January 4, 2011

New WikiLeaks documents expose US promotion of GM crops worldwide

The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a trade war against any EU country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, according to newly released Wikileak cables.

Responding to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops.

"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits," said Stapleton.

"The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," he said.

In other newly released cables, US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative.

As many Catholic bishops in developing countries have been vehemently opposed to the controversial crops, the US applied particular pressure to the Pope's advisers.

Cables from the US embassy in the Vatican show that the US believes the Pope is broadly supportive of the crops after sustained lobbying of senior Holy See advisers, but regret that he has not yet stated his support. US state department's special adviser on biotech and government biotech advisers based in Kenya lobbied Vatican insiders to persuade the pope to declare his backing.