Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:35:18 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/ PostNuke Powered Site en-us http://www.nwrage.org/images/logo.gif http://www.nwrage.org/ frankie4260@hotmail.com http://www.nwrage.org/Article2277.html Non-GM crops bred using traditional plant breeding methods still provide most of the food and animal feed in the world, covering more than 97% of agricultural land [1] compared with only 2.4% growing GM crops. The new analysis [2] was carried out by GM Freeze after media reports claimed 25% of global arable land was under GM crops – a figure obtained from the National Environmental Research Council’s website [3]. The GM Freeze analysis shows that in fact over 90% of global arable land [4] is used to cultivate non-GM crops. Even in the USA, where GM crops have been widely adopted, over 85% of agricultural land is growing non-GM crops and two thirds of arable land grew non-GM crops in 2007. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:35:18 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2276.html A new rice-growing system developed for the wetlands of West Africa could significantly increase the region’s yield capacity, bridging the gap between production and consumption and offering a long-term solution to the food crisis in Africa. West Africa has moved closer to attaining domestic self-sufficiency in rice, its fastest-growing and most costly food import. IITA, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, has developed a rice growing system, termed ’Sawah’ (Indonesian for ”wet rice-field”), which makes it possible to grow the crop in the region’s wetlands and with more than twice the yield of traditional dryland rice farms. IITA estimates that some 10 million rice farmers stand to benefit from the adoption of the system. As Africa imports about 40% of its rice and accounts for more than one-third of the rice traded globally, the ’Sawah’ system could save rice-consuming countries in the region some US$2 billion in annual import payments. But more importantly, it could help ease the food crisis in Africa where riots have erupted in recent months in several countries due to acute food shortage. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:33:32 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2275.html “All beers were organic 100 years ago,” says Christopher Mark O’Brien, Silver Spring, Md.-based author of Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World. Today, organic beers are a niche within a niche, constituting probably less than 1 percent of the craft beer segment (which itself produces less than 4 percent of the beer consumed in this country). But the sub-niche is growing rapidly: In 2006, sales totaled $25 million, up 32 percent over the previous year, according to the Organic Trade Association in Greenfield, Mass. To be advertised as organic, beer has to pass muster, just as other foods do. Ingredients must have been grown without the use of chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. No irradiation, no GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Certifying organizations may make surprise inspections to make sure brewers aren’t commingling organic and non-organic supplies. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:30:59 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2274.html While it seemed like a good idea to use agrofuels in the beginning- it has now become a menace to the quality of life for people globally and without reducing greenhouse gas emissions says the author. In the beginning it seemed like a good idea to power our cars using plant based "biofuels", like switching from a diet of greasy hamburgers to pure sweet green tea. Most environmentalists agreed, and governments around the globe adopted policies mandating biofuels use and supporting the burgeoning new industry with subsidies. Multinational agribusiness giants, Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge, Monsanto.... all rolled up their sleeves and prepared the coffers for major cash influx. So did the biotechnology industries, anticipating new opportunities to market genetically engineered crops for fuel, even where their food crops remained unpopular. Auto manufacturers breathed a sigh of relief: with an alternative fuel available, people would not bother to drive less. Big Oil with an eye on the future, ramped up investment and a major green-wash campaign. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:26:18 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2273.html Last month, GM canola crops were planted for the first time in NSW and Victoria after the two states announced they would let their bans on genetically engineered food crops expire. In response, local celebrity chefs including Neil Perry and Kylie Kwong have signed on to the GM Free Chefs’ Charter, launched in collaboration with Greenpeace in Sydney. The charter, unveiled at chef Jared Ingersoll’s Danks Street Depot restaurant in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Waterloo, calls for the NSW and Victorian governments to reverse their position on growing GM canola and demands thorough labelling of all food products that contain GM ingredients. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:20:11 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2272.html Fifteen Belgian colza fields, owned by Bayer CropScience, have been contaminated by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned in Europe, the country’s public health ministry announced Tuesday. The Bayer subsidiary, which specialises in improving crop yields, informed the Belgian authorities of the contamination, which happened last month during the planting of normal colza -- a crop similar to rapeseed and used in cattlefeed, cooking oil, machinery lubricant and, increasingly, as a biofuel. ”The conventional seed lot was contaminated by five percent GMO colza,” the statement said. A preliminary investigation carried out by the multinational put the problem down to ”human error.” Bayer ”has taken measures to prevent the spread of non-authorised GMOs” including the uprooting and destruction of the young crop, which had not yet flowered or produced grain. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:15:25 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2271.html The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) condemns Bayer Cropsciences’ spate of no less than 8 permit applications for field trials involving 8 Genetically Modified (GM) cotton varieties. These GM cotton varieties are to be tested in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, where the majority of the population is poor and marginalised. The applications come on the first anniversary of Bayer’s US$310 million acquisition of Monsanto’s of Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Company - a leading US producer of cottonseeds. We condemn these applications, which will continue to consolidate our agricultural system into the capitalist economy and leave small-scale farmers out in the cold. We also assert that these crops pose inherent risks to human and environmental health. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:08:42 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2270.html Comment: So it look like it might be time to start boycotting Mars and all other chocolate producers or users who want to use genetically engineered chocolate. Now the GE chocolate will be years away but NW RAGE suggests to our readers that you email or call candy companies and chocolate makers to demand they not use GE chocolate as well as demanding they not use genetically engineered Roundup Ready Sugar Beet sugar which may be coming onto the market this year. For more info on the GE Sugar Beets please click here Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:41:01 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2269.html The saying goes, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good - and the increasing hunger spreading around the globe as the world food crisis takes hold is sending the genetically modified food lobby smiling all the way to the seed bank. Food prices may be at a record high, food reserves at an unprecedented low, and millions of the world’s poorest may be struggling to scrape together a single meal a day - but the much-battered biotech industry is enjoying its biggest ever public relations bonanza. Yesterday, Environment Minister Phil Woolas said Britain needs to look at whether GM technology could help tackle the current crisis, signalling an end to more than a decade of government scepticism over GM plants. Suddenly, after years of being shunned by the British public, the industry and its cheerleaders are scrambling for the unfamiliar territory of the moral high ground. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:32:38 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2268.html The biotechnology industry has never been shy of making outlandish claims on behalf of its products. Back in the late 1990s we were sold genetically modified soya and oilseed rape on the promise that it would feed the world. On closer examination, it became clear that these first-generation GM crops were more about intensifying chemical agriculture and sealing corporate control of the food chain than feeding starving babies in Africa. Consumers, especially in Europe, rose in revolt, and the industry was forced into retreat. But big companies like Monsanto, Syngenta and BASF are not easily kept at bay for long. Now their PR-men have discovered a new line in emotional blackmail: that without GM crops we will be unable to produce enough food in an era of climate change. Transgenic crops will be able to grow in drought-stricken, saline areas, we are assured, helping to augment food supplies in an era of rapidly intensifying crisis. So is it time to follow in the steps of the UK environment minister Phil Woolas and reassess the potential of GM? As Woolas says: ”There is a growing question of whether GM crops can help the developing world out of the current food price crisis. It is a question that we as a nation need to ask ourselves.” So is he right? Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:30:34 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2267.html As the global food crisis escalates, Big Biotech (Monsanto, Novartis, Syngenta, Dupont-Pioneer, Dow et al) are capitalizing on the desperation of the hungry at runaway prices and rapidly diminishing reserves as a wedge to foist genetically modified (GMO) seeds on a reluctant Third World. Latin America is a prime marketing target for Big Biotech’s little darlings, often tagged ”semillas asasinas” or ”killer seeds” for their devastating impacts on local food stocks. Now the killer GMOs are suspected of literally provoking murder most foul. Last October, Armando Villareal, a farm leader in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, was gunned down after a farmers’ meeting in Nuevo Casas Grandes. Villareal had been denouncing the illegal planting of GMO corn in the Mennonite-dominated municipalities of Cuauhtemoc and Naniquipa. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:22:17 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2266.html Regulators are cracking down on companies that sell genetic tests directly to consumers, threatening to crimp the growth of one of the hottest sectors of the biotechnology industry. Mari Baker, the chief executive of Navigenics, says Navigenics is offering personal genetic information services to consumers. The California Department of Public Health sent “cease and desist” letters to 13 genetic testing companies two weeks ago, telling them they could not solicit business from state residents. The companies include the early leaders in the field — 23andMe, Navigenics and deCode Genetics — which are trying to carve out a new business of offering personal genetic information for use in health and lifestyle planning. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:17:38 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2265.html The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says. Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world's soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest. The group also says biofuels will do nothing to combat climate change. Its report urges the EU to scrap a target of making 10% of all transport run on renewable resources by 2020. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:15:10 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2264.html The environmental organizations ”Save the Danube and the Delta”, ”Eco Pontica” and Greenpeace appreciate that the illegally cultivated GM maize MON810 in the Danube Delta has been destroyed [1]. The case was signalled by Neculai Amihulesei, editor at ”Romania Libera” newspaper and he became the first successful gene detective in the frame of the freshly started Greenpeace campaign [2]. Mr Amihulesei will therefore get the first ”Gene Detective” t-shirt as a reward for the efficient detective work. ”We thank Mr Amihulesei for signalising this case. Cultivation of GM maize in a protected area - UNESCO World Nature Heritage such as the Danube Delta is a criminal act against biodiversity. It was a totally irresponsible and arrogant gesture of Monsanto, the company that produces MON810, and it was immediately taxed by the Government by destroying it. MON810 is created to kill a pest that doesn’t exist in the Delta, so the company’s gesture is therefore hard to understand. The Government must destroy all MON810 fields because it affects non-target species, soil health and even the aquatic life”, said Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace biodiversity campaigner. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:56:26 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2263.html The Socialist Left Party (SV) and agrarian Centre Party (SP) are in an uproar against the import of genetically modified corn. The Directorate for Nature Management has recommended that two types of modified corn be allowed for use as food, fodder and further processing, but not for cultivation. Lars Haltbrekken, leader of the environmental group Norges Naturvernforbund (Friends of the Earth Norway), supports the Directorate in their ban on growing modified crops, but rejects import as being hypocritical. ”We worry about the spread of modified plants in Norway, but by allowing their import we encourage their production abroad. This can lead to the spread of these organisms in those countries”, says Haltbrekken to the newspaper Nationen. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:54:56 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2262.html A farmer called Sidhalingappa Choori was killed on June 10 when police opened fire on hundreds of farmers waiting for fertilisers at the Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperative Centre in Karnataka’s Haveri district. This was an entirely unnecessary tragedy. However, fertiliser protests are not just taking place in Karnataka. Similar incidents have also occurred in the Vidharbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. First, the Green Revolution got the Indian farmers addicted to chemical fertiliser and now, globalisation is forcing them to depend on imports. Chemical agriculture has created the need for almost 4.8 million tonnes of synthetic diammonium phosphate or DAP in the country. About 1.9 million tonnes are produced domestically. The rest — nearly 2.9 million tonnes — has to be imported. In 2000-01, though the country did import a small quantity of DAP, it did not need to import any urea. Since then, import dependency has increased dramatically. With rising oil prices, prices of fertilisers are going up and so is the burden of subsidy. Imported fertiliser costs approximately Rs 55,000 to Rs 60,000 per tonne. At the same time it is sold at Rs 9,350 a tonne. Government subsidies make up for the gap of Rs 45,000 a tonne. However, even at such high prices, fertilisers do not reach the farmers on time. This is at the root of the farmers’ protests as also Sidhalingappa Choori’s tragic death. Choori’s death is one more aspect of what can be termed the "violence of the Green Revolution." Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:51:44 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2261.html A group of around 35 masked intruders have destroyed genetically modified wheat being tested by researchers near Zurich. The group used wire cutters to get through the gate into the field at the federal agricultural research station in Affoltern where the tests are being carried out. In the course of their attack early on Friday morning they threatened three employees of the station with violence if they tried to stop them. According to the research station’s spokeswoman Denise Tschamper, members of the group then trampled the GM wheat plants or cut them down before escaping. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:47:43 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2260.html In the absence of a co-ordinated approach, the push for a Green Revolution in Africa will not benefit millions of farmers but will instead severely affect their resiliency even as it realises a boom for big-bucks biotech corporates, a new report says. ”Despite assertions to the contrary, there is a real danger that the Green Revolution will turn into a corporate biotech boom and the destruction of rural resiliency — and diversity — in Africa,” says Green Revolution 2.0 for Africa? This time the ’”silver bullet’ has a gun.” Prepared by the Canada-based Erosion Technology and Concentration Group — a respected research and conservation organisation — the report predicts that the mistakes made during the first Green Revolution will be repeated in the second one. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:42:24 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2259.html With Egypt’s recent approval of the cultivation and commercialisation of a pest-resistant corn variety that marked the first legal introduction of genetically modified crops into the Arab world, the Egyptian scientific community is having mixed reactions. But Nagib Nassar, Egyptian professor of genetics and plant breeding at University of Brazil, told Intellectual Property Watch, ”At the end of the day what was originally an Egyptian variety will become not only registered in Egypt but owned by Monsanto, and Egyptian scientists will end up only making the backcrossing as the ancient Egyptian was doing.” As a result, the Egyptian scientific community has had mixed reactions, some expressing concerns over health, environmental, socioeconomic, political and ownership-related issues. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:38:52 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2258.html A field trial to develop a Genetically-Modified banana variety has suffered a setback after the plants were attacked by Black Sigatoka, a deadly local banana disease. Black Sigatoka is a leaf disease that can cut a banana tree’s fruit production by half. The fungal disease causes dark leaf spots that eventually enlarge, causing much of the leaf area to turn yellow and brown. Scientists at Kawanda National Agricultural Research laboratories had hoped the modified banana would help reduce the occurrence of banana diseases. Local banana varieties are vulnerable to numerous diseases and pests, including the banana bacterial wilt disease and weevils. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:35:23 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2257.html A farmer called Sidhalingappa Choori was killed on June 10 when police opened fire on hundreds of farmers waiting for fertilisers at the Agricultural Produce Marketing Cooperative Centre in Karnataka’s Haveri district. This was an entirely unnecessary tragedy. However, fertiliser protests are not just taking place in Karnataka. Similar incidents have also occurred in the Vidharbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra. First, the Green Revolution got the Indian farmers addicted to chemical fertiliser and now, globalisation is forcing them to depend on imports. Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:26:39 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2256.html Activist hang banner at UK GM trial lab; activists opposed to the BASF trial of GM potatoes have hung a banner and occupied part of the grounds of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge. Environmental protestors from Earth First! UK today staged a peaceful protest at the laboratory and offices of the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), in Girton, Cambridge. About a dozen activists invaded the site and hung banners from buildings in protest at a trial for genetically modified (GM) potatoes being carried out at the Institute by BASF2, a German based company. The protest was timed to coincide with a national day of action on food and climate change3 and with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Summit, being held this week in Rome. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:54:37 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2255.html Citizens for Health, a US consumer advocacy group, has launched an online campaign to warn consumers about the dangers of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets in food products. Citizens for Health's email campaign urges consumers to send their concerns about the use of GE sugar beets to sugar companies. The campaign is particularly aimed at several large firms, including Hershey's, M&M Mars, and American Crystal Sugar. According to Citizens for Health, these companies in 2001 pledged not to use sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets in their products. However, with Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet now allegedly ready for planting, these companies have not been renewed, said the advocacy group. The group fears that the use of sugar beet seeds that have built-in resistance to the Monsanto Roundup herbicide could create new and unpredictable health and environmental risks. American Crystal Sugar confirmed that there had been no planting of GE sugar beet seeds yet. However, the company was unable to comment further prior to publication. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:14:49 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2254.html With planting season underway in many parts of the nation, National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) wants consumers to know that a recent deregulation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will enable farms to plant potentially harmful, genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet seeds. NCGA is a business services cooperative representing 110 natural food co-ops nationwide. GE sugar beets ?a core ingredient for refined sugar and sweeteners ?are likely to contaminate the nation non-GE sugar beet supply as well as have a negative impact on consumers, the environment and family farmers. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:12:25 -0700 http://www.nwrage.org/Article2253.html Greenpeace today launches the ”Gene detective” campaign [1] to expose locations for cultivation of GM crops because Governments institutions keeps GMO data as secret [2]. ”It’s time that somebody to defend romanians will not eat GMOs against agro-chemical companies and their satelites from the government that treat us as guinea pigs since they refuse to publish locations for GM crops cultivation and the result of lab analysis for suspect food. Starting today any romanian citizen can be a gene detective to expose what Agriculture Ministry and Food Safety Authority are illegaly keeping as a secret”, said Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace Campaigner. For the beginning the campaign aims the fields. The second stage will look into the shelves. The gene detective work consists of observation and sending samples of maize, soya, rapeseed and sun-flower fields that are GMO suspects. Samples are being sent to Greenpeace office that holds 200 fast tests that will offer imemdiate results [3]. In case of positive results, Greenpeace will anounce the national Environmental Guard that should take secondary samples from locations indicated by the detectives together with Greenpeace volunteers specialized in sampling. The locations where GMOs are confirmed will be published on Greenpeace webpage. The gene detectives have ”The Suspects List” [4] at their disposal, meaning the list of farmers that have grown GM soya in the last years [5] and that are mainly having rented the largest fields from the State. The campaign should prevent farmers growing GM maize MON810 since the Ministry of Environment has started the procedures to ban it and demands farmers not to grow it starting this year [6]. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:10:49 -0700