EU Says: Don't Laugh at Me--Don't Call Me Names

The EU is responding to criticism of their stance on genetically modified (GM) foods and the effect that their policies are having on developing nations by saying, "Nuh uh."

"The suggestions made by the United States are simply not true," European Commission (news - web sites) spokesman Gerassimos Thomas told a daily news briefing..."

And if that didn't clear it up for you, maybe this will take care of the problem.

"It is false that we are anti-biotechnology or anti-developing countries," Thomas said."

Well, it's good to have that cleared up. Although, maybe, just maybe, it doesn't really answer criticisms from one of the founders of Greenpeace.

In the United States, up to 70 percent of prepared foods contain genetically modified ingredients. Not only will the EU not accept them, but their ban has effectively forced starving nations to reject food aid, of which the United States provides 50 percent of the world's stocks.

Last year, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, two African nations experiencing ongoing famine, turned down thousands of tons of desperately needed foods, in part because of Europe's ban, in part because of an international propaganda campaign.

"They basically are saying it is better a million people starve to death than eat perfectly nutritious genetically modified food from the U.S. where people have been eating it for 10 years without negative effect," said Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore. Moore has since broken with Greenpeace.

Don't worry, though, Mr. Thomas. We here in the US understand that the EU will never let pesky facts and evidence stand in the way of bad policy. We'll try to keep the EU-mocking to a reasonable level.

Read the Yahoo story.
Read the Fox News story.

Posted by zombyboy at June 24, 2003 10:00 AM | TrackBack