With the election for the German parliament looming on September 27, a recent poll suggests that political parties that don’t support agribiotech have a better chance of pulling in the votes. According to a fresh poll, about 65% of Germans are opposed to genetic engineering in food plants. [...] 41% of the 1003 surveyed poeple said that they would not vote for a political party that supports agri-biotechnology.

The European Commission is considering allowing member states to ban EU-approved GM crops. Commission President José Manuel Barroso wants to ”look at whether we can give the member states more freedom on this issue,” said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel yesterday during the Agriculture Council in Brussels. She added that she would support these ideas, and also advocated speeding up market approval for new GM maize lines to lift trade barriers that have a emerged as a result of asynchronous approval of GMOs in the EU and in GMO export countries.

Do you know what you’re eating? You may well not. Agricultural products that underwent genetic engineering are sold in Israel without any marking to inform consumers, according to Milouda Quality Control Laboratories, which was testing food products containing soybeans. [...] Milouda commented that its main function is to test foodstuffs slated for export to Europe.

A telephone survey is set to gauge public opinion on genetically modified organisms. The survey will be asking whether ratepayers are satisfied with current national regulation by central government agencies, Environmental Risk Management Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries – under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. Or whether people would like local councils to regulate genetically modified organisms in some way.

Biotechnology company Monsanto says it’s lobbying the South Australian Government to drop its ban on genetically modified canola. South Australia extended its ban on GM early last year. Monsanto Australia’s Tony May says South Australia is a big market, and last year many SA farmers came to see Victorian GM crops. ”We’re keeping them informed on what we do in the eastern states,” he says. ”But essentially we’ve been focused on our farmers producing in Victoria and NSW, and also focused on the trials in WA at this stage.”

Leaders of livestock and poultry industries in Negros Occidental have called on members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental to base their decision on the controversial genetically-modified organism ordinance on facts and figures. Albert Lim, president of the Negros Occidental Hog Raisers Association, said SP members should ensure that their decision will benefit the many, as the marathon en banc committee hearing for GMO ordinance, in preparation for its review, ended Friday.

Civil society and the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday said they will continue to push for a continued implementation of the provincial government ban on genetically modified organisms in Negros Occidental. The transitory period has lapsed, it should not be extended, said Ramon Uy, president of the Negros Organic Retailers and Producers Association. Rommel Ledesma of NISARD said the primary purpose of the ordinance is to ensure Negros’ becoming the organic island of the country.

Peru´s government is reviewing a study that shows genetically-modified corn has been detected in five key agricultural valleys. Peru´s decade-old biosafety law still lacks the supplemental legislation required to empower the government, particularly health and agricultural authorities, to regulate genetically-modified products is still pending. Currently, genetically-modified products in Peru, a signatory of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety cannot be planted, harvested or sold, because of the legislative void, even though there is no established penalty for doing so.

A majority of the members of Germany’s parliament are against the current ban of Monsanto’s genetically engineered maize Mon 810, that could not be planted this year by German farmers after Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner argued there might be effects on non-target organisms such as ladybugs. On Monday, a majority of the members of the Deutscher Bundestag rejected a motion of the German Greens to vote against EU re-authorisation of Monsanto’s Bt maize as well as against a permanent ban of Mon810 cultivation in Germany.

The maize batch was checked in its own control program for GMOs, and a test showed it contained too high a level of GM material to qualify as a GMO-free product. Interested customers are informed and all further use of maize as GM-free is stopped. 

Lantmännen’s own supervision system discovered a batch of maize with an excessive content of GMO to qualify as a GMO-free product. Up to 0.9% GMOs are permitted in a GMO-free raw material and in our control, we have measured 3.9% contamination.