[These sample student papers are provided only as examples of successful student research: they are not meant to prescribe any standard paper format and the content of each paper represents purely the author’s view.]

Introduction

There have been numerous public controversies regarding the impact of genetic engineering on the safety of genetically modified (GM) food and the ethics. Monsanto, a leading producer of genetically engineered seeds, has been at the center of the criticisms on agribusiness and GM crops. This paper focuses on one of these controversies: Monsanto’s GMO practices and its effect on farmers. In particular, the high suicide rate among GM crop farmers in India due to its production has attracted a great deal of attention in the press. Is there in fact a negative effect of Monsanto on farmers? When genetic engineering is mentioned, many people have immediate negative reactions. However, we must address the point of view that holds that genetic engineering actually improves the nutrition, facilitates efficient production and helps the Third World countries to develop. Today, genetic engineering is advantageous in various fields such as medicine, manufacturing, and agriculture. While it is surrounded by controversy, many scientific studies have found various results and the evidence of beneficial effect of Monsanto on farmers worldwide.

The first time media reported on the issue of farmer suicides in India was in 1995.¹ Several years later, anti-GM activists started making claims about the harmful effect of GM seeds on farmers. Vandana Shiva, an Indian physicist turned environmental activist, blamed transgenic seeds for the suicides more than 200,000 Indian farmers over the past decade.² However, it was in 2002, seven years after the Indian farmer suicide report, that Monsanto began selling GM cotton seeds in India.³ In addition, the dispute between Monsanto and farmers in the United States has sometimes raised lawsuits, with 145 court cases filed since 1997. The issue is that Monsanto imposes a patent agreement on farmers, requiring them to purchase new seed varieties for every season, but some farmers do not honor this agreement.⁴ However, Monsanto has to be paid for its inventions and its continuous research and development. The research is done for its customers, who are farmers.

Genetic Engineering

Technically, genetic engineering modifies the genetic structure of cells and moves genes across species boundaries to produce new organisms. These techniques involve the highly sophisticated manipulation of genetic material and other biologically important chemicals. Because genes determine an organism’s traits, moving genes from one organism to another transfers those traits. Genetic engineering can create new combinations of genes, in other words, new combinations of traits. This technology is impossible in nature and, therefore, such an artificial technology is fundamentally different from traditional plant and animal breeding. While natural reproductive mechanisms limit the number of new combinations, genetic engineering does not have restrictions, and it is possible to produce purple cows if purple genes are available in nature, such as from a sea urchin or an iris. Therefore, genetic engineering enables scientists to create gene combinations that would never be found in nature.⁵

Another point to note is that the controversy over the link between the possible risk of cancer and GM food remains to be addressed, and researchers at France’s University of Caen uncovered that rats fed on Monsanto’s NK603 maize and/or exposed to its gylphosate were more likely to grow tumors and multiple bodily deformities. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) found that the researchers’ study has “insufficient scientific quality to be considered as valid for risk assessment.”⁶ Despite many critics and researchers attempting to reveal the harm of genetic engineering, including the blame on Monsanto’s harm to farmers, not all studies are accountable. Such reports embed people with fears and negative thoughts on genetic engineering, but the truth may be different.

Agriculture and GM Crops

Genetically engineered crops first came on the market in 1996 as modified to tolerate the herbicide glyphosate (HT crops) or to produce their own insecticide (Bt crops).⁷ In the agriculture industry, genetically modified seeds are widely used for crops such as cotton, maize, soybeans, and rice. According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), there are more than 14 million farmers in 25 countries cultivating GM crops.⁸ And the production is significantly increasing as two billion acres of transgenic crops were planted in the same year. Monsanto introduced a new biotech crop, gyphosate-resistant sugar beets, and variety of GM crops continues to be adopted in China and India. Even in Europe, which is strongly against GMOs, 7 of 27 countries cultivated the only transgenic crop approved there. Also, the area planted with transgenic crops rose by 10 percent during the year, and the estimated value is about $750 million.⁹ Small farmers can substantially benefit since the gain from GM seeds is usually much more than the cost of the seeds. Also, Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton has become a major GM seed in India because it disrupts the life cycle of the bollworm and thereby highly increases the productivity.¹⁰ Today, India is one of the largest manufacturers of the apparel and textile industry, and Bt cotton has largely contributed on the country’s significant economic development in the last decade.

Theoretically, it would require less pesticide than conventional crops to use such GM seeds. But a recent study found that, although GE crops worked this way in the first few years, farmers eventually increased the use of pesticide due to the emergence of new weeds.¹¹Small farmers can substantially benefit since the gain from GM seeds is usually much more than the cost of the seeds. Also, Bt Cotton has become a major GM seed in India because disrupting bollworm insects highly increases the productivity. (The Pros and Cons of Genetically Modified Seeds)

Furthermore, research done by the Swiss National Research Programme investigated the environmental, economic, and social impacts of GM crops. According to Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the aim of this program was to investigate the potential of genetically engineering plants for Swiss agriculture; only a few people buy GM products and only a few farmers grow today. In this European country with a large anti-GM group, the industry’s economic benefits are very small and the coexistence costs too high. However, the researchers expect an increase of acceptance of GM crops when new GM crops with such herbicide and disease resistance traits become commercially available. Notably, the report asserts, “risk assessments should be based on the specific characteristics of the plant variety, rather than on the breeding method used to produce it. The environmental, social and economic impacts of a GM plant can only be determined through a direct comparison with conventionally bred plants.”¹²

Genetically modified foods are a very effective solution to one of the most concerning issues—world hunger—and they enable farmers in Third World countries to grow more crops more quickly and for less cost. In addition, there is a correlation with global warming since climate change is a threat to food supply and limits growing crops.¹³ But subtle positive effects are that the use of pesticides can keep the plants healthy and prevent damage to the environment, and less fertilizer can be used, and thereby keeping farming cost low.

Figure 1. (Nature Biotechnology)

Monsanto

Monsanto is a leading company of genetically engineered seeds. This public company’s headquarters are in St. Louis, Missouri, and it was founded in 1901, more than 100 years ago. The company holds 404 operating facilities in 66 countries, and there are 20,767 employees worldwide. In 2011, its net income was $1.6 trillion and its net sales were $11.8 trillion, which are a 13 percent and 47 percent increase from 2010, respectively. Their mission is to produce more, conserve more, and improve lives, and they are committed to sustainable agriculture. The company states that it is their purpose to work alongside farmers to grow as much food as they have in the past by selling seeds with traits developed through biotechnology, and crop protection chemicals. It was ranked in the top 10 of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Forbes magazine, as well as honored with various other awards.

The company addresses its corporate social responsibility activities by fighting hunger, supporting human rights and education, and so on. In terms of commitment to sustainable agriculture, it states, “Looking forward, we are exploring opportunities to support continuous improvement in crop yields through our efforts in breeding, agronomics, and biotechnology. We are also exploring better health and nutrition through our vegetable business.”¹⁴ The report also notes that, as the population continues to increase, so does the demand for valuable resources; therefore, Monsanto works on providing better seeds, protecting natural resources, fighting hunger, improving nutrition, and providing economic benefits to everyone involved. ¹⁵ Based on the data compiled by ISAAA and PG Economics, Monsanto is one of the contributors to having 2.1 million resource-poor farmers adopting biotech crops for the first time in the 2008–2010 seasons, and these farmers achieved US$3 billion in additional net income thanks to this technology adoption. In addition, there were three to seven times the level of economic benefits across rural communities. ¹⁶

GM Seeds and Farmer Suicide in India

Many Indian farmers commit suicide by drinking fatal amount of pesticides. After the media report of tragic phenomenon of Indian farmers’ suicides in 1995, the story began when anti-GM activists like Vandana Shiva blamed GM crop for this phenomenon. The media has put the blame mostly on corporate agriculture and Monsanto, and outrageous GM seed prices made small farmers suffer from debts.¹⁷ Shiva says, “On paper, genetic engineering is made to look very good, but on the ground it’s a tragedy. . . . Otherwise, we wouldn’t have farmer suicides concentrated in the Bt cotton belt.” The fact is that 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide over the past decade. However, since the arrival of Bt seeds in 2002, the price of cotton seeds raised from 7 to 1,700 rupees a bag. So Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, disagrees as the suicide trend began well before its cotton seeds were introduced to the market. Shiva also argues that because of the self-regulatory system of labeling in India, Monsanto sells GM seeds on fraudulent claims of 1,500 kilograms a year when farmers harvest 300 to 400 kilograms a year on average. Additionally, although Bt cotton was promoted as resistant to the bollworm, it actually created new pests, and farmers were using 13 times more pesticides than they were using prior to introduction of Bt cotton. “Bio-piracy . . . where you take stuff from the Third World, claim it to be an invention of a US company, and then sell it back for a profit, and forbid the original contributors from having free access,” and Multinational Corporations are taking control of the Indian market.¹⁸ Moreover, a 2011 report published by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) claimed the sale of expensive genetically modified seeds to rural Indian farmers was a key factor contributing to the growing suicide crisis.¹⁹

Monsanto and other producers of GM crops insist that their crops require fewer chemicals, as plants are engineered to prevent crop pests. Nevertheless, the study done by Washington State University Professor Charles Benbrook found that the usage of herbicides in GM crops—cotton, soybeans, and maize—has increased over the last decade in the United States. His study found that the herbicide-tolerant crops did not have problems but recently, so-called superweeds have become resistant to glyphosate weed killer, Roundup, produced by Monsanto. Therefore, farmers started to use increasing amount of Roundup and some more additional herbicides to fend off the tough weeds. Benbrook adds that many farmers reliant on GM crops are raising the volume of herbicide needed each year by about twenty-five percent. Estimations are that production of herbicides was increased by 239 million kilograms between 1996 and 2011 for the use of GM crops. This study undermined the claims of GM crop producers that fewer chemicals are needed in production.²⁰

Nevertheless, according to Raju Das, a developmental studies professor at York University, “the issue of farmer suicides is not just entirely a farmer issue, or rural issue, or a village issue—it is a much more broader political-economic problem”²¹ In 2008, the study focusing on this issue was reported by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The report also writes, “Most reports tend to reflect the polarized views on Bt cotton itself, without providing a comprehensive understanding of the actual situation that led to the observed resurgence of farmer suicides in India and therefore the potential role (or absence thereof) of Bt cotton in this picture.”²²

In the data found, it is evident that the high number of suicides occurred much before the introduction of Bt cotton²³ and the suicides appear to have slowed down since the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002.²⁴ Moreover, farmer suicides have been reported in developed countries such as Australia, the United States, and Great Britain and involve diverse crops, most of which are not Bt cotton. The report says:

It is not only inaccurate but simply wrong to blame the use of Bt cotton as the primary cause of farmer suicides in India…The reality is much more complex, when one considers the conditions surrounding the use of Bt cotton, the resulting effects, and the socioeconomic constraints that have likely pushed farmers in particular regions to commit suicide during some years. There is no single explanation or even consistent explanations across reported cases. However, one leading factor seems to connect several causes particularly related to agriculture: the heavy indebtedness of farm households, particularly in the suicide-prone states. ²⁵