Monday 24 January 2011

GM foods. We are being softened up!

Sir John Beddington the governments chief scientific adviser is using the possible future global  hunger crisis to push  genetically modified foods.  He, on behalf of some of the fiercest lobbyists in the world,  is softening us up.
"GM crops could feed the world", "GM foods  are as safe as their non-GM counterparts and pose no additional risk to the consumer", "the general public should drop the term 'frankenstein foods', and embrace the technology." These  are some of the weasel words used by the pro GM lobby.
GM foods are derived from genetically modified organisms, and involve the insertion or deletion of genes. The first commercially grown GM crop was the tomato, modified to ripen without softening, this was developed by Calgene, later a subsiduary of Monsanto.
95% of GM crops are grown in N.America with rapid expansion of cotton varieties in India,  in Brazil, also in China, Paraguay, South Africa, and Argentina.  Monsanto is currently involved with US Supreme Court re 'roundup ready alfalfa', other court cases involve their pesticide - resistant sugar beets.
There is more than enough food in the world, the hunger crisis is caused by problems in food distribution and politics, not production. Vandana Shiva  founder of Nardanya a group that  represents the seed keepers and organic farmers in India is totally against the use of genetically modified crops, and several countries including Zambia, Venezuala, and Hungary have banned use of GM crops,  and the importation of GM rice to Europe has been stopped. India is holding a moratorium on cultivation of GM and France have banned Monsanto's MON-810 corn and similar modified crops.
The US have attempted to retaliate against France and the European Union for their decisions.
The health risks of eating GM foods is almost entirely unknown  although already some dangers have been noted. Danger to wild life,  birds, and  butterflies could be serious, and certain weeds may become uncontrollable.  Serious difficulties are experienced by organic farmers, and the fact that GM seed is subject to licensing  prevents farmers from sowing their own seed because the intellectual property is owned by the developers (Monsanto).
Beware!     Massive lobbying groups are infiltrating our news media in an effort to  soften us up.  NB.  See:  Caroline Spelman  (DEFRA), her husband Mark Spelman and  his senior position with Accenture,  and previous post - January 4, 2011, on Monsanto.

2 comments:

  1. Once again another brown nosing state loving arsehole who will feed the world the miracle of GM DON'T BELIEVE ONE WORD .Profit is the name of the short term game these smart arses don't know the long term effects.

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  2. If the grasping insatiable multinationals are so keen on feeding the world why don't they stop infiltrating and propping up corrupt governments, stop using agricultural land for biofuels and pushing their nasty mutant products anywhere they can?

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