The current debate on genetically modified foods boils down to a squalid conflict over markets and trade. The debate is a reflection of the deepening trade wars among the competing capitalist powers that are a feature of the world capitalist crisis; this is a conflict into which workers should avoid being drawn.
When big capitalist corporations like Monsanto and government agencies in the United States argue for the acceptance of genetically modified foods, their only concern is to win new markets. By the same token, when big capitalist corporations like Nestle, Unilever, and Tesco in Europe and the United Kingdom express opposition to genetically modified foods, they are motivated not by health or environmental concerns, but by the wish to protect their markets and fence them off from foreign competition.
In this country, too, the discussion on genetically modified food is largely focused on what best serves the trade interests of New Zealand capitalism, spiced by a bit of anti-foreign-control demagogy.
Working people have a deep suspicion of the capitalists' assurances about the safety of these food products -and with good reason. Profit-hungry capitalists are constantly trying to foist untested, inadequately labeled, or unsafe foods on us. They are constantly flouting environmental protection measures in pursuit of cheaper production costs. Genetically modified foods are new products, and the technology is not without risks. Such foods should be rigorously tested and labeled before being released on to the market. Any genetically engineered products or processes that pose a threat to health or the ecosystem should be banned. Capitalist governments are always reluctant to enforce such measures.
But my campaign opposes the call for a moratorium on genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering has been blamed for reducing the planet's biodiversity, for bringing farmers under the domination of agribusiness corporations, and for accelerating the impoverishment of Third World nations. These are real problems, but they began long before genetic modification technology was developed. They are the consequence, not of genetic engineering or any other aspect of technological development, but of the lawful development of capitalist social and economic relations in agriculture. Capitalism is the problem, not genetic modification.
Instead of a moratorium on genetic engineering, we need a moratorium on farm foreclosures, so that working farmers can make decisions on what seeds to plant or what stock to graze, free from the threat of losing their farms and livelihoods. Instead of a ban on imports of genetically modified foods, we should demand the cancellation of the Third World Debt, as an elementary step toward unity of the toilers of the world.