12/06/05 Swiss biotech

The majority of Americans are pretty comfortable with genetically modified plants; course we should be, we have been consuming them for over ten years. We also have the privilege of having esteemed advocates like Jimmy Carter, Norman Borloug and the Gates Foundation to help educate us about the medical benefits of biotech plants, their ability to increase crop production, aide the environment and fight world hunger. Europe is another story all together. This past November, Swiss voters dealt biotech companies like Syngenta, Bayer and Monsanto a tough blow when they passed a five year ban on any farming of genetically modified plants. If this ban fuels further EU anti-biotech fervor, Europe will be revisiting the dark ages. With the rapid advances in plant biotechnology occurring at our university level practically daily, five years is an eternity for Swiss farmers, companies and researchers to ever catch up to our advances. Source: New York Times, Monday , November 28 2005