[Ngo-sanrm] Fwd: Re: [Vsg] Monsanto and Vietnam National University of Agriculture Collaborate to Develop Talents in Agricultural Biotechnology

Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Working Group ngo-sanrm at ngocentre.org.vn
Sat Oct 25 02:48:48 BST 2014




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-------- Original message --------
From: Vuong Vu-Duc <vuduc.vuong at gmail.com> 
Date: 25/10/2014  08:39  (GMT+07:00) 
To: Jo <ugg-5 at spro.net> 
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg at u.washington.edu> 
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Monsanto and Vietnam National University of Agriculture Collaborate to Develop Talents in Agricultural Biotechnology 
 
Another perspective :


http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25550-china-is-rejecting-gmo-corn-and-that-isnt-good-for-american-farmers

China Is Rejecting GMO Corn and That Isn't Good for American Farmers

13 August 2014                       Anna Brones,

GMOs have become an increasing concern in China. This spring, the Chinese Army banned all GMO grains and oil from its military supply stations. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “because of public concern over health risks and high-level discomfort with China becoming overly reliant on GMO strains developed by foreign companies, China has stopped short of allowing commercial distribution of GMO grains.”

China isn’t the only one. Russia has now announced that it won’t import GMO products, and the United States is having a hard time reaching a trade deal with the European Union because of GMOs




On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Jo <ugg-5 at spro.net> wrote:
Yields doubled for a time, but then began to undouble as the soil lost nutrients, resulting in lack of profits due to more pesticides and fertilizers that had to be purchased and applied to get the same yields.   

See, for example, Bernhard Glaeser, ed. _The Green Revolution Revisited: Critique and Alternatives._ Routledge, 2013.

 

Joanna K.

 

 

From: Vsg [mailto:vsg-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Shawn McHale
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 7:20 PM
To: Andrew Pearson
Cc: VSG Group
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Monsanto and Vietnam National University of Agriculture Collaborate to Develop Talents in Agricultural Biotechnology

 

Andrew, 

 

Complaining about pesticides etc. from the Green Revolution needs to be contextualized. If there were no Green Revolution, Asia would have repeated famines and millions would be dying. FRom 1950 to 1987, rice yields per hectare doubled. Think about that. With the population of Asia inexorably increasing, rice yields doubled. There is no way this would have happened without improvements in rice varieties, varieties that required heavier fertilizer etc. inputs. 

 

Shawn McHale

 

On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Andrew Pearson <pearson.drew at gmail.com> wrote:

On Oct 22, 2014, at 12:59 PM, Ian Coxhead <coxhead at wisc.edu> wrote:

 

You say: Surely this subject deserves deeper consideration and a more moderate tone. 

 

I say: Deeper consideration, certainly. As for tone, Monsanto is an immoderate corporate bully in America and I somehow imagine they don’t intend to behave differently in Vietnam. They sue farmers in the US who dare to think it’s good agricultural practice to save seeds from one crop for the next. Vietnamese are even more economical. Monsanto Hanoi has probably hired it’s lawyers already. With deeper consideration, Monsanto might have decided to spend a billion dollars or so to help set up community health clinics throughout Vietnam for the millions of families they have sickened and damaged with dioxin. 

 

You say: Improved rice cultivars, most of them the result of basic research at International Rice Research Institute (in the Philippines) plus adaptive research with VN institutions, now account for at least 3/4 of Vietnam's rice production. 

 

I say: I remember when this “miracle rice” began to be used in South Vietnam. The farmers had to buy commercial fertilizer and insecticide or the crop failed. Nitrogen and insecticides now pollute waterways. The straw was too short to use as thatch on people’s homes. If not for the war and the tragic rural destruction it brought, I wonder if South Vietnam would have needed to replace its native varieties. 

 

You say: "New" rice cultivars and technologies are a fact of life. It is up to the government and people of Vietnam to decide how to confront the challenges and dilemmas that they present.

 

I say: they exist, these “new” rice cultivars, and so in that sense, they are a fact of life. But they are not inevitable. There are better ways to farm. Especially in Vietnam. The European Union has made different choices and so have a good proportion of US farmers. 

 

You say:  Under (Dr. Vien’s) leadership, VNUA has worked very hard and successfully to create opportunities for its students -- and with notable success, inaugurating English-language degree programs, forming research and teaching partnerships with US universities (including my own), and sending faculty and students to study abroad among other things. To (implicitly) accuse VNUA of being a dupe for Monsanto is unjustified and demeaning. 

 

I say: here’s a good summary of the relationship between Monsanto and US land-grant universities: 

How Your College Is Selling Out to Big Ag

You say: Finally, Vietnam's scarcest resource by far is education. In weighing the Monsanto scholarship program, the gains of educational opportunities for young Vietnamese must be counted along with the risks of engagement with a powerful MNC using controversial technologies. Regardless of how you weigh those things, I don't see how any action now will change the past. 

 

I say: time is short for Vietnamese to realize that the answers to their agricultural future don’t lie with Monsanto.

 

Andrew Pearson

TV news and documentaries during the war

(I’ve also done quite a lot of reporting on agricultural issues in the US)

 

 

 

 


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-- 
Shawn McHale
Associate Professor of History
George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052 USA


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-- 
Vũ-Đức Vượng
Consultant in Education and Culture

Editor,  TRỒNG  NGƯỜI
A Clearinghouse on Educ. in Viet Nam
San Francisco - Sai Gon
http://trongnguoi.net/ban-tin/so-21-july-2014  


Coordinator-Instructor, VIETNAM in VIET-NAM
Summer course of De Anza College

 
 
 
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