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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Unfiltered News

Unfiltered News

Government Chooses Monsanto's Financial Interest Over Public Safety
Anthony Gucciardi
February 24, 2012

Despite being created to protect the public, government organizations like the FDA and the USDA are continually bowing down to biotech giant Monsanto through loose regulations and inadequate review processes. Beyond denying consumers the right to know if their products contain GMO ingredients, these organizations have taken it a step further and are now compromising public safety in favor of enabling Monsanto's profits to surge. In the latest move by the USDA, Monsanto's GMO crops are set to receive ‘speedier regulatory reviews’. With the faster reviews, there will be even less time spent on evaluating potential dangers.

In response to why the current review process is longer than the USDA would like (about 3 years), the USDA said it was due to ‘public interest, legal challenges, and the challenges associated with the advent of national organic food standards‘. The USDA is openly stating that it is struggling against public opinion. In other words, they are 'challenged' with the protest of the very citizens that the organization was created to protect. While the public cries out for GMO labeling and a halt to the modification process as a whole, the USDA completely ignores public interest and, instead, describes it as a 'challenge' in shortening the review process for Monsanto's latest GMO invention.

Steve Censky, chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association, states it quite plainly. This is a move to help Monsanto and other biotechnology giants squash competition and make profits. “It is a concern from a competition standpoint,” Censky said in a telephone interview.

The same statements are reiterated by analyst Jeff Windau in an interview with Bloomberg: “If you can reduce the approval time, you get sales that much faster,” said Windau. And it is all about profits and political play.

In another move by the USDA to secure a financial future for genetically modified foods and Monsanto alike, the agency approved Monsanto's new GMO corn despite 45,000 comments in opposition. The ‘drought tolerant’ genetically engineered corn was passed despite nearly 45,000 public comments voicing opposition and only 23 comments in favor since comments opened.

The USDA continues to grant Monsanto further power while ignoring evidence linking Monsanto’s creations to health problems and environmental devastation. In a review of 19 studies analyzing the dangers of GMO crops such as corn and soybeans, researchers found that that consumption of GMO corn or soybeans may lead to significant organ disruptions in tested animals – particularly in the liver and kidneys.

On the environmental front, farms across the world are experiencing the emergence of herbicide-resistant superweeds, thanks to a Monsanto product called Roundup.
It is clear that the USDA and the FDA alike have chosen Monsanto and other biotechnology corporations over the public health of American citizens.

Is it any surprise that the FDA's food safety czar is directly connected to Monsanto?

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