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stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of
biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO, privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights, impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity. The answer? Organize, educate, resist, spread the word, protest, write letters, direct action, contribute food & services, mobilize, donate, sign endorsements, flier farmers markets schools businesses & churches, contact media, host a place for an activist to stay, make artwork banners & costumes, join organizations working on these issues, support your local farmers, add your own ideas. June 20-25 2003, Sacramento California For more info and to participate: http://www.sacmobilization.org 916-497-1111 http://www.foodfirst.org http://www.organicconsumers.org http://www.sacmobilization.org/article.php?id=88 -- delete N0SPAAM to reply by email |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
Planning a busy weekend then? Hey, them yanks aren't doing too badly at
leading the rest of the civilized?? world on a merry chase and getting their way with them. Perhaps those in the EU, the Isle states and elsewhere should tend more to progress and not so much to transgression. Strong leaders lead and the rest just bitch about their plight and grovel in ineptitude. Cheers: tis only your life, your fortune and your appetite -=- Jim Cluny "Walter Epp" wrote in message ... The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO, privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights, impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity. The answer? Organize, educate, resist, spread the word, protest, write letters, direct action, contribute food & services, mobilize, donate, sign endorsements, flier farmers markets schools businesses & churches, contact media, host a place for an activist to stay, make artwork banners & costumes, join organizations working on these issues, support your local farmers, add your own ideas. June 20-25 2003, Sacramento California For more info and to participate: http://www.sacmobilization.org 916-497-1111 http://www.foodfirst.org http://www.organicconsumers.org http://www.sacmobilization.org/article.php?id=88 -- delete N0SPAAM to reply by email |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
On Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:00:16 -0700, Walter Epp
wrote: The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO, privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights, impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity. You forgot tooth decay, waxy yellow buildup, those annoying stickers on fruit, broken shoelaces, crackly telephone connections, dirty washrooms, "countrypolitan" music, stale bread, tornados, rusty nails, the common cold, rough toilet paper, lite beer, double-sided tape, yappy little dogs, lycra bicycle shorts, disco, flatulence, strobe lights, really gross spiders, and the Brady Bunch. Hope this helps. -- Exit center to Funway. |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
"Charles Hawtrey" wrote in message , those annoying stickers on fruit, interestingly the EU inflicted those on us Jim Webster |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
OnSat, 14 Jun 2003 16:15:02 GMT, Jim Cluny/Old Clunker/James Curts
DIDN'T TOP-POST! Ah, yes, but forever gratefully, not the Beatles, botulism or boorishness. -=- Jim Cluny |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
You forgot tooth decay, waxy yellow buildup, those annoying stickers on fruit, broken shoelaces, crackly telephone connections, dirty washrooms, "countrypolitan" music, stale bread, tornados, rusty nails, the common cold, rough toilet paper, lite beer, double-sided tape, yappy little dogs, lycra bicycle shorts, disco, flatulence, strobe lights, really gross spiders, and the Brady Bunch. Ah, yes, but forever gratefully, not the Beatles, botulism or boorishness. -=- Jim Cluny |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
interestingly the EU inflicted those on us Even more interestingly, they can be used as a way to distinguish between conventional, organic and GM fruit... :-) Producers respond to appeals about stickers on fruit July 17, 2002 Knight Ridder News Service As much as we may dislike them, the stickers or labels attached to fruit speed the scanning process at checkout. Cashiers no longer need to distinguish a Fuji apple from a Gala apple, a prickly pear from a horned melon or a grapefruit from an ugli fruit. They simply key in the PLU code -- the price lookup number printed on the sticker -- and the market's computerized cash register identifies the fruit. The numbers also enable retailers to track how well varieties are selling. For conventionally grown fruit, the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by 8. So, a conventionally grown banana would be 4011, an organic banana would be 94011 and a genetically engineered banana would be 84011. The numeric system was developed by the Produce Electronic Identification Board, an affiliate of the Produce Marketing Association, a Newark, Del.,- based trade group for the produce industry. As of October 2001, the board had assigned more than 1,200 PLUs for individual produce items. Fruit companies hear plenty of complaints from consumers about hard-to- remove stickers. Retailers gripe that stickers fall off or become marred during transport. In response, some shippers have begun using stickers designed with tabs that make them easier to lift off and are buying equipment that applies adhesive to the sticker but not to the tab. Companies are also experimenting with different sticker materials, such as vinyl, that hold up under a variety of temperature and moisture conditions. The adhesive now used to attach the stickers is food-grade, but the stickers themselves aren't edible. To remove stubborn ones, soak in warm water for a minute or two. |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
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stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
German official pulls out of Sacramento ag expo
Sacramento 13 June - Germany's agriculture minister has pulled out of the upcoming international agriculture ministerial conference in Sacramento, leaving it without a European Union official on the program. Although German officials cited important meetings that demanded her attention in Europe, the minister's announcement comes at the same time some U.S. politicians have stepped up criticism of European countries for not embracing genetically engineered food. Walter Leuchs, deputy consul general for Germany in San Francisco, said German Food and Agriculture Minister Renate Künast wasn't making a statement against U.S. biotechnology efforts. Instead, he said, she was obliged to stay in Europe for newly planned meetings about the European Union's common agricultural policy. Top officials from more than 100 mostly developing countries are expected for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first ministerial-level meeting on agricultural science and technology, at the Sacramento Convention Center. The U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service had touted the participation of Künast -- the only European government minister on the preliminary speakers list -- as a sign that the Bush administration wasn't stacking the June 23-25 conference with supporters of genetically modified foods. |
stop US pushing biotech/WTO on 180 nations in Sacramento
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P A N U P S Pesticide Action Network Updates Service =========================================== Voices From the South Debunk GE Myths June 20, 2003 A new report, Voices From the South, systematically refutes a number of widely promoted myths about genetically engineered (GE) food. Released by Pesticide Action Network North America and Food First just days before a ministerial level agricultural conference promoting GE foods gets underway in Sacramento, California, the report counters the claims of the biotech industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that GE crops are a solution to hunger in the Third World. In the report, leading activists, scientists and farmers from countries as diverse as Ethiopia, India and Ecuador argue that the development of GE crops has not focused on feeding people but rather on securing market share for the world's largest agrochemical/biotech companies. "Genetically engineered crops are instruments of industrialized agriculture," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group in Uruguay, one of the authors. "They benefit the richest people in the world, not the hungriest. GE crops are designed to take the control of food production away from local communities, by creating greater dependence on agribusiness corporations for seed and pesticides." The report addresses six common myths spread by the biotech industry about GE crops, with responses by leading Third World analysts. "You can break down these myths into three basic components: Green washing, poor washing, and hope dashing," said Anuradha Mittal, co-director of Food First, who is from India. "Green washing suggests that biotech will create a world free of pesticides; poor washing would have us believe that we must accept genetically engineered crops if we are to feed the poor in the Third World; and hope dashing claims there are no alternatives. But in this report, this rhetoric is systematically dismantled by the very people GE crops are supposed to benefit." Research by Food First reveals that the industry claim that there is not enough food to feed the hungry is not based in fact. The world today produces more food per inhabitant than ever before. The real causes of hunger are poverty, inequality and lack of access. Too many people are too poor to buy the food that is available (but often poorly distributed) or lack the land and resources to grow it themselves. "What farmers in the developing world need are policies that give farming communities control over their own resources and build on local ecological knowledge," writes Timothy Byakola, also an author, who coordinates PAN East Africa, "not another technological quick fix." The authors note that there is already enough food to feed the world one and a half times over, and that genetically engineered crops have caused economic and ecological problems where they have been grown. The report argues that the poor and hungry of the developing world need economic and social policies that address the root causes of hunger in poverty and inequality, not quick technological fixes that largely benefit foreign corporations. The report highlights traditional farming methods that involve sustainable use of land, water and seeds in a system that guarantees food sovereignty. Current global trade and economic policies which force privatization, centralization and commercialization are a threat to food sovereignty in southern countries. Voices from the South: The Third World Debunks Corporate Myths on Genetically Engineered Crops is published by Pesticide Action Network (PANNA) and Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy, as part of the work of both organizations to bring the views of grassroots activists of the global south to the political debate about the risks and costs of GE food. Voices from the South is available online at http://www.foodfirst.org/ Sources: Voices from the South, The Third World Debunks Corporate Myths on Genetically Engineered Crops, Ellen Hickey and Anuradha Mittal (editors), June 2003, PANNA, 49 Powell St. #500 San Francisco, CA 94102, (415)981-1771, http://www.panna.org/ . |
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