The EU is considering the exclusion of gene-edited plants and animals from GM regulations, write Janet Cotter & Ricarda Steinbrecher. However gene-edited organisms clearly fall within the definition of GMOs in both European and international law. They also present real risks to the environment and human health - and must be regulated like any other GMOs.
… of genetic material that do not occur naturally, and alterations to genetic material … has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination;" Likewise, the …
Vandana Shiva is more than just a leading scientist, author and campaigner on green issues and anti-globalisation, writes Scott London. She is also among the most prominent of Mahatma Ghandi's intellectual heirs. In this interview, she discusses how this led her to be an outspoken voice on such crucial environmental issues as seed legacy, biopiracy and economic injustice.
… Foundation for Science, Technology, and Natural Resource Policy in Dehra Dun. She is … of India - people who are dependent on natural resources, on biodiversity, on the …
Monarch butterfly numbers are dwindling despite protection of their wintering forests in Mexico, and voluntary schemes to restore their food plant, milkweed, in US field margins, writes Eva Sirinathsinghji. These measures alone are insufficient: no less than an end to the mass spraying of glyphosate on crops, predicated by 'Roundup-ready' GM corn and soy, will do.
… ISIS | 2nd March 2016 News Biodiversity Natural World USA GMOs Farming Mexico Forests … as one of the world's most spectacular natural phenomena but over the last few years, … WWF of Mexico and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) from the …
A synthetic biology plant producing the anti-malarial drug artemisinin has just shut down as it's much cheaper to use wormwood grown by African farmers, writes Almuth Ernsting. The technology is even further from making affordable diesel, with a production cost of $20-50 per litre. No wonder investors are losing patience - and confidence - in loss-making synbio companies.
… in the article explains that if the price of natural artemisinin, derived from sweet … These are carbon molecules only found naturally in plants. Isoprenoids are not just …
A radical new Seed Law drafted by Venezuelan people, farmers and NGOs was signed into law in the closing days of 2015, write William Camacaro, Frederick B. Mills & Christina M. Schiavoni. Striking back against the corporate takeover of seeds and peddling of GMOs, the Seed Law bans transgenic seeds, protects the country's germplasm, and establishes the legal foundation for a participatory, agroecological food and farming system.
… guarantees the rational and optimal use of natural resources, respecting the processes … and rational and optimal utilization of vital natural resources." (p. 19-20) In closing, … a common good of public, cultural as well as natural material and immaterial interest of …
It looked like such a good idea: take the pressure off wild fish stocks by growing GM oilseeds that produce health-enhancing long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, writes Claire Robinson. But as a new study has established, those fish oils, novel in terrestrial ecosystems, cause wing deformities in cabbage white butterflies. Yet a third open field trial of these GM crops could soon be under way.
… and function, and the immune system. They are naturally found in oily fish and algae. Many … their wild counterparts, which enjoy a diet naturally rich in these oils. But as fish …
GMOs have been in our diets for about 20 years, writes Rupert Read. Proof that they are safe? No way - it took much, much longer to discover the dangers of cigarettes and transfats, dangers that are far more visible than those of GMOs. On the scale of nature and ecology, 20 years is a pitifully short time. To sustain our human future, we have to think long term.
The Precautionary Principle: the basis of a post-GMO ethic Rupert Read | 18th April 2016 Comment GMOs Society Science Technology cig-cut.jpg GMOs have been in our diets for about 20 years, writes …
GMO crops are marketed as providing quick fixes to complex problems, writes Julia Wright. But they only perpetuate 'business as usual' farming that's depleting soils, water and biodiversity, and entrench unsustainable models of agriculture in place of agroecological systems that work with, not against, nature.
Farmers would do better to understand the land than grow GM crops Julia Wright Coventry University | 11th April 2016 Comment Farming GMOs Agroecology Cuba Organic crops-cut.jpg GMO crops are marketed …
A coalition of fishing, consumer, and environmental groups are suing the FDA for its 'unlawful' approval of Aquabounty's GM salmon, as it relied on treating the fish as an 'animal drug' under a 1938 law, and ignored serious risks to wild salmon and fishing communities.
… high risk for GE organisms to escape into the natural environment, and that GE salmon can … it could have irreversible impacts on the natural world" , said Dune Lankard, a salmon … that hasn't eventually escaped into the natural environment " , said Golden Gate …
The Royal Society purports to provide unbiased information on scientific issues, writes Steven Druker. But its new guide on GMOs is grossly misleading - glossing over the many dangers inherent to the technology with bland, unsupported re-assurances. The Society must end its partisan promotion of GMOs or risk its reputation as Britain's premier scientific body.
… actually misinformation . Obfuscating the unnatural nature of the GM process and ignoring … misleading because they omit the most unnatural and unsettling features while downplaying the unnaturalness of those they do mention. In one …
What's the point of farming? To produce an abundance of wholesome food, writes Colin Tudge, while supporting a flourishing rural economy and a sustainable, biodiverse countryside. Yet the powers that be, determined to advance industrial agriculture at all costs, are achieving the precise opposite. It's time for a revolution in our food and farming culture, led by the people at large.
… not through design or conspiracy but through natural selection: those who think in the way … itself has been re-conceived, not as the natural component of democratic society but as …
The EU Commission has caved in to US pressure in TTIP trade talks by deciding to consider organisms modified by new 'gene editing' techniques as non-GM - in violation of the EU's own laws. The move could make the 'new GMOs' exempt from labeling and from health and environmental testing.
… has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating or natural recombination" . Gene-edited plants …
The Gates Foundation has received a 57,000 strong petition denouncing its support for a 'biopirated' GM banana program in Africa, and calling on it to suspend a feeding trial on US students, writes Vanessa Amaral-Rogers. The banana threatens both the health of the students, say campaigners, and the future of African agriculture.
… already hundreds of banana cultivars that are naturally high in beta carotene and grown … particularly because there are several naturally occurring varieties of banana that …
The very term 'genetic engineering' implies high precision in the alterations made to genes and deep understanding of their consequences, writes Jonathan Latham. In fact, we have never had either. And even with the arrival of CRISPR and other 'gene editing' systems, that remains the case: technologists are thrashing about in a perilous sea of unfathomable complexities and unknowable outcomes.
CRISPR and the three myths of precise genome editing Jonathan Latham Independent Science News | 25th April 2016 Comment GMOs Science Technology Media Health 741px-crispr-cut.png The very term …
A recent scientific study found the same long-chain omega-3 oils that are engineered into a new GM Camelina oilseed variety make butterflies grow up with deformed wings, writes Claire Robinson. Attempts by the 'pro-science' non-scientist Mark Lynas to discredit the study are a mixture of ignorance, research failures, 'straw man' arguments and outright errors.
GMO lobby's false claims to defend GM oilseed against deformed butterfly findings Claire Robinson GMWatch | 9th May 2016 Activism GMOs Science Media Health Ecology UK …
British NGOs have objected to two applications for open-air field trials to grow GM crops. One is for a blight-resistant potato that is much less resistant than existing non-GM varieties. The other is an oilseed to be used as fish food whose fatty acid profile has been subject to only 'rudimentary analysis'.
… production techniques." Also, while the naturally blight-resistant potato cultivars … are unnecessary, since there are already naturally bred varieties that are more …
India's farmers are the targets of structural violence aimed at uprooting indigenous agriculture and replacing it with an intensive corporate model based on GMOs and agrochemicals, writes Colin Todhunter. But as Monsanto's GM cotton succumbs to insect infestations despite repeated pesticide applications, agroecological farming is an increasingly attractive option for cultivators.
… to control harmful pests. They allowed the natural predators of whitefly to proliferate, … food production, while preserving the natural resource base and empowering rural …
There's absolutely no evidence for BBC Panorama's claim of 90% success for Bt brinjal in Bangladesh, writes Claire Robinson. But that has not stopped the BBC Trust from dismissing all complaints against its monstrously dishonest report. Nor has it diminished the jubilation of GMO cheerleaders.
BBC's GMO coverage 'fair and accurate'? You decide Claire Robinson GMWatch | 14th April 2016 Comment GMOs Science Bangladesh Media UK Regulation Farming Corporations brinjal-cut.jpg There's …
How can progressive movements rise above merely being right, to mount effective mass opposition to corporate rule and the dictatorship of the super-wealthy? By learning from Gandhi, writes Colin Todhunter, and devising new campaigns that engage with people's everyday concerns - like access to safe, wholesome, affordable, 'open source' food.
From salt to GMOs - resistance is fertile Colin Todhunter | 1st February 2016 Activism Food GMOs Corporations History Human Rights War gandhi-cut.jpg How can progressive movements rise above merely …
Perhaps all the 'do gooders' busy forcing industrial models of agriculture onto poor but independent African farmers really do think they are helping them, writes Colin Todhunter. But if so they are deeply deluded. All they will achieve is the takeover of export-oriented agribusiness and GMOs, the destruction of agroecological farming systems, and a future of debt and landlessness.
… that can be found within the diversity of natural foods and farming. As Zakiyya Ismail, …
Bayer's $66 billion takeover of Monsanto represents another big click on the ratchet of corporate power over farming and food, writes Colin Todhunter. With the 'big six' of global agribusiness now set to turn into the 'even bigger three', farmers and consumers are facing more GMOs and pesticides, less choice, and deeper price gouging. Agroecology has never looked more attractive.
Monsanto and Bayer: food and agriculture just took a turn for the worse Colin Todhunter | 16th September 2016 News Corporations GMOs Farming Pesticides Food Agroecology fertile-cut.jpg Bayer's $66 …
There's no such thing as 'healthy food' if it's not produced by sustainable farming systems on living soils, Patrick Holden told the recent 'Food: The Forgotten Medicine' conference. But after 70 years of industrial farming, there's a huge job to be done to restore our depleted soils and the impoverished genetic diversity of our seeds and crops.
… because of the risks we take by altering the natural world before we fully understand it, … soil fertility and produce enough nitrogen naturally grow bountiful crops. This would be …
An exciting new project has been launched to give children a chance to join in the GMO debate, writes Pat Thomas. With young people speaking up and becoming more aware of food, health and environmental issues, they deserve the platform to voice their concerns and join in a wider global network of youth working for positive change in the world they will inherit.
… us have a good sense of right and wrong. Our natural curiosity about the world is at its …
Little Vermont is having a big impact on GMO food labeling across the US, writes Lawrence Woodward. And with 'regulatory cooperation' under TTIP that influence could reach into the EU. Trouble is, Vermont's labeling law contains major exemptions - on meat products, take-aways and restaurant food, as well as products from animals fed GM feeds. The US, and the EU, deserve better.
Flawed US GMO labeling will damage the anti-GM movement on both sides of the Atlantic Lawrence Woodward Beyond GM | 22nd April 2016 News GMOs USA EU Consumerism FOI bandg-labeling-cut.jpg Little …