20 June 2002

VIETNAM TO GET U.S. HELP TO APPLY BIOTECHNOLOGY

In the 1960's the US Government kept Monsanto in business by paying it to provide thousands of tons of Agent Orange to defoliate Vietnam while Dow Chemicals got to provide the napalm.

Now it seems the US Government may be paying the very same companies to bring new gifts to Vietnam...

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Stop Press: Vietnam to get U.S. help to apply biotechnology to farming

http://www.gene.ch/genet.html

(SGT-HCMC) U.S. government officials said at an agricultural biotechnology seminar in HCMC yesterday that they would help Vietnam apply genetically modified technology to agricultural production. U.S. agricultural attache, Henry Schmick told the workshop, organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Agriculture and Forestry in HCMC, that Vietnam had sufficient conditions to apply genetically modified organism (GMO) technology. Vietnam has scientists knowledgeable about the technology and its agriculture holds great potentials for GMO, he said.

"If the Vietnamese government accepts the technology, the U.S. will supply financial and technical assistance for Vietnam and help build research centers,"Schmick told the Daily. Subhash Gupta, a senior official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the U.S. would help Vietnam map out rules on GMOs for the sake of public health and protecting the environment.