News
2013-03-22 | permalink
Mexican farmers protest the entrance of GMO corn
Since its introduction of genetically modified crops, Monsanto has generated a sea of controversy among small farmers across the U.S., and the company is now trying to expand south into Mexico. After years of trying to penetrate the Mexican market, Monsanto, Dupont, and Dow had a breakthrough when outgoing Mexican president Felipe Calderón granted them the right to cultivate GMO corn in various northern Mexican states. Protesting the influx of genetically modified crops in their country, activists, farmers, and academics all across Mexico have been mobilizing to urge the new Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto to reject these permissions.
The Real News Network, Mexico: Mexican farmers protest the entrance of GMO corn2013-03-19 | permalink
New European campaign against GM crops
FARMERS AND green groups have joined together to launch a new campaign aimed at halting the authorisation of 25 genetically modified crops currently being considered for cultivation in Europe. The ‘Stop the Crop’ campaign claims that GM technology is having a ‘devastating impact’ in other countries as a result of the increased pesticide use it involves. [...] In the coming months, the EU Environment Council is expected to decide on whether or not to approve the 25 new GM crops for cultivation in Europe.
2013-03-19 | permalink
Obama administration establishes Monsanto’s sovereignty over the U.S. seed industry
Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice quietly closed a three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America’s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn. Despite a splash of press coverage when the investigation was initially announced, its termination went mostly unreported. The DOJ released no written public statement. Only a brief press release from Monsanto conveyed the news. The lack of attention belies the significance of the decision, both for food consumers around the world and for U.S. businesses. Experts who have examined Monsanto’s conduct say the Justice Department’s decision not to act all but officially establishes the firm’s sovereignty over the U.S. seed industry.
2013-03-18 | permalink
Genetically modified potatoes are studied and criticized in Ireland
Mullins and his team have spent the winter cloning new potato stock in a locked, temperature controlled room and, nearby, a secured greenhouse bay where the plant is isolated and any waste must be sterilized in a steamer. In the spring, they will start the test by setting out more than 2,000 transplants in a fenced field at the Irish agricultural research service’s farm. “There’s a lot of public interest” in his work, Mullins said. Not all of it is friendly. Genetic engineering remains highly controversial in Europe, and the research in Ireland has spawned a campaign against it. The field trials in Carlow are harming Ireland’s reputation for local, organic and artisanal food, said Kaethe Burt-O’Dea, a Dublin-based local-food activist. “People feel that once you let GM in, there’s really no turning back,” she said.
2013-03-18 | permalink
FAO warns Uganda against genetically modified foods
The food and agriculture organization of the United Nations has warned Uganda against the use of genetically modified organisms to improve food production saying they impact on the environment. [...] addressing Journalists over the weekend, the director general of FAO José Graziano da Silva opposed the use of GMOs as means of increasing food production to fight hunger. “We don’t need them now, we don’t know what will happen to areas of production and the crops,” said Graziano Brazil’s extra ordinary minister of food security and fight against hunger.
