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In reply to the discussion: Before you jump on Obama over the Monsanto amendment, take a minute and read this [View all]sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Do you know what 'deregulation' means? You have either not read this bill or did not understand how it ties the hands of the Federal Courts regarding going after Monsanto should there be health problems with their product. This is an OUTRAGE! To circumvent the courts, the only recourse people have when they are poisoned by a Big Corp!! Please stop pretending you understand what just happened, you don't.
Is Mikulski lying about the language of the rider? Tester? Everyone who has been trying to stop this rider from being passed into law for the past year?
Monsanto writing our laws. I'm sure they wrote it for OUR benefit!
Here is the language and you are incorrect, the courts' hands are now tied even if it is found that a food product is dangerous. This is in effect, deregulation and certainly beneficial to Monsanto, though not so much the rest of us.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/03/what-do-we-need-to-know-about-the-monsanto-protection-rider/
What Do We Need to Know about the Monsanto Protection Rider?
The language of the rider:
And what does it mean?
To reiterate, even if tomorrow we were to discover that the genetically engineered products had harmful effects, nothing can be done to stop the distribution or planting, or hold the companies in question responsible for those effects.
3. Not only does the six-month deregulation benefit Monsanto in the short run, but it prevents them from being prosecuted by federal courts, even if health risks from GMOs are discovered in the future.
To put this another way, imagine that a product that the rest of the civilized world has already deemed a potential health risk was deregulated and allowed for a six-month period of time. We have chosen to deliberately limit our governments ability to hold the makers and distributors of these products accountable should health or environmental risks arise. This, to me, is the biggest concern with this rider. Neither the Secretary of Agriculture nor the USDA, nor the federal courts system has any recourse should problems arise due to the deregulation of these genetically engineered seeds and plants.
Tying the hands of the courts on a matter as important as this to the American people? There are NO rules now regarding what Monsanto can do! This is what happened with Glass Steagal. Deregulation, poison the people and suffer no consequences.
YOU support this if you want to, but it is unconscionable that any Democrat voted for this vile piece of legislation, and I have no further interest in discussing it with anyone who does.