Bayer defends genetic Rice contamination as “Act of God”

[IChing]

You might blame the dog for eating your homework, or a traffic jam for being late to work. But if you ever find yourself facing a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit for contaminating the world’s number one food crop with an unapproved genetically engineered variety, just do what biotech company Bayer does. Blame God!

Yes folks it seems that according to Bayer, God hasn’t been dealing with the big issues lately. Instead of answering millions of prayers, stopping wars or ending famines, God has left all the important things to gather dust in the heavenly inbox whilst ensuring Bayer’s unapproved variety of genetically engineered (GE) rice goes forth and multiplies around the world instead.

According to documents submitted to the court by Bayer, last year’s massive contamination of US rice with an unapproved, experimental variety of rice called LL601 was due to ‘acts of God’ or the rice farmers themselves.

http://news.worldwild.org/bayer-defends-genetic-contamination-as-act-of-god/

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/act-of-god-060207

[AuntPatsy]

1. Stop the ignorance....far too many people actually see these events

as God ordained which of course the ever increasing natures destructive forces are coninciding with, they actually welcome these things believing that it brings them closer to the Armegeddon scenerio, these people don't scare me with thier ignorance, they make me sick.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. "Act of God" is a somewhat antiquated legal term...

for an event outside of human control. Like a flood or a tornado. It's use does not actually mean that the person who uses the term thinks that God did it, or even believes in God.

Do people not understand this? Or are they being purposefully obtuse?

[drm604]

4. Obtuse.

Actually "being obtuse" and "not understanding" are the same thing. http://www.tfd.com/obtuse
I think you meant that they are appearing obtuse on purpose.

That said, I think that there may be some reasoning behind the purposeful obtuseness. Criticizing their use of the phrase "act of God" may put them in the awkward position of having to explain what they mean. There are two possible explanations:

1. They are actually blaming God.
   
2. They don't actually intend the literal meaning. From the fundie viewpoint, this could be seen as taking the lord's name in vain.
   

Anything that puts a strain on the relationship between the big corporations and the theocon's base is a good thing.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Fixed. So they're actually claiming...

that a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation is actually going fundie in legal proceedings?

[drm604]

12. They certainly seem to be saying that Bayer is blaming God.

Shifting the blame isn’t new for big business trying to avoid responsibility for their mistakes. But God as scapegoat? That’s probably a new low in the GE industry’s pursuit of the almighty dollar.

I'm not sure that blaming God for this particular incident could be considered to be "going fundie". I would think that it would more likely be considered blasphemous.

I don't actually believe that Bayer is blaming God however. But if they're not then they could be considered, from a fundie viewpoint, to be taking the lord's name in vain.

[bdamomma]

5. really ignorant

[Hekate]

2. No comment. Just a kick

:kick:

Hekate

[bobthedrummer]

6. And as a lot of US remember Bayer was an I.G. Farben spin-off

Corporate Watch Bayer profile
http://archive.corporatewatch.org/profiles/bayer/bayer1.html

fair use cited

[elehhhhna]

7. When the jury determines Joint and Several Liability,

Bayer's still going to be in for big reparations.

Just saying.

[ThomCat]

9. We're going to see a lot of this.

Monsanto went to court to get the right to royalties anyplace their genetically altered crow grew, even if it got there by contaminating someone's field. Yet Bayer is claiming no responsibility for the spread of their crop.

If they get both precedents then they'll have no liability, and everyone will soon owe them royalties anyway.

[gratuitous]

14. I remember the Monsanto case

And was flabbergasted when the court (wasn't it in Canada?) held the farmer in the adjacent field liable to Monsanto to pay a royalty for the GM pollen that had drifted into his field from his neighbor. And you're right, Bayer seems to now be arguing the exact opposite to avoid liability.

World hunger isn't a production problem; it's a distribution problem.

[KittyWampus]

18. Just as a man who rapes a young girl and impregnants her won't take responsiblity.

[cascadiance]

10. For a minute I was wondering if Bayer got charged with racist comments towards Condi! :)

[LeftishBrit]

11. I managed to interpret the heading as referring to Condi Rice!

And was very puzzled, especially since so far as I know, she has not spread her genes!

I suppose if a DNA sample from her got into some rice, it might cause some trouble!

[Beausoleil]

13. Find them liable

Then they can try to sue God.

[Shallah Kali]

15. Call me a luddite all you want - I don't want to eat frankenfood!

I have enough trouble eating regular food without getting sick!!!

[bobthedrummer]

16. Why is it that the rest of the world has been aware of this, but the FDA, USDA

as well as all the "industry regulated watchdogs" basically let all genetically modified contaminated toxic products into the food chain many years ago?

Privatization, deregulation, the "invisible hand" of "free market" forces, corporate welfare and other fascist policies-that has been the theme of RW Republicans for decades. You won't hear anything but good news from their propaganda media either when it comes to protecting people-only protecting their profits.

Here is a link to the CBG.org page (in Europe) specifically about Bayer LL 601 and other contaminated products.
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/1592.html

I'm biased, yet my biases seem more than well founded-now that our food staples have been consumed for many years, and it's not just people's pets that have been harmed.

I think this is just another harsh reality of what is meant by "full spectrum dominance", for those that grasp what is meant by that phrase.

[KittyWampus]

17. It's akin to an act of RAPE. Bayer is actually doing what empires have done

rape the women- or in this case the crops.