By Clive Wakley. The news from earlier this week that the European Court of Justice has ordered that honey contaminated with genetically modified (GM) organisms has to be labeled as GM produce, has delivered the second blow within a month to the EU’s pro-GM lobby.
The European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, ruled on Tuesday that honey containing small amounts of pollen from GM corn has to be both labeled as containing GM material as well as having to undergo a full safety authorisation before it can be sold to consumers.
This follows the recent news that Poland’s agricultural minister, Marek Sawicki, is seeking to use Poland’s term of EU presidency as an opportunity to have the growing of GM crops and the importation of GM products, outlawed throughout the EU.
Environmentalists are hailing the somewhat surprise court decision as a “groundbreaking” ruling; although few believe that the decision will be allowed to stand.
The case arose from complaints from Bavarian beekeepers that their honey had been contaminated from pollen carried by bees from a nearby field – a licensed test site for the purposes of evaluating a GM corn (maize) developed by American biotech giant, Monsanto.
As there was no other credible source of contamination the court found in the beekeepers favour, leaving the legal road open for them to seek compensation from Monsanto through the German courts.
However, the decision has created something of a problem for Brussels.
As recently as July of this year the EU legislated to allow “traces” of GM material in animal feed – without even the precaution of a safety review; despite the only too obvious fact that following slaughter meat from the animals concerned would go on sale to the general public.
Now the court has ruled that GM contaminated honey has to be labeled and subjected to a safety check, it would be inconsistent, to say the least, to allow meat derived from animals fed on GM contaminated feed to enter the human food chain, without these very same basic precautions being taken.
The very last thing the international biotech corporations want is for foodstuffs containing their products, even traces of their products, to carry a consumer notice to that effect.
Consumer ignorance isn’t just bliss – it’s also profit.
Furthermore, as the Wikileaks disclosures have established, lobbyists – including American diplomats – are working both covertly and overtly to “persuade” European politicians to “liberalise” EU policy so as to permit the wide scale growing of (primarily American) GM crops within the EU.
Apparently the diplomatic motivation is about GM being a possible solution to world hunger (not about corporate profit), in the same way as the “liberation” of Libya is about human rights (not about that country’s extensive oil and gas fields).
A food campaigner for Friends of the Earth Europe has commented that the ruling “would confirm that existing laws allowing traces of unauthorised GM contamination are insufficient and would need revising.”
Meanwhile a French politician and former farmer known for his strident anti GM views, has added that the only protection farmers can have from the menace of GM is for a complete ban on them throughout Europe.
This is not rocket science, just commonsense.
As the case of the Bavarian beekeepers have shown, producers are powerless to prevent the contamination of their produce by GM pollen or seeds, both carried by many means including bees and wind.
The American experience has demonstrated beyond doubt that even across the wide expanses of the prairies that it is simply impossible to prevent the contamination of conventional crops by GM crops, even though the latter may be grown miles distant.
It is absolute nonsense to believe it is possible to prevent GM contamination within the confines of Europe.
The big problem for the multinational biotech corporations, in that respect – as the Bavarian case will illustrate – is that the courts will hold the polluter culpable in law for GM contamination; leaving the door wide open to aggrieved farmers to seek compensation for damages and loss.
Should the EU permit the commercial growing of GM crops then no grower in his (or her) right mind would entertain planting such a crop being only too aware of the legal jeopardy they would be exposing themselves to.
Consequently there can be little doubt that indirect pressure, from the usual boardroom suspects, will be brought to bear on the legislators in due course; requiring the scrapping of all laws that equate GM contamination with pollution, having compensation as the remedy.
Interestingly the Monsanto manufactured maize (corn) in question is one that produces an insecticide that occurs in the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (BT).
Regular visitors to this site may recognise this product as being the same as that claimed responsible in the United States for the emergence of what has been described as a “super bug” – a destructive corn pest that has developed a resistance to the very poison that once destroyed it.
In response to the court ruling, the European commission has stated that it intends to discuss the issue of GMOs and honey with EU member states during the course of the month.
Meanwhile the EU’s consumer protection spokesman has entered the fray with an all too predictable: “The honey is not dangerous. There is no health risk from honey in the EU.”
And even more predictably:-
“It’s an important ruling from the court. I can’t say at this point whether we need to change any laws.”
One can almost see the strings twitching as animated EU puppets dance to the tune of corporate “democracy”.
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