MEPs have voted against a proposed EU sed regulation that would further concentrate the seed market and discriminate against genetically diverse traditional seeds.
… In particular, extending the scope of the law on plant reproductive material (PRM) … who today are out of the scope of the PRM law, would suddenly need to fulfil …
Britain's bees are under threat from Brexit and moves to allow farmers to use banned bee-harming 'neonictinoid' pesticides, warns Dave Timms, Bees Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. With 20 species extinct since 1900 and a further 35 under threat, how much more can our bees take?
… of extinction. None are properly protected by law and Europe-wide, nearly one in ten wild … farmed countryside. Without EU nature laws crucial habitats will be less well …
Consumers beware - the US food industry is working overtime urging lawmakers to sponsor a Bill to prevent pro-active labeling of GMO foods at a State level.
… US food industry is working overtime urging lawmakers to sponsor a Bill to prevent … label Several States have passed provisional laws in the past year which would require GMO … to have to deal with a hodgepodge of state laws. "A 50 state patchwork of regulations is …
£600 million of UK aid money is going to help companies like Unilever and Monsanto take over African land and agriculture, writes Miriam Ross. The corporate power-grab will be disastrous for the small-scale farmers who feed at least 70% of Africa's people.
… Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Nigeria, Benin, Malawi and Senegal. The great African land-grab … had to agree to make major changes to their laws - all intended to make life easier for … New Alliance, and have pushed for new seed laws that will give farmers little choice but …
Farmers in northern Poland are demanding the right to sell the food they produce in local shops, fighting oppressive sanitary regulations, picketing the Land Agency for access to prime farmland, and resisting GMOs.
… corporations can exploit loopholes in the law and start planting GM crops on newly … initiated hygiene and sanitary laws. Draconian sanitary regulations These …
Livestock ranching on US public lands underlies a vast range of environmental problems - so should we welcome 'conservation buyouts' of ranches that own grazing leases? No way, writes William Williers, because the lands are already ours, and to 'buy' them is to support and perpetuate a $1 billion per year fraud against the American people.
… pay a trivial fraction of market demand. Laws typically mandate that allotments be … nevertheless be managed for grazing, as the law demands. The only difference, presumably, … that are nevertheless obliged by law to continue livestock grazing, which they …
The Gates Foundation is spending half a billion dollars a year to 'feed the world', most of it aimed at Africa. But as GRAIN discovers, it is imposing a model of high-tech, high-input 'green revolution' farming, complete with GMOs, agro-chemicals and a pro-business neoliberal agenda, all in in alliance with corporate agriculture.
… on highly controversial issues like seed laws and GMOs. GRAIN looked through the … support to 'agro-dealers' (see box on Malawi ). An important component of its work, … the Village Land Act as well as "reviewing laws governing land titling at the district …
An Indonesian palm oil company has been convicted of large-scale burning of protected swamp forest in Aceh - home to some of Sumatra's last orangutans.
… to clear forest land, in breach of National Law 32/2009 on Environmental Protection and … It denies violating any environmental laws, claims to have caused no environmental …
An attempt by the UK's Conservative Party and its allies to force countries to allow EU-approved GMO crops has been defeated by the European Parliament, writes Keith Taylor. Instead MEPs voted to strengthen the national GMO opt-out. But the UK still has a battle to fight against its avidly pro-GMO government.
… MEP | 11th November 2014 Comment EU UK GMOs Law Health Farming Politics corn-crop-cut.jpg … What we had before - recipe for chaos and lawsuits Last June the European Council … of growing GMOs. But the plan was fatally flawed - any opt out would only have lasted for …
The Government must release key documents about its secret development of England's badger cull with the National Farmers Union. The Upper Tribunal ruled that the public interest would be served by a full disclosure.
… The Ecologist | 1st August 2014 News Badgers Law Farming Politics UK … developments in environmental information law, which will assist other NGOs like …
Brazil's extreme right wing government is preparing to open up the rainforest territories of dozens of uncontacted indigenous tribes to 'free for all' development by defunding the protection they currently receive, according to information received by Survival International, which warns: 'The reality is these cuts could sanction genocide.'
… 2017 News Indigenous Peoples Genocide Brazil Law Politics Farming Mining Land Grabs Amazon … violation of Brazilian and international law, which could result in the destruction of …
The factory farming of pigs is organised animal abuse, writes Alastair Kenneil, and it imperils the environment and human health. But in the UK we have the choice to buy meat from pigs raised humanely under the open sky. Will you take the Pig Pledge today?
… to force them to comply with animal welfare laws that say pigs must have straw or similar … that reduces its costs by breaking welfare laws and polluting the air and water. The environmental lawyer and campaigner Robert Kennedy Jr's …
Seventeen or more secret applications have been made to India's GMO regulators for trials and release of GM crops including rice, wheat, chickpeas, brinjal and mustard, write Colin Todhunter & Oliver Tickell. In a violation of the law regulators have released no information about the applications, raising fears that India's first GMOs will be released with no health, safety or environmental testing.
… & Oliver Tickell. In a violation of the law regulators have released no information … rigorous biosafety protocols required by law have not been carried out and the data …
Thousands of small farmers in Poland are blockading motorways and holding demonstrations to demand land rights, a ban on GMOs and an end to oppressive health and safety regulations - and they are refusing to call off the protests until their demands are met.
… in the market, including the adoption of a law to facilitate direct sales of processed … bigger food companies). Extend inheritance laws to include land under lease as a fully …
If it wasn't climate change, was the real purpose of the Number 10 meeting of Theresa May's advisors and President Trump's environmental transition supremo Myron Ebell to plan the post-Brexit deregulation of UK farming, including pesticides? That's how it looks, writes Georgina Downs - and we had better begin now to fight for our health, wildlife and environment.
… of our time. It is a requirement under EU law that prior to the approval of any … in such areas have clearly been approved unlawfully. Over many decades the multi billion … industry). The UK Government's future laws and policies on agriculture if and when …
On the first anniversary of the UK's National Pollinator Strategy, writes Sandra Bell, the Bee Coalition warns that bees are still under threat from highly toxic pesticides, continuing loss of habitat, and an increasingly inhospitable countryside. The Government must do more to protect our bees.
… November 2015 Comment Natural World Farming Law UK EU Bees bumble-bee-cut.jpg On the first … use by 50% . In fact, IPM is enshrined in EU law. Article 14 of Directive 2009/128/EC …
After beavers' reintroduction to Scotland, landowners have accused the native rodents of damaging the environment, causing floods, and worse, writes Louise Ramsay. But the public have rallied to the cause of these charming, beneficial creatures, leaving conservative landowners isolated. Could the shift in sentiment trigger long overdue change in the Scottish countryside?
… told that under the current state of Scots law, (ducking through a loophole to avoid EU law) shooting was legal, at any time, but … British residence! ' by Nigel Willby & Alan Law, University of Stirling. ' Time to bring …
Early yield figures indicate a bumper harvest for oilseed rape in England in the first neonic-free growing season - making a nonsense of the 'emergency' lifting of the ban of the bee-killing pesticides.
… Ecologist | 3rd July 2015 News Farming Toxics Law EU Natural World osr-harvest-cut.jpg Early … released to date, the decision appeared to "unlawful" by failing to comply with the … Regulation that banned neonics, and wider EU law. If the 2015 oilseed rape harvest ends up …
Recent decades have seen a hardening global clampdown on the rights of farmers to use, save, develop, share, swap and distribute the seeds that produce the food we all eat, writes Andrew Kimbrell - and which constitute an essential common heritage of mankind. Here's his plan to fight back against the seed monopolists ...
… conducting in-depth legal research on the laws and rules of countries and regions around … legislative and legal changes in seed law. CFS itself has been a key player in … Kimbrell has challenged the logic and lawfulness of industrial agriculture in …
The US Congress has outlawed the use of aid to Ethiopia to evict tribal peoples in the SW of the country - where violent expulsions are under way to clear land for cash-crop farming.
… Grabs USA omo-2.png The US Congress has outlawed the use of aid to Ethiopia to evict … Defence of human rights in Ethiopia is now US Law Among the provisions of the Omnibus …
The global pesticide and bioscience giant Monsanto is a byword for evil for millions of campaigners and concerned citizens, writes JP Sottile. But that has never stopped it getting its way with the people that matter - politicians and regulators. And now the company is on the verge of biggest victory ever - winning clearance to spray biologically active RNA sequences on US crops.
… Farming Toxics Health Regulation USA Law Politics hugh-grant-cut.jpg The global … United States' ' second most widely used ' lawn and garden poison. Roundup products … would've nullified state-level GMO labelling laws in favour of a national, 'voluntary' …
With all the EU's GMO exemptions filed, a clear majority - by number, population and area of farmland - have chosen to be GMO-free, writes Mary Dobbs. But the rules surrounding their opt-outs are complex in the extreme and many countries will find it hard to maintain their GMO-free status - specially if the Commission and the biotech corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta choose to exercise their powers.
… 2015 News GMOs EU Farming Seeds Corporations Law farm-cyprus-cut.jpg With all the EU's GMO … crops resumes. Mary Dobbs is Lecturer in Law, Queen's University Belfast. This article …
The chemical industry and the European Food Safety Authority are refusing to disclose key scientific evidence about glyphosate's risks, citing 'trade secrets' protection, writes Corporate Europe Observatory. They must be compelled to publish the 'mysterious three' scientific studies EFSA used to assess glyphosate as 'unlikely' to cause cancer to humans - contradicting the IARC's view.
… Observatory | 22nd February 2016 News Health Law Regulation Corporations EU Science Toxics … EFSA said that the studies' owners (who, by law, must be consulted) refused any disclosure …
A year after Shell was forced into a £55 million settlement with an indigenous community in Nigeria devastated by oil spills, a UK High Court judge has allowed two new such cases to proceed on behalf of some 43,000 subsistence farmers and fishers whose livelihoods have been wiped out by the same cause.
… Nigerian oil spill victims press new Shell lawsuits Oliver Tickell | 2nd March 2016 News … in London. The cases were filed by London law firm Leigh Day on behalf of two Nigerian … "We hope that the Bodo case and this new lawsuit will spur Shell on to accept its …