News

Switzerland voted in favor of a five-year ban on the farming of genetically modified plants and animals on Sunday, putting in place some of the toughest restrictions in Europe. Official results showed that 55.7 percent of voters accepted the proposal to impose a five-year moratorium.</p><p><a href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=110259+27-Nov-2005+RTRS&srch=swiss+GMO"> Reuters</a></p><p><a href="http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=6271553&cKey=1133121023000&rss=true">Swiss Info: Swiss consumers side with GM opponents</a></p><p><a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/27/news/swiss.php">International Herald Tribune: Swiss back ban on modified crops</a>

The EU Commission has authorised a Danish law which provides for compensation of farmers for their financial losses, if their crops have been contaminated with GMOs. The compensation would come from a fund, which is financed by farmers cultivating GM crops.</p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/1458&forma">EU: Commission authorises Danish state aid to compensate for losses due to presence of GMOs in conventional and organic crops</a>

Renessen, an animal feed joint venture of Monsanto and commodity giant Cargill has announced its first product for 2007/2008: Maize with high lysine content to replace additives in industrial animal production. However, the company, so far having lost 445 mio US $ still faces considerable challenges.</p><p><a href="http://www.dailyitem.com/archive/2005/1115/biz/stories/02biz.htm">Business News: Corn genetically engineered for animal feed to be marketed</a>

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has announced the stop of 10 years of research into genetically modified peas because they caused lung inflammation in mice. The peas were designed to kill the pea weevil - Bruchus pisorum - by introduction of a bean gene to block alpha-amylase, an enzyme important for digestion of starch. Weevil larvae feeding on the pea seed are unable to digest the starch and starve. While the gene product does not cause any immune reactions in beans it obviously did in the peas. The researchers suspect the subtle change with massive consequences to be caused by a process called glycosylation, which plays a major role in protein folding. The GM peas were also resistant to Bayer's herbicide "Basta".</p><p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/11/17/afx2345014.html">AFX News:Australian researchers scrap GM peas after mice fall ill</a></p><p><a href="http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?id=212GM&type=mediaRelease">CSIRO press release</a>

Rough seas on Thursday forced Greenpeace activists to give up a blockade of a ship they say carried 25,000 tonnes of genetically modified Argentinian soya to Poland. However an "unlikely coalition" is emerging against GM imports in Poland.</p><p><a href="http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-11-17T201037Z_01_SCH772582_RTRUKOC_0_US-FOOD-POLAND-GMO.xml&archived=False">Reuters</a></p><p><a href="http://www.radio.com.pl/polonia/article.asp?tId=29912&j=2">Polish Radio: Greepeace and the conservative government form an unlikely alliance</a>

Swiss voters go to the polls on November 27 to review a measure that would impose one of the strictest bans in Europe on the use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. The referendum, if approved, would impose a five-year moratorium on the cultivation of any plant or import of any animal whose genes have been altered in the laboratory.</p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/33477/story.htm">Reuters</a>

The EU feed companies association FEFAC warned that the 2 billion market of Argentinian GM-soybean imports could be jeopardised if Argentinian farmers did not draw a deal with Monsanto. The company has lately sued importers of GM soybeans for seed royalties, Argentinian farmers had not payed.</p><p><a href="http://www.world-grain.com/feature_stories.asp?ArticleID=76715">World-Grain.com: FEFAC urges quick deal on Argentine GM soybean seed royalties</a>

Barry McSweeney was removed from his post as chief scientific advisor of the Irish government after revelations that his PhD was fabricated by a US "degree mill". Initially coming from an Irish biotech company McSweeney had been Director of the European Union Joint Research Centre (JRC) 2001 - 2004 and was instrumental for the institutions pro-GMO approach. In 2002 he even advised the Commission not to publish a JRC-report on GMOs in agriculture, which had revealed massive problems of coexistence and is now the most quoted scientific source on the issue.</p><p><a href="http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sg3giU7lXaGlIsgHuTLc4nqWo2.asp">Irish Examiner: What a difference a day makes...</a></p><p><a href="http://www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI22.pdf">GM free Ireland Press release with all background</a>

French anti-GMO activist, Jose Bove, has been found guilty of destroying genetically modified crops. Bove was sentenced to four months by an appeals court on Tuesday. He was accused of helping to uproot a field of GM maize near the southwestern French city of Toulouse in July 2004.</p><p><a href="http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=4121235&nav=7k7NJ1IJ">KWQC: Militant French farmer sentenced to prison for ripping up GMO crop</a>

In his inaugural speech to the Seijm Polands new prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz yielded ovations of the Parliament when announcing he would keep the country gmo free.</p><p><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/11/content_3764791.htm">Xinhua: Poland parliment approves minoirty govt</a>