today on our team is arguably the civil rights issue of our day and now american politicians seem to be more accepting of the l g b t community you can appoint a gay rights advocate as the ambassador to all salvador should the u.s. be pushing their views on gay rights around the world will debate the issue ahead. and you know what's in your food chances are the biotech giants are working hard to keep it a no at least in the u.s. anyway around the world local farmers are fighting back we'll bring you the latest in the battle for your dinner plate. it's friday june fifteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm abbie martin and you're watching our team. the obama administration took

a daring gay rights initiative in december of last year to aid countries that support gay rights abroad and combat ones that don't. being gay is not a western invention it is a human reality this morning back in washington president obama put into place the first us government strategy dedicated to combat ing human rights abuses against persons abroad and last month obama made international waves by personally endorsing same sex marriage during the last decade americans have become more supportive of gay rights but the country is still heavily divided about the issue we're going to raise gallup poll only fifty four percent of americans consider gay and lesbians morally acceptable so if such a divided opinion about gay rights still here at home should the u.s. government have the right to coerce world policy when sanctions are aid to countries that do or don't support gay rights discuss this issue further i'm joined

by jimmy. salvia can speak co-founder and executive director of go proud and thomas peters cultural director for the national organization on marriage thanks so much for both joining me here you guys to just start the debate i just wanted to take a look at a photo really quickly it's the u.s. ambassador to latvia and estonia and they're taking part in a pro gay rights parade the pictures right there as part of a you new u.s. strategy how does this make you feel thomas well i mean the next variation for marriage we strongly stand by the rights of gay and lesbian people around the world to have their core civil liberties understood and respected where we draw the line is the issue of marriage we believe marriage is the issue is the union of one man and one woman and so as far as you know things are nationally we support the human rights of all people but the question i think is really where you draw human rights where you draw that line well that's a good point thomas you know the greatest threat to gay people around the world is

the spread of radical islam and brutal dictators and in some places gay people are actually killed simply for being gay and i believe that freedom. is freedom for everyone and it shouldn't end at our borders and freedom is freedom thomas and you have arbitrarily drawn the line but the fact of the matter is it is our moral obligation as americans to spread freedom throughout the world and and one point to make is that this isn't the first time in two thousand and six george bush's ambassador in latvia stood up in favor of allowing the gay pride march and said it was it was important litmus test of their democracy and you know we're we're fortunate in this country to have the first amendment in our constitutional rights and we should we should help to spread freedom around the world would you also support a president like romney who maybe could initiate going across the world and implementing an anti gay strategy i mean if you're saying that it's up you know. that it's the

u.s. as a whole to really do this in the world i don't think governor romney is anti-gay advocate i mean that hypothetically no i mean i just i don't think that that's who we are as americans and and it's our obligation to spread freedom and that's what we do in our state department but half of the country still doesn't doesn't agree on the policy so is it really the u.s. role to do this abroad. well the truth is in this country more more gay people are coming out living their lives openly and honestly in that's moving our countries public opinion and it's happening throughout the world to yes we should share we should share our values with the world i mean my view is that it's not anti gay to be pro-marriage i think in many when you talk about the state department's actions you talk about the americas attitude towards the world it would be more respecting of these cultures who have largely if not uniformly decide that marriage is unified husband wife to respect those cultural values and so when you look at the state

department's priority list i don't see really how redefining marriage is on that list i think there's a world of human rights issues too to be passionate about that also respect the cultural values and certainly like and in countries like poland there's a strong tradition of marriage being between a union of husband and wife so i think that's sort of where the state department you know promoting america's interest abroad are and as far as freedom i think it's america respecting the freedom of these countries to self determine what marriage is i don't really see where america has an interest in counterfeiting those values . well never homicide i don't think that it's in our interests or any other country's interest to abridge freedom freedom is freedom and drawing lines of where that freedom should end is is not what is the role of government or the role of our country at all and so i would disagree with you on where you where you define freedom what about the cultural differences you know saudi arabia just gave women

the right to vote last year they still can't drive they ban homosexuality and they're one of our biggest allies do you really think that we should be interfering with cultural timelines and different historical precedence in other cultures and really saying that this is the moral obligation that you should hear you there were basic human freedoms that we were all born with and given to us by god and we should promote those throughout the world i completely agree with that i'd only say that even america when it comes to looking at it were individual states who decided where our great tradition history is when american citizens have decided what marriage is they've always decided one thing that marriage is a unit of husband wife and so it would be to end that conversation for the state department for america abroad to push forward one view that is not even majority of you in america home at home what is it about foreign investors coming to america to push their morality of what they see and their countries would you agree with that and it's more specific i'm not sure i could think of

a huge umbrella of categories are we talking about i mean anything really i mean what if a foreign diplomat came over here and tried to push something that was that they mandated or wanted to legislate worldwide over here i mean it just seems like where do we draw the line really with what one country deems to be moral and not i think when i only had a very different military kid in fund whatever they want to fund and it's not i'm unaware of foreign aid coming to the united states from other countries with strings attached i so i think the clear line is the american constitution as as far . what americans hold dear and what our tradition is i think that's a very clear dividing line so i mean you know people from other countries are welcome to come and to share their views but america where you know proud advocates of our own constitution i know jimmy is a proud american patriot as well so you know the debate we're having right now in this country is you know in terms of marriages you know what place that has in the constitution and what the founding fathers said thomas do you think that you're

fighting a losing battle here i mean homosexuality is more accepted by the day over the last decade of already seen a ten percent jump with the acceptance of homosexuality and gay and lesbian rights i mean what do you think about that i think it's amazing to look at the polling and notice that while the acceptance of gay and lesbian people you're absolutely right is increasing and i think it should that hasn't it hasn't you know correlated to a a less acceptance or less you know belief in marriage people can be pro gay lesbians and homosexuals have the right to live as they choose what they don't have the right to do is redefine marriage for the rest of us and so while i think there's the impression that because i am pro marriage for instance that i must be anti-gay that's not absolutely how i feel in the least respect and so as far as a losing battle no i think we're actually fighting a winning battle because marriage is something that's good and worth preserving and i think if you look at every state that's voted on it i think if you leave and look at the vote the states that are voting on it in november will see the same thing americans believe that to make a marriage need a husband

a wife well thomas you have written that people should change their central in taishan so i would disagree that you're not anti-gay but i will tell you i will tell you that public opinion is changing in this country and we are moving very rapidly and the issue of same sex civil marriage is very much a generational issue and younger americans more and more are. strongly in favor of same sex marriage i just want to push back on what you said about me it is true i'm a catholic i'm probably catholic and in the catholic church's moral teaching we believe that marriage sexuality sexual expression is reserved to married husband wife but that's nothing to say about my other positions separate conversation it is it up a conversation we want to play a couple man on the streets of what people think about this issue that we're talking about if we could just. why not address it internationally i mean just because it isn't settled here i mean it's still something that needs to be addressed and eyeing actually surprised that it isn't settled in the united states

it's ridiculous this is a civil rights issue and we shouldn't be fighting this in two thousand and twelve i think that we're getting involved in a lot of people's business that we have no right being involved and it later on comes back and bites us on the behind and i think we need to deal with that internal dark country and i don't know that's something that we need to be involved in other countries with for a long time this him in a straight shooting which i voted for supposedly stands for human rights and supports equality for all has done nothing for damn lesbian people and now that his election is in trouble and he want he needs to raise money and excite the base he's announced a quote change in policy that's not a change at all. so it seems like people are pretty divided about the issue do you think jimi that this was politically pandering to the gay voters with obama's endorsement of same sex marriage and also this kind of international appeal i

absolutely think that the same sex marriage position is a political. strategy of his it has been throughout his whole career from the time he was a state senator changing positions on this issue however the international piece is is something that is not new as i said before george bush is the best room spoke out on this and and it's something that deserves a higher profile do you think that has same sex marriage position as you just said it was just political pandering kind of what will it take i mean if you guys can't even agree on this issue here you know you're two americans in this country we have the country pretty much divided right now half what will it take for people to really agree on this issue well it's happening all over the world some countries are choosing to. have same sex marriage and some countries aren't and it's just a long dialogue that we're having in this country and in other countries and why i

just don't understand really the role of this country to take this about i mean like you said we have a lot of other priorities on our plate right now is it really the job of the government to do this is the job of every individual to speak out when when somebody is being wronged and when you see bigotry you should stand up to it and it doesn't matter who you are or where you are so we just sent marie carmen a point day to el salvador to be the ambassador as a pro gay rights advocate as we said how come we're not seeing progress or gay rights advocates to countries like uganda or saudi arabia. you know i would say i'm not sure that's entirely fair question i think you know per people's personal views are necessarily how they're going to serve in an office you know i would hope that you know the global consensus i think the one that strikes the right balance between respecting human beings who are you know whether they're coming from and respecting a core civil institution like marriage would be complete on the side of affirming

gay and lesbian people's rights as human beings while also affirming the course of the institution of marriage as you know husband wife and i think that makes sense as a good global policy and i think it answers a lot of the questions because that one on the one hand removes what i see as bigotry on either hand affirms or i see is the right of a people no matter where their country to stand for saying it is good and i believe that for the for the future for our children for civil society they're bringing men and women together to make and love and raise and create the next generation of something that is not just american ideals jamie says it's a universal ideal tone or speaking against bigotry or do you see any hypocrisy and not advocating rights to gay couples in this country that want these same options access to whatever it is that people get the you know it's not just the institution it's actually the rights that are granted in accordance against a sure i think you put i think you put your finger on it which is that the great american achievement is that you are able to disagree civil and someone who has

strong primaries uses myself or jimmy strongly disagree about what marriage is we have that right within the american democracy to argue for those views to use every you know every means our disposal to do so that's a good thing but again like what i disagree with strongly is equating anti-gay animists with being pro marriage that's that's that's a bridge that i think that gay rights activists have never really at been able to bridge because the vast majority of americans simply don't feel that when they vote for marriage they're discriminating they don't that's why they continually vote that one way. and you have the response i just think that he believes in freedom to a point and he's drawing a line at freedom and i think that you're either free or not free thomas but i'd also say that yeah you know i happen to agree with thomas that marriage is a good thing i think it's so good that gay people should have it. and i wanted to get back to this ambassador situation and kind of the international thing that that the u.s. is trying to push do you think that this could also be

a political strategy to go after countries like iran while at the same time once again ignoring saudi arabia or other countries that are allies and really use this as saying you know we're going to put sanctions on you or or combat you for not having a pro gay rights stance well i think the issue of iran is is is very severe. they they kill gay people there simply because they're gay there are organizations who smuggle gay people out of iran so they can live freely and so we absolutely should raise that issue. in terms of using it in other areas of policy you know if it's part of it all and i absolutely think that we should raise the issue of iran you know when it comes to being in solidarity with people across the globe i really what strikes me as surprising is this idea if you go to a country like iran that redefining marriage will be the way that you stand up for the rights of all people in iran i don't see that as that the most efficient way to

go about it i would i would strongly support sort of a broad based approach like you know saying that people have there's no reason on god's green earth to attack kill harass people based on their orientation but the way to go about that is by saying those things not by redefining marriage but by also taking away rights that are granted to married couples in this country i mean doesn't that inhibit there is not discrimination against gay people i think that's nothing about where the debate is in all these foreign countries but it's the debate here well i think you're just saying earlier that you don't see why the debate that's unsettled here should now be settled in foreign countries so i agree with the earlier version of what you're saying all right well thanks so much for both joining as you guys and stuff like that you could talk about all day i really appreciate you guys coming on thank you i think you as jimi of the salvia co-founder and director and executive director of go proud and thomas peters cultural director for the national organization on marriage. improving agriculture or improving lives this is the motto of month santo the ag giant who is the world's second largest producer of genetically modified seeds the company that's come under

scrutiny with their battle against small farmers suing over one hundred forty four of them for patent infringement to combat the corporation farmers have attempted to fight back last year two hundred seventy thousand small farmers tried to sue months santo for their city practices but a district judge dismissed a lawsuit now five million brazilian farmers are suing the company saying that monsanto collects unfair annual royalties for renewable harvests and there seems to explain more about the lawsuit and what's next for the battle of small farmers against one santo i'm joined by shelly roche from style dot tv hey shelly can you talk a little bit more about this lawsuit i mean five million farmers is a lot yeah that's a huge number it's really unprecedented as far as monsanto is concerned and basically the lawsuit is that once a farmer buys months into its seed they have to pay an annual royalty fee that that

essentially goes on forever so they have no way out once they've bought the seed this actually violates the brazilian cultivars act which gives farmers the legal right to multiply any seeds that they buy. and is this happening and any other country where people are fighting back against the specific policy of the renewable i know that there's there's pat infringement lawsuits and from monsanto and i know that people are fighting just the g.m. seeds but is there any other lawsuits that compare to this. well this is actually the first of this gale that we're seeing there certainly then numerous lawsuits because this policy of monsanto is just so it's been so carefully and successfully designed that you know once they get a farmer sucked in to using their seeds and their herbicide and their pesticide that farmer is essentially a customer for life whether they want to be or not and it becomes a devastating cycle so this is certainly come up in other comment countries but

but it's very hard for small farmers to band together to the extent that we're seeing in brazil why brazil sheli why five million farmers in brazil what is going on there well in g.m. those were originally introduced to brazil illegally and once they became illegal they became very popular very quickly to the point where eighty five percent of brazilians so what it is now genetically engineered so it's really it's a huge crop for them it's one of their big profits for farming and so it's it's really. you know we have a large concentration of farmers and they've been able to to really organize and get this going and what do you think the case is more symbolic at that's what i mean i know that there are two hundred seventy thousand farmers who attempted to

sue monsanto in the case got dropped what do you think is going to happen with this is there really a chance to succeed here. well they've already won you know in in court but that's really just the start of the battle monsanto has demonstrated time and time again that they have the resources they have the connections. to squash any sort of opposition so it's going to be really interesting to see how they how they counteract this and you know how successful they are i think that the scale that we're looking at again it's really going to differentiate this case from some others of its kind but it's still it's still going to be an uphill battle sholay it seems like a lot of countries in the world are very aware of the issue of genetically modified seeds of crops and i know that there were organic farmers here that obviously know about it because months endos going after them but i mean why do you think the majority of americans are would you say that they're blissfully unaware of the

subject yeah absolutely you know it's been estimated that up to seventy five percent of americans daily diet is genetically modified and people people just don't know we don't have any sort of labeling that happens. and you know if you look at the original of when g.m.o. is came to the market. in the early ninety's the f.d.a. established a no testing policy for genetically modified foods on the grounds that they were substantially equivalent to unmodified and therefore perfectly safe so this this then enabled monsanto and these other companies to basically just flood the market with their products without any sort of differentiation or testing so so now we're in a situation where nearly all of the foods that can buy at the grocery store have some sort of modified product in them and there's really no way to tell which and

then modify and which haven't. interesting you know i mean corn syrup is pretty much in almost everything i wanted to read you something you were just talking about the f.d.a. and i want to read you a quote actually from phil angle director of corporate communications for monsanto he says monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food our interest is in selling as much of it as possible assuring that safety is the f.d.a. is job but shelly i mean michael taylor the former vice president monsanto's the head advisor at the f.d.a. what so really what can we do when there's such a revolving door between this corporation and the regulatory bodies yeah i mean this is this is disgraceful it's outrageous what's happened if if you know back in the early ninety's michael taylor was responsible for crafting the f.d.a. g.m.o. policy and you know we've seen since then dozens of internal memos that have been

leaked that reveal the f.d.a. scientists were actually very concerned about the human health and environmental implications of g.m.o. is and did not consider them in any way equivalent or safe so you know you can see that science was not really a factor in the f.d.a. . and now michael tanner the man who was responsible for that subsequently went back to monsanto and now enjoys a position as food safety czar is it different here in america than any other country it seems like a lot of european countries have either banned them or at least labeled them and we just saw poland be protesting that monsanto's g m a's is killing the bees i mean what do you think is the problem here is there just an insane amount of lobbying. yeah yeah i mean it's a huge it's a huge problem where there's government collusion with with monsanto and these other companies so these these big biotech firms are in essence crafting the policy

that gives them competitive advantage and really precludes any sort of competition new companies from entering the market and so it makes the public demand. less less likely to have any effect because monsanto doesn't have to do what the public wants if you look at the research one one in four americans things that g.m.o. is are essentially safe and over half of people who have been told say that they would not buy of food that they know to be genetically modified so if you look at of what what the people want and what people are getting it's two different things and you know there's there's one reason for that and it's because these companies have basically run amok within our government and crafted all of these policies shelly i wanted you to go back to the scene of renewal process how people are mandated to buy new seems every year what do you think's going to happen though i

mean we already know that there's super we now super bugs that are resistant to the big crops and also the pesticides so what do you think monsanto is going to do when they no longer work oh well they're already developing stronger more toxic pesticides and herbicides and so this is again part of that devastating cycle that that the farmer gets trapped in they make a huge investment they invest in all of this nonsense or technology their first crop is great and then every subsequent crop they start getting these resistant super we've the bugs come in and then they've got to buy more pesticide more herbicide and then they have to start applying more toxic herbicide of pesticide and pretty soon either you can see where this is going. i want to just to quickly wrap up the segment talk about the terminator scene monsanto's scene that will actually destroy itself after one. almost sounds like

a weapon i mean i don't know why why do you think that they would need to produce something like that yeah it's really scary actually that technology because once it gets released into the wild that it cross-pollinate and contamination occurs which we've seen with all of their products. you don't know what's going to happen you don't know what's going to happen when a bird eats the seed that's that's been treated with the terminator gene and you know the obvious reason for them to create that is so that they can force farmers to buy new seeds every year so it's highly profitable for them but it's also incredibly dangerous technology that we really don't want it is very interesting and we'll definitely have you on again to talk more about this thanks so much shelly i was showing roche from buy a style t.v. . couple account is up next on our team so let's check in with lauren mister to see what's on today's agenda what's going on lauren well first of all happy friday abby

and i really like that interview on g m o's he just did that was really interesting and hopefully our interview will be equally interesting because there is a lot going on in the financial world that impacts everyone abby because this is a global economy and right now we have a country heavily indebted that may or may not stay in the euro zone may or may not default on its debts may or may not cause some kind of event that could rattle global markets affect investors everywhere affected people within this country and the broader euro zone trickle over to the united states i'm talking about greece and there are elections are this weekend and what hangs in the balance is a lot of major changes that could come out of who was elected so we'll break it down in our show just a couple minutes here abbie thanks so much lauren a little bit checking that out some very intense it is that does it for now for more on the stories we cover go to you tube dot com slash our to america or check out our website or to dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter. and

a half hour.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing up for a shelter all day please. please .