<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div><div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:75%;color:#575757">Sent from Samsung Mobile</div></div></div><br><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Vuong Vu-Duc <vuduc.vuong@gmail.com> <br>Date: 25/10/2014 08:39 (GMT+07:00) <br>To: Jo <ugg-5@spro.net> <br>Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu> <br>Subject: Re: [Vsg] Monsanto and Vietnam National University of Agriculture Collaborate to Develop Talents in Agricultural Biotechnology <br> <br><br><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Another perspective :<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25550-china-is-rejecting-gmo-corn-and-that-isnt-good-for-american-farmers">http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/25550-china-is-rejecting-gmo-corn-and-that-isnt-good-for-american-farmers</a>
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<h2><span style="font-size:16pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;color:black">China Is Rejecting GMO Corn and That Isn't Good for
American Farmers </span><span class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class=""><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">13 August 2014 </span></span><span class=""><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"> </span></span><span class=""><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/49549"><span style="color:windowtext">Anna Brones</span></a>, </span></span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman',serif"></span></p>
<p>GMOs
have become an increasing concern in China. This spring, the Chinese Army <a href="http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/05/14/chinese-army-bans-gmo-grains-oil-supply-stations/#.U-B_f4CSxYU" target="_blank">banned all GMO grains and oil</a> from its military supply
stations. As the <em><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/05/14/claims-that-u-s-soybeans-cause-infertility-stoke-chinas-gmo-battle/">Wall
Street Journal</a></em> 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.”</p>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif">China isn’t the only one. Russia has now
announced that it <a href="http://rt.com/news/russia-import-gmo-products-621/#Monsanto" target="_blank">won’t import GMO products</a>, and the United States is having
a hard time reaching a <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/sections/trade-industry/us-wants-science-settle-gmo-debate-trade-deal-eu-302876" target="_blank">trade deal with the European Union because of GMOs</a></span><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 11:33 AM, Jo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ugg-5@spro.net" target="_blank">ugg-5@spro.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">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. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">See, for example, Bernhard Glaeser, ed. _<i>The Green Revolution Revisited: Critique and Alternatives.</i>_ Routledge, 2013.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Joanna K.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"> <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Vsg [mailto:<a href="mailto:vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu" target="_blank">vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Shawn McHale<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 23, 2014 7:20 PM<br><b>To:</b> Andrew Pearson<br><b>Cc:</b> VSG Group<span class=""><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Vsg] Monsanto and Vietnam National University of Agriculture Collaborate to Develop Talents in Agricultural Biotechnology<u></u><u></u></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">Andrew, <u></u><u></u></p><div><div class="h5"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Shawn McHale<u></u><u></u></p></div></div></div></div><div><div class="h5"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Andrew Pearson <<a href="mailto:pearson.drew@gmail.com" target="_blank">pearson.drew@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">On Oct 22, 2014, at 12:59 PM, Ian Coxhead <<a href="mailto:coxhead@wisc.edu" target="_blank">coxhead@wisc.edu</a>> wrote:<u></u><u></u></p><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><div><p class="MsoNormal">You say: Surely this subject deserves deeper consideration and a more moderate tone. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">I say: here’s a good summary of the relationship between Monsanto and US land-grant universities: <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><h2><span style="font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/forward/emailref?path=node/175371" target="_blank">How Your College Is Selling Out to Big Ag</a><u></u><u></u></span></h2><div><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p></div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">I say: time is short for Vietnamese to realize that the answers to their agricultural future don’t lie with Monsanto.<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">Andrew Pearson<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">TV news and documentaries during the war<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888">(I’ve also done quite a lot of reporting on agricultural issues in the US)<u></u><u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#888888"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><br>_______________________________________________<br>Vsg mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Vsg@u.washington.edu" target="_blank">Vsg@u.washington.edu</a><br><a href="http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/vsg" target="_blank">http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/vsg</a><u></u><u></u></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br><br clear="all"><u></u><u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><p class="MsoNormal">-- <br>Shawn McHale<br>Associate Professor of History<br>George Washington University<br>Washington, DC 20052 USA<u></u><u></u></p></div></div></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Vũ-Đức Vượng<br>Consultant in Education and Culture<br><br>Editor, TRỒNG NGƯỜI<br>A Clearinghouse on Educ. in Viet Nam<br>San Francisco - Sai Gon<br><u><a href="http://trongnguoi.net/ban-tin/so-21-july-2014" target="_blank">http://trongnguoi.net/ban-tin/so-21-july-2014</a> </u><br><br><br>Coordinator-Instructor, VIETNAM in VIET-NAM<br>Summer course of De Anza College<br><br> <br> <br> </div>
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