http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=870
The US, however, has decided that, despite 10,000 years practice, Iraqis donât know what wheat works best in their own conditions, and would be better off with some new, imported American varieties. Under the guise, therefore, of helping get Iraq back on its feet, the US is setting out to totally reengineer the countryâs traditional farming systems into a US-style corporate agribusiness. Or, as the aforementioned press release from Headquarters United States Command puts it: âMulti-National Forces are currently planting seeds for the future of agriculture in the Ninevah Provinceâ
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Many will be only too willing to abandon their old ways in favour of the new technologies. Out will go traditional methods. In will come imported American seeds (more than likely GM, as Texas A&M's Agriculture Program considers itself âa recognised world leader in using biotechnologyâ). And with the new seeds will come new chemicals â pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, all sold to the Iraqis by corporations such as Monsanto, Cargill and Dow.
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Another point in one of the articles casts further doubt on American intentions. According to the Business Journal, âsix kinds of wheat seeds were developed for the Iraqi endeavour. Three will be used for farmers to grow wheat that is made into pasta; three seed strains will be for breadmaking.â
Pasta? According to the 2001 World Food Programme report on Iraq, âDietary habits and preferences included consumption of large quantities and varieties of meat, as well as chicken, pulses, grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy products.â No mention of lasagne. Likewise, a quick check of the Middle Eastern cookbook on my kitchen shelves, while not exclusively Iraqi, reveals a grand total of no pasta dishes listed within it.
There can be only two reasons why 50 per cent of the grains being developed are for pasta. One, the US intends to have so many American soldiers and businessmen in Iraq that it is orienting the countryâs agriculture around feeding not âStarving Iraqisâ but âOverfed Americansâ. Or, and more likely, because the food was never meant to be eaten inside Iraq at all.
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Just as now in Iraq, Western scientists and corporations arrived clutching new âwonder cropsâ, promising peasant farmers that if they planted these new seeds they would soon be rich.
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