Posted on 06/02/2013 6:10:29 PM PDT by opentalk
U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said.
A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group.
The officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed companies such as Monsanto over issues like patents and intellectual property, the report said.
The cables show U.S. diplomats supporting Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, in foreign countries even after it paid $1.5 million in fines after being charged with bribing an Indonesian official and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 2005.
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.reuters.com ...
Not a Monsanto fan, but big duh - the Feds promote all sorts of products we export, including planes and movies.
GMO crops are great ~ they help drive back malnutrition and famine. The people who are opposed to them are not nice.
… American diplomats urged Washington to punish European countries that opposed the growth of genetically modified crops, according to leaked cables.
The U.S. embassy in Paris said retaliation should be taken to cause ‘some pain across the EU’ to any governments resisting the spread of the technology.
The request came in response to moves by France in 2007 to ban a GM corn made by American biotechnology giant Monsanto. U.S. ambassador Craig Stapleton, a close friend and business partner of then President George Bush, said the White House should launch a military-style trade war against GM sceptics in Europe.
Crony capitalism
The wolves are nice, they invited they even invited the sheep to dinner.
Then the Wolves ate their children, the sheep finally woke up and figured out that they had been slowly poisoned with the help of the Federal Government.
End of the GMO are good for you fairy tale.
Without cooking we'd die of starvation. GMO crops get cooked, or processed through pigs and chickens.
So what's the problem?
In my humble opinion, I think GMOs are wasted,empty calories in addition to all the other health hazards they pose.
Ever ask yourself why we have so many fat people who are nutritionally starving?? You don’t have to be a skinny stick to be nutritionally deficient.
The rider essentially prohibits the Department of Agriculture from stopping production of any genetically engineered crop once it’s in the ground,even if there is evidence that it is harmful.
That’s a pre-emptive Congressional override of the judicial system,since it is the courts that are most likely to ask the U.S.D.A. to halt planting or harvest of a particular crop.
When your basic bagged salad is full of lettuce and vegetables that have been deliberately poisoned by seed re-engineering, it’s a problem. Baccilus Thuringenisis is a naturally occurring virus, but when one intentionally bastardizes a seed with that virus and more offal, it becomes a real problem.
Then that company turns around and tells said Farmer..you cannot save your seed, you have to buy more next year, it is patented by the Feds.
The wind blows, the seed drifts, pollenates other fields etc. Honeybees disappear, animals will no longer eat their feed, people get sick, new diseases pop up like pansies.
Gee I don’t know what the problem is!
Can’t be that the seeds of our food are full of viruses, bacteria, insect parts to allegedly become “pest” resistant or “drought “resistant?
Oh, and gosh golly! Did I forget to mention that the Farmer is forced by law to use Round up ready on his round up crops?
Nah...can’t be that either.
GMO opponents are neo Luddite nightmares.
Nothing has saved more human life than GMOs.
Nothing extends human life more than GMOs.
It saddens me greatly to see this madness permeating FR.
God help us.
I don't believe there are any. GMOs are corn, soy, canola, alfalfa, barley...maybe a very few others.
You got that right.
It saddens me greatly to see this madness permeating FR.
And this.
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it.
www.AnySoldier.com
(An entirely free service) face=
Anybody can put anything on the Intarwebs. Your link is to a site that has zero credibility.
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Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it.
www.AnySoldier.com
(An entirely free service) /body
How will you know? Salmon? Cotton? Papaya? Sugar beets? (All approved by the US Gov’t)
I agree re: hybrids, I am talking about the bastardization of our food sources.
Were I computer literate, I could post many sources supporting my “opinion”, sadly i am not.
The insects that pollinate these horrors go on to cross pollinate other plants, the wind blows, seeds blow..
Pandora’s box is open now.
No madness here my FRiend, just a disagreement amongst Patriots.
It is such a bad argument and one which is used by the Left to make the world safe for mass starvation.
Here’s a news item:
Thanks to the efforts of Lynas and people like him, governments around the world—especially in Western Europe, Asia, and Africa—have hobbled GM research, and NGOs like Greenpeace have spurned donations of genetically modified foods.
But Lynas has changed his mind—and he’s not being quiet about it. On Thursday at the Oxford Farming Conference, Lynas delivered a blunt address: He got GMOs wrong. According to the version of his remarks posted online (as yet, there’s no video or transcript of the actual delivery), he opened with a bang:
“I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonising an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment.
As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.
So I guess you’ll be wondering—what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist.”
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