The GMO

Résumé du document

Genetic engineering is the practice of altering and disrupting the genetic blueprints of living organisms – plants, animals, humans – patenting them, and then selling the resulting product. Life science corporation proclaim that their new products will make agriculture sustainable, eliminate world hunger, cure disease and improve public health. But the technology used to produce these GE products is inherently unpredictable.

Extraits

[...] GMOs I. GMO's : Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence of risk Genetic engineering is the practice of altering and disrupting the genetic blueprints of living organisms plants, animals, humans patenting them, and then selling the resulting product. Life science corporation proclaim that their new products will make agriculture sustainable, eliminate world hunger, cure disease and improve public health. But the technology used to produce these GE products is inherently unpredictable. Farmers have always tried to create new plants by crossing different varieties of the same species in the way they could cross naturally. [...]

[...] And in 1990, it was the key piece of European legislation in the area on the release of GM products into the environment. The Directive set out a procedure for the approval of GM products that was a highly complex mixture of subsidiarity and centralized decision making. This procedure has been at the heart of the transatlantic dispute over market access. Since this first directive, many amendments have been made. A main one was, in 1997, that labelling to indicate the presence of GMOs is mandatory for food and seeds. [...]

[...] The labelling requirement for foods no longer containing GMO is based on the concept of equivalence. The characteristic which is not equivalent to an existing counterpart must be labelled if it was obtained by a genetic modification. A new updated directive entered into force on October 2002. It strengthens the existing rules by introducing mandatory information to the public and mandatory labelling and traceability at all stages. It also foresees mandatory monitoring requirements of long term effects on environment. First approvals will be limited to a maximum of ten years and consultation of the Scientific Committee (set directly at the European level) becomes obligatory. [...]

[...] The precautionary principle have been created to allow a country to ban the use of a product considering the consequences it may have on the public healh or the environment. GE crops enters that category, they are not harmful but nobody knows if they will be one day. Once released, it is virtually impossible to recall genetically engineered organisms back to the laboratory or the original field. What would happen if one of them turns out to be a disaster. II. [...]

[...] There is also growing evidence that Green Revolution-style farming is not ecologically sustainable, even for large farmers. In the 1990s, Green Revolution researchers themselves sounded the alarm about a disturbing trend that had only just come to light. After achieving dramatic increases in the early stages of the technological transformation, yields began falling in a number of Green Revolution areas. According to Business Week magazine, "even though Indian granaries are overflowing now," thanks to the success of the Green Revolution in raising wheat and rice yields, "5,000 children die each day of malnutrition. [...]