US sent banned (GM) corn to Europe for four years

[elehhhhna]

US sent banned corn to Europe for four years
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
17 April 2005
All imports of United States corn have been stopped at British ports following the discovery that the US has been illegally exporting a banned GM maize to Europe for the past four years.

The unprecedented move, which has angered the Bush administration, follows efforts to hush up and play down the scandal on both sides of the Atlantic. For weeks the official food watchdog failed to look for imports of the maize, which is banned on health grounds. It has been forced to take action by the European Commission.

The two main opposition parties yesterday blamed the delay on a pro-GM and pro-US bias in the Food Standards Agency, and pledged to correct it if they came to power.

The scandal - the worst yet involving GM imports - centres around maize named Bt 11, modified to repel a pest called the corn borer. It also contains a gene conferring resistance to antibiotics. All such crops are banned in Europe because of fears that the resistance could spread to consumers via the food chain.

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=630186&host=3&dir=58

[Doctor_J]

1. It was so nice when we had allies

If Smirk serves out his 2nd term, it'll be us and Israel against the entire rest of the world :cry:

[wildmanj]

2. us and israel

you got it and even israel may be smart enough to switch sides :bounce:

[hedda_foil]

3. Why the hell does corn have to be resistant to antibiotics?

Damn straight it might pass on the resistance but why the fuck is that gene in there to begin with? Every processed or prepared food we eat in this country has corn products in it unless you buy strictly natural foods at a high premium. Most people couldn't afford to do that even if they were aware of what's going on, which they're NOT.

[acmavm]

4. Apparently if the bush** administration can't get Europeans to agree

to our frankenfood openly, we'll sneak it in whether they like it or not.

[Maine-ah]

5. here's the link to the LBN replies:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1400197

On edit: I wanted to add this link because I feel this is an important story, and it got lost in LBN, I hope it doesn't get lost here.