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Cameron McCarten

Cameron McCarten's Public Library

18 Feb 09

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center Document

  • The AAEA believes that GM foods are proven safe and have the advantage of being engineered hardier and more resilient than natural varieties.
  • Starvation is much more dangerous to more people than any threat presented by GM foods. Droughts and famine are increasing throughout the world, particularly on the continent of Africa.
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Rather than GM, here comes nuclear food: plant breeding techniques, instead of GM food, can help beat world hunger, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is now calling for increased investment in seed development technologies

  • oday, scientists apply mutagens-for example, gamma rays Gamma rays

    Electromagnetic radiation emitted from excited atomic nuclei as an integral part of the process whereby the nucleus rearranges itself into a state of lower excitation (that is, energy content).      or
    chemicals-to accelerate the process. Unlike genetic modification (or
    GM), which introduced new material into a plant's genetic make-up,
    induced mutation simply accelerates the natural process of spontaneous
    changes occurring in plants.



    Exposure to radiation changes a plant's blueprint at one
    position in the genetic code, creating a variant that is different from
    the parent plant. Huge numbers of mutants are produced in the search for
    desired traits-perhaps a resistance to certain diseases or pests, or an
    ability to thrive in saline soil or drought conditions "Drought Conditions" is episode 126 of The West Wing. Plot
    Senator Rafferty, a new presidential candidate garnered much media attention with a ground-breaking speech about health care.     . Those that seem
    promising are selected and turned over to plant breeders who work to
    incorporate that quality, perhaps by cross-breeding, into indigenous
    plants.

Por and Para

  • Rule: to mean "in order to" or "for the purpose of"

    Model: Para hacer una paella, primero dore las carnes.

    To make a paella, first sauté the meats.



  • "Para" -- in contrast, has r

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04 May 08

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway - HUMAN EVENTS

  • Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.
  • Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of America.
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The fight for the world's food - Features, Extras - The Independent

  • On the one hand the growing affluence of millions of people in China and India is creating a surge in demand for food - the rising populations are not content with their parents' diet and demand more meat. On the other, is the use of food crops as a source of energy in place of oil, the so-called bio-fuels boom.

    As these two forces combine they are setting off warning bells around the world.

  • Rice prices are climbing worldwide. Butter prices in Europe have spiked by 40 per cent in the past year. Wheat futures are trading at their highest level for a decade. Global soybean prices have risen by a half. Pork prices in China are up 20 per cent on last year and the food price index in India was up by 11 per cent year on year. In Mexico there have been riots in response to a 60 per cent rise in the cost of tortillas.
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03 May 08

Student Research Center - powered by EBSCOhost

  • Mexican workers typically earn less than $10 a day, with few of the protections won by labor in the United States, and Mexican environmental standards are decades behind U.S. regulations.
  • U.S. safety and health standards for consumer products could be challenged as trade barriers. Under the four-year-old U.S./Canada Free Trade Agreement, which NAFTA extends to Mexico, Canada challenged a milk safety standard in Puerto Rico as a "nontariff trade barrier."

C. Gerald Fraser, Nafta's environmental problems

  • "NAFTA begins its third year sinking in a sea of broken promises relating
    to the environment, public health, jobs, and wages," said Joan Claybrook,
    president of the group, Public Citizen. "NAFTA has intensified severe
    problems of water and air pollution, hazardous wastes dumping and
    increased the incidence rates of certain diseases and birth defects in the
    border region."

Invest In Canada - NAFTA Advantage

  • by a long shot.  Two-way goods-and-services trade between Canada and the United States was valued at C$710 billion dollars in 2005, or nearly C$1.3 million a minute in trade.  That’s more than trade between the United States and all of the countries of the European Union combined.

FAST FACTS ON NAFTA

  • The
    North American Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1992 and governs trade
    between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — FAS Fact Sheets

  • It estimated that U.S. farm and food exports to
    Mexico exceeded $11.5 billion in 2007 -- the highest level ever under NAFTA.
    From 2001 to 2006, U.S. farm and food exports to Mexico climbed by $3.6 billion
    to $10.8 billion. U.S. exports of soybean meal, red meats, and poultry meat all
    set new records in 2006.
  • The United States supplied more than 72 percent of Mexico's
    total agricultural imports in 2007, due in part to the price advantage and
    preferential access that U.S. products now enjoy.

USTR - NAFTA at 10: Myth - NAFTA Was a Failure for the United States

  • · In ten years of NAFTA, total
    trade among the three countries has more than doubled, from $306 billion to $621 billion in 2003. That’s $1.7 billion in
    trade every day.
  • U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico
    grew from $142 billion to $263 billion in NAFTA’s first ten years. And Mexican exports to the U.S. grew 242 percent,
    improving lives and reducing poverty in Mexico.

The Pros and Cons of NAFTA : Industrial Market Trends

  • • The accord has stimulated democratic reform and opened markets in Mexico.
  • • According to the Bush administration, the agreement has been "improving lives and reducing poverty in Mexico.
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01 May 08

Ten Quotes for Ten Years of NAFTA

  • The National Farmers Union: “Since 1988, agricultural exports have almost tripled, but net farm income (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 24 %.

Stephen F. Lynch Quotes


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    As for the expected boon to the Mexican economy, we have seen none of these gains, and instead we have seen NAFTA's detrimental impact on the Mexican workers.



    Stephen F. Lynch
30 Apr 08

Biofuel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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