Even Mexicans Are Free From GMO Tyranny: MONSANTO LOSES GMO PERMIT IN MEXICO

Obama signs 'Monsanto Protection Act' written by Monsanto-sponsored senator
[link to rt.com]

United States President Barack Obama has signed a bill into law that was written in part by the very billion-dollar corporation that will benefit directly from the legislation.

On Tuesday, Pres. Obama inked his name to H.R. 933, a continuing resolution spending bill approved in Congress days earlier. Buried 78 pages within the bill exists a provision that grossly protects biotech corporations such as the Missouri-based Monsanto Company from litigation.

With the president’s signature, agriculture giants that deal with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered (GE) seeds are given the go-ahead to continue to plant and sell man-made crops, even as questions remain largely unanswered about the health risks these types of products pose to consumers.

In light of approval from the House and Senate, more than 250,000 people signed a petition asking the president to veto the spending bill over the biotech rider tacked on, an item that has since been widely referred to as the “Monsanto Protection Act.”

“But Obama ignored [the petition],” IB Times’ Connor Sheets writes, “instead choosing to sign a bill that effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of GMO or GE crops and seeds, no matter what health consequences from the consumption of these products may come to light in the future.”

James Brumley, a reporter for Investor Place, explains a little more thoroughly just how dangerous the rider is now that biotech companies are allowed to bypass judicial scrutiny. Up until it was signed, he writes, “the USDA [US Department of Agriculture] oversaw and approved (or denied) the testing of genetically modified seeds, while the federal courts retained the authority to halt the testing or sale of these plants if it felt that public health was being jeopardized. With HR 933 now a law, however, the court system no longer has the right to step in and protect the consumer.”

If the president’s signature isn’t all that surprising, though, consider the genesis of the bill itself. According to an article published Monday in the New York Daily News, US Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) “worked with Monsanto to craft the language in the bill.”

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Last Edited by Ag47 on 08/16/2014 06:22 PM

Monsanto drops GM in Europe
[link to www.nature.com]

European researchers have expressed regret but little surprise at last week’s announcement by the agriculture giant Monsanto that it will no longer be seeking approvals for genetically modified (GM) crops now under review for cultivation in the European Union (EU).

As anti-GM campaigners celebrated, advocates warned that Europe risks becoming a scientific backwater as the rest of the world increasingly adopts the technology. “It’s bad news for Europe, for European farmers and for global food security,” says Jonathan Jones, who uses both GM and conventional approaches to study disease resistance in plants at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK. “Europe has to get its act together.”

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Monsanto will now focus its European efforts on its conventional agriculture business and on enabling the import of GM crops for use as animal feed, a widespread EU practice that is less controversial than cultivating the crops in European fields.

MON810, which is modified to produce a protein called Bt that is harmful to insect pests, is one of only two GM crops approved for cultivation in the EU. The other is a high-starch GM potato called Amflora that is intended for industrial applications such as paper production. But in 2012, its makers, BASF Plant Science in Limburgerhof, Germany, announced that, because of hostility to GM products in Europe, it would abandon development and sale of Amflora and move its base to the United States. The company also later said that it will not pursue EU approvals for other GM potatoes.

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They win their independence from Monsanto, which doesn't matter because they are all coming to the US

And they're all coming to the U.S. because Mexico's government is supposedly more corrupt than here, and the standard of living is lower. Yet, Monsanto is untouchable in the U.S.

Wow