This is part of an e-mail sent to me from Precision Herbs about some of the changes that the Bush Administration are trying to push through in their final days. This piece about GMOs is just one small part of a large ugly picture.
Make no mistake - as the days of the Bush Administration draw to a close, Industry shills inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are preparing to ram through regulations (which acquire the force of law once finalized) which weaken protection for human and environmental health to a degree which leaves the observer nearly speechless.
USDA has released a proposed rule gutting any meaningful oversight of GMO (genetically engineered) crops and allowing biotech companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals without protection for conventional or organic crops. It is imperative to remember that GMO foods are deemed "substantially equivalent" because of a 1992 Executive Order by then-President George Bush, Sr., NOT because of any scientific or epidemiological studies. It is imperative, too, to recall that the genetic material from these crops and animals enters the genetic material of humans or animals consuming it and mingles in totally uncontrolled ways with all plants once GMO crops are grown outdoors. Once mingled, there is no one on the planet who can say with certainty what the short or long term consequences of that mingling will be. All independently conducted science, however, shows, often to the surprise of the scientist, devastating health and environmental consequences.
Four years ago the FDA promised stricter oversight of GMO plants. None of the oversight promised has occurred and the new rule opens even wider holes in any regulatory restrictions despite the strong desire of US and global consumers to avoid GMO foods through labeling and selection. The new rule will make that virtually impossible:
* Biotech companies will assess their OWN crops to determine whether USDA SHOULD regulate them. Since the criteria are loose, open and subjective, the outcome is assured: no regulation.
* Biotech companies will be able to grow UNTESTED crops without any USDA oversight whatsoever, making, according to the USDA contamination of conventional and organic crops with untested GMO material "more likely".
* This contamination does not bother USDA regulators since new rules allow "Low Level Presence" of GMO material in BOTH conventional "organic" food, feed and seed.
* Outdoor cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing and industrial material-producing crops is allowed without supervision or restriction. The cross pollination of other plants, weeds, feed and food crops with this material is assured. The consequences include drugs and industrial chemicals ending up in our food and animal feed.
* The rule virtually assures that the DNA to produce these materials will wind up in our own DNA and that of the animals we eat. Both consumer and food industry groups have urged controls on this practice, but the USDA is determined to ignore that input.
* USDA refuses to propose any controls on GMO plants which require or tolerate high levels of pesticide or herbicide use. Insects and weeds both adapt to the presence of these toxins and become resistant to them. Chemical resistant GMO DNA mixes with the genetic material of weeds and insects: an epidemic of super weeds and pests has already resulted.
* In a move to vitiate State and local authorities from protecting farmers and consumers from these possible regulations, a last minute "correction" bars state or local regulation of GE crops more protective than its own weak rule.
The USDA is following the lead of the FDA by opening new loopholes which make consumer and environmental protection meaningless. The new rule will be of great benefit to Biotech companies who already have more than free reign to contaminate and then own the entire food stock of the US and beyond.
If you are not content to be exposed to more, and more dangerous, GMO "foods", drugs and industrial chemicals in your "food" then I urge you to click below to tell the USDA in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable to you and to millions more just like you.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26267