Recent news of Impact of meat industry on the environment

[thehat]

Hello everyone,

 

Hare Krishna.

 

I was wondering if some of you may be able to help me track down a relevant/recent issue (no older than 6 months) that relates to the meat industry and it's impact on the environment (e.g. pollution, waste products, environmental problems etc).

The reason I ask is so that I may utilize the themes of the issue to write a comprehensive ethical analysis in essay form for my university assignment.

 

I spent some time browsing these forums as well as searching them but was unable to find anything recent.

Has anyone seen or heard of some environmental issues recently that can be linked to the meat industry?

 

Thank you all very much.

 

Haribol

[weallshineon]

http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp

[bija]

hey hat IM suchandra...he is up to date with news and all that...he may be able to help

[bhaktajan]

 

Hare Krishna.

 

to help me track down meat industry and it's impact

 

Haribol

 

We Hare Krishna's see war-ignorance-hypocracy-foolish karma all arising with animal slaughter -- it is my wish that those who are leaders in world culture should begin to curb the appetite for flesh starting at home, hearth and scripture: to that end I think this organisation [link shown below] will have people who are savvy and up to date with the dire need to stop animal slaughter.

[below is an excerpt from their site. BTW this Site was all first posted by Suchandra on an other thread]

 

 

http://www.jewishveg.com/index.html

--------

Judaism, Vegetarianism, and Animals

Hebrew translation | French translation

JEWISH TEACHINGS ON ANIMALS

"G-d's tender mercies are over all His creatures." (Psalms 145:9).

"The righteous person regards the life of their animal." (Proverbs 12:10)

"It is prohibited to kill an animal with its young on the same day, in order that people should be restrained and prevented from killing the two together in such a manner that the young is slain in the sight of the mother; for the pain of animals under such circumstances is very great. There is no difference in this case between the pain of people and the pain of other living beings, since the love and the tenderness of the mother for her young ones is not produced by reasoning but by feeling, and this faculty exists not only in people but in most living creatures." (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 3:48)

"Here you are faced with G-d's teaching, which obliges you not only to refrain from inflicting unnecessary pain on any animal, but to help and, when you can, to lessen the pain whenever you see an animal suffering, even through no fault of yours." (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Horeb, Chapter 60, Section 416)

The Hebrew term nefesh chaya ("living soul") was applied in Genesis (1:21, 1:24) to animals as well as people. Moses and King David were deemed suitable for leadership because of their compassionate treatment of sheep in their care. Rebecca was judged suitable as Isaac's wife because of her kindness in watering the ten camels of Eliezer, Abraham's servant Rabbi Judah, the Prince, redactor of the Mishna was stricken with pain by the hand of Heaven for many years for his callous treatment of a calf on the way to slaughter.

According to the Ten Commandments, animals as well as people are to rest on the Sabbath day (Exodus 20:8-10, Deuteronomy 5:12-14). According to Rashi, this means that animals should be free to roam on the Sabbath day and to graze freely.

The daily morning services contains the following statement: "Blessed is the One (G-d) Who has compassion on all creatures". There are many other statements in the Jewish tradition about G-d's compassion and concern for all of His creatures. And Judaism teaches that people are to emulate this divine compassion.

REALITIES OF MODERN ANIMAL AGRICULTURE

While the Jewish tradition stresses compassion for animals and commands that we strive to avoid causing them pain (tsa’ar ba’alei chayim), the conditions under which animals are raised for food today are quite different from any the Torah would endorse.

 

• Chickens are raised for slaughter entirely indoors under intense crowding, genetically and hormonally manipulated, living in their filth, breathing contaminated air, virtually all suffering respiratory problems and leg deformities.
  
• Egg laying chickens are packed 4-7 to an 18 by 20 inch wire cage, unable to move about, stretch their wings, or perform any of their natural instincts. They cannot stand comfortably on the wire floor, and excrement falls on birds in cages below. Before slaughter, 88% suffer broken bones. Their beaks are cut with a hot knife, causing such pain that many cannot eat and starve.
  
• Daily, over a half million male chicks, useless to the egg industry, are disposed of by stuffing them into plastic bags, where they are crushed and suffocated to death.
  
• Cows are routinely castrated, branded, and have their horns torn out or gouged out, all without anesthetics.
  
• To produce pate de fois gras, ducks and geese are force-fed four <!--six to seven-->pounds of grain <!--three times a day-->with an air-driven feeder tube. The bird suffers unimaginable pain. Finally, after 25 days of such agony, when the bird is completely stupefied with pain and unable to move, it is killed and the gigantic liver, considered a delicacy at ten times its normal size, is removed. Israel was one of the world's leading exporters of fois gras until the country's Supreme Court banned foie gras production for its cruelty, starting in 2005.
  
• Dairy cows are typically tied in place, impregnated every year, and have their calves removed immediately after birth, to be raised as veal.
  
• Veal calves are locked in a small, dark, slotted stall without space to turn around, stretch, or even lie down. To obtain the pale, tender flesh desired by consumers, veal producers purposely keep the calf anemic with a special high-calorie, iron-free diet. They tie the calf’s head to the stall to prevent him from licking the iron fittings on the stall and his own urine to satisfy his intense craving for iron.

"It seems doubtful from all that has been said whether the Torah would sanction 'factory farming,' which treats animals as machines, with apparent insensitivity to their natural needs and instincts." (Rabbi Aryeh Carmell, Masterplan: Its Programs, Meanings, Goals, Feldheim, 1991, p. 69).

". . . the current treatment of animals in the livestock trade definitely renders the consumption of meat as halachically unacceptable as the product of illegitimate means". (Rabbi David Rosen, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, Rabbis and Vegetarianism, Micah Pub., 1995, p.53.)

 

 

Back to Jewish Vegetarianism

 

[suchandra]

 

hey hat IM suchandra...he is up to date with news and all that...he may be able to help

Thanks Bija but this is a very complex situation and so far I don't think that there're any accurate global figures. Statistics is a main factor when writing such a paper. One probably has to go through all the nations and find the details to make a presentation. Graphic below says, world production of beef is approx. 50 mio metric tons, pork almost 100 mio metric tons.

A recent broadcast said how things are unclear when just looking at Vietnam. They produced 2007 almost 5 million tons of fish and shrimp in the aquaculture sector. But then WWF says, the main producers of aquaculture fish is South America, Canada and Norway.

 

 

Global beef, pork, poultry

 

 

Then there're reports from Africa how there's a huge development in aquaculture going on.

 

SPECIES: TILAPIA, CATFISH.

COUNTRY: UGANDA, AFRICA.

SOURCE: NEW VISION - 2008-05-30

Two investors from the USA and New Zealand have invested over USD 500

000 into an aquaculture project and have already stocked 40 000 tilapia fry

in the eight fish ponds in Nakasongola district. The goal is to boost the

local economy by producing and exporting 300 tonnes of tilapia and catfish

per year, reports New Vision. The farm project will train more local

farmers to be part of Uganda’s aquaculture industry, said investors Rand

Blair, managing director at the Ekitangaala Fish Farms (EFF) project, and

Robert Cook of International Aquaculture.

Global marine fish catch - probably 2008 also at the 100 mio tons:

 

 

[bhaktajan]

 

• "Deconstructing Twinkie" —by Steve Ettlinger

 

• "Fast Food Nation" —by Eric Schlosser [also made into a cinema film]

 

• "The end of Food" —by Thomas F. Pawlick

 

• "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food." — by Ann N. Martin.

 

• "The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health" —by Christopher Vasey, ND

[Health Effects of Acid-Alkaline PH in the Diet]

 

• "Super Size Me" — by Morgan Spurlock [cinema film]

Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time period (February 2003) during which he subsists

entirely on food and items purchased exclusively from McDonald's, and the film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well- being and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. [wikipedia]

 

• Reference this man Gary Null:

Gary Null ( http://www.garynull.com ) is a talk radio host and author on alternative and complementary medicine, and nutrition in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He is also a social critic of psychiatry and conventional medicine. He is the owner of the supplement and media company Gary Null & Associates, Inc. He was raised in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">West Virginia</st1:place></st1:State> with his brother. [wikipedia]

Excerpt: ( http://www.gnhealth.com/articles/whichArticle.php?article=86 )

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">GARY</st1:City></st1:place> NULL: I'd like to welcome you to this program.

Today part one of an original in depth investigative report: Meat, Protein, and Unraveling the Myths. Most people claim that we live in a violent world, but they are not violent.

Do you believe that there is a violence connected to things that we are not directly imparting to another person or an animal?

Let me give you an example. Does that make you violent if what you're doing or consuming was in itself violence against another? Imagine for a moment being hung up and unable to move because your body has been paralyzed by an electric shock. Then while you're still conscious your throat is cut.

This is how 15 million pigs die each year along with the other cattle that are over 214 million. Now you may not be concerned about pigs because of the stereotypes that we carry around with us, but pigs are intelligent. They're sensitive and highly social animals. They are functionally equivalent to human infants in both intelligence and capacity to suffer.

[bija]

I don't know whether to life or cry jan...Deconstructing Twinkie:P

 

A few weeks ago here on Tv they had a Jamie Oliver special on the chicken

industry. It was unconvincing in some ways because it still promoted slaughter - but two things did make impact for me:

 

The chickens in the mass production farm where very tormented, sick, looking creatures, almost like a twisted horror movie. And also to see what by-product things like hotdogs are made from.

 

I have one little Jack Russel/Foxie dog...weaned him as vegetarian but fell back in practice at one point. After watching Jamie's show I will never have dog meat in my house. I would be responsible for such cruelty I feel.

 

Infact it is interesting watching this dog eat. When he is given wet meat dogfood he gulps - all over in a second. Really beastly. But now he has the maha-prasadam and some vegan dry biscuits. He seems to enjoy the prasadam alot, and his eating style is mellow. He will even pick out green vegies such as brussel sprouts first, as if they encourage his palate.

 

The meat dog food must be full of filth, because his coat is dull on that diet, and other problems. On the prasadam diet, after a few weeks, the little fella's coat glows, and soft and oily.

 

What to say of the feeling of no meat in my house - there is enough karma going on.

 

thx for the book list

[bija]

I dont know about new zealand hat, but the cattle and sheep industry and other farming practices seems to be devastating for australia. Now that we have rivers dying like the Murray river, things dont look to good for this fragile land. Maybe oneday the farming and consumer practice will have to change, or perish. I am not so well studied on all this, but do live low consumer lifestyle, with very little waste.

[thehat]

Hey thanks guys for all of your kind responses. I have to get ready for a class now but I'll read over all your comments more thoroughly when I return.

I'll just mention now though; I'll be writing this essay from the point of view of two moral theories namely "Act Utilitarianism" and "Virtue Ethics". I'm unable to raise moral questions in the issue and combat them from the view of any other philosophy such as Bhagavad-Gita etc. That is the difficulty. The two ethic theories I have to use are quite ridiculous. But it can be done.

 

Thanks all for your help I greatly appreciate it. It appears as if there's a lot of information on the internet relating to the meat industry and the problems it causes, however nothing seems to be new. The difficulty is in tracking down articles no older than January 1st 2008.

 

Anyhow thanks all, I look forward to reading your comments properly when I return.

 

Haribol

[bija]

Was listening to the radio the other day and utilitarian was mentioned...wondered what that word means? Maybe you are the person to share a little definition:).

[thehat]

 

Was listening to the radio the other day and utilitarian was mentioned...wondered what that word means? Maybe you are the person to share a little definition:).

 

this would actually make a good separate topic for discussion.

 

Act utilitarianism is a utilitarian theory of ethics which states that the morally right action is the one which produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Act utilitarianism is opposed to rule utilitarianism, which states that the morally right action is the one that is in accordance with a moral rule whose general observance would create the most happiness. Act utilitarianism makes no appeals to general rules, but instead demands that the agent evaluate individual circumstances.

 

Utilitarianism

 

<dl><dd> Main article: Utilitarianism

</dd></dl> Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory, which means that it stipulates that the morality of an action is determined by its outcome. (This is opposed to deontology, which argues that moral actions should flow from duties or motives.) This consequentialism is then combined with philosophical hedonism, which posits happiness or pleasure as the ultimate worthwhile pursuit. Therefore, since only the consequences of an action matter, and only happiness matters, then the morally correct action in any situation is the one that results in the greatest sum of happiness or pleasure.

 

 

source: Wikipedia

[suchandra]

 

• "Deconstructing Twinkie" —by Steve Ettlinger

• "Fast Food Nation" —by Eric Schlosser [also made into a cinema film]

• "The end of Food" —by Thomas F. Pawlick

• "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food." — by Ann N. Martin.

• "The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health" —by Christopher Vasey, ND

[Health Effects of Acid-Alkaline PH in the Diet]

• "SuperSizeMe" — by Morgan Spurlock [cinema film]

Spurlock's film follows a 30-day time period (February 2003) during which he subsists

entirely on food and items purchased exclusively from McDonald's, and the film documents this lifestyle's drastic effects on Spurlock's physical and psychological well- being and explores the fast food industry's corporate influence, including how it encourages poor nutrition for its own profit. [wikipedia]

• Reference this man Gary Null:

Gary Null ( http://www.garynull.com ) is a talk radio host and author on alternative and complementary medicine, and nutrition in the ffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He is also a social critic of psychiatry and conventional medicine. He is the owner of the supplement and media company GaryNull & Associates, Inc. He was raised in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">West Virginia</st1:place></st1:state> with his brother. [wikipedia]

Excerpt: ( http://www.gnhealth.com/articles/whichArticle.php?article=86 )

<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">GARY</st1:city></st1:place> NULL: I'd like to welcome you to this program.

Today part one of an original in depth investigative report: Meat, Protein, and Unraveling the Myths. Most people claim that we live in a violent world, but they are not violent.

Do you believe that there is a violence connected to things that we are not directly imparting to another person or an animal?

Let me give you an example. Does that make you violent if what you're doing or consuming was in itself violence against another? Imagine for a moment being hung up and unable to move because your body has been paralyzed by an electric shock. Then while you're still conscious your throat is cut.

This is how 15 million pigs die each year along with the other cattle that are over 214 million. Now you may not be concerned about pigs because of the stereotypes that we carry around with us, but pigs are intelligent. They're sensitive and highly social animals. They are functionally equivalent to human infants in both intelligence and capacity to suffer.

Another component in that development is the efficiency of modern transportation and shipping. It all happens there that it has become a huge business to transport things from low income countries to so called rich nations. In fact experts see that global economy has become caught into this destructive mechanism. Materialists in their obsession to gain profit tend to exhaust resources up to the point of smashup. At the same time economy has mastered that there's no regulatory authority, no inspection authority checking the global players in their gold rush mentality.

[bija]

Yes Suchandra. There is even mass shipping between developed countries. I saw one program where they import prawns, pre-packed and crumbed and ship them to one country who has plenty of the product. The receiver countries workers in the prawn industry were at a loss. The actual cost of the shipping these prawns and manufacture was hugely costly on the environment and the pocket...but the big wheel turns to keep economies rolling.

 

If we added up the hundreds and thousands of incident like this, the impact globally and environmentally is possibly huge. But the economists will say it is a necessity to sustain growth. It seems we have been so conditioned into capitalist idealism, that people consider no other possibilities.

 

If we present Prabhupada's vision...people may generally fear degradation...for example diminishment of medical facilities etc. So it will take a complete turn around in society to see a new vision. And to implement that is another thing...ofcourse nature may take us down a road of simpler living in due course anyhow. To be honest I am not sure.

[suchandra]

 

Yes Suchandra. There is even mass shipping between developed countries. I saw one program where they import prawns, pre-packed and crumbed and ship them to one country who has plenty of the product. The receiver countries workers in the prawn industry were at a loss. The actual cost of the shipping these prawns and manufacture was hugely costly on the environment and the pocket...but the big wheel turns to keep economies rolling.

 

If we added up the hundreds and thousands of incident like this, the impact globally and environmentally is possibly huge. But the economists will say it is a necessity to sustain growth. It seems we have been so conditioned into capitalist idealism, that people consider no other possibilities.

 

If we present Prabhupada's vision...people may generally fear degradation...for example diminishment of medical facilities etc. So it will take a complete turn around in society to see a new vision. And to implement that is another thing...ofcourse nature may take us down a road of simpler living in due course anyhow. To be honest I am not sure.

Thing is that greenpeace and co dont expose anything. People are kept in that illusion that there're environmental activists reporting and working at solutions. Global airfreight volume grew from only 6 million tons in 1970, to 58 million tons in 1998 and to 180 million tons in 2007. Can we even imagine how much 180 mio tons are? Basically all these products could be produced in your city - take for example by growing first class quality of local vegetables and fruits, people don't need all these exotic unripe things. Modern racketeers say, no, in order to monopolize and make profit we have to stop people from producing locally. Even potatoes, you buy normal potatoes in central Europe, it says, produced in Egypt. So even the governments were told to pass laws like overtaxation to make the existence of normal farmers impossible. But who is reporting this?

 

[thehat]

Thanks for all your comments everyone. You're all discussing real significant issues. I'm just looking on the net to find recent articles that discuss these issues so I can back up what i'm talking about in my essay.

There are lot of great articles in this forum, unfortunately they're too old. I'll keep looking though.

 

Actually i think its best i take a bhagavatam break. My second canto is just staring me in the face.

[thehat]

 

Thing is that greenpeace and co dont expose anything. People are kept in that illusion that there're environmental activists reporting and working at solutions. Global airfreight volume grew from only 6 million tons in 1970, to 58 million tons in 1998 and to 180 million tons in 2007. Basically all these products could be produced in your city - take for example by growing first class quality of local vegetables and fruits, people don't need all this exotic unripe things. Modern racketeers say, no, in order to monopolize and make profit we have to stop people from producing locally. So even the governments were told to pass laws to make the existence of normal farmers impossible.

 

Woah suchandra, that's very interesting. And also in regard to what you're saying about greenpeace. I never even thought about how illusioned i was in respect of these environmental agencies. I had the exact view you had mentioned. I was thinking there're environmental activists reporting and working at solutions...

I always see the greenpeace folk on the street asking for donations and I've come in contact with many, but when I try to recall some of things they've done I can only think of one thing. And I can't even describe that situation very well because it was so long ago.

[suchandra]

 

Woah suchandra, that's very interesting. And also in regard to what you're saying about greenpeace. I never even thought about how illusioned i was in respect of these environmental agencies. I had the exact view you had mentioned. I was thinking there're environmental activists reporting and working at solutions...

I always see the greenpeace folk on the street asking for donations and I've come in contact with many, but when I try to recall some of things they've done I can only think of one thing. And I can't even describe that situation very well because it was so long ago.

They do things (see report below) which are anyway clear to stop like when lots of people are already getting sick, epidemic plague. On the other hand important issues like selfsufficiency, full employment are never touched by folks like greenpeace, global 2000 etc etc.

 

Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn

 

 

By Stèphane Foucart – Le Monde

 

Allowed to go on the market in France and Europe, MON 863, a transgenic corn invented by Monsanto, has been at the center of a controversy over its innocuousness for over two years. These debates could resume after the March 13th publication in "Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology" of a study suggesting this genetically modified organism (GMO) is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

 

According to this work, consumption of MON 863 corn disturbs numerous biological parameters in rats to a greater or lesser extent: weight of the kidneys, weight of the liver, the level of reticulocytes (new red blood cells), the level of triglycerides, etc. Urinary chemistry is also changed, with reductions in excreted sodium and phosphorus going as high as 35 percent. The effects vary with the sex of the animals. "Female rats exhibit an increase in blood fat and sugar levels, and an increase in body weight - all associated with greater hepatic sensitivity," says Mr. Sèralini, principal author of this study and, moreover, president of the Research Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen). "Among males, the impact is opposite, with a drop in body and kidney weights."

 

The authors of this work used data drawn from an experiment sponsored by Monsanto, which bore on the study of 400 rats for 90 days. The statistical treatment applied to these data by the experts of the agrochemical firm was published in August 2005, by "Food and Chemical Toxicology." That work brought to light significant variations in biological parameters between animals fed MON 863 and those fed with its isogene - the same plant variety without the genetic modification.

 

Monsanto researchers, for their part, had concluded that those disparities were within the frame of the natural variability of the measured parameters. The effects produced by the GMO were therefore not considered pathological. As for the "natural variability," it had been established by measuring the same series of data on rats fed with other varieties of non-GMO corn, with different nutritional values from MON 863 and its isogene.

 

The raw experimental data - over a thousand pages - were kept confidential by the agrochemical firm until Greenpeace obtained an order for its publication in spring 2005 from the Appeals Court of Munster (Germany).

 

Criigen was thus able to examine the data in detail and to apply a new statistical treatment to them. According to Mr. Sèralini, that, notably, consisted of extracting from the raw data the most significant effects specifically imputable to GMO absorption.

 

“Of the 58 parameters measured by Monsanto," the researcher details, "all those that were altered concern kidney or liver functioning." He continued, "furthermore, Monsanto had deemed that, because the males and the females responded differently, there was no reason for worry." He added, "Yet, the liver, for example, is an organ that reacts differently as a function of sex." In the same way, the fact that the measured biological response was not always in exact correlation with the dose of GMO received was interpreted by the company's experts as proof that the transgenic corn being tested was not the cause. Mr. Sèralini contests that principle: "When the disturbances are hormonal, for example, the impact may not be proportional to the dose."

 

Toxicologist Gèrard Pascal, a member, like Mr. Sèralini, of the Committee on Bio-molecular Engineering, deems certain that Criigen's conclusions are erroneous. "I reject the analysis of the animals' weight curves, conducted without taking their feeding into account," says Mr. Pascal. "But I agree that the biological responses may vary between males and females and with the principle that the effects of a GMO corn must be compared with its isogene only and not take into account effects produced by other corn varieties."

 

According to Mr. Pascal, the lack of direct correlation between the GMO doses received and the impacts observed on the hepatic parameters disqualifies the conclusions about liver toxicity. Significant differences with respect to "kidney weight" and "urinary sodium, phosphorus, and potassium" suggest a renal impact. "However," Mr. Pascal recalls, "at my request, the CGB pressed for investigations of the kidneys and had not found any definitive evidence of toxicity" (December 15th, 2004, Le Monde). "The variations in the levels of reticulocytes and eosinophiles (white blood cells) remain," adds M. Pascal. "I don't know how to interpret that, but those are parameters that move around a lot in experiments." As far as Mr. Pascal is concerned, the information developed by Criigen is not of a nature to call into question the favorable opinions delivered with respect to MON 863. "All that is nothing but a personal interpretation," adds the toxicologist.

 

Criigen's work has been financed by Carrefour and Greenpeace, but, as Mr. Sèralini explains, "Unfortunately, today there is no public budget for conducting this type of research." A situation all the more harmful, according to Mr. Sèralini, in that, "the whole toxicological study ought to be redone, controlling for hormonal dosages" and, above all, the tests should be continued well beyond 90 days and on species other than the rat to reach a definitive conclusion

[thehat]

Hey suchandra by any chance do you have a date for then that article by Stèphane Foucart was published?

[suchandra]

 

Hey suchandra by any chance do you have a date for then that article by Stèphane Foucart was published?

 

Just put it into google, right now they want to introduce, GM potatoes all over Europe. Since action groups have no money to pay lawyers but folks like BASF have a whole team of the best lawyers it should be clear who wins the case.

http://www.seedquest.com/News/releases/2006/december/17731.htm

http://www.gmo-safety.eu/en/potato/starch/32.docu.html

http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/news/310.basf_expects_eu_approval_amflora_within_weeks.html

 

Germany's BASF takes GM potato case to EU court

 

July 24, 2008

http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/2008-07-24/Germanys_BASF_takes_GM_potato_case_to_EU_court/

 

By Mantik Kusjanto

FRANKFURT, Germany - BASF has taken legal action against the European Commission for failure to act on its genetically modified Amflora potato, the German chemicals company said on Thursday.

BASF said in a statement it filed the action with the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg because the Commission unjustifiably delayed the approval of Amflora after a 12-year process.

 

"EU commissioners have postponed Amflora's approval despite repeated positive safety assessments by EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority," said Stefan Marcinowski, a member of BASF's executive board.

 

Marcinowski said the company was "not prepared to accept any further delays".

 

Amflora is engineered to yield high amounts of starch, eliminating the viscous gel-like substance amylose so it contains only one starch ingredient: amylopectin.

 

It is not intended for human consumption but rather for industrial use such as in the paper industry to make glossy magazine coatings, in textiles for yarn sizing and as an additive in adhesive or sprayable concrete.

 

 

© Thomson Reuters 2008

[thehat]

thanks heaps. have a nice day celebrating Janmasthami