News

2014-10-13 | permalink

Anti-TTIP demonstrations seize European capitals

Some 400 activist groups marched all over Europe on Saturday (11 October) in protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as the EU-US trade deal crystallises opposition to a wide variety of issues – from shale gas to corporate finance.

"TTIP, we don’t want it!"

The slogan of the numerous events held on October 11 in several European cities was plain simple.

Hamburg, Berlin, Madrid, Ljubljana, Helsinki, London, Vienna and Paris – all became the theatre of protest against the EU-US free trade agreement, but also other subjects.

2014-10-10 | permalink

Renewed concern over new risk assessment of glyphosate

Report by German authorities on the most commonly used herbicide criticised as inadequate

Friday, 10. October 2014
In a report published today, Testbiotech is highlighting the ongoing inadequacies in the risk assessment of the herbicide, glyphosate. The weed killer is sold under brand names such as Roundup. At the beginning of this year, German authorities published a Renewal Assessment Report (RAR) as part of an EU reevaluation process for the most widely used weed killer. According to the German authorities, there were no risks to health, and it was even suggested that the acceptable daily thresholds for long term exposure (ADI) to which consumers could be exposed might be raised.
In contrast to these findings, the Testbiotech analysis shows that the German assessment report is untenable in light of new scientific evidence and cites evidence from studies published in 2013 and 2014. Testbiotech concluded that risks associated with glyphosate must be examined much more closely than has been the case so far.

2014-10-09 | permalink

A perfect opportunity for U.S. farmers to fill the market for non-GMO soybeans

The fashion and foreign auto industries are playing a unique and surprising role in benefiting farmers who are taking an active role in diversifying their farms and marketing their products.

When clothes and auto parts are shipped into the United States from other countries, it creates an abundance of empty containers that need to be returned. Sending those containers back full is much more cost effective and efficient then shipping them empty. And as it turns out, the situation creates a perfect opportunity for U.S. farmers to fill the niche market for non-GMO soybeans in southeast Asia.

The DeLong Company, which is based out of Clinton, Wis. and has a location in rural northwest Ohio, helps area farmers take advantage of the demand by offering contracts for non-GMO food grade corn and soybeans at a premium. In the village of Kirby, Ohio — with a population under 150 — the elevator can house nearly 1 million bushels of grain. In a year’s time, they can turn that over more than twice with local specialty crops that comes in from farms within a 60- to 70- mile radius.

2014-10-09 | permalink

Save the date: 6-8 May 2015 Berlin - GMO Free Regions 2015

First announcement, save the date!

GMO Free Regions 2015 - Governments, Business, Scientists and Civil Society gather in Berlin

Ten years after the first European GMO Free Regions conference took place in Berlin over 60 regional governments and hundreds of companies and their associations, science groups and civil society organizations will meet on May 6-8 2015 again.

It is certainly time to celebrate enormous successes – With more than 60 regional governments within Europe united as Network of GMO Free Regions, hundreds of additional subregional entities and municipalities, farmers declared GMO Free areas and thousands of enterprises guaranteeing their products to be free of genetically modified ingredients, including also animal products, this movement has really changed the markets and the policies within the European Union and well beyond. GMO Free Regions have now been established and declared on all continents of the world, and their numbers are growing.

2014-10-08 | permalink

Modest progress in international regime on GMOs

A report on the outcome of the meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

(29 September to 3 October 2014)

By Lim Li Lin (Third World Network) and Doreen Stabinsky (College of the Atlantic, USA)

After a week of sometimes rather contentious negotiations, countries finally agreed on continued work on the international regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Clashes between countries that consider that GMOs require careful regulation, and those that continue to espouse the benefits of GMOs and hence minimal regulation, resulted in modest progress for the international biosafety regime.

The 7th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP-MOP7) to the United Nations Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was held in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, on 29 September to 3 October. These meetings are held every two years.

The Cartagena Protocol enjoys nearly universal membership, with 168 Parties. Many of the countries that are not Parties to the Protocol are large GMO producing and exporting countries, such as the United States, Canada and Argentina. A number of developing country Parties such as Brazil and Paraguay are increasingly becoming significant producers and exporters of genetically modified soya beans. In addition, some Parties or their representatives are politically or ideologically aligned with the US and its biotechnology industry.

At this meeting, the polarized positions of countries resulted in protracted squabbling during the discussions on the two issues central to decision making on GMOs - risk assessment and risk management, and socio-economic considerations.

Under the Protocol, countries are required to conduct a risk assessment in order to take decisions on whether or not to import living modified organisms (LMOs), the term used in the Protocol. Furthermore, socio-economic considerations may be taken into account when taking decisions on LMOs. Most developing countries in particular, place great emphasis on socio-economic considerations, alongside the scientific and technical risk issues, when making decisions on LMOs.