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Moms Across America founder Zen Honeycutt took on Monsanto chief Hugh Grant at the company's Annual General Meeting - and won, winning 53% of the vote on a call for Monsanto to reform its practices and safeguard the health of millions of children exposed to its toxic products - and Roundup in particular. In her own words, this is what took place ...

David Schubert is professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN)One would expect that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the best interests of the public in mind, but its recent decisions have cast serious doubt upon this assumption.

One in particular could have a dramatic impact on the safety of the U.S. food supply: It is the mandate of the EPA to regulate the use of agricultural chemicals like insecticides and herbicides, as well as to determine their allowable limits in food and drinking water.

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What does this all mean? Consumers should consider purchasing certified organic soy and corn products until the EPA withdraws its allowance of food crops that contain herbicides, and every effort should be made to prevent the introduction of additional herbicide resistant crops. These food additives are not good for you or your children.

NGOs say government needs to institute measures to protect ecosystem from potentially harmful or invasive plant species

The reason genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have sparked such fears isn’t just about safety issues without clear facts, or irrational labeling practices. While South Korea has been emerging as the world’s second biggest importer of GMO crops, mystery plants have been taking root all over the country. The genetically modified (GM) crops that are growing in South Korean soil are a major issue in a country with a government ban on their cultivation. They stand as a stark signal that fears of imported GMOs disrupting the local ecosystem are already becoming a reality.

A National Institute of Ecology (NIE) monitoring report on the effects of GMOs on the natural environment, acquired on Dec. 30 by the Hankyoreh, showed GM corn and cotton discoveries across the country in 2013. Corn was found in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province; Gimje, North Jeolla Province; and Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. Cotton was found in no fewer than fifteen locations.

“Analysis of 521 suspected GM samples collected from 647 regions showed a total of 21 GM crops in eighteen regions,” the NIE said.

A statement signed by over 300 scientists and legal experts to the effect that there is “No consensus” on the safety of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods has been published in a peer-reviewed open access journal, Environmental Sciences Europe. It now belongs to the body of open peer-reviewed scientific literature and stands as a citable publication.

Dr Angelika Hilbeck, one of the authors of the published statement and chair of ENSSER, said, "As well as receiving the endorsement of the peer reviewers at the journal, the statement has also been peer-reviewed and transparently endorsed by more than 300 scientists and experts from relevant fields of inquiry, including molecular biologists and biotechnologists."

The statement was first published in late 2013 in response to claims from the GM industry and some scientists and commentators that there is a “scientific consensus” that GM foods and crops are safe for human and animal health and the environment. The statement calls these claims “misleading”, adding, “The claimed consensus on GMO safety does not exist.”

Dear Commissioner Andriukaitis,

In the interest of protecting the environment and public health, genetically modified crops are subject to risk assessment, an authorisation process and labelling rules under EU law. All nontraditional breeding processes that change the structure of DNA using genetic engineering technologies or interfere with gene regulation fall within the scope of these GM regulations. Some are now calling on the European Commission to exempt new genetic engineering techniques from GM rules. The undersigned groups argue that such an exception could threaten the environment and our health, and would violate EU law.

Any attempt to engineer genomes by invasive methods can cause unexpected and unpredictable effects. For example, “cisgenesis” - a genetic engineering technique that uses genes from the same

species - is still genetic engineering and is therefore subject to unexpected and unpredictable effects caused by the genetic engineering process itself, and not by the trait or sequence inserted. New techniques to genetically engineer plants and animals, such as so-called DNA scissors (nucleases) and interventions in gene regulation, raise additional concerns.

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27 January 2015

Francesco Panella, President, Bee-life European Beekeeping Coordination

Nina Holland, Researcher, Corporate Europe Observatory

Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, Co-Director, Econexus, UK

Andrea Ferrante, Coordinating Committee, European Coordination Via Campesina

Mute Schimpf, Food Campaigner, Friends of the Earth Europe

Dr Helen Wallace, Director, GeneWatch, UK,

Saskia Richartz, Acting Director, Greenpeace European Unit

Christoph Then, Executive Director, Testbiotech, Germany

DuPont acknowledged a dent to seed sales in Brazil from the resistance of a major insect pest to genetically modified traits as the chemicals conglomerate unveiled a fourth successive quarter of declining agriculture sales.

The US-based group, unveiling results for the October-to-December quarter in line with Wall Street expectations, said that revenues at its agricultural division fell 4.1% to $1.73bn.

The decline reflected in part a 1% drop in sales of agrochemicals which, with a rise in sales volumes more than offset by a greater mix of lower priced products, and by currency headwinds.

However, the drop was in the main down to DuPont's seeds business, Pioneer, which saw sales drop by 7%, thanks in the main to setbacks in Brazil.

Campaign groups and the biotech industry are digging in for a new round of conflict, following the European Union's decision to allow member states to set their own rules on growing genetically modified organisms.

Environmentalists who favor a GMO ban say the crops have not been properly tested - posing health risks for consumers and giving a small group of corporations too much control over food supplies. The biotech industry says farmers should be free to grow whatever crops they want, and GMOs are a safe way to boost food production and feed the planet's growing population.

Since the European Parliament vote on Jan. 13, neither industry nor campaigners have claimed victory.

Under planned legislation, expected to be finalised in March, member states would not be able to block GMOs with domestic health or environmental regulations.

Instead, countries that oppose cultivation can negotiate with companies individually, to ask them not to market the products on their territory. States would also be able to block GMOs under town planning and other rules.

FDA could set millions of genetically modified mosquitoes loose in Florida Keys (January 26, 2015)

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Third World Network: Caution Sounded on GM Mosquito Strategy to Control Diseases

Recent research in Panama, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, raises concerns about the strategy of using GM Aedes aegypti mosquito to control diseases. The GM mosquitoes, genetically modified by the British firm Oxitec to render the mosquito larvae unviable, were released in field trials in Panama in April 2014. The aim is to greatly reduce Ae. aegypti populations and with it, the incidence of dengue.

However, Ae. aegypti and the Asian tiger mosquito, Ae. albopictus are ecologically very similar. Both can spread Chikungunya as well as dengue. Chikungunya, a tropical disease that causes fever, fatigue and joint swelling, spread rapidly throughout the Americas in 2014 and the first case was reported in Panama in May 2014. The research found that Ae. albopictus was spreading across the country, relying on road networks to disperse.

Two main concerns were raised in relation to GM mosquitoes:

(1) Ae. albopictus’ aggressive invasive nature could help it colonize areas where GM mosquitoes have wiped out local populations of Ae. aegypti and elevate Chikungunya to a more widespread public health threat; and

(2) Ae. aegypti (including wild forms) could re-establish itself in the absence of continuous release of the GM versions, which would be very expensive for Panama.

Either occurrence could facilitate the spread of Chikungunya and dengue in Panama. “In this particular case, where you’ve got two mosquitoes that can do the same thing, but the GM approach is only going to affect one of them, it doesn’t make sense at all,” says Matthew Miller, one of the researchers of the study.

Nielsen: Global consumers partial to natural, GMO-free foods

Asked what health attributes are very important when buying food, consumers in a global survey by Nielsen ranked “all-natural” and “GMO-free” at the top. Nielsen, a market researcher, polled 30,000 online respondents in 60 countries to gauge healthy eating trends, releasing the results Tuesday. Consumers were asked to rate 27 “health attributes” of food from “very important” to “not important” in their purchase decisions. The top two, each considered very important by 43 percent of global respondents, were foods with all natural ingredients and foods without ingredients containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

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Farm-state poll asks consumers about 'organic' and 'GMO' food label claims - Food labels indicating 'GMO,' 'organic,' or 'hormone-free' are helpful, but their claims raise skepticism, Iowa's Food & Family Project study finds.

More consumers say they find food labels helpful, but confidence in the trustworthiness of labels has declined, and falls even more when consumers are provided additional information about such claims, according to a new poll conducted in by the Iowa Food & Family Project. The poll included responses from 353 health-conscious Iowans who make the majority of their household's food purchases. With a 4.3% margin of error, it asked participants' take on food labels like "natural," "local," "organic," "hormone-free," "antibiotic-free" and "GMO-free." Food labels indicating GMO, organic, or hormone-free are helpful, but their claims raise skepticism, Iowas Food & Family Project study finds

Food labels indicating 'GMO,' 'organic,' or 'hormone-free' are helpful, but their claims raise skepticism, Iowa's Food & Family Project study finds

Four new sites designated Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems for innovation, sustainability and adaptability

15/12/2015 Rome, Italy

Four traditional farming systems in Bangladesh and Japan have been designated today by FAO as "Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems."

They include Bangladesh's floating gardens, a unique hydroponics production system constructed with natural grasses and plants, which have been developed in flood areas; and a trio of sites in Japan: the sustainable river fisheries utilizing Sato-kawa system in Gifu, the Minabe-Tanabe Ume approach to growing apricots on nutrient-poor slopes in Wakayama; and the Takachihogo-Shiibayama mountainous agriculture and forestry system in Miyazaki which allows agricultural and forestry production in a steep mountainous area.

The sites were officially recognized during a joint meeting of the GIAHS Steering and Scientific Committee at FAO headquarters in Rome.

These new designations bring the number of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) systems to a total of 36 sites located in 15 countries in Africa, Latin America, Near East and Asia.