"Janet Cotter" - GE contamination – it's not worth the risk

Blogpost by Janet Cotter - July 14 2011
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/ge-contamination-its-not-worth-the-risk/blog/35728/

The growing of genetically engineered (GE) crops is something that Greenpeace has long opposed, due to the risks posed to both human health and the environment, and unwanted contamination of our food due to the difficulties of controlling the spread of these crops. In recent months, news has emerged about how chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer has been forced to make massive payouts after conventional US rice crops were contaminated by Bayer’s experimental GE rice in 2006. As a result, Bayer has agreed to a US $750 million settlement for US 11,000 farmers (1). Then, in March of this year, a court ordered Bayer to pay US $137 million in damages to Riceland, a rice export company, for loss of sales to the EU (2).

Back in 2006, Bayer's experimental herbicide-tolerant and GE "Liberty Link" rice (tolerant to herbicides such as Basta, or Liberty) was found to have contaminated conventional US long-grain rice - including rice for export. Shipments of supposedly non-GE rice, tested and found to be positive for GE rice, were turned back from regions such including the EU, costing companies millions of dollars and prompting lawsuits in the US.

Gambling with human health

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Dangers of Genetically Modifed Crops: The Destabilization of Agriculture. Health Hazards

Governments are being forced to protect farmers and citizens from genetically modified crops (GM crops) to combat biotech corporations’ stranglehold over farmers, and health scares from escalating pesticide use, according to a new report by Friends of the Earth International.

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Fresh produce prices to double or triple following freak freezes - is Earth in a magnetic pole shift?

By the end of 2012, I predict significant food supply disruptions in North America, brought about either by radical weather affecting crop yields or perhaps the invasion of disease indirectly caused by the over-use of pesticides or GMOs. The number of people in America struggling to feed themselves and their families will rise along with food prices. ...Expect to see food prices climb with alarming speed over the next two years. While food won't disappear, it will become significantly more expensive, causing more people to shift to subsidized foods (corn, sugar, etc.) which also happen to be some of the worst foods for your health.

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10 Things Monsanto Does Not Want You to Know

Genetic engineering is a radical technology that breaks down genetic barriers between humans, plants and animals. Once released, these genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can easily spread and interbreed with other organisms, and they are virtually impossible to recall back to the laboratory.

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The 'Organised Irresponsibility' of GM corporations and a new generation of GM activism

Genetically Modified (GM) crops are on the rise within the EU. In the UK, the coalition government have declared an intention to be the most pro-GM government this country has ever seen. Corporate Watch reported on the implications of these EU level changes in 2010. Here we present Organised Irresponsibility a new pamphlet on GM in Germany, and some information on past and present anti-GM organising in the UK.

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Throwing Biotech Lies at Tomatoes - Part 2: The Liars

I write about the Flavr Savr in Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods. Two biotech advocates, Drs. Chassy and Tribe, created a GMO disinformation site that allegedly discredits all 65 health risks highlighted in the work. I have already shown that their attack on the first risk, Dr. Pusztai's potatoes, was based on pure PR spin and scientific sleight-of-hand. Below I respond to their accusations regarding the Flavr Savr.

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WikiLeaks: US Should Retaliate Against EU for Genetically Modifed Resistance

WikiLeaked cables released over the weekend revealed more about the US' role as a global bully, trying to thrust unpopular genetically modified (GM) crops onto cautious governments and their citizens. In a 2007 cable from Craig Stapleton, then US Ambassador to France, he encouraged the US government to "reinforce our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by publishing a retaliation list." A list, he added, that "causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility."

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Congress sticks it to U.S. farmers with passage of food safety bill that will actually cause fresh produce to be more dangerous

(NaturalNews) The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2751 yesterday with a 216 to 144 vote (yes, many members of the House did not even vote). The so-called Food Safety Modernization Act now heads to the President to be signed into law.

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Monsanto's Glyphosate: Impacts on Human Health and Plant Life -- Scientist Warns of Dire Consequences with Widespread Use

The December/January 2010 issue of The Organic & Non-GMO Report featured an interview with Robert Kremer, an adjunct professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri, whose research showed negative environmental impacts caused by glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which is used extensively with Roundup Ready genetically modified crops.

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Who’s Trying to Scuttle the Amendment that Protected Organic and Family Farms? Big Food on the Attack!

tractorToday we reveal the thirty agribusiness front groups and industrial agriculture lobbyists that continue to fight the Tester amendment. One of the few saving graces of the Senate’s controversial FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510)—which passed the Senate last week, only to be sidelined for the moment by a constitutional error—was the amendment introduced by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). Small-farm and organic food advocates warned that the legislation would destroy their industry under a mountain of paperwork; the Tester amendment exempted producers with less than $500,000 a year in sales who sell most of their food locally. ANH-USA and other organizations successfully fought [1] to get the amendment included in the final Senate bill.

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