Canada and GMO… a love match

On May 7^th 2008, the Harper government denied once again a bill (C-517) that would support mandatory labelling of genetically engineered food. Defeated 156 against 101 in the House of Commons, the conservatives are once again blamed for protecting Monsanto (leader in the GMO industry) instead of the well-being of Canadians.

For those of you who don’t know, Monsanto used to give in the pesticides and other chemicals before moving onto GMOs. That multi-national is now the leader of the industry with 90% of all the GMOs being produced there. Obviously, the company is protected by  the conservatives and liberals, to no surprise.

As defined in the bill: “ “genetically modified”, with respect to a food or one of its components, means that the genetic make-up of the food or component has been modified by a technique that combines DNA fragments of the food or component with DNA fragments from another source in a way that could not occur without the use of modern technology. “

It is to be noted that ONLY between 80% and 90% of Canadians in recent studies, have voiced concerns about GE food and wanted to see clear identification of the GMO products. Proof once again that representative democracy doesn’t work well in order to defend even the interests of the population’s majority.

Most people don’t trust GE food, and if they knew how many products are being manipulated partly or in their totality, it’s obvious that it would hurt the GMO industries along with the farmer who decided to go for those seeds. Yet they prefer to let the population unaware of what they are eating, rather than let us choose.

What I find funny here is that we still follow the United States in their process. While there’s about 40 countries that have forced the labelling of GMO products, Canada and the U.S. remain the only ones in the Western culture to still sit behind on that. Also interesting to note that in other countries such as France, Hungary, Germany, etc… the debate is either done or going, about the use of GMO in crop within the countries and importation of products GE banned.

The debate is now lying in the hands of provincial governments. They are the only ones able to respect the will of the citizens and force the labelling. The government of Quebec under Prim Minister Charest has been promising that since 2003 and obviously, nothing has been done still. We are the retarded children of the industrial world when it comes to this, when will we wake up?

- Sabbi