There is a growing demand from consumers to know what is in their food. In response to this demand, sprouting across the nation are bills seeking to label foods containing genetically modified ingredients.
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Politics of GMO - News and Opinion
This past November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report cited “severe efficacy issues” with Monsanto’s Bt corn after multiple states reported “unexpected pest damage.” Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) has once again introduced a bill that would require require the labeling of all foods that contain or are produced with genetically engineered material. It is a counter-balance to another pending legislation that could strip USDA of some of its authority to approve to biotech crops. 
The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture is meeting to “review the causes and consequences of government over-regulation of agriculture biotechnology.” 
Public pension fund managers are increasingly investing in commodities like farmland around the globe. Should workers’ retirement savings be invested in schemes used to displace workers in other parts of the world? 
We have been closely following the “ag gag” bills that are cropping up across the country criminalizing the undercover taking of farm videos and photographs. New York is the latest state to consider a bill that would impose more stringent sanctions on those revealing animal abuse than the abusers themselves. 
Recently, Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack compared biotechnology and sustainable agriculture to two sons, for whom he declared equal love. Read on to learn why biotech has in fact been the agency’s favorite “son.” USDA often sides with and promotes industry interests. Its new pilot program allowing biotech developers to prepare their own safety studies or pay for those selected by the agency will only reinforce the image of an agency regulating for the industry. 
A bill that waters down EPA protections of the Clean Water Act is recommended for consideration by the House as a whole. This is one of several Republican sponsored bills aimed at reducing EPA powers. 
PAMTA – the legislation that addresses overuse of antibiotics in the agricultural system, which leads to antibiotic resistance in the human population, is once again introduced by Congresswoman Slaughter. 
The usual and unusual politics surrounding the deregulation of genetically engineered alfalfa. Cardinal Turkson, the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, discussed GMOs in an interview with the Vatican newspaper. 
Several scientists at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences recently released a statement fully backing GMOs. While the Holy See tried to distance itself from these statements, recent WikiLeaks revelations belie the Vatican’s claim to neutrality. 
A Federal Court ordered the removal of genetically modified beet seedlings. After USDA and Monsanto appealed, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is delaying the removal until a hearing that was rescheduled for February. Follow the money and you will see that the meat and the GMO industry are inextricably tied. While environmental issues have taken a back seat to economy all over the country, industry groups and their defenders in Congress are using this time to advance an agenda designed to erode many successful laws, such as Clean Water Act. 
Superweeds are invading fields across the globe. Before we start looking blaming farmers, however, careful attention must be paid to government agencies and seed companies and how the two partner-up to foster the conditions that lead to superweeds.
Monsanto Co. spent $4.64 million in the first two quarters of 2010 and it is on pace to set a new high for its lobbying expenditures. 
When Barak Obama was elected, many in the sustainability movement believed that they finally had an ally in the White House. However, the President’s agricultural appointments tell a different story. 
Ever since the Supreme Court handed down its mixed 7-1 decision, ruling that the lower court overstepped its boundary by issuing an injunction on the planting of genetically modified alfalfa, some lawmakers were spurred to action. Professor Brian Wynne was vice chairman of a steering group set up by the Food Standards Agency to gauge the public mood on genetically modified (GM) food. Prof Wynne said that he resigned when it became clear that the consultation was biased in favour of GM. Earlier in the week another member of the group, Dr Helen Wallace, Director of the non-governmental organisation Genewatch, resigned in protest at the Food Standard Agency’s allegedly close links with the agri-chemical industry. Last week, current and former chicken growers, mostly from the South, gave attorney general Eric Holder and USDA secretary Tom Vilsack accounts of a lack of competition, poverty-level earnings and bait-and-switch tactics among the big chicken producers. “This system takes hard working farmers and makes them indentured servants on their own land,” Kay Doby, a former chicken farmer from North Carolina, told a crowded room at Alabama A&M University. 
President Obama’s appointment of Dr. Siddiqui to the post of the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, guarantees that the corporate agenda of biotech and pesticides industry will be promoted around the world, ensuring the continued global spread of GMOs and pesticides. 
On several occasions GMO Journal has observed that public debate on the impact of GMOs in America is seriously lacking. While the government and media silently stand by and let the agri-giants add to their coffers, the agri-giants are busy spending their millions on misleading public advertising campaigns and influencing our law makers through aggressive lobbying efforts. |
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