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‘Fair Stood the Wind for France’
The Mayor of Begles, Noel Mamere, joined the protestors ripping up GM Crops at Menville, near Toulouse, France.
European Governments are not listening to the public, or they listen but do not hear!
There has been a growing public outcry against Genetically Modified (GM) crops from the outset and there’s even been a quasi ‘The Big Conversation’ in the UK in which the public were invited to participate as a consultation exercise on matters such as GM or Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops and Foods. It would appear that the present government continues to be cloth-eared even to their own as the submission on the matter shown below demonstrates: “On GM foods, given the overwhelming opposition to the introduction of GM foods it is vital that the Labour government listens to these concerns and adopts a precautionary approach to GM foods. It is impossible to know the long-run effects on complex biosystems from short-term field studies of the impact of genetically modified organisms. Their impact can be slight or could set off a chain of events that will take years to fully materialise. There should be complete transparency of any government documentation or experimentation with such GMOs. Genetically modified foods should not be farmed in the UK until biodiversity and health issues have been conclusively resolved. Therefore SERA believes that GM crops should not be farmed in the UK unless and until comprehensive long-term tests have shown them to be environmentally benign and safe for human health.1 Nobody, except those with vested interests such as in Biotechnology companies that use living cells and materials produced by cells to create pharmaceutical, diagnostic, agricultural, environmental, and other products and alter genetic information in animals and plants or others such as Universities who require funding from the companies concerned for their Science divisions, wants GM crops or foods. In many respects, regarding the EU and it’s plethora of endless red tape that unravels upon us, the British may have many issues with France. However, there is one thing that binds Joe Bloggs, Otto Normalverbraucher, Mario Rossi and Jean Dupont more closely together than anything else that governments dream-up is the ordinary public’s total lack of desire to accept GM crops and foodstuffs. Some may not be aware that maize or sweet corn is one of the major GM crops on which in May 2004 the European Commission lifted a six-year moratorium, permitting companies to sell maize known as Bt-11, packaged as tinned sweet-corn. Although active protests have taken place in the UK, there have been around a dozen prosecutions of anti-GM activists in France over the past seven years. The British may be slow to anger, but things could get worse if governments do not pay attention - there is also a tacit admiration for the way French farmers come out in force when their principles or livelihoods are in any way threatened.
Now hundreds of French protestors have ripped up a field of ‘transgenic’ or genetically modified maize in south-west France. On this occasion the battle of drastic action was led by radical French farmer Jose Bove, who declared that the action being taken was in the interests of consumers and that the protagonists involved were prepared to face the legal consequences.2 It is also reported that although there were about 15 policemen observing and taking photographs of those involved, they did not intervene.
COMMENT: Scientists like Andrei Putszai and the debacle over his findings re: GM potatoes effects upon rats is one of many scientific rebels who lost his job as a result of exposing his concerns.3 Former Minister for the Environment, Michael Meacher appears only to have been able to more powerfully voice his concerns since being reshuffled out of ministerial office. Among those disturbing concerns he has claimed that the government played down a report criticising the safety of GM food and that such crops create ‘superweeds’, which has also been articulated by many environmentalists. Mr Meacher also claims that “reports critical of GM and warning of health side effects have been buried” and that “the Royal Society, British Medical Association and General Medical Council have all raised concerns about the possible health implications. … (and) that some novel substances produced by GM technology had already been found to cause allergic reactions.” 4 In 2002, regarding Rapeseed, (a member of the brassica family like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts) it was reported that “it is unlikely that GM crops could be grown in Britain without contaminating all oilseed varieties, according to the research. … Up to 48% of the weed wild turnip growing in the GM crops had swapped genes with its cultivated relative, making it resistant to weedkiller, the researchers found. Because seed is spilt at harvest new GM plants grow in the next crops, leading to further dangers of cross-contamination.”5 And, e.g. GM oil seed rape plants that escaped from a crop harvested in 1996, persisted for at least four years and interbred with the wild turnip weed, giving it resistance to herbicides,6 which is precisely what is meant by the prospect of the development of superweeds. The list of mishaps and potential ecological rape is only as long as has been admitted in official Reports and summarily recounted. There are more ‘don’t knows about … ?’ for the general public regarding GM/GE than in any other contemporary section of science. If we are told from an early age, ‘When in doubt, don’t’, then one may assume that the powers that be never heard that admonition either. Science is a wonderful thing, it explains our world to us in terms we can understand, but can be used for our betterment or the contrary. The problem in the case of GM is that politicians voted in to serve the public do not appear to use that power they were vested with to fight for public concerns. Overly powerful Big Business appears to be calling the shots and more than influencing, nay dictating policies in terms of finance to those who have been entrusted to govern. The cartoon picture of the mad scientist comes to mind, because if everybody did whatever they wanted just because they could, which is not a sane or reasonable balanced argument, the world would be in worse chaos than it already is now. The argument to GM to feed the under-privileged masses doesn’t stick either, because it is blatantly obvious that the problem is ‘access to food’ and not production of it. There are also many other such easily disproved arguments for GM crops. The simplest and most rational argument against GM crops and foods is that it is not necessary, so why unless there’s a money-driven motive is it happening at all when the vast majority of the public do not want it? We are also now being faced with a consumer No-choice agenda to introduce GM medicated crops and foods into our daily diet. Ironically, this continuous flouting of democracy comes at a time when the world is making ready to celebrate the ‘spirit’ of Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, also given to us by the ancient Greeks. Perhaps politicians should read from among the wise golden sentences of Democrates: “He who is perfectly vanquished by riches can never be just.” And, “It is hard to be governed by these who are worse than ourselves.”7
References: 1 SERA’s submission to: ‘The Big Conversation’ - What should be the priorities for the funding provided to rural areas: further help to render farming more sustainable; provision of public services; transport; support for new industries? (SERA: The Socialist Environment and Resource Association is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party which campaigns for environmental change and social justice. Members include over 100 MPs and six cabinet ministers. SERA believes that social and environmental concerns must be addressed together and works to integrate green thinking into Labour policies.) 3 ISIS The Institute of Science in Society – www.i-sis.org.uk 5 ‘Alert after GM Crops Alter Other Plants’ by Paul Brown The Guardian UK 30th December 2002. 6 ‘GM Crops are Breeding with Plants in the Wild’ by Geoffrey Lean Independent UK 29th December, 2002. 7 The Golden Sentences of Democrates: www.sacred-texts.com p.21 15 & 15. NB: Democritus (c.460-357 BC) Greek philosopher, who expounded the atomic theory of the universe revived by modern scientists.
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