News
2011-11-07 | permalink
Peru’s Congress approves 10-year GMO ban
Peru’s Congress announced Friday it overwhelmingly approved a 10-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified organisms in order to safeguard the country’s biodiversity. The measure bars GMOs -- including seeds, livestock, and fish -- from being imported for cultivation or to be raised locally. Exceptions include the use of GMO products for research purposes in a closed environment, but those will be closely monitored, the legislature’s official news service said.
2011-10-21 | permalink
EuropaBio secretly recruiting high-profile ”ambassadors” to lobby European leaders on GM policy
Europe’s largest and most influential biotech industry group, whose members include Monsanto, Bayer and other GM companies, is recruiting high-profile ”ambassadors” to lobby European leaders on GM policy. [...] The 10 or more ambassadors will not be paid directly, but the lobbyists have offered to write, research and place articles in their names, arrange interviews and speaking engagements with the Financial Times and other international media, and secure for them what could be lucrative speaking slots at major conferences.
The Guardian, UK: Biotech group bids to recruit high-profile GM ’ambassadors’- The Guardian, UK: How Mark Lynas riled the green movement
- Greenpeace International European Unit, Belgium: Media reports on biotech lobby group plan to recruit GM ‘ambassadors’
- Greenpeace International European Unit, Belgium: The Biotech industry’s latest desperate ploy: blame the people
2011-10-10 | permalink
Belize government orders destruction of illegal GE maize - Toledo Maya call for ban
The Toledo Maya who have been planting corn for genertions are skeptical of these claims, because innumerable other schemes have been foisted upon them by agricultural “experts” over the decades,causing hardship for the Maya while their traditional methods continue to sustain them. They see GMO corn as a dangerous experiment which can cause them grief. The Toledo Maya are not the only opponents to GMO crops being introduced to Belize, Mark Miller of Punta Gorda Town also called for the Belize Agricultural Health Authority to stop any importation of GMO seed until proper consultations with the public can be held.
2011-10-06 | permalink
Canadian GM canola has escaped into wilds of North Dakota (USA)
Genetically modified canola has escaped from the farm and is thriving in the wild across North Dakota, according to a study that indicates there are plenty of novel man-made genes crossing the Canada-U.S. border. GM canola was found growing everywhere from ditches to parking lots, the scientists report, with some of the highest densities along a trucking route into Canada. [...] At almost half of the 634 stops they found genetically modified canola. At some locations there were thousands of GM plants growing. [...] Perhaps most significant, they said, is the fact that two of plants had combinations of herbicide resistance that had not been developed commercially. “That suggests to us there is breeding going on, either in the field or in these roadside populations, to create new combinations of traits,” said Sagers. “In terms of evolutionary biology it’s pretty amazing.”
2011-10-05 | permalink
Battle escalates against genetically modified crops in the USA
Home to a fast-growing network of farmers’ markets, cooperatives and organic farms, but also the breeding ground for mammoth for-profit corporations that now hold patents to over 50 percent of the world’s seeds, the United States is weathering a battle between Big Agro and a ripening movement for food justice and security.
Conflicting ideologies about agriculture have become ground zero for this war over the production, distribution and consumption of the world’s food.
- International Press Service, Italy (IPS): U.S.: Battle escalates against genetically modified crops
- CBS, USA: Activists plan march against genetically-modified food
- National Public Radio, USA (NPR): Americans are wary of genetically engineered foods
- Business Week, USA: Monsanto spent $1.7 million lobbying gov’t in 2Q
