> I have been reading the GMO/European thread with interest for a while. I
> have wondered: Did/do the Europeans have a somewhat easier time showing
> Monsanto etc. the door because they are a foreign company, not one of the
> good old Euopean boys you might say. The American public has it a bit more
> difficult because Monsanto is one of the good old US business boys. And
> getting GMO labeled will meet alot of resistance from the powers that be.
> Also wondering it appears that Europe is going to be GMO free, does that not
> mean that Monsanto etc. will fight even harder to get Americans to eat it?
> Of course if the farmers and grain elevators find separation more difficult
> , some for Europe, different for US, they might just give up and go back to
> regular seeds. That actually is another question are these GMO seeds really
> easier to grow? Thank-you saneters for your info. Beth
>
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I think that in part you are right--the fact that Monsanto is one
of our "Good Old Boys" DOES make it more difficult for us to reject thier
products. On the other hand, I think that the major problem is the
American consumer's refusal to be involved in their food supply. In
Europe, the remnants of a sustainable local system are still
visible. Just last year, visiting family in Britain I was struck that
evidence of a food's origin is not hidden in celophane to the same extent.
For example, in a chain supermarket I found a display of potatoes buried
in peat moss--a far superior method to leaving them out in the light, and
also a reminder of the fact that they came out of the soil. How many
average American consumers would buy these "dirty" potatoes? And walking
through the streets I was common to see a side of beef, a whole pig,
poultry with heads intact, blood pudding--things that Americans don't
want to know about their food. For us there is some kind of perverse
idea that non-biodegradeable packaging and UDSA labels make food clean,
whereas appopriate storage of vegetables and recent slaughter of meats
make them dirty.
I don't have any "answers" to our problems, except to accknowledge
that a re-education of consumers is inexorably slow. But hey--what
are we doing here if not re-educating?
Gwyneth
Burlington, VT
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