Section 735 of HR 933 AKA “Monsanto Protection Act”

An article in the NY Times, states that over the last week President Obama signed an agriculture bill, Section 735 of HR 933 that is being called “Monsanto Protection Act.” Although there was 250,000 signatures protesting the provision. The author of the article implies that Congress is once again protecting corporations. There is a provision of the bill that will prohibit the Department of Agriculture from stopping production of a genetically modified crop once it is planted in the ground, and federal court would be powerless to stop selling the crop, even if it is found harmful. Genetic seed engineering is a seed that has been genetically altered but transgenic engineering which is a gene, most likely from another species of plant, bacterium or animal in added to the plant for positive changes have not worked as well as they hoped, but they do generate more income than normal seeds. Monsanto has worked on genetically engineering crops for twenty years and have had some success along with more failure. One of their successes is the roundup ready seed, these seeds allows farms to spend less time weeding.  90% of soybeans and 70% of corn is a roundup ready seed and mostly Monsanto owned. The other genetic success was seeds developed to contain insect resistance, and they are now finally seeing a resistance.

Critics say, Section 735 could be the “most dangerous food act ever” and a “terrifying piece of policy.”  Stonyfield Farm posted a blog post claiming that this provision benefits the biotech companies and could be potentially harmful to consumers. “Even if the courts find that a (genetically engineered) crop shouldn’t be planted until more research is done about its safety, no one could stop that crop from being planted, even temporarily. This provision clearly tells us that Congress thinks public health and safety should take a back seat to the expansion of GE crops.”