Monsanto GM Corn a Disaster in South Africa

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Monsanto GM Corn a Disaster in South Africa
Ryan King, special to mongabay.com
July 31, 2009

Three different varieties of genetically modified (GM) corn provided by the Monsanto Corporation to farmers in South Africa have been reported to be failing to seed. The company claims that “less than 25 percent” of the seeds were susceptible to the problem, and that the crop failure was caused by “underfertilization processes in the laboratory.”

The African Center for Biosecurity’s Marian Mayet, contradicted Monsanto’s statements, explaining that farms were witnessing rates of failing crops of up to 80%. Mayet also suspects that the cause of the failures are not a result of problems in the lab processing, as Monsanto stated, but were due to failures of GM technology.

Monsanto says they just made a mistake in the laboratory, however we say that biotechnology is a failure," Mayet stated. "You cannot make a 'mistake' with three different varieties of corn. We have been warning against GM-technology for years, we have been warning Monsanto that there will be problems."

The African Center for Biosecurity has called for independent investigation into the crop failures and immediate restrictions on the cultivation of all GM crops in South Africa.

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CITATION:
Ryan King, special to mongabay.com (July 31, 2009). Monsanto GM Corn a Disaster in South Africa. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0731-ryking_gm_corn.html

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