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GE food is ultimately produced for profit. A Greenpeace activist in Bangkok warns consumers not to buy it.
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The prohibition or even labelling of GE foods is resisted by the industry and often referred to by them as a ‘barrier to trade’.
In trade deals such as the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the GE industry attempts to push its products onto the world. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has also been criticised for promoting corporate interests in the name of trade. The Biosafety Protocol allows countries the right to ban imports of living modified organisms and can act as a safeguard against the US-led push to force GE products onto consumers worldwide.
Corporate spin that GE will solve world hunger is a myth. Instead, GE crops are grown to sell patented seeds and their accompanying chemicals. Far from feeding the world, up to 80 per cent of the resultant crops are used to feed animals – animals bred for products mostly consumed in Europe, the Americas and Japan.
The GE industry also exerts its corporate control by patenting its GE products. Patents on living organisms such as seeds, allow corporations to privatise and commercialise life itself. GE patents are enabling corporations like Monsanto to receive royalties for living products. Several farmers have been jailed in the US for patent violation and companies such as Monsanto are investigating approximately 500 farmers and farms for evidence of use of Monsanto’s patented products. Further, any farmer who chooses GE seeds must not only sign a legally binding contract, but is prohibited from collecting and reusing his seed according to the age-old farming practice.
Controlling patents can also give rise to issues of biopiracy- which is effectively the theft of traditional ecological and biological knowledge from indigenous peoples.
US-based Monsanto is responsible for 91 per cent of all GE crops worldwide. With a history as one of the world's most notorious chemical polluters, would you trust Monsanto products in your food or fields?
Trading away rights
In trade deals such as the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the GE industry attempts to push its products onto the world. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has also been criticised for promoting corporate interests in the name of trade. The Biosafety Protocol allows countries the right to ban imports of living modified organisms and can act as a safeguard against the US-led push to force GE products onto consumers worldwide.
GE spin
Corporate spin that GE will solve world hunger is a myth. Instead, GE crops are grown to sell patented seeds and their accompanying chemicals. Far from feeding the world, up to 80 per cent of the resultant crops are used to feed animals – animals bred for products mostly consumed in Europe, the Americas and Japan.
Commercialising life itself
The GE industry also exerts its corporate control by patenting its GE products. Patents on living organisms such as seeds, allow corporations to privatise and commercialise life itself. GE patents are enabling corporations like Monsanto to receive royalties for living products. Several farmers have been jailed in the US for patent violation and companies such as Monsanto are investigating approximately 500 farmers and farms for evidence of use of Monsanto’s patented products. Further, any farmer who chooses GE seeds must not only sign a legally binding contract, but is prohibited from collecting and reusing his seed according to the age-old farming practice.
Controlling patents can also give rise to issues of biopiracy- which is effectively the theft of traditional ecological and biological knowledge from indigenous peoples.
Notorious history
US-based Monsanto is responsible for 91 per cent of all GE crops worldwide. With a history as one of the world's most notorious chemical polluters, would you trust Monsanto products in your food or fields?
