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The US is threatening nations that want to ban Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds with trade sanctions. This includes some of our major Western trading partners, such as France, which has banned the planting of the aggressive GM Starlink variety of corn.

Wikileaks reveals that in 2007, the US ambassador to France (and business partner of President George W. Bush), Craig Stapleton, requested that the nations in the European Union that did not support GM crops should be penalized.
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Kraft Foods is the biggest U.S. food maker, with brands that include Oscar Mayer meats and Philadelphia cream cheese. The company has become the target of Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a Washington-based group which opposes the use of genetically engineered ingredients in commercial foods.

This group was responsible for the research that led to Kraft?s recall in 2000 of taco shells containing StarLink corn, which has been approved for animals but not humans. ?That was a clear instance of an ingredient that was not confirmed for use,? says Kraft spokesman Michael Mudd. ?Once we confirmed it was present in the product, we immediately recalled it.? Other companies also recalled products that contained the GM corn.
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Genetically-modified crops in Canada are creating new kinds of weeds, as herbicide-resistant oilseed rape crops cross-breed at the edge of fields. The weeds are accumulating extra genes and are rapidly becoming resistant to chemical sprays. This could lead to rogue GM weeds that are harder to control.

Canadian farmers are advised to leave a distance of 575 feet between different GM varieties but the guidelines are voluntary. But Dr. Brian Johnson of the conservation agency English Nature, says these guidelines may not be enough. ?The consequences for farmers could be that volunteer crops would be harder to control and they might have to use different, and more environmentally damaging, herbicides to control them,? he says.
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