Monsanto and GMO's

Yesterday I watched "The World According To Monsanto". Greenpeace link here. Wikipedia link here.

Rather than dwell on the really obvious that becomes apparent as you watch the film, there are a couple of simple point.

1. The EU purports to have an anti-GMO (genetically modified organisms) stance and legislation yet imports animal feed for chickens, pigs, and cattle... that none vegetarians eat. (NB: I am a none tree-hugging carnivore)

2. What is the common sense of producing crop seeds that have been proven to cause cross contamination with other similar plant types causing mutations and, for the crops requiring spraying with Monsanto herbicides, allowing the spread of huge quantities of this that kills off adjacent crops. Similarly, the effect on bio-diversity is evident. The adverse effect on the economy of farmers who are required to buy specific seeds (at high prices) each year instead of retaining good seeds for next years planting goes against thousands of years of agricultural practice as well as placing a requirement to pay royalties against the tonnage of the crop.

ALL of that aside, the main reason for the post is this.

There is an up and coming United Nations meeting for the Codex Alimentarius to discuss the adoption of new standards of labeling food. The USA is looking to block the mandatory labeling of foods that contain GMO's. This is a really bad thing as there has been little proper/valid research on the true effects of GMO's on natural organisms (like you and me - although some might dispute my classification....). If you are in the US then there is a petition here. For EU people, I suggest coming back here in a while and I will track down the relevant info. Alternatively you could be creative on the online petition...

Another thing to do is to go to Google and type in "Monsanto Revolving Doors" to get a true picture of how bad it is to have a 'poacher turned gamekeeper turned poacher...' situation when it is food, health, and environmental legislation that is at issue. Here is just one result that points out how bad this is in reality.