They are Playing With Our Food Again
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.19.07
It is such a contradiction that individual or States' Rights, so dear to Americans, mean so little when it comes to the environment. First, in the energy bill, certain coal state Reps tried to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from granting the states waivers to put their climate change rules into effect, a challenge to California's more stringent standards for emissions. (they lost that one). Meanwhile, the big farm bill is going through Congress and supporters of genetically modified foods have slipped in a provision that bars state or local governments from banning anything the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already approved. Again it is an attack on California, where, for example, worries over genetically modified rice have caused the California Rice Commission to ban it, largely because export markets in Asia refuse to buy it.
So, if you live in parts of California or sixteen other states that have imposed controls on GM foods and are encouraging organic farming, you will be out of luck; Washington says its OK and you and your State won't be able to do anything about it. ::Recordnet
According to a press release from the Center for Food Safety:
"At a time when we have seen repeated food safety failures at FDA and USDA, we need more food safety protection, not less," states Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports). "This clause would tie the hands of states on meat, poultry and genetically engineered food," she said.
Section 123 would prevent states and localities from passing any laws prohibiting commercial use of USDA-inspected products. "This could prevent a local health inspector at a supermarket from condemning rodent-contaminated meat or poultry that has begun to go bad," states Jean Halloran.
"Section 123 will subvert the principles of federalism and states' rights," states Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. "If this appalling and outrageous measure is approved, agribusiness will accomplish what it could not achieve in state legislatures – the evisceration of state laws to protect horses from slaughter and a raft of other democratically approved animal welfare reforms."
Section 123 would also get in the way of state laws on biotechnology. No state could prohibit use in commerce of a product that USDA has determined is "non-regulated." Both supporters and opponents of the measure agree that this refers to genetically engineered crops, which USDA "deregulates" after considering whether they might be a plant pest. "California, Arkansas and Missouri have passed laws creating state committees that review whether genetically engineered rice should be grown in the state," notes Joe Mendelson, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety. "These laws, which farmers support, would be preempted."
image from Consumerist.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Richard Branson Backs Legal Bid to Protect Virgin Island Mangroves
- China's Coal Fires Burn 20 Million Tons of Coal Per Year
- GreenBuild: Richard Moe Has a Tough Row to Hoe
- Will the Next New Deal be Transit-Based? Three Plans to Rescue the Economy and the Earth with Public Transportation
TH Forum Highlights: The Air Car Lives, Popularizing Mass Transit, Green Home Advice and More
|
Discussing the Merits of Aquaculture
|
Agricultural interests are slow to realize that people are tired of buying their plastic tomatoes, their rubber chicken, their corn-starch everything else. If farmers grew quality crops, maybe they'd make more money.
Watch: The Future of Food.
Monsanto will destroy all the food crop diversity by creating genitically modified foods that will ibecome part of other species through reproduction. Then the farmers that have cultivated and passed down (through generations) the superior species will have lost what can not be regained: the best crops. The worst part about it is that once the trace of the GM crop is found in their crop they have a potential lawsuit on their hands because they did not purchase Monsanto's crops.
There are certain components of life that should not be controlled by capitalism: food, water, and human safety. We can not let companies control our lives at that level. Money always comes before safety. How can Monsanto genitically modify and test these crops for a few years and compete with what mother nature created over billions of years? They can't. Every GM crop ever created fails to live up to the hype because of unforseen "human" errors in judging the complexity of nature. I just hope we have enough untouched diversity left to make up for this tragedy.
When will we be happy with what nature has given us? What are we striving toward?....Control?
I loathe Monsanto....evil money hungry bastards.
Farmers are growing quality crops. The system is rigged against those that are not growing what is subsidized the most (corn, soybeans). Maybe instead of slamming farmers you might consider that we need to change the "farm" bill which is more of a Agribusiness Bill.
I agree that quality farm products are the key, and I do love organic because it is sustainably grown. But, GM foods get a bad rap, especially considering the extreme amount of genetic modification almost every fruit and vegetable we consume has undergone in the last 5,000 years. Selective breeding, cross-polination and several methods that have been lost to time (check out the history of corn sometime) are some of the most powerful genetic modification methods ever known to man. The recent use of transgenic modification, like every other method, will need to be proven but eventually there should arise certain GM crops that will prove to be safe, beneficial and healthy. To say that all GM is bad, or to imply it, really belies a certain ignorance. Lastly, I really do get a kick out of this recent return to "heritage" crops. Little do people know that those crops have been modified intensely for thousands of years, and the so called heritage varietal is merely a pause in the focused, purposeful, genetic modification of plants. I say, modify all you want, using any method you want, but don't realease into my food supply without telling me and without years of observation and testing. Then I'll be ready for it (as long as it is still sustainably grown, the only true organic).