Uganda: USAID to fund GM cotton trials

Why, you might ask, as I did, is USAID out promoting something that is at best scientifically questionable, economically detrimental, and unwanted by Uganda and the Ugandans? The answer ofcourse lies in that ever faithful clue of follow the money. and if you do that you'll find that Monsanto, Syngenta and their brethren are major funders of USAID and so that also makes them helmsman in a more direct way than i ever fathomed of American foreign policy.I don't know about y'all, ands maybe this was already fairly common knowledge, but the more I learn the angrier I get.
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original-gmwatch

Uganda: USAID to fund GM cotton trials (21/5/2007)

GM WATCH comment: Interesting that USAID is pumping $160,000 into GM cotton trials in Uganda to help improve the competitiveness of Uganda's cotton farmers, given that the US is responsible for impoverishing those same farmers through the massive subsidies it gives to its cotton sector.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3857

The development charity Action Aid costed the impact of the US's over 3 billion+ dollars in cotton subsidies to its farmers - subsidies which even the WTO has ruled to be wrong.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200406170658.html

With the US accounting for bearly a third of the world's cotton exports, the World Bank found that an end to all forms of global protection would increase cotton prices by an average of 12.7% over a 10-year period.

The largest gains would go to Africa, with exports increased by an average of 12.6%. This is because production costs in Africa are amongst the lowest in the world and the cotton quality very high, making African producers potentially some of the most competitive global players.
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complete article including links to other sources here

Just what the continent of Africa needs...GM cotton to screw up their already-damaged environment... greedy bastard corporations, especially Monsanto...uck.