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The Issues
Do we need genetic engineering?
Companies promoting genetic engineering constantly harp on how GE will 'improve' food and farming but so far the only beneficiaries are the multinational corporations promoting them. We have many other proven and safe ways of producing food that have not been properly assessed. The clamour for a technical quick fix is little less than spin, smoke and mirrors. The developers gain financial benefit, the public bears the uninsurable risks.
Business is only interested in GE because of the ability to own and patent life. When someone changes a life form they patent that thing. This means that a seed for a plant that has been genetically engineered can be owned, thereby forbidding anybody else to use it without payment.
This means that the few companies who have invested in GE could gain the rights to all the seed for all the food in the world. A monopoly or a cartel from which we all had to buy our seed becomes possible. Recently many of the world's smaller seed companies have been bought by large multinational giants, so that 6 seed companies now effectively control a significant amount of the seed market. Monsanto, responsible for most of the worlds GE plantings, has announced its South African presence by purchasing two of our biggest seed companies, Carnia and Sensako. This degree of vertical integration is unprecedented.
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