Worst use yet of the word "sustainable"

One of the latest WikiLeaks cables to be released highlights not only how adamant the US government is about promoting genetically modified (GM) crops around the world, but reveals what is possibly the worse use yet of the word, “sustainable.”

As reported in the Guardian, the leaked cable from the US embassy in Paris calls for a hit list of countries that should be targeted for retaliation because of their opposition to GM crops.

“The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory,” US ambassador Craig Stapleton advised colleagues in Washington.

While US officials aim to make their campaign against GM crop opponents “sustainable,” ample evidence — including their ease of spreading through the environment, spurring the development of “super weeds” and placing unwilling farmers in the crosshairs of intellectual property litigation — suggests GM crops themselves might not be. They are, however, big money-makers for agri-business giants like Monsanto (which spent nearly $9 million in lobbying US officials in 2008) … which explains why, as the Guardian puts it, “US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative.”