An important vote on GMOs is due to take place on 7 May in Brussels. The agro-chemical industry wants to get EU permission to grow pesticide-producing maize plants and a GM potato that contains an antibiotic resistant gene.

The two maize varieties that will be debated on 7 May produce their own pesticide. According to current practices these crops were only tested for 90 days for health effects whereas pesticides are tested for 2 years.

The GM potato contains a gene that makes cells resistant to antibiotics. If this were to get released into the environment there could be serious problems in treating diseases, such as tuberculosis.

The majority of European citizens oppose the use of GMOs and this opposition has been consistent for the past 10 years. If you are one of them then please email the EU Commissioners stating your opposition. The Commissioner from the UK is

Peter Mandelson, Commissioner for Trade email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Commissioner for Environment is Mr Stavros Dimas email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

I have email addresses for all the commissioners so if anyone is interested in writing to them all (it can be the same letter) then please let me know and I will give you a copy.

Thanks Meg.

I read somewhere the other day that despite the claims made about needing less pesticides GM crops actually use more which is no surprise when you consider that that paragon of multi-national corporate moral virtue Monsanto make both GM crops and the Roundup pesticides to go with them. Not to mention the so called 'Terminator' gene technology.

Wise up people no-one knows how safe they are, their effects on the wider environment and long term for our health.

www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUS...irtualBrandChannel=0

www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mons...up_Ready_Controversy

www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=669

Aye - roundup ready crop varieties are pretty standard over here. Take corn - (maize) - it's used so extensively in processed foods and so much of it is GM that we're consuming the stuff every day. Take Coca Cola - or any other soft drink - corn syrup is the sweetener. It's impossible to escape the stuff. Even if you grow your own food cross pollination will infect your plants. Another worrying aspect of the agricorp business is their drive to make collecting seeds illegal.

www.grain.org/briefings/?id=202

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7849

www.williambowles.info/iraq/2005/order_81.html

And lets remember what happens to scientists who speak out against GM foods:

www.medialens.org/articles/the_articles/...inister_sacking.html

In case anyone was wondering - on Wednesday, European Commissioners overturned the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) "safe to eat" verdict for three new GM crops -- two varieties of GM maize and one variety of GM potato.
This means the agro-chemical companies can't commercialize these crops in Europe for now. BASF's GM potato was only one European Union vote away from being released commercially.

I don't know why it does that. Here's the link:

I hope this one works:

Here's some more:



The following doc is broken into seven parts on YouTube. It is well worth watching in its entirety.

Meg wrote:
In case anyone was wondering - on Wednesday, European Commissioners overturned the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) "safe to eat" verdict for three new GM crops -- two varieties of GM maize and one variety of GM potato.
This means the agro-chemical companies can't commercialize these crops in Europe for now. BASF's GM potato was only one European Union vote away from being released commercially.

BASF"s Official website giving the history of the company:

www.corporate.basf.com/en/?id=bTGhHCGcGbcp-eE

You'll notice in their "historical milestones, 1925 - 1944" they mention their merger into IG Farben:

"In 1925, the merger of BASF with five other companies (including Hoechst and Bayer) to form IG Farben is finalized. In late 1925, BASF is absorbed into IG Farben. The new company’s headquarters are moved to Frankfurt. The Ludwigshafen and Oppau sites form the main part of the "Upper Rhine works group," one of the four original IG Farben operating units."

So what was I.G. Farben and where did they go?

Farben was Hitler and Hitler was Farben. (Senator Homer T. Bone to Senate Committee on Military Affairs, June 4, 1943.)

"The Farben cartel dated from 1925, when organizing genius Hermann Schmitz (with Wall Street financial assistance) created the super-giant chemical enterprise out of six already giant German chemical companies — Badische Anilin, Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Weiler-ter-Meer, and Griesheim-Elektron. These companies were merged to become Inter-nationale Gesellschaft Farbenindustrie A.G. — or I.G. Farben for short. Twenty years later the same Hermann Schmitz was put on trial at Nuremburg for war crimes committed by the I. G. cartel. Other I. G. Farben directors were placed on trial but the American affiliates of I. G. Farben and the American directors of I. G. itself were quietly forgotten; the truth was buried in the archives."

reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_02.htm

And what was the most infamous of I.G. Farben products? Zyclone-B:
the gas used in the extermination chambers of the Nazi empire.

"Zyklon-B was a commercial rodenticide and pesticide in common use before World War II. The active lethal ingredient in the product is hydrogen cyanide, which is deadly to warm-blooded animals in very low concentrations, and to insects in considerably higher concentrations. DEGESCH (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH / German Vermin Controlling Company), a subsidiary of IG Farben, licensed two German companies for the manufacture and distribution of Zyklon-B: Tesch und Stabenow (Testa) and Heerdt-Lingler (Heli). Zyklon-B was also manufactured in one of its forms in the United States by the American Cyanamid Company under license from the patent holders, I.G. Farben."

Leopards never change their spots.

I neglected to give a link to the last quote - here it is:

www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/zyklonb/