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BREAKING: USDA’s Approves GMO Alfalfa

Posted by on January 28, 2011

In a HUGE (sorry, let me be more clear … HUGE!) setback for the organic foods movement, the Obama administration has caved to agribusiness, with a 180-degrees turn-around by approving the unrestricted use of genetically modified alfalfa (to be immune to Monsanto’s Round-Up herbicide).

Being on the road as a citizen diplomat (i.e. An American traveling in a world that, generally speaking, isn’t all that fond of Americans), I’ve had dozens of conversations in which I’ve berated the American public (to my international friends) for turning against Democrats so quickly in the 2010 mid-term elections, and staunchly supported Obama’s administration.

But WHY does Obama have to keep making it harder to defend him??

For a short, detailed and very readable commentary on the GMO debacle, see Tom Philpott’s Grist.org article.

Back in 1999, my ah-ha moment (that led to starting StrausCom) was the realization that the organic / sustainable community needed to combat the vast corporate-funded, industrial-ag lobbying campaigns.

That’s when I started a small-but-effective free resource center for journalists, to help tell our side of the story. We landed major news coverage for sustainable food issues – from TIME magazine’s coverage of GMO contamination of organic cattle feeds; to USA Today’s cover story on Mad Cow; to CBS Evening New’s feature on grass fed beef.

Maybe it’s time to relaunch that initiative … especially in light of Food & Water Watch report (November 2010): Food and Agriculture Biotechnology Industry Spends More Than Half A Billion to Influence Congress (click here for free download of the report).

I, for one, am not willing to watch quietly as decades of work are throttled by corporate greed.

Anyone wanna discuss options?

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  • http://israeltomorrow.blogspot.com Ami

    From a small country in a middle of a region that has been in difficulty for a long time, the American organic movement seem a little cruel. In Egypt they are protesting for food, clothes and housing while Americans are worried about the DNA of Alfalfa. At least it is short sighted, at most it is cruel and downright sick. It is true that big companies are spending billions to bring patented crops in order to profit. It is also true that it is hard to predict what will happen overall to the ecosystems once these new crops take hold and are being used in large scale. But the use of new technology and it’s impact around the globe has to be balanced with the need for hardier crops around the globe.
    Michael, what you are seeing from American perspective should have somehow seeped it’s way into your organic view. While your mother has pointed out what happen in the US with overuse of pesticides (and consequentially GMO), in the places where you are visiting now, this issue is not going to be an issue for decades. Maybe not even then. Americans have enjoyed bounty of food due to a combination of circumstances, technology and most of all plenty of resources (land, water, chemicals, people…) But this is not the case at all in Asia and Africa and even South America. There is probably no one single solution here that will work for everyone globally. But it would be nice to hear a little of what “my international friends” have to say about these issues. Is telling a Burmese farmer not to use a GMO crop that may stand to pests or weather better than the organic variety a moral stand? Especially for an American who sees the big world and consequences of a big gap in economic, agricultural and cultural perspectives.
    Michael, here is your opportunity to see the world and bridge the gap between the American perspective and the global one. Good luck with it!

    • Michael Straus

      Ami,

      Interesting points, but I think we need to separate them:

      GMOs: The debate about, and opposition to, GMO crops is international, not limited to the U.S. In fact, here in India – a country in which the Green Revolution provided short-term successes couple with disastrous long-term consequences – the government and a HUGE farmers movement has been firmly opposed to the introduction of GMOs.

      What I’ve heard, however, is that a new agreement between the U.S. and India – in which India would be recognized as a nuclear power – the U.S. required a concession that would remove India’s opposition to GMOs.

      WikiLeaks is apparently slated to reveal confirmation of this specifically, and already, in December 2010, released a memo in which the U.S. ambassador to France suggests “moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voice.”

      The Monsanto’s of the world have relentlessly been attempting to frame the GMO issue as one of resolving world hunger, but I think it’s pretty clear that greed is a much stronger motivation. For proof of that, we need only look to one the most notorious GMO inventions – Terminator seed – a seed that becomes sterile after a single planting. In the brave new world in which seed is now controlled by a mere handful of large corporations (a radical change from past farming practices), and in which GMO crops are poorly monitored, controlled and contaminate non-GMO crops regularly, farmers around the world are worried.

      As for farmers in Burma, I was just going through my notes, and GMOs are the least of their problems. The totalitarian, military dictatorship there mandates rice production at any cost, limiting varieties, mandating huge yields (unless they’re met, the farmer’s land is confiscated), and effectively forcing the use of chemical fertilizers, etc.

      Many of my discussions here in India have been centered around the feeling that the U.S. wants to impose global climate change protections that will limit India’s growth. On the other side, it can be argued that the U.S. and the west have made HUGE mistakes over the decades and that developing nations should learn from our foolishness.

      GMOs, I believe, fall into the same category.

      Despite working in this movement for nearly 20 years, it took me traveling to Burma, Nepal, India and beyond to really begin understanding just how really, REALLY screwed up our food system is … and while the organic movement has HUGE flaws (and egos and tunnel vision, etc), it’s still one of the bastions of hope for reforming the broader system.