GM Foods Rebuffed as WTO Meetings Failed
Anyone in Favor of a True Free Market Without Privilege?
| Ronnie Cummins of the BioDemocracy Campaign recently published his analysis of genetically-modified foods and the recent WTO meetings in Seattle. He also chose four particularly interesting quotes that show some very different viewpoints about freedom and favoritism. Have a look! |
As the international uprising against genetically engineered foods continues to grow, the worst fear of US government and business officials is that the commotion abroad will awaken Americans, who unknowingly already consume biotech foods being rejected in Europe... The US food and biotechnology industries are now in full "crisis management" mode, their PR experts and lobbyists working furiously to prevent the same kind of defeat suffered on foreign shores." -- John Stauber, "Food Fight Comes to America," The Nation, 12/27/99"The United States would never knowingly permit a single pound of any American food product to leave this country if I had a shred of evidence that it was unsafe... I say to people around the world, we eat this [genetically engineered] food, too, and we eat more of it than you do." -- President Bill Clinton, speaking in Seattle, Washington at the World Trade Organization Meeting, December 1, 1999
"Two days ago Cargill issued a statement about studying the segregation of genetically engineered crops from conventional crops, if consumers were prepared to pay a higher price for that. But European consumers expect food giants like Cargill to respect their rejection of GMOs in the food chain, including animal feed. We demand that Cargill immediately stop force-feeding us with unwanted and unneeded GMOs." -- Arnaud Apoteker, Greenpeace, speaking December 2, as activists blocked a shipment of Cargill's US soybeans in the port of Brest, France.
"Beyond the wildest hopes of the street warriors, five days in Seattle have brought us one victory after another. The protesters, initially shunned and denounced by the respectable 'inside strategists,' scorned by the press, gassed and bloodied by the cops and national guard: shut down the opening ceremony; prevented Clinton from addressing the WTO delegates at Wednesday night gala; turned the corporate press from prim denunciations of 'mindless anarchy' to bitter criticisms of police brutality; forced the WTO to cancel its closing ceremonies and to adjourn in disorder and confusion, without an agenda for the next round." -- "Victory in Seattle" by Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch magazine, December 3, 1999.
------------------------
The BioDemocracy Campaign is at www.purefood.org
Tell your views to The Progress Report:
| Page One | Page Two | Archive |
| Discussion Room | Letters | What's Geoism? |
