And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist Subj: Re: Guardian 19990620 (UK) about G8 meeting and GM food warning Genetic Engineering considered alongside AIDS! Date: 6/21/99 11:32:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Betty Martini) London Guardian Unlimited > >GM food 'threatens the planet' >Andy McSmith and Denis Staunton, Cologne and Antony Barnett >Sunday June 20, 1999 > >The world's most powerful leaders yesterday labelled genetically modified >food, alongside Aids and the millennium bug, as one of the greatest threats >facing the planet. > >In a significant blow to Tony Blair and President Bill Clinton, both men >were bounced into agreeing a new global inquiry into the safety of GM foods >at the G8 summit in Cologne. Blair and the US President have been two of the >strongest supporters of the GM industry. > >Environmentalists welcomed the development as 'significant', but they warned >that the public would not be 'duped by international committees interested >in rubber-stamping products of biotechnology firms'. > >Tony Juniper, the director of Friends of the Earth, said: 'It shows just how >far the thinking in the US and British Governments is from those in other >leading nations. If this G8 initiative is to have any credibility, there >must now be a five-year freeze on all GM food used commercially.' > >Monsanto, the US firm behind GM crops, also welcomed the move, saying it >hoped it would speed up international approval of their products. Washington >and Brussels are at loggerheads over GM technology, with the US threatening >an all-out trade war if Europe tries to ban GM food. > >Yesterday the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder - supporting an initiative >of French President Jacques Chirac - used his position as head of the host >nation to put GM foods on the agenda of the G8 summit. The matter was >included under 'global threats' along with Aids and the millennium bug. This >Franco-German alliance symbolises the growing opposition on the Continent to >the new technology. > >Two technical committees of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and >Development will now begin to collate information from around the world to >ensure that every country has access to the best research on the effects of >genetic modification. Afterwards British officials defended the decision, >saying that Britain also believes that 'food standards and food safety are >vital to communities'. > >Ministers argue they will not give permission for commercial release of such >crops until the trial results show these are safe. But environmental >campaigners still believe that potential risks to human health have not been >properly evaluated and are concerned that GM seeds can cross-pollinate into >the countryside, destroying wild habitats. > >Opposition to genetically modified food is also beginning to grow in the US, >where some 70 million acres of modified soya beans, tomatos, wheat and >cotton are now grown across the country. > >This unexpected setback at the G8 summit took some of the shine off a >personal success for Tony Blair, who persuaded the other G8 leaders to agree >measures to improve teacher training worldwide. > >It was the first time that G8 had included education as a topic at any of >their summits. > >• Denis Staunton is Berlin Correspondent of The Irish Times >© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 1999 > > ***************************************************************************** 1. Take the 60-day No Aspartame Test and send us your case history. Mission Possible International 5950-H State Bridge Rd. #215 Duluth, GA 30097 USA 2. Tell your doctor and all of your friends! 3. Return Asparcidal food to the store. (anything with Monsanto's NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful/Benevia/NatraTaste) VISIT http://www.dorway.com Get links to over 30 sites on aspartame VISIT http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/ ..FAQs & Cases VISIT http://www.notmilk.com Exposing Bovine Growth Hormone Disability and Death are not acceptable costs of business! Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
