Pope Francis waving to a crowd

Pope Francis Slams Biotech Industry and GMOs in World Food Day Letter

Pope Francis has made his strongest attack yet on genetically modified plants and animals (GMOs) and the Biotech Industry (which includes companies such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, Du Pont, Syngenta and ChemChina), in a letter to the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Professor José Graziano da Silva on World Food Day.

October 17, 2016 | Source: Sustainable Pulse | by

Pope Francis has made his strongest attack yet on genetically modified plants and animals (GMOs) and the Biotech Industry (which includes companies such as Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, Du Pont, Syngenta and ChemChina), in a letter to the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Professor José Graziano da Silva on World Food Day.

Pope Francis developed his official criticism of the Biotech Industry and GMOs, which began in 2015.

On Sunday, World Food Day, Pope Francis stated;

“From the wisdom of rural communities we can learn a style of life that can help defend us from the logic of consumerism and production at any cost, a logic that, cloaked in good justifications, such as the increasing population, is in reality aimed solely at the increase of profit. In the sector in which the FAO works, there is a growing number of people who believe they are omnipotent, or able to ignore the cycles of the seasons and to improperly modify the various animal and plant species, leading to the loss of variety that, if it exists in nature, has and must have its role. Producing qualities that may give excellent results in the laboratory may be advantageous for some, but have ruinous effects for others. And the principle of caution is not enough, as very often it is limited to not allowing something to be done, whereas there is a need to act in a balanced and honest way. Genetic selection of a quality of plant may produce impressive results in terms of yield, but have we considered the terrain that loses its productive capacity, farmers who no longer have pasture for their livestock, and water resources that become unusable? And above all, do we ask if and to what extent we contribute to altering the climate?

“Not precaution, then, but wisdom: what peasants, fisherman and farmers conserve in memory handed down through the generations and which is now derided and forgotten by a model of production that is entirely to the advantage of a limited group and a tiny portion of the world population. Let us remember that it is a model which, despite all its science, allows around eight hundred million people to continue to go hungry.”