Saturday, June 05, 2010
(graphic: Greenpeace)
Agricultural biotech giant Monsanto is having a hard time giving away free plant seeds in Haiti, thanks to the company’s reputation for using genetically-modified crops to exploit farmers in other countries.
Through the U.S. Agency for International Development, Monsanto offered to distribute
up to 475 tons of hybrid vegetable seeds to Haitian farmers still recovering from the earthquake that devastated the island nation.
But farm advocates dismissed the offer as a ploy to make Haiti’s agricultural sector move away from local seeds and become dependent on more expensive, foreign seeds.
The government of Haiti accepted the first donation of 135 tons of corn, cabbage, carrot, eggplant, melon, onion, spinach, tomato and watermelon seeds after Monsanto officials assured the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture that the seeds were not genetically-modified varieties.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
Monsanto’s 475-Ton Seed Donation Challenged by Haitian Peasants (by Dennis Sadowski, Catholic News Service)
Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Hybrid Seeds (by Beverly Bell, Food Freedom)
A Rapid Seed Assessment in the Southern Department of Haiti: An Examination of the Impact of the January 12 Earthquake on Seed Systems (by Edward Walters and Dina Brick, Catholic Relief Services) (pdf)
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