Seven Issues for the GMO promoters ...

It will be revealing to read the link: http://www.gmfoodnews.com/gmwho.html

Pronouncements such as follows are often made by 'GMO supporters' to support the 'infectious greed' of some Corporates:

"Food biotechnology is not a new phenomenon. Since Roman times, plants have been selectively crossbred to develop crops that are tastier, more hearty and more resistant to certain pests and plant diseases than their predecessors. Modern biotechnology provides an ability to transfer desired traits into plants much faster and more selectively. This, in turn, can result in fewer pesticides being used, greater conservation of land and water, better tasting and more nutritional foods and more abundant food supplies to address world hunger." ... Quaker -
USA.

"We do believe that the responsible use of gene technology in agriculture will bring benefits to farmers, industry and consumers. We are therefore prepared to use ingredients which may be derived from genetically modified crops where it is necessary to do so or a clear benefit can be shown..." ... Nestle, UK.

On the other hand, the more human-centric and ethical organizations take a cautious stand as shown below:

"Caterers have delivered Monsanto the final insult by banning genetically modified food from the GM giant's own staff canteen "in response to concern raised by our customers." ... Monsanto Staff Canteen, UK.

"We have recently decided to remove GM ingredients from products wherever it is practical to do so. This will reduce considerably the number of products containing such ingredients, while maintaining the range available to our customers. At the same time Tesco will provide increased GM-free options by adding to the number of items in our organic range. We are already energetically seeking reliable sources of genuinely GM free ingredients and are pleased that Greenpeace has agreed to discuss working with us to meet this challenge." ... Tesco, UK.

The pro-GMO initiatives, fail to address the following fundamental issues:

1. food biotechnology does not only mean GMO. Its time to refocus on the self-healing processes of nature instead of rushing to synthesized chemicals for all solutions.

2. that since times immemorial, intra-species crossbred plants, which anyway would occur in nature, have been and continue to be used, without any overt damage to plant or animal life or without affecting general bio-diversity on planet Earth. Earth continues to be our ONLY HOME.

3. that the new GMO products are derived from inter-species cross breeding purposefully done between plant and animal (bacteria) in a most un-natural manner (by interfering with the DNA), which would never occur in nature, without any historic data (forget since Roman times), with unknown damage 'over decades' to plant and animal life as collateral damage, and certainly affecting bio-diversity in the worst way. The lack of verifyable historic data on 'gene silencing', 'gene mutations', 'single gene means single protien', due to the un-natural inteference in processes evolved over many milleniam, are never publicly discussed.

4. the hard facts do not support reduced use of pesticides, fertiliser, water, power and even productivity of GMO products decreases with time. The First Green Revolution of 1970s in India is a typical case. Whereas productivity increased manifold for many years, it did deteriorate over time and use of pesticides, fertilizer, water and power increased sequentially. Now after some 40 years the great achievements do not seem so great. We have huge subsidies for farmers and their inputs and still have them poor and distressed. The Green in their life is gone. Let us therefore observe and monitor, by including all stake holders, such intrinsic changes in the new GMO products, for many decades, before spreading their use across continents.

5. the lack of desire to label food products with GMO origin, constituents, ingridients or derivatives is unexplained. Why the desire to take away the right to 'informed consent' or 'right to choice' from Consumers? India must mandate such labeling and also some 'cautionary message' with immediate effect even if USA Regulatory Authorities fail in their duty to keep open choice for their own citizens.

6. how are Consumers who believe in 'a pure vegetarian food habit' to be satisfied if inter-species gene manipulation of GMO food products are not being labeled? Why should their rights of belief and practice be trampled upon? The easy solution is to mandate compulsory GMO labeling as with the current Green - Red dot practice on all packaged food.

7. why challenge the processes of nature, developed over hundreds of milleniam without even two human generations of observations, trials, study, collateral damages evaluation, etc. Why the haste to make waste. It must never be forgotten that bio-diversity must never be disturbed while tinkering with nature. We should learn from our last century experiments with economy management, industrialization, division of the planet into so called nations based on political ideology, loss of thousands of species, nuclear power misuse, health mis-management with questionable drugs and vaccines.

Earth continues to be human-kinds only home. Patience is the key when it comes to deciding the future of billions of human, animal, insect and plant life. They all have varying degree of consciousness and a few human scientists and corporates must not abrograte to themselves, the right to decide their future, primarily because they have not participated in their creation or nurture.