STOP THE EU FROM BACKING DOWN ON GM FOOD

Liquid Ross

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Dear Friends,

The European Commission is attempting to overturn bans on genetically
modified (GM) food and crops that Austria, France, Greece, Germany and
Luxembourg put in place to protect its citizens and the environment.
On 29 November the Commission will ask all EU member states to vote
against these bans. If the European Commission gets its way, these five countries
will have to lift their bans and allow more risky GM products into their
countries. The move is yet another case of the Commission acting under
pressure from the US led trade dispute at the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). A pro biotech decision would also send a worldwide signal to
other countries not to ban GM crops.

STOP THE EU FROM BACKING DOWN ON GM FOOD UNDER WTO PRESSURE
Please take action by sending a letter, fax or email to your
Environment Minister today, demanding them to vote NO! to proposals by the
European Commission to end national bans on risky GM food! Email your minister
at http://www.foeeurope.org/dont_put_my_health_at_risk


Best wishes,

Jane Hutchings

New Economics & Trade Team
Friends of the Earth
 
Thanks for posting this one, it's a lot more important than most realise. The gradual creeping in of more GMO ingredients into our lives is something that really does need to be kept on top of. It's quite typical that the American government doesn't see this as the health issue it is for us (they've already signed away all rights for their own people after all) but as a trade issue for them to be whinging about.

Moving slightly off topic here...

Did you know that in 13 American states it's now illegal to libel foods unless you have empirical scientific proof. Meaning that to stand outside a Mcdonalds/Burger King and tell people that the burgers are not really good for you is illegal and an arrestable offence, unless you happen to back it up completely with proven scientific facts. You cannot warn a person of the possible dangers of eating a product unless you have absolute proof. This is an extremely effective way of removing almost all food scares from the public knowledge. Now how's that for evidence of the power of industrial lobbying. :(
 
I recall reading something about the new Iraqi government mandating a gradual shift to Monsanto-only crops for farmers - no traditional-style seed-saving will be permitted.

J.
 
Bastards! There goes any chance of the country being able to maintain it's own food supplies without outside "help" in the future. Doing away with, criminalising in some cases, seed saving is a fantastic way to bring a country into a totally dependent relationship with the country (USA) supplying the fresh and approved seeds each year.

Further evidence of the obvious independence of the Iraqi government. :sad:
 
hmmmm?

i understand that GM could possible unbalance ecology and ecosystems but what if someone invented giant vegtables that could grow in the desert? wouldn't that kick ass as far as feeding third world countries goes. i mean what if they said (in the past) "lets not continue psytrance.... "popular knowledge" dictates that drugs might send people crazy and we wounldn't want to fuck upmental ecosystems and ecology" THAT WOULD SUCK WOULDN'T IT?

anyway. i was just wondering because i was thinking about going to work for greenpeace but then thought about this GM food thing and wasn't so sure i should work for them (even though they have some great ideas and views).

what do you think?

and what are good causes to volunteer for? i have some free time.

plur

ewsibtsoou

nick
 
I totally support GM food. Aside from radical population control methods this is the only way we can possibly hope to feed our burgeoning (and to a large extent, starving) world population. If only the energy currently being invested in demonising GM were to be used in educating people about contraception instead this need would be reduced, but not eliminated. There's just too many of us. When the human population first began growing out of control, intensive farming practices were developed for the same reason. These have been extremely damaging to the environment in many ways, fertiliser run-off/production of greenouse gases by livestock to name two, and are no longer sufficient. Overpopulation is the problem, and no talk about sustainable farming or how 'at one with nature' various cultures supposedly were in the past will change that (if there had been 100 million Native Americans then you can guarantee they would not have been viewed so favourably, they would have destroyed forests and wiped out species too). The choice as I see it is stark; allowing GM food is the most palatable option (compared with letting millions more people starve than are doing so already), but will only provide symptomatic relief for a while.
 
:dito: I'm all for it - the advantages it has to offer are numerous. Pestilance-resistant crops etc
 
GM food

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 2:19 am Post subject:

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I've eaten GM food most of my life, and its done me no harm. Everything people do on this planet is harmful to it. cars, houses, electricty... the human race fucks up the planet by its very nature. We don't have enough space left to farm for the world without making better use of the space we've got... bigger, cheaper, more reliable crops... where is the bad?

:peace:

Feed the world- any way you can...
 
Destabilise the ecology of the planet?

6 billion homo sapiens are accomplishing that perfectly well with or without GM. :no:
 
The danger of GM crops at the present time is that large companies like Mosanto (that JPDelicacy mentioned before) are promoting seeds that lead to STERILE plants so that they can protect their patent (and obviously maximise their profit). Imagine the consenquences of a whole country in post-war development being 100% dependant on import of seeds annually...

GM crops promise very important developments in agriculture in the future. The point is that like any drastic new technology the pace of advance MUST be kept slower than what massive multinational agricultural companies want it to be. May I remind readers that a lot of the "scientific" papers published on serious journals, supporting the case of GM crops have been funded by the same agricultural companies that produce them...
 
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