Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

Actualité

08.02.2010

Challenges posed by Bt Brinjal

The debate over the petridish baingan is hotting up. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh?s sudden recourse to public consultations, after Bt Brinjal was cleared as India?s first genetically modified food crop, has exposed serious regulatory lapses. TOI-Crest looks at the challenge posed by this humble vegetable.

08.02.2010

?Introducing Bt brinjal in India will be disastrous? says former Monsanto India managing director

Farmers and others who were opposing the introduction of Bt brinjal got support from an unexpected quarter during the course of the discussion. T V Jagadishan, former managing director (India) of Monsanto, the company which proposes to introduce Bt brinjal, was quite vocal in his opposition. He made it clear that Monsanto was in the habit of controlling the market and making money.

08.02.2010

Decision on Bt brinjal to be final & binding says Indian Environment Minister

?The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has given the go-ahead and my role is limited to deciding if transgenic brinjal needs to be commercialised. I have met with over 8,000 persons during the last seven public hearing programmes. My decision will have to take into consideration all the stake-holders and would be final. It would not be referred to another committee or be heard by a Parliamentary committee,? [Mr Jairam Ramesh, the Union minister for environment and forest] added

08.02.2010

Most brinjal-growing States oppose Bt Brinjal, admits Indian Environment Minister

?A majority of chief ministers have written to me on the issue have opposed the introduction of Bt brinjal,? Ramesh told IANS Saturday after a four-hour brain-storming session on the controversial issue. [...] ?I have got response from the major brinjal cultivating states. About 60 percent of brinjal in India is cultivated in West Bengal (30 percent), Orissa (20 percent) and Bihar (10 percent). All these states have opposed its introduction,? Ramesh said.

08.02.2010

Vegetable in Court - BT Brinjal

The advocate who irked Jairam Ramesh at the press conference, Hemant Goswami, has filed a Public Interest Litigation before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the constitutional validity of the consultation committee and the process of validating policies concerning agriculture and pest research. Few days ago the Environment Minister was visibly upset with Hemant Goswani at a public discussion.

05.02.2010

Prime Minister Borisov: 5-year GM crop ban ensures calmness in Bulgaria

Bulgaria PM Boyko Borisov has stated that the proposed 5-year ban on GM crop trials will ?guarantee calmness? in Bulgarian society. ?I think that what the GERB MPs and the cabinet are proposing for Genetically Modified Organisms: firstly a moratorium for 5 years on everything to reassure the public and then what Brussels wants ? to vote on the changes, I think this is a 100% guarantee for all fear GMOs,? Borisov said Friday.

05.02.2010

EU weighs proposals to break GMO deadlock

Plans to let national governments decide whether to allow genetically modified (GMO) crop cultivation on their land could unblock a paralysis in EU GMO approvals, but risk igniting internal-market disputes. Proposals from the Dutch and Austrian governments, under consideration by the executive European Commission, have won the backing of several countries and interested parties, and will be at the top of the new Commission?s agenda.

05.02.2010

Rise in GM crops raises ethical alarms in Brazil

AS-PTA has challenged the impartiality of Brazil?s National Technical Commission for Bio-safety, which monitors the effects of GM crops on human health, the environment and agriculture. The Commission?s independence came under scrutiny recently when Dr Lia Giraldo resigned from the Commission in protest at its members? links with multinational corporations.

05.02.2010

Negative public attitudes to GM agriculture unchanged in Australia

Public attitudes to genetically modified (GM) agriculture in Australia are not changing, with the majority of Australians still uncomfortable with GM foods. An article published in the latest edition of People and Place reports findings about attitudes to GM foods from Swinburne University?s National Science and Technology Monitor (SNSTM). According to this data, public attitudes in Australia to GM foods have remained constant since 2003.

05.02.2010

Greenpeace report exposes high costs of genetic engineering of crops

Greenpeace called on the Philippine government to promote and invest in ecological farming practices as a solution to the challenges facing the country?s agriculture sector. The call was made at the launch of a new report, ?Counting the Costs of Genetic Engineering?, which documents the agronomic and economic failures of genetically engineered (GE) crops from around the world.

05.02.2010

Bayer to pay $1.5 mln in 2nd of 500 lawsuits over GM rice

Germany?s Bayer was ordered by a jury in the United States to pay $1.5 million in damages to three farmers for losses they incurred because of contaminations of Bayer?s genetically modified rice, the second in about 500 similar cases pending. [...] ?Bayer CropScience is standing by its view that the company has handled its biotech rice responsibly and appropriately at all times,? he added.

04.02.2010

Australian researchers created artificial honey bee silk in GE bacteria

Australian researchers for the first time created artificially produced honey bee silk using genetically modified bacteria. Australian entomologist Tara D. Sutherland [...] says, ?The silks would be good for tough, lightweight textiles, and high-strength applications like advanced aviation and marine composites?.

04.02.2010

Chinese experts debate GE rice aproval

Huang Dafang, a member of the Biosafety Committee at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the nation -- which faces shrinking farmland and an increasing population -- will turn to genetically modified organism technology to ensure grain security. [...] The announcement has aroused debate on the Internet with several forums soliciting signatures against commercialization of GM rice with the call ?Saving our posterity?. The strains need registration and production trials before commercial output can begin, which may take three to five years, Huang told China Daily.

04.02.2010

For farmers? sake give BT Brinjal a fair chance

BT Brinjal must be promoted in India because it promises to reduce wastage due to pests. As it minimises the need for chemical pesticide, Bt Brinjal is also environment friendly. For farmers? sake, BT Brinjal must be given a fair chance. FIRST OF all, it is important to realise that as the world?s population grows and the extent of arable land decreases, the only way of ensuring food for all is by increasing productivity.

04.02.2010

Greenpeace India launches campaign to protest against Bt Brinjal

Hoping to persuade Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh against allowing the production of genetically modified (GM) Bt Brinjal in India, climate NGO Greenpeace has launched an online campaign, ?World?s Biggest Baingan Bhartha? and are collecting people?s signatures against the government?s plan. Demanding that the government reverse its decision, farmers, scientists and NGOs have staged angry demonstrations and disrupted public hearings organised by the environment ministry on the issue in the past few days.

04.02.2010

Indian Environment Minister snubs Agriculture Minister on Bt brinjal

Ramesh seems to have given a new twist to this debate by saying that GEAC itself had suggested government intervention. ?Since this decision of GEAC has important policy implications at the national level, GEAC has decided the recommendation for environmental release may be put up before the government for taking a final view on the matter,? Ramesh told Business Standard as he read from a letter dated September 15, 2009. GEAC Chairman M Farooqui, who is also special secretary in the environment ministry, confirmed such a letter had been sent before he took over in December. In a more direct attack on his ministerial colleagues, Ramesh said: ?Bt brinjal is not just a farmer issue. We cannot ignore larger consumer groups.?

04.02.2010

Ten Indian state governments say no to Monsanto?s Bt brinjal

Ten state governments have decided not to wait for the end of the controversy over whether genetically modified (GM) brinjal, popularly termed Bt brinjal, should be approved or not. They have decided not to allow it in their states anyway. Their representatives joined hands today at a conference called in Kerala by the state government and called their united stand the second war of Indian independence. They were from political parties of different hues but united by the common cause of opposing Bt brinjal, the genetically modified version of the vegetable, the technology for which is owned by US company Monsanto.

02.02.2010

Western Australian locals lash out at GM canola decision

LOCAL anti-GM food campaigners have voiced their outrage over Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman?s decision last Monday on GM canola. [...] Local Ian Parmenter called it ?absolutely outrageous?. ?It ignores all the warnings and a lot of good science,? he said.

02.02.2010

Almost all Bulgarians stand against GM food

Over 300 environmentalists and consumers gathered at a protest rally against GMO in the last days of January. About 91% of the readers of the Standart declared against genetically modified plants being grown in Bulgaria, a survey in the Standart Internet edition showed. People insist that the state should not allow the use of foods containing modified genes in Bulgaria.

02.02.2010

Glyphosate resistance warning by Australian researcher

A NEW form of glyphosate resistance has prompted a warning that the herbicide has ?become as important for reliable global food production as penicillin is for battling disease?.
A vigorous weed of cotton fields in the south-east United States, Palmer amaranth, has been found capable of resisting the effects of glyphosate through ?gene amplification?, the third type of resistance mechanism now discovered, and one that has rung alarm bells with researchers.

Go to page: ← 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 →

NewsActualitéNachrichtenActualidad

Comité Local d'Organisation