Over the holidays, the USDA approved a strain of Monsanto's genetically engineered corn that can now be planted freely in the environment and distributed throughout the U.S. food supply, with no oversight or efforts to track its safety. Monsanto says the strain is drought-tolerant, but the USDA itself has actually found otherwise. Instead, the agency ignored its own results as well as concerns from the public, which has little trust in the safety of the crop. Nearly 45,000 public comments were written in opposition to the particular corn variety and only 23 comments were written in favor, according to the Cornucopia Institute.Update: Bugs may be resistant to genetically modified corn. Imagine our surprise! Who could have predicted?
And there's more! Back in July 2011: 270,000 Organic Farmers Sue Monsanto. Their case update here.
4 comments:
That's the USDA, with its mixed mandate again. It serves as a center for research on human nutrition, and as an advocate for the sale of US farm products. Guess which mandate wins out when the two come into conflict.
I did some work for the USDA through a subcontractor on the human nutrition research side for a few years, and the research was very respectable. It's too bad they can't simply stick to that aspect of their mission.
I'm glad to hear it, Steve. My stepson and son briefly worked for a Big Ag company here in California and what they saw disgusted them. The corporations didn't care about the quality of food they were trucking to the stores, just the quantity and the money.
It scares me that we are being poisoned with no say in the matter. Europe has slammed the doors on Frankenfood, why can't we? Must we be guinea pigs for everything?
ellroon, for lack of a better approach, I try to buy from "trusted" vendors. Ever since Bush 43 changed the rules for labeling things "organic," I've tried to buy mainly from brands and (when available) specific farms that were doing "organic" back when it meant, well, organic, not some dodgy definition invented by the Bush USDA.
I have only one remaining contact inside USDA, and s/he of course can't say a lot about the particulars, but my sense is that the nutrition researchers there are as smart and craftsmanly as ever, and probably frustrated as hell by the political pressure on their work.
In a sane society, the problem would be self-repairing. But that's in a sane society...
(CAPTCHA text: "prize" ... what I'm NOT bound to win.)
We need to get degrees in nutrition, political science, and chemistry just to buy stuff at the store...
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