Americans are already eating GM foods without their knowledge

March 12, 2006

The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)

Three judges emerged after years of secret deliberation to rule that Europe

had imposed a de facto ban on GM [genetically modified] food imports between

1999 and 2003, violating WTO rules. The court also ruled that Austria, France,

Germany, Greece, Italy and Luxembourg had no legal grounds to impose their own

unilateral import bans. Actually, the judges said much more, but in true WTO

style no one has been allowed to know what. A few bureaucrats in the US, EU,

Argentina and Canada have reportedly seen the full 1,045-page report, and an

edited summary of some of its conclusions has been leaked. But no one, it seems,

will take responsibility for the ruling, which may force the EU to pay

hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate some of the world's most heavily

subsidised farmers, and could change the laws of at least six countries that

have

imposed GM bans. It is now clear that the real reason the US took Europe to the

WTO court was...to make it easier for its companies to...open regulatory doors

in China, India, south-east Asia, Latin America and Africa, where most US

exports now go. This is where millions of tonnes of US food aid heads, and where

US GM companies are desperate to have access, buying up seed companies and

schmoozing presidents.

Note: For an excellent summary of the dangers of genetically modified foods

that Americans are already eating without their knowledge, see

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