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The Battle over GM Foods
Arthur Stamoulis
 For
four years, the European Union has banned most forms of genetically-modified
(GM) foods from being sold their federation. It's a policy Washington
says is costing US agricultural interests hundreds of millions of
dollars.
GM foods are crops grown from parent plants that were genetically
manipulated by scientists to produce traits that would not otherwise
by found in nature — typically greater resistance to pesticides.
Worldwide, 62 percent of soybeans and 21 percent of corn are GM crops.
The US is one of the world's largest producer of GM foods.
The European Union and many other governments have placed moratoriums
on the sale of GM foods, amid concerns about health and environmental
safety. Although US consumers typically eat GM foods at every meal,
EU officials charge that GM foods have not ultimately been proven
safe to eat. Environmentalists throughout the world also charge that
GM crops pose a risk of contaminating wild varieties, and that planting
row-after-row and field-after-field of genetically-identical crops
leaves the planet's food supplies vulnerable to disease.
Despite massive evidence that at least the environmental concerns
are valid, the US government claims these fears are unfounded. It
argues that free trade agreements should supersede any concerns the
EU has over importing GM crops. The global market for GM foods was
around $4.25 billion last year, and the federal government wants the
market to expand.
Part of Washington's strategy to get the EU to open its doors to GM
foods is by threatening action at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The WTO is an international body designed to negotiate trade agreements
and make final decisions during trade disputes. It has the right to
demand nations must overturn their own laws, or face serious trade
sanctions until those nations do so.
 This issue has caused
serious contention in Europe and is a common front-page story in the
European news media. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and European
Development Commissioner Poul Nielson are common characters in these
stories.
Recently, Zoellick has charged that some European nations have threatened
to withdraw international aid from developing nations that agree to
import GM foods — something the EU claims is a flat-out lie.
In attempt to slow the media circus focused all this mud slinging,
Nielson has gone so far as to offer, "If the Americans would stop
lying about us, we would stop telling the truth about them."
While this battle of personalities, wit and innuendo takes place,
the right of European citizens to decide which environmental and health
policies they will and will not implement takes a back seat.
Recent news from Canada suggests that these type of debates may grow
in the coming months and years. Sperm samples are already being collected
from the Canada's first cloned bull, Starbuck 2. Starbuck 2 is genetically
identical to the world's most widely bred bull, which died in 1998.
Farmers are lining up for a chance to breed their cows with Starbuck
2, but a lack of clear regulations as to cloned livestock leave those
plans on hold. Semex Alliance, the creators and owners of Starbuck
2, argue that cloned food is much safer than GM food because straight-forward
cloning does not use genetic patterns that aren't otherwise found
in nature.
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