PEOPLE AS LABORATORY RATS

CZESŁAW RYSZKA

The coalition of the Civic Platform and the Polish Peasants’ Partyallowed for applying feed from genetically modified organisms (GMO) in an enacted law, till the end of the year 2016, saying in other way – the team of Donald Tusk opened door of genetically modified food widely, rejecting even the amendment thanks to which producers of feed should inform about the presence of the GMO. What is interesting, the Office of President Komorowski was aiming at quick enacting the law. How does this decision refer to the assurances of the prime minister and ministers and also many politicians from the Civic Platform and the Polish Peasants’ Party, that they want Poland to be free from GMO?

I will remind that it was during the government of the Law and Justice Party when the parliament voted the law about the ban of feed containing GMO – the ban was supposed to be implemented in 2009,but the coalition of the Civic Platform and the Polish Peasants’ Party moved it by four years and now again by other four years. It is very strange that opening of Poland to the GMO is against the European tendency, because the ban of growing GMO on one’s territory has been already introduced by 9 EU countries., including Germany and France. Recently the ban of genetically modified food import has even been introduced by Russia.

It is not true that the enacted law about seed allegedly introduces a strict ministerial control - that is, there is going to be a ban of applying these seeds, whereas there is going to be a permission to sell them. It is a kind of an absurd. The question: who will be able to control the presence of GMO on millions of acres of fields? Moreover, it is a bluff that the introduction of these mutated seeds into the environment is not a danger for ecologic agriculture. In other words – a kind of a magician is to ban bees to pollinate plants between neighboring fields GMO and EKO! As a result farmers cultivating food EKO will lose certificates and will be forced to growing GMO.

The biggest fight is undertaken among scientists, as the influence of GMO on the environment is not completely known. The worries are raised by plants containing genes of resistance to herbicides. There is a danger that there will be an intersection with their widely growing relatives, which will result in the appearance of, for example, super-weed, resistant to the influence of protection means, and also the impossible one to destroy. And here crazy scientists create theories unimaginable in the world. For example, does somebody imagine potatoes with genes of a jellyfish or fish or even human genes, resistant to any pests?Supposedly, they will not have influence on human or animal’s organism. So why rats fed only with corn of GMO, containing glyphosate – a strong means against weeds – they started to have cancer, and some of them had serious distorted bodies?

There are more and more evidences that toxins GMO from the consummated plants penetrate into the human organism. German scientists found their traces in the blood of tested people and Canadian experiments proved their presence in the blood of the umbilical cord of pregnant women. It proves that transgenic products are not efficiently removed during the process of digestion and excretion which have been enforced into our belief for years. So, if somebody asks why there are so many illnesses of cancer in the world and also in our country, one of the reasons is unhealthy food, often coming from GMO.

As I mentioned, the war is taking place among scientists but we should not forget that both scientists and the biggest worldly media often receive big money from corporations producing feed, in order to either tell a lie about harmless of GMO or remain silent –as it is in our country. The government of the Polish Republic is doing so, allowing for the situation when nationwide media either remain silent or de-inform the society, persuading it into belief that the opponents of the GMO in agriculture and food are only ecologists and eco-farmers. It is not true! In Poland there is high opposition of the society and local self-governments against GMO.

We should be astonished or even terrified by the fact that the Ministry for Environment recognizes the existing unregistered growing plants GMO in Poland as legal, whereas the minister of agriculture states in public pronouncements that Poland is banned to grow GMO and these cultivations are illegal. Such different interpretations of the existing regulations suggest a conclusion that it is a deliberate manipulation.

So, we should even shout that allowing for the trade of modified seeds is a breach of the Polish law which has stated since 2001 that Poland is a country free from GMO. The trade of GMO seeds will destroy traditional, ecologically clean Polish agriculture. Allowing for growing GMO is contradictory with the Polish raison d’etat, whereas it lies in the interests of big corporations. We are in a danger that Poland, known for ecologic food, will become a rubbish dump of food in Europe. Surely, it is convenient for German or French farmers, but against the interest of Poland. Let’s not be laboratory rats.

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CZESŁAW RYSZKA
A writer and politician, a journalist for "Sunday", a member of AWS in the years 1997 - 2001, senator in 2005-2011 Poland;
www.ryszka.com

(AA)

"Niedziela" 51/2012

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl