Perhaps one of the greatest controversies in the world today is the question concerning genetic engineering. While this technology has been researched and developed for at least 25 years, the general populace of the earth has a low level of comprehension about the risks and liabilities of genetic engineering and who does or does not benefit this technology. However, my experience has been that this new technology is rejected more often in Third World countries that it is in the United States.

Over the past few decades in the developed world, there has been little attention paid to antitrust law and unprecedented mega-mergers, which have resulted in a handful of multinational corporations becoming firmly entrenched in different segments of the world economy. Nowhere is the concentration more evident than in the chemical, seed, and the genetic engineering field.

This kind of control of food and fiber directly affects all the people of the world. This process has been repeatedly carried out under an orchestrated plan by multinational corporations. In order to achieve control, multinational corporations embark on a long-range mission in the target country. Highly capitalized and politically astute, the goals of companies are accomplished before the members of society in general understand what has happened to them.

It is clear, genetic engineering is a technology is a technology for which there is no necessity. In fact, the risks and liabilities are so great, it is foolhardy to continue to allow the genetic engineering corporations to contaminate the food supply and therefore the food and fiber we all depend on for our food security. Already it is estimated it would take one thousand years for nature to cleanse itself of the genetic pollution present on the earth.

The fact is, genetic engineering corporations have bought up a high percentage of seed companies and seed gene pools in order to force farmers to buy their genetically engineered seeds. Also, in order to capture profits, the corporations produce specific chemicals that will only get the desired result if used in conjunction with their GE seeds. Furthermore, USDA, in conjunction with genetic engineering corporations, continue to invest taxpayer monies in researching Terminator technology, which is a technology that renders sterile the production from a genetically enhanced seed. This process would mean farmers could not replant seed that has been genetically engineered. The technology allows GE corporations to police farmers so they will not replant Terminator seed. Without the ability to save seed, farmers are forced to buy new and expensive GE seeds.

Never before has man had the ability of creation, and it is a certainty genetic engineering does create what has never been before. As difficult as genetic engineering is, it would be much more difficult, in fact impossible, I think, to reverse the process. If humans have gained a certain ability, it does not dictate that we must implement that ability. We could all jump off a tall building, but we understand what the likely result would be. I think the people of the world are presently standing on that building when we consider using genetically engineered products. Many of us will jump, having no idea of what the result will be.

To date, the benefits from genetic engineering have accrued to the multinational corporations that have brought us this technology through profits for themselves. The real truth is that genetically engineered crops cost farmers more and yield less.

The 1996 Freedom to Farm legislation, which is the law implemented by USDA that regulates agriculture, has brought the farmers in the U.S. to their knees. GE only puts farmers further under the control of corporations.

In the past year, subsidies to farmers amounted to twenty-some billion dollars and yet, we continue to lose hundreds of farmers each week. The subsidy is not distributed fairly and furthermore subsidies could never adequately compensate farmers for the losses they suffer by producing below the cost of production. All the while, food processors and multinational corporations reap unprecedented profits.

The recent discovery that corn not approved for human consumption was found in hundreds of processed foods and in exports only adds more problems for family farmers.

Even though I have never produced GE crops, I must suffer the loss of export opportunities because the importing countries of the world do not want to consume genetically engineered food.

It is time family farmers around the world and the consumers come together and demand a food security policy that results in a safe, adequate, reasonably priced food supply with agriculture policy that will perpetuate family farm agriculture, not industrial agriculture.

Bill Christison is a fourth- generation family farmer from Chillicothe, Missouri. Bill and his wife, Dixie, operate a 2,000 acre farm on which they produce soybeans, corn, wheat, hay and cattle. He is also president of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC), a grassroots farm organization with over 4,000 member families. MRCC is a NFFC member group. Bill has served on numerous boards and appointed positions. He has also worked on local, state, and national political campaigns.