remember Starlink? its baaaaaaaaaaaaack

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+ BANNED GMO TURNS UP IN FOOD AID

Environmental groups say a banned GM variety of corn forbidden for humans in the

US is being handed out in UN food aid to Central America and the Caribbean. A

study

found that samples of World Food Program shipments collected in Guatemala

included

StarLink along with other GM contaminants.

 

Starlink corn was pulled from the market in the US because of concerns it could

provoke allergic reactions. Its discovery in consumer products prompted

supermarket

recalls of cornmeal, corn dogs, taco shells, soup and chili mixes in the US in

2000

and 2001.

 

The study looked at 77 samples of imported corn included in aid shipments or

sold

on the open market. Eighty percent was reported to include GM material.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4911

 

+ NGOs DENOUNCE DUMPING OF STARLINK

More than 70 environmental, consumer, farmer, human rights groups and unions

from

six Central American and Caribbean countries denounced the presence of StarLink

in food aid. The organizations requested the World Food Program to immediately

recall

all food aid containing GMOs. " The WFP by introducing food aid with GMOs is

placing at risk our children and pregnant women, the most vulnerable people in

our

society, " said Julio Sanchez from Centro Humboldt in Nicaragua.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4912

 

+ Robert Vint of GE FOOD ALERT comments:

" This situation has only arisen because the USA, unlike other nations, supplies

food aid in the form of dumped surplus grain. Other members of the World Food

Programme

- eg the EU and Japan -disapprove and instead supply cash to purchase food as

near

to the recipients as possible. Buying locally supports peasant farmers in

developing

nations as well as enabling choice; dumping free food puts local farmers out of

business... It is reasonable to blame much of the rural unemployment and food

dependency

of developing nations on the impact of US food aid policies... Oxfam America

has

estimated that up to 80% of funds channelled through US Food Aid Programme...

are

spent, not in developing countries, but in the US. US food aid shipments

correlate

with times of surplus and silo emptying - not with times of food shortages. "

 

 

40 years in the local store

Got forced out by the supermarket

The price of all your favorite meals

Stays low but now you can’t afford it

Send in the supermarket forces

Stick it on a card to save you cash

They know your details in a flash

Streamlined sets the mental tone

Now everyone’s a shopping clone