Legislation making GM seed manufacturers liable for damages

The biotech industry wants us to be reassured that genetically modified (GM) seeds are safe. So why does it oppose legislation allowing manufacturers of genetically engineered seeds to be liable for damages if pollen from their products drifts into neighbouring (non-GM) fields and causes harm?

This week, in the USA, the House and Senate of the state of Vermont passed a bill making such liability possible. However, the bill got through only on the basis that corn and soybean seed manufacturers were exempted! These are, naturally, the largest varieties of GM seeds planted up to now....

Apparently, we should be reassured by lack of any research evidence so far that pollen drift affects GM soybean.

In any case, there is lack of agreement regarding whether the legislation adequately defines terms such as "genetically altered", "genetically modified", "genetically engineered", "proof", and "administrative funding".

The legislation is now headed to the desk of Governor Jim Douglas, and I am sure that readers will be reassured to know that he is expected to veto this poorly-drafted legislation. Without any persuasion from the GMO lobby, of course.

In the meanwhile, no one that I know of has even attempted to introduce legislation on the far more crucial matter of making manufacturers of GM seeds liable for damages if their products result in disease or disability for humans who end up consuming GM crops, whether knowingly or - given that the GM industry does not want us to know when we are eating GM food - unknowingly.

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