2013-12-13 | permalink
Farmers in three Australian States are seeking public support for a Senate inquiry into the post-commercialisation impacts of existing regulated GM crops – as a Western Australian (WA) farmer who lost much of livelihood due to GM contamination seeks to crowd-source legal costs for his landmark trial.
2013-12-13 | permalink
The governor of Connecticut hosted a ceremonial signing outside an organic restaurant in the city of Fairfield on Wednesday to commemorate the state’s passing of what could be the first GMO labeling law of its type in the United States.
2013-12-13 | permalink
Judgment in Case T-240/10: Hungary v Commission
The General Court has annulled the Commission’s decisions concerning authorisation to place on the market the genetically modified potato Amflora. The Commission infringed the procedural rules of the systems for authorising GMOs in the European Union. In the territory of the European Union, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) may be released into the environment or placed on the market only if consent has been given, subject to specific conditions and granted with a view to specified uses, after a scientific assessment of the risks.
2013-12-13 | permalink
One hundred civil society organizations from around the world have written to the authorities in Bangladesh, urging them to suspend the planned commercialization of Bt brinjal, genetically engineered to produce a Cry1Ac-like toxin, in Bangladesh. This is the same Mahyco-Monsanto Bt brinjal that was stopped in India, and its history there is highly relevant.
2013-12-10 | permalink
The number of scientists and experts who have signed a joint statement saying that GM foods have not been proven safe and that existing research raises concerns has climbed to 297 since the statement was released on 21 October. Dr Angelika Hilbeck, chair of the European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), which published the statement, said, “We’re surprised and pleased by the strong support for the statement. It seems to have tapped into a deep concern in the global scientific community that the name of science is being misused to make misleading claims about the safety of GM technology.”