Hotspring 44
11-10-2011, 06:52 PM
Another Fishy Bailout and GMO Produce in Our Future (https://www.anh-usa.org/another-fishy-bailout/)
New Action Alert! (https://aahf.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=959)
November 8, 2011
You may have heard that the USDA awarded a hefty research grant to AquaBounty (https://www.grist.org/food/2011-09-29-feds-help-gmo-salmon-swim-upstream)
, the Frankenfish creator. But there is more to the story….
What you may not have heard is that the award came just as the company was facing major financial troubles. This was a bailout. And there are more GMO threats in our future coming to the produce area of our supermarket aisles.
In September, the US Department of Agriculture awarded $494,000 to AquaBounty to study technologies that would make their genetically engineered Atlantic salmon (https://www.anh-usa.org/action-alert-genetically-modified-frankenfish/)
sterile, so it couldnt mate with non-GMO salmon. AquaBountys current sterilization technology hasnt proved 100% effective. On its face, the USDA grant was intended to remove one of environmentalists biggest objections to the GE salmon, marketed under the name AquAdvantage, although inter-species breeding is not the only known problem. The GE fish may also be significantly more allergenic (https://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/genetically-engineered-salmon-allergies)
than natural salmon among other issues.
Its bad enough that government is in bed with industry and cannot possibly be objective in the review and approval process. But it is also noteworthy that the infusion of nearly half a million taxpayer dollars came just as AquaBounty was facing grave financial troubles. The companys interim report (https://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011_Interim_Report.pdf)
shows a loss of $2.8 million in the first half of 2011 alone, and stated it was considering options for raising further working capital. Just a few months later, the USDA obliged by giving the company a nice, fat grant.
USDAs sister agency, FDA, is still in its review process for the GE salmon. In its appropriations bill, the House voted to stop funding of the fish (https://www.anh-usa.org/house-cuts-fda-budget-by-285-million)
, but the Senate has not included the same language in its own appropriations bill. It seems a foregone conclusion that FDA will approve the salmon if USDA is funding it.
Representatives Don Young (AK) and Peter DeFazio (OR) sent a letter to the USDA asking them to rescind the grant (https://donyoung.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Young-DeFazio_letter_to_USDA_opposing_GM_fish_grant.pdf)
. The USDA should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, said Young. Propping up a company who has already researched and developed their technologies should not be the business of the federal government. This company is not losing money due to a lack of research; they are losing money because Americans prefer wild salmon over Frankenfish.
Consumers also face a threat of unidentified genetically engineered foods in their produce aisle. Monsanto plans to dominate the $3 billion global produce market by making their GE seeds the primary source of the nations vegetables and fruits. According to Monsantos chief executive, This isnt a hobby….Were serious about it. As the Los Angeles Times put it (https://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/20/business/la-fi-monsanto-vegetables-20111020)
,
Grocery customers in California and elsewhere are chopping its onions that produce fewer tears, stir-frying its broccoli that decreases cholesterol, and biting into tiny orange tomatoes that last longer on the shelf. Soon, people will be thumping melons bred to be a single serving and shucking sweet corn genetically modified to enable farmers to spray the fields with the companys weed killer, Roundup. To do this, its marrying conventional breeding methods with its vast technological resources to bring about changes in fruits and vegetables in months or years, rather than in decades.
Currently, vegetable seeds represent only 8% of Monsantos revenue. However, the company has already acquired four vegetable seed companies, 57 research centers, and hired many researchers and scientists.
Citizens nationwide are demanding that genetically engineered foods and foods containing genetically modified organisms be clearly labeled as such. Send your message to the USDA, FDA, and Congress, and tell them how concerned you are about Monsantos push into our nations produce. Take action today!
<table id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566862" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable" width="524"><tbody id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566861"><tr class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_tr" valign="top"><td class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_td" width="695"> TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO USDA, FDA, AND CONGRESS
Click New Action Alert! (https://aahf.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=959)
to go to the Action Alert page. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter.
Wed also love to hear your comments about this articlejust add your thoughts belowbut remember that the messages below are only seen by our ANH-USA readers and not Congress, the FDA, etc.
</td> </tr> <tr id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566860" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_tr" valign="top"><td id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566859" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_td" width="695"> The suggested message:
I was disturbed to learn that the Monsanto Company has decided to dominate the $3 billion global produce market by making their GE seeds the primary source of the nation's vegetables and fruits.
There is mounting evidence casting doubt on the safety of genetically modified organisms. GMOs are causing terrible genetic changes in mammal offspring. Scientists are seeing birth defects, high infant mortality rates, and sterility in hamsters, rats, and livestock fed GMO soy and corn, and some hamster pups even began growing hair inside their mouths. What we eat changes the biology of our children and our children's children, and may harm them irreparably.
In September, USDA awarded $494,000 to AquaBounty to study technologies that would make their genetically engineered Atlantic salmon sterile, so it cannot mate with non-GMO salmon. AquaBounty's current sterilization technology hasn't proved 100% effective. Why is one agency giving grants to fix a GMO product, when another agency is charged with reviewing and approving the same product? If the government is promoting and subsidizing GMO products, reviewing and approving the same products is a massive conflict of interest, completely undermining citizens' faith in the approval process.
I agree with Representatives Don Young and Peter DeFazio, who sent a letter to the USDA asking them to rescind the grant. To quote Rep. Young: "The USDA should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. Propping up a company who has already researched and developed their technologies should not be the business of the federal government."
I call upon you to prohibit Monsanto and any other genetic engineering company from moving into our grocery store produce aisles unless, at a minimum, two conditions are met: (1) genetically engineered foods must be clearly labeled as such, and (2) the government must not be allowed to promote or subsidize GMO products (as it has most recently with AquaBounty salmon) and then review and approve the same products.</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Article from anh-usa.org (https://www.anh-usa.org/index.php)
New Action Alert! (https://aahf.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=959)
November 8, 2011
You may have heard that the USDA awarded a hefty research grant to AquaBounty (https://www.grist.org/food/2011-09-29-feds-help-gmo-salmon-swim-upstream)
, the Frankenfish creator. But there is more to the story….
What you may not have heard is that the award came just as the company was facing major financial troubles. This was a bailout. And there are more GMO threats in our future coming to the produce area of our supermarket aisles.
In September, the US Department of Agriculture awarded $494,000 to AquaBounty to study technologies that would make their genetically engineered Atlantic salmon (https://www.anh-usa.org/action-alert-genetically-modified-frankenfish/)
sterile, so it couldnt mate with non-GMO salmon. AquaBountys current sterilization technology hasnt proved 100% effective. On its face, the USDA grant was intended to remove one of environmentalists biggest objections to the GE salmon, marketed under the name AquAdvantage, although inter-species breeding is not the only known problem. The GE fish may also be significantly more allergenic (https://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/genetically-engineered-salmon-allergies)
than natural salmon among other issues.
Its bad enough that government is in bed with industry and cannot possibly be objective in the review and approval process. But it is also noteworthy that the infusion of nearly half a million taxpayer dollars came just as AquaBounty was facing grave financial troubles. The companys interim report (https://www.anh-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011_Interim_Report.pdf)
shows a loss of $2.8 million in the first half of 2011 alone, and stated it was considering options for raising further working capital. Just a few months later, the USDA obliged by giving the company a nice, fat grant.
USDAs sister agency, FDA, is still in its review process for the GE salmon. In its appropriations bill, the House voted to stop funding of the fish (https://www.anh-usa.org/house-cuts-fda-budget-by-285-million)
, but the Senate has not included the same language in its own appropriations bill. It seems a foregone conclusion that FDA will approve the salmon if USDA is funding it.
Representatives Don Young (AK) and Peter DeFazio (OR) sent a letter to the USDA asking them to rescind the grant (https://donyoung.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Young-DeFazio_letter_to_USDA_opposing_GM_fish_grant.pdf)
. The USDA should not be in the business of picking winners and losers, said Young. Propping up a company who has already researched and developed their technologies should not be the business of the federal government. This company is not losing money due to a lack of research; they are losing money because Americans prefer wild salmon over Frankenfish.
Consumers also face a threat of unidentified genetically engineered foods in their produce aisle. Monsanto plans to dominate the $3 billion global produce market by making their GE seeds the primary source of the nations vegetables and fruits. According to Monsantos chief executive, This isnt a hobby….Were serious about it. As the Los Angeles Times put it (https://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/20/business/la-fi-monsanto-vegetables-20111020)
,
Grocery customers in California and elsewhere are chopping its onions that produce fewer tears, stir-frying its broccoli that decreases cholesterol, and biting into tiny orange tomatoes that last longer on the shelf. Soon, people will be thumping melons bred to be a single serving and shucking sweet corn genetically modified to enable farmers to spray the fields with the companys weed killer, Roundup. To do this, its marrying conventional breeding methods with its vast technological resources to bring about changes in fruits and vegetables in months or years, rather than in decades.
Currently, vegetable seeds represent only 8% of Monsantos revenue. However, the company has already acquired four vegetable seed companies, 57 research centers, and hired many researchers and scientists.
Citizens nationwide are demanding that genetically engineered foods and foods containing genetically modified organisms be clearly labeled as such. Send your message to the USDA, FDA, and Congress, and tell them how concerned you are about Monsantos push into our nations produce. Take action today!
<table id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566862" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable" width="524"><tbody id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566861"><tr class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_tr" valign="top"><td class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_td" width="695"> TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO USDA, FDA, AND CONGRESS
Click New Action Alert! (https://aahf.convio.net/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=959)
to go to the Action Alert page. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter.
Wed also love to hear your comments about this articlejust add your thoughts belowbut remember that the messages below are only seen by our ANH-USA readers and not Congress, the FDA, etc.
</td> </tr> <tr id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566860" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_tr" valign="top"><td id="yui_3_2_0_1_13209673611566859" class="yiv510867777cms_table_MsoNormalTable_td" width="695"> The suggested message:
I was disturbed to learn that the Monsanto Company has decided to dominate the $3 billion global produce market by making their GE seeds the primary source of the nation's vegetables and fruits.
There is mounting evidence casting doubt on the safety of genetically modified organisms. GMOs are causing terrible genetic changes in mammal offspring. Scientists are seeing birth defects, high infant mortality rates, and sterility in hamsters, rats, and livestock fed GMO soy and corn, and some hamster pups even began growing hair inside their mouths. What we eat changes the biology of our children and our children's children, and may harm them irreparably.
In September, USDA awarded $494,000 to AquaBounty to study technologies that would make their genetically engineered Atlantic salmon sterile, so it cannot mate with non-GMO salmon. AquaBounty's current sterilization technology hasn't proved 100% effective. Why is one agency giving grants to fix a GMO product, when another agency is charged with reviewing and approving the same product? If the government is promoting and subsidizing GMO products, reviewing and approving the same products is a massive conflict of interest, completely undermining citizens' faith in the approval process.
I agree with Representatives Don Young and Peter DeFazio, who sent a letter to the USDA asking them to rescind the grant. To quote Rep. Young: "The USDA should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. Propping up a company who has already researched and developed their technologies should not be the business of the federal government."
I call upon you to prohibit Monsanto and any other genetic engineering company from moving into our grocery store produce aisles unless, at a minimum, two conditions are met: (1) genetically engineered foods must be clearly labeled as such, and (2) the government must not be allowed to promote or subsidize GMO products (as it has most recently with AquaBounty salmon) and then review and approve the same products.</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
Article from anh-usa.org (https://www.anh-usa.org/index.php)