WTO TO EUROPEANS: EAT YOUR FRANKENFOODS
The World Trade Organization (WTO), responding to intense pressure from the Bush Administration and the biotech industry, has ruled that the European Union's (EU) moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from 1998-2004 was illegal. The moratorium was put in place because of EU concerns on human safety, environmental pollution, and inadequate testing, and has subsequently been officially lifted. Canada and Argentina backed the U.S. in filing a complaint with the WTO in 2003, alleging that the moratorium was a violation of international trade laws. The Bush Administration has claimed that the EU ban has hurt U.S. farmers who grow genetically engineered crops, and that the EU should pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties to the U.S. But market analysts point out that the WTO ruling will not benefit the biotech industry, because EU food manufacturers and supermarket chains, fearing a consumer backlash, will continue to refuse to sell food products containing GMOs, no matter what the WTO says. U.S. Trade officials have admitted that the main impact of the WTO ruling will be to intimidate smaller nations from banning GMOs. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/ruling060208.cfm

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by Michael Gibbs
BIG BROTHER WANTS TO TRACK ANIMALS AND THEIR OWNERS
Plans for a system that would require tagging or implanting all farm animals with radio frequency devices and registering those animals with a federal government tracking system have been delayed until after 2009, the USDA announced last week. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) has been gaining support in the corporate agribusiness world, supposedly as a method for sourcing the origins of Mad Cow disease or possible terrorist biological attacks on the nation's livestock. Opponents point out the plan was drawn up by corporate behemoths like Monsanto and would require every owner of even a single animal to register their home with a national tracking system, including Global Positing Coordinates (for satellite tracking) and implant or tag every animal with a radio frequency device (RFID). Large-scale livestock producers say NAIS would help them control an outbreak of disease by allowing individual animals to be tracked to their origins. Small-scale farmers say the registration fees, RFID expenses and administrative bureaucracy of the system would drive them out of business. The USDA announced a delay in the launch of the program last week, based on disputes in the cattle industry over who gets control of the overall database. The OCA is in the process of building an online NAIS information and action center to help citizens educate themselves and offer feedback to the USDA on the NAIS issue.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ofgu/ID060202.cfm