On Monday,
the fastest growing fast-food chain of this decade – Chipotle, announced that
they would no longer serve food that featured genetically modified organisms
(GMO’s). The announcement brought on widespread criticism from the scientific
community as both the Food and Drug Administration and World Health
Organization have deemed GMOs perfectly suitable for human consumption in
recent years. Several media outlets around the country were quick to hail this
change as a baseless PR stunt that only worked to help boost Chipotle’s image
as a cheap and conveniently healthy alternative to other ‘fast-casual’ chains.
National headlines have labeled the announcement as the restaurant’s way of
promoting a “global propaganda campaign[1]”
that has no true scientific backing.
When looking at the response to this
change it appears as though we are missing out on one of the key ramifications
of the change, how will this improve or hurt farmers around the world?
The
scientific community has come to a clear consensus on the whole GMO matter:
they do not have immediate effects on anyone’s health (long term research is
still not fully conclusive as pointed out by Chipotle in their press release)
and are safe for human consumption. The farming community has not had the same
cohesiveness when it comes to a clear outlook, and the opinion on GMOs depends
majorly on what country you are farming in.
Countries like India and the
Philippines have gone as far as to adopt harsh anti-GMO policies that often ban
many types of GM seeds from being used in that country. Currently 26 countries have specific policies
that ban the use of a GMO seed – and more are looking to follow suit every day.
Why are so many nations banning
farmers from using genetically modified crops? The path to these laws can be
traced most clearly along the journey of genetically modified crops in India.
In India, a large percentage of the population operate in agricultural
professions – 27% according to the last 2011 census. This is a large percentage
for the second most populous country in the world; the United States only
recorded 2% of the American workforce as farmers or in the agro-business in the
most recent 2010 census. A majority of that 27% are small farmers – who have
been forced by the introduction of genetically modified crops in the industry
to completely transform every aspect of
their operation.
Truth be told these small farmers
can simply not keep up with many other mass producing farmers across the
country that hold secretive and lucrative deals with GMO companies such as
Monsanto. Unfortunately small farmers inability to compete in this new market
has led to a tragic growth in suicide rates for farmers all over India.
The Center for Human Rights and
Global Justice recently released a report that estimated that in 2009 alone
17,638 Indian farmers committed suicide, or one suicide every 30 minutes. In
the last decade the number of suicide rates has toppled well over 100,000[2]
and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. This issue is mostly widely
seen where genetically modified cotton crop produced by the now infamous GMO
Company Monsanto, are grown. The cotton crop that large scale biotech farms use
to produce higher yields is critically impacting small scale farmers in India
who are unable to compete with these larger farms. Small scale farms are unable
to compete in the industry which has placed an ever growing emphasis on GM
crops.
Unfortunately this is just one of
the many effects of Monsanto’s GMO monopoly on small farmers around the world. Just
a few months back, Monsanto paid out over 2.4 million dollars to American
farmers over a failed 2013 wheat crop that stalled the wheat industry
completely for several weeks. Monsanto continues to deny their culpability in
any of these cases and remains committed to the spread of GM crops.
Chipotle’s
announcement on Monday is a relevant indication of the changing attitude toward
companies like Monsanto and the products they represent. When only focusing on
the scientific aspect of the GMO argument, human lives in the agricultural
profession are ignored. Maybe
Chipotle is promoting a “global propaganda campaign”, but why can’t that be
seen in a positive light? When massive companies like Chipotle promote
revolutionary policies, it is easy to only side on the side of the critic. But,
the effects of this change are much farther reaching than we can imagine. This
announcement could encourage the agricultural industry to make a bigger effort
to look behind the GMO curtain and examine their effects on not just large
scale farmers but the small family owned farming businesses in India and the
Philippines that are struggling to stay alive in this rapidly changing food
machine.
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