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| Rear genetically modified salmon Front non-genetically modified salmon |
Foreign-made, fake okay for North Americans
By Carolyn Bennett, news edited for TIN
Candidate Obama
“‘Here’s what I’ll do as
President. I’ll immediately implement country-of-origin labeling because
Americans should know where their food comes from.
“‘We’ll let folks know whether
their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what
they’re buying.’”
“The Obama administration awarded a coveted
research grant to a financially strapped company working to put genetically
modified (GM) salmon on American dinner tables, overlooking disclosures that
the firm could run out of cash in early 2012,” the Guardian and Free Speech
Radio News reported on Tuesday.
“Campaigners say the $500,000 grant to AquaBounty
amounts to a bail-out for the firm’s main investor, the business tycoon and
former economics minister of Georgia, Kakha Bendukidze. They are also comparing
it to the Solyndra controversy, which saw a solar company go bankrupt after
receiving government loan guarantees.”
“… The company’s interim financial report, issued on September 23, just five days before the grant
announcement, records a net operating loss of $2.8 million for the first six
months of this year, $500,000 more than the previous year [but that] ‘Current
balances are sufficient to take the company into [the second quarter of] 2012.’
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| Georgia Britannica map |
“…The company’s last round of fundraising in late 2010 saw Bendukidze
take about 48 percent ownership with an investment of about $5 million made through
his investment firm Linnaeus Capital. The next largest owner is the Chilean
investor, Alejandro Weinstein.
Kakha
Bendukidze (Georgian politician and business owner born 1956 in Tbilisi, USSR) Georgian
Minister of Economy (June–December 2004), Minister for Reform Coordination
(December 2004 - January 2008) and Head of the Chancellery of Government of
Georgia (February 2008 - February 2009)
In a 2008 news article, Fish Site cited the Patagonia [Chile] Times reporting
the Chilean pharmaceutical company, Corporación Farmacéutica Recalcine, founded
by Alejandro Weinstein’s family and in which he was controlling partner, had applied
for approval to conduct field tests for a new vaccine against the infectious disease,
salmon anemia (ISA). The article said, “If successful, the vaccine has the
potential to staunch a plague that has wiped out 16 salmon-farming centers and
led to hundreds of lay-offs in Chile’s southern regions in the last year. ISA
poses a major threat to the profitability of Chile’s salmon industry, which
last year raked in $2.2 billion.”
Alejandro
Weinstein Manieu is the Chief Excecutive Officer (CEO) of CFR Pharmaceuticals.
He has a degree on Business Administration and is a Certified Public Accountant
from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as OPM from Harvard
Business School, USA.
The founder of Food Democracy Now, Dave Murphy, told Free Speech Radio
News, “While the U.S. approves more and more genetically modified foods, it
falls behind the rest of the world on transparency.… Already, 50 countries across the world
including Brazil, Australia, the European Union, Russia and even China allow
labeling of genetically engineered foods. Unfortunately, the United States does
not, because of the power and the collusion of big agro-business with the
federal agencies.
“The FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] ruled last year that
genetically modified fish were safe to eat, and may rule in the coming weeks
that it is safe for AquaBounty to
produce and sell commercially. However, the company still needs the go-ahead
from the Canadian government to grow the fish eggs at its facility on Prince
Edward Island…
“Internal records the Vancouver Sun obtained from Canada’s
environmental agency reveal strong concerns about the potential threat to the
country’s wild fish population and a study from Canada’s Memorial University of
Newfoundland warns, ‘little is known about the potential impact on wild salmon
populations if the GM species were to escape captivity.’”
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| On Food Democracy Now! site |
U.S. lawmakers Mark Begich and Lisa
Murkowski have raised concerns about “fake fish.” A bill Begich introduced “would ban the
interstate commerce of what he calls ‘frankenfish’ and prohibit the production
with intent to sell across state lines.… “It seems ridiculous, Begich said, “that
we would go into an area of basically fake fish that the FDA really doesn’t
have the knowledge—it’s why they’ve delayed almost a year from when we brought up
this concern last fall.’”
Voicing constituent worries about possible harm to the state’s natural
fisheries, Alaskans Begich and Murkowski “have filed an amendment to the 2012
Agriculture Appropriations bill that would prohibit the FDA from using taxpayer
dollars to approve the application for engineered fish.”
Sources and notes
“Obama administration ‘bailed out’ GM salmon firm — Campaigners say
$500,000 grant was made to AquaBounty despite evidence that the firm could soon
run out of cash” (Suzanne Goldenberg, U.S. environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk) October 18, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/18/gm-salmon-aquabounty
“An Answer Pending on Chile’s Salmon Woes— CHILE: Researchers may have
a new weapon against infectious salmon anemia (ISA), the scourge of Chile’s
salmon industry,” August 12, 2008, http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/7645/an-answer-pending-on-chiles-salmon-woes
“FDA set to decide on genetically engineered salmon — the
grant money will go specifically towards AquaBounty’s research on how to render
their fish sterile—in order to prevent them from interbreeding with fish in the
wild. But many are questioning why the government is giving grants to a
financially risky venture in the wake of the Solyndra solar company’s failure,
and whether approval of more genetically engineered foods is in the best
interest of consumers and the environment” (Alice Ollstein, FSRN, Washington,
D.C.), October 18, 2011, http://fsrn.org/audio/fda-set-decide-genetically-engineered-salmon/9299
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| Food Democracy Now! site |
Food Democracy Now!
“A grassroots community dedicated to building a sustainable food system
that protects our natural environment, sustains farmers and nourishes families.
“From rising childhood and adult obesity to issues of food safety, air
and water pollution, worker’s rights and global warming, our current food
system is leading our nation to an unsustainable future.
“Our food system is fundamentally broken. A few companies dominate the
market, prioritizing profits over people and our planet. Government policies
put the interests of corporate agribusiness over the livelihoods of farm
families. Farm workers toil in unsafe conditions for minimal wages. Schoolchildren
lack access to healthy foods — as do millions of Americans living in poverty.
“Food Democracy Now members have a different vision —
We know we can build a food system that gives our communities equal access to healthy food, and respects the dignity of the farmers who produce it.
We believe in recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment.
We value our children’s health, worker’s rights, conservation, and animal welfare over corporate profits.
We believe that working together, we can make this vision a reality in our lifetimes.” http://fooddemocracynow.org/about/
Alejandro Weinstein Manieu is the Chief Excecutive Officer (CEO) of CFR
Pharmaceuticals. He has a degree on Business Administration and is a Certified
Public Accountant from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as OPM
from Harvard Business School, USA. Weinstein is a member of several
pharmaceutical companies’ Board of Directors in Latin America, Europe and the
South East of Asia. In Chile, he is a Director of Educa UC, an initiative
developed by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a group of
professionals whose mission is to contribute to the improvement of Chilean
school education and to offer equal opportunities through the creation of an
educational entities network, http://www.alejandroweinstein.com/alejandro-weinstein/en
Present Latin American countries, as well as in Vietnam, Thailand and
the United Kingdom [majority shareholder December 31, 2010 Inversiones Photon
Limitada, with 68.12 percent of its interest, CFR Corporacion Farmaceutica
Recalcine (Public, SCL:CFR) [CFR
Pharmaceuticals SA] is a Chile-based company primarily engaged in the
pharmaceutical industry. The company’s products are structured in seven
divisions:
- Recalcine, offering therapeutic products in the general medical area as well as in the pediatrics, gastroenterology and traumatology, among others;
- Gynopharm, specializing in the women’s health products,
- Drugtech, providing products for cardiovascular neuroscience and urology treatments;
- Complex Injectables, engaged in the manufacturing of injectables;
- Biomedical Sciences, specialized in the production of drugs for dialysis, transplants, oncology and rheumatology;
- K2, focused on the production of over-the-counter healthcare and wellness products, and
- Mediderm, specializing in the skin care products.
CFR Corporacion Farmaceutica Recalcine officers and directors: Alejandro
Kostia Nicolas Weinstein Crenovich
Board Chair: Alejandro Esteban Weinstein Manieu
Chief Executive Officer: Patricio Vargas
Finance Manager: Claudio Colombano
Operations Manager: Victor Chunco
Latin America Commercial Manager: Eduardo Trenova
Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa Commercial Manager: Matias Sanchez
Human Resources Manager: Abdon Ahuile
Ecuador Manager: Marcelo Belapowsky
CENAM Manager, Regional Manager: Alexis Camhi
Development Manager:
Address Av.Pedro de Valdivia 295, Providencia, Chile
Website linkshttp://www.cfr-corp.com/home/en
http://www.google.ca/finance?cid=1605044#
Caption at Guardian GM salmon: A genetically modified salmon, rear, and a non-genetically modified
salmon, foreground. Photograph: AP
Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire
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