Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Today I'm embarassed to be Canadian!

Canada is one of three countries (with the United States and Argentina) that has refused to sign the UN's Biosafety Protocol. WTF?!? I'm going to send letters to my politician about this one.

From Organic Bytes Issue #77 - Organic Consumers Association
Biotech corporations are facing off against developing nations and most of the world this week in Brazil in a debate over the United Nation's Biosafety Protocol. The precedent-setting treaty is an international agreement signed in January 2000 by 132 of the world's nations. But the three main countries that grow genetically modified crops (the United States, Argentina and Canada) refuse to sign it, because the international law would require that countries be notified if the grains they are importing are genetically modified. Biotech companies want that language removed from the treaty, saying that developing nations and anti-GMO consumers in industrialized nations are not entitled to know whether their food is genetically engineered or not. From a press release on March 10, 2006.

2 comments:

Tom said...

Wow, kinda makes you wonder what they are hiding, eh? Reminds me of that Outer Limits episode where the genetically altered grain was (through cross pollination and with the help of ants) causing rapidly growing tumors in everyone in the area.

Sigh..so much good can come from CONTROLLED science. If everyone would work together and not try to hide things from each other, it would be a lot easier to advance.

Janelle Martin said...

What I don't get is why the Canadian government thinks this is a good idea. We export a lot of our stuff to countries other than the US - and they're going to want to know if it is GMO. *sigh*

I had forgotten about that Outer Limits episode - thanks for the reminder!