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Mothers for Natural LawInternational News on Genetic Engineering in AgricultureBiweekly News 00/05/18
Articles have been aggressively shortened. ------------------ Listserv on GE Trees Native Forest Network, as part of its newly launched program against the genetic engineering of trees, has established a listserve on the topic. GE trees pose a serious threat to the world's remaining native forests and indigenous peoples. At this time there are very few plantations actually in place. Now is the time to stop this technology before the industry is able to develop the millions of acres of GE plantations that they have planned for the next few years. To subscribe to this listserve write: frankentrees-NFN-subscribe@egroups.com ------------------ Bangor Daily News, Bangor, ME: 2000-05-03 Monsanto Lab in Crystal Closes Amid Food Protests NatureMark facility raised insect-resistent potatoes CRYSTAL -- Worldwide protests of the use of genetically modified foods have forced the closure of the NatureMark facility in Crystal, [Maine] a transgenetic laboratory and greenhouse operation owned by Monsanto that first opened in late 1992. ... The operation in Crystal was involved in the growing of genetically modified seed potatoes that would repel Colorado potato beetles, which eat the leaves of potato plants. ------------------ The Observer, Sunday May 7, 2000 GM Medicine 'Risks the Lives of Diabetics' Antony Barnett, Public Affairs Editor The lives of thousands of British diabetics were put at risk by multinational drug companies that 'intentionally and maliciously' suppressed information about the potentially lethal side-effects of a genetically engineered medicine, according to claims in US court documents. An American lawsuit launched in April against two drug corporations will embarrass Tony Blair, who this year cited synthetic insulin as an example of the benefits of genetically modified technology in producing 'life-saving medicines'. Yet lawyers representing a victim of the man-made insulin in a class action case in New Mexico claim the genetically engineered medicine leads to 'confusion, distress, coma and even death'. The diabetic bringing the case, Susan Kawulok, said the product caused 'unbearable pain and loss of most use of my arms'. Although no evidence has yet been put to substantiate claims that the firms acted improperly, the case could send shock waves through the pharmaceutical industry, which has invested millions in genetically engineered products... Unlike the case with natural insulin, some diabetics do not get any warning their blood sugar level has fallen and are more likely to go into comas, known as hypoglycaemic episodes or 'hypos'. Some become violent or pass out while driving. In February, a diabetic, Mervyn Fletcher, crashed his car in Wolverhampton, killing his mother-in-law, a passenger. He blacked out and swerved, ploughing across a roundabout and shunting another car 20 yards along a grass verge. Only later when he took glucose tablets did he realise what had happened. Fletcher, a diagnosed diabetic for 15 years, had kept his driving licence. But two years ago his doctor had switched him from animal insulin to the genetically engineered product. At the inquest, Fletcher said: 'I didn't get any warning. I was devastated afterwards that this had happened. I've lost my mother-in-law.' ------------------ Posted by "Desh Pal S. Verma" Major Victory Against Bio-Piracy How the Neem patent fight was won in Europe. Pune, May 17, 2000: At the conclusion of a two-day Oral Proceedings and on the basis of evidence submitted by Mr. Abhay Phadke of Ajay Bio-tech (India) Ltd., Pune, the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) completely revoked a controversial patent which had been granted to Secretary of Agriculture, USDA, representing The United States of America and the multinational corporation W.R.Grace for a fungicide derived from seeds of the Neem tree. ------------------ 5:00 p.m. May. 5, 2000 PDT Wired News Italy Says No to GM Sponsorship by Francesca Noceti MILAN, Italy -- After this week's war declaration against genetically modified products, Italy's Green agriculture minister on Friday revoked next month's sponsorship for Tebio, an international exhibition and congress on biotechnology. Plant biotechnology, which at is the crux of the recent controversy about the production and diffusion of GM foods, will be one of the main topics discussed at the Tebio exhibition in Genoa on May 24-26. Agriculture Minister Pecoraro Scanio said that in light of the new philosophy of the ministry, which favors precautionary principles when related to biotechnology, the sponsorship would have been inopportune. The minister said that withdrawing the sponsorship to Tebio will have no effect on import trade of GM foods. However, the Italian government has asked that all products carry a label describing the processing modalities. The minister's opposition to Tebio and GM foods is not only related to health and environmental concerns. Italy is a country of "quality and typical products," and to accept a policy of genetically engineering crops would eventually damage the Italian food industry, he said. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London) May 6, 2000, Saturday Lupins May Help Farmers to Avoid GM Food Chain BY Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor England's "green and pleasant land" is to be transformed into a sea of blue, white and yellow in the fight against genetically modified food. Lupins - a familiar adornment of cottage gardens - are to replace traditional crops on many farms throughout the country to ensure a GM-free food chain. They will provide the protein for GM-free animal feed and could eventually be used for flour in cakes, biscuits, bread and pizzas. Already 150 farmers have signed up to trials of lupin as the feed of the future and their fields will be in bloom in June and July. The potential take-up could be huge. ...members of the public should not attempt to feed their pets with garden lupins. The garden varieties contain high levels of alkaloid and the seeds are poisonous. ------------------ Agence France Presse Thursday, May 11 7:33 AM SGT UN Members Agree on Labels for Biotech Foods OTTAWA, May 10 (AFP) - Representatives of UN member countries agreed Wednesday on guidelines for labeling genetically modified foods, by standardizing the definitions of words that can appear on labels. The agreed-upon definitions themselves may not offer consumers much guidance, but if the proposals are adopted by the UN agency that sets voluntary food regulations, it could lead to international labels that will mean something. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Journal of Commerce, Inc. Journal of Commerce May 11, 2000, Thursday Food-Biotech Backlash Spreads Through Japan By Sharon Schmickle The deep-fry vats are always busy at the McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken counters here in Tokyo, but Japanese consumers are spurning a different kind of American food: genetically modified corn and soybeans from the U.S. Midwest. ""God created the Earth and food and humans in a very superior way, and we shouldn't mess around with that," said Hiroko Konno, who has a local farmer deliver fresh food to her home near Tokyo four times a week. Such passions have prompted Japanese shoppers to pay as much as 10 times the normal price for soybeans grown on their own soil, where farmers don't plant GM seeds. And next April, a new law will require dozens of foods with GM ingredients to carry labels, giving consumers a clear choice to reject the crops that American farmers are planting this spring. For the farmers, the stakes are huge. Japan imports more Midwestern corn and soybeans than any other nation, at least $3 billion worth a year. A pressing question is how many other Asian nations will take their cues from Japan. "Japan is the bellwether," said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Gene Hugoson, who visited Japan on a trade mission last year. "The Japanese are seen as fastidious in terms of food-safety issues, so they sort of define the high end. And they influence attitudes pretty much down the line." Over the years, Japan typically has bought more than twice as much U.S. corn as all of the European countries combined. Now, after losing $300 million a year in corn sales to Europe since 1996 because of anti-GM furor, U.S. farmers are fighting to save Japanese markets they've cultivated for 50 years. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Southam Inc. The Gazette (Montreal) May 5, 2000, Friday, FINAL Natural Way Costly Loblaw: Genetically modified ingredients keep prices down By Stuart Laidlaw For now, Canada's largest grocery-store chain has rejected as too costly the idea of removing genetically modified foods from its products, the chairman of Loblaw Cos. says. "We know the costs. We've done some detailed analysis of what it would take to stop using genetically modified foods," Galen Weston told shareholders at the company's annual meeting yesterday... "I really can't give you a figure. All I can do is give you the material that gets into more specifics on that. We've got a huge library on it all," he said. Loblaw president Richard Currie said later he would "guess" that food prices would go up by about 25 per cent if genetically foods were replaced with conventional ingredients. ------------------ NLP Wessex May 9, 2000 Release of Genetically Engineered Viral Pesticide The latest UK GM trial database compiled by Primal Seeds www.primalseeds.org/testsite.htm includes one entry of more than usual interest and concern. It would appear that in particular this year's trials include an environmental release, not of a new GM crop, but of a new pesticide (insecticide) which comprises a genetically engineered virus. The GE virus in question is a baculovirus. Baculoviruses are a group of viruses that are specific to arthropods (insects, spiders, crustaceans). This year there appears to be a consent from DETR for an environmental release of the GE virus in question (presumably as a spray) at University Farm, Wytham, Oxfordshire (grid ref SP47170884). The consent holder is Oxford University's Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Newspaper Publishing PLC The Independent (London) May 17, 2000, Wednesday Honey Has Been Contaminated by GM Crops, Claims Friends of the Earth BY Michael Mccarthy, Environment Correspondent BRITAIN'S BEE farmers are to seek an urgent meeting with the Government after Friends of the Earth (FoE) alleged that honey had been contaminated by genetically modified crops... The GM traces found were special genes for weedkiller tolerance developed for oilseed rape crops by the German agrochemical company Aventis. The area is understood to be in Oxfordshire. Brian Stenhouse, general secretary of the Bee Farmers Association of the UK, said members were being advised to move hives at least six miles from any GM crop site. An Environment Department spokeswoman said: "The minute amounts of GM pollen found in honey pose no risk to human health." ------------------ Farm News from Cropchoice An alternative news service for American farmers www.cropchoice.com 5/10/00 Spanish Corn Starch Industry says Bt Corn is a Problem (10 May - Cropchoice News) -- Europe's only commercial GMO corn crop is under attack by the food industry. The Spanish association of corn food starch producers, HUMAIZ, has told government officials that Bt corn is costing it money. Quoted by ENDS, a British media service, HUMAIZ chief Felipe Albert said "we have made clear to the agriculture ministry that the current situation is unsustainable" and "we hope the new minister will move quickly to solve our problems." According to HUMAIZ, GMO corn is causing two major difficulties. Food processors in other European countries are hesitant to accept Spanish corn starch for fear of GMO content. HUMAIZ also says that testing and segregation costs are hurting their competitiveness. Some US food-grade corn farmers are getting a similar message. Some corn starch companies have asked midwest farmers to avoid GMOs, while the costs of testing and segregation - which many US farmers pay out-of-pocket - are looming large in the fall. ------------------ Genetically Modified Seeds Create Stir in Europe LONDON (Reuters) - A rising tide of "green" anger greeted the disclosure Thursday that farmers across Europe are unwittingly growing genetically modified crops. Environmentalists demanded that the "bad seed" be torn up as the company that imported it said that oilseed rape contaminated with GM material was growing in Britain, France, Germany and Sweden. The British government had said Wednesday that farmers were unknowingly growing such crops after buying oilseed rape seeds from Canada that had been cross-pollinated from a genetically modified crop growing in a nearby field. Thursday, seed company Advanta, which imported the seed from Canada, disclosed that Sweden, Germany and France were also affected. In Stockholm, the Agriculture Department said 14 tons of seeds imported into Sweden in 1999 from Canada contained 0.4 percent of genetically modified rapeseed. Advata spokesman David Buckeridge told Reuters the areas sown with GM-contaminated seed were small and that there was no risk to health. Nor had any laws been broken. "In Germany and France in particular we're talking about hundreds of hectares in an area of millions of hectares," Buckeridge told Reuters. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. ------------------ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is compiled for educational use only. |
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