Campanha do baby Bush a favor dos transgênicos preocupa europeus

O Guardian traz um artigo do escritor e ambientalista, Jeremy Rifkin, rebate os argumentos da campanha do governo Bush para liberar os transgênicos na Europa. O autor do livro "The Biotech Century" explica, por exemplo, que 80% das crianças que passam fome no mundo vive em países onde sobra comida. Além disso, 21% dos produtos colhidos em países em desenvolvimento são destinados para consumo animal que são comidos pelos ricos do primeiro mundo.

The White House has made a bad situation worse by suggesting that European opposition to GM food is tantamount to imposing a death sentence on millions of starving people in the third world. Denying poor farmers in developing countries a European market for GM food, says the White House, gives them no choice but to grow non-GM food and lose the commercial advantages that go hand-in-hand with GM food crops. President Bush's remarks on the many benefits of GM food appear more like a public relations release than a reasoned political argument.

Second, President Bush talks about the cost savings of planting GM food crops. What he conveniently ignores is that GM seeds are more expensive than conventional seeds and, because they are patented, farmers cannot save the new seeds for planting during the next growing season because those seeds belong to the biotech companies. By exercising intellectual property control over the genetic traits of the world's major food crops, companies such as Monsanto stand to make huge profits while the world's poorest farmers become increasingly marginalised.