I heard a tiny pieces about it on radio news, but found little on the internet. Well Charlie Hebdo killings made a 'nice day to bury bad news'. All heads were turned to focus on Islamic extremism.
As the article tells us: 'This comes in the midst of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks aimed at securing multilateral growth through commerce between the EU and the US. Many environmentalists were afraid that such an agreement would ease GM crop laws since cultivation of GM crops is widely spread around the US.'
USA lawyers are currently suing the Uruguayan government in court (for sums exceeding the national budget) under a similar agreement signed between North and South America.
I'm willing to bet that, when TTIP is signed here, companies such as Monsanto will be bullying our government to allow widespread growth of GMO crops in the UK.
GM maize is likely to be authorised in the UK very soon.
Nature surveyed the pros and cons for GM crops and came down in the middle.
It seems that the European Parliament rushed this law through in a shoddy piece of legislation:
Two contributors to the field achieve a better balance when discussing diet and health, in my opinion.
Dr Larry Mccleary, a neurosurgeon, gives considered responses to questions and attempts to put himself in the shoes of parents and carers of people with neurological disorders wanting to introduce dietary changes.
Chris Masterjohn, a lipidologist, is also unwilling to make definitive statements without strong supportive evidence.
All is hunky-dory until that little word corruption enters into the equation. This article is fine but can we trust the mighty corporation to act with moral compass and truthfulness in dealing with the TTIP issues. I for one think not as if we look at the track record of multi-nationals and how they operate, we soon see that they will do absolutely anything for profit and the bottom-line. Therefore if we could trust the corporations and how they operate maybe we could accept that the nice old corporation will play fair, but we cannot based upon track history. As a single example the pharmaceutical industry where over the last 8 years alone they have paid out-of-court settlements amounting to over $20 billion. It is as though they have factored in corruption costs and know that they will eventually be found out - http://worldinnovationfoundation.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/global-pharmaceutical-giants-have-made.html
ReplyDeleteAlso, The TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) will be an Absolute Disaster for the People of the EU (European Union) and the People of America (USA) in the long-term - We simply have to Vote AGAINST this behind closed doors Transatlantic Trade deal before it is signed up and too late for the People to do anything about it - http://worldinnovationfoundation.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ttip-transatlantic-trade-and.html
Thanks David. Yes corporations exist to make profits and not to uphold democracy or the well being of people. Unfortunately we have blind politicians who are stumbling into the TTIP alliance and trying to keep us in the dark. Cameron has gone after some of the campaign organisations trying to raise awareness and get petitions signed on line (like 38 degrees.)
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