Agriculture

Less food, more experiments

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Versión en español
Second part of Monsanto’s Caribbean experiment

A business of questionable legality is tempting farmers in the south of the island. They lease their land to companies that produce genetically modified seeds to supply to the agriculture of other countries, instead of producing food, necessary to deal with the lack of food security we’re experiencing in Puerto Rico. Or, instead, they themselves plant corn, cotton, soybeans and sorghum that these corporations use for their genetic engineering experiments. “I harvest for several of them, 200 or 300 cuerdas (194 to 291 acres), depending on the year,” said Ramón Gonzalez, president of the Puerto Rico Farm Bureau, one of the leading organizations that should protect, promote and develop the island’s agriculture. He would not say to which companies he offers this service. It”s about questionable contractual relationships.

Actualidad

Monsanto’s Caribbean experiment

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When environmentalist Juan Rosario traveled to an Amish religious community in Iowa, to learn to make compost, he was surprised that they had a laboratory and the services of an expert in chemistry. What was a scientist doing in a place where people live far from technology and practice ecological farming with the simplest of methods? An Amish dressed in their style, with a wide-brimmed black hat, white shirt, and black pants and black jacket, pointed toward a large cornfield on a nearby farm. “The scientist helps us verify that pollen from genetically modified corn does not contaminate our crops,” he told Juan Rosario. “It’s the same corn that you develop in Salinas.”