Biotech critics challenging Monsanto GMO sugar beet

[nosmokes]

Interesting that the transgenic alfalfa should be brought up in this article, as a judge ruled that it couldn't be planted be planted in the states but lo and behold, acres of it have been found.Monsanto claims they're test plots and they're legal. I guess Monsanto has a different definition of *no* than the rest of us. Of course they could be counting on a deal like Bayer got with the Liberty Link rice contamination.The LLrice wasn't approved to be planted by the USDA and yet it wound up contaminating the US rice crop and costing farmers $millions. So to limit the corporation's liability Bush's USDA promptly gave retroactive approval to Bayer for the LL rice.Regulation shmegulation.
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original-reuters
Biotech critics challenging Monsanto GMO sugar beet
Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:05am EST


By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Opponents of biotech crops said on Wednesday they were filing a lawsuit to challenge the USDA's deregulation of Monsanto Co's genetically engineered sugar beet because of fears of "biological contamination" and other harm to the environment.

The Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club and two organic seed groups said the lawsuit involved the United States Department of Agriculture's approval of Monsanto's glyphosate-resistant sugar beet, which is engineered to withstand treatment of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

The "Roundup Ready" sugar beets are slated to be grown on a commercial scale for the first time in the United States this year, the groups said.

Neither Monsanto nor USDA officials could be reached immediately for comment.

The groups said the wind-pollinated biotech sugar beets will cross-pollinate and contaminate conventional sugar beets, organic chard and table beet crops.

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complete article here

[mod mom]

1. Maybe Hillary Clinton can fight this battle w her connections:

Yee-haw

October 18, 2007 10:06 AM

So later this month, according to THIS INVITATION, the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, is holding a "Rural Americans for Hillary" lunch and campaign briefing at the end of this month….

..but she's holding it in Washington, DC….

…at a lobbying firm…

… and specifically, though it's not mentioned in the invitation, at the lobbying firm Troutman Sanders Public Affairs…

…which just so happens to lobby for the controversial multinational agri-biotech Monsanto.

You read that right: Monsanto, about which there are serious questions about its culpability regarding 56 Superfund Sites,wanton and "outrageous" pollution, and the decidedly unkosher (and quite metaphoric) genetically-bred "Superpig."

-snip

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/10/yee-haw.html

[peacetalksforall]

2. Self delete

[mod mom]

4. We had a friend who is a United pilot over for dinner the other night...

I asked him how he felt about having the service on airplanes outsourced to China. He said that those in charge of United didn't care about the company. They are hoping for a strike so they can sell off the company part by part and reap the benefits.

These assholes are only looking out for themselves and don't think about the effects on society at all. You're correct, higher class, short term profits is all they care about!

[peacetalksforall]

3. You hear these stories and you're convinced that these corporations desire to ruin

our country and then you remember - THEY ARE ALWAYS seeking SHORT TERM PROFITS - they con't give a damn about our children. And they believe they are GOD.

[billnie]

5. GM sugarbeets

The two crops targeted by lawsuits (alfalfa and sugar beets) are not grown for seed by the average farmer and would probably pose less risk than most crops. Alfalfa is also typically digested by livestock before being consumed by humans and sugar goes through a crystalization process which produces a purified product without the proteins that may be found in GMO plants.