Articles

Consumers in South Africa have won a hard earned victory with regard to the labelling of genetically modified foods. [...] According to the draft amendments, all locally produced and imported food containing 5% or more GM ingredients or components must be labelled as ”contains genetically modified ingredients or components”. [...] Mariam Mayet, Director of the African Centre for Biosafety, congratulated the DTI and praised the huge role played by consumers in demanding their right to know. [...] However, Mayet expressed disappointment that labelling will only be triggered when there is 5% or more GM content.

On August 6, Paraguay's Health and Social Welfare Ministry's sanctioned the genetically modified (GM) corn VT Triple Pro, produced by the US-based transnational corporation Monsanto. Peasant organizations oppose the decision as ”a direct attack against peasant culture and food sovereignty.” The decision will most likely have a major impact on small farmers, who have already been hurt by the expansion of genetically modified soya plantations. Farmers have raised concerns about possible genetic contamination of national corn and health effects deriving from the consumption of transgenic corn, said Tomás Zayas, leader of the Alto Paraná Farmers Association, speaking to the non-governmental organization Base Investigaciones Sociales.

Acceptance of genetically modified food in Spain reached such an extent that growers in Catalonia planted a higher proportion of their corn crop with biotech seed than peers in the US. Spanish growers raised sowings of genetically modified corn by 19.5% this year to a record 116,000 hectares, analysis of Spanish farm ministry data shows. The sowings, with Monsanto's MON 810 variety, the only biotech seed commercially grown in the European Union, accounted for some 30% of the Spanish corn crop. And it was particularly popular in Catalonia, where it accounted for 90% of seedings – a higher rate than the 88% of US corn planted with genetically modified varieties, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

French seed maker Vilmorin & Cie SA has dropped plans to conduct field tests of genetically modified crops next year in its home market because debate over the technology remains too highly charged, the company said on Wednesday. Vilmorin, the world's fourth-largest seed group, had envisaged conducting field tests in France next spring, its finance director said, but had opted to suspend those plans. ”The political climate led us to put the question on hold for now,” Daniel Jacquemond said. ”We don't want to be provocative.”

Another campaign against foods made with genetically modified organisms has materialized now that a Washington couple that consumes only an organic, vegan diet has filed an initiative that asks the state's legislature to require GMO labels on such foods. The couple, Chris and Leah McManus in Tacoma, Wash., filed the initiative, I-522, after state lawmakers let GMO labeling legislation die earlier this year. They need to collect about 250,000 signatures from Washington voters by mid-January to force the legislature to reconsider the matter, and should the legislature not enact some sort of GMO labeling law, the initiative then would go to voters in November next year.

Genetic engineering has been hailed as a panacea for the problem of global hunger and population explosion, but research studies reveal that it has failed to deliver the goods. At the same time, it has created more problems than it could solve. The Union of Concerned Scientists, an international research group based in the US, said none of the genetically engineered crops under cultivation so far has boosted farm yield or overcome the problem of drought conditions. ”Genetic engineering has actually done very little to increase the yield of food and feed crops. It appears unlikely that this technology will play a leading role in helping the world feed itself in the foreseeable future,” said the Union of Concerned Scientists. In a document — Failure to Yield — released at the CoP-11, the research group reviewed the data on soybeans and corn, the main GE food/feed crops in the USA.

U.S. farmers are using more hazardous pesticides to fight weeds and insects due largely to heavy adoption of genetically modified crop technologies that are sparking a rise of ”superweeds” and hard-to-kill insects, according to a newly released study. Genetically engineered crops have led to an increase in overall pesticide use, by 404 million pounds from the time they were introduced in 1996 through 2011, according to the report by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. Of that total, herbicide use increased over the 16-year period by 527 million pounds while insecticide use decreased by 123 million pounds.

In Kyrgyzstan, a parliamentary committee ordered the government to develop mechanisms of imposing a ban on genetically modified food. The decision was made at today's session of the Committee on Budget and Finances. [...] As MP noted, customs stations should be provided with express-tests to check foodstuffs for the presence of GMO. We also should purchase laboratory equipment for testing. ”Nobody says the law will come into force tomorrow. But agriculture development and natural food must be a priority task for us,” Elmira Dzhumaliyeva added.

The world's best-selling weedkiller, and a genetically modified maize resistant to it, can cause tumours, multiple organ damage and lead to premature death, new research published today reveals. In the first ever study to examine the long-term effects of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, or the NK603 Roundup-resistant GM maize also developed by Monsanto, scientists found that rats exposed to even the smallest amounts, developed mammary tumours and severe liver and kidney damage as early as four months in males, and seven months for females, compared with 23 and 14 months respectively for a control group.

During the past three days, Goldman Environmental Prize winner Sofía Gatica and Maria Godoy, both Argentinian activists and members of the group “Mothers of Ituzaingó”, have been travelling across Spain to expose the dangers of the cultivation of genetically modified soya and the use of glyphosate. Argentina is one of the biggest soy exporters in the world. They warned Spanish citizens - Spain being the first GM producer in the EU - that if herbicide-tolerant GM soya were cultivated in Spain, the social and environmental consequences would be unforseeable and irreversible. The events in Spain are part of a speakers tour across Europe which will end in Brussels, where Sofia and Maria will join the Good Food March today. In conferences and meetings with local groups in Córdoba, Madrid, Zaragoza and Barcelona, as well as through a wide range of media interviews, the two activists described the adverse health effects which Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy has caused in their neighbourhood Ituzaingó near Córdoba resulting in a high number of cancer, malformations and miscarriages. In the Spanish city of Córdoba, around 80 people, amongst them farmers, neighbours and members of NGOs and organic consumption groups, gathered in the Orive Gardens and discussed strategies on how to avoid the cultivation of GM crops in Spain and worldwide. Sofia and Maria told the audience about the recent court sentence, which found one soy farmer and a pilot of a spraying plane guilty of contaminating the area. On Tuesday, coinciding with the international day against Monsanto, Sofia and Maria held a panel discussion in Zaragoza.

Farmers, agricultural engineers, consumers organisations and local citizens discussed the GM situation in the region of Aragón and the lack of a GMO free label in Spain. In Barcelona, more than 60 people came to hear the two activists, who called for a ban on GM soy into the EU. The discussion focussed on the lack of independent research regarding the health effects of GM crops and pesticide use.