Jeanne D'Arc at Body and Soul has a nice story about the apparent connection between the admin's HIV relief money and the acceptance of GM foods by the intended recipients of the aid:
SENSE OF CONGRESS RELATING TO FOOD ASSISTANCE FOR INDIVIDUALS LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS
(1) FINDINGS: Congress finds the following:
(A) The United States provides more than 60 percent of all food assistance worldwide.
(B) According to the United Nations World Food Program and other United Nations agencies, food insecurity of individuals infected or living with HIV/AIDS is a major problem in countries with large populations of such individuals, particularly in African countries.
(C) Although the United States is willing to provide food assistance to these countries in need, a few of the countries object to part or all of the assistance because of fears of benign genetic modifications to the foods.
(D) Healthy and nutritious foods for individuals infected or living with HIV/AIDS are an important complement to HIV/AIDS medicines for such individuals.
(E) Individuals infected with HIV have higher nutritional requirements than individuals who are not infected with HIV, particularly with respect to the need for protein. Also, there is evidence to suggest that the full benefit of therapy to treat HIV/AIDS may not be achieved in individuals who are malnourished, particularly in pregnant and lactating women.
(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS: It is therefore the sense of Congress that United States food assistance should be accepted by countries with large populations of individuals infected or living with HIV/AIDS, particularly African countries, in order to help feed such individuals.
The link to the above section of the bill isn't working, (looks like a temp file to me) but I'll add it. Jeanne D'Arc comments:
At best, it's a tasteless bit of advertising for genetically modified food inserted into a bill on one of the most important issues in the world today. More than that, it at least opens up the possibility of withholding aid from countries that aren't friendly to American businesses. After Bush and Company have exploited the famine in Africa in that way, it certainly wouldn't be surprising to see them take this opportunity to exploit the AIDS crisis. The Senate just handed them a means of doing so, but taking it would be shameful. Unfortunately, I don't think we can count on this administration not to do something just because it's shameful.
She could be right. Just because the money is promised, doesn't mean it will be allocated.
Laura
9:44:11 AM 
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