12/10/2005 — Dear Pascal, more than a year ago, the US government teamed up with Canada and Argentina to complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about the people of Europe.

Europeans are simply too democratic, according to the US government, and public opinion really ought not to be allowed to overrule trade regulations.
The issue at question is the European Union's (EU) de facto moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as a number of EU member states' national bans on GMOs.

In poll after poll, Europeans have stated they don't want to eat genetically contaminated foods, they don't want them grown here, and they don't want them fed to the animals that produce their eggs, milk, and meat.

Even an ex-executive of the biotech giant Monsanto believes the dangers of GMOs are being ignored in the rush to push GMOs onto consumers. We recently released details of massive GMO contamination of the Romanian environment that the Romanian government didn't even know about.

Mr. Dima, ex-general manager of Monsanto Romania said, "I left the company because I expressed my concerns regarding the introduction of GM technology in Romania. I believed that neither Romania nor the company were ready and able to monitor and control the GM technology".

To the US and its allies, this is simply a trade dispute. But at base it's a more fundamental issue of who makes the rules - the people of Europe or the unelected WTO and the corporate empire that runs it.

We're aiming to have a one million signature petition by May 2006 on the single issue of whether to ban the importation of GMO animal feed into Europe. So far, we've gotten 320,000 and rising fast.

If the WTO and the three complaintants are so confident that they have the right to determine what food gets put on the dinner tables of Europe, we want to know where your petition is?

Where's the evidence that Europeans want GMOs? What makes you think that people who wouldn't feed GMOs to pigs want to have them force-fed to their children?

When democracy and the will of the people is considered expendable, Free Trade isn't free: it's corporate tyranny.