Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monsanto data
Data from Monsanto do not meet basic scientific standards
Testbiotech and GeneWatch UK
February 02, 2012
Rising doubts about safety of genetically engineered plants
Bruxelles - 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 (GLP standards). 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 (GLP) Standards. ” Nevertheless the data were accepted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the plants were accepted as being safe.
“EU Regulations require that highest possible standards are applied during risk assessment. But EFSA accepted data for risk assessment of a questionable product that would have been rejected for any scientific publication”, says Helen Wallace from GeneWatch UK. “In conclusion, current practice is not in line with legal requirements.”
The detailed analysis of the documents was conducted after the EU Commission rejected a formal complaint of GeneWatch (UK) and Testbiotech against the market authorisation of Monsanto´s maize that is a combination of two genetically engineered plants (MON89034XMON88017, nickname SynthiToxStax). The Commission is of the opinion that risk assessment was conducted in accordance with EU regulations.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Lawsuit against Monsanto
Landmark Lawsuit against Monsanto gets day in court
SustainableBusiness.com
February 01, 2012
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.
Monsanto filed a pre-trial motion to dismiss the case in July - this hearing will determine whether the case can move forward.
It was standing room only as family farmers from around North America filled the New York City courtroom.
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 (GMO) seeds and to prohibit the company from suing those whose crops become genetically contaminated because they drift through the air.
Monsanto has created a culture of fear in the rural community by aggressively pursuing lawsuits against farmers for “genetic trespassing.”
Dozens of farmers have been driven into bankruptcy and many organic and non-GMO farmers are now afraid to plant seeds.
Wouldn’t it make more sense if organic farmers could sue Monsanto for contaminating their crops with their GMO seed?
French ‘GMO Free’ labels
French food companies can use ‘GMO Free’ labels, government says
By Rudy Ruitenberg
Bloomberg
February 01, 2012
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. Adding GMO-free labeling will allow producers to distinguish their goods and increase consumer choice, the ministries said.
“This decree, awaited by consumer associations, defines the product labeling rules for operators who want to develop a production without GMO,” the ministries said. “The indication of the absence of GMO in food will allow consumers to fully exercise their choice.”
Friday, January 27, 2012
Enemy of justice
Philanthropy is the enemy of justice
By Robert Newman
guardian.co.uk
January 27, 2012
The world’s poor are not begging for charity from the rich - they’re asking for justice and fairness
Gates’s voice is loud, but the model of development it proclaims is the wrong one because philanthropy is the enemy of justice’.
It’s strange that at this week’s World Economic Forum the designated voice of the world’s poor has been Bill Gates, who has pledged £478m to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, telling Davos that the world economic crisis was no excuse for cutting aid.
It reminds me of that dark hour when Al Gore, despite being a shareholder in Occidental Petroleum, was the voice of climate change action - because Gates does not speak with the voice of the world’s poor, of course, but with the voice of its rich. It’s a loud voice, but the model of development it proclaims is the wrong one because philanthropy is the enemy of justice.
Am I saying that philanthropy has never done good? No, it has achieved many wonderful things. Would I rather people didn’t have polio vaccines than get them from a plutocrat? No, give them the vaccines. But beware the havoc that power without oversight and democratic control can wreak.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Dow and Monsanto team up
Dow and Monsanto team up on the mother of all herbicide marketing plans
By Tom Philpott
Mother Jones
January 25, 2012
Working in cahoots with its erstwhile rival Monsanto, Dow is on the verge of unleashing a chemical gusher onto US farmland—with the USDA’s blessing.
During the late December media lull, the USDA didn’t satisfy itself with green-lighting Monsanto’s useless, PR-centric “drought-tolerant” corn. [1] It also prepped the way for approving a product from Monsanto’s rival Dow Agrosciences—one that industrial-scale corn farmers will likely find all too useful.
Dow has engineered a corn strain that withstands lashings of its herbicide, 2,4-D. The company’s pitch to farmers is simple: Your fields are becoming choked with weeds that have developed resistance to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. As soon as the USDA okays our product, all your problems will be solved.
At risk of sounding overly dramatic, the product seems to me to bring mainstream US agriculture to a crossroads. If Dow’s new corn makes it past the USDA and into farm fields, it will mark the beginning of at least another decade of ramped-up chemical-intensive farming of a few chosen crops (corn, soy, cotton), beholden to a handful of large agrichemical firms working in cahoots to sell ever larger quantities of poisons, environment be damned. If it and other new herbicide-tolerant crops can somehow be stopped, farming in the US heartland can be pushed toward a model based on biodiversity over monocropping, farmer skill in place of brute chemicals, and healthy food instead of industrial commodities.