Further evidence of reversal of progress.
Natalia
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57576835/critics-slam-obama-for-protecting-monsanto/
By
Lindsey Boerma /
CBS News/ March 28, 2013, 2:13 PM
Critics slam Obama for "protecting" Monsanto
There's no love lost between Washington and the American public, it
seems, five days after Congress for the first time in years managed to
handle a budget-related issue without reaching the brink of crisis.
Protesters have descended on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House
this week, enraged at a potentially health-hazardous provision they
allege lawmakers inserted surreptitiously into a continuing resolution
(CR) that will fund the government through the remainder of the fiscal
year. The bill sailed through the Capitol on Friday; President Obama
signed it into law on Tuesday.
Opponents have termed the language in question the "Monsanto Protection
Act," a nod to the major agricultural biotech corporation and other like
firms geared at producing genetically modified organisms (GMO) and
genetically engineered (GE) seeds and crops. The provision protects
genetically modified seeds from litigation suits over health risks posed
by the crops' consumption.
Food safety advocacy groups like Food Democracy Now, which collected
more than 250,000 signatures on a petition calling for the president to
veto the CR, argue not enough studies have been conducted into the
possible health risks of GMO and GE seeds. Eliminating judicial power to
halt the selling or planting of them essentially cuts off their course
to ensuring consumer safety should health risks emerge.
* Stopgap spending bill passes in the Senate
<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57575455/stopgap-spending-bill-passes-in-the-senate/>
* House passes stopgap funding bill, fate in Senate uncertain
<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57572797/house-passes-stopgap-funding-bill-fate-in-senate-uncertain/>
Seeking a "balance" to the newly minted law, Food Democracy Now has
shifted its tactics to encouraging supporters to sign and send letters
to Mr. Obama, chiding him for signing the legislation despite that
refusal to do so would have expired the federal budget and triggered a
government-wide shutdown this week.
Part of the template for the letter reads: "In an effort to balance this
violation of our basic rights, I am urging you as President to issue an
Executive Order to require the mandatory labeling of genetically
engineered foods, something that you promised farmers while on the
campaign trail in 2007. It is urgent that the U.S. government rectify
the 20 year old politically engineered loophole and allow for open and
transparent labeling of genetically engineered foods," the letter
continues, "a basic right that citizens in 62 others countries already
enjoy."
Other groups have aimed their ire toward the more worthy target,
criticizing Congress for slipping the language into a must-pass bill
without review by the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees. The
International Business Times
<http://www.ibtimes.com/furor-growing-against-obama-over-monsanto-protection-act-1156459#>
reports that the Center for Food Safety is putting in the hot seat Sen.
Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman for the Senate Appropriations
Committee, for not giving the amendment a proper hearing. According to
Salon
<http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/how_the_monsanto_protection_act_snuck_into_law/>,
many members of Congress who voted to approve the bill were unaware the
language existed.
"In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. Mikulski turned her back on
consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate
welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto," Andrew Kimbrell,
executive director of the Center for Food Safety, said in a statement,
according to IBT. "This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the
public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in
the Senate."
© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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