permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Here's a short clip from SANET I thought you should know about.
Keith Johnson

Clinton leant on Blair to allow modified foods

The Independent - London    Sun, Sept 6, 1998

BILL CLINTON has personally intervened with Tony Blair to stop Britain
from
halting the controversial production of genetically engineered foods.

The US President telephoned the Prime Minister during the summer to try
to
persuade him that genetically modified (GM) crops - worth millions of
pounds to the US economy - would not be bad for Britain.

The two leaders also discussed the matter during Mr Clinton's visit to
Number 10 in May, Foreign Office officials have confirmed.

Sources close to the Government say that the US President is pressing
Blair
to support commercial production of GM crops in Britain despite growing
consumer opposition.

Consumer and environmental groups including English Nature, the
Government's official wildlife adviser, want the Government to introduce
a
moratorium on growing such crops commercially in the UK for at least
three
years.

France and Austria have temporarily banned the growth of GM food until
more
is known about its effects on the environment.

Clinton's intervention has outraged MPs and environmentalists. They
accuse
the US President of intruding in a sensitive domestic matter.

"It is quite wrong for the British Prime Minister to be conspiring
behind
the back of the British public about American business interests," said
Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat environment spokesman.

The Clinton administration has close links with [ Monsanto ] , the
powerful
biotechnology conglomerate which develops the seeds for GM crops.

Monsanto, which made a profit of almost $300m (pounds 177m) in 1997, is
one
of five companies spearheading Clinton's welfare to work programme, and
the
President singled out the biotech company for praise during his State of

the Nation address last year.

During the 1996 election, Monsanto was among those donating thousands of

dollars in "soft money" (legal funds which are not included in the ban
on
corporate donations) to the Clinton camp.

MPs say Clinton's move is resonant of Tony Blair's telephone
intervention
earlier this year on behalf of media baron Rupert Murdoch. The Prime
Minister sparked political outrage when he spoke to Italian premier
Romano
Prodi about Murdoch's bid to buy Mediaset, an Italian television
company.

The first commercial GM crop, oil seed rape, is set to be sown in
Britain
next year, following Government approval. Hundreds of acres of trial
crops
have already been planted throughout the UK.

(Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC)

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