Biotech Companies Set To Be Given Legal Right In Decisions To Ban GM Crops In EU

Biotech Companies Set to Be Given Legal Right in Decisions to Ban GM Crops in EU (Sustainable Pulse, May 27, 2014):

A new GM law being discussed in Brussels this week could grant biotech companies, like Monsanto and Syngenta, unprecedented power over decisions on whether to ban genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe, according to Friends of the Earth Europe.

stop-GMO-crops

The new law is being promoted as a way to give governments more sovereignty over decisions on whether to ban GM crops. However, the current proposals give biotech companies the legal right to decide whether a ban should be allowed. If companies refuse, governments are forced to fall back on vague, non-scientific legal grounds upon which to ban GM crops, opening the door to legal challenges [1].

Adrian Bebb, food campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said: “It is an affront to democracy that companies like Monsanto will be given legal status in any decision to ban their products. Governments must be able to ban unwanted and risky GM crops without needing the permission of the companies who profit from them.”

“For more than 15 years national governments have fought against new GM crops and strongly defended their rights to ban them. This proposal is a poisoned chalice that fails to give member states the solid legal grounds to ban genetically modified crops.”

Friends of the Earth Europe are calling for national governments to be given genuine powers to keep their fields GM-free and to protect consumer choice. As a minimum, the proposal that national governments must first request permission for a ban from the biotech company should be rejected, and the legal basis for banning GM crops strengthened.

NOTES:

[1] Briefing, A poisoned chalice (April 2014):
www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/news/foee_optout_empty_offer_analysis_0414.pdf

 

6 thoughts on “Biotech Companies Set To Be Given Legal Right In Decisions To Ban GM Crops In EU”

  1. The courts are bought and paid for by big corporations.
    Just look at Citizens United in the US.
    This is a global effort, but it will fail thanks to Fukushima, and other radioactive disasters occurring at this time that cannot be controlled.
    Mankind seems to be bent on extinction, and his greatest weakness appears to be an overinflated ego……he has no business believing he is in control of the planet. Unfortunately, even the religions all declare man as the protector of the earth, and of our future. The Bible is full of such rubbish that man rules the earth…….all one needs to do is spend a few years as I did living in a rain forest…….the earth is in power, not man. The earth is so big, so alive, so powerful so incredibly beautiful……it will wash us away as easily as we do ants off a sink…….and will take about as much notice…….
    The earth is the keeper of the earth, not man.
    Such laws are offensive to nature, and nature is doing everything to show man is not in power. Just go to Miami, and try walking on the sidewalks….they are now overrun with water due to rising sea levels.
    Or, go to Venice, where people now walk on benches because the sidewalks are permanently overrun with water……….due again to rising sea levels.
    Whatever the reason, man has lost any control he might have ever enjoyed. The earth has tired of mankind, and is preparing to eliminate him.

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  2. Japanese papers call for international nations to intervene…..that TEPCO isn’t competent to deal with the highly radioactive water that is now admitted to be too radioactive to be poured into the ocean, or the ground, or anywhere else………..
    The problem is getting worse, not better, and still other nations sit by dumbly, saying nothing, showing no concern for their people or their future.
    Even those who believe in depopulation must realize this isn’t a controllable way to engineer it.
    http://enenews.com/japan-times-groundwater-now-too-radioactive-to-dump-in-pacific-tv-radiation-levels-keep-rising-near-fukushima-plant-situation-has-gotten-worse-not-better-video?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

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  3. For anyone really believing that the Anti GMO movement is gaining ground, it is wise to check out the story of Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto because his Organic Canola (Rapeseed) crop had been contaminated by Monsanto’s GMO Canola that had blown into his field from passing trucks.

    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/25/percy-schmeiser-farmer-who-beat-monsanto.aspx#!

    Now look at this and ask the question, in 15 years, is the interest of the consumer even being considered?

    http://www.gmofreeglobal.org/en/news/post/steve-marsh-gm-contamination-case-fails-in-australian-supreme-court

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