Book reviews - Pesticides News No. 45
Impact of
transnational
corporations on the poor
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From
50 years ago when only a handful existed, TNCs now number tens of
thousands and span the world, influencing political systems, economies,
societies, cultures, people and their environment. There are now
53,000 TNCs, with two-thirds based in 14 industrialised countries. The top
500 control about 70% of world trade and 80% of foreign investment and
about 30% of world GDP.
In
examining their impact on the poor, John Madeley provides a wide range of
detailed information on the hardship caused directly or indirectly by the
power of TNCs, which encourage profit-oriented development strategies to
suit their own institutional development. In a timely reminder of the ways
TNCs bend local economies to their own end, the author systematically
discusses how TNCs may colonise funds by borrowing from local banks, move
in and out of economies, and transfer prices
internally.
Big Business includes substantial
sections on agriculture and the actions of the agrochemical and food
corporations, pointing out that their power is such that they can control
and influence these essential industries. There is some evidence from
several Asian countries that industrialisation has been achieved at a cost
to agriculture and rural development. It is in the interests of
agrochemical companies to play down the benefits from traditional
agriculture, organic agriculture, and other low external input systems.
Yet the use of agrochemicals has contributed to health and environmental
problems, destruction of natural enemies, and fostered a view that
products are akin to medicines. The book documents the advertising
strategies which help sell products: free T-shirts, company caps,
heavy radio advertising and roadside billboards.
However, not all is bad news. In agriculture in particular there are
opportunities for farmers to lead a fight back by pursuing multiple
cropping, switching to organic or low external input farming, and by
resisting purchases of GM seeds.
The book
demonstrates the strong need for a more democratic and accountable system
for regulating TNCs which increases accountability to both people in
developing countries and their shareholders in the North.
John Madeley, Big business poor peoples: The impact of transnational corporations on the world’s poor, Zed Books, London, 1999, p206. Order direct from Amazon.
Farmageddon
Always highly
readable and thought-provoking, Brewster Kneen’s new book on biotechnology
is an essential addition to the shelves of those questioning—and those not
yet questioning—the impacts of ‘restructuring life for corporate
profit.’
The inventors of
genetically engineered (GE) crops have baptised themselves as the ‘life
science’ companies, but in essence the technology has strong undertones of
death. The products of biotechnology represent violent intervention and
death for bacteria, plants, animals including human beings. The judgement
may sound harsh: but consider GE crops which have been genetically altered
to withstand herbicides against chemicals which will kill everything else;
or plants engineered to express Bacillus thuringiensis which will kill
target insects which nibble its fruits or
leaves.
Farmageddon documents the actions of
major life science companies, such as Monsanto, which believe that poor
marketing is all that has stood between their products and acceptance in
European markets. Other corporate tactics for acceptability include the
moral argument: without this technology the world will starve. More
worrying is the colonisation of the policies of the global institutions,
including the World Bank or FAO, which are heavily influential in
structuring agricultural development.
Brewster Kneen
undermines the argument of biotechnology as scientific progress, seeing it
not as an exercise in scientific curiosity, but arising from a demand to
control.
Brewster Kneen, Farmageddon: Food and the culture of biotechnology, New Society Publishers, PO Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada, 1999, Canada/US, $20.95 (including p&p), or from Jon Carpenter Publishing, The Spendlove Centre, Charlbury, OX7 3PQ, UK, 230pp.
The
hazards of GM crops
A path through the
‘expertocracy’ which surrounds the scientific controversies on genetic
engineering (GE) is offered in Hazard identification of agricultural
biotechnology. The author helps to clarify the basis of the
‘scientifically informed’ policy choices being posed as the products of
science and technology become more complex. This complexity removes
decisions further away from democratic
debate.
Scientific methodology
can be reconstructed as ‘the art of asking the right questions’. Asking
the pertinent questions and assessing future impacts is one key to
controlling the direction of science, and is a moral responsibility for
scientific experts.
The book develops the art
of defining sets of relevant questions. And the author demonstrates with
practical examples where these are missing from the regulatory assessments
of biotechnology. For example Annex II of the EU Directive 90/220 on the
deliberate release of GMOs provides a list of criteria for biosafety, but
does not specify how the required information should be produced. This
leaves open the possibility of addressing the concerns in very different
research styles: the fundamental scientific discussions should focus on
adequate problem definitions in the form of relevant research questions to
guide research.
While focusing on a case study of
biosafety assessment of GE crops, the book provides a useful framework for
developing other issues of environmental safety and inadvertent
effects.
This is an important book for
scientists, regulators, and for those concerned about genetic engineering,
and is a contribution to the sound development of a precautionary
approach.
Ad van Dommelen, Hazard Identification of Agricultural Biotechnology: Finding relevant questions, International Books, Utrecht, 238pp, (UK Distributor Jon Carpenter Publishing, Tel +44 (0)1689 870437). Order direct from Amazon.
Leaking
from the lab
Gene Watch has examined the
‘contained use’ of genetically modified micro-organisms (GMMs—bacteria,
yeasts, fungi, and viruses) in its latest report Leaking From the
Lab.
Although GMMs are presented
as being restricted to the laboratory or factory, they are in reality,
being incidentally or accidentally released in the work place and
environment. GMMs are required to be ‘inactivated’ before waste is
discharged, but in most cases this does not mean that all organisms must
be killed in the process.
While
the dangers of using high-risk organisms (such as morbilloviruses) are
clear, the report considers the evidence relating to the ‘low-risk’
category: even these GMMs can survive for days or weeks in the
environment; naked DNA- released from cells which have died can be taken
up by some bacteria.
This thoroughly well argued and
researched report pulls no punches in its efforts to reveal the gigantic
regulatory holes in microbial genetic safety. While the debate regarding
the controlled release of genetically modified crops continues unabated,
there is perhaps an even more alarming concern issuing forth.
Leaking From the Lab, Gene Watch, The Courtyard, Whitecross Road, Tideswell, Derbyshire, SK17 8NY, UK, Fax (0)1298 872 531, gene.watch@dial.pipex.com
Mapping
cancer
The Women’s Environmental Network
has produced a report Putting Breast Cancer of the Map that has identified
breast cancer clusters which may be linked to environmental pollution in
the UK. WEN provided individual women and their communities with the
information to create a map of their own locality. They were also asked to
fill out a questionnaire in relation to the participants home, work and
local environment and focused on any links participants were making
between these and current or previous ill
health.
From over 500
questionnaires, WEN identified a large number of ‘clusters’ of breast
cancer throughout the UK. The respondents identified 90 sources of
pesticide exposure including, sheep dip, agricultural pesticides, woodworm
treatments, lice and flea treatments, and agricultural spray
drift.
Commenting on the report, occupational
and environmental health expert, Professor Andrew Watterson said: “The
project does not attempt to provide conclusive answers to a complex
problem. But has opened up the subject to some novel
investigations.”
The appearance of this report by
WEN is indeed timely. The World Health Organisation recently reported that
breast cancer had become the most common cancer in women throughout the
world. In the UK, 635 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and 240
women die of the disease every week.
WEN demands
that more emphasis be placed on prevention of breast cancer, and has
called on the government to make women’s and children’s health the prime
indicator of the state of the environment.
Helen Lynn, Putting Breast Cancer on the Map, Women’s Environmental Network, 87 Worship Street, London, CE2 2BE, Tel. 0171 247 3327, Fax. 0171 274 4740, artemis@gn.apc.org
Cancer
studies listed
Marion Moses, of the
Pesticide Education Center in the US, has produced two reports, Cancer in
Children and Exposure to Pesticides and Cancer and Occupational Exposure
to Pesticides. Both follow the same format, selecting summaries of
peer-reviewed cancers studies published in English and written in the
scientific literature.
The
pamphlet on children cites 28 reports mostly from North America and
Western Europe. The studies looked at pesticide exposure as a risk factor
for cancer in children. Potential exposure can be direct, from the use of
pesticides inside and outside the home, on pets, or the children
themselves, for example lice treatments, insect repellents, or indirect
from parental occupational exposures.
There are 178
selected studies on occupational exposure, again largely from North
America and Western Europe. They cover adults who have occupational
exposure to pesticides, or work in an occupation with potential
exposure.
Marion Moses, Cancer in Children and Exposure to Pesticides Cancer (7pp) and Occupational Exposure to Pesticides (31pp), Pesticide Education Center, PO Box 420870, San Francisco, CA 94142, US, 1999, pec@pesticides.org, www.pesticides/org.pesticides
Opportunities for organic
beer
A report published by Sustain, the
alliance for better food and farming, reveals that only one hectare of
organic hops was grown in the UK in 1997, and only three organic beers are
brewed. Most major breweries fail to support sustainably produced hops or
malted barley. This is despite a growing market for organic foods and
drinks, and despite returns on organic hops that can be five times higher
than conventionally grown.
Conventionally produced
hops and barley can damage the environment by increasing the pesticide
burden. An average farmer sprays hops 14 times with 15 pesticide products.
This system can also reduce habitats for wildlife. Spring barley
production is better than winter barley for providing nesting and feeding
sites for birds, such as cirl buntings and lapwings, but in 1997 only 22%
of the UK barley crop was spring barley—a dramatic decline from 69% in
1979.
Alexis Vaughan, Bitter Harvest, bitter beer–the impact of beer production on people and the environment, No. 7, Food Facts Series, Sustain, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, Tel. +44 (0)171 837 1228, Fax +44 (0)171 837 1141, 23pp.
Organic farming in
Europe
Organic farming could potentially
reshape European agriculture. A recent report sets out the policy and
regulatory environment within which organic farming operates in all
European Union (EU) countries and in three non-EU states of Norway,
Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
The organic
sector varies considerably between countries in the European Union. In
Austria, 9% of utilisable agricultural area (UAA) has managed organically
at the end of 1996, whereas Greece with 0.15% of UAA has the lowest rates
of conversion.
In 1996, total
public expenditure on organic farming under these measures, from EU,
national and regional sources, was in excess of 300 million ECU ($280
million).
N. Lampkin, C. Foster, S. Padel, and P. Midmore, Organic farming in Europe: Economics and Policy, Volume 1, University of Honhenheim, Stuttgart-Hohenheim, 166pp.
Dioxin and furan
inventories
The report by the United
National Environment Programme (UNEP) opens with a brief review of
information on polychloro-dibenzodioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF)
toxicity and sources of contamination.
The
establishment of inventories for dioxin release is necessarily
problematic, given the number and heterogeneity of sources, and presently
no harmonised methods exist on source, accuracy or protocol of measurement
of data. In general, assessment of the contribution provided by pesticides
shows that they currently play only a very minor role (<0.1%) in total
dioxin production.
As an attempt
to collate what limited information there is into a global perspective
this volume lays the foundation for a more thoroughgoing monitoring
project in the future.
Dioxin and Furan Inventories, National and regional emission of PCDD/PCDF, UNEP Chemicals, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1999, 100pp.
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Herbicide breakdown
data
The Royal Society of Chemistry has
produced a review of metabolic pathways of herbicides and plant growth
regulators. It provides data on the chemical degradation of pesticides in
soils, plants and animals. Contents include metabolic products, pathways
and mechanisms, together with useful details on physio-chemical properties
and mode of action. There are separate entries for each pesticide,
covering most commercially available chemicals in use
today.
Most of the data comes
from the agrochemical industry.
Terry Roberts (Ed.), Metabolic Pathways of
Agrochemicals, Part One: Herbicides and Plant Growth Regulators, Royal
Society of Chemistry, Thomas Graham House, Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge, CB4 0WF, Fax (0)1223 423429, 849pp.
[This article first
appeared in Pesticides News No.45, September 1999, pages 22- 23]