Transcript Owners of the Seed Market

Towards sustainable
agriculture
Marco Contiero
EU Policy Director – Agriculture
Greenpeace
European Parliament
8 December
Greenpeace European Unit
We need to feed the world
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Productivity narrative
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World population 9.2 billion in 2050
Increasing meat in Emerging economies’ diets
Increase in agricultural productivity is slowing down
Natural resource constraints
Climate change impacts limit food production
Solution: Increase agricultural productivity
How: 1. High yielding intensive farming
2. Modern technologies
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Sustainable Intensification
=
Produce More From Less
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Problems
Focus on yield fails to address political and economic issues
preventing people access to safe and nutritious food.
• How do we feed 9 billion people in 2050?
• How do we feed 7 billion people today?
• How to continually provide enough nutritious food to all?
• How to provide enough water, education, sanitation…?
• How to increase equality in distribution and access to food
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Current situation
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GMOs
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1. Risks
Prone to unintended and unpredictable
effects
1. Complex regulation mechanisms of genes
2. Complex interaction with plants metabolism
3. Complex interactions plant‘s genes and its environment
4. Inserted genes may
- disrupt the plant's own genes
- be unstable in their new environment
- function differently than expected (producing diff. protein)
5. Fragments and Rearrangements
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2. Environmental impacts
Insect-resistant crops:
1. Toxicity to ‘non-target’ organisms and beneficial
insects.
2. Threats to soil and river ecosystems
3. Development of insect resistance
Herbicide tolerant (HT) crops:
1. Toxic effects of herbicides on ecosystems.
2. Increased weed tolerance to herbicide
3. Loss of native flora and other biodiversity.
4. Effects on soil-plant system (e.g. microbial community,
manganese uptake).
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Intensive systems- Glyphosate
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Glyphosate resistant weeds
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3. Corporate control
GM Crops market
Bayer
Monsanto
DuPont
BASF
Syngenta
Dow
100%
Source: ETC Group
Greenpeace European Unit
3. Corporate control
GM Crops market
Global Agrochemical Market
Bayer
BASF
Monsanto
DuPont
Syngenta
Bayer
Dow
Syngenta
Other
BASF
100%
Monsanto
74%
Dow
Source: ETC Group
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Owners of the Seed Market - 2006
57%
39%
Source: ETC Group
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Owners of the Seed Market - 2007
67%
47%
Source: ETC Group
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Owners of the Seed Market - 2009
Source: ETC Group
Greenpeace European Unit
Since 1960s:
8,000
crop varieties by CGIAR
72,500
proprietary plant varieties
1,900,000 1.9 million plant varieties bred by peasants
Science for diversity
Vs.
Science for uniformity
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4. Hinder sustainable solutions
I. Agro-ecology
• UN Report Human Rights Council [United Nations ,Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, 2011]
- Agroforestry
- Water harvesting
- Integration of livestock into farming systems
- Integrated nutrient management
Can double
food
production
in 10 years
• J. Pretty analysis 286 sustainable agriculture projects (57 poor countries)
- Average crop increase 79 %
- Supply critical environmental services
• UNCTAD UNEP analysis
[UNEP-UNCTAD, 2008]
UK Foresight Report (40 projects, 20 African countries)
- Average crop increase in Africa 116% and
- Average crop increase in East Africa 128%
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Agroforestry – Evergreen Agriculture
Faidherbia albida
Maize fields in Tanzania - World Agroforestry Centre
Nitrogen to the soil, Increased resilience, more carbon stored, increased
maize yields by 280% in Malawi
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Biotechnology
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Modern
Biotechnology
‘Smart
Breeding’
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Flood-tolerant rice
Thrives after being submerged for 10 to 15 days
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Drought-tolerant rice
The Philippines – El Niño from December
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Saline-tolerant rice
Rice paddies near sea – Climate Change & Typhoons
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Holstein cow
– 650 kg bodyweight
– Typically produce 8,000
litres / year
– Average 3.5 lactations
– 2.5 tonnes purchased feed
per year
– 1.5 acres of land
– Feed brought to cow
– Manure spread by machine
Source: Tom Malleson
Greenpeace European Unit
Grazing cow
– 450kg bodyweight
– Typically produce 5,000 litres
/ year
– For 6 lactations or more
– 0,5 tonnes purchased feed
per year
– One acre of land
– Harvests most of her own
feed
– Spreads most of her own
manure
– Virtually no diesel required!
Source: Tom Malleson
Greenpeace European Unit
Thank
You!
www.greenpeace.eu
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