Wake Up and Smell the (GM) Coffee
Quarter page ad in Independent on Sunday by Action Aid 28may01
The GM coffee bean. Could potenetially push 60 million people further into poverty
| What
is GM coffee? A US company called International Coffee Technologies Inc. (ITCI) is developing a technology to control the ripening process of coffee trees. Coffee cherries normally ripen at different times and therefore have to be hand picked, giving absolutely essential jobs to poor people in the developing world. ICTI's GM coffee has had its natural ripening process 'switched off' so that the coffee cherries will only ripen once it is 'switched on' again when sprayed with the chemical ethylene. It is an example of genetic technology being used to chemically control a plant's normal behaviour such as sprouting, flowering and ripening. |
You have been warned:
GM ripening-controlled coffee has some serious side effects. Up to 60 million people could be permanently harmed by drinking it. So what makes GM coffee so destructive?
In nature, coffee beans don't all ripen at the same time, making any mechanised picking inefficient. No wonder then that 70% of all coffee is grown by smallholder farmers in developing countries around the world. Changing the way coffee is grown would wipe out the livelihoods of these poor farmers and push millions of people further into poverty.
Frighteningly, a US company, ICT1, is developing genetically modified coffee beans, which can be made to ripen all at the same time. These GM coffee beans can be sprayed with a chemical which 'switches them on' making them perfect to be mass machine-harvested.
There is no doubt that GM ripening-controlled coffee is being developed for large plantations. They will be able to increase the size of their operations and drastically reduce the size of their workforce.
Up to seven million poor farmers won't be able to afford the chemical or compete with the big companies. As a result many will go out of business, be forced to move their families to the cities in search of work and plunged into conditions of appalling health, squalor and the inescapable unemployment of the urban developing world.
Now, we at ActionAid are not against technology being used to make food more productive, it's just that we are horrified that GM coffee will destroy the lives of poor coffee farmers and their families, rather than improve it.
What can you do? (Apart from getting angry.)
UK supermarkets and coffee retailers have the power to stop the development of GM coffee. They rely on your business and if they know you won't swallow GM coffee, then they won't stock it. There will then be little point in growing it.
As a consumer you have a powerful voice. Use it. Call us today on 0800 482 400 or return the coupon to find out how you can make the UK supermarkets and coffee retailers wake up and smell the GM coffee.
Please send me information on how I can help stop this GM coffee being developed. Or call 0800 482 400 now.
Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms (please print) Address
Postcode
Date of birth (if under 24).
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ActionAid, Freepost BS4868, Ll Chard, Somerset, TA20 1BR Visit us at www.actionaid.org
File courtesy of Norfolk Genetic Information Network (ngin), http://www.ngin.org.uk
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