News | Hush hush mode
America continues to be in denial about the reality of the dangers of food contaminated with artificial DNA. The lack of support from the World Trade Organisation for the complainers' anti-precautionary approach to GM seems to have switched US bullying efforts into a new hush hush mode.
An E-mail exchange earlier this year obtained by Friends of the Earth under a Freedom of Information request revealed:
- US insistence that the EU should steer clear of the term ”GMOs” in order to minimise public opposition to its policies (the problem is just irrational public perception)
- US accusations of a lack of political will to operate EU approval systems of GMOs due to member states' opposition (the problem is too much democracy)
- US pressure to ignore risk assessment concerns and commit to pushing GMOs quickly on to the EU market (the problem is just that our standards are too slow and too high)
- US pressure to fast-track GMOs that the US wants to be sold in Europe, and to lower standards for GM contamination of food for GMOs that are not authorised in the EU (... that's our standards getting in the way again)
- US pressure to abolish member states national bans, and to bring top EU decision-makers into line with US policy, (... too much democracy again)
- US pressure to authorise a controversial genetically modified oilseed rape as proof that the Commission is backing down under US pressure (the problem is that the EU isn't grovelling enough).
Have you ever wondered what's going to happen when America finally has to admit that there is a real safety problem with GM? Try on the US responses to global warming for size.
After years denial, President Bush recently acknowledged for the first time that global warming exists and that emissions of waste gases are a significant cause. Coincidentally, he has also pulled the solution out of his hat: TECHNOLOGY. Already, he is stepping up production of biofuels mainly from GM commodity crops, and next he will find other technologies. Easy.
The problem with this is that the technology isn't there. Present methods of manufacturing biofuels are not going to help (see BIOFUELS: A SUSTAINABLE SHAM and BIOFUELS: THE SUMS DON'T ADD UP - News, May 2007) and the 'other' technologies are in dream-land.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has reported that the world could have as little as 8 years left to avoid a dangerous global temperature rise of 2°C or more. We don't have time to play around with new technologies. Recognising the urgency, the non-US world is agreed on a practical, sustainable, scheme of energy conservation, zero-carbon building and binding caps on pollution, all of which can be implemented realistically right now.
The lesson here is that America's first response to the emergence of inedible gene-contaminated food will be an tested, technological quick fix, no doubt featuring more artificial DNA layered on top of the problem.
And things are set to get worse.
Finding itself on a different route from the rest of the world has failed to encourage the US administration to change course to join the majority. Its latest ploy has been to undermine the efforts of other countries by proposing a new series of US-convened international meetings to strike a deal. The move is described by the White House as running in parallel and reinforcing existing agreements. Since it fails to specify how targets are to be met, nor when, Greenpeace's comments that it is a “dangerous diversionary tactic” which can only slow down the process already in place, seem very valid.
Lesson two is that, while the rest of the world starts dealing with GM disasters by trying to cleanse its environment, its food and its bodies of the offending materials, the US will be busy seizing control of any corrective measures. This will be easy if the “solution”, like the problem, is patentable.
ACTION
When you have finished writing to the new Scottish Executive and the new Westminster government about going GM-free (see MAKE GM-FREE HISTORY - News, June 2007), follow this up with a quick note bringing to their attention America's attitude problem. The examples of US tactics on GMOs as revealed by Friends of the Earth coupled with the US disruption of global initiatives to reduce global warming, are strong warnings to our governments that they need to stand firm. Tell them not to cave in to foreign pressure to accept GM, nor to consider adopting any weaker GM regulatory system, nor, to condone any US attempts to control us.
SOURCES:
- Guardian 1.06.07
- Friends of the Earth Europe Press Release 30.05.07