By: Justin Gardner, The Free Thought Project |
Monsanto
has many weapons in its arsenal when it comes to eliminating
competition from non-GMO and organic farmers. After more than two
decades of pushing their products onto US farmland with purposely flawed
safety studies, the sheer presence of genetically modified crops poses
an existential threat to the business of traditional and organic
farming.
A new report has come out showing the extraordinary costs that non-GMO and organic farmers incur from GMO contamination of their crops.
“Results from the newest USDA survey indicate that of the farmers who chose to answer the question, 92 had experienced monetary loss between 2011 and 2014 averaging approximately $66,395 per farmer during that timeframe. Overall, GMO presence cost organic farmers at least $6.1 million over four years. This figure is 77 times that reported during the 2006 to 2011 timeframe—a staggering increase.”
The
USDA conducted its first survey this year of the financial losses
suffered by non-GMO and organic farmers from contamination. They did so
at the urging of rights groups such as Food and Water Watch, who
conducted their own survey in 2013.
That
report found that one in three farmers had dealt with GMO
contamination, causing many buyer rejections at a median cost of $4,500
each rejection. Considering the 77-fold increase in financial burden
since previous years, it is clear that the biotech industry is pushing
their competition toward financial ruin.
But
genetic contamination is only half the story. The USDA’s report
excludes losses incurred from pesticide drift, which occurs when crops
such as Monsanto’s “RoundUp Ready” corn are sprayed and the chemical
drifts onto nearby fields. This will become a bigger burden as more
chemical–resistant GMO crops are approved by friendly federal agencies.
“Regarding drift issues, one farmer we surveyed wrote, ‘my only problem comes from drift when commercial chemical sprayers spray on a windy day and the spray drifts across the road or buffer strip to kill my alfalfa or other crops. I call the company and complain but they have never compensated me for my loss as of yet.’ Regarding dicamba, another farmer wrote, ‘I’m more concerned with spray drift—especially with the effort to release Banvel-resistant soybeans. Everyone knows how volatile that chemical can be—not only to organic farmers but all farmers and home owners.’ Even Roundup, considered to be less harmful and less prone to drift than 2,4-D and dicamba has been a huge problem for organic growers. One farmer wrote, ‘in the last 16 years I have had three instances where spray drift has affected my fields. All three times it was Roundup. It has totaled $65,000 and I have had to start the three-year transition process [for organic certification] all over., Not only has spray drift negatively affected relationships between neighbors, it has resulted in organic farmers being forced to take some areas of their farm out of organic production completely.”
All
of these burdens—from wind-driven pollen contamination to post-harvest
seed/grain mixing to pesticide drift—are borne by the victimized
farmers. They must establish buffers or adopt delayed planting
regimens, and they alone bear the financial cost of rejected crops.
Meanwhile,
biotech companies enjoy regulatory and financial support from their
co-conspirators in federal departments, as they slowly grind the
competition to dust.
Adding insult to injury, last year Monsanto persuaded their friends
at the Supreme Court (including former Monsanto attorney Clarence
Thomas) to grant Monsanto the ability to sue farmers whose fields are
inadvertently contaminated with GMO material.
The
results of these attacks on multiple fronts are being seen, with the
number of organic farms decreasing over the past few years.
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