Monsanto is far from giving up on GMOs, but in response to world-wide pressure the company decided to halt its efforts to commercialize Terminator seeds. The technology renders seeds sterile after one season and forces farmers to purchase seeds each year from Monsanto.
Although European resistance to genetically modified organisms in food is well-know, Asian governments and activists are confronting the issue even more aggressively. Kirin and Sapporo, the two largest Japanese breweries, no longer use GM grains, and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is investigating whether corn snacks sold there contain the organisms and may conduct random tests of all snack foods.
South Korea’s Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is deciding which items must be labeled by year end. In the Philippines, the government declared that if environmental disasters result from current field tests of GM corn the companies will face civil and criminal sanctions. Farmers can sue the companies if tests prove damaging to their farmlands.
Labeling may become easier now that a simple test – as simple as a home pregnancy test – can determine in minutes whether a product contains GMOs. Since GMOs have a different protein than naturally occurring plants, the test determines whether that protein is present. Designed by Strategic Diagnostics (Delaware), a testing strip turns a color if the answer is yes.
Loading...