Articles

Professor of anthropology Reem Saad warns of the increasing challenges to Egypt’s food sovereignty due to the expanded use of imported seeds “We seem to be talking a lot about food security without really paying enough attention to the crucial factor of food sovereignty, which is an even more crucial matter,” said Reem Saad, a professor of anthropology and a researcher. [...] Saad also recommends the need for vigilance against the illicit expansion of genetically modified crops, with such crops, including grains, vegetables and fruit, being introduced into the local market and gaining ground “without any prior social debate”.

Confined field trials on Genetically Modified banana variety genetically engineered to resist a bacterial disease that has been decimating crops across Africa will begin in Kenya in 2014, a researcher said on Thursday. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Plant Biotechnologists Dr. Leena Tripathi told journalists in Nairobi that the research conducted so far in Uganda shows that the variety holds a lot of promise. “We have proof of concept for bacteria wilt resistance and so another set of trials will be conducted in Kenya from 2014,” Tripathi said during an Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology conference (OFAB) in Nairobi.

An agribusiness in western Victoria is selling genetically modified canola seed for half price because demand is limited. Across Australia, 8 per cent of canola plantings are GM varieties. Elders agronomist Jamie Ball says farmers are reluctant to sow GM canola because they’re concerned it will increase the number of herbicide resistant weeds on their farms.

Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed company, may face more complaints from farmers even as tests so far haven’t shown unapproved gene-altered wheat anywhere beyond an Oregon farm where it was found. The company was sued in federal court in Wichita by a Kansas farmer who accused it of negligently releasing genetically altered wheat seed in the U.S. and damaging the market for his crop. The lawsuit filed June 3 by Ernest Barnes of Morton County, Kansas, may be the first of many against St. Louis-based Monsanto alleging contamination, his lawyers said in a statement.

This week Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, John Mutorwa, inaugurated the first-ever Genetically Modified Organism testing facility in Namibia in the capital. [...] “If we are not careful, our genetic resources may disappear through the uncontrolled use of GMO seeds or plants and the list goes on,” Mutorwa said on Tuesday. “I am not against science, but what we are saying as food producers is tha: consumers have the right to know what they are consuming. Therefore proper, ethical, honest, and professional labelling of these products would give consumers choices whether to take GMO foodstuffs or not,” said the minister.

The time has come to fight against this insidious attack on the progress of European science. It is fair to ask questions, demand answers, and ask for evidence of safety. But it is not fair to continue an aggressive campaign of Luddite opposition when all the evidence supports a positive role for GM agriculture in Europe. To rectify the situation we need to remove the political component in the approval process of GM crops and use an objective, science-based, and rational approach based on real evidence rather than short-term political ambitions. If we pander to a vocal but ignorant minority, the EU will end up the poor cousin in a world of growing affluence, where those willing to embrace biotechnology and its ability to address the global challenges of hunger, poverty, disease will become the future’s new economic leaders.

The Court of Appeals recently struck a blow to GMO crops in the Philippines by its decision to stop field trials for Bt talong, a genetically modified eggplant. If successful, this biotech crop would have allowed Filipino farmers larger harvests while spraying less pesticides in their fields. We need to strike a note of caution, but not in the way the court ruling suggests. Instead, as we look at GMO crops, we must be careful we understand what they are, why they are an important technology to help us feed our people, and why the scientific community says they are safe.

It’s native to Mexico, where some 59 indigenous strains of corn exist. Which is why an emerging debate over whether to allow growers to cultivate genetically modified corn has heated up. Opponents of GMO corn have urged the Mexican government to ban GMO. To draw attention to their cause, on Thursday four local Greenpeace activists climbed a 335-foot monument on Mexico City’s busy Reforma Avenue and dropped a banner reading “No GMO” on the iconic Estela de Luz tower in protest, according to a Greenpeace spokeswoman. Mexico has already allowed limited cultivation of GMO corn in a handful of northern states as part of an experimental program. In March, according to local news reports, agribusinesses Monsanto and Syngenta solicited permits to expand GMO plantings. If granted, planting will begin in the fall.

The notorious ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ rider stuffed into the non-related Senate spending bill may soon be repealed thanks to the massive amounts of activism and outrage that have now amounted into a legislative charge towards action. Action that has turned into legislation progress through Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who has announced an amendment that would remove Section 735 (the Monsanto Protection Act as its known) from the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 Senate spending bill.

More than one million acres of Canadian farmland have glyphosate-resistant weeds growing on them, including 43,000 in Manitoba, according to an online survey of 2,028 farmers conducted by Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. based in Guelph, Ont. The shockingly high Canadian numbers met with skepticism from some experts who suggest farmers might be mistaking hard-to-kill weeds with glyphosate resistance. But others say the farmers are probably right. Even though there hasn’t been a single documented case of a glyphosate-resistant weed in Manitoba, the 281 Manitoba farmers surveyed said they believe there’s glyphosate-resistant kochia on 23,000 acres in this province.