« Road to AbsorptionForces Behind the Egyptian Revolution »

Canada defeats GMO hazard legislation

February 11th, 2011

By Rady Ananda

By a vote of 178 to 98, on February 9th, Canada's House of Commons defeated Bill C-474, an Act that would have required an analysis of potential harm to export markets before permitting the commercialization of any new genetically engineered seed. Organic farmers now fear the collapse of the wheat and alfalfa markets, since Canada's export markets reject biotech food.

Jack Layton, MP (Toronto-Danforth) and leader of Canada's New Democrats, expressed his disappointment in an email promising to "continue to take every opportunity to pressure the government to initiate a public debate around genetic engineering and to use a precautionary approach to this important issue."

Layton advised, "In spite of Bill C-474's defeat, New Democrats will continue to press the following initiatives:

Bill C-370: Mandatory labeling for genetically modified foods (text of bill)

Bill C-353: ban on the use of 'terminator seeds' (text of bill)"

For the first time in the history of the House of Commons, a debate on genetic engineering was held despite attempts to thwart it by the biotech industry, reports Karen Stephenson. The debate on February 8 lasted five hours.

"Joe Comartin, MP for Windsor-Tecumseth, echoed the words that many Canadians agree with. He said, 'If we don’t stop the four multi-nationals (Monsanto, DuPont, Bayer and Syngenta), they will own all the food production on this planet,'” Stephenson reported.

Defeat of C-474 coincides with the complete deregulation of GM alfalfa in the US. Insiders report that President Obama ordered USDA chief Tom Vilsack to remove the requirement for any buffer zones between natural alfalfa and its franken-version. Scientists expressed dismay that this decision guarantees genetic contamination of natural plants, since alfalfa is a perennial crop whose tiny seed can travel for miles.

This will destroy the U.S. organic beef and dairy industry which relies on natural alfalfa for its animals. Given that Obama's Administration is stacked with former employees of Monsanto, that appears to be his goal.

The Center for Food Safety is preparing a lawsuit to block this deregulation.

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • Cathy Smith The Myth of African Poverty Concocted by the Oligarchy The relations of the global powers to the continent, especially America, Russia, China, and Israel, have mainly been based on resource extraction, strategic economic influence, and…
  • Feminism was once a revolutionary force, a creed born out of struggle, resilience, and the dream of a world much different from what we had been given. It was born from the pain of millions of women working, poor, Black, Indigenous, women of color who refused to take the world as it was. And yet, today, feminism is an idea manipulated, diluted, commodified, and often controlled by those very forces that it initially came into being to dismantle from the military-industrial complex to corporate media giants; feminism today hardly resembles its initial mission of radical social transformation. This has happened because things are ingrained in how our media landscape rolls along. We hardly notice how forces remake feminist discourse into more palatable, consumer-friendly, and politically neutral forms. The corporations that run the media, the intelligence agencies that shape public opinion, and the political powers that remain in control have combined a grand symphony of influence that has redefined feminism, replacing its radical edges with a glittering but hollow vision of empowerment. It is time to reclaim the radical roots of feminism to inspire a new generation of activists to fight for real change.
  • Paul Craig Roberts President Trump’s economic proposals, with one exception, constitute a coherent package. I will address his proposals in a later column. Today I address his bad idea that would cause the failure of Trump’s renewal of the American…
  • Cindy Harper DeepSeek offers open-source generative AI with localized data storage but raises concerns over censorship, privacy, and disruption of Western markets. A recent regulatory clampdown in the United States on TikTok, a Chinese-owned social…
  • Fred Gransville 1) Water Monopolies: Who, When, Where, Why, and How? Water monopolies, a burgeoning threat of the 21st century, are rapidly gaining control over a resource that was once considered a public good. The scale of commercialization has surged…
  • Tracy Turner In a better world, the Arctic would be left to wolves, polar bears, seals, and whales. But not in this world, with our Robber Baron Politicians and Criminal CEOs. The Arctic, once a remote, frozen frontier, is now a hotbed of fierce…
  • Tracy Turner Abstract: The building blocks of 21st century American life, from suburban homes and lawns to gas-guzzling SUVs that clog roadways, have been rooted in excess. Today's culture of consumption controls almost every phase of our lives; excess…
  • Chris Spencer The State of Israel is an intricately interlinked part of the geopolitics of the region, largely through its special relationship with the United States, complemented by that with Russia, and now spreading toward Africa, Latin America, and…
  • By Cathy Smith God, my blade-server, encrypts my soul in the fortress of His protection, shielding me from the firewalls of fear. His commands are my protocols, sharpening my spirit like a flawless algorithm in the face of battle. Though the route of my…
  • Governor Gavin Newsom's ban on gas-powered string trimmers and leaf blowers in California is a step toward reducing emissions, but it highlights a larger issue: the growing environmental impact of gas-guzzling SUVs. While small engine reforms are positive, the SUV culture continues to drive global resource depletion, energy crises, and food insecurity…
January 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  

  XML Feeds

Social CMS engine
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi