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Author Topic: Canadian government website promotes GM
gram swaraj
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11527

posted 08 November 2008 09:03 PM      Profile for gram swaraj   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I don't want to duplicate topics, so let this thread be dedicated to tearing apart what is specifically written on the Conservative Canadian government's propaganda website promoting biotechnology, and particularly genetic modification. Please, anyone else join in on tearing apart the content on this website, condescendingly called "BioBasics" .

To get oriented, get a load of this - the Canadian government says:
quote:
By using modern biotechnologies, scientists have been able to avoid the time-consuming nature of traditional cross breeding of numerous generations of industrial corn plants to introduce desirable traits.

[ 08 November 2008: Message edited by: gram swaraj ]


From: mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est la terre | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
gram swaraj
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11527

posted 08 November 2008 09:08 PM      Profile for gram swaraj   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
To get things really rolling, I want to do some comparing of the propaganda on the federal government webpages related to GM food with the propaganda that can be found by searching the Organic Consumers Association website.

The Government of Canada/Gouvernement du Canada® says about gyphosate, i.e, the herbicide "Roundup"

quote:
The Need for Glyphosate Tolerance: Glyphosate tolerance in corn is an agricultural tool for commercial growers. It facilitates the use of glyphosate, which has favourable agronomic characteristics. As such, it is a popular herbicide amongst farmers, gardeners, and grounds keepers all over the world.

Popular for what? Committing suicide? Or to be an accomplice in slow-motion mass murder? The below is from the OCA webpage "Health and Environmental Impacts of Monsanto's Roundup Pesticide"
quote:

from http://www.jrussellshealth.com/pests24d.html
A recent study by eminent oncologists Dr. Leonard Hardell and Dr. Mikael Eriksson of Sweden, has revealed clear links between one of the world’s biggest selling herbicide, glyphosate (commonly known as Roundup, marketed by Monsanto), to non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer - NHL. There are even requests for permits for higher residues on genetically engineered foods because they are highly resistant to herbicides, instead of reducing herbicide use, glyphosate resistant crops may result in increased residues. They are already on sale. Farmers knowing that their crop will tolerate or resist being killed off by the herbicides will tend to use them more liberally. There have been no risk/benefit analysis carried out, so the regulatory authorities have failed to implement the precautionary principle with respect to GMOs.
(“Herbicide Tolerance,” New Study Links Monsanto’s Roundup to cancer,” www.biotech-info.net/glyphosate_cancer.html - June 2001)

The Women’s Cancer Resource Center (WCRC) and CHOSE (Coalition for a Healthy Oakland School Environment), showed that chemicals such as Round-Up (glyphosate) can result in reproductive damage as well as damage to the kidney and liver, and some studies show a link between the chemical and cancer.
(Chemical Injury Network, June 2001)

Glyphosate (Roundup) is one of the most toxic herbicides, and is the third most commonly reported cause of pesticide related illness among agricultural workers. Products containing glyphosate also contain other compounds, which can be toxic. Glyphosate is technically extremely difficult to measure in environmental samples, which means that data is often lacking on residue levels in food and the environment, and existent data may not be reliable.
(“Greenpeace Report - Not ready for Roundup: Glyphosate Fact Sheet,” greenpeace.org - April 1997)

Glyphosate is found in weed killers and may cause cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nerve, and respiratory damage.
(“Special Report: what you need to know about pest control,” Natural Health Magazine, May/June 2001)



Does anyone else get the distinct impression that the Harper government (put in office by 22% of the electorate) is replacing civil servants with Monsanto hacks? If the Canadian government is a brand, the Conservatives are really fucking up its image.

From: mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est la terre | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
gram swaraj
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11527

posted 08 November 2008 09:22 PM      Profile for gram swaraj   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
By using modern biotechnologies, scientists have been able to avoid the time-consuming nature of traditional cross breeding of numerous generations of industrial corn plants to introduce desirable traits.

A few points:
-"time-consuming nature" is good. Things tested over time to be safe for humans and for the long-term good of the environment in which all things live, is good.

-slow, plodding "nature" is good. It will outlast GM organisms.

-There were many varieties of corn (not to mention so many other food plants) that had been cultivated and proven over centuries. It is thanks to industrial agriculture, with its monopolistic control of food production and practice of monocropping, that the wonderful variety of generations-tested seeds the world once had, along with their variety of "desirable traits", is being lost.

-"traditional cross-breeding" and "modern biotechnologies" are techniques that are two worlds apart from one another.
"modern-biotechnology" is qualitatively different, it is not just "faster cross-breeding"

[ 08 November 2008: Message edited by: gram swaraj ]


From: mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est la terre | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged

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