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EU farm ministers are gathering in Brussels today (27 September) to debate a proposed rule change that would allow officials to accelerate authorisations for 15 new transgenic crops while letting those who want to keep them off their territories do so. The idea has attracted controversy for being the first time that the commission is overtly handing back a power to member states. "To put it bluntly, no member state has yet come up with a convincing reason based on science for blocking GM cultivation on its territory," Dalli's spokesman Frederic Vincent insists. For Mute Schimpf, an expert with Brussels-based campaigners Friends of the Earth Europe, consumers are being sold a dummy. She maintains that "the idea is to press ahead with the next batch of authorisations." "The difficulty is that this is virgin territory, the commission doesn't want do the full legal analysis" other countries would like performed before voting, admits an EU official.

The tide has turned globally against the introduction of genetically modified crops, Lord Melchett, the former director of Greenpeace and campaigner for organic farming and food, said yesterday. Fifteen years ago, many governments thought GM crops and food would become the norm, but it has not happened because of rising public resistance around the world, and it will not happen, he said.

Argentine people whose lives have been affected by glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide spraying on genetically modified Roundup Ready soy have told their stories in a series of interviews. One interviewee is Viviana Peralta, a housewife from San Jorge, Santa Fe, Argentina. Peralta had to rush her newborn baby daughter, Ailen, to hospital after Roundup and other agrochemicals were sprayed on GM soy from planes flying near her home.

Environmental watchdog GE Free Northland’s campaign to stop trials of genetically modified organisms in the region has received a boost. Group spokeswoman Zelka Grammer says a letter from Environment Minister Nick Smith reveals the government does support regional and local authorities controlling the use of GMOs in their areas.

Human failure caused the contamination of the Amflora field in Sweden with the experimental GM potato Amadea, reports the European Commission. Yesterday BASF had to justify to Brussels authorities. However open questions had not been fully clarified. Next week experts for the EU and member states will visit BASF research facilities in order to resolve open questions.

One week after the harvest of the GM potato Amfora began in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (Nothern Germany) it was aborted by Till Backhaus, the provincial minister of Agriculture. On the basis of the contamination of the Amflora field with the experimental, genetically modified potato Amadea in Sweden, the confidence in the BASF quality management has been shaken, so Backhaus. BASF had to admit that Amflora seed potatoes planted in Germany derived from Sweden. This Wednesday the European commission is calling BASF to Brussels to clarify this issue.

The GM potato Amadea has been illegally grown within a field of the approved GM potato Amflora in Sweden, reports Greenpeace today. The unapproved experimental variety, Amadea, has not be fully tested for environmental and health impacts. The European Commission has asked BASF to explain why an unauthorised genetically modified variety of potato has been planted in Sweden.

The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) provokes strong reactions in India. The Bill proposes a centralized technocratic authority to approve GM (genetically modified) crops with no involvement of elected governments, said Mr Rajesh Krishnan, Greenpeace Campaigns Manager. The Madhya Pradesh government has reacted strongly and suspects the effort to re-introduce Bt brinjal. “It will have disastrous consequences for Indian Agriculture, which still relies heavily on traditional technologies. It will take the control of food from the farmer and give it to multinational corporations, who will enslave our agriculture,” said State Agriculture Minister Ramakrishna Kusumaria.

US Federal Court in California banned any new plantings of Monsanto’s GM “Roundup Ready” sugar beet for the foreseeable future. but denied an injunction that could have required the destruction of seed crops planted in the past few days. A federal judge has revoked the government's approval of genetically altered sugar beets until regulators complete a more thorough review of how the scientifically engineered crops affect other food.

Scientific studies about the Indian Bt eggplant demonstrated that it is unfit for human consumption and detrimental to a healthy environment as cited by the Indian government in rejecting the release of Bt eggplant. This evidence should have already compelled Joel S. Rudinas the representative of the Department of Agriculture in the Philippines to stop the field tests.

Support the Petition to stop Bt eggplant in the Philippines!!!