Source: Greenpeace International, Dec 8, 2009
Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]‘(1). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.
$2 million US dollar verdict against Bayer confirms company’s liability for an uncontrollable technology
Greenpeace welcomes the United States federal jury ruling on 4 December 2009 that Bayer CropScience LP must pay $2 million US dollars to two Missouri farmers after their rice crop was contaminated with an experimental variety of rice that the company was testing in 2006.
This verdict confirms that the responsibility for the consequences of GE (genetic engineering) contamination rests with the company that releases GE crops.
Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]‘ (see 1 below). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.
A report prepared for Greenpeace International concluded that the total costs incurred throughout the world as a result of the contamination are estimated to range from $741 million to $1.285 billion US dollars (see 2 below). The verdict indicates that Bayer is liable for what could turn out to be a large proportion of these costs, as it awards damages in the first two of more than 1,000 currently pending lawsuits. The decision must be used to support all claims for losses incurred by other US farmers whose crops have suffered from GE contamination.
(1) Bayers Defense lawyer, Mark Ferguson as reported in Harris, A. 2009. Bayer Blamed at Trial for Crops ‘Contaminated’ by Modified Rice. Bloomberg News 4th November 2009.
(2) E.N. Blue (2007) Risky Business. Economic and regulatory impacts from the unintended release of genetically engineered rice varieties into the rice merchandising system of the US. Report prepared for Greenpeace International.
Wow that is pretty crazy..I don’t even know what to really think about all of this. People think they are doing the right thing by eating healthy but yet with all these GE foods they are getting more than they bargained for..what to do…
Thanks for your comment Chris.
Consumers (me and you!) need to realize just how POWERFUL we are. We have to drive the change we want to see occur in our food supply.
I’m a typical guy born in the mid 1970s, raised on supermarket produce and freezer food. It was a big deal for me to break my conditioning, go through my cupboards and purge it of GM-ingredients, but we did it.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2501/3967794108_cb606a293c_b.jpg
We VOTE THREE TIMES A DAY for the people we want to provide us with our food.
If we choose to buy products from those companies who use genetically modified ingredients in spite of the fact that insufficient testing has been performed on humans, then we vote for this to continue.
In the absence of decent labeling that tells North American consumers that a product contains ingredients that are genetically modified, our only recourse is to buy products certified as organic, or using organic ingredients – as these cannot, by law, contain GMOs. (It should be noted that the GM lobby tried to fight against this but consumers won through! If it hadn’t been for 250,000 signatures we’d be in deep trouble as consumers would have no way of telling if foods contained GMOs or not in North America!)
Why does big biotech want to keep consumers in the dark about which products contain GM ingredients? At best it is patronizing and insulting to claim that proper labeling will worry consumers unduly. At worst it’s insidiously deceptive.
So right now, our saving grace is the organic certification and those food companies who have taken the non-GMO pledge. Huge respect and kudos needs to go out to these companies.
Start reading labels! I used to laugh at label-readers in supermarkets thinking they needed to get a life – now I realize reading labels might extend it!
Check out the non-GMO shopping guide online here: http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com
It’s quite simple. Stop eating GM food and it will stop being produced.
If anybody has any questions about how to get GM out of their diet I will gladly help all I can.
Peace out,
Everest