If GMO's are safe why is it necessary to have a law passed by US Government granting immunity to Monsanto for complications from GMO's?

Oops, you didn't answer why Monsanto fought labeling in GB then after the vote ran a campaign to improve their image. Which is a lie that GMO's are safe or that consumers have a right to know when they consume GMO's?

What does roundup ready mean? How does the terminator gene work and what exactly is the terminator gene?

Expert response from Chelsey Robinson

Former Global Preparedness Content Manager, Monsanto Company

Thursday, 04/12/2014 23:16

I can tell you have a lot of concerns and questions, and I am glad you are looking for answers here at GMOAnswers.com. It is clearly important that ag companies like Monsanto better communicate about the work we do to improve agriculture in a sustainable manner. I would also like to invite you to visit discover.monsanto.com to learn more about us as a company.

I have responded below in bullet format to answer each of your questions specifically, and also have included some additional resources you might find helpful.

• Farmer Assurance Provision: Regarding your question about a law passed by the US government granting immunity to Monsanto, I think you are likely referring to the Farmer Assurance Provision included in the 2013 federal government Appropriations bill that was passed in March 2013 and expired in October 2013. This bill was the subject of a lot of confusion because of the fact that it was misnamed in the media, and online by anti-GMO groups, as the Monsanto Protection Act. It did not grant immunity to Monsanto for complications from GMOs or otherwise. In fact, it is important to note that the provision did not restrict in any way the ability to take action against a product shown to pose a food, feed or environmental risk. You can read more about the specifics of this process on the US Department of Agriculture’s website, Biotechnology Regulations. The Farmer Assurance Provision protected farmers growing US-approved biotech crops. It provided them with assurance that once they had adopted an approved product, their ability to plant and harvest their crop would not be unnecessarily jeopardized. It was a farmer-endorsed provision.
  
  ​You can read more about the Farmer Assurance Provision at the following links:
  • Monsanto Protection Act, GMOAnswers.com
  • There Is No Monsanto Protection Act, AgProfessional.com
• Advertising in the UK: The ad Monsanto ran in the United Kingdom related to support for the voluntary labeling initiatives of UK retailers. We're fully supportive of companies that choose to label their non-GMO products as non-GMO, as well as consumers who exercise their right to make informed decisions.
  
  ​You can read more about labeling at the following links:
  • Is Labeling Really About Our Right to Know?, Forbes.com
  • Monsanto and Labeling in the UK, GMOAnswers.com
  • Labeling Food and Ingredients Developed from GM Seed, Monsanto.com

• GMO Safety and Labeling. Monsanto fully supports voluntary marketing labels — such as the “organic” labeling that already exists in most countries — for consumers who want to have a choice of foods that don’t contain GM ingredients. We oppose mandatory labeling of products with GM ingredients in the absence of any demonstrated risks. Such mandatory labeling could be understood to imply that food products containing GM ingredients are somehow inferior to their conventional or organic counterparts, which is untrue. Just because something is voluntary, putting on a label does not have to imply safety. For instance, the label “grass-fed beef” might be important to some people, but it is not indicative of safety. In regard to GMO safety, numerous questions similar to this and related topics have been submitted to GMO Answers. Many independent scientists and organizations around the world have validated the health and safety of GMOs. For example, there are over 1,080 studies about the health and safety of GMOs, and a decade of GMO research, funded by the European Union, that finds that GMOs pose no greater risk than their conventional counterparts, can be found in the report “A Decade of EU-Funded GMO Research,” from the European Commission on Food, Agriculture & Fisheries & Biotechnology

• Roundup Ready: A crop that is Roundup Ready will not be affected when it is sprayed with glyphosate. When a farmer sprays a glyphosate-containing herbicide on his or her field, it will kill the weeds susceptible to glyphosate and allow the crop to survive.
  
  ​You can read more about Roundup Ready crops at the following links:
  • Glyphosate Levels, GMOAnswers.com
• “Terminator” genes: Monsanto has never developed a biotech trait that resulted in sterile — or “Terminator” — seeds. We made a commitment in 1999 not to commercialize technologies that result in sterile seeds in food crops, and we have no plans or research that would violate this commitment.
  
  ​You can learn more about Terminator seeds in the below links.
  • http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/terminator-seeds.aspx
  • http://gmoanswers.com/ask/i-keep-reading-about-how-monsantos-seeds-and-other-gm-seeds-become-sterile-and-unusable-farmers

We appreciate your questions and hope you will continue to ask if you have others.