Monsanto's Seed Donation to Haiti May Come With Strings Attached

I'm getting a little nervous I might be on Monsanto's hit list, mostly because love to hate on them so much. Today I'm questioning the true benevolence behind the company's recent donation of $4 million worth of seeds (about 475 tons) to promote agricultural development in hunger-stricken Haiti. I'm not going to go completely doomsday on the idea just yet, because I hate to be the kind of person who calls for the re-development of Haiti's agricultural sector and then shuns the first company to rise to the occasion.

But Monsanto's track record with small farmers leaves a lot to be desired. Aside from questions on the safety of its GMO seeds, the company has a very restrictive policy on how farmers use its products and notoriously sues farmers whose crops were cross-contaminated with its seeds. I'm definitely waiting to see what the catch is with this seed donation thing, and I'm not the only one.

One of Haiti's own peasant farmer activists, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), is already at work organizing a protest against the donation, threatening to burn the donated seeds. MPP is concerned that the introduction of new seeds will undermine the development of local seed stocks and create dependence on imported seeds, a valid concern given Monsanto's history. Civil Eats, a food politics site, has an incisive list of questions for Monsanto on this very topic.

As far as I can tell, the scales are tipped in the direction of "things going awry" with this donation. True, Monsanto promised not to donate genetically modified seeds, as they are unpopular among farmers and the country has no policy regarding their use. Instead, they're donating hybrid seeds, which produce high yields but have to be re-purchased every year. Does that mean Monsanto's going to donate $4 million worth of seeds to Haiti annually? My guess is probably not. Furthermore, the "free" seeds aren't actually free—farmers will still need to purchase them "to avoid flooding the local economy with free goods, but Monsanto will not receive any revenue from the sales," a Monsanto rep told Business Week. And finally, hybrid seeds often require heavy pesticide treatments, which can be prohibitively expensive, not to mention toxic. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this particular horse seems suspiciously Trojan.

Photo via Dreamstime.