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Hissyspit

(45,788 posts)
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 06:08 PM Mar 2013

Critics Slam Obama for "Protecting" Monsanto

Source: CBS News

Critics slam Obama for "protecting" Monsanto

March 28, 2013

There's no love lost between Washington and the American public, it seems, five days after Congress for the first time in years managed to handle a budget-related issue without reaching the brink of crisis.

Protesters have descended on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House this week, enraged at a potentially health-hazardous provision they allege lawmakers inserted surreptitiously into a continuing resolution (CR) that will fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal year. The bill sailed through the Capitol on Friday; President Obama signed it into law on Tuesday.

Opponents have termed the language in question the "Monsanto Protection Act," a nod to the major agricultural biotech corporation and other like firms geared at producing genetically modified organisms (GMO) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds and crops. The provision protects genetically modified seeds from litigation suits over health risks posed by the crops' consumption.

Food safety advocacy groups like Food Democracy Now, which collected more than 250,000 signatures on a petition calling for the president to veto the CR, argue not enough studies have been conducted into the possible health risks of GMO and GE seeds. Eliminating judicial power to halt the selling or planting of them essentially cuts off their course to ensuring consumer safety should health risks emerge.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57576835/critics-slam-obama-for-protecting-monsanto/&catid=57576835

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
1. protects genetically modified seeds from litigation suits
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 06:44 PM
Mar 2013

over health risks posed by the crops consumed in the USA : not elsewhere I suspect.

mpcamb

(2,855 posts)
16. I think the best answer is to get a court case going.
Sat Mar 30, 2013, 08:18 AM
Mar 2013

It's so clearly wrong to exempt a company from any future responsibility for the harm that ensues from a product they produce and sell.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
3. This absolutely needed to be protested and I hope Obama will
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 09:08 PM
Mar 2013

address the concerns of Safe Food Activits on this issue. From what I've read it seems an "Unknown Person" submitted a "rider" to the Bill at the last minute that went into the vote.

Why is some "Secret Person in the Senate" allowed to insert (at the last minute) something like this into a "Continuing Resolution to Fund the Government?"

And why the hell do we keep having these "Last Minute Dead of the Night Votes when Congress gets paid well to do Timely Budgets and both the President and House are obligated to work with each other to do this. It's disgraceful!

lunasun

(21,646 posts)
8. The whole representation of & by the people is a joke for most part - only a few care imo
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 11:24 PM
Mar 2013

Frankenfoods for everyone
Doubleplus tasty!!

 

Comrade_McKenzie

(2,526 posts)
4. "Not enough studies." Give me a fucking break!
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 09:26 PM
Mar 2013

"The European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2010 report on GMOs noted that "The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."

The GMO deniers are becoming as absurd as the climate change deniers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies#Health

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
5. If President Obama had not appointed Mr. Monsanto (Tom Vilsack) to head the USDA,
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 09:44 PM
Mar 2013

or appointed Michael Taylor to head the FDA,
I might be willing to believe that this just "slipped by".

Goggle: "Michael Taylor and Monsanto"

Google "Tom Vilsack & Monsanto"

...and the above two are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Food & Drug Administration and the US Dept of Agriculture are infested with Monsanto Shills, former Monsanto Executives, and Monsanto lawyers.

Nobody who advocated for Sustainable Agriculture or Organoc Produce, or Safe non-toxic food was appointed to a position of Power or Authority to the two agencies that control Food and Agriculture in America.

Roselma

(540 posts)
6. I think that there is more to the story.
Thu Mar 28, 2013, 10:37 PM
Mar 2013

I'm not sure that what is in here is absolutely true, and I am not the one complaining, because I WANTED the continuing resolution passed, but if you're one of those concerned...

.http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/28/conservatives-laugh-as-liberals-attack-president-over-non-existent-monsanto-protection-act/

Conservatives Laugh As Liberals Attack President Over Non-Existent ‘Monsanto Protection Act’



Yes...conservatives are enjoying liberals going after Obama about an issue that is grossly misreported. Take one minute. Read.

lunasun

(21,646 posts)
9. OK I read this in the link
Fri Mar 29, 2013, 12:00 AM
Mar 2013

From Your Link >It’s because Monsanto is one of the largest corporate supporters of climate change science, and is actively working to help ring the alarm. Contrary to popular claims, the company is not against labels for GMO crops, although it has shown itself against measures in the past in which their products are specifically targeted while other, more dangerous, farming practices are ignored.

The bigger question is, why all of this outrage?. It is not as if humankind has not been genetically modifying plant and animal species through selective breeding since before the time of the pyramids. Our grocery store shelves are full of products which were shaped and molded by humans. From the banana to man’s best friend, the dog, humans have been shaping, molding other lifeforms since we began walking upright.

The concerns over these crops comes from fear. People instinctively understand sex, and how that produces children. They do not instinctively understand gene splicing, even though that is how sex produces children in the first place. Most people do not have time to go out and understand it, so they label such modified products as “frankenfoods” and build fear upon lack of information, or worse purposeful mis-information fed by other industries who seek to hurt some related cause, such as climate change science. The fact is, genetically modified crops have substantial benefits, by making them more resistant to disease, adding essential nutrients, and even fight climate change. Genetic modification through direct gene splicing has been done since 1970, and is widely understood after decades of research and application.

OH and I read this>
remind yourself, you yourself are a genetically modified organism, created when genes from one parent were spliced into the genes of the other. Don’t let your fear of the new and unknown blind you to the advantages found in these crops.
K

mrdmk

(2,943 posts)
12. Actully, peoplle understand quite well thank-you!
Fri Mar 29, 2013, 08:19 AM
Mar 2013

There are problems with these crops:

1) If you choose to keep seed from your crop for next years crop which a lot of farmers do. Your neighbor has a Monsanto crop next door, thus your crop and their crop will cross-pollinate. You will be in violation from a variety of patients laws filed by Monsanto using the seeds from your crop to plant. In short, Monsanto now has cornered the market on seed use for food production year after year.

2) People have diet restrictions specifically infants and people with food allergies have watch what they eat. Eat certain foods and you can die at worse, or have a bad day at best. So you will limit your diet to things that will not harm you. People with food allergies, which the majority of them are to nuts, know to look for them on menus and ingredients labels. You have Monsanto gene splicing corn with peanuts to protect against certain insects. What is it going to take to stop someones food allergy from reacting to this peanut laced corn? A food label will be helpful in this case.

About 'reminding myself', a human and a chimpanzee are 99% genetically related to each other. If these two beings mate there will be no offspring. As a matter of fact that goes for all homo genus. The reason is, these genus are not closely related enough to produce offspring the old fashioned way (intercourse). In the Monsanto lab, everything changes for the better or the worst.

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
13. There is a HUGE difference between Recombinant DNA (gene splicing),
Fri Mar 29, 2013, 12:18 PM
Mar 2013

and hybridization,
but I think you already know that.

Why Syzygy

(18,928 posts)
17. Nature
Sat Mar 30, 2013, 09:02 AM
Mar 2013

would never program itself to become sterile as a first and only generation. That's the latest 'innovation' these creeps have made. Sterile seeds. There are also studies showing the tumors and odd hair growth, etc. that these *genes* produce in test animals.

Hugin

(32,773 posts)
11. There were claims this bill was "too heavy" to take off with the 0.5% pay hike for Feds.
Fri Mar 29, 2013, 04:17 AM
Mar 2013

Also, it keeps the pay freeze in place longer.

But, this "sails through"?

Okay... I get it now. I know who really runs Washington now.

Harmony Blue

(3,978 posts)
18. Monsanto is pure evil
Sat Mar 30, 2013, 09:26 AM
Mar 2013

Most produce that is GMO tends to have five numbers. Exception being organics that have five numbers but start with a 9 (for example organic bananas 94011). All other produce are four numbers: 4048, 4050, 3232, etc.

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