Monsanto—an American giant of agricultural produce—has a reputation of producing large amounts of hazardous pollution and dispersing branded herbicides, like Roundup, around the world to make resource-poor countries dependant on Monsanto’s supply of the chemical.
Hybrid seeds donated by Monsanto will allow farmers to grow crops for only one year as the plants do not reproduce, thus making the farmers dependent on buying the same crops the following year.
“The aim of Monsanto is to have complete control of the market, the intention is to open markets all around the world for their plants,” said Brenda Biddle, resource faculty for Evergreen State College.
The MMP is the largest grass-roots organization of Haitians in Port-au-Prince, which helps aid organizations bring food, shelter, and resources to locals. MMP leader, Chavannes said “The Haitian government is using the earthquake to sell the country to the multinationals,” according to AFP.
Monsanto states that there are no business ties with this gift, and the crops grown can bring in a profit for the farmers. Then the money can be used to buy the next batch of seeds, and so create a market.
Some of the seeds shipped to Haiti were treated with pesticides. Karl Tupper, a staff scientist at Pesticide Action Network of North America, explained that once the pesticide-treated crops enter local markets it will be very hard to go back and this crop will harm the soil.
Monsanto wants to drop off the rest of the 475-ton donation over the next 12 months.
“Big companies try to get farmers to grow the crops but it has devastating effects on the local economies,” said Tupper, who added that companies might be donating seeds that are not the best of quality or are banned in the country where they are produced.
However, there is a possibility for light at the end of the tunnel for Haitian agriculture. “They can rebuild their agricultural market” said Biddle.
According to Biddle, Haiti will need help organizing an autonomous farming system that will be able to feed the families first, then the produce can be put on the local market and support whole communities.
Problems of unwanted aid
Monsanto seeds are not the only case of unwanted aid. According to relief workers, Haiti received inappropriate, unsolicited supplies that have become a logistical burden to deal with.
Donations that are not used in time, such as food and foreign medicine, also need to be properly disposed of, which takes time, manpower, and funds.
Claire Durham from the Red Cross, described in her blog how fresh food delivered to Haiti sometimes lays in piles for days and rots, while unnecessary medical supplies are stored for long periods of time and expired.
“Unwanted donations create chaos, waste, and confusion for an already stricken country,” according to Durham.
Many cases have been documented where the intent to support a devastated country is initially good, but in the end does not turn out too well. A similar approach to the problem in Kenya was initiated by research and development organization Drumnet in 2008.
The goal of the program was to establish a market for exporting crops, which would bring in more profit for the country as a whole. A year later, because of a change in E.U. regulations, the exporting company stopped buying the crops. The crops were then undersold on the local market, thus creating loans.
Another example of a failed initiative was in Lesotho, which aimed to help locals manage crops and livestock, and build new roads for market access, according to Give Well, an evaluation site for charity work.
The project fell apart because farmers were few, weather conditions were inept for crop growth, and the roads which were constructed helped foreign markets to establish themselves and put local farmers out of work.
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