Saw this story on the BBC...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7182793.stm

about the WTO telling the EU that it must accept GMOs (donchaluv TLAs! :hihi:)

personally, i think it's a bad idea, what about you?

Unelected officials, yes, but more importantly, agents of global capitalism. It is of course a disgrace. What is the point of having a liberal democracy, when the people you elect aren't even in charge? This is exactly the kind of thing that opponents of the WTO and the General Agreement on Trades and Services (GATS) warned of.

I don't believe that the UK is run from Westminster - it's run from boardrooms around the globe.

i agree with that, just didnt wanna mention the G word in my OP as i felt that that would just get "everyone" going :rolleyes: and :loopy:

or they might just ignore it :rolleyes:

We've been eating GMOs for twelve thousand years. Get over it already.

We've been eating GMOs for twelve thousand years. Get over it already.

Pedantic as always.

I think that most people see there is a difference between selective breeding and gene splicing or 'shotgunning' of foreign genetic material in to an organism.

I doubt that Ugg the caveman was ever incorporating pesticide resistance in to the crops he grew. :rolleyes:

I think cavemen were hunter-gatherers rather than agriculturalists.

Just to keep the pedantry going :hihi:

We've been eating GMOs for twelve thousand years. Get over it already.

and the world's food supply has been in the hands of multi-national corporations for exactly how long?

We've been eating GMOs for twelve thousand years. Get over it already.

For the biggest part of 12000 years its been a matter of natural selection, with agriculurists breeding using natural selection techniques.
Most GMO these days are artificial selection, there is a difference.

I think cavemen were hunter-gatherers rather than agriculturalists.

Just to keep the pedantry going :hihi:

So, Ugg would DEFINITELY not have been trying to splice sabre-tooth tiger genes in to wheat then? ;)

I'm no expert.

But I will venture the opinion that the best reasons to be concerned about GM crops are to do with the Patenting of DNA and the control of food in the hands of unethical Multinationals like Monsanto.

Monsanto appears to regularly sue organic farmers when their crops become contaminated with GM DNA. The fact that their GM pollen is ruining someone else's organic crops is bad enough but then to sue the victim is astounding. (Ref) (http://www.purefood.org/monlink.html)

Remember this is the same company that still refuses to accept the consequences of its Agent Orange (http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/agentorange032102.cfm) product. The way it has pushed the use of bovine growth (http://www.organicconsumers.org/rBGH/milkismilk20405.cfm) hormone in the US by bullying (http://www.organicconsumers.org/rbgh/bullying022105.cfm) tactics despite the health risks or at the very least less healthy milk produced.

Another synopsis (http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=210) of what the company is about.

Why dont some stop slagging off G M when its the best hope for the starving millions,its all so easy isnt it when you live here debating the right and wrongs when you have a full belly.:mad:

Why dont some stop slagging off G M when its the best hope for the starving millions,its all so easy isnt it when you live here debating the right and wrongs when you have a full belly.:mad:

my OP was not slagging off GM. The point of this thread was to get peoples' opinions of the food supply ending up in the hands of multi-national companies.

do you seriously believe that the likes of Monsanto and the WTO care about the starving millions? beyond there being too many of them

Why dont some stop slagging off G M when its the best hope for the starving millions,its all so easy isnt it when you live here debating the right and wrongs when you have a full belly.:mad:

How exactly are GM products helping the third world?

Bovine Growth Hormone is producing a glut of substandard milk in the USA that they export damaging third world economies and their health.

Roundup Ready soybeans? not designed to produce yield, designed to tie the farmer in to the use of branded pesticides.

Monsanto's transgenic canola, sugar beets, cotton, corn or potatoes -- none of them are designed to put food in the mouths of hungry children.

The myth that world hunger is a result of global food shortages was debunked years ago. More germane issues for the poor include access to the food that exists and access to land to grow their own. High technology, high input cash crops are not the answer to this problem.

The companies themselves like Monsanto are actively attacking third world farmers in particluar brown bagging, the saving of seeds from one year to the next.

Perhaps in an ideal world GM if developed responsibly, and properly tested and introduced responsibly it could be of benefit to the third world. But that is not the way that the GM companies are operating.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=4088

We've been eating GMOs for twelve thousand years. Get over it already.

How about: "It doesn't matter who you vote for, they're not in charge anyway, because corporations can override their decisions. Get over it already".

Not very encouraging is it?