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The City of Vancouver will kick off a week of events on Tuesday morning for Non-GMO Awareness Week in an effort to promote better understanding of the issues raised by genetically modified organisms in our food system.

Consumers are generally wary of GMOs when asked by pollsters, but many people hold serious misconceptions about GMOs and the risks they pose, especially to the environment, said Trish Kelly, a member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

“People are concerned about GMOs, but they don’t necessarily have all the facts, so the attention of having the city make this proclamation — the first one in Canada — allows us to have conversations about a pretty complicated issue,” said Kelly.

A City Council committee on Monday backed a proposal to ban the cultivation of genetically modified crops within the city.

With Proposition 105 on the statewide ballot, Colorado voters are being asked to decide how much information they want about their foods.

A federal appeals court has opened the door for Syngenta Seeds to revive a lawsuit it brought against Bunge North America in 2011 over the agribusiness company's refusal of a type of genetically modified corn.

We said we wanted the Right to Know in CA.

They spent $48 million to deny it to us.

We said Yes on 522!

They spent $22 million to deny it to Washington State.

We said Yes on SB-1381!!

They bought the last two votes in the CA State Senate to kill it.

We are back.

We will not be denied again.

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell introduced a motion to curb the growth and proliferation of GMO seeds and plants within the city, to protect local gardens and city-grown food from current future contamination from GMO seeds.

CBAN: Canada has approved 2,4-D and dicamba tolerant GM corn and soy. On October 15, 2014, the US government also approved Dow's 2,4-D/glyphosate herbicide mix, to go along with GM 2,4-D tolerant crops. Now Dow AgroSciences has all the approvals it needs to start marketing these GM herbicide tolerant crops in Canada and the US.

Center for Food Safety: CFS condemned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to approve Dow Chemical’s Enlist Duo herbicide, a new blend of 2,4-D and glyphosate intended for use on Dow’s patented 2,4-D resistant (Enlist) genetically engineered corn and soybeans. EPA’s approval was the final hurdle for the heavily criticized new crop system and paves the way for commercialization and planting.

Some 400 activist groups marched all over Europe on Saturday (11 October) in protest against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), as the EU-US trade deal crystallises opposition to a wide variety of issues – from shale gas to corporate finance.

"TTIP, we don’t want it!"

The slogan of the numerous events held on October 11 in several European cities was plain simple.

Hamburg, Berlin, Madrid, Ljubljana, Helsinki, London, Vienna and Paris – all became the theatre of protest against the EU-US free trade agreement, but also other subjects.

Report by German authorities on the most commonly used herbicide criticised as inadequate

Friday, 10. October 2014

In a report published today, Testbiotech is highlighting the ongoing inadequacies in the risk assessment of the herbicide, glyphosate. The weed killer is sold under brand names such as Roundup. At the beginning of this year, German authorities published a Renewal Assessment Report (RAR) as part of an EU reevaluation process for the most widely used weed killer. According to the German authorities, there were no risks to health, and it was even suggested that the acceptable daily thresholds for long term exposure (ADI) to which consumers could be exposed might be raised.

In contrast to these findings, the Testbiotech analysis shows that the German assessment report is untenable in light of new scientific evidence and cites evidence from studies published in 2013 and 2014. Testbiotech concluded that risks associated with glyphosate must be examined much more closely than has been the case so far.

The fashion and foreign auto industries are playing a unique and surprising role in benefiting farmers who are taking an active role in diversifying their farms and marketing their products.

When clothes and auto parts are shipped into the United States from other countries, it creates an abundance of empty containers that need to be returned. Sending those containers back full is much more cost effective and efficient then shipping them empty. And as it turns out, the situation creates a perfect opportunity for U.S. farmers to fill the niche market for non-GMO soybeans in southeast Asia.

The DeLong Company, which is based out of Clinton, Wis. and has a location in rural northwest Ohio, helps area farmers take advantage of the demand by offering contracts for non-GMO food grade corn and soybeans at a premium. In the village of Kirby, Ohio — with a population under 150 — the elevator can house nearly 1 million bushels of grain. In a year’s time, they can turn that over more than twice with local specialty crops that comes in from farms within a 60- to 70- mile radius.

First announcement, save the date!

GMO Free Regions 2015 - Governments, Business, Scientists and Civil Society gather in Berlin

Ten years after the first European GMO Free Regions conference took place in Berlin over 60 regional governments and hundreds of companies and their associations, science groups and civil society organizations will meet on May 6-8 2015 again.

It is certainly time to celebrate enormous successes – With more than 60 regional governments within Europe united as Network of GMO Free Regions, hundreds of additional subregional entities and municipalities, farmers declared GMO Free areas and thousands of enterprises guaranteeing their products to be free of genetically modified ingredients, including also animal products, this movement has really changed the markets and the policies within the European Union and well beyond. GMO Free Regions have now been established and declared on all continents of the world, and their numbers are growing.