ConsumerismGMOsHealth & Disease

US GMO Farmers = Corporate Serfs, and the Attack on European Food Sovereignty

The video above — Farmer to Farmer: The Truth About GM Crops — narrated by UK farmer Michael Hart, tells us that U.S. GMO farmers are not necessarily GMO farmers out of choice any more. The seeds cost too much, the chemicals cost too much, and they now need to use a lot more chemicals than they had to before — yet the pesticide treadmill has mutated into the GMO treadmill, leaving farmers grappling with spiraling costs and super weeds whilst essentially making them captive customers; prisoners on their own land.

Will European farmers learn from the mistakes of their U.S. counterparts? Due to the inability of farmers to stop the spread of GMOs (see also) through horizontal gene transfer, through bird droppings and bee- and wind-carried pollen, it’s essential that European farmers take a united stand on this issue.

Billions of dollars have been invested into lobbying European governments to open the doors wide to GMOs. Wikileaks showed us the US Embassy cables which prove there is a determined political agenda behind this pressure. Unfortunately the lobbyists are gaining ground. Governments of the UK, Spain and the Netherlands seem all but won over, and are exerting pressure on the rest of the European Union to submit to the control of U.S. agribusiness giants.

It’s not only about plants either — GMO meat is embroiled in this controversy also. And, while many Europeans think their plates are GMO-free, they should realise that the animals they’re eating may well have been fed GMOs, as there is a loophole in the labelling laws in this regard.

While most Europeans have great concern about the health risks associated with GMOs (both personal and environmental health risks), in the U.S., biotech corporations like Monsanto have used their patents to not only collect licensing fees from seed sales, but also to stop independent researchers from studying the seeds to see if they are potentially harmful or not, or even just to see if they perform as promised. See this excellent LA Times article for more on this. While attempting to force feed us GMO ‘food’, independent researchers are not allowed to properly scientifically examine these ‘products’.

Do we really want people like this having full control of our food supply?

4 Comments

  1. Great article Craig! This issue is really worrying and it is happening here in Australia with CSIRO being funded up to %30 by corporate interests (including those with links to GMO companies) a much higher level than is allowed in Europe (at 10%). GM research is being field trialled by the CSIRO all over Australia, including in Canberra, we already have GM Cannola contamination problems. I’ll be focusing on this issue in my submission to the National Food Plan Working Group, which also has representatives involved with vested interests in the expansion of GMOs in Australia.

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