BvG>Novartis urges U.S. caution on GMO sales
BvG>WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - A top executive of Swiss life
BvG>sciences giant Novartis AG warned on Monday that attempts by
BvG>the United States to force European borders open to genetically
BvG>modified food products were doomed to failure because of
BvG>European public resistance. Some agricultural analysts have
BvG>predicted a trade fight between the United States, which
BvG>wants to sell genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and
BvG>European countries that are resisting the products because of
BvG>fears about their safety.
now that's funny. half a year ago polls showed, that more than half
of the swiss people were against gm-food (and as swiss people are
known to be conservative to the backbone, they also were against
biotechnology in general in their alp country) and that they
wanted biotechnology to be banned and research to be forbidden in
their country. so there would be one of these famous swiss votes,
where even the last "cowboy" living in the highest mountains would
find his way down to the valley. you can't imagine the
outcry of the industry and the researchers, that noone is allowed
to forbid them to do any research they want to do. in short: they
behaved, as if they never heard of democratic principles. and it
was the same company as mentioned above in the article, that paid
millions for public relation campaigns and tried to convince the
swiss people by arguments like: "do you know that more than 2% of
the working people work in swiss "life science" companies.?" (the
government also took heavily on the companies side in parlament
debates.. and that industrial states like the swiss and their
people cannot accept, that they are run over with products from
countries, where research on gentechnology is allowed to run more
freely and where is more acceptance for it...)
...which including the whole family would add up to about 6% being
dependant of these jobs (not directly said, but in fine
insinuations). the vote ended with a miminal plus for the
yes- sayers.
and now they have the impertinance to tell america, that they might
fail in trying to push gm-products on european markets ????? let me
ask them: where do they think to sell their research results, which
might not be accepted in their own country ??
btw: 2 days ago i visited on rafi's homepage (www.rafi.org) and
downloaded their papers "the gene giants" and "terminator
technology" just to learn, that ALL the lifescience
companies meanwhile have their own patents of "terminators".
and more interesting: monsanto/d&p was neither the first to
patent such a technology, nor are they the company with the most
patents on it (that's another swiss-based company). in THIS
case they (unjustly) simply have become the scapegoats for the
other "mergers of equal" (which in fact almost none of these merges
is, mostly one company is bought by another with more stocks.
but as being bought does not sound so nice as mergers of equal,
they invented that orwellian "newsspeak".
Klaus Wiegand
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