Rice is daily food for half of the world's population. Genetically modified (GM) rice, on the other hand, is a threat to our agriculture, our biodiversity and a possible risk to our health.
At present, GM rice is not grown commercially anywhere in the world. But Bayer, the German chemical giant, has genetically manipulated rice to withstand higher doses of a toxic pesticide called glufosinate, which is considered to be so dangerous to humans and the environment that it will soon be banned from Europe.
In just a few weeks, the European Union will decide whether or not this GM rice can enter EU countries, appear on supermarket shelves and end up on our dinner plates. If the EU approves the import of Bayer GM rice, farmers in the US and elsewhere may soon start planting it.
Interestingly GMO rice has already been found in the US commercial rice.
Only trace amounts of the biotech rice, the equivalent of six kernels in 10,000 kernels of rice, were found "geographically dispersed and random throughout the rice-growing area," Riceland spokesman Bill Reed said in a statement.
How even trace amounts of the rice engineered to resist a herbicide got into the 2005 crop remains a mystery.
"We think that sometime when it was being field-tested, it contaminated the commercial supplies and has somehow been growing at low levels ever since," says Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety, an environmental advocacy group.
The rice, called Liberty Link RICE 601, comes from a line of genetically modified rice that Bayer CropScience had tested from 1998 to 2001 but decided not to pursue. It is likely that at least some seeds or pollen escaped from the test plots.
LLRICE 601 has a genetically modified protein that makes the rice plants resist glyphosate, a weed killer known to many gardeners as Round-Up. The herbicide-resistant trait lets farmers spray their fields with glyphosate, killing all the weeds but leaving the crop untouched.
So they decided not to pursue LL601 which was GM rice resistant to their competitor's product Roundup (glyphosate). Now Bayer is pushing LL62 a GM rice resistant to their herbicide glufosinate. And Bayer is quite proud of the results of the USDA investigation.
In its press release issued October 5, 2007, USDA states that "based upon the findings of the investigation, APHIS will not be pursuing enforcement action against Bayer CropScience."
USDA also reconfirmed in its report that "federal authorities have concluded that LibertyLink rice poses no threat to food safety, human health, or the environment".
Frankly I wouldn't be so proud of a Bush USDA stamp of approval. It's common knowledge that he filled regulator positions with company insiders and lobbyists. It was the fox guarding the henhouse for eight years. They made frozen french fries into fresh vegetables. Matt Corley from ThinkProgress lists their top achievements:
- In April 2004, Bush's USDA issued legally binding guidances allowing the use of antibiotics on organic dairy cows and synthetic pesticides on organic farms.
- Another 2004 guidance narrowed the scope of the federal organic certification program to crops and livestock, meaning that national organic standards would "not be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, and personal-care products."
- Though then-Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman reportedly "rescinded the directives" after activist uproar, the vice chairman of the National Organic Standards Board told the Chicago Reader that the USDA "sticks to their interpretations, only now they are no longer posted."
- In June 2007, the USDA greenlighted a proposal "allowing 38 new non-organic ingredients in products bearing the 'USDA Organic' seal, despite more than 10,000 e-mails and letters from concerned consumers and farmers."
- This past September, the USDA "abruptly halted a government program that tests the levels of pesticides in fruits, vegetables and field crops, arguing that the $8 million-a-year program is too expensive."
At the end of administration the foxes made one more last sweep.
This from an article entitled USDA'S Weakened Biotechnology Rules Are Bush Administration's Farewell Gift to Biotech Industry Weaker Rules Unjustified in Light of Recent Animal Feed Contamination and New GAO Report Urging Stronger USDA Oversight
Similarly, as a parting gift to the biotechnology industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is rushing to finalize rules that would substantially weaken oversight of genetically engineered crops. The department's actions occur as two events just last week point to the need for the USDA to strengthen - not weaken - its regulations.
Last Friday, December 5, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the Congress, released a report criticizing the USDA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for regulatory failures that allowed unauthorized genetically engineered crops into the nation's food supply. Since 2000, six known incidents of unapproved genetically engineered crops contaminating the food supply or food crops have been reported. GAO recommended that the three agencies strengthen their oversight to prevent future incidents. (For the GAO report, go to: www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-09-60.)
Two days before the GAO report release, the same three agencies announced that biotech giant Monsanto had illegally released one of its experimental varieties of genetically engineered cottonseed into the U.S. food system. According to the agencies, Monsanto harvested the unapproved cottonseed in error and allowed it to mix with approved animal feed that food animals have already eaten.
How could Monsanto do something like that, and then sue farmers? Or is that the game plan?
Currently, Bayer is pushing for legal approval of its GE rice in Brazil, South Africa, the EU, India and the Philippines. In the USA, the Bayer GE rice has already been approved for commercial planting, although farmers in the US are reluctant to plant it. They fear the loss of important markets due to the risks of accidental contamination, and not without reason. Bayer already has a history of causing damages that have been estimated at more than USD 1.2 billion to the global rice industry, when one of its experimental GE rice varieties accidentally entered global rice supplies in 2006.
Alright! Ending with some good news, farmers aren't stupid like bud says we say they are! They act according to the economics.
