Science: EU broadside at GM firms’ ‘lies’ (Ananova):
‘They tried to lie to people, they tried to force it upon people … it is the wrong approach and we simply have not accepted that and European citizens have not accepted it. You simply cannot force it upon Europe.
‘So I hope they have definitely learned a lesson from it and especially when they now try to argue that this will try to solve the problems of starvation in the world. After all, why didn’t they start with such products, so they could prove to the world that this was exactly what they were interested in doing?
‘It will solve starvation among shareholders, but not the developing world unfortunately.
That’s the EU Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, launching a broadside against ‘US biotech companies’, accusing them of ‘forcing’ unsuitable GM technology onto Europe.
Ouch.
It’s interesting to note that much of their biotech companies’ tactics seem to work well in the US, but overseas, the tactics play out predominantly as blatant strong-arming, astroturfing support, and being ‘economical with the truth’, as the phrase goes.
Some rethinking of their strategy might be helpful — although really, IMO, some thought as to how to make their products relevant to consumers, instead of money-spinning for their shareholders, might work best of all. Making some moves towards the much-vaunted ‘solving starvation in the developing world’ might just be the best way to that.