News

2012-08-01 |

Fighting GMO labeling in California (USA) is food lobby’s ”highest priority”

In case you had any doubt that California's Prop 37 -- which would require labeling of food containing genetically-modified organisms -- is a significant threat to industry, a top food lobby has now made it perfectly clear. In a recent speech to the American Soybean Association (most soy grown in the U.S. is genetically modified), Grocery Manufacturers Association President Pamela Bailey said that defeating the initiative ”is the single-highest priority for GMA this year.” [...] According to state filing reports, so far GMA has spent $375,000 on its efforts to oppose the labeling measure, with its members adding additional out-of-state lobbying power in the tens of thousands of dollars.

2012-07-31 |

Monsanto profits from right-wing coup d´etat in Paraguay

Another right-wing coup d'état has toppled a democratically elected president in Latin America. Three years after the coup in Honduras that deposed President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009, the same forces have overthrown President Fernando Lugo in Paraguay. [...] The U.S.-based transnational giant Monsanto is implicated in the events in Paraguay. Monsanto planned to introduce a genetically modified seed for commercial use in the country. Under Lugo's administration, Paraguay's National Service for Plants and Seeds Quality and Health refused to approve the seed's use. The right-wing oligarchs favor the dissemination of Monsanto seeds, while the peasantry has been demonstrating against it. The Union of Associations of Producers, a landowners group tied to Monsanto, was preparing a demonstration for June 25 against Lugo to benefit the giant transnational and the ”liberalization” of its genetically modified seeds. Obviously, they do not need to protest at this point.

2012-07-31 |

GM potato trial ’threatens Ireland’s image’

John Spink is head of crop research at Teagasc, the Irish food development authority that has applied for the licence. ”We need to do this trial in Ireland because our environment is different from other parts of the EU,” Mr Spink told BBC News. ”It's not about commercialising GM potatoes. We're looking at impacts on the environment and on the pathogen itself.” But campaigners believe that the trial is risking Ireland's reputation as a green, clean food-producing island. The Organic Trust in Dublin says that this approval has ”grave ramifications for Irish food and farming”.

2012-07-31 |

UK GE wheat trials: The Rothamsted GM debate

After nearly a decade during which the UK has been substantially GM-free, the government has subsidised Rothamsted, the agricultural research station, to conduct an open-air trial of a GM wheat transgenically engineered to repel aphids. In early May, Rothamsted invited protesters planning to demonstrate against the trial to a public dialogue. The Land responded to Rothamsted proposing a debate by email, the first part of which is published here. The six questions we put to Rothamsted focus mainly on the ethics and wisdom of breaking a de facto moratorium on GM in the UK (and most of Europe), rather than on technical aspects of this particular experiment.

2012-07-30 |

Discussions on strategies for sustainable GMO-free approaches to food security

The second International Biosafety Conference in conjunction with the 6th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (MOP-6) will be held on Sept 28-29 in Hyderabad, India, right before MOP-6, which is scheduled for Oct 1-5, 2012. The conference titled "Advancing the Understanding of Biosafety GMO Risk Assessment, Independent Biosafety Research and Holistic Analysis" is organized by the European Network of Scientists European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsibility (ENSSER), Tara Foundation and Third World Network (TWN). The topics include: Developments in GMO risk assessment, including discussion of the international standards on risk assessment in the context of the Cartagena Protocol’s “Roadmap for Risk Assessment and Management”; Socioeconomic considerations in GMO decision making; Latest scientific findings generated from independent biosafety research.

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