24 of which are European nations. These same 24 European countries, however, allow imports. A mere nine countries have imposed a complete ban (Algeria, Bhutan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Russia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe). Presently, 26 countries plant GMOs (primarily corn, maize, soya and cotton). Of these countries, 19 are developing countries – and it is here in particular that ethical issues arise. The story unravelled by Robin’s two eco-docs goes as follows. Since the mid-1990s, Monsanto successfully developed its GMO-seed range in tandem with its highly successful Roundup – these seeds were bio-engineered to be resistant to Roundup. Greatly assisted by the impact of the neoliberal globalisation project, which enabled the lifting of trade barriers, Monsanto was progressively able to market its double-package product (Roundup and GMOs) to developing countries who themselves had embraced the perceived benefits of economic liberalisation. First Monsanto offered their miracle Roundup as the solution to herbicide control. Then, to improve yields, Monsanto sold these countries on the merits of their GMOs (you can observe, on a mapping of Monsanto’s areas of interest, a swathe of GMO crop areas going from Latin American countries, via Southern Africa, up to India and across to other Asian countries21). But in signing up to this ‘double-contract’ of GMO seeds plus Roundup, these countries had to agree to buy new seeds every year – in other words, they were legally bound to not keep back any seeds from one harvest to the next (a process all traditional farmers pursue, as we know).

Robin investigates several specific cases of the Monsanto marketing strategies, beginning with what occurred in India with cotton farmers. Monsanto’s first step was to convince

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