January 2009 ( 2.8 MB)
( 9.1 MB)
Type: Whole issue
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Read the editorial and download the whole issue of Seedling in one go. (Includes a smaller file size low-resolution version of Seedling, and a high-resolution version for printing.)

Fighting GMO contamination around the world (543 kb)
Type: Editorial
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Ever since GMOs were first introduced in the mid-1990s, farmers’ groups and NGOs have warned that they would contaminate other crops. This has happened, just as predicted. In this article we look at how communities in different parts of the world that have experienced contamination are developing strategies to fight against it.

Translated into: français   Español

La lutte contre la contamination par les OGM dans le monde
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Dès la première introduction des OGM au milieu des années 1990, des groupes d’agriculteurs et des ONG avaient mis en garde contre les risques de contamination des autres cultures. Et c’est ce qui s’est passé, exactement de la façon prédite. Nous nous intéressons dans cet article à la façon dont les communautés des différentes parties du monde qui ont été confrontées à une contamination ont élaboré des stratégies pour la combattre.

Translated into: English   Español

El combate a la contaminación transgénica en todo el mundo
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Desde que los transgénicos se introdujeron por primera vez a mediados de la década de 1990, grupos de agricultores y ong advirtieron que contaminarían otros cultivos. Como se predijo, esto ya ocurrió. En este artículo analizamos que estrategias para combatir la contaminación están ideando en distintas partes del mundo las comunidades que la sufren.

Translated into: English   français  

The new weapons of genetic engineering (329 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Over the last few years biotech laboratories and industry have developed two new techniques – artificial minichromosomes and transformed organelles – which, the industry claims, will allow it to overcome the problems it has faced until now with GMOs, especially their low efficiency and genetic contamination. But basic biology and maths indicate that, contrary to what the industry claims, the new technology will not prevent genetic contamination in plants. In fact, as the two technologies converge, the frightening possibility arises that contamination will reach a new level of toxicity, and occur not only within organisms of the same species but also between species as different from each other as plants and bacteria, or plants and fungi.

Translated into: français  

Les nouvelles armes du génie génétique
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Au cours de ces dernières années, les laboratoires et le secteur de la biotechnologie ont développé deux nouvelles techniques, les minichromosomes artificiels et les organites transformés, qui, selon l’industrie, permettront de surmonter les problèmes auxquels elle a été confrontée avec les OGM, notamment leur faible rendement et la contamination génétique. Toutefois, des données de base en biologie et en mathématiques montrent que, contrairement aux allégations de l'industrie, les nouvelles technologies n'empêcheront pas la contamination génétique chez les végétaux. En fait, comme les deux technologies convergent, une possibilité effrayante se profile à l’horizon : qu’une contamination atteigne un nouveau degré de toxicité et ne concerne pas seulement des organismes de la même espèce, mais qu’elle intervienne entre des espèces aussi différentes les unes des autres que le sont des plantes et des bactéries, ou des plantes et des champignons.

Translated into: English  

The food crisis in Guadeloupe (173 kb)
Type: Article
Author: Pamela Obertan Date: January 2009

In 2008 many developing countries were severely affected by the food crisis, which led to sharp increases in the price of many staple foods. People and organisations examined the situation in their own countries and questioned the policies adopted by their governments. In this article an activist from the small island of Guadeloupe, situated in the Caribbean but integrated into France, explains how the crisis has affected her country.

Translated into: français  

La crise alimentaire en Guadeloupe
Type: Article
Author: Pamela Obertan Date: January 2009

En 2008, de nombreux pays en développement ont été sévèrement touchés par la crise alimentaire, avec pour conséquence une augmentation importante du prix des denrées alimentaire de base. Des habitants et des organisations ont examiné la situation depuis leurs pays, remettant en question les politiques de leurs gouvernements. Dans cet article, une activiste de la petite île de Guadeloupe, située dans les Caraïbes et rattachée administrativement à la France, explique comment la crise a affecté son pays.

Translated into: English  

Twelve years of GM soya in Argentina - a disaster for people and the environment (384 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Genetically modified soya was introduced into Argentina in 1996 without any kind of debate either in Congress or among the public. Since then, its cultivation has spread across the country like wildfire. Today more than half of the country’s arable land is planted with soya. No other country in the world has devoted such a large area to a single GM crop. Argentina provides a unique opportunity to investigate the consequences for a country of intensive GMO cultivation.

Translated into: français  

Douze ans de culture du soja OGM en Argentine : un désastre pour les populations et pour l’environnement
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Le soja génétiquement modifié (GM) a été introduit en Argentine en 1996 sans le moindre débat, que ce soit au Congrès ou au niveau du public. Depuis cette date, sa culture s’est répandue dans l’ensemble du pays comme une traînée de poudre. Aujourd’hui, plus de la moitié des terres cultivables du pays sont plantées en soja.Aucun autre pays au monde n’a consacré une superficie aussi importante à une culture génétiquement modifiée unique. L’Argentine offre une opportunité exceptionnelle d’étudier les conséquences de la culture intensive d’un OGM dans un pays.

Translated into: English  

Nerica: a 'wonder' rice? (141 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

A cross between African and Asian rice – dubbed New Rice for Africa (Nerica) – is being hailed as a “miracle crop” that can bring Africa its long-promised Green Revolution in rice. A powerful coalition of governments, research institutes, private seed companies and donors are leading a major effort to spread varieties of Nerica seeds to all of the continent’s rice fields. They claim that Nerica can boost yields and make Africa self-sufficient in rice production. But is Nerica living up to the hype?

Grabbing land for food (269 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

In a report published in October 2008, GRAIN describes how a host of nations – China, South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others – have been scouring the globe in search of arable land to buy or to lease for the production of crops for food or biofuels. What attracts attention is not just the amount of land involved – some of the deals involve more than a million acres – but the logic underlying the transactions. For this is not land that is being primarily acquired to produce crops to sell on the world market or to feed the local population. These crops are to be sent back to the nation that has acquired the land. Using its economic clout, the investing nation is taking over land – and, with it, the soil fertility and the water that are needed to cultivate crops – so that its people back home can have food to eat and fuel to put into their cars.

Valentina Hemmeler Maïga (178 kb)
Type: Interviews
Author: Interview by GRAIN Date: January 2009

Valentina Hemmeler Maïga works for the peasant farmers’ association in Switzerland, Uniterre, which is a member of La Via Campesina. She is responsible for Uniterre’s food sovereignty campaign.

Biodiversity or dams? An Amazon community fights for its land (397 kb)
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

For the last five years the people of Mangabal, a small community beside the Tapajós river in the Brazilian Amazon, have been trying to win definitive rights over their land. They won their case in court, but now they are in more danger than ever of being expelled from their land: the territory they occupy is wanted to make way for hydroelectric power stations to supply energy to big mining companies. But the very process of fighting this latest threat is empowering the community. Mangabal’s ribeirinhos or riverbank dwellers have in the past viewed neighbouring indigenous groups as rivals or enemies, but now they are learning that they face many problems in common, and that only by mobilising together will they make real advances.

Translated into: français  

La biodiversité ou les barrages ? Une communauté amazonienne se bat pour ses terres
Type: Article
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009

Depuis cinq ans, les habitants de Mangabal, une petite communauté proche de la rivière Tapajós, en Amazonie brésilienne, cherchent à obtenir des droits définitifs sur leurs terres. Ils ont gagné devant les tribunaux, mais ils sont maintenant plus que jamais menacés d’être expulsés de leurs terres : le territoire qu’ils occupent est convoité pour laisser la place à des centrales hydroélectriques destinées à fournir de l’énergie à de grandes compagnies minières. Mais le processus même de la lutte contre cette dernière menace est en train de renforcer l’autonomie de la communauté. Les ribeirinhos (c’est-à-dire les habitants des rives de la rivière) de Mangabal considéraient autrefois que les groupes autochtones voisins étaient des rivaux ou des ennemis, mais maintenant ils comprennent qu'ils sont confrontés à de nombreux problèmes communs et que seule une mobilisation collective leur permettra réellement de progresser.

Translated into: English  

Women, Communities and Plantations in Ecuador: Testimonials on a Socially and Environmentally Destructive Forestry Model (152 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: review by GRAIN Date: January 2009

Over the last 20 years the Word Rainforest Movement (WRM) has been documenting the impact of monoculture tree plantations in countries throughout the world and supporting local struggles against them. For some time it has been focusing on Ecuador, because this country brings together some of the most serious problems created by such plantations.

Food sovereignty in Europe and Africa - two new booklets from BEDE (184 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: review by GRAIN Date: January 2009

BEDE has published two important booklets, both available in English and French.

Seeds of information (308 kb)
Type: Resources
Author: compiled by GRAIN Date: January 2009

President Clinton said "We blew it.... we all have to go back to a more environmentally responsible, sustainable form of agriculture.” and other smaller items of interest. This section of Seedling is devoted to short topical items. We welcome contributions from readers. Please send them to seedling@grain.org or to our postal address in Barcelona.

GRAIN staff and board meeting 2008
Type: Homepage
Author: GRAIN Date: January 2009