Thomas Massie: “My colleague on the other side of the aisle talks about keeping prices low. I think there is more to it than that for…”

“My colleague on the other side of the aisle talks about keeping prices low. I think there is more to it than that for the American people. He also speaks as if these vaccines, these transgenic edible plant vaccines, are only used for livestock. Well, in fact, they have been used for livestock--I will get to that in a second--but they are also being used for people. That is the intended outcome of many of these programs that we are funding with money from the USDA. What could possibly go wrong with this research? Well, we found out a few years ago when a biotech company was experimenting, growing, in corn, a vaccine to keep pigs from getting diarrhea. What happened? Well, the next year where the corn was grown the prior year, the corn came up and it got commingled with soybeans that were being grown there. It contaminated 500 bushels of soybeans, which were then commingled with 500,000 bushels of soybeans. Those all had to be recalled and destroyed. Luckily, they caught it. Do we want humans eating vaccines that were grown in corn meant to stop pigs from getting diarrhea? I don't think we want that to happen. Yet, that almost happened, and it could happen. There is another case where the pollen cross-contaminated another crop of corn, and 155 acres of corn had to be burned. What are the cases where we are not discovering this? I think it is dangerous to play God with our food. I think we need a safe food supply. Mr. Chair, this is about food safety.…”