GM foods and the EU.

[Bereta_Eder]

They aren't fooling us!

I got some nice kaseri cheese pancakes and what do the ingredients say? "altered patato flower"

(I like how they used the word tropopoiimeno instead of genetically modified)

Didn't the EU simply refused to allow "frankenstein" food inside its borders?

The US been pressing to not allow the inscription of (genetically) modified food on the products ingridients.

This is actually happening in the US AFAIK. People do not know if what they're buying has genetically altered ingredients or not.

The EU rejected the US demand and said that the consumers have the right to be informed. But it also said the GM foods will not enter the EU? Or did it not?

What's going on with my kasseri cheese pancakes?

they tasted strange....

[Proteus_MST]

I don´t think so.

AFAIK the EU just wanted to have genetically altered food mandatory marked in the List of ingredients and won.

There was no intention to top the import of all GM Food into the EU (although it may be that some EU countries tried to individually stop Import of GM Food into their Territories).

[DanS]

This is actually happening in the US AFAIK. People do not know if what they're buying has genetically altered ingredients or not.

Who cares? There's no scientific evidence that I know of that suggests that GMO food is harmful for human consumption.

Now, if you Euros want to rely on superstition, then that's fine with me.

[Bereta_Eder]

I didn't ask you who cares, DanS. I stated that there is no consumer information/protection in the US in this respect. And it looks like I was right.
It's called treating consumers as mature persons and not deciding for them

[DanS]

I stated that there is no consumer information in the US in this respect. And it looks like I was right.

And there's no consumer information in Europe about whether or not the product uses hybrids either. What's your point?

[The Templar]

Re: GM foods and the EU.

Originally posted by paiktis22
The EU rejected the US demand and said that the consumers have the right to be informed. But it also said the GM foods will not enter the EU? Or did it not?

So much for allowing the customer to express his or her preferences in the marketplace, right? I thought an informed customer was considered a good thing (except by big bizness).

In the US, Monsanto is suing a small dairy in Maine. Why? Because the dairy labels its milk free of artificial hormones. Which it is. But Monsanto is losing money on its artificial hormone business because for some odd reason, consumers prefer their milk artificial hormone-free. Monsanto is arguing that such a label is misleading because - get this - it might convince people that there is something wrong with artificial hormones. Nevermind the fact that the label is true or anything. (And of course, Monsanto has the money to litigate into eternity where the dairy will feel the pinch soon.)

Monsanto is lucky I'm not the judge on that case. The rule 11 sanctions I'd impose would send them into chapter 11.

Anyway, it just goes to show that big bizness isn't satisfied with just not labeling their products with a "contains" label - they don't want the competiton labeling competing products with a "does not contain" label.

Excuse me while I pull this giant corporate **** out of my rectum.

[Japher]

paiktis; the problem with this is that almost all food you eat now, or at least what is produced in the US, is in some form or another already genetically altered through breeding, hormones, or other additives. The FDA is looking into this and requires any producers of such foods to notify the FDA if they do so.

What does it matter if the chicken is altered or not? It is still a chicken.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by DanS


Who cares? There's no scientific evidence that I know of that suggests that GMO food is harmful for human consumption.

You sound like Phillip Morris saying there is no proven causal link between smoking and lung cancer. Let the food be labeled and the consumer decide. That is the point of the market, right? Letting people maximize their own values - even if those values are guided by superstition.

You want to destroy capitalism, you criminal!

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Japher
What does it matter if the chicken is altered or not? It is still a chicken.

Depends how much alteration went on.

[Bereta_Eder]

Japher, what I eat now, if it genetically modified, it would say so. And it is the only time I came across an altered ingredient.

As to why I'd like to know, I guess it has to do with taking my own decisions based on what I know and read about what I insert in my organism. (like cigs and tar )


Templar, yes I know all that and the "arguments" of not including the description of modified on a product. I am pleased that this is allowed in the EU.

[Japher]

heck, they only just set labeling guidelines for the term "organic"... it will be sometime before they have labeling guidlines for the term "treated" or "altered". Since they have define it's difference between "processed" and "natural"... By flagrantly setting these definitions you could actually end up hurting the consumer more than helping by causing companies that are "natural" to register their product as "altered" all because a slip up in the wording or the lack of forsight in the defining.

[DanS]

You sound like Phillip Morris saying there is no proven causal link between smoking and lung cancer.

The problem with that analogy is that Philip Morris generated data in the 50s showing this causal link. Further, it didn't have to submit this data to the relevant authorities. Lastly, the industry sought to keep any scientific information about this link out of the public eye. Indeed, the tobacco industry did most of its business under cover of attorney-client privilege in order to attempt to shield itself from litigation and regulation.

None of these aspects are what is happening with GM foods.

[Japher]

my problem with requiring GM foods to contain such a lable is that there have not been any studies that have shown that it is worse or different than any of the normal products made, while there are studies showing the contrary. If one were to lable the GM food as GM food the uneducated target would assume it is worse or different than the normal product. This would hurt the manufacturer, who the FDA is suppose to protect, as well as the consumer. The who reason for GM food is to help feed the growing population, yet if you require this labeling without need than you are denying the public of it's need nutrients...

Yes, it would be nice to know what it is I am eating or buying. Yet I don't know this when I go to a restaurant, not many people even bother to ask. With the ignorant scare for genetics that is going on someone would be dumb to actually advertise this let alone have a restaurant that lists all the ingredients they use in their food for the consumer to decide if they want it.

I think my "what is this" thread proved that not only the average consumer but us here at poly are rather ignorant to ingredients of consumable products that we use everyday, and electing things as GM is just one more thing to think shouldn't be in our food when it hasn't been proven to hurt. Like glycerin in a lot of things we use; the word people associate with explosives and not a food.

[The Andy-Man]

geneticly modified food is bassicly doing to food in a few months what farmers usually have to pend centuries doing.

All food is geneticly modified, a farmer will breed to biggest carrots, and ditch the small ones, GM just means this process is ALOT quicker.


the EU is just a load of greedy farmers to scared to fight over seas competition, europe has been like that since the 1870's.

[Dinner]

They are "like kind items" meaning if it looks like a carrot, smells like a carrot, and tastes like a carrot, then it probably is a carrot. Every single scientific test in the last 15 years has given GM foods a clean bill of health but Euro Politicians have been tripping over themselves in their attempts to ban GM foods. Why? The anwser is protectionism.

I've looked at this subject in every way I can think of and protectionism is the only anwser which holds water.