News

2014-05-26 | permalink

Croatia: GMOs? No, thank you!

The European debate on the authorization for cultivating Pioneer 1507 corn has raised fears in the youngest country of the Union, where all regions have declared themselves "GMO free".

It is the youngest country of the European Union – a little over four million inhabitants – and elects only eleven MEPs. Yet, Croatia, with its 2.6 million hectares of arable land, could become the Europe's wheat belt. "We have almost a million hectares of fallow land, ready for organic production, which must be defended against GMOs", explains Katica Knezović of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Zagreb.

2014-05-24 | permalink

Mexico and Monsanto: Taking Precaution in the Face of Genetic Contamination

The entire country of Mexico should be declared a “center of origin” for maize, with no permitted GM cultivation. (.....) Studies have found the presence of transgenes in native maize in nearly half of Mexico’s states. A study of maize diversity within the confines of Mexico’s sprawling capital city revealed transgenic maize in 70 percent of the samples from the area of Xochimilco and 49 percent of those from Tlalpan.

Mexico is the “center of origin” where maize was first domesticated from its wild ancestor, teocinte. The country is arguably the last place you’d want to risk the possibility that its wide array of native seeds might be undermined by what indigenous people have called “genetic pollution” from GM maize. (.....) ”If the seeds of maize are sold or exchanged, the contamination will grow exponentially,” he warned. “That is the point of no return.”

2014-05-23 | permalink

Oregon, USA: Jackson and Josephine counties ban cultivation of GMO crops

Despite the flood of corporate money poured into two small Oregon counties, local residents voted on Tuesday to ban genetically engineered crops from being planted within their borders. Although Jackson County itself is home to less than 120,000 registered voters, the measure to ban genetically modified crops (GMOs) made headlines around the nation when it was revealed that large biotech companies like Monsanto were pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the area in order to affect the vote’s outcome. As RT reported previously, Monsanto and five other corporations spent at least $455,000 in an attempt to defeat the initiative, and opponents of the GMO ban had gained an eight-to-one spending advantage as of April. According to the Associated Press, nearly $1 million of the $1.3 million spent during the campaign was used by opponents. When the results were tallied, however, 66 percent of Jackson County residents voted in favor of the ban.

2014-05-22 | permalink

New Zealand: High Court Prevents GM Developers Bypassing GM Laws

The High Court has quashed a decision by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) that would have allowed developers of genetically modified crops to bypass New Zealand’s GM laws. The Court found the EPA misinterpreted the law when it decided that GMOs from two new breeding techniques could go into New Zealand fields without any formal consultation or assessment of the impacts. The EPA was also criticised for failing to act cautiously in the face of uncertainty. This was not a routine approval for a minor field trial. This was the EPA putting new methods for making GMOs beyond the law without having properly understood that law or properly investigating the consequences. The decision placed New Zealand at risk of losing overnight its status as a GM Free food producer without a public process to assess what would be lost.

2014-05-21 | permalink

Sale of controversial GMO seed delayed after protests across Canada

MONTREAL — A tiny, genetically modified seed is pitting Quebec farmers against the biotech industry.

A GM version of alfalfa, a staple in livestock feed, was supposed to be launched in Canada this year. The product, produced with technology by Monsanto, the world’s largest seed-and-chemical company, has already been approved by the federal government. But after protests across the country, farmers learned in March that the controversial seed won’t be here for at least another year. (.....) The Quebec Federation of Milk Producers, the Quebec Federation of Organic Agriculture, the Filière biologique du Québec and the UPA recently declared that they “strongly deplore” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s approval of GM alfalfa varieties in April 2013. The widespread resistance among farmers and seed companies is one reason that the seed won’t be released this year, says Victor Lefebvre, Quebec director of Pickseed, a company that had planned to sell GM alfalfa.