Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

Actualité

01.01.1970

EU states stay deadlocked over GM maize imports

European Union farm ministers failed to agree on Tuesday to approve six genetically modified (GM) maize varieties for import to the bloc, despite a warning that inaction could lead to a shortage of animal feed. Following the deadlock, the import applications for use in food and feed can now be approved unilaterally by the bloc?s executive, the European Commission.

01.01.1970

Reactions on European Commission proposal on GE crop approval system

industry is disappointed that today?s proposal does not appear to provide a means of delivering this vision in that it disables rather than enables the application of beneficial and rigorously tested agricultural biotech products and technologies. We strongly believe that for the proposal to be workable it must be science-based, proportionate in its recommendations and non-discriminatory to those farmers that wish to choose to grow the crops that work best for them.

01.01.1970

GM crop ban may be lifted in EU

Proposal to resolve 12-year deadlock would allow individual states to decide on what to cultivate or to continue restrictions. The European Union will take a huge stride tomorrow towards freeing up the production of GM crops when the European commission proposes allowing national governments to make up their own minds on whether to permit their cultivation.

01.01.1970

Monsanto nad BASF turn attention to GE wheat

Monsanto Co. and BASF said Wednesday they would develop genetically modified wheat as part of an expanded joint venture. The world?s largest seed maker and the German chemical giant had dropped earlier plans for biotech wheat in 2004, concerned some export markets would not accept it, but declining production in the U.S. has sparked renewed farmer interest in developing a stronger variety of wheat.

01.01.1970

Monsanto to pay $2.5 million for distributing modified seed in restricted area

Monsanto Co. will pay a $2.5 million civil fine for failing to tell farmers about the Environmental Protection Agency?s planting restrictions on its genetically-modified cotton. The St. Louis crop biotechnology giant ran afoul of the EPA, which regulates crops that are genetically modified to make their own pesticide, by distributing its Bollgard insect-resistant cotton seed in several Texas panhandle counties despite EPA-imposed planting restrictions there.

01.01.1970

EU wants to put GMO dispute to an end

The European Commission will tomorrow (13 July) propose an overhaul of the EU?s policy for approving genetically modified (GM) crops, which will allow countries more freedom to ban cultivation on their territory while retaining an EU-wide authorisation system.

01.01.1970

MEPs reject compulsory labelling of GM-fed animal products

MEPs have rejected a proposal calling for compulsory labelling of food products that derive from animals raised on genetically-modified crops. Current European rules oblige supermarkets and manufacturers to label any food containing raw GM ingredients, such as corn or soy, but there is no obligation when consumers buy foods that have been reared on GM feed. The vote yesterday means supermarkets can continue to sell food from animals reared on GM food without informing the consumer.

01.01.1970

European ruling curbs Monsanto?s claims on GM crops

The agribusiness giant Monsanto was rebuffed in a ruling handed down yesterday by the European Court of Justice over the company?s patented Roundup Ready technology. [...] A nine-judge panel rejected some broad legal claims made by the company, saying that its patent applies only to live plants?not to derived products such as soy meal, as the company had argued.

01.01.1970

MEPs call for EU ban on cloning for food

The Commission and EU member states would like to regulate the sale of ?novel foods? ? defined as food made with new production processes or which was not widely consumed before 1997. But MEPs have adopted a more restrictive approach, asking the Commission to table a separate legislative proposal to expressly ban food from cloned animals and their descendants.

01.01.1970

Environmentalists and farmers to launch agitation against introduction of BT maize in Punjab

Environment activists led by the Kheti Virasat Mission and the Bharti kisan Union on Friday said they would launch agitation and oppose every move of Punjab Government to promote BT maize seed in the state as genetically modified variries would take a toll on the environment. The activists also demanded that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should explain on what basis his government had offered to introduce BT maize in the state to reduce the area under paddy cultivation.

01.01.1970

Haitian farmers leery of Monsanto?s largesse

Haitian farmers are worried that giant transnational corporations like Monsanto are attempting to gain a larger foothold in the local economy under the guise of earthquake relief and rebuilding. ?Seeds represent a kind of right to life,? peasant leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste told IPS. ?That?s why we have a problem today with Monsanto and all the multinationals who sell seeds. Seeds and water are the common patrimony of humanity.?

01.01.1970

Genetically modified insects: What next?

Despite the genuine pressures, we still need to be mindful that deeper analysis is needed of the potential risks and benefits involved in the release of GM insects into the environment along with international and domestic legislation that regulates their release. Otherwise, we could genetically engineer a ?black swan? event via GM insects that affect a critical component of the food chain we hadn?t considered in our original calculations. Could some of the lessons learned from the ?Deepwater Horizon? oil catastrophe apply to the release of GM insects into the wild too? Don?t all creatures great and small have a vital role to play in our complex food chain and delicate web of life?

01.01.1970

U.S. lawmaker announces right to know legislation in wake of GE alfalfa Supreme Court ruling

Today the Supreme Court ruled that when it comes to genetically modified organisms, we as consumers, have to wait until the damage is done and obvious, before we can act to protect health and the environment, even if that damage could be irreversible. [...] Tomorrow I will introduce three bills this week that will provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for all Genetically Engineered plants, animals, bacteria, and other organisms.

01.01.1970

Sixtyfive U.S. lawmakers tell Minister of Agriculture to keep ban on GE alfalfa

Six Democratic senators and 50 House member are urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack not to approve the commercialization of Monsanto Co.?s genetically modified alfalfa. The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for Vilsack too permit the sale of the biotech seed again by lifting a judge?s nationwide ban on the crop. The lawmakers, many of whom are from states with significant organic farming, say the crop is going to contaminate non-biotech alfalfa crops and harm the organic dairy industry.

01.01.1970

Government of Wales (UK) plans public register of GE crop growers

Farmers who grow genetically modified crops in Wales are to be named in a national register available for public scrutiny. The news that rural affairs minister Elin Jones plans to introduce legislation to establish the register has been met with concern that listed farmers could be intimidated. The minister?s proposal follows a consultation on the Welsh Assembly Government proposals for managing the coexistence of GM, conventional and organic crops in Wales.

01.01.1970

Hollow victory for Monsanto in alfalfa court case

Monday the Supreme Court ruled that the lower court had been ?unjustified? in imposing its ban. However, it also ruled that the USDA had broken the law by allowing the seeds to be sold in 2005 in the first place. genetically modified alfalfa cannot be sold until the USDA carries out an impact assessment. ?That could take years,? says John Bianchi, a spokesman for the Center for Food Safety in Washington DC, which is representing the farmers.

01.01.1970

Negros Occidental (Philippines) GMO ban will stay

Governor-elect Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said the push to make Negros Island an organic food bowl and the ban on the entry of Genetically Modified Organisms, with a few exemptions, will continue under his administration. [...] Governor-elect Marañon said the ordinance banning GMO in Negros Occidental will stay with a few amendments to allow for items, such as medicines with GMOs, to enter the province.

01.01.1970

Japan approves breakthrough Syngenta Viptera corn trait and stacks

Syngenta Seeds, Inc., today announced it has received approval from Japanese regulatory authorities for the Agrisure Viptera? trait, the Agrisure Viptera 3111 trait stack and the Agrisure Viptera 3110 trait stack. [...] These regulatory approvals allow the importation of U.S. corn grown with Agrisure Viptera trait stacks for food or feed use within Japan and clears the way for U.S. corn growers to plant corn hybrids with the Agrisure Viptera trait during the 2011 planting season.

01.01.1970

Gambian stakeholders urged to support control of GMOs and LMOs

Stakeholders from different institutions such as agriculture, fisheries, wildlife management, media and health recently gathered at Baobab Holiday Resort in Kololi for a two-day sensitization workshop and awareness on Bio-safety Clearing House on how genetic modified organisms and living modified organisms food can be monitored and controlled in the country for health and safety purposes.

01.01.1970

Years in the making, Kenya?s GM law prepares to go live

President Mwai Kibaki signed off parliament?s approval of the biosafety legislation in February 2009, after a decade of controversy about the advisability of allowing the commercialisation of genetically modified organisms. [...] Now, Harrison Macharia ? chief science secretary of the newly created National Biosafety Authority (NBA) ? confirmed to SciDev.Net that the gazetting of the bill, and thus its official commencement date, will happen this month.

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