Article: Thumbs Down All Around for GMOs

[Guest guest]

I figured some folks may be interested in this .....

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thumbs Down All Around for GMOs

John Aguilar

 

http://www.nfm-online.com/ASP/articleDisplay.asp?strArticleId=991

<http://www.nfm-online.com/ASP/articleDisplay.asp?strArticleId=991 & strSi

te=NFMSite & Screen=HOME> & strSite=NFMSite & Screen=HOME

 

5/1/2004 3:48:55 PM

 

In this country, and overseas, a series of decisions and determinations

have been handed down that restrict, delay or altogether ban the

production or sale of GM products.

 

 

It's been a rough couple of months for advocates of genetically modified

crops. In this country, and overseas, a series of decisions and

determinations have been handed down that restrict, delay or altogether

ban the production or sale of GM products.

 

" We've had some real good successes lately, " said Craig Winters,

executive director of the Seattle-based Campaign to Label Genetically

Engineered Foods. " Some of the battles are significant, and the biotech

industry is getting desperate. "

 

On April 9, the California Department of Food and Agriculture denied

biotech company Ventria Bioscience the authority to proceed with

widespread planting of a rice plant it had developed in the lab. The

decision came 11 days after the California Rice Commission approved

Ventria's plan to grow rice containing human proteins, which the company

wants to use in medicines aimed at fighting anemia and diarrhea, both

major killers of children worldwide.

 

Many rice growers and GM opponents throughout the state had opposed

Ventria's " pharma " crop technology because of the risk of

cross-pollination and contamination of organic and conventional rice

plants.

 

Opposition to GM crops comes not just from activist groups and small

agricultural interests, however. The North American Millers Association,

which represents food behemoths like ConAgra Foods, General Mills and

PepsiCo, fired off a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in

late March warning of the contamination danger that GM crops grown

specifically for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes pose to the

nation's food supply.

 

Winters sees opportunity in the discontent of large agricultural

companies, calling them " strange bedfellows. "

 

" If we can team up with the mainstream grocery industry, we might go a

bit further than if we did this alone, " he said.

 

Meanwhile, the battles continue. On March 2, Mendocino County, Calif.,

became the first county in the United States to ban growing and raising

GM plants and animals. A month later, the Vermont House of

Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation, by a vote of

125-10, that would mandate labeling genetically engineered seeds sold in

the state. The bill was slated to go to the Senate after The Natural

Foods Merchandiser went to press.

 

Overseas efforts to stymie GM crop expansion efforts have been more

severe. In late March, Western Australia became the first state in the

land down under to ban the production of GM crops. Around the same time,

Bayer AG's biotech subsidiary, Bayer CropScience, abandoned plans to

grow herbicide-tolerant corn in the United Kingdom because of government

regulations it deemed too strict.

 

Japanese consumer groups paid a visit to state and federal agricultural

leaders in North Dakota in March to warn them that Japan would reject

American wheat exports if Monsanto Co. was allowed to introduce a GM

version of wheat in the United States.

 

Mark Lipson, policy project director of the Organic Farming Research

Foundation in Santa Cruz, Calif., thinks other countries have the right

approach to GM crops and products.

 

" They don't use the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil and speak-no-evil approach

of the United States, " Lipson said. " And they won't have this

free-for-all risk of ecological disaster. "

 

John Aguilar is a free-lance business reporter in Denver.

 

Natural Foods Merchandiser volume XXV/number 5/p. 9

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Chris

 

Thanks for this information.

 

> Opposition to GM crops comes not just from activist groups and small

> agricultural interests, however. The North American Millers Association,

> which represents food behemoths like ConAgra Foods, General Mills and

> PepsiCo, fired off a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in

> late March warning of the contamination danger that GM crops grown

> specifically for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes pose to the

> nation's food supply.

 

It's encouraging to think that large corporations are taking a stance.

Perhaps they'll have more success than the many thousand of individuals who

campaign at a grass roots level, but don't contribute heavily to political

campaign funds like the multinationals.

 

Here in Australia we're being advised that banning GM crops may affect the

recently negotiated free trade agreement with the US. And that the free

trade agreement will affect trading with other nations that don't want to

buy crops from countries who grow GM crops. In the end it'll probably come

to down to economic leverage.

 

I just hope that our decision makers will eventually see that not going down

the GM path will have economic advantages for us - especially since we're an

island nation.

 

Vicki