The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution expressing its support for the “United States’ efforts in the World Trade Organization to end the unwarranted moratorium imposed by the European Union on the approval of agricultural biotechnology products.” Here is Missouri Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond in support of that resolution:
If the Europeans had been satisfied to exist as a “plant technology free zone” without aggressively attempting to influence other nations, this action would not have become as imperative as it is.
Mr. President, this European ban on plant biotechnology is a lesson about the serious harm that can come in the form of unintended consequences. Too-clever politicians in Europe, coupled with the hysterical anti-commercial activists, decided they could whip their public into a frenzy and shield the European Union producers from U.S. competition by suggesting that the new technology is not safe.
Even perhaps more venal — if that is possible — certain left-wing organizations decided they could raise fears and cause unfounded scares in the public and raise money through solicitations to fund their own salaries by spreading lies about the food that we in the United States eat every day.
…World-renowned scientists are leaving the European Union. They are coming to Missouri, where our leading scientists, such as Dr. Roger Beachy and Dr. Peter Raven, are hiring them and providing them a refuge where they can practice their science free from the Luddite hysteria or “Eurosclerosis” from which they came.
But most tragically — most tragically — the countries in the developing world have been frightened into refusing to feed their starving people the food we have sent them — which is food we eat — because they fear the hysterical European rejection is more serious than death by starvation. We have sent food, humanitarian efforts, to aid and keep these people alive. Unfortunately, their leaders have been frightened by Europeans who say they will never import from them again.
Regrettably, I would say that Europe’s fastest-growing exports are hysteria and under-appreciated plant scientists. We would like Europe to join us in our efforts to help feed the hungry in the world, not scare the world into needless, wanton starvation.
