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Northwest Resistance Against Genetic Engineering (NW RAGE) is a non-violent, grassroots organization dedicated to promoting the responsible, sustainable and just use of agriculture and science. We are working towards a ban on genetic engineering and patents on life. Our efforts focus on education, community building, advocacy and action.
NW RAGE works with neighbors, teachers, farmers and
friends to stop the reckless splicing and dicing of our genetic material.
We are not anti-science, we are pro-precautionary principle. We believe in a future that strives to do no harm to humans and to the ecosystems we all depend on. We believe in proceeding with new technologies only if a well informed civil society decides to do so after proper testing has been conducted.
Our activities range from postcard and letter writing, to education presentations,
to debates and public forums, to protests and direct action. We strongly believe that, in spite of the dangers of genetic engineering, people working together for change can and are making a difference in preventing this unnecessary and unsustainable technology from causing any further harm.
We warmly invite you to bring your voice and join in the struggle!
NW RAGE promotes active resistance to the intrusion of genetic engineering into our
lives, food and ecosystems. We are against corporate ownership of life. We believe so-called
"life science" corporations, like Monsanto and Dow, are attempting to privatize, patent
and own life to create huge profits and monopolies while ignoring the sanctity of creation.
We work to ban the release of genetically engineered organisms through education,
advocacy and action. We also work to promote sustainable agriculture through
activities like partnerships with organic associations and seed swaps. We see this
as a vibrant and viable future for life on the planet.
We work towards:
- A ban on genetic engineering
- A ban on patents on any life forms including animals, plants, cells, viruses, bacteria, genes, and proteins
- A ban on biopiracy - the theft of indigenous people's genes and knowledge
- A ban on cloning of humans and animals
- A rescinding of all current FDA approvals for genetically engineered products on the market
- An increase in the scale and scope of organic agriculture
- An increase in funding for research into organic agriculture and chemical-free growing techniques
- The cessation of factory farming Some steps you can take to get involved and to make a positive difference in your community:
- Sign up for our monthly newsletter so you can get more information and stay connected (see "Subscribe..." on the top left). Click here to see our privacy policy.
- Join us for our public meeting & screening of movies relating to Genetic Engineering and discussion on how you can help to promote a safe and sustainable food supply. Details here.
- Call us (503-239-6841) or email us (info@nwrage.org) if you have questions or comments.
- Send a tax-free donation.
Get involved now!! NW RAGE is one of the few groups in the Northwest working on the issue of genetic engineering, and we need your help!
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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“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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Monday, June 30, 2008
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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
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Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008
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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.
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Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008
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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?
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Posted on Thursday, June 26, 2008
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