Let them eat Democracy

Open letter to Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO

Feature story - 12 October, 2005
Dear Pascal, more than a year ago, the US government teamed up with Canada and Argentina to complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the people of Europe.Europeans are simply too democratic, according to the US government, and public opinion really ought not to be allowed to overrule trade regulations.

Activists intercept the MV Ikan Altamira carrying 40,000 tonnes of US GMO contaminated maize/corn.

The issue at question is the European Union's (EU) de facto moratorium ongenetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as a number of EU memberstates' national bans on GMOs.

In poll after poll, Europeanshave stated they don't want to eat genetically contaminated foods, theydon't want them grown here, and they don't want them fed to the animalsthat produce their eggs, milk, and meat.

Even an ex-executive of the biotech giant Monsanto believes the dangers of GMOs are being ignored in the rush topush GMOs onto consumers. We recently released details ofmassive GMO contamination of the Romanian environment that the Romaniangovernment didn't even know about.

Mr. Dima, ex-general manager of Monsanto Romania said, "I left thecompany because I expressed my concerns regarding the introduction ofGM technology in Romania. I believed that neither Romania nor thecompany were ready and able to monitor and control the GM technology".

To the US and its allies,this is simply a trade dispute. But at base it's a more fundamentalissue of who makes the rules - the people of Europe or the unelectedWTO and the corporate empire that runs it.

We're aiming to have a one million signature petition byMay 2006 on the single issue of whether to ban the importation of GMOanimal feed into Europe. So far, we've gotten 320,000 and rising fast.

If the WTO and the three complaintants are so confident that they havethe right to determine what food gets put on the dinner tables ofEurope, we want to know where your petition is?

Where's theevidence that Europeans want GMOs? What makes you think that people whowouldn't feed GMOs to pigs want to have them force-fed to theirchildren?

When democracy and the will of the people is considered expendable, Free Trade isn't free: it's corporate tyranny.

Sincerely and on behalf of



320,000 people and counting.

To add your name to the growing list click here.

To send an e-card about the petition to your family and friends, click the picture above.

For more information, check out ' The US assault on Biosafety - The WTO dispute on GMO's'

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