President Obama wants to show he is business-friendly yet will he ultimately allow the USDA to give in to the whims of the GMO-producing multi-national corporation Monsanto? Many farmers, scientists and organic business leaders in the sustainable environmental community are upset over the USDA's recent decision last week to deregulate without restriction Monsanto's genetically engineered alfalfa seeds that are immune to Monsanto's flagship herbicide Round-up.
Are Genetically Engineered Seeds Hazardous to One's Health?
There are many stories, past and present, documenting the tragic suicides of farmers in India who killed themselves because they were forced to continue buying GMO seeds from Monsanto instead of using their traditional method of cleaning seeds to create next year's crops. Many of the GMO seeds could only be used with Monsanto's herbicide Round-up, otherwise crops would fail. In addition, farmers in India had to find ways to increase water usage in order to keep their GE crops alive.
The Center for Food Safety published an article that includes a report titled, "Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years." The Report revealed that there is a large rise in pesticide use on genetically engineered (GE) crops due to the spread of resistant weeds.
Monsanto Indian Farmer Suicide
Stephen Leahy reported in his article, "US: Monsanto "Seed Police" Scrutinise Farmers," that "Monsanto prohibits farmers from saving seed from varieties that have been genetically engineered (GE) to kill bugs and resist ill-effects from the herbicide glyphosate (sold under the brand name Roundup).
Should Obama be Business-friendly to Corporations primarily dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility?
"Change we can believe in" is if President Obama and the USDA supported corporations that practiced real corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sound ecological farming. Let's help businesses that are responsible to Mother Earth and all its inhabitants--human, animal and plant life!
Dangers of Deregulating Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Alfalfa
Many agricultural experts are concerned that deregulation of the Round-up Ready (RR) GMO alfalfa will make it difficult to keep alfalfa crops purely organic and non-gmo due to long distance bee pollination of RR GMO alfalfa plants beyond specific areas!
Gary Hirshberg, Chairman and President and CE-YO of Stonyfield Farm wrote this passionate piece in the Huffington Post, "Speaking With One Voice to Stop Monsanto and Biotech," urging all people to come together to "restore sanity to our food system, protect farmers, and preserve consumer choice."
In 2010, according to Hirshberg, the Center for Food Safety's case against deregulation of the GMO alfalfa, the Supreme Court ruled that "there could be no deregulation without the USDA making a full assessment of GE alfalfa's environmental impact, and the court placed an injunction on planting of GE alfalfa."
 |
| Listening to Mother Earth by HikingArtist.com on Flickr in the creative commons |
Hirshberg says Stonyfield will continue to oppose the deregulation of the GE alfalfa and will advocate for unbiased scientific studies and findings about the dangers of Genetically Engineered (GE) crops like Monsanto's GE Alfalfa.
Here is an open letter from Maria Rodale, CEO and Chairman of Rodale, Inc. and concerned citizens regarding why the USDA should refrain from deregulating GE alfalfa on any level.
No comments:
Post a Comment