Pope Francis Denounces GMOs and Pesticides
In a major environmental paper draft leaked a few days ago, Pope Francis brings attention to genetically modified organisms and the pesticides used to grow them, calling them both environmentally and socially ‘significant’ problems.
While he doesn’t call for an outright ban, and even states that they may have been helpful economically in some parts of the world, he also says that farm workers have been marginalized by the production of GM crops.
He states:
“The most fragile among them become temporary workers and many farm workers migrate to end up in miserable urban settlements. The spread of these (GM) crops destroys the complex web of ecosystems, decreases diversity in production and affects the present and the future of regional economies. In several countries there is a trend in the development of oligopolies in the production of seeds and other products needed for cultivation, and the dependence deepens when you consider the production of sterile seeds, which end up forcing farmers to buy (seeds) from producers.”
The Pope also calls for “constant attention to consider all ethical aspects involved” and calls GMOs a complex issue that require a systematic look at all aspects of the picture.
He continues:
“. . .To this end it is necessary to ensure a scientific and social debate that is responsible and large, able to consider all the information available and to call things by their names.”
Related: Geneticist – Health Damaging Effects from GMOs ‘Unpredictable’
The Pope also admits that biotech companies who make GMOs are not likely to be self-limiting in their power, and he also calls out environmental toxins, which were created, in large part, by Big Ag farming practices:
“We get sick, for example, due to inhalation of large amounts of smoke produced by fuels used for cooking and heating. This is added to by….fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and toxic pesticides in general. Technology that is linked to finance, claims to be only solving problems…this solves a problem by creating others.”
I believe the most important phrase in his entire statement is this:
“It creates a vicious circle in which the intervention of the human being to solve a problem often worsens the situation further.”
This is a marked change in the Vatican’s overall stance on GMOs, though others have called GMOs a ‘new form of slavery.’ They were previously only lukewarm about calling attention to the devastation that biotech has unleashed on this planet.
The full draft document in Italian is available here. If you have Google translate or another device, you can read the paper in English or your own language.
Additional Sources:
Featured image sourced from Sustainable Pulse
I like this man as much as I like Bernie Sanders! BERNIE 2016!!
Well, this is one point that I agree with the Pope on… Monsanto and the big chemical companies are evil!
They absolutely are not. Your understanding of things is flawed and I suggest you look at them from an unbiased perspective.
GMOs do not destroy ecosystems anymore than any other monocultural farm does. They do, however, allow for a higher yield per acre which, in turn, allows us to use less land for farming. Terminator seeds as the Pope talks about are not what is sold on the market. Additionally, farmers were buying their seeds every year for around fifty years before the first GMOs were even available. That’s not a new thing, that is a trend that has kept up for around a century now because of the costs of storing seeds and the fact that they are less effective than their parent seeds. The pesticides used in conventional farming today are the least toxic available on the market and that includes those that are used in organic farming. These seed companies have been a huge boon for the local farmers that use them around the world (see Bt cotton in India which has increased yield and led to a DECREASE in suicides amongst farmers; see papaya crops in Hawaii; see your local corn farmer). Lastly, labeling as the Pope calls for is a disingenuous way to call something different when it isn’t. GMOs are nutritionally equivalent and no less safe (perhaps even more safe because the pesticides used are less toxic) than their organic counterparts. If the Pope wants to go along with the scientific consensus in every field, he should recognize that 88% of the world’s scientists believe that GMOs and the processes by which they are produced are safe. That is the responsible thing to do.
Biotech propaganda piece right there, folks…
From someone who doesn’t even work for a large agricultural company! GASP
It doesn’t matter where you get your money; your propaganda piece sounds just the same as a troll’s.