Question

the following solutions to the REAL CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (THE CURE):

these are not the only solutions, but they are major ones

• Eliminate fossil fuels and solarize the planet
• Encourage mass transit
• Population control
• Eat lower on the food chain
• Encourage recycling
• Respect all life as if your life depends on it (because it does)
• Avoid using genetically altered and patented seeds.

Q. Discuss in detail how "Avoid using genetically altered and patented seeds" can be one of the solutions for ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION?

Answer 1

One of the problems with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they’re difficult to contain. When pollen containing altered genes travels in the wind or on the bodies of pollinators like birds and bees, there’s little we can do to stop it from spreading. What’s worse, the companies who “own” those genes take no responsibility for the damage caused by their contamination. The contamination of crops by neighboring GMO crop fields presents a huge problem for farmers, eaters and our environment:

For organic farmers, who have made expensive investments to grow without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, GMO contamination can undermine their farming practices and cost them the premium price they receive for their crops.

Conventional non-GMO farmers, meanwhile, have seen their crops rejected in global export markets as a result of GMO contamination.

For eaters, GMO contamination is a critical concern for the integrity of our food supply and our right to know and choose what we feed ourselves and our families.

For our environment, GMO contamination threatens biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Genetically modified foods do nothing for the “eating public”. They provide no extra nutrition, flavor, safety or any other trait that people actually want. Instead, these food products only offer risks, which include potential toxicity, allergenecity, and lower nutritional value. Far from reducing pesticides, GM crops are a major reason for the massive expansion of pesticide use in recent years. The majority of GE crops are “Roundup Ready,” designed to survive heavy and repeated spraying with Roundup weedkiller. Roundup Ready crops have dramatically increased Roundup use, and spawned a growing epidemic of Roundup-resistant weeds. Killing resistant weeds requires more herbicides. In the face of all this, many farmers are becoming disillusioned with GE crops. In many states, demand for conventional seed, especially soybeans, is outstripping supply. Among the reasons given by farmers for this historic switch are dramatic price hikes for biotech seeds, increased pesticide costs due to resistant weeds, premiums for non-GM supplies, and importantly, the ability to save and replant conventional seeds.

Terminator Seeds: the Neutron Bomb of Agriculture

The biotech corporations assure consumers that they can rest easy, for they have found a way to put an end to genetic contamination forever: A GM seed that is genetically programmed to not reproduce. But such seeds, known colloquially as Terminator seeds, will force farmers to buy seed every year. Since the dawn of history, farmers have saved and exchanged seed, a practice that is vital to the survival of 1.4 billion subsistence farmers in the world today. With the seed industry rapidly consolidating in recent years and falling under the control of corporate giants like Monsanto and Dupont, farmers will be left with little choice but to accept Terminator seeds. The biotech industry plans to add Terminator genes to every one of its GM seeds in the near future. Dupont, the world's largest seed company, and Syngenta, the world's biggest agrochemical company, currently own patents for Terminator technology. Environmental and food safety activists from all corners of the globe have come out against Terminator technology since it first came out in 1998.

Apart from the political and ethical issues, will Terminator seeds be safe to eat? What will happen to bacteria, fungi, rodents and birds that eat them? Scientists warn that Terminator genes could pass on via pollen on to other plants, with unpredictable consequences. Terminator tech is part of a broader package known as Traitor technology, which allows genetic traits to be turned "on or off" through the application of an inducer chemical. This proprietary chemical will be available only from the agrochemical-biotech company that provides the seed, and can come conveniently mixed with a pesticide or herbicide from the same company

What, then, will happen to farming and food security? In his recent book, The ETC Century, author Pat Mooney warns that "In a world in which a handful of transnational enterprises dominate agricultural biotechnology, in a world where the Terminator is the platform technology upon which all new biotech breeding is undertaken, it is not difficult to believe that corporations or governments would use the technology to impose their will.