Transcript Polonia () - IIS Marconi Latina

WORLD HUNGER
“ The chimera of Gmo “
I.I.S. “ G. MARCONI”
LATINA, ITALY
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– Words from an Indian writer, “hunger witness”:
“For hunger is a curious thing: at first it is with you all
the time, waking and sleeping and in your dreams, and
your belly cries out insistently and there is a pain as if
your very vitals were being devoured and you must stop it
at any cost…
Then the pain is no longer sharp but dull, and this too is
with you always, so that you think of food many times a
day and each time a terrible sickness assails you, and
because you know this you try to avoid the thought, but
you cannot, it is with you.
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– Words from an Indian writer, “hunger witness”:
“Then that too is gone, all pain, all desire, only
a great emptiness is left, like the sky… and it is
now that the strength drains from your limbs
and you try to rise and you cannot, or to
swallow and your throat is powerless and both
the swallow and the effort of retaining the
liquid tax you to the uttermost”
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Control oil and
you control nations;
control food and
you control
the people
Henry Kissinger
(1970)
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For a start ………
World hunger comes tragically out from people’s
poverty, wars, lack of farming land, degradation
at various levels, including the environmental one.
• But it is not true that food is not enough to fulfil
world requirements: at most food supply isn’t
equally distributed, and only small quantities
reach the Countries of the Third World.
• In opposition to a common opinion influenced by
an illusory and speculative campaign,OGM
production is not a solution for that problem:
scientific studies increase doubts on transgenic
products, whose quantity and quality
characteristics are still to be tested.
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HUNGER IN THE WORLD:
still too many the undernourished.
The most recent survey by
FAO shows a meaningful
negative trend, slightly
improving just in the last
months of the last decade.
In 2009, in fact, for the first
time in human history the
number 1.020 million was
recorded, that is around 1
billion people are
undernourished all over the
world so far
- Number of people who suffer from hunger in
the world (in millions)
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WHICH COUNTRIES SUFFER FROM HUNGER?
The increase in the number of undernourished people has grown a global
problem. As a matter of fact, regions all over the world have been affected
by the rise of food insecurity
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SOME NUMBERS
- Asia and Pacific
642 million undernourished people
- Africa Sub Sahariana
has the highest percentage of
malnutrition in relation to its
population (32%)
- The Middle East and North Africa
+13.5 %
- Latin America and the Caribbean
+12.8%.
- Even in developed countries
malnutrition has grown an increasing concern
.
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Hunger in the world :
- it is not caused by famine or other unruled causes
- it is not the consequence of a poor food supply.
Last 2009 FAO report indicates a good cereal
world production, higher than in 2008
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THE CAUSES
Its main causes can be summed up as follows:
- structural famine
- permanent shortage of food and
adequate nutrition
- economic underdevelopment
- democratic deficit
- insufficient productive capacity
and infrastructure
Just a single word :
” POVERTY ”
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The causes of the recent global food crisis are:
- chronic
- contingent
Chronic causes:
- Scarce economic resources
- Inadequate agricultural resources
- Subsistence farming, poor and without technology
- Agriculture market in the form of monoculture (coffee,
sugar, cocoa etc) for export to the West but not required
for normal daily diet
- Demographic rate very high
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Contingent causes
 Conversion of many cultures of soybean and corn against
biofuels (especially biodiesel) and consequent reduction of
their availability for food
 Sharp increase in consumption of meat (especially India and
China), with expansion and increased use of livestock feed
 Rising cost of fuel and fertilizer
 Troubled speculation (investment funds moved to the area of
food)
 Lower incomes and persistence of high food prices in domestic
markets.
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THE FOOD SITUATION
in various areas of the
world has deteriorated due to:
- reduced availability of food
- decrease in income
- price increases in
domestic markets
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FOOD STUFF
•
mostly made of GRAIN but also
LEGUMES
• They are important not only for
humans but also for
animals (soya and maize)
• The basic ones are:CORN,RICE,
SOY, WHEAT
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REDUCTION IN INCOME
The global economic crisis has
led to lower income, less
employment opportunities for
the poors and has significantly
reduced their access to food
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The price increase:
is a consequence of an
increased demand and a
decreased availability of food
it occurred despite the global
crop has grown in recent
years
it is sometimes followed by
unexpected declines
independent from productive
inputs
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GMOs against
HUNGER
Propaganda
• GMOs would favour a
dramatic increase in food
stuff production
Different opinions
• World production of food
stuff is not insufficient
though really wrongly
distributed.
We can claim that
capitalist Countries are
affected by a heavy
agricultural
overproduction, which is
one of the causes of the
present crisis
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GMOs against
HUNGER
Propaganda
New technologies
(Genetic Engineering )
“provide”
Extraordinary performance with
a smaller amount of fertilizers
and insect powder, in less space
and with less water
Different opinions
•
•
This is still to be proved
Not all the transgenic cultures on
the market at the present:produce
more
- they do not require less chemical
fertilizers
- they lower the use of fertilizers just
in a few cases
- they don’t need less quantity of
water
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GMOs against
HUNGER
Propaganda
 Transgenic food and
plants are absolutely
safe.
Different opinions
 At the present no
macroscopic effect has
been proved about the
negative consequences
on human health in long
terms. Even though
recent studies on rats fed
with soy have put in
evidence histological
changes.
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A LESS OPTIMISTIC VIEW
• The increase in malnutrition is not a consequence of
low global food supply.
The increased production is the result of numerous
factors such as:
• climate, water availability, soil quality but also the
financial ability to purchase seeds and fertilizers and
the ability of farmers
We should then
not “produce more”
though
“produce better“
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CONCLUSIONS
From the scientific point of view
GMOs may be one of many
options.
They are not the answer to the
problem of world hunger.
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What to do….

abolish the use of food to produce bio-diesel

In industrialized countries reduce consumption of
meat in the diet to avoid the constant increase in
slaughter cattle with subsequent use of food as feed

Develop the agricultural research systems of
integrated management of cultures, based on
energy saving and reduce the use of agrochemicals
and water
Supervise speculation




Favour the growth of self-centered agricultural
economies that meet the needs and local necessities
Invest on projects that provide access to water and energy,
introducing not too sophisticated equipment and technology,
promoting indigenous research .
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GMO Legislation
The European legislation
rules:
• the deliberate release of
GMOs into the environment
• the marketing of food and
feed produced from GMOs
or derivatives
• labeling and traceability of
GMOs
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Nowadays in ITALY
The current law:
Act Jan, 28 2005, n.5
"Into law, with amendments, Decree-Law of 22 November
2004, No. 279, adopting urgent measures to ensure coexistence
between forms of transgenic agriculture, conventional and
organic farming"
published in the Official Gazette No. 22 of 28 January 2005
In Italy you cannot cultivate for commercial purposes any of
the GM plants approved in Europe, until they are adopted, by
regions, the coexistence plans setting the technical rules to
achieve coexistence between conventional and modified crops.
Those who do not respect the ban will be arrested by six
months to three years or fined up to 100 million euros plus the
administrative
penalty
from
15
to
90
million
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GMO and Italian Science
• At the present, experiments on genetically
modified plants are not being made .
• In Italy, however, experiments have been
carried out since the 80's and have affected
many species traditionally "biotech":
•
corn, tomatoes, beets, kiwi,
olive, cherry, strawberry,
raspberry, grapevine, melon
and aubergine.
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GE-free Italian regions
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What do Italians think about GMO ?
Against GMO :
 politicians
 agricultural organizations
 organizations connected to
organic farming
 members of the luxury dining,
great chefs
 supermarket chains
• environmental organizations:
Greenpeace, WWF,
Legambiente
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
PRO
Well-Known scientists support OGM:
Rita Levi-Montalcini,
Renato Dulbecco
Carlo Rubbia
Umberto Veronesi
Margherita Hack,
Edoardo Boncinelli Tullio Regge
Piergiorgio Oddifreddi
and many others.
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What do consumers think?
Recent statistics show how the majority of Italian citizens, about three
out of four, do not look favorably on GMO food
“ GM products are less healthy than conventional ones.”
strongly agree
tend to agree
Agree
Disagree
Totally disagree
No idea
2007
26
31
57
20
9
14
source Coldiretti SWG, october 2009
2008
26
35
61
16
7
16
2009
23
40
63
17
4
16
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What do consumers think?
Trend in time of the attitude towards the GMO products
Trend in time of the ones who “ strongly or tend to agree about the fact that the Gmo products
are rather unhealthy
source Coldiretti SWG, october 2009
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An Italian Poem
Hunger in the World
Thousands are the people
who die in the world,
Moans of hunger
You can hear it everywhere
Their bodies lie
Worn-out to earth,
Undernourished mothers,
No milk anymore,
Their bodies, human larvas
Man, why don’t you see ?
Man, why don’t you hate?
Man, why don’t you love?
by Dario Ciccalè
(Translated by Emy, 2nd form Scientific Technological Lyceum “G.Marconi”- Latina, Italy)
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Thank you
for your attention.
2nd form “A” Scientific Technological Lyceum
and
2nd form “E” technical Institute for Computing Science
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