Ecological Impacts of the WTO

The root problem of the World Trade Organization is that it has no roots. The WTO has not grown out of anything real. It is not based in any place or accountable to any people. Decisions are made by trade bureaucrats far away from where the impacts are felt. Products are consumed far away from where they are from.

This has devastating consequences on a sector that is so firmly rooted to the soil: agriculture.

The World Trade Organization is fuelling an age of agribusiness where the growth of the food that we eat is secondary to the growth of the economy. The WTO encourages farmers to grow whatever they can most cheaply and sell it world wide. The result is that local, organic and small scale farms are disappearing under a system that favours industrial agriculture. Not only that, but the very soil, water, and climate that are essential to the production of our food, are being destroyed in the process.

Forced to compete on a global market, farmers are converting to large scale monocultures. Unlike farms which support a diversity of crops, industrial monocultures are more vulnerable to disease and degrade the SOIL Pesticides are being used to combat these problems, but are polluting the earth and WATER with dangerous chemicals. Faced with a new problem, farmers are being pressured to use genetically modified seeds which are supposed to be pest resistant. The biotechnology is not, however, decreasing the use of pesticides and has introduced yet another problem. Genetically modified seeds are threatening to pollute LIFE as we know it by migrating, mutating and cross-pollinating with other plants.

Since farms are now only producing one kind of crop, all other food must be shipped in. The long distance travel results in the emission of greenhouse gases which are changing the earths CLIMATE. Climate change is resulting in more extreme weather events, from droughts to floods, which monocultures are especially vulnerable to.

What new technology will the multinationals introduce to save the day now?

Its time to reconnect our food with the earth it grows out of.

Did you know?

• The US has announced its intention of filing a WTO case against the European Union for its moratorium on genetically engineering agricultural crops.

• The average tomato travels 1500 miles from farm to salad bowl.

• A typical meal bought from a conventional supermarket chain - including some meat, grains, fruit and vegetables - consumes 4 to 17 times more petroleum for transport than the same meal using local ingredients.

• Between them, 2 grain distribution companies Cargill and Archer Daniel Midland control 80% of the worlds grain.

• The environmental threats of biotechnology caused 100 top scientists to warn that its careless use could lead to irreversible, devastating damage to the environment.