Discussions and debates about GMOs often focus on the impacts on everyday shoppers and eaters. However, some of the most profound effects occur much earlier in the food chain. What do GMO crops mean for the people who produce our food? This article highlights the financial, environmental and human costs of GMOs — and who truly benefits from them.

GMOs erode farmer rights, autonomy and knowledge

For as long as we've been practicing agriculture, farmers have held tremendous expertise. They are seed breeders and stewards, passing down irreplaceable knowledge about their trade. GMO seeds, once marketed to farmers as agricultural solutions, erode this autonomy in several ways:

• GMO costs — Patented GMO seed must be purchased from the distributor each year, undermining seed-saving traditions and driving up costs for farmers. The herbicides that go hand-in-hand with GMO seeds and the chemical fertilizers needed to grow them also add to costs while boosting corporate profits.
• Environmental impacts — Increased pesticide use associated with GMO crops drives the emergence of "superweeds" and "superbugs," leading farmers to adopt ever more toxic formulations in an attempt to get ahead of the issue. Pollen or seed from GMO crops can contaminate neighboring farms and herbicides applied to GMO crops can drift, decimating non-GMO farms and public lands.
• Community impacts — Farmers' traditional roles as knowledge-keepers and seed savers is usurped by corporations that replace local expertise with proprietary product bundles. GMO contamination can ignite disputes between GMO and non-GMO growers in agricultural communities, and, in regions where seed-sharing builds community, patented seeds fracture traditional social systems.

How do GMOs impact farmworkers’ health and safety?

Farmworkers are skilled laborers performing difficult, demanding and sometimes dangerous work. GMOs can augment on-the-job risks by increasing chemical exposure and promoting economic inequality. 

• Chemical exposure — Herbicide-tolerant GMOs have led to a dramatic rise in chemical use, and farmworkers are often tasked with applying these chemicals or working in treated fields. This exposure leads to negative health outcomes among farmworkers, such as increased cancer and reproductive harm. 
• Lack of protection — In the US, protections for marginalized farmworkers are insufficient. In the Global South, safeguards may be weaker still. Workers who lack basic rights, legal support or protective equipment are especially vulnerable on the job.
• Trickle-down inequality — Farm owners and operators feeling the financial strain of increased costs and diminished profits may end up providing lower wages and harsher conditions to laborers.

Who really benefits from GMO crops?

The main beneficiaries of the GMO experiment are the corporations that develop, patent and sell GMO seeds and their related chemicals. Restrictive use agreements prohibit farmers from saving seeds, while biodiversity loss and declining soil health makes farms more dependent on chemical “solutions." It’s a system designed to serve shareholder dividends, not people or the planet.

A brighter future

It isn't just about the products on grocery store shelves. The issues around GMOs reveal the hidden costs of cheap commodity crops and the ultimate cost of corporate greed. However, we all have a role to play in building a better food system. Here's what you can do:

• Get to know agroecology — Rooted in diversity, resilience and knowledge-sharing, agroecology is a philosophy of food production that places life above corporate profits, and values community, tradition and ecological health over chemical inputs.
• Shop your values — The Non-GMO Project Verified seal is one of the certifications shoppers look for to support a more transparent, resilient food system — there are more! Fairtrade certification helps protect farmers and workers and ensure fair wages; the Regenerative Organic label builds on the best of the organic movement by seeking to regenerate soil health and support social fairness.
• Voices to follow — Check out the good work done by some of our fellow organizations, and follow them on social media. A Growing Culture highlights the innovations and struggles of the smallholder farmers who produce most of the global food supply. United Farm Workers of America elevates the work and stories of those frequently overlooked contributors to our economy. Civil Eats explores how food and policy intersect, shaping the daily experience of everyone from kids in school cafeterias to family farmers making ends meet. And, IFOAM Organics International connects farmers to bring true sustainability to agriculture around the globe — follow the hashtag #IGrowYourFood for farmer-led solutions and stories.

Reframing the food system

The GMO issue reveals a question at the heart of agricultural practice: Do we want a food system designed to nourish life or to maximize profits? 

Every meal we eat depends on the dedication of farmers and farmworkers — that's three times a day when their unseen labor sustains us. We can return the favor by choosing non-GMO, advocating for fairness and amplifying farmers' voices.

In short, we choose to feed people instead of corporations.