Bush Administration has been rumbled over illegal GM food imports to Europe

[Coventrysucks]

US Government = bunch of ass.

Really not the way to behave in the school playground, let alone the court of international diplomacy.

*I apologise - I thought it was there - this is from The Independant.*


US sent banned corn to Europe for four years
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

17 April 2005

All imports of United States corn have been stopped at British ports following the discovery that the US has been illegally exporting a banned GM maize to Europe for the past four years.

The unprecedented move, which has angered the Bush administration, follows efforts to hush up and play down the scandal on both sides of the Atlantic. For weeks the official food watchdog failed to look for imports of the maize, which is banned on health grounds. It has been forced to take action by the European Commission.

The two main opposition parties yesterday blamed the delay on a pro-GM and pro-US bias in the Food Standards Agency, and pledged to correct it if they came to power.

The scandal - the worst yet involving GM imports - centres around maize named Bt 11, modified to repel a pest called the corn borer. It also contains a gene conferring resistance to antibiotics. All such crops are banned in Europe because of fears that the resistance could spread to consumers via the food chain.

Syngenta, the biotech company that developed the maize, told the US government last December that the crop had been grown over 37,000 acres of the country since 2001, because it had been confused with a similar, approved, maize. It was fined $375,000 (£200,000) for the blunder.

But the Bush administration failed for three months to inform European customers that they were importing a banned maize. The scandal was admitted only after it was exposed by the scientific magazine Nature, on 22 March. Even then the US failed to mention that the maize contained the gene for antibiotic resistance.

Europe is estimated to have imported about 1,000 tons of the banned maize, as animal feed. The EC says it cannot eliminate danger to people who consumed meat or dairy products from livestock. It has no idea where in Europe the banned maize has gone or whether the US stopped exporting it.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said only "very small" amounts of maize were involved, echoing a statement from Syngenta, and there was "no actual indication" any had ended up in the UK. The Food Standards Agency refused pleas to try to identify the maize in Britain. Itsimport was stopped on Friday and supplies in transit are being tested at the ports.

[Deutscher Adler]

Very interesting. Where did you get your info from?

[d-quik]

Originally Posted by Deutscher Adler

Where did you get your info from?

Originally Posted by Coventrysucks

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

ahem, wow

[Deutscher Adler]

Originally Posted by d-quik

ahem, wow

Thanx @ss, my mistake

[QuattroMan]

is it as bad as the mad cow disdase?

[spi-ti-tout]

Originally Posted by Deutscher Adler

Thanx @ss, my mistake

ROFL

Intersting....yet now I predict Fleet coming and supporting Bush saying "He wasn't intentionally supposed to know" or "the information was supplied by the US Food Intelligence Agency"

We'll have to wait and see...

[Cotterik]

gah!!!!

[Matra et Alpine]

I've ahd a tree-hugger go over the US GM modified maize years back.

The issue is that one of the gene segments is KNOWN to create antibiotic resistance.

SO, IF it trasnfers to the human or animal genomes thorugh ingestion, then we're SCREWED.

Got an infected cut - how abtou you DIE as antibiotics won't work.
IF this gets out of control seemingly the risks are massive and WHAY it was banned in Europe and the tree-huggers dont' want to see any trials in the UK

[QuattroMan]

Did the Europeans ever liked any of our presidents...it allll!!! please! stop nagging,,,now I know how the Romance felt 2000 years ago...lol....

[MRR]

Originally Posted by QUATTRO MAN

Did the Europeans ever liked any of our presidents...it allll!!! please! stop nagging,,,now I know how the Romance felt 2000 years ago...lol....

If the president is not a slave to Europe's demands that is!!!

[Pando]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

I've ahd a tree-hugger go over the US GM modified maize years back.

The issue is that one of the gene segments is KNOWN to create antibiotic resistance.

SO, IF it trasnfers to the human or animal genomes thorugh ingestion, then we're SCREWED.

Got an infected cut - how abtou you DIE as antibiotics won't work.
IF this gets out of control seemingly the risks are massive and WHAY it was banned in Europe and the tree-huggers dont' want to see any trials in the UK

I hadn't heard that it's proven about the antibiotic resistance, if it's true then it's another case, but othervice I think people have a twisted view on gm-food in general. Like everytime you hear concerns the manipulated genes would spread to the enviroment and mutate just about everything... But it sucks that they didn't tell it was GM-food.

[Pando]

Originally Posted by QUATTRO MAN

Did the Europeans ever liked any of our presidents...it allll!!! please! stop nagging,,,now I know how the Romance felt 2000 years ago...lol....

naah, we just get precausios with presidents who have problems finding europe on a world map.

[Egg Nog]

Originally Posted by MRR

If the president is not a slave to Europe's demands that is!!!

Importing a banned substance - of course it was illegal.

If France shipped a bunch of heroin to New York, would that be illegal? Yes. Why be so one-sided?

[Matra et Alpine]

Originally Posted by Pando

I hadn't heard that it's proven about the antibiotic resistance, if it's true then it's another case, but othervice I think people have a twisted view on gm-food in general.

In the discussion with the tree-hugger it was AGREED that it wasn't proven.
BUT as they pointed out IF we screw it up and end up with resistance into the HUMAN GENOME then as a species were dead I had to concur on that point !

What I hadn't realised either was that the US are about 30% LESS efficient than Europe in maize and grain production and instead of using GM to get yield up ( only by abotu 10% !! ) they'd be better adopting alternative farming methods !!!!

But I view the GM risk a bit like pregnancy !!
IF it happens there is not half way house, you're completely 'screwed'

Like everytime you hear concerns the manipulated genes would spread to the enviroment and mutate just about everything... But it sucks that they didn't tell it was GM-food.

Q: Should people not wanting kids or diseases wear condoms ?
Its a slim risk fo the former adn slimmer risk of the latter and yet they're worn.
You can only be 100% pregnant.
Consider GM risks with THAT mindset and it makes the choice a little easier

[Coventrysucks]

Originally Posted by QUATTRO MAN

Did the Europeans ever liked any of our presidents...it allll!!! please! stop nagging,,,now I know how the Romance felt 2000 years ago...lol....

Well shipping us rather suspect maize for 4 years then trying to cover it up and act like nothing happened isn't especially endereing.

Also ordering large parts of our capital cities shut down on the one occasion he decides to visit our countries is somewhat offensive.

Etc, etc...