----- Original Message -----
From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 7:48 PM
Subject: [Cuba SI] US greed,crimes,genocides -Pt1 Ethiopia/Eritrea
from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] au
subject: US greed,crimes,genocides -Pt1 Ethiopia/Eritrea
You may not have read it from Rob's post, but it is too important
to skip through and forget. I, and no doubt Cuba and the G77 will
agree with this and perhaps the Professor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
will continue to provide us with the facts from each African nation
and everywhere else?. Now that the non-democratic voting system has
been decided by Judges appointed by politicians to prevent social
justice advances creeping in for the poor -like Abortion and black
minority rights, but still keeping Death Row for the Bush family,
perhaps Americans can really learn how its governments are selected
and what they are paid to do! No-one can see what the voting-kept
computers do. No-one knows if they have broken down or not, as the
results have been worked out between the corporations and the top
politicians before the people fill in their forms (Butler PhD.)." JC
-----Original Message-----
From: "Michel Chossudovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <Recipient list suppressed>
Date: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 9:23 AM
Subject: GM Seeds Trigger Famine: The Case of Ethiopia
GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEEDS IMPOSED ON FARMERS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
TRIGGER FAMINE AND SOCIAL DEVASTATION
SOWING THE SEEDS OF FAMINE IN ETHIOPIA
by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of the
"Globalization of Poverty", Second Edition, Common Courage Press,
2000. (I have ordered this book JC)
The "economic therapy" imposed under IMF-World Bank jurisdiction is
in large part responsible for triggering famine and social
devastation in Ethiopia and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, wreaking
the peasant economy and impoverishing millions of people.
With the complicity of branches of the US government, it has also
opened the door for the appropriation of traditional seeds and
landraces by US biotech corporations, which behind the scenes have
been peddling the adoption of their own genetically modified seeds
under the disguise of emergency aid and famine relief.
Moreover, under WTO rules, the agri-biotech conglomerates can
manipulate market forces to their advantage as well as exact
royalties from farmers. The WTO provides legitimacy to the food
giants to dismantle State programmes including emergency grain
stocks, seed banks, extension services and
agricultural credit, etc.), plunder peasant economies and trigger the
outbreak of periodic famines.
* * *
Crisis in the Horn
More than 8 million people in Ethiopia representing 15% of the
country's population had been locked into "famine zones". Urban
wages have collapsed and unemployed seasonal farm workers and
landless peasants have been driven into abysmal poverty. The
international relief agencies concur without further examination that
climatic factors are the sole and inevitable cause of crop failure
and the ensuing humanitarian disaster. What the media tabloids
fails to disclose is that despite the drought and the border war
with Eritrea several million people in the most prosperous
agricultural regions have also been driven into starvation. Their
predicament is not the consequence of grain shortages but of "free
markets" and "bitter economic medicine" imposed under the IMF-World
Bank sponsored Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
Ethiopia produces more than 90% of its consumption needs. Yet at the
height of the crisis, the nationwide food deficit for 2000 was
estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at 764,000
metric tons of grain representing a shortfall of 13 kilos per person
per annum.1 In Amhara, grain production (1999-2000) was twenty
percent in excess of consumption needs. Yet 2.8 million people in
Amhara (representing 17% of the region's population) became
locked into famine zones and are "at risk" according to the FAO. 2
Whereas Amhara's grain surpluses were in excess of 500,000 tons
(1999-2000), its "relief food needs" had been tagged by the
international community at close to 300,000 tons.3 A similar pattern
prevailed in Oromiya, the country's most populated state where 1.6
million people were classified "at risk", despite the availability of
more than 600,000 metric tons of surplus grain.4 In
both these regions, which include more than 25% of the country's
population, scarcity of food was clearly not the cause of hunger,
poverty and social destitution. Yet no explanations are given by the
panoply of international relief agencies and agricultural research
institutes.
The Promise of the "Free Market"
In Ethiopia, a transitional government came into power in 1991 in the
wake of a protracted and destructive civil war. After the pro-Soviet
Dergue regime of Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam was unseated, a multi-
donor financed Emergency Recovery and Reconstruction Project (ERRP)
was hastily put in place to deal with an external debt of close to 9
billion dollars that had accumulated during the Mengistu government.
Ethiopia's outstanding debts with the Paris Club of official
creditors were rescheduled in exchange for far-reaching macro-
economic reforms. Upheld by US foreign policy, the usual doses of
bitter IMF economic medicine were prescribed. Caught in the
straightjacket of debt and structural adjustment, the new
Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE), led by the Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) largely
formed from the Tigrean People's Liberation Front (PLF) had
committed itself to far-reaching "free market reforms", despite its
leaders' Marxist leanings. Washington soon tagged Ethiopia alongside
Uganda as Africa's post Cold War free market showpiece.
While social budgets were slashed under the structural adjustment
programme (SAP), military expenditure in part financed by the gush
of fresh development loans quadrupled since 1989.5 With Washington
supporting both sides in the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war, US arms
sales spiralled. The bounty was being shared between the arms
manufacturers and the agribusiness conglomerates. In the post-Cold
War era, the latter positioned themselves in the
lucrative procurement of emergency aid to war-torn countries. With
mounting military spending financed on borrowed money, almost half of
Ethiopia's export revenues was earmarked to meet debt-servicing
obligations.
A Policy Framework Paper (PFP) stipulating the precise changes to be
carried out in Ethiopia had been carefully drafted in Washington by
IMF and World Bank officials on behalf of the transitional
government, and was forwarded to Addis Ababa for the signature of the
Minister of Finance. The enforcement of severe austerity measures
virtually foreclosed the possibility of a meaningful post-war
reconstruction and the rebuilding of the country's
shattered infrastructure. The creditors demanded trade liberalization
and the full-scale privatization of public utilities, financial
institutions, State farms and factories. Civil servants including
teachers and health workers were fired, wages were frozen and the
labor laws were rescinded to enable State enterprises "to shed their
surplus workers". Meanwhile, corruption became rampant. State assets
were auctioned off to foreign capital at bargain prices and
Price Waterhouse Cooper was entrusted with the task of coordinating
the sale of State property.
In turn, the reforms had led to the fracture of the federal fiscal
system. Budget transfers to the State governments were slashed
leaving the regions to their own devices. Supported by several
donors, "regionalization" was heralded as a "devolution of powers
from the federal to the regional governments". The Bretton Woods
institutions knew exactly what they were doing. In the words of the
IMF, "[the regions] capacity to deliver effective and
efficient development interventions varies widely, as does their
capacity for revenue collection". 6
Wrecking the Peasant Economy
Patterned on the reforms adopted in Kenya in 1991 (see Box 9.1
), agricultural markets were wilfully manipulated on behalf of the
agribusiness conglomerates. The World Bank demanded the rapid removal
of price controls and all subsidies to farmers. Transportation and
freight prices were deregulated serving to boost food prices in
remote areas affected by drought. In turn, the markets
for farm inputs including fertiliser and seeds were handed over to
private traders including Pioneer Hi-Bred International which entered
into a lucrative partnership with Ethiopia Seed Enterprise (ESE), the
government's seed monopoly.7
At the outset of the reforms in 1992, USAID under its Title III
program "donated" large quantities of US fertilizer "in exchange for
free market reforms":
"[V]arious agricultural commodities [will be provided] in exchange
for reforms of grain marketing. and [the] elimination of food
subsidies.The reform agenda focuses on liberalization and
privatization in the fertilizer and transport sectors in return for
financing fertilizer and truck imports.. These program initiatives
have given us [an] "entr�e" .in defining major [policy] issues." 8
While the stocks of donated US fertiliser were rapidly exhausted;
the imported chemicals contributed to displacing local fertiliser
producers. The same companies involved in the fertiliser import
business were also in control of the domestic wholesale distribution
of fertiliser using local level merchants as intermediaries.
Increased output was recorded in commercial farms and in irrigated
areas (where fertilizer and high yielding seeds had been applied).
The overall tendency, however, was towards greater economic and
social polarisation in the countryside, marked by significantly lower
yields in less productive marginal lands occupied by the poor
peasantry. Even in areas where output had increased, farmers were
caught in the clutch of the seed and fertilizer merchants.
In 1997, the Atlanta based Carter Center which was actively
promoting the use of biotechnology tools in maize breeding proudly
announced that "Ethiopia [had] become a food exporter for the first
time".9 Yet in a cruel irony, the donors ordered the dismantling of
the emergency grain reserves (set up in the wake of the 1984-85
famine) and the authorities acquiesced.
Instead of replenishing the country's emergency food stocks, grain
was exported to meet Ethiopia's debt servicing obligations. Close to
one million tons of the 1996 harvest was exported, an amount which
would have been amply sufficient (according to FAO figures) to meet
the 1999-2000 emergency. In fact the same food staple which had been
exported (namely maize) was re-imported barely a few months later.
The world market had confiscated Ethiopia's grain reserves.
In return, US surpluses of genetically engineered maize (banned by
the European Union) were being dumped on the horn of Africa in the
form of emergency aid. The US had found a convenient mechanism for
"laundering its stocks of dirty grain". The agribusiness
conglomerates not only cornered Ethiopia's commodity exports, they
were also involved in the procurement of emergency shipments of grain
back into Ethiopia. During the 1998-2000 famine, lucrative
maize contracts were awarded to giant grain merchants such as Archer
Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill Inc. 10
Laundering America's GM Grain Surpluses
US grain surpluses peddled in war-torn countries also served to
weaken the agricultural system. Some 500,000 tons of maize and maize
products were "donated" in 1999-2000 by USAID to relief agencies
including the World Food Programme (WFP) which in turn collaborates
closely with the US Department of Agriculture. At least 30% of these
shipments (procured under contract with US agribusiness firms) were
surplus genetically modified grain stocks. 11
Boosted by the border war with Eritrea and the plight of thousands
of refugees, the influx of contaminated food aid had contributed to
the pollution of Ethiopia's genetic pool of indigenous seeds and
landraces. In a cruel irony, the food giants were at the same time
gaining control through the procurement of contaminated food aid
over Ethiopia's seed banks. According to South Africa's Biowatch:
"Africa is treated as the dustbin of the world.To donate untested
food and seed to Africa is not an act of kindness but an attempt
to lure Africa into further dependence on foreign aid." 12
Moreover, part of the "food aid" had been channelled under the "food
for work" program which served to further discourage domestic
production in favour of grain imports. Under this scheme,
impoverished and landless farmers were contracted to work on rural
infrastructural programmes in exchange for "donated" US corn.
Meanwhile, the cash earnings of coffee smallholders plummeted.
Whereas Pioneer Hi-Bred positioned itself in seed distribution and
marketing, Cargill Inc established itself in the markets for grain
and coffee through its subsidiary Ethiopian Commodities.12 For the
more than 700,000 smallholders with less than 2 hectares that produce
between 90 and 95% of the country's coffee output, the deregulation
of agricultural credit combined with low farmgate prices
of coffee had triggered increased indebtedness and landlessness,
particularly in East Gojam (Ethiopia's breadbasket).
Biodiversity up for Sale
The country's extensive reserves of traditional seed varieties
(barley, teff, chick peas, sorghum, etc) were being appropriated,
genetically manipulated and patented by the agribusiness
conglomerates: "Instead of compensation and respect, Ethiopians today
are .getting bills from foreign companies that have "patented" native
species and now demand payment for their use."13 The foundations of a
"competitive seed industry" were laid under IMF and
World Bank auspices.14 The Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE), the
government's seed monopoly joined hands with Pioneer Hi-Bred in the
distribution of hi-bred and genetically modified (GM) seeds (together
with hybrid resistant herbicide) to smallholders. In turn, the
marketing of seeds had been transferred to a network of private
contractors and "seed enterprises" with financial support
and technical assistance from the World Bank. The "informal" farmer-
to-farmer seed exchange was slated to be converted under the World
Bank programme into a "formal" market oriented system of "private
seed producer-sellers." 15
In turn, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EARI)
was collaborating with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement
Center (CIMMYT) in the development of new hybrids between Mexican and
Ethiopian maize varieties.16 Initially established in the 1940s by
Pioneer Hi-Bred International with support from the Ford and
Rockefeller foundations, CIMMYT developed a cosy relationship with US
agribusiness. Together with the UK based Norman Borlaug Institute,
CIMMYT constitutes a research arm as well as a mouthpiece of the seed
conglomerates. According to the Rural Advancement Foundation (RAFI)
"US farmers already earn $150 million annually by growing varieties
of barley developed from Ethiopian strains. Yet nobody in Ethiopia is
sending them a bill." 17
Impacts of Famine
The 1984-85 famine had seriously threatened Ethiopia's reserves of
landraces of traditional seeds. In response to the famine, the Dergue
government through its Plant Genetic Resource Centre --in
collaboration with Seeds of Survival (SoS)-- had implemented a
programme to preserve Ethiopia's biodiversity.18 This programme
which was continued under the transitional government
skilfully "linked on-farm conservation and crop improvement by rural
communities with government support services". 19 An extensive
network of in-farm sites and conservation plots was established
involving some 30,000 farmers. In 1998, coinciding chronologically
with the onslaught of the 1998-2000 famine, the government clamped
down on seeds of Survival (SoS) and ordered the programme to be
closed down. 20
The hidden agenda was to eventually displace the traditional
varieties and landraces reproduced in village-level nurseries. The
latter were supplying more than 90 percent of the peasantry through a
system of farmer-to-farmer exchange. Without fail, the 1998-2000
famine led to a further depletion of local level seed banks: "The
reserves of grains [the farmer] normally stores to see him through
difficult times are empty. Like 30,000 other households in
the [Galga] area, his family have also eaten their stocks of seeds
for the next harvest."21 And a similar process was unfolding in the
production of coffee where the genetic base of the arabica beans was
threatened as a result of the collapse of farmgate prices and the
impoverishment of small-holders.
In other words, the famine itself in large part a product of the
economic reforms imposed to the advantage of large corporations by
the IMF, World Bank and the US Government served to undermine
Ethiopia's genetic diversity to the benefit of the biotech companies.
With the weakening of the system of traditional exchange, village
level seed banks were being replenished with commercial hi-bred and
genetically modified seeds. In turn, the distribution of seeds to
impoverished farmers had been integrated with the "food
aid" programmes. WPF and USAID relief packages often include
"donations" of seeds and fertiliser, thereby favouring the inroad of
the agribusiness-biotech companies into Ethiopia's agricultural
heartland. The emergency programs are not the "solution" but the
"cause" of famine. By deliberately creating a dependency on GM seeds,
they had set the stage for the outbreak of future famines.
This destructive pattern invariably resulting in famine is
replicated throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. From the onslaught of the
debt crisis of the early 1980s, the IMF-World Bank had set the stage
for the demise of the peasant economy across the region with
devastating results. Now, in Ethiopia, fifteen years after the last
famine left nearly one million dead, hunger is once again stalking
the land. This time, as eight million people face the risk of
starvation, we know that it isn't just the weather that is to blame.
Endnotes
1 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Special Report: FAO/WFP
Crop Assessment Mission to Ethiopia, Rome, January 2000.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Philip Sherwell and Paul Harris, "Guns before Grain as Ethiopia
Starves, Sunday Telegraph, London, April 16, 2000.
6. IMF, Ethiopia, Recent Economic Developments, Washington, 1999.
7. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, General GMO
Facts, http://www.pioneer.com/usa/biotech/value_of_products/product_v
alue.htm#.
8. United States agency for International Development (USAID),
"Mission to Ethiopia, Concept Paper: Back to The Future", Washington,
June 1993
9. Carter Center, Press release, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31, 1997.
10. Declan Walsh, America Find Ready Market for GM Food, The
Independent, London, March 30, 2000, p. 18).
11 Ibid.
12 Maja Wallegreen, "The World's Oldest Coffee Industry In
Transition", Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, November 1, 1999.
13. Laeke Mariam Demissie, A vast historical contribution counts for
little; West reaps Ethiopia's genetic harvest, World Times, October,
1998).
14. World Bank, Ethiopia-Seed Systems Development Project, Project
ID ETPA752, 6 June 1995.
15 Ibid
16. See CIMMYT Research Plan and Budget 2000-
2002 http://www.cimmyt.mx/about/People-mtp2002.htm#).
17 Laeke Mariam Demissie, op. cit
18. "When local farmers know best", The Economist, 16 May 1998)
19. Ibid
20. Laeke Mariam Demissie, op. cit.
21. Rageh Omaar, "Hunger stalks Ethiopia's dry land", BBC, London,
6 January, 2000.
An earlier version of this article was published in The Ecologist,
September 2000. C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, November,
2000. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this text
on non-commercial community internet sites, provided the essay
remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To publish this
text in printed and/or other forms contact the author at
[EMAIL PROTECTED], fax: 1-514-4256224.
Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, K1N6N5 Voice
box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415, Fax: 1-514-425-6224 E-Mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; (Altern. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
*********
On the Globalisation of Poverty and the Financial Crisis:
"Seattle and Beyond: Disarming the New World Order"
http://www.transnational.org/forum/meet/seattle.html
Global Poverty in the Late 20th Century
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chossu.htm
http://www.transnational.org/features/chossu_worldbank.html
http://www.transnational.org/features/g7solution.html
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/eco/
http://heise.xlink.de/tp/english/special/eco/6099/1.html#anchor1
Recent articles on Yugoslavia at:
http://emperors-clothes.com/artbyauth.html#C
NATO's Reign of Terror in Kosovo
http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/yugo_archive/19990816mcpaper.htm
Overview of the War:
http://www.transnational.org/features/Yuoverview.html
On the role of the KLA:
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/2743/1.html
Breakup of Yugoslavia: http://www.hartford-
hwp.com/archives/62/022.html
(JC.. Monsanto has issued a heartfelt apology for the damage it has
done. Now this corporation will feel free to come up with worse
poisons but more MONEY!! ) " JC
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