WIKILEAKS DID NOT SPARE THE AGRICULTURAL WORLD: THE ENGLISH NEWSPAPER “THE GUARDIAN” REVEALS U.S.A. PLOTS TO IMPOSE GMO IN EUROPE

The WikiLeaks “phenomenon” has been top news for several weeks and has not caused as much damage as some feared nor as much as others hoped for. The phenomenon struck the agricultural sector, too, on a world wide and fundamental issue: introducing GMO - genetically modified organisms – in Europe. The English newspaper “The Guardian” brought the issue to the forefront by revealing that at the end of 2007 a cable from the American Ambassador in Paris warned Washington to prepare for a “commercial war” against those countries in the European Community that were opposed to GMO. The Ambassador, Craig Stapleton, friend and business partner of the then President George Bush, took this position after France decided to ban Monsanto, an American variety of GM corn. The article in “The Guardian” continues, saying that the Ambassador wanted to “set retaliatory goals that would disturb the European Union, since it is a collective responsibility but in part would focus on the worst offenders”. From other “wires” published by WikiLeaks and revealed in “The Guardian”, it turns out that U.S. diplomats around the world consider the issue of genetically modified corn a governmental and commercial imperative, involving the highest spheres in the Vatican. The feeling at the American Embassy in the Vatican is that they have the Pope’s support, based on the position of Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the powerful Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the man who best represents the Pope at the United Nations. This support has, however, been quickly withdrawn; since it was based on the sole will of Cardinal Martini to pacify relations with the U.S. government, after the Vatican condemned the war in Iraq.