Nexus - 0503 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GL@BAL NEWS ... NEWS ENGLISH FREEMASONS IN THE LINE OF FIRE USDA PLANS WOULD OUTLAW GENUINE ORGANIC PRODUCE by George Monbiot case she won, wherein she established her right to express an opinion about the merits of eating beefburgers, ranks with the McDonald's libel trial as one of the few serious setbacks suffered by the agro-industrial combines seeking to monopolise world food production. She was sued by a syndicate of monster cattle ranchers under the surreal "food dispar- agement" laws, introduced in 14 American states to prevent people from questioning such practices as feeding bovine offal to cows. These laws are a compelling demonstration of the lengths to which US legislators will go to defend the interests of corporations against the interests of citizens. We [in the UK] can only be thankful that there's an ocean between us and American plutocracy. Our happy state won't last, however. Winfrey might have won her battle, but the war waged by an industry that can tolerate no dissent has only just begun. Its latest attempt to silence criticism and eliminate good practice is already well-advanced, and this time the consequences for Britain are just as profound as the consequences for America. By 16 March, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will have closed its consul- tations on a new national standard for organic farming. Its proposals have horrified small farmers, consumer groups and animal welfare campaigners. If adopted and imple- mented, as protesters predict, the standards will outlaw genuine organic production all over the world. The USDA would allow the labelling of fruit and vegetables in the United States as "organic" when they have been genetically engineered, irradiated, treated with additives and raised on contaminated sewage sludge. Under the new proposals, "organic" live- stock can be housed in batteries, fed with the offal of other animals and injected with biotics. "Organic" produce, in the brave new world of American oligopoly, will be virtu- ally indistinguishable from conventionally toxic food. The solution would seem to be obvious: genuine organic producers should call their food something else. But the USDA is nothing if not far-sighted. The new proposals prohibit the setting of standards higher than those established by the department. In other words, farmers will be forbidden by law from producing and selling good food. The next step, if these standards are adopted in the United States, is not hard to antici- pate. American manufacturers will complain to their government that the European Union is erecting unfair barriers to trade by refusing to allow them to label the poisonous produce they sell here as organic food. The US Government will take the case to the World Trade Organization. The WTO will refer it to Codex Alimentarius, the food stan- dards body dominated by corporate scientists. The Codex panel will decide that they cannot see any difference between American organic produce and European organic pro- duce, and the WTO will threaten Europe with punitive sanctions if it continues to main- tain the higher trading standard. This is precisely the means by which European con- sumers are being forced to eat beef and drink milk contaminated with injectable growth hormones. There's no mystery about why US agribusiness wants its Washington subsidiary, the USDA, to set these new standards. The consumption of organic food is rising by 20 to 30 per cent a year, and in some countries is likely to become the dominant land-use. Organic farming is labour-intensive. It responds best to small-scale production, matched to the peculiarities of the land. Big business simply can't operate in an environment like this. There is no potential for hegemony. What it can't control, it must destroy. The United States Government claims to be the champion of free trade, but it is, in truth, emphatically opposed to it. It seeks instead to exercise a coercive power of central control and legislative diktat—on a scale which makes the command economies of the old Soviet Union look like a village paper-round. I've long believed that we should be allowed to vote in US elections, as their outcome affects us almost as much as it affects the Americans. British people now have a brief opportunity to do the next best thing and demand of the USDA that it drop this attempt to smother the seeds of rehabilitation. There are no second chances. Once the new stan- dards come into force, our own government will be powerless to protect us from the con- sequences. O== Winfrey is an unlikely hero of the battle against big business. Yet the recent (Source: The Guardian, UK, 5 March 1998) lhe United Grand Lodge of England has been ordered to release the names of police officers allegedly involved in a series of corruption scandals. The Lodge was given 14 days to comply with the request by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee or face being arraigned before the House for contempt of Parliament. The move came after MPs lost patience with Commander Michael Higham, Grand Secretary of the Freemasonry movement, when he repeatedly refused to provide information. Commander Higham insisted that unless specific allegations were made he could not identify the men. They are among 169 serving and former policemen who were either members of the disbanded West Midlands Serious Crimes Squad or were involved in investigations into the Birmingham pub bombings and the Stalker affair. In a further move, British Home Secretary Jack Straw has announced that in future, all judges, magistrates, Crown pros- ecutors, probation officers, prison staff and police officers will have to declare if they are members of the Lodge. (Source: Weekly Telegraph, London, 25 February to 3 March 1998) "WOMEN POWER' HALTS WORK ON INDIAN DAM PROJECT oO: 3 October last year, after months of secret preparations, 10,000 Indian vil- lagers, led by women and travelling in the dead of night while dodging police road- blocks, arrived at dawn at the huge, partly built dam on the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh. Within minutes they had sur- prised the few guards and cut radio com- munications. By 6.30 am, one the largest sit-ins in Indian history had begun. The 400-megawatt Maheshwar Dam is part of the multibillion-dollar Narmada Valley Development Project which involves plans for 30 big dams and over 3,000 small dams, and would displace more than 100,000 people. Protests against the dams began more than 10 years ago, and thousands of women have said they are prepared to drown rather than move. This is the first time that all work has been stopped on one of the sites. (Source: The Guardian Weekly, London, w/e 18 January 1998) APRIL - MAY 1998 NEXUS -9