Why Does Europe Hate GM Food and is it About to Change its Mind?

Why Does Europe Hate GM Food and is it About to Change its Mind?

from AFP 6 Jul 2014, 9:11 AM PDT

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/06/Why-does-Europe-hate-GM-food-and-is-it-about-to-change-its-mind

While the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and China and many other countries have warmly embraced genetically modified crops, Europe remains the world's big holdout.

Could this be about to change? New European Union rules now seek to clear up years of internal deadlock that could, in theory, lead to widespread cultivation of GM foods. But the fight is far from over.

The EU's great GM debate pits two powerful forces against each other: green campaigners concerned about the effect of the crops on health and the environment, and the agri-business lobby, which argues that Europe, by resisting a technology that boosts yields and rural incomes, is losing its place at the forefront of agricultural innovation.

Only five EU countries grow GM crops at all -- Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia -? and in such tiny quantities that they accounted for less than 0.1 percent of global GM cultivation last year, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, which monitors the industry.

Europe's fragmented politics, diverse landscapes and smaller scale farming traditions have made it less compatible with the mass-farming techniques in the Americas and China. Only one type of modified crop ? a herbicide-resistant maize ? is approved for cultivation in the EU, compared to 96 commercial licences granted in the United States since 1990, although Europe does import more than 30 million tonnes of GM grain for animal feed each year.

"Europe has perversely condemned itself to importing crops which its farmers could grow locally and banished thousands of bright scientists to other shores for reasons that are scientifically bogus," claims Brandon Mitchener, a Brussels spokesman for Monsanto, one of the US agribusinesses leading the push for GM crops.

Hoping to find a way out of the deadlock, EU environment ministers last month approved new rules that would permit individual countries to make their own decisions on GM -- allowing them to use "ethical" or "public order" rationales to ban crops even when scientific advisors have ruled that these strains are safe.

The compromise was the result of a fraught battle, says Frederic Vincent, health spokesman for the European Commission: "Everyone was blocking the agreement for different reasons. The UK said not enough was left to science, France said too much was left to science, Germany was a mix of both thanks to its complex coalition."

Genetic modification technology was not always so controversial in Europe. Even France, now one of its staunchest opponents, grew GM maize well into the 2000s until green protesters pressured the government into a ban.

But Mitchener says the seeds of Europe's aversion to GM were sown in the 1990s, thanks to two factors in particular: the strength of the Green party in Germany at the crucial moment when the technology was first emerging, and then the scare over mad cow disease in Britain.

"Mad cow disease caused a loss of public confidence in science. You had the British government saying beef was safe, while the EU said the opposite," he says.

Unlike the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which commands widespread respect in the United States, equivalent bodies in Europe are often treated as pawns of industry or simply ignored, Mitchener adds.

"The tragedy of biotech in Europe is that no one listens to EFSA," he says, referring to the European Food Safety Authority, a scientific body set up partly in reaction to the mad cow disease confusion. It has consistently stated there is no risk from GM crops.

Pro-GM scientists argue GM is not inherently more dangerous to either the environment or human health than any other method of crop mutation -- whether through selective breeding or naturally through evolution.

Or, for that matter, by blasting seeds with radiation, as humans have been doing for decades through the process of "mutagenesis", hoping to create mutant seeds with useful properties. More than 2,500 crops have been created in this way, including a premium barley used in Scotch whisky and disease-resistant cocoa in Guinean chocolate.

"In fact, GM is actually safer than most forms of breeding because we know exactly which properties are being implanted -- it?s much less random," argues Huw Jones, a GM scientist at Rothamsted Research in the UK.

But Greenpeace, one of the most vocal opponents, dismisses the idea of a scientific consensus on GM safety as "a myth".

It argues that continued gaps in knowledge about gene manipulation should raise alarm bells, especially as the technology moves beyond single-gene transfers and into more complex experiments.

It also portrays GM technology as a symbol of all that is wrong with modern mass-farming techniques.

"GM crops are presented as a solution, but they are part of the problem. They are a product of a wider agricultural system that is destroying our environment. They lead to more uniformity and even greater economies of scale, when what we need is greater diversity," says Marco Contiero, EU agricultural policy director for Greenpeace.

That ties in with familiar concerns about the way GM crops are commercialised. It costs the big agrochemical firms such as Monsanto or Bayer around $200 million (140 million euros) to develop the simplest GM seed, Greenpeace says, and that gets recouped through aggressive marketing and monopoly ownership of seeds that have made Monsanto in particular the b㪴 noire of the green movement.

All this means that the newly minted EU deal -- due to go before the European Parliament and Council by the end of the year -- still faces major obstacles.

Environmentalists such as Jose Bove, a French Green MEP who went on hunger strike in 2008 to force France's first GM ban, complain the agreement will give gives biotech firm a direct role in lobbying governments, threatens single market principles and does nothing to protect cross-border contamination from GM seeds planted in neighbouring countries.

With the EU still poring over the results of May Euro-elections, it is unclear how the looming political battle will pan out. Even if the GM directive passes, will national governments court the ire of environmental campaigners by permitting large-scale GM cultivation?

"We're creating organisms that haven't been created in the whole of history," says Contiero. "We are not opposed to GM in principle, but this technology is only 20 years old. For that reason, we need to be absolutely cautious."

Monsanto

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Note: Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Valerie B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, the Human Rights Watch, the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a benefactor at the Human Rights Watch, is a board member at the International Crisis Group, and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society.

Eric H. Holder Jr. was an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, a board member for the American Constitution Society, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP, and is the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration.

Covington & Burling LLP is the lobby firm for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Jean De Ruyt is a senior public policy adviser for the Covington & Burling LLP, and was a representative of Belgium for the European Union.

Stuart E. Eizenstat is a senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and was a U.S. ambassador for the European Union.

European Parliament is an elected parliamentary institution for the European Union.

Wim van Velzen was a member of the European Parliament, and is a senior European policy adviser for Covington & Burling LLP.

Harold H. Koh was a lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP, the State Department legal adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Mark B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Michael R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for the Monsanto Company.

Javier Solana is a director at the Human Rights Watch, a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), a board member at the International Crisis Group, and was the high representative for common foreign & security policy for the European Union.

European Commission is the executive body for the European Union.

European Parliament is an elected parliamentary institution for the European Union.

James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Lester Crown was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Sidley Austin LLP was the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, Biotechnology Industry Organization, and is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare.

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jessica Tuchman Mathews was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982

(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war)

http://www.illuminati-news.com/110106a.htm

Donald Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).

Margaret A. Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Michael R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for the Monsanto Company.

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Valerie B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Klaus Kleinfeld is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at Bayer AG, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Bayer AG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_AG

The Bayer company then became part of IG Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps, notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[3] IG Farben owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,[4] a chemical used in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in prison during the IG Farben Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, was made head of the supervisory board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.

Bayer HealthCare is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Bayer CropScience is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare, was the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Monsanto Company.

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Sandra E. Peterson is the EVP for Bayer HealthCare, the chairman & CEO for Bayer CropScience, and is the group worldwide chairman for Johnson & Johnson.

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP was the lobby firm for Johnson & Johnson, is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, married to Ann Dibble Jordan, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Ann Dibble Jordan is married to Vernon E. Jordan Jr., an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was a director at Johnson & Johnson.

Robert A. Helman was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a partner at Mayer Brown.

Mayer Brown was the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.

Bayer Corporation is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.

William M. Daley 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_M._Daley

Professional career 

Daley returned to the practice of law, as a partner with the firm Mayer Brown (then Mayer, Brown & Platt) from 1993 to 1997.

William M. Daley was a partner at Mayer Brown, chief of staff for the Barack Obama administration, and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP

Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.

Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.

Sidley Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare, the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Monsanto Company.

Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Thomas A. Cole is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.

Joseph McLaughlin is senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a director at the American Council on Germany.

Gregory S. Babe was a director at the American Council on Germany, and is the president & CEO for the Bayer Corporation.

Bayer Corporation is the North American subsidiary for Bayer AG.

Klaus Kleinfeld is a director at the American Council on Germany, a director at Bayer AG, a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

James W. Cicconi is a director at the American Council on Germany, was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP.

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).

Valerie B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.

Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Mark B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Michael R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for the Monsanto Company.

Javier Solana is a director at the Human Rights Watch, a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), a board member at the International Crisis Group, and was the high representative for common foreign & security policy for the European Union.

European Commission is the executive body for the European Union.