News on GMOs

   This just in...

   Lawmakers urge FDA to go slow on genetically modified salmon

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says that Congress cannot allow "these alien fish to infect our stocks." 

   ...and...

   Shoppers wary of genetically modified foods find they're everywhere

The Agriculture Department has approved three more genetically engineered crops in the past month, and the Food and Drug Administration could approve fast-growing genetically modified salmon for human consumption this year.

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   If you think the USDA and the FDA care about you more than money, you are not paying attention. You and I were sold out years ago. I love this quote:

"Genetically modified crops were introduced to the market in 1996. That year, engineered corn accounted for less than 5 percent of the total crop. Last year, the USDA estimated that 70 percent of the nation's corn acreage was planted with corn engineered to resist herbicides and 63 percent had been planted with insect-resistant seeds. Rates for soybeans and cotton are even higher."

   We're feeding the world!

   ...oh, wait, no. We have poisoned people and helped make them fatter and sicker, gotten rich on their backs, created new breeds of resistant agricultural pests, and done relatively little toward feeding hungry people (unless they have money).

   Hooray us!

   Wait a damned minute, you say? I should not place blame?

   Perhaps I am being unfair. So I leave you with this:

U.S. targeted EU on GM foods

   Senior U.S. officials in Paris advised the George Bush administration to launch a military-style trade war against the European Union for resisting genetically modified foods, according to newly released WikiLeaks cables.

The then U.S. ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, asked the government to penalize the EU and particularly countries that banned the use of genetically modified (GM) crops.

The move came in response to a 2007 French ban on a GM corn variety made by U.S.-based company Monsanto.

Other newly released cables show U.S. diplomats around the world pushed GM crops as part of U.S. global food policy.

For example, the U.S. applied pressure to the Pope's advisers to champion such crops to counter the opposition by many Catholic bishops in developing countries who were vehemently opposed to it.

Other cables show U.S. diplomats working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto joined forces with Spain to persuade the EU not to strengthen biotechnology laws.

   READ IT HERE