Seeds of Doubt: North American farmers’ experiences of GM crops

Seeds of Doubt: North American farmers’ experiences of GM crops, published by the UK Soil Association in 2002 explains that GM food crops are far from a success story. It claims widespread GE contamination has severely disrupted GM-free production, destroyed trade and undermined the competitiveness of North American agriculture overall. The report draws on interviews with farmers about their experiences of GM soya, maize and oilseed rape, and reviews some of the independent research. [Full report can be downloaded here (PDF, 15.6MB)]

In response to the report, a study backed by nine major US farm groups, entitled Let the Facts Speak for Themselves was published shortly after. [Download PDF (273KB)at http://www.asa-europe.org/pdf/let_the_facts.pdf]. This report was updated in 2005 with the publication of ‘Dispelling the Myths: The Real Facts About Agricultural Biotechnology and  Biotech Food’

[Download PDF (497KB) at http://www.asa-europe.org/pdf/Dispelling%20the%20myths%202005.pdf]

Some questions covered include:

• Is it true that biotechnology has been a bad deal for American farmers?

• Have farmers become dependent on biotech “seed giants”?

• Do biotech crops only suit U.S. agriculture?

• Have biotech crops ruined U.S. commodity markets?

• Is it true that biotechnology has failed to increase yields?

• Do biotech crops threaten organic farmers?

• Is it true that since biotech crops were introduced, pesticide use has increased?

• Does gene flow from biotech crops threaten biodiversity?

• Have soy allergies increased with biotech soybeans?