MONSANTO NEW WORLD SAVIOUR ?

GM food: Monster or saviour?
By Jeremy Cooke
BBC News




I have to confess, until now the whole debate about genetically-modified (GM) food has pretty much passed me by.

Most of my career has been spent as a foreign correspondent.


But last summer I returned to the UK to start a new job with the BBC. I now glory in the title Rural Affairs Correspondent.


Lord Dick Taverne with the case for GM food
A big part of my new brief is to report on farming. It is my (sometimes painful) duty to attend agriculture conferences and seminars. I also meet many farmers on their farms.

And over the months, time and time again the issue of GM has been raised.

I have been left in no doubt that many UK farmers - and others in the food production industry - think that GM is an important tool which can improve their efficiency, but which has been denied to them.

All of this, you could argue, counts for very little. Of course, farmers want to increase yields, or get the same yield using less land, less sprays, less fertiliser.

And anyway, did not we as a nation make up our minds about GM almost a decade ago?

You remember: environmentalists successfully branded GM "Frankenstein Food" - they warned us of the dangers of contaminating our environment, and of unleashing powerful and unpredictable forces into the British countryside.


Lord Peter Melchett with the case against GM food
As a nation we came down on their side of the argument. Although there is no law against growing GM in the UK, the regulations mean it is a hostile environment for the agri-business brigade. And so it remains.

So why go back to the debate? Well, two reasons strike me immediately.

The first is that - unlike 10 years ago - we are now gripped by a global food crisis. Where there were once grain mountains there are now shortages.

The second thing that has changed is the fact that in other parts of the world GM is now being grown in massive amounts. It is reckoned that an area twice the size of Britain is now under GM crops.

And guess what? There have so far been no reports of the environmental or human health disasters that we were all warned about.

So with that in mind, I set out with a question: is it time to rethink GM?




AMERICA
Let us start in America.

While we in Europe have rejected growing GM crops, the United States has enthusiastically embraced the new technology.


Inside the world's biggest GM company
Thousands of hectares of land are now covered in GM crops. Most meals consumed in America's ultimate consumer society will have some GM content.

It is something that Americans, generally, do not even think about. Certainly, throughout the four years my family and I spent in New York we must have eaten hundreds of meals containing GM in blissful ignorance.

The main GM food crops are soya - which produces important protein - and maize. Both have been genetically modified to produce bigger yields or the same yield for less input (less herbicide, insecticide, fertiliser).

And behind it all (or almost all of it) is the giant Monsanto corporation. A multi-billion dollar world-wide outfit that dominates the world of GM.

As a journalist, getting access to what the green lobby regards as the "heart of darkness" is not easy. The scientific case [for GM food] is very clear

Hugh Grant
Monsanto's chief executive
But after some gentle negotiating we were welcomed to St Louis, Missouri, Monsanto's global headquarters.

Here, some of the leading scientists in the field are working on ways to improve crops and yields.

Chatting to the technicians, you can tell they are a little bemused at being labelled the architects of "Frankenstein Foods". They say they simply want to make things more efficient for farmers - and so better for consumers.

The chief executive Hugh Grant, originally from Glasgow in Scotland, seems puzzled at the European distrust of GM technology.

"The scientific case is very clear. This does now get down to people saying 12 years or so have passed, now's the time to make some calls,after all you are what you eat........
thanks for watching..........

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Benefits
• of
• GMO
• Foods
• Conversations
• About
• Plant
• Biotechnology
• Gallery
• CHEMTRAILS
• UFOS
• ALEX
• JONES
• GLOBAL
• WARMING
• COOLING
• INFO
• WARS
• GOOGLE
• ILLUMUNATI
• DAVID
• ICKE
• MILITARY
• SECRETS
• 9/11
• DR
• BILL
• DEAGLE
• CCTV
• ZIONISM
• NAZI
• 9/9/09
• ROYAL
• FAMILY
• PLANET-X
• PROJECT
• BLACKJACK
• BILDERBERG
• CCN
• FOX
• BBC
• SKY
• SUN
• RAIN
• WIND
• MOON
• THERMITE
• BLACK
• OPS
• GUN
• CONTROL
• ID
• CHIP
• PASS
• PORT
• TOP
• SECRET
• FEMA
• BODY
• BAGS
• AFGHANISTAN
• TALIBAN
• OPIUM
• DRUGS
• TITANIC
• EXPLOSIVES
• IRA
• 20
• LASER
• you
• tube

[trteam59]

Hi friend, thanks for the post. This video is so much propaganda. GMO, biotech, whatever you want to call it, it is wrong. Between the chemtrails and modified food, we ain't got much of a chance of not being poisoned. What is wrong with old fashioned farm methods? My grand pa did it. And we never went for a lack of food, every year! 5*'s and faved. Thanks

[sim0b]

lol i wonder howmuch these people were paid in return to star in this promotional video!? haha! Grow your own foods and wash it properly ie potaoes, cabbage, garlic, etc etc. Soon growing your own foods will be illegal!

[rdkt123]

You took the words right out of my mouth

[sim0b]

.....Cheers buddy. Whats the world coming to? No wonder i dont wanna bring any kids into this world based on what i see happening everyday. Disease famine etc will be released upon the masses inc me i think very soon into the future. The troubl is is that people are at their best when they are at their worst would you say ?

[rdkt123]

Yep you said it ,

keep lucky...

[rdkt123]

Thanks my freind

[TheParadigmShift]

Monsanto is responsible for Agent Orange, look that up.

Monsanto is responsible for thousands of farmer's suicides because of failed crops, look that up.

Monsanto makes terminator seeds to kill off crops after one harvest it forces the farmer to purchase very expensive seeds for the next harvest.

That is not saving starving people, it's creating more.

Google: "Austrian study of GM corn reveals it causes sterility"

[txsraappraiser]

You are new to this subject obviously. They have added GMO food to our diets, unlabled and unnanounced. Bees, monarch butterflies, horny toads, fireflies, etc. have been eliminated. Now they want to do the same thing to Europe! NO GMOs in my childrens food.

[phillipgaley]

. . . . what biotech does for the next generation in countries where predominate protein reliance in on gmo seed grain, is, lowered IQ because, the gmo won't pick up enough trace minerals, so, the babies which are born, have been 9mo. nutritionally deprived, . . .

[hamrite]

I was a little interested at the NON sprayable anti pest etc, until I realized for the second time in 40 years we are living a series of silent springs in Europe. Before and still today, sprays killed insects and wiped them off the surface of the earth. Now birds are directly poisoned by the seeds if they eat it , making this material and complete poison for the future. Nature stands silent, nothing alive, just green crops, and disaster around it. Thats not planet earth. Its CHEMICALA.

[bornbythesea]

@rdkt123 monsanto is a Jesuit owned corp.

[jdavem2012]

after the filming of this video, all the farmers got cancer for some reason ?!?!?!? lol ?!?!?

[mythoughtsalone]

What people do not see is the total ruthless control the companies have over our food chain.

They also need to see and understand that GM food has very serious side effects, such as sterility. At the moment all they can see is the profits and the money, short sighted in the long run, they will not be told of the side effects just promised good income. Who can blame them, but these people are cunning and have a long term plan and the future with GM food is bleak.

[7553993]

A recent Russian study demonstrates the connection between Monsanto's genetically modified soybeans and infertility. Ask yourself why USA fertility clinics have been doing such a thriving business over the last decade. Is there a connection?!

-----

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of 3 genetically modified corn varieties sold by Monsanto, December 11, 2009;

-----

This is only the beginning ...

[hondopambiri]

What is real food?

[11hunabku11]

Yes they are forcing it because there are not labels! It's impossible to distinguish GMO from real food.

[TeaselGold]

Search this:

A study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences demonstrates the toxicity of three genetically modified corn varieties from the American seed company Monsanto, the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering (Criigen, based in Caen), which participated in that study, announced Friday, December 11.

[hondopambiri]

Hi there

I'm not new to the subject, I think we just have a philosophical difference about the topic.

If you don't want GMO food, no one is forcing you to buy it. You can always buy organic if you want. I don't know who the "our" is you're talking about. People have different preferences, many people don't mind GMOs. Credible scientists claim that GMOs aren't dangerous. Also, if Monsanto has a market of people wanting GMOs, good for them. If they don't they'll fail. No absolute power there.