Articles

Pesticides in paradise: Hawaii's spike in birth defects puts focus on GM crops

Local doctors are in the eye of a storm swirling for the past three years over whether corn that’s been genetically modified to resist pesticides is a source of prosperity, as companies claim, or of birth defects and illnesses

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Today, about 90% of industrial GMO corn grown in the US was originally developed in Hawaii, with the island of Kauai hosting the biggest area. The balmy weather yields three crops a year instead of one, allowing the companies to bring a new strain to market in a third of the time.

Once it’s ready, the same fields are used to raise seed corn, which is sent to contract farms on the mainland. It is their output, called by critics a pesticide delivery system, that is sold to the US farmers, along with the pesticides manufactured by the breeder that each strain has been modified to tolerate.

Corn’s uses are as industrial as its cultivation: less than 1% is eaten. About 40% is turned into ethanol for cars, 36% becomes cattle feed, 10% is used by the food industry and the rest is exported.

‘We just want to gather information’

Growers returning to unaltered crops

High sale prices of non-GMO yields have many buying conventional seeds

ST. LOUIS -- Five years ago, Dan Beyers took his farm in a new direction. Or, rather, back in an old direction. The Pana, Ill.-area farmer had been using corn and soybean seeds genetically modified to work with glyphosate -- the generic name for Monsanto's signature Roundup herbicide. But he reached a point at which he said it no longer made sense from a dollars standpoint.

So he turned his back on GMO crops.

"As they added more traits, we didn't really see a yield advantage. And every time they added a trait, they added cost," said Beyers, who said he also worries that GMO seeds could be damaging his soil.

Roundup may cause potentially fatal 'adrenal insufficiency'

GMWatch & The Ecologist

A new study finds that the Roundup herbicide disrupts the hormonal system of rats at low levels at which it's meant to produce no adverse effects. By the same mechanism It may be causing the potentially fatal condition of 'adrenal insufficiency' in humans.

Perspective: GMOs, Herbicides, and Public Health

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., and Charles Benbrook, Ph.D.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are not high on most physicians' worry lists. If we think at all about biotechnology, most of us probably focus on direct threats to human health, such as prospects for converting pathogens to biologic weapons or the implications of new technologies for editing the human germline. But while those debates simmer, the application of biotechnology to agriculture has been rapid and aggressive. The vast majority of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States are now genetically engineered. Foods produced from GM crops have become ubiquitous. And unlike regulatory bodies in 64 other countries, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require labeling of GM foods.

Two recent developments are dramatically changing the GMO landscape. First, there have been sharp increases in the amounts and numbers of chemical herbicides applied to GM crops, and still further increases — the largest in a generation — are scheduled to occur in the next few years. Second, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified glyphosate, the herbicide most widely used on GM crops, as a “probable human carcinogen” and classified a second herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), as a “possible human carcinogen.”

This week, Scotland's rural affairs secretary, Richard Lochhead, announced that he is to request that the country be excluded from the scope of EU consents for the cultivation of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In this update, we take a look at the new EU legislation governing that request. As a result of that legislation, EU member states now have additional power to decide to what extent they are prepared to permit GMOs to be grown in their territories. This makes public perception of GMOs and the state of local scientific knowledge more important and may result in an increase in limitations on the growing of genetically modified crops in Europe.

Testbiotech - Tuesday, 18. August 2015

The EU Commission is refusing to let independent experts have access to the report prepared by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on the risk assessment of glyphosate. In a letter to Testbiotech dated 10 August 2015, the Commission says that the documents made available to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) by the German government “are protected in their entirety” as confidential. The EU Commission can see “no overriding public interest” that would justify access. There is, however, clearly public interest in the matter since the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World health Organisation (WHO) has already declared that glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans. However, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), is claiming there would be no risk to human health.

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Despite a court ruling made by the European Court of Justice in 2013 (Case T‑545/11), which said that data relevant for the risk assessment of herbicides have to be made public, there is still no sign that the EU Commission and EU Member States are complying with this process to create more transparency.

Contact:

Christoph Then, Tel + 49 151 54638040, info@testbiotech.org

The GM Labeling Law to End All Labeling Laws

Timothy Wise of Tufts University gives an update on the GMO debate.

As the vitriol intensifies in what passes for debate over the safety of genetically modified foods, scientific inquiry, thankfully, continues. A Tufts researcher, Sheldon Krimsky, recently published his assessment of the last seven years of peer-reviewed evidence, finding 26 studies that "reported adverse effects or uncertainties of GMOs fed to animals."

If recent history is any indication, Sheldon Krimsky should expect to be slammed as a “science denier.”

The current vehemence is the product of a well-funded campaign to “depolarize” the GMO debate through “improved agricultural biotechnology communication,” in the words of the Gates Foundation-funded Cornell Alliance for Science. And it is reaching a crescendo because of the march of the Orwellian “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015” (code-named “SAFE” for easy and confusing reference) through the U.S. House of Representatives on July 23 on its way to a Senate showdown in the fall.

New revelation about glyphosate-cancer link

GMWatch

Glyphosate narrowly missed being classed as a known rather than a probable carcinogen in the World Health Organisation evaluation. Claire Robinson reports

An excellent article by Andrew Cockburn in Harpers explains that anti-invasive species hysteria is prevalent across the US, from university biology departments to wildlife bureaucracies to garden clubs. Glyphosate is the weapon of choice for battling invaders that are seen as threatening native species. Over 90 percent of California’s land managers use the compound, which is particularly recommended as a slayer of eucalyptus trees. Last year, the federal government spent more than $2 billion to fight the alien invasion, up to half of which was budgeted for glyphosate and other poisons.

In three weeks, propagating, raising or growing any kind of genetically-modified crop will be considered criminal activity in Josephine County, Oregon. That’s because a year ago on May 20, 2014, the county made American history when it passed an ordinance banning genetically-modified organisms, giving people until September 4, 2015 to remove, harvest or burn crops containing them. Made up of approximately 83,000 citizens, Josephine Country passed the “Genetically-Engineered Plant Ordinance” as part of its efforts to eliminate GMOs in the region. The community is currently planning its GMO-FREE ZONE Celebration on September 4 during which people will post signs throughout the region boasting its newly-acquired GMO-free status to visitors and residents alike.

Despite spending $800,000 in its efforts to overturn the legislation, Syngenta has been forced to remove its genetically-modified sugar beet crops in the area and move its offices out of the region. Its warehouse has been abandoned. While Syngenta claims to improve food security in an environmentally-sustainable way with its genetically-modified seed, the company faces mounting lawsuits from farmers over their inability to ship corn produced using Syngenta’s genetically-modified corn seed internationally. According to the news source, there have been over 1300 lawsuits filed by farmers in Minnesota alone. Syngenta is one of the world’s largest genetically-modified seeds manufacturers as well as the world’s largest crop chemical producer.

On July 31, 2015, we renewed the Sarson Satyagraha by taking a pledge at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat to protect the diversity, purity and safety of our mustard because “Anna Swaraj” is our birthright.

Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/gmo-my-mustard-259

The claim that ‘Terminator Mustard’ will increase yields by 30% is scientifically false and a blatant lie… The traits being introduced by GM mustard are known to be hazardous and are illegal…

India is the home of oilseed diversity — coconut, groundnut, linseed, niger, mustard, rapeseed, safflower and sesame. Our food culture have evolved with our biodiversity of oilseeds. Sarson is called sarsapa and rajika in Sanskrit. Diverse varieties of sarson are grown and used in India, including Krsna Sarsapa (Banarsi Rai), Sita Sarsapa (Peela Sarson), Rakta Sarsapa (Brown Sarson), Toria and Taramira.