Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

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01.01.1970

Danish EU Presidency propose compromise on partial GM ban

Biotech companies should be allowed to grow genetically modified crops in some EU countries if they agree to avoid sales into the countries that want to ban them, a draft compromise proposal drawn up by Danish EU diplomats shows. The compromise is designed to break a deadlock in talks among member states on draft EU rules to allow them to decide individually whether or not to ban GM cultivation - a proposal by the European Commission in 2010 that has made little headway so far.

01.01.1970

French food companies can use ?GMO Free? labels, government says

French food companies can label products as ?GMO Free? to indicate they contain no or trace amounts of genetically modified crops, the government said. Rules will take effect July 1 for producers that want to label foods as biotechnology-free after ministers signed a decree yesterday, according to a joint e-mailed statement from four ministries today. Existing regulations require labels to indicate the presence of genetically modified organisms, according to the statement.

01.01.1970

GE food safety data from Monsanto do not meet basic scientific standards

In a letter to Commissioner Dalli, Testbiotech and GeneWatch UK give new evidence of EFSA´s failure to perform risk assessment of genetically engineered plants. A detailed analysis of original documents as filed by Monsanto for their genetically engineered maize sold under brand of Genuity VT Triple PRO shows that crucial documents do not meet the standards of so called Good Laboratory Practice. As for example the company states in their investigation of the combinatorial toxicity of insecticides produced in the plants ?there was no intention to conduct this study according to Good Laboratory Practice Standards.?

01.01.1970

Opposition to Monsanto´s patent on Indian melon

The renowned Indian activist Vandana Shiva and the European NGO-platform ?No Patents on Seeds? joined forces today to file an opposition against European Patent EP1962578. This patent claims melons with a natural resistance to certain plant viruses originating in India. The patent was granted in May 2011 as an invention to the US company Monsanto by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. Critics point out that the patent was granted even though European Patent Law does not allow patents on conventional breeding. Furthermore, the reasons for the opposition also include the issue of biopiracy, which is why Vandana Shiva and her organisation Navdanya from India are engaged in this opposition.

01.01.1970

GE papayas for Japan regarded as ?Super Bowl? test case for GE food acceptance

They are the only gene-altered fruit on the market today in Japan, a country with strict laws regarding genetically-modified organisms. [...] U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Dennis Gonsalves, who helped develop the new fruit variety, may be its best salesman. [...]
Gonsalves calls it the ?Super Bowl? of marketing challenges: getting a population that?s still widely skeptical of genetic-engineering technology to enjoy a beautiful, delicious papaya with a GMO label on it.

01.01.1970

EU arable farmers must embrace new tech or risk being overtaken

Speaking at the annual Nuffield Ireland conference in Killkenny this month, arable consultant Mr Hughes, who also farms carrots and daffodils with his father, said producers in developing economies such as Argentina had slashed costs while increasing production levels. Meanwhile, producers in Europe had been forced to focus on short-term environmental protection rather than investing in technology that could produce more food while impacting less on the land.

01.01.1970

China won?t have genetically modified crops in 2012, official says

China hasn?t approved large-scale commercialization of genetically modified grain seeds and won?t produce GM crops this year, Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group under the State Council, said at a press conference in Beijing today. The nation has no corn shortage and imported the grain last year to balance supply and demand made difficult by geographical issues, Chen said.

01.01.1970

Support Ugandan farmers to save their indigenous seeds from GMOs

Uganda has a National Biosafety Policy (2008) in place and is also in the process of formulating a law to officially introduce GMOs in the country. Surprisingly, the absence of the biosafety law has not stopped laboratory and field testing for GMO crops such as GM bananas in Kawanda, BT cotton in Serere, GM maize in Kasese (under Water Efficient Maize for Africa -WEMA project), and cassava, rice and sweet potatoes at Namulonge research institute. [...] Ugandans should note that introduction of GMOs is likely to quicken the distortion of Uganda?s rich biodiversity and cause farmers to be dependent on external inputs for their livelihoods.

01.01.1970

GM mosquito release not transparent, say German scientists

A group of independent scientists say that the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil was not sufficiently transparent or properly regulated which risks undermining the research of what they say is promising technology. The German scientists published a paper on Monday based on their analysis of the insect release which found a deficit in the scientific quality of regulatory documents and a general absence of accurate experimental descriptions available to the public before the release started.

01.01.1970

U.S. National Public Radio?s bias against genetic engineering

Among the most egregious previous transgressions by NPR of fair, professional journalism was a series of programs called ?The DNA Files,? which set up a false moral equivalence by juxtaposing the views of polymathic Princeton Professor Lee Silver against those of Margaret Mellon, long-time NGO-dweller, troglodyte and antagonist of any and all applications of biotechnology. This pairing was a typical example of NPR?s notion of ?balance? ? really ?pseudo-balance?: an eminent mainstream, nonideological academic versus an intransigent, anti-industry, anti-technology, uneducable activist.

01.01.1970

Landmark lawsuit against Monsanto gets day in court

On Jan. 31, a Federal District Court judge agreed to hear oral arguments for a landmark lawsuit - Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al. v. Monsanto.
Over 300,000 people are represented by 83 plaintiffs from 36 organizations in the case against Monsanto. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate Monsanto?s patents on genetically modified seeds and to prohibit the company from suing those whose crops become genetically contaminated because they drift through the air.

01.01.1970

Many speak out on GMO food and labels in Washington State (USA)

Two bills in the Washington Legislature would require labels on genetically modified food, but many proponents talk more about food than labels, a senator says. Reflecting on a hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Economic Development Committee, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said he noticed a common theme among many people supporting one of the label bills, Senate Bill 6298. Their testimony ?wasn?t about a labeling bill, but about some people?s opposition to GMOs.?

01.01.1970

GE mosquito industry and scientists develop risk assessment and approval procedures

Mosquitoes such as Aedes aegpyti are less likely to play a significant ecological role compared with species associated with natural wetlands that may be an important food source for birds, bats, fish and other animals. But this doesn?t mean that the community or government regulators will be immediately supportive of GM mosquito release. So while there?s no doubt that any new technology that assists the fight against malaria or dengue will be welcome, the question of how the environmental risks associated with GM mosquitoes will be assessed, on balance, with the potential benefits to human health remains unanswered.

01.01.1970

What should the public know about GM insect trials?

Guy Reeves, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany, and his team analyzed publicly available information on the safety assessments conducted by government regulators for the Oxitec trials [...] Too often scientific information important to determining the safety of the releases was not available, Reeves says. [...] ?I entirely understand his calls for transparency in the context of public confidence in the process,? Alphey says. ?But I think he confused transparency and scientific quality.? Just because some safety data is not public, does not mean it is not of high quality, he says.

01.01.1970

U.S. researchers launch first anthocyanin-rich non-GE tomato

OSU horticulture professor Jim Myers says the fruit?s genisis began in the 1960?s when two breeders, from Bulgaria and the U.S., cross-cultivated tomatoes with wild species from Chile and the Galapagos Islands. [...] ?It is the first improved tomato variety in the world that has anthocyanins in its fruit,? he says. [...] ?It?s also important to know that genetic engineering techniques are never used to develop these lines ? these tomatoes are not GMO,? says Myers.

01.01.1970

Japan receives first shipment of Hawaiian Rainbow GE papayas

After 13 years of negotiations, Japan has approved its first shipment of genetically-modified Rainbow papayas from Hawaii. ?The fact that the Japanese have tested it to the nth degree and evaluated its food and environmental safety proves it?s a good product,? said Rod Yonemura, consultant to the 160-member Hawaii Papaya Industry Association based in Hilo, capital of Hawaii?s Big Island. The Dec. 5 shipment consisted of 1,248 5-pound cases for sale and 32 cases for sampling at Coastco Japan, Yonemura said.

01.01.1970

EU GMO honey ruling can be challenged, claims legal expert

Honey producers and importers in the EU and elsewhere face legal and economic uncertainty arising out last autumn?s European Court of Justice?s ruling, claims a legal expert calling for an amendment of the Regulation to exclude honey. [...] Teufer argues that the ECJ ruling goes against the spirit and purposed of the original legislation covering GMOs in food with the European legislator having purposefully excluded several scenarios from the application of the Regulation in order to make it work in practice.

01.01.1970

British farmer union calls for government to show leadership on GMs

The government should show leadership over the issue of genetically modified crops and be more prepared to explain the potential benefits of modern technology, the NFU has warned. NFU president Peter Kendall said there were too many senior politicians who did not grasp the realities of biotechnology in modern agriculture, but made sweeping comments about how the technology was not needed.

01.01.1970

Election of Boulder County (USA) Commissioners to become political battlefield

Commissioner candidates are being asked if they would support a countywide vote by residents on the issue, said Mary VonBreck, a GMO-Free Boulder spokeswoman. ?We want to work with people on how they?ll go about implementing a policy,? Von Breck said. ?It?s a platform issue, and we?re going to take it all the way to November.? GMO-Free Boulder has not yet decided which candidates to support for the county commissioner election, and has not spent any money yet on campaigning, VonBreck said.

01.01.1970

Biosafety and biotechnology reinforce Nigerian economy

Bio-safety can enhance the national economy by providing a useful regulatory framework on the use of genetically modified organisms, Mr. Rufus Ebegba, the Assistant Director, Bio-safety Unit, Federal Ministry of Environment, has said. [...] ?Biotechnology itself as a tool of enhancing the economy in the agricultural and industrial sectors in the country will be regulated by bio-safety.? According to the environmentalist, a lot of industries can come into biotechnology activities, thereby generating employment, while new products will also generate revenue for the nation.

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