RSS
Home
Vilsack earns moans, groans, hisses, and even boos
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
On Tuesday morning at the Community Food Security Coalition conference podium in Des Moines, Iowa, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touched on three major themes, as he described USDA's plans to improve school nutrition, support local food systems, and work with the Justice Department to review the impact of corporate agribusiness on small farmers.
With a packed house, and time for only one more question, author Jeffrey Smith stepped to the mic and received the loudest applause of the morning with this question on genetically modified (GM) foods.
"The American Academy of Environmental Medicine this year said that genetically modified foods (GMOs), according to animal studies, are causally linked to accelerated aging, dysfunctional immune regulation, organ damage, gastrointestinal distress, and immune system damage. A study came out by the Union of Concerned Scientists confirming what we all know, that genetically modified crops, on average, reduce yield. A USDA report from 2006 showed that farmers don't actually increase income from GMOs, but many actually lose income. And for the last several years, the United States has been forced to spend $3-$5 billion per year to prop up the prices of the GM crops no one wants.
" I'm wondering, have you ever heard this information? Where do you get your information about GMOs? And are you willing to take a delegation in D.C. to give you this hard evidence about how GMOs have actually failed us, that they've been put onto the market long before the science is ready, and it's time to put it back into the laboratory until they've done their homework."
Secretary Vilsack, who has a history of strongly favoring GMOs added , "I will tell you that the world is very concerned about the ever-increasing population of the globe and the capacity to be able to feed all of those people."
In response, moans, groans, hisses, even boos filled the room.
Among those present were authors of the most comprehensive report on world agriculture in history, The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. The report details methods for reaching the development and sustainability goals of reducing hunger and poverty, improving nutrition, health and rural livelihoods, and facilitating social and environmental sustainability. The report, a three-year collaborative effort with 900 participants and 110 countries, evaluated the last 50 years of agriculture, and was co-sponsored by all the majors, e.g. the World Bank, FAO, UNESCO, WHO.
GMOs were not one of those prescribed methods.
Vilsack responded to the crowd's rejection by distancing himself, "And well you all can disagree with this, but I am just telling you this. As I travel the world, I am just telling you what people are telling me. They are very concerned about this."
And that may in fact be his problem with understanding the serious health and environmental dangers of GMOs experts say, if he is simply, as he says, repeating what those who promote GMOs globally --Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont-- have told him over and over again.
Vilsack is now deeply immersed in the second of this week's food conferences for the World Food Prize, where he will hear from the major GMO promoters from around the world, including Bill Gates (who gives tens of millions to GMO development in Africa), and top executives from DuPont and Syngenta.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/vilsack-mistakenly-pitche_b_319998.html
NJ Jaeger also blogs for The Campaign for Healthier Eating in America
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
