HEY LYLE, HOW ABOUT SAYING YES TO FARMERS AND NO
TO MONSANTO?
On June 5th, the sleepy town of Morden, Manitoba was the site of
early morning excitement as Greenpeace activists shut down a
government research farm where field trials of Monsanto's
genetically engineered wheat are on-going. Twenty activists locked
the front gates, climbed a flagpole to place a giant 'Biohazard' sign
and put a banner reading 'Stop GE Wheat' on the roof of the
research center. Five were arrested. Morden is one of several
sites where the government is conducting open air field trials of
genetically engineered wheat. Not only is the government putting
Canada's wheat export market at risk by allowing open air field
trials of GE wheat, it has also spent at least $800 000 helping to
develop it, and provided Monsanto with public germplasm with
which to develop the GE variety. The government insists it will
continue to allow the development of GE wheat, despite requests
from the Canadian Wheat Board that Monsanto withdraw its
application. Think the government should start working for farmers
and stop working for Monsanto? Email Agriclture Minister Lyle
Vanclief and tell him that Monsanto's GE wheat is going to make
mad cow look like small potatoes! Stop GE wheat testing and say
NO to Monsanto-
vanclief at agr.gc.ca
Don't forget- please sign the electronic petition at
http//3 WWW 's .greenpeace.ca/e/action/wheat/index.php
or download a hard copy and get 25 people to sign! So far over
8 000 people have signed the call to ban GE wheat.
EUROPE WON'T BE FORCEFED FRANKENFOOD, MR. BUSH
Faced with world-wide rejection of many of its agricultural products,
the Bush administration in May challenged the European Union at
the World Trade Organization over their rejection of GE foods. Not
to be outdone, Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced that
Canada, too, would join the challenge to forcefeed Europeans GE
food. The challenge will likely be extended to include new labelling
and traceability legislation adopted by the EU this month, which
guarantees consumers the right to know if they are eating GE
foods. While it is no surprise that the US continues to push the
frankenfood agenda, it is less clear what our government hopes to
gain by continuing to push a Monsanto-driven agenda that is
ultimately hurting Canadian farmers. The real question is when will
Ottawa listen to the 95% of Canadians who want labels on GE
food.
In the meantime, the world is fighting back. On June 13th, the tiny
nation of Palau became the 50th state to ratify the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety, which governs the transboundary trade of
genetically modified organisms and institutionalizes the right of
nations to reject GE food and to use the precautionary principle
when it comes to GMOs. The treaty, negotiated and signed in
Montreal in January, 2000, will enter into force on September 13th,
2003. Canada is a signatory to the treaty, but has yet to ratify.
Ministers from a number of WTO countries will meet in Montreal
from July 28th to 30th prior to the next round of WTO negotiations
in Cancun, Mexico from September 10th to 14th. Citizens from
around the world will be on hand to to fight for biosafety and the
right for a GE free future.
_______________________________________________ BDNow mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can unsubscribe or change your options at: http://lists.envirolink.org/mailman/listinfo/bdnow
