GMO's and international environmental law

Kevin Robert Dean qualiall_2 at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 2 07:19:45 PDT 2002


A few simple questions this raises:

Is there really a "food shortage" in the world? I was always under the impression that there was still an overproduction 'problem' in most of the developed world and that the real problem with food shortages isn't the lack of food but the distribution of it.

Of course this raises another question about other 'third world' countries having to rely on developed nations to supply food---usually with stipulations which effect the soverignity of those less developed states.

An interesting article about Zimbabwe was in New Scientist the other day: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992618

About how the government is rejecting food aid from the US because it is GM. While I don't accept the reasoning behind Zimbabwe's rejection (and I am still on the fence on this whole GM stuff), it does raise a few interesting things:

1. If Zimbabwe did accept GM crops, would they not always be dependent on them? Wouldn't this create a sort of monopoly for the GM companies?

2. More simply, even if there is a food crisis in Zimbabwe (and with Mugabe fucking everything up there's no doubt) it seems that USAID is trying to force a bitter pill down the people--On one hand, they don't want GM in their country, but at the same time they don't really have a choice (this is why I am always skeptical about the real reason for states giving aid to other states being one of altruism). If the Zimbabwean gov't rejects aid, the international community could say "Look at this evil government, not feeding its people!" If they take it, they are slaves to GM companies and to any stipulations given to the gov't in order to receive more aid in the future...

--- Ian Murray <seamus2001 at attbi.com> wrote:
> Sustainable Agriculture: Do GMOs Imperil Biosafety?
> Lakshman D. Guruswamy*
>
> Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies
> 9 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 461
>
>
http://ijgls.indiana.edu/archive/09/02/guruswamy.shtml
>

===== Kevin Dean Buffalo, NY ICQ: 8616001 AIM: KDean75206 Buffalo Activist Network http://www.buffaloactivist.net http://www.yaysoft.com

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