By radically changing the way we acquire our food, the development of agriculture has condemned us to live worse than ever before. Not only that, agriculture has led to the first significant instances of large-scale war, inequality, poverty, crime, famine and human induced climate change and mass extinction.
By Clive W. Dennis (winner of the Ecologist/Coady International Institute 2006 Essay Competition)
For 40 years Percy Schmeiser grew oilseed rape on his farm in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Usually, he would sow each year’s crop with seeds saved from the previous harvest. In 1998 Monsanto took Schmeiser to court.
Have you ever heard of – let alone tasted – the Rats Tail radish, the Crookneck squash or the Prince of Prussia pea? We report on what’s being done to save Britain’s rich agricultural heritage.
Why are GM crops being grown, how are plants genetically modified, where is it being cultivated, who’s in control and what is being researched and developed?
The GM public debate, which runs throughout June and July, is the public’s chance to express any concerns it may have over the growing of GM crops in Britain. Andy Rowell explains why your participation is vital
In the penultimate extract from Fatal Harvest’s demolition of agribusiness disinformation, The Ecologist assesses the claim that biotechnology will solve industrial agriculture’s ills.
As the people of Argentina are driven by economic collapse to the point of starvation, a new solution is being imposed upon them. Ben Backwell reports on a country being force fed genetically modified soya designed not for humans, but for cattle
After years of failing to make its modified products do its bidding, the biotech industry is changing tack – now its modifying the protestors. Jonathan Matthews reports from South Africa
Opinionated and outspoken, often wildly at odds with the government’s line, the UK’s environment minister Michael Meacher is, by his own reckoning, a lone voice in the wilderness.
Public money to the tune of £131,000 has been spent on a report that claims to have found farmers ‘upbeat’ about genetic modification – despite its authors having interviewed only 30 farmers, half of whom had already grown GM crops.
