[International News, France]

 

 

La Jornada, Mexico

WikiLeaks 'Spills Beans' on U.S. Push for 'Frankenfood'

 

"One of the documents from the U.S. Embassy confirms that Spain is considered by multinational corporations as the tip of the GMO spear. 'If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow.' With obvious satisfaction, the Embassy celebrated the retirement of Environment Minister Cristina Narbona in 2008, because she defended the use of traditional crops and warned of the potential danger of genetically modified ones."

 

By Iván Restrepo

 

Translated By Halszka Czarnocka

 

January 17, 2010

 

Mexico - La Jornada - Original Article (Spanish)

The newspapers that Julian Assange selected to divulge 250,000 documents obtained by Wikileaks are only a minor sliver of the materials that reveal the practices used by the United States across the world to defend its interests and the interests of its allies. They also disclose how many governments, businesses and people seek the support of the great power. Every new release is a surprise - another piece of data that illustrates how nothing seems to escape the interest of multinational corporations. And the methods used by certain governments to join in this chain of duplicity.

 

A point that well illustrates the above is the case of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Madrid's daily El País recently offered a summary of a number of documents provided by Wikileaks, which show how the government of Spain defends the interests of the U.S. multinational corporations that dominate the transgenic market (in particular Monsanto and Syngenta) and seeks to counter the European Union policies of restricting cultivation of these crops.

 

One document reveals how in 2009, Spain's Secretary of Rural Affairs and Water Joseph Puxeu ("convinced of the necessity of GMOs”) asked the U.S. Embassy to maintain the pressure to ensure that biotechnology remains a very important option for countries wishing to join the European Union.

 

This occurred when Austria, Luxemburg, Hungary Greece and Germany rejected Monsanto 810 transgenic corn seeds, and in Great Britain, there was growing political and public opposition to the planting of genetically modified seeds and demands that the sale of these foods should require sufficient public warning of their transgenic nature. This also shows how agreements between countries overlap, often sacrificing the interests of one or the other nation. For example, Spain (the greatest champion of transgenics in Europe, with the most land dedicated to planting genetically-modified corn on the continent) supports an agreement promoted by France, which gives each E.U. country the right to veto cultivation of a transgenic crop. Spain supports this in exchange for being invited to the G-20 by President Sarkozy.

 

 

One of the documents from the U.S. Embassy in Madrid confirms that Spain is considered by multinational corporations as the tip of the GMO spear. “If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow.” With obvious satisfaction, the Embassy celebrated the retirement of the Minister of Environment Cristina Narbona in 2008, because she defended the use of traditional crops and warned of the potential danger of genetically modified ones. The ministers of agriculture and of science were, however, in favor of GMOs. The latter, Cristina Garmendia, came from the biotech industry and “could be an ally” in discussions with the José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero cabinet. In spite of all this, the U.S. Embassy does nothing to hide the solid progress of Spain's and Europe's anti-GMO movement. A recent poll cited by El País shows that the number of people in Europe who question genetically modified food is growing every year, and a majority consider them "unsafe" and not beneficial.  

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

 

The opposition of French officials is explained by U.S. diplomats with great simplicity: it is a fruit of President Sarkozy’s agreement with Greenpeace and Friends of Earth in exchange for having those organizations turn a blind eye to French nuclear plans.

 

That the kingdom of multinational seed and food corporations need the support of kingdoms not of this world was shown by documents published by El Pais that reveal lobbying by the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican to win Catholic Church support for GMOs - a subject that lacks unanimity at the Holy See. Nor is there a desire to oblige bishops to become propagandists for these products. In any case, one imagines that the ambassador will continue lobbying to make GMOs declared a dogma of the faith.

 

Among the thousands of documents pending publication by Wikileaks, there must be some that refer to Mexico and genetically modified organisms. Just imagine what surprises await us …

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US January 22, 7:23pm]