I missed this story completely back in March. Did you? Or did network news give it full, multi-day coverage and I just need to watch more TV?
South African farmers
suffered million of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of GMO maize
failed to produce hardly any seeds. “Monsanto says they just made a
mistake in the laboratory ; but we are saying that is (a general) biotechnology
failure. You cannot make a mistake with three different varieties of
corn”, those were the words of Mariam Mayet.
The three maize
varieties which failed to produce seeds were designed with a built-in
resistance to weed-killers, and manipulated to increase yields per hectare. Was this
the case ?
This is a good example
of how a simple mistake in the laboratory can lead to hunger and
especially for small holder farmers who rely on their crops for their
existence.