GMO rice contaminates the world rice supply and Dr. Vandana Shiva compares GMO contamination to bio-rape
A report by GM Contamination shows that between the years 2006 and 2007, three varieties of unapproved GM rice owned by Bayer CropScience sneaked into the US commercial rice exports in more than 30 different countries. The report suggests that none of the three varieties of GM rice were approved for cultivation or consumption anywhere in the world.
Since no GMO rice has been grown in US, it appears that the source of contamination belongs to the field trials of GM rice during mid-1990s and early-2000s. According to GM Contamination, the field trail of herbicide tolerant rice belongs to Bayer CropScience and its precursor companies Aventis CropScience and AgrEvo. Since it was unclear that whether or not, cross pollination or mechanical mixing caused the contamination, the USDA official report had to identify the field trials as the source of contamination.
Economic loss for US farmers and the impact on US export:
US rice export was severely affected as a result of the contamination while many countries worldwide pulled US rice from their shelves. Countries like Bulgaria and Russia put a ban on US rice while many countries like the European Union, South Korea, Philippines and Japan put more restricted laws and regulations on testing rice imported from US.
The economic loss of exporting US rice made a lot of profit for other rice exporting countries and increased their trade and profit. The contamination affected rice producers as well as seed producers after in 2007 an entire non-GM rice variety was contaminated with GMOs. The US regulators banned the contaminated non-GM rice variety but that did cost BASF producer billions of dollars in losses.
Consequences of GMO crops contamination:
Many environmentalists, scientists, farmers and experts believe that contamination of GM crops and non-GMO crops have serious impact on both our health, wildlife and the environment. GM crops have already contaminated many organic or non-GMO crops resulting in serious economic losses for producers.
Recently, Japan and South Korea rejected to buy GM wheat after unapproved GM trait was found in a wheat field in Portland, Oregon. As a matter of fact, US export of wheat and corn has drastically declined in the last few years and more and more foreign buyers continue to shy away from US corn, rice and wheat.
The economic losses have been huge for US farmers since more and more countries including Venezuela and Denmark are joining 30 other countries that have already banned the import of GMOs.
The Myth and the truth about GMO crops contamination:
So, huge economic loss is one of the consequences of GMO crops contamination. However the myth has been that “GM crops can “coexist” with non-GM and organic crops” where as the truth is that “Co-existence means widespread contamination of non-GM and organic crops”.
“OK, we know that cross-pollination will occur but we’ve got thirty years of experience to say we know how far pollen will travel. And therefore what we’ve done is we’ll grow a GM crop at a distance away from a non-GM crop, so the people that want non-GM can buy non-GM, and the people that want GM can buy GM. The two will not get mixed up. Everybody will have the right to choose.” Says Paul Rylott, seed manager for Aventis CropScience Bayer.
However, according to EarthOpenSource, the biotech has been claiming that GMO crops cannot contaminate organic or non-GMO crops but soon after it became clear that their claim was false, they shifted the argument to lobbying for “co-existence” of GM, non-GM, and organic crops.
Also, beside the potential health hazards, what the biotech calls “co-existence” is “huge economic loss” for US food producers because of widespread contamination of non-GMO or organic crops with GMOs.
As a matter of fact, the biotech company Monsanto has been forcing many farmers to grow GMO crops. Monsanto has been suing organic farmers that their native crops have been contaminated with GMOs and forcing them to pay for Monsanto’s technology fee. The farmers are literally pushed through bankruptcy, threatened with lawsuit and are forced to plant GMOs.
“Saying farmers should be free to grow GMOs that can contaminate organic crops is like saying rapists should have freedom to rape” said the environmental activist and anti-globalization author, Dr. Vandana Shiva
In fact, Dr. Vandana Shiva made this comment after the British environmental writer Mark Lynas apologized for spending several years of his life ripping up the great biotechnology and he motioned that “farmers should be free to choose what kind of technologies they want to adopt”.
“I want to start with some apologies. For the record, here and upfront, I apologize for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid 1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonizing an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment” said Mark Lynas.
After a sincere apology and confessing that he ran a very successful campaign against GMOs Mark Lynas said that there are no proofs that GMOs are harming people and as a matter of fact they are even better and safer than conventional crops. Mark Lynas also pointed out that all 30 countries that have banned GMOs are just driven by fear that was spread among them by people like him who are anti-science for opposing the mighty biotech.
I have repeatedly stressed that the rape of the Earth and rape of women are intimately linked, both metaphorically in shaping worldviews and materially in shaping women’s everyday lives. - Dr. Vandana Shiva
Dr Vandana Shiva’s comment to compare GMOs with rape outraged the financial benefices of biotech and their thugs all over the internet. http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/gmo-supporters-deception.php
But isn’t contaminating native crops with toxic producing Frankenfoods any less than rape?
In fact, Sayer Ji the founder of the GreenMedInfo says “Because many GMO crops are wind and insect pollinated, their pollen (and the transgenes they carry) easily evade containment and are capable of traveling great distances. For instance, if pollen from genetically modified corn reaches a receptive non-GMO corn plant, transgenes will be forcibly integrated (through sexual reproduction) into the germline of their offspring, rendering them and all their future offspring permanently GMO. This could therefore be defined as a form of 'bio-rape. The farmer whose non-GMO crop is contaminated with GMOs is also violated. First, his ability to make a living is compromised, as his formerly organic crop has now been rendered non-organic. Second, Monsanto can legally suit that farmer for 'patent' infringement for having his crop contaminated by their seeds,essentially accusing him of criminal activity for being a victim of their biopollution”.
Sources:
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/monsanto-and-bio-rape-india1
http://www.gmcontaminationregister.org/index.php?content=nw_detail2
