Corporate candyland – The looming GM sugar cane invasion
Seedling, April 2009
One of the most destructive developments in agriculture over the past two
decades has been the boom in soya production in the southern cone of Latin
America. The corporations that led that boom are now moving aggressively
into sugar cane, focusing on large tracts of land in southern countries where
sugar can be produced cheaply. If these developments are not resisted, the
impacts are likely to be severe: local food production will be overrun, workers
and communities will face displacement and exposure to increased levels of
pesticides, and foreign agribusiness will tighten its grip on sugar production.
We look at the intersection between the development of genetically modified
(GM) sugar cane and transformations in the global sugar industry.