Vatican promoting GM Manna
Vatican to release an official report on biotechnology hailing biotech food as salvation for the starving
A dubious solution to starvation - genetically modified foods - will find approval by the Vatican, according to Archbishop Martino, who says that "new technologies for food development" would form part of a future Vatican policy on "sustainable agriculture".
Alfonso Scanio Pecoraro, head of the Italian Greens and a former Agriculture Minister comments that "the Church is using its authority to support a scam by the US multinationals."
Vatican Hails GM Food As a Saviour
From: Just Say No to GMOs!
BY Richard Owen in Rome
The Times (London)
August 4, 2003
THE Vatican stunned opponents of genetically modified foods yesterday by declaring that they held the answer to world starvation and malnutrition.Until the statement, the Vatican had been neutral in the confrontation between the European Union and the United States over GM food.
Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that the Vatican was preparing an official report on biotechnology, to be published next month, which would come down in
favour of genetic modification. The document will coincide with a debate on GM by EU farm ministers.Monsignor Martino told La Stampa newspaper that the Pope was greatly interested in new technologies for food development as part of a policy of sustainable agriculture. He noted that 24,000 people die every day
from starvation.Archbishop Martino, who until last year was the Vatican representative at the United Nations, said that he had lived for 16 years in the US "and I ate everything that was offered to me, including genetically modified
products. They had no effect on my health. This controversy is more political than scientific."The forthcoming Vatican study will argue that the future of humanity is at stake and that there is no room for the argument advanced by some environmentalists that "nature is good and man is bad".
Alfonso Scanio Pecoraro, head of the Italian Greens and a former Agriculture Minister, said that he was horrified. "The Church is using its authority to support a scam by the US multinationals," he said. GM seeds were sterile and non-reproducible, so that the world's farmers had repeatedly to pay the holders of the seed patents -- American multinationals. "They will be able to turn the world's food taps on or off," he said.
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Courtesy of Candace Boheme / Say No To GMOs!
"Grassroots education, activities and resources in Texas
for consumer choice and a genetically viable future"
See also:Does The Bible Have Anything To Say Against Genetic Engineering?
Quite surprisingly, this question is one that has rarely been discussed by anyone in the scientific community. Yet, it may quite possibly be the most important question of all regarding all aspects of biotechnology. There is ample evidence from both the Bible and extra-biblical books that shows strong disapproval of genetic engineering.January 2009: GMOs Not the Answer to the Food Crisis - Top Vatican Official
In what seems to be a reversal of a long held pro-GMO position of the Vatican, Cardinal Martino, talking about the food crisis, is reported to have said that "a more just system of food distribution, not the manufacturing of genetically modified foods is the key to addressing the problem".
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Monday August 18 2003
updated on Sunday January 4 2009URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/08/18/vatican_promoting_gm_manna.htm
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