Stories written by Peter Rosset
Peter Rosset is the author of World Hunger: Twelve Myths, Food is Different, and A New Green Revolution for Africa? He is currently a Visiting Scholar in Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California at Berkeley.

GATES HUNGER PLAN IN AFRICA IS WRONG APPROACH

By Peter Rosset and - -
The Gates-Rockefeller initiative to bring a \'new\' Green Revolution to Africa ignores the lessons of the failures of the first Green Revolution, which caused worse hunger and environmental degradation, writes Peter Rosset, author of World Hunger: Twelve Myths, Food is Different, and A New Green Revolution for Africa? (forthcoming), and Visiting Scholar in Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California at Berkeley. In this article, Rosset writes that free-trade agreements have made it easier for private traders to import subsidised food from the US and the EU than to negotiate with local farmers, driving local farm prices below the cost of production and farmers into urban slums in search of low wage jobs. African farmers could easily produce far more food than they do at present but don\'t because they cannot get credit to cover production costs, obtain fair prices that would give them a minimum profit margin, or find buyers. Under such circumstances, what difference could a new \'\'technology package\'\' make? They still could neither afford the inputs, sell what they grow, nor make a living as farmers. Not to mention the severe environmental and human health risks of genetic engineering technology.

UK STUDY FINDS NEW RISKS IN GENETICALLY-ENGINEERED CROPS

By Peter Rosset and - -
A major new study on the environmental impact of genetically- engineered (GE) crops adds yet another concern to the growing list of ecological risks associated with transgenic crops, writes Peter Rosset, biologist and co-director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First, based in the USA. In this article, Rosset writes that the study found that there were very serious impacts on biodiversity. In two of the three crops studied, herbicide use drastically affected plant biodiversity and consequently also had very negative affects on birds, bees, and butterflies. This raises the spectre of widespread above-ground ecosystem disruption in areas with broad use of herbicide-tolerant crops. Each new study adds new risks to an already overflowing list. In many cases these are risks --like lower soil fertility, reduced natural population control of pests, and loss of local varieties-- that will effect poor farmers more severely than wealthy farmers and threaten their livelihoods. The question is, when will governments ban international trade and planting of these unnecessary and dangerous crop varieties? the author asks.
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