The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of
biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO,
privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited
freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local
communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public
right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil
health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights,
impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity.

The answer? Organize, educate, resist, spread the word, protest,
write letters, direct action, contribute food & services, mobilize,
donate, sign endorsements, flier farmers markets schools businesses
& churches, contact media, host a place for an activist to stay, make
artwork banners & costumes, join organizations working on these issues,
support your local farmers, add your own ideas.

June 20-25 2003, Sacramento California

For more info and to participate:
http://www.sacmobilization.org 916-497-1111
http://www.foodfirst.org
http://www.organicconsumers.org
http://www.sacmobilization.org/article.php?id=88

--
delete N0SPAAM to reply by email

Planning a busy weekend then? Hey, them yanks aren't doing too badly at
leading the rest of the civilized?? world on a merry chase and getting their
way with them. Perhaps those in the EU, the Isle states and elsewhere should
tend more to progress and not so much to transgression. Strong leaders lead
and the rest just bitch about their plight and grovel in ineptitude.

Cheers: tis only your life, your fortune and your appetite
-=-
Jim Cluny


"Walter Epp" wrote in message
...
The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of
biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO,
privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited
freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local
communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public
right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil
health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights,
impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity.

The answer? Organize, educate, resist, spread the word, protest,
write letters, direct action, contribute food & services, mobilize,
donate, sign endorsements, flier farmers markets schools businesses
& churches, contact media, host a place for an activist to stay, make
artwork banners & costumes, join organizations working on these issues,
support your local farmers, add your own ideas.

June 20-25 2003, Sacramento California

For more info and to participate:
http://www.sacmobilization.org 916-497-1111
http://www.foodfirst.org
http://www.organicconsumers.org
http://www.sacmobilization.org/article.php?id=88

--
delete N0SPAAM to reply by email

On Fri, 13 Jun 2003 13:00:16 -0700, Walter Epp
wrote:

The US is gathering ministers from 180 nations to push its agenda of
biotech, industrial agriculture, corporatization, pesticides, WTO,
privatization, irradiation, GMO trees, GMO fish, biopiracy, unlimited
freedom for multinational agribusiness, taking away freedom from local
communities, taking away viability of family farmers, taking away public
right to know, taking away local democratic control, damaging soil
health, taking away from public health, taking away indigenous rights,
impeding fair trade, taking away biodiversity.

You forgot tooth decay, waxy yellow buildup, those annoying stickers
on fruit, broken shoelaces, crackly telephone connections, dirty
washrooms, "countrypolitan" music, stale bread, tornados, rusty nails,
the common cold, rough toilet paper, lite beer, double-sided tape,
yappy little dogs, lycra bicycle shorts, disco, flatulence, strobe
lights, really gross spiders, and the Brady Bunch.

Hope this helps.


--

Exit center to Funway.

"Charles Hawtrey" wrote in message

, those annoying stickers
on fruit,

interestingly the EU inflicted those on us

Jim Webster

OnSat, 14 Jun 2003 16:15:02 GMT, Jim Cluny/Old Clunker/James Curts
DIDN'T TOP-POST!

Ah, yes, but forever gratefully, not the Beatles, botulism or boorishness.
-=-
Jim Cluny

You forgot tooth decay, waxy yellow buildup, those annoying stickers
on fruit, broken shoelaces, crackly telephone connections, dirty
washrooms, "countrypolitan" music, stale bread, tornados, rusty nails,
the common cold, rough toilet paper, lite beer, double-sided tape,
yappy little dogs, lycra bicycle shorts, disco, flatulence, strobe
lights, really gross spiders, and the Brady Bunch.


Ah, yes, but forever gratefully, not the Beatles, botulism or boorishness.
-=-
Jim Cluny

interestingly the EU inflicted those on us

Even more interestingly, they can be used as a way to distinguish
between conventional, organic and GM fruit... :-)


Producers respond to appeals about stickers on fruit

July 17, 2002
Knight Ridder News Service

As much as we may dislike them, the stickers or labels attached to
fruit speed the scanning process at checkout.

Cashiers no longer need to distinguish a Fuji apple from a Gala apple,
a prickly pear from a horned melon or a grapefruit from an ugli fruit.

They simply key in the PLU code -- the price lookup number printed on
the sticker -- and the market's computerized cash register identifies
the fruit.

The numbers also enable retailers to track how well varieties are
selling.

For conventionally grown fruit, the PLU code on the sticker consists
of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU
prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered fruit has a
five-numeral PLU prefaced by 8.

So, a conventionally grown banana would be 4011, an organic banana
would be 94011 and a genetically engineered banana would be 84011.

The numeric system was developed by the Produce Electronic
Identification Board, an affiliate of the Produce Marketing
Association, a Newark, Del.,- based trade group for the produce
industry. As of October 2001, the board had assigned more than 1,200
PLUs for individual produce items.

Fruit companies hear plenty of complaints from consumers about
hard-to- remove stickers. Retailers gripe that stickers fall off or
become marred during transport.

In response, some shippers have begun using stickers designed with
tabs that make them easier to lift off and are buying equipment that
applies adhesive to the sticker but not to the tab.

Companies are also experimenting with different sticker materials,
such as vinyl, that hold up under a variety of temperature and
moisture conditions.

The adhesive now used to attach the stickers is food-grade, but the
stickers themselves aren't edible. To remove stubborn ones, soak in
warm water for a minute or two.

On Sun, 15 Jun 2003 03:41:21 +0100, wrote:
Jim Webster wrote:
interestingly the EU inflicted those on us

..

For conventionally grown fruit, the PLU code on the sticker consists
of four numbers. Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU
prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered fruit has a
five-numeral PLU prefaced by 8.

So, a conventionally grown banana would be 4011, an organic banana
would be 94011 and a genetically engineered banana would be 84011.

Also, an 'East' Red Delicious Apple would be 4168, and a 'West' Red
Delicious Apple would be 4015.
*
'East' refers to items grown east of the Mississippi or east of the
Ontario/Manitoba border in Canada; 'West' refers to items grown west
of the Mississippi, west of the Ontario/Manitoba border, or imports.

This of course is where a theory that the EU inflicted this system on
us becomes really wobbly.

German official pulls out of Sacramento ag expo

Sacramento 13 June - Germany's agriculture minister has pulled out of
the upcoming international agriculture ministerial conference in
Sacramento, leaving it without a European Union official on the
program.

Although German officials cited important meetings that demanded her
attention in Europe, the minister's announcement comes at the same
time some U.S. politicians have stepped up criticism of European
countries for not embracing genetically engineered food.

Walter Leuchs, deputy consul general for Germany in San Francisco,
said German Food and Agriculture Minister Renate Künast wasn't making
a statement against U.S. biotechnology efforts. Instead, he said, she
was obliged to stay in Europe for newly planned meetings about the
European Union's common agricultural policy.

Top officials from more than 100 mostly developing countries are
expected for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's first
ministerial-level meeting on agricultural science and technology, at
the Sacramento Convention Center.

The U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service had touted the participation of
Künast -- the only European government minister on the preliminary
speakers list -- as a sign that the Bush administration wasn't
stacking the June 23-25 conference with supporters of genetically
modified foods.

===========================================
P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
===========================================

Voices From the South Debunk GE Myths

June 20, 2003

A new report, Voices From the South, systematically refutes a number
of widely promoted myths about genetically engineered (GE) food.
Released by Pesticide Action Network North America and Food First just
days before a ministerial level agricultural conference promoting GE
foods gets underway in Sacramento, California, the report counters the
claims of the biotech industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
that GE crops are a solution to hunger in the Third World.

In the report, leading activists, scientists and farmers from
countries as diverse as Ethiopia, India and Ecuador argue that the
development of GE crops has not focused on feeding people but rather
on securing market share for the world's largest agrochemical/biotech
companies. "Genetically engineered crops are instruments of
industrialized agriculture," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC Group in
Uruguay, one of the authors. "They benefit the richest people in the
world, not the hungriest. GE crops are designed to take the control of
food production away from local communities, by creating greater
dependence on agribusiness corporations for seed and pesticides."

The report addresses six common myths spread by the biotech industry
about GE crops, with responses by leading Third World analysts. "You
can break down these myths into three basic components: Green washing,
poor washing, and hope dashing," said Anuradha Mittal, co-director of
Food First, who is from India. "Green washing suggests that biotech
will create a world free of pesticides; poor washing would have us
believe that we must accept genetically engineered crops if we are to
feed the poor in the Third World; and hope dashing claims there are no
alternatives. But in this report, this rhetoric is systematically
dismantled by the very people GE crops are supposed to benefit."

Research by Food First reveals that the industry claim that there is
not enough food to feed the hungry is not based in fact. The world
today produces more food per inhabitant than ever before. The real
causes of hunger are poverty, inequality and lack of access. Too many
people are too poor to buy the food that is available (but often
poorly distributed) or lack the land and resources to grow it
themselves.

"What farmers in the developing world need are policies that give
farming communities control over their own resources and build on
local ecological knowledge," writes Timothy Byakola, also an author,
who coordinates PAN East Africa, "not another technological quick
fix."

The authors note that there is already enough food to feed the world
one and a half times over, and that genetically engineered crops have
caused economic and ecological problems where they have been grown.
The report argues that the poor and hungry of the developing world
need economic and social policies that address the root causes of
hunger in poverty and inequality, not quick technological fixes that
largely benefit foreign corporations.

The report highlights traditional farming methods that involve
sustainable use of land, water and seeds in a system that guarantees
food sovereignty. Current global trade and economic policies which
force privatization, centralization and commercialization are a threat
to food sovereignty in southern countries.

Voices from the South: The Third World Debunks Corporate Myths on
Genetically Engineered Crops is published by Pesticide Action Network
(PANNA) and Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy,
as part of the work of both organizations to bring the views of
grassroots activists of the global south to the political debate about
the risks and costs of GE food.

Voices from the South is available online at http://www.foodfirst.org/

Sources: Voices from the South, The Third World Debunks Corporate
Myths on Genetically Engineered Crops, Ellen Hickey and Anuradha
Mittal (editors), June 2003, PANNA, 49 Powell St. #500 San Francisco,
CA 94102, (415)981-1771, http://www.panna.org/ .