Who are the big winners and losers?
In general, the large agro-chemical transnationals have reported enormous profits by encouraging the use of GMOs. The most probable losers, in the mid and long term, will be the small and mid size campesinos, who will not have the resources to acquire the improved varieties, and will, therefore, lose their ability to compete with agro-business. They could even lose control over the sale and distribution of the GMOs they do decide to plant, although the problem of the hoarding of campesinos’ products is not a problem exclusively of the transgenetics. As an example, a US company is experimenting with a variety of coffee that will grow already decaffeinated on the bush. By not having to decaffeinate the bean through a relatively costly process – that uses chemicals that are damaging to the environment – a significant increase in sales can be predicted, through the reduction in costs, as well as through the appeal of not using chemicals in the extraction. If the large company is controllin
