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Brave New World - guess what's coming to dinner

What have been the results of the GM experiment in North America?

Yields fell - Roundup Ready soybeans yield 6-11 per cent less than conventional varieties.
1. Herbicide use increased.
2. Gene Pollution. Farmers who didn't buy GM seeds found that cross-pollination had contaminated their crops anyway.
3. Litigation proliferated. Monsanto sent investigators into fields to snip leaf samples from crops. Their lawyers would then sue farmers who had traces of Monsanto's DNA growing in their fields. Some farmers hired their own analysts and proved that Monsanto's claims were groundless. (This led to a state law in North Dakota requiring that a state analyst must accompany seed company investigators). Most farmers, when faced with the threat of protracted legal action, meekly paid over $10,000 or so to Monsanto and signed a confidentiality agreement promising not to divulge the terms of the compromise.
4. Rogue herbicide-resistant oilseed rape plants emerged that were immune to three different herbicide groups. Farmers are forced to use more toxic older pesticides such as paraquat to get rid of them.
5. Contamination of non-GM crops undermined their value. The Starlink fiasco, in which an unapproved corn variety contaminated nearly half the American corn supply, cost the owners of the seed, Aventis, $1bn paid out in compensation.
6. Export markets collapsed and prices fell. It is estimated that GM crops cost US farmers $12 billion between 1999 and 2001. There are nearly two million farmers in the US; in 2002 they will require subsidies of over 150 billion dollars, or $75000 per farmer.
7. Organic farmers suffered. In Saskatchewan farmers have given up growing organic oilseed rape because of contamination. The global market for GM seeds, for which no consumer demand exists, is $3.7 billion. The global market for organic food, for which real demand exists, is $20 billion.
8. Farmer groups across North America are united in opposition to the introduction of GM wheat, fearing even worse problems with an important export crop
9. Under pressure from consumers and farmers, legislation has been introduced into the US Congress to provide for GM labelling, to assign legal liability for the costs of GM disasters to the biotech companies and to protect farmers from legal harassment.