Food Is For White Liberals What Sex Is For The Religious Right

[Zorra]

115. Yeh, those of us who want GMO food packages labeled, and who are concerned

about the possible effects of GMO's on the environment must be Fox News watchers, right? Or is it the fact that we are stifling corporate interests and profits that has you so upset about people with legitimate concerns about the environment, and what we put into our bodies?

I'm a vegetarian, have been an organic food farmer, and have used Mendelian genetics (within the same species) to breed plants and create unique hybrid plants with specific desired characteristics. I have never watched Fox News, haven't watched TV for several decades, and as a liberal, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Whole Foods store. And I don't tell people what they should eat.

GM technology enables technicians to place into a plant's genome genes from other species of plants, from bacteria, viruses, animals, etc...and there's no fucking way on earth that we can know the long term effects of this inter-species gene swapping at this point in time.

This is a legitimate concern for many people. Until Monsanto, etc. stops their "don't worry children, this stuff will never hurt you, move along now, (we have tons of profit to make)" propaganda, and proves that there will not be any health, environmental, etc. problems caused by this unnatural inter-species genetic modification process, people will have this legitimate concern. And there is no way to prove that GMO's are safe without testing them on large subject populations and natural environments over a period of many decades. What GMO marketing corporations are doing right now is testing their GMO's on us to make sure that they are safe, and, of course, making gazillions in profit while using us as their lab rats, and the earth as their lab environment.

It's simply not reasonable to turn so many brand new organisms loose on the planet without substantial research proving that these organisms will not be harmful in the long term. The "don't worry, if it breaks, we'll fix it" argument doesn't work with anyone but idiots and corporations drooling over major profits.

Regulation of genetically modified organisms in the European Union

The regulations concerning the import and sale of GMOs for human and animal consumption grown outside the EU involve providing freedom of choice to the farmers and consumers.[7] All food (including processed food) or feed which contains greater than 0.9% of approved GMOs must be labelled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_genetically_modified_organisms_in_the_European_Union

Twenty-Six Countries Ban GMOs—Why Won’t the US?

http://www.thenation.com/blog/176863/twenty-six-countries-ban-gmos-why-wont-us