China rejects another shipment of GMO ‘contaminated’ crops

China rejects another shipment of GMO ‘contaminated’ crops

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) released a report on November 19, 2013 by Reuters that China has rejected a load of corn because it is contaminated with an unapproved GMO corn strain. The GMO product is labeled as Syngenta AG's AgrisureViptera corn, which is also known as MIR 162.

This follows a rejection by China of a load of alfalfa that was also GMO contaminated in Sept. 2013. Farmers in the state of Washington requested that the USDA require compensation for the Monsanto Roundup Ready cross-contamination that resulted in the rejection by China. The USDA ruled that this was a marketing issue, and not something to be addressed by the USDA.

In 2002, Zimbabwe rejected 10,000 tons of US seed corn because it was whole kernel GMO seeds that could have germinated and contaminated the indigenous corn crops across Zimbabwe. After the devastating earthquakes in Haiti, farmers there burned relief supplies of corn provided by Monsanto because the corn was a GMO strain. In both cases, starving people rejected GMO seeds.

In Sept. 2013, the Russian minister of agriculture ordered several branches of Russian government to write position papers that will consider banning the import of all GMO foods. Particular strains of Monsanto GMO corn have previously been banned for importation.

While the influence of Monsanto is extremely effective in Congress and the Supreme Court, there are many wealthy farmers in the West and Midwest that are seeing their export business dwindle because of GMO crop contamination. In this case, the reduced revenue for exports by US farmers may talk louder than the lobbyists for Monsanto, Dow, BASF and DuPont.

A Voice of American report written by Ana Hontz-Ward on Oct. 24, 2013 has the headline In Europe, Debate Intensifies Over GMO Food Imports from US.

Thomas Schmidt, a food and agriculture expert at the German Embassy in Washington, DC, had this to say about the impact of GMO food imports as part of an overall free-trade agreement between the European Union and the US that is currently being negotiated.

“For the Europe side, this is a pretty sensitive issue because there are so many people in our countries who have an adverse opinion about genetically engineered crops and that of course is a political factor in this debate, no doubt about it.”

Opposition to GMO foods has been so strident in Germany that BASF moved its GMO research operation from Germany to the US. A study conducted in Germany found 75% of Germans opposed to GMO foods. There is a willingness to pay a premium for non-GMO foods in Germany and throughout the European Union.

The inaction of the USDA in the Washington GMO contamination of alfalfa indicates the cooperation that the USDA has consistently provided to the major agricultural, pesticide and insecticide companies.

The lack of response to the continued pressure from China, Russia and the EU to reject US crops that are GMO contaminated is a head in the sand approach by the USDA. The refusal to hold agribusiness companies accountable for contaminating crops with GMO seeds reflects the influence of these companies in Congress, the Executive branch, and the Supreme Court.

Contact Senator Sherrod Brown, Senator Rob Portman, Congressman Pat Tiberi and Congressman Steve Stivers and let them know that you want them to write legislation to hold companies like Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and BASF liable when their GMO crops contaminate adjacent non-GMO crops. Ask them to write legislation to carry out long-term studies on the effects of GMO crops on animals and humans, and on the impact of pesticides and insecticides on water, land and the air we breathe. Examiner