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Biofuels: Please take Action |
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The British government is consulting on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. Biofuel targets and incentives already promote more rainforest destruction and thus more climate change, threaten food security and food sovereignty, particularly in the global south, and harm the biodiversity on which all of us depend. Please take part in the consultation and tell the government that we need a moratorium and no targets now. Here you will find an email action where you can raise your concerns http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/index.php |
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Biofuels - the next Genetic Revolution? |
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As the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to give a green light to nukes and large-scale biofuel production, including GMOs, an Ecologist Special Report has been published on the "facts, fictions and fabrications" behind biofuels.
Interesting snippet about how the GM companies hope that we won't mind GM crops grown for biofuels: "Biotech companies ... seek to create a distinction in the public's mind between GM as food (not acceptable) and GM for industrial uses (acceptable)." http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7814 |
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GM crops cause 'breakdown' in Indian farming systems |
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In an article in The Independent, 25 March 2007 by Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor it is stated that genetically modified crops have helped cause a "complete breakdown" in farming systems in India. The study threatens to deal a fatal blow to probably the most powerful argument left in the biotech industry's armoury, that it can help to bring prosperity to the Third World. See the Independent article. |
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Arkansas Plant Board adopts new regulations to purge GM rice trait |
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This article is by David Bennett in the newspaper Delta Farm Express
"Immediately following a meeting of its seed committee, the Arkansas Plant Board unanimously voted to send new regulations aimed at purging trace amounts of a LibertyLink (LL) GM trait from the state's rice supply to public comment." For the full article see http://deltafarmpress.com/news/0761229-gm-rice/
As Colin Holden of Lothian and Borders Bio-check says "Time will tell how successful this exercise will be, and at what cost. This is the sort of procedure that would have to be carried out if/when a transgenic sequence is proven to have an adverse health or environmental impact, and the authorities are forced to act." |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 13 January 2007 )
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New Report: GM Crops still not performing |
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A new report released today (Tuesday 9 January) shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers in most countries of the world, and more than 70 percent of large scale GM planting is still limited to two countries (U.S. and Argentina).
Friends of the Earth's new report, 'Who Benefits from GM crops? An analysis of the global performance of genetically modified (GM) crops 1996-2006' [1] also notes that the 'second generation' GM farm crops with attractive 'traits' long promised by the industry has failed to appear.
"No GM crop on the market today offers benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, and to date these crops have done nothing to alleviate hunger or poverty in Africa or elsewhere," said Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Africa in Nigeria. The great majority of GM crops cultivated today are used as high-priced animal feed to supply rich nations with meat," he added.
According to the report, GM crops commercialised today have on the whole increased rather than decreased pesticide use, and do not yield more than conventional varieties. The environment has not benefited, and GM crops will become increasingly unsustainable over the medium to long term.
In Europe, the report acknowledges a small increase in cultivation of GM maize (up to approximately 1 percent of all maize production) but highlights strong continued opposition to GM crops in the European Union and an increase in the number of European regions declaring themselves GM Free.
The executive summary of the report is available at http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gmcrops2007execsummary.pdf . The full report is available for media upon request from the contacts
above or from media@foei.org. A three-page 'Highlights of the report' is available at: http://www.foei.org/publications/pdfs/gmcrops2007highlights.pdf
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Last Updated ( Friday, 12 January 2007 )
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New Review of Transgene Integration |
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The latest paper on transgene insertion has been published in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews (vol 23, December 2006, pp 209-237). Its title is Transformation-induced Mutations in Transgenic Plants: Analysis and Biosafety Implications, by Allison K Wlson, Jonathan R Latham and Ricarda A Steinbrecher. It is the most comprehensive and up to date resource available anywhere on the characteristics of transgene integration and it is available as a pdf c/o the Bioscience Resource Project website http://www.bioscienceresource.org/docs/BSR-2-BGERvol23.pdf
"The work of this group of independent scientists on so-called "genome scrambling" has been extremely important in revealing how the genetic engineering of crops not only lacks precision but causes large scale genetic rearrangements of host DNA at transgene insertion sites, as well as large numbers of mutations scattered throughout the genome of each new transgenic plant. The significance of all this genetic damage is that the food safety of edible crops relies crucially on genetic stability" This information comes from Lothian and Borders Bio-check http://ecoforth.org.uk/gm/ |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 January 2007 )
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Gap in the law - there are GMOs in animal feed |
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Milk, meat and eggs from animals which have been fed with GM plants do not have to be labelled. Consumers in Europe are thus unknowingly supporting the cultivation of GM plants. Greenpeace is collecting signatures throughout Europe for a petition for labelling to be made mandatory. They've already collected 900,000 signatures and now need all of us to help make it a million. See the gmwatch website . |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 November 2006 )
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EU refuses to fight WTO ruling on GM foods |
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Friends of the Earth Europe has condemned the decision of 21 November by the EU not to contest a controversial ruling by the WTO in the transatlantic trade war over GM foods. The environmental NGO has warned that accepting the ruling, which ignored international environmental agreements, sets a dangerous precedent for future environmental disputes. See the gmwatch website.
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