Pathetic Attempt to Garner Sympathy for GMO Farmers Falls Flat

Barbara H. Peterson

Farm Wars

Recently the DesMoines Register published an article titled ‘Opposition to biotech crops slowing government approval, hurting farmers’ in which the author stated:

The opposition to biotech crops is slowing the approval by U.S. regulators of new genetically modified products that is hurting farmers, an official with a trade group representing seed manufacturers said Sunday.

Cathleen Enright, an executive vice president of the food and agriculture with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, told farmers the growing number of groups working to “create fear and malign” our companies, coupled with more state ballot initiatives seeking to require mandatory labeling, have been noticed by states, regulators and political leaders.

“This impact is hitting close to home for American agriculture,” Enright told a supportive audience at the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in San Antonio.

Increasingly, it is taking longer for regulators to approve new biotech seeds made by Johnston-based DuPont Pioneer, Monsanto and Syngenta, among other companies. The United States, Enright said, has changed from being the fastest in terms of approval nearly 20 years ago to one of the slowest among major producing countries.

“What that means is access to biotech seeds by U.S. farmers is falling behind,” she said.

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2014/01/12/opposition-to-biotech-crops-slowing-government-approval-hurting-farmers

My response to this pathetic attempt at twisting the truth to garner sympathy for the GMO sector is this:

Refusal of consumers to put up with poisons is hurting the poor GMO farmers? The approval process for new genetically engineered (GMO) seeds is taking too long? Seriously? How about for once considering the death and destruction your GMO farming practices are causing for the people trying to live near your fields who reap the ‘benefits’ of your pesticide spraying whether they want to or not? What about the pesticide-soaked crops that you grow that unwitting consumers and animals eat every day, causing untold health impacts that go unreported as to the cause because there is no accountability? What about the transgenes that escape your fields and pollute your neighbors’ organic crops, forever damaging and outright destroying their livelihoods? What about the damage caused to the environment that you so blithely cause? What about the health impacts that independent scientists have exposed, caused by genetically engineered foods, that the biotech industry conveniently sweeps under the carpet in its quest for total food domination?

You will get no sympathy from me. As far as I am concerned, all GMO farmers can eat, breathe, bathe in, and otherwise immerse themselves in GMOs and Glyphosate and leave the rest of us alone. We do not choose to be poisoned by your transgenes and pesticide sprays no matter how much you tell us we need them. That is your choice, not ours. Poison yourselves if you want to. Problem solved. We will replace you with farmers who care about us and the environment and we will grow our own, cutting you out of the picture entirely. That is, if you survive your own poisons.

©2014 Barbara H. Peterson

Tags: Barbara H. Peterson, biotechnology, false claims, Farm Wars, farmwars, feeding the world, food supply, genetic engineering, glyphosate, GMO, monsanto, pesticides