Calling all WTO experts

[andrewducker]

According to today's Guardian the  WTO has said that European countries can't ban GM foods.

What I'm wondering is - does this stop them from demanding that GM foods be labelled, so that people can make their own choices about whether they want to eat them or not?

Comments

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

The point with GM is that someone else's freedom to have them is eventually going to render my freedom to avoid them meaningless.

[andrewducker]

Can you explain why? We already have clearly marked types of foods which are produced in certain ways - why wouldn't this trend continue?

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Because of what I originally came into this thread to post - if you have GM crops in one field, eventually you'll have GM crops in the other fields. Cross-pollination etc. Unless all GM crops are developed in GM bio-domes! ;+)

But yeah, basically that. There's huge concerns over GM rapeseed contaminating other crops, and there's no real way to avoid it without spending a fortune, and building some bloody high walls.

There's also the more basic issue with it - basically, we should have learned by now that we're fucking with nature too much, but we haven't. It's all just greed greed greed. There's no reason for GM crops - we've managed for eons without 'em. We're not going to be content until we've screwed the world up so much it has no choice but to screw us back.

Sorry - clearly I haven't had enough sleep last night...

[andrewducker]

I can see your first point - separating out the growth of GM foods and non-GM ones does sound fairly impossible. I was thinking of imports of GM foods, not their growing.

basically, we should have learned by now that we're fucking with nature too much

Well, as I disagree vastly with that statement, and am looking forward to more tampering in the future I suspect we'll have to agree to disagree. For instance, specially bred wheat (produced using radioactive isotopes to cause uncontrolled mutation) has meant that India produces 70 million tonnes of wheat rather than 12, which is the only reason they aren't starving to death. The GM strains being worked on which can grow in much saltier soil would help many African countries with their famine problems too.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

Lots of reasons, but for example, last time I checked the EU was being lobbied to define "organic" as containing up to 0.9% GM *without* this information having to appear on the label.

[andrewducker]

Now _that_ I'd be against.

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

With no attempt at hyperbole, I do believe that the evils created by agrobusiness run deep and wide.