Uncategorized (page 53)

U.S. activists opposed to genetically engineered (GE) food are taking the battle to state legislatures. Bills have been introduced in 13 states, ranging from fear-prompting labeling requirements to multi-year moratoriums on cultivation. State-level battles are brewing in California, New York, Hawaii, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Vermont, Michigan, Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia, among others.

Mexico’s Senate voted unanimously yesterday to require mandatory labeling of foods, including American imports, that contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. And to the north, a national coalition of health food…

D.C. bound anarchist groups planning protests from April 8 thru 17, including those opposing conventionally grown and genetically engineered food, have issued a threatening letter to Washington law enforcement. "We can not accept the active participation of cops…while our main goal is shut down the IMF/World Bank meeting, it is quite predictable that the cops will aggressively attack those actions."

In a recent e-mail, Friends of the Earth - UK calls on supporters to begin local referendum drives in support of local bans on genetically engineered food. The nanny group encourages members to buy only organic food free from "antibiotics, pesticide residues, genetic modification, hormones, and pathogens such as e-coli and salmonella," because such food protects "human health." BBC apparently didn't pick up ABC's recent 20/20 broadcast, which deftly defused the organic myth.

Nanny nonsense abounds in this article from Penn State's Daily Collegian. The author wholeheartedly endorses Neal D. Barnard, president of the radical animal-rights group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and repeats Barnard's ridiculous claim that milk drinkers are "at higher risk for osteoporosis than those who drink little or no milk."

While protestors pointlessly parade around dressed as mutant creatures and macabre vegetables in Boston this week, nannies are warning that protests in Washington, D.C. during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in April might not be so entertaining. One nanny journalist writes, "With police loading their tear gas launchers and activists honing their direct action skills, Washington seems destined for a round of demonstrations that may rival the Seattle protests in their intensity."

The Hudson Institute's Dennis Avery blasts the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and its recent campaigns against milk. "It would be nice if the animal rights groups spent more of their time ensuring that our farm animals and pets are well treated, and less time endangering our young people with dietary misinformation," says Avery. ("Got people for the ethical treatment of people?," The Washington Times, 3/26/00.)

Greenpeace, the Science and Environmental Health Network, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Consumers’ Union, and most of the usual nanny suspects are renewing their call for world…

Greenpeace is boxing-in Tony the Tiger again. Five trespassing demonstrators unfurled a banner at Kellogg’s Cereal City Theme Park in Battle Creek saying, “Stop Feeding FrankenFood to America’s Kids.”…

Terrorists from the Upper Midwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering (GrainRAGE) are taking responsibility for blocking the entrance to Cargill's headquarters for several hours on Tuesday. Protestors at the scene baselessly blamed the agribusiness company for all sorts of supposed agricultural woes. GrainRAGE describes itself as a group of people "who promote small scale organic agriculture and self-sufficiency by attacking corporate agribusiness and all forms of biotechnology."