Dear Editor,
Prior to becoming President of the United States of America in 2007, Mr Obama promised that when he became President, one of his priorities would be to label genetically modified foods, “because Americans should know what they are eating”.
Well, he won that election and has won another election, and still genetically modified foods are not labelled. Last week it was reported that despite tens of thousands of telephone calls to the White House, and half a million signed petitions asking that the Act called the Monsanto Protection Act be signed, it was not.
This Act grants the entire biotech industry the power to nullify Federal courts, even when the courts determine that a particular genetically modified crop may be dangerous to human health or the environment. The courts can no longer stop the planting of these crops, instead it mandates the Secretary of Agriculture to issue permits and deregulation orders that allow the continued cultivation, commercialisation and other specifically enumerated activities, even if a crop is deemed to be causing a plague or unleashing dangerous genetic pollution.
Tom Vilsack, the current Secretary of Agriculture, was written to by agricultural scientist Dr Don Huber on January 17, 2011 about a new Pathogen to Science causing infertility and spontaneous abortions in cattle.
Jamaica consumes over one billion dollars of imported foods each year, most of which come from the United States of America. Mandatory labelling of genetically modified organisms is urgently required so that consumers can realise their rights to determine what they eat and feed their children and to ensure the possibility of traceability, should these experimental foods unleash dangerous genetic pollutions or plagues.
Carlton Stewart
stewart.carlton@gmail.com
Prior to becoming President of the United States of America in 2007, Mr Obama promised that when he became President, one of his priorities would be to label genetically modified foods, “because Americans should know what they are eating”.
Well, he won that election and has won another election, and still genetically modified foods are not labelled. Last week it was reported that despite tens of thousands of telephone calls to the White House, and half a million signed petitions asking that the Act called the Monsanto Protection Act be signed, it was not.
This Act grants the entire biotech industry the power to nullify Federal courts, even when the courts determine that a particular genetically modified crop may be dangerous to human health or the environment. The courts can no longer stop the planting of these crops, instead it mandates the Secretary of Agriculture to issue permits and deregulation orders that allow the continued cultivation, commercialisation and other specifically enumerated activities, even if a crop is deemed to be causing a plague or unleashing dangerous genetic pollution.
Tom Vilsack, the current Secretary of Agriculture, was written to by agricultural scientist Dr Don Huber on January 17, 2011 about a new Pathogen to Science causing infertility and spontaneous abortions in cattle.
Jamaica consumes over one billion dollars of imported foods each year, most of which come from the United States of America. Mandatory labelling of genetically modified organisms is urgently required so that consumers can realise their rights to determine what they eat and feed their children and to ensure the possibility of traceability, should these experimental foods unleash dangerous genetic pollutions or plagues.
Carlton Stewart
stewart.carlton@gmail.com