News | Archive
May 2008
- PR-generated
illusions
Were we being a bit too glib when
we dismissed GM safety questions as “simply
unasked”, or the GM production of drugs and plastics as
taking up too much land space? If you think so, here are some more
questions and answers for you.
- Finding
the question to every answer
Looking back over the questions
raised by the GM answers, we consider what the useful, more practical,
questions should be.
- Catering
establishments must declare GM foods
Last year we reported a survey
carried out in York and North Yorkshire which revealed that up to 25%
of independent caterers were using GM cooking oil without making its
presence known to customers. The exercise has now been repeated in
Norfolk where Trading Standards Officers found 42% of caterers were
using GM vegetable oil or mayonnaise without the legally required
declaration.
- GM spin
at
odds with the evidence
In April The Soil Association
released a report on the state of play of GM crops in the world. The
contents of the report won't come as a surprise to anyone who has been
following the GM issue. What is more interesting is what else has been
happening.
April 2008
- More on
Irina Ermakova and the review in Nature Biotechnology
A leading science journal
recently introduced its own novel version of the accepted process of
peer-evaluation of scientific work. In a departure from the norm, four
scientists with no experience of toxicology, animal behavioural
testing, animal feeding or reproductive studies, conspired to prepare a
criticism of an unpublished experiment on the effects of a
GM-soya-containing maternal diet on rat offspring.
- Musings
on an infant science
A self-selected panel of
reviewers who examined a very disturbing report of a study on rats
whose mothers had been fed GM soya made some very valid comments.
However, their criticisms about the adequacy of the experimental design
are, unfortunately not unusual in the infant science of GM safety.
- Irinia
Ermakova and a case of tabloid science?
In September, 2007, a 'FEATURE'
appeared in the scientific journal, Nature Biotechnology, entitled
“GM soybeans and health safety – a controversy
reexamined”. Since very few readers of this journal would
have heard of this 'controversy', it served to draw wide attention
among the biotech scientific community to a study which could simply
have been ignored.
- Islands
that have become GM-free zones
Islands have an inherent level of
autonomy in some respects, but are often connected to a mainland mother
country and are always bound to world affairs. Have you ever considered
what advantages, and disadvantages, there might be to an island in
dealing with the global tidal wave of GM commercialisation?
- The
profitability equation of GM crops
In the face of consumer
rejection, plus the huge R & D costs, plus farmer disadvantage
from contractual obligations, the seed premiums and the necessary high
chemical inputs, making a profit from selling biotech seeds must
present something of a challenge.
- The
problem with the grain trade
Next in line to the handful of
biotech companies producing GM seed for the world, is a handful of
grain-trading companies who control the global supplies of GM seed.
- The
truth about enzymes
The global enzyme market is
growing at 8% per year, and is forecast to be worth almost $1.2 billion
by 2011. The food enzyme industry constitutes about 23% of the total.
In case you never realised that enzymes were so important to your
world, it's worth noting that these have become a vital part of the
modern (processed) food supply.
- "Synthetic
biology" poses new risks
A whole new field of science has
emerged in the form of “synthetic biology”. This
apparent contradiction in terms has been dubbed 'Synthia'. The Royal
Society describes it as a departure from traditional biology which
sought to find out how life works.
March 2008
- Industrial
IMOs
What are IMOs? Find out what you should know about them.
- The dangers
of DNA transfer are unknown
There is only one predictable thing about transgenic organisms: they
will change with time. However, the way in which they will change is
entirely unpredictable. We take another look at the concept of gene
transfer and some of the implications.
- Lessons
from the pharmaceutical industry
Lessons from the pharmaceutical industry show us how GM foods could be
given every opportunity to cause us harm.
- The
scientific straightjacket
Reflection on the changing culture of science and commentary on the
context in which scientists now work.
- Rice
contamination still a problem
In 2006, a flurry of contamination scares started when nearly 20% of
long-grain rice from America was found to be contaminated with an
illegal GM strain. Before the dust had settled on the first one, more
GM rice contamination was discovered in US and Chinese rice.
- Real
breakthroughs not GM
While the biotech industry struggles with GM promises that no one else
believes in, there are other new crops on the horizon which don't make
the news but are much more interesting.
February 2008
- Laws
insufficient to protect consumers
Despite insufficient information on safety and lack of consumer
support, the government seems to be engaged in a four-pronged attack to
force GM onto an unwilling people.
- Lack
of evidence on safety of GM foods
How can people make an 'informed choice' when the evidence on which to
base the choice is just not there? How can we have an 'intelligent,
practical and science-based debate' when the evidence is just not
there? We review the lack of evidence on the safety of GM foods.
- New
York rocked by food safety scare!
In the middle of the presidential election-fever, New York has been
rocked by a food safety scare: high levels of mercury have been found
in sushi sold in Manhattan stores and restaurants. Apparently, sushi is
such a staple in the New York diet that the entire city has panicked.
- New
gene interference technologies
Far from being a few genes sitting in a sea of 'junk' DNA, the genome
science is now uncovering is a plethora of different types of DNA with
different functions.
- National
discussion on food - have your say
The Scottish Government wants YOUR VIEWS on the future of food in
Scotland. Find out how to have your say.
January 2008
- More
questions over safety of GM animal feed
In response to concerns about the human health effects of GM materials
now widespread in animal feed, our food regulators have issued
assurances that “safety assessments” have been
carried out and all is well. We take a further look at some of the
evidence.
- Who's
liable in a GM-shaped world?
We take another look at some more of the claims made by the biotech
companies, the questions they raise and the lack of evidence to back up
those claims. Two further Early Day Motions are open for your MP to
sign.
- Silent
invasion
The alarming extent of the 'Silent Invasion' of our food chain by GM
material hidden in animal feed was revealed by the Soil Association at
the end of 2007. Ask your MP to sign the Early Day Motion on GM animal
feed.
- Push-polling
opinions
Democracy EU-style seems to involve using the internet to create an
illusion of informing and consulting the people, without really doing
either. Overseas, governments are resorting to push-polling their
people in an effort to 'prove' that GM crops are now becoming
acceptable.
- Democracy
direct
Are taxes being used by the European Commission to fund thinly
concealed industry-friendly propaganda? We take a look at a public
consultation no one is told about, or can understand even if they do
manage to get hold of it?
- EDM 425
Increasing personal attacks on scientists who voice reservations about
the safety of genetic transformation, and attacks on GM-concern groups
have prompted an Early Day Motion drawing attention to the worst
examples.
- Scottish
Minister backs EU calls for rejection of GM maize varieties
Cultivation of biotech crops in Europe is under an unprecedented, and
possibly devastating, threat. EU Environment Commissioner, Stavros
Dimas, has called for a rejection of the first two GM crop varieties to
be considered for growing here since 1998. This call has been backed by
the Scottish Minister for the Environment.
December 2007
- GM
science and free speech
Science of publishable quality is time-consuming and expensive.
Acceptance by journals also requires full disclosure of the materials
used. None of these is attractive to industry and so it seems to have
been allowed to develop a habit of undermining the cornerstones with a
system of its own.
- Bt
toxins and their impacts - an ongoing issue
GM sceptics have long doubted industry claims of the safety of the
Bt-toxins, now widely inserted into biotech crops.
- GM
sugar in US shops from 2008
For those of you with a sweet tooth, watch out for US products
containing sugar. American Crystal and several other leading US sugar
providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from GM
'Roundup Ready' sugar beet. This will arrive, unlabelled, in the stores
over there in 2008.
- Brazilian
farm workers defend traditional, sustainable agri-knowledge
An anti-GM protester was shot dead and seven others seriously injured
in Brazil during an action to draw attention to the experimental
production of GM seed which they claim is illegal in their country.
November 2007
- GM in the media -
news or propaganda?
PPM Alert! Or in other words, are we being treated to a little "public
perception management"? Find out how GM has been treated recently in
the UK papers.
- Terminator
technology - what it really means
A Green Party spokesman has no doubt about the implications of
Terminator technology: it is “allowing big biotech firms to
potentially develop an obscene level of control on the world's food
supply”. Find out more.
- Wormier
and wormier
Read this article to find out why GM-free Scotland
featured so many "wormy" articles in November '07.
- Wormy reasons
An experiment carried out on a single small farm to examine the
farm-to-fork agronomic and consumers considerations for three different
crops accompanied by an exhaustive PR drive seems a huge effort to put
in. Especially when you consider the tiny amount of generally useful
knowledge likely to be gained by it. Yet, support was obtained from the
Canadian Government, the biotech industry and commercial interests for
just such a study, and, the resulting paper was published in a top
scientific journal.
- A wormy
cornerstone
A comment on science as we know it.
- A wormy
government
The legal threats to free speech in Ireland and in England prompted a
number of representations to the Canadian Government to take
responsibility for the undemocratic actions of its employees.
- Slapp on
free speech
Yet another fascinating update on the "wormy sweetcorn" story.
- Misconceived
worms
An article re-visiting and updating on the "wormy sweetcorn" article we
first posted in 2006.
October 2007
- Participatory
democracy
In January 2005, Greenpeace published a landmark report, “No
market for GM labelled food in Europe”. This described a
virtual shut-down of the EU market for identifiable GM food.
- The end
of the illegal LL rice story
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the
conclusion of its investigation into last year's contamination of
American long-grain rice by two illegal, genetically engineered strains.
- Morgellons
A very strange disease seems to be sweeping the globe. It has been
nick-named 'Morgellons disease' by the mother of a two-year-old boy who
started to complain that he had 'bugs' on his lips.
- GM pie 'n' a
pint
Trading Standards Officers in York and North Yorkshire have recently
taken time out to visit cafes, takeaways, pubs, restaurants and hotels
to establish the extent to which GM-sourced oils for cooking were being
used, and whether the public was being informed.
- The non-gm
ball
A short update on the current GM situation in the Scotland.
- Frog-skin
wine
No GM grapes have yet been commercialised. However, there are lots in
the pipeline, and the Institute of Science in Society predicts a
“small deluge” of releases any time now.
September 2007
- One big
Indian mess
The latest reports coming out of India indicate a fresh wave of GM
cotton crop disasters. The Punjab Agricultural department has said
that, although a greater area has been planted with cotton than ever
before, production will be down 20 to 25 %. The increased planting is
overwhelmingly Bt cotton.
- Super super
bugs
After many years of constant effort, the Soil Association finally
succeeded in persuading the whole of the EU to ban the use of
antibiotics to promote the growth of livestock. However, this is only
half the battle. Antibiotics are still given routinely and regularly to
intensively reared animals. This allows them to survive near
intolerable living conditions without succumbing to contagious
diseases. Farming accounts for over one-half of all the antibiotics
used, and 75 per cent of these are given as mass medication in feed.
- Novel
and everywhere
At least one American State has found cotton bollworms feeding in large
numbers on GM cotton containing a 'Bt' toxin specifically designed to
kill this pest. In several States a previously rare corn pest, 'western
bean cutworm', is becoming increasingly established. Researchers
suspect that the cause is the widespread planting of Bt crops which are
now suppressing the pests' major predators.
- Try yoga
Cotton is the biggest 'non-food' agricultural crop in the world. Thirty
per cent of global cotton now contains transgenes for 'Bt'
insecticides, and the proportion is expected rise to 50 per cent by
2010.
- Agri-chemicals
and realism
In 2006, a large scale study of 57 of the world's poorest countries
reported that traditional farming techniques such as crop rotation and
organic farming increased crop yields by an average of 79% without the
risks and costs attached to the use of agri-chemicals. The authors were
cautiously optimistic about the use of low-tech farming to help the
world's poorest farmers out of poverty.
- Urgent
action on biofuels
Science watchdog, Econexus, has prepared a petition calling for a
moratorium on all EU promotion of agrofuels citing unresolved concerns
surrounding the use of agrofuels as an alternative source of energy, in
particular, the exploitation of southern developing lands whose local
livelihoods, water supplies and environment are threatened by spreading
soil damage and desertification, promoted by intensive agriculture and
GM crops.
- The
junk in the genome
How scientists who originally claimed 97% of DNA was full of historic
"junk" were spectacularly wrong.
- Join the
action
Come and visit us at the Soil Association Scotland's Organic Food
Festival in Glasgow this October. Find out more about the issues and
what you can do to take action.
August 2007
- GM wine
Did you know that wine produced using GM yeast has been marketed in the
US for the past three years? The potential problems of GM yeast are
huge. Find out more.
- Second-generation
disasters
The sudden headlong rush into first generation biofuels has been
worrying. Moves to develop second generation biofuels promise to be
even worse, because effects on the environment, and therefore on the
carbon-balance, will be very long-term indeed.
- Farmer
Scott Power
Scottish Power has announced it is turning taking up farming. Plans are
underway to grow 250,000 tonnes of energy crops to fuel Scotland's two
coal-fired power stations, Cockenzie and Longannet.
- Designed
to breakdown
Our administrators seem to have given themselves one big GM headache.
Their problems start as far away as the country of origin of our
imported staples.
- The
meaning of 'agreement'
The biotech industry knows what side it is on: it exists to make money.
The public knows which
side it is on: it exists to lead a long, healthy, useful and fulfilling
life. The regulatory authorities at all levels are bouncing about in
between swapping sides and tripping over each other and their own feet.
- Dodgy data
An independent re-evaluation of the safety data supplied in support of
an application to market a GM maize came to a very different conclusion
from that reached by EU regulators.
- GM
blowing in the wind
The contamination of our food chain with illegal GM strains is already
a very real problem. Around the world, over 140 incidents have come to
light since 1997. One “non-GMO” shipment of maize
which nearly ended up in Ireland, was found to be 20 per cent GM, and
even 'organic' soya beans in the US have tested 20 per cent positive
for GM content.
- Take
a chemical and a patent
The story of the most widely commercialised GM plants starts and ends
with a chemical and a patent. The chemical is glyphosate, or 'Roundup'
as it is known in the trade, and once upon a time it had its very own
patent.
July 2007
- Iffy science
The EU authorisation procedure is intended to ensure that only
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which are safe for human and
animals consumption and for release into the environment can be placed
on the European market. EU rules also ensure clear labeling to allow
consumers and farmers to choose whether or not to buy GM, and rules to
ensure traceability at any stage of use.
- Be
prepared to be persuasive
A Food Standards Agency (FSA) survey into the key concerns of today's
consumers had some interesting implications.
- The good
news, and the silly
Legally approved GM animal feed continues to flood onto European shores
and into our food chain. However, no new GM crops have been released
for cultivation in Europe since 1998. For the moment, this situation
looks likely to continue.
- There's
more than one way to deal with drought
Current changing weather conditions, strongly suspected of being linked
to global warming, have led to increasing drought in many areas.
- Doctor
from Kildare
Lots of real GM unease has been growing in Ireland, and increasingly,
it is being translated into action.
- The next
revolution
The Green Revolution transformed food production across the globe, with
grain harvests increasing a staggering 250%. This revolution was, of
course, fuelled by oil. As a result, energy input of industrialised
farming consumes fifty to a hundred times that of traditional
agriculture.
- The
carrot that glowed
The incredible story behind Sainsbury's cancellation of Patrick
Holden's organic carrots.
- Marriage
of the giants
The prospect of increasingly limited crude oil stocks and rising
concern about the deleterious effects of oil end-products has sent oil
companies in search of business elsewhere.
June 2007
- Hush hush
mode
America continues to be in denial about the reality of the dangers of
food contaminated with artificial DNA. The lack of support from the World Trade Organisation for
the complainers' anti-precautionary approach to GM seems to have
switched US bullying efforts into a new hush hush mode.
- Make
GM-free history
Ground-breaking agreements are emerging in Ireland. Not only has the
Irish Green Party agreed to form a coalition government with the Fianna
Fail, but also they have agreed to negotiate for the WHOLE island of
Ireland too become a GM-free zone.
- Mugged
for a fish supper
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) didn't come out of its handling of the
recent rice GM contamination scandal too well. Its action was limited
to reassurances to consumers that the rogue rice posed no imminent
safety concern and that they could continue to eat it, and reminders to
retailers that they had legal responsibilities
not to sell such produce. Friends of Earth were goaded by the weakness
of this response to take the Agency to court.
- Vision
of the future
Scottish-born CEO of Monsanto, Hugh Grant, recently voiced his vision
of the GM future.
- Greening
Scotland
Efforts to introduce GM solutions to curb carbon emissions
seem to have had very little direct effect on Scotland.
- Precise
hoops and hurdles
Science is well known for its fundamental precision. Before the rest of
the world gets to know about an experiment, it is examined by a chosen
panel of other scientists to ensure these precise qualities have been
met. One team of senior scientists isn't so sure. It submitted a paper
to the British Medical Journal after concluding that animal trials, a
key component of safety testing, are often so flawed by poor standards
of methodology that their value has to be questioned.
- GM-deficiency
syndrome
Be on the watch for symptoms of GM-deficiency syndrome. The symptoms of
this new disease are not yet well characterised, but you will know when
you've contracted it when you hear your voice pleading for more GM food.
- What
makes good food
We know what is good food and what is bad food. So why do we still fill
our bodies, and even worse, our children's bodies with bad food?
May 2007
- Babies,
drugs and politics
A dramatic increase in the number of difficult births, attributed to
increasing age and obesity in the modern mum, is straining the workload
of midwife services to breaking-point (Metro 22.05.07). If hormone-disrupting toxins
associated with GM foods begin to exacerbate this problem, the
suffering for mothers and babies would be huge, and the costs in
medical care enormous.
- Read
widely and wisely
The UK Farm Scale Evaluations
(FSEs) showed that growing GM herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) sugar beet
crops could have a detrimental effect on farmland birds. The 'weed
free' management of these crops resulted in fewer early season
invertebrates and fewer late season seeds, both of which form a vital
food supply for birds.
- The
Transgenization of Latin America
To the cynical, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was put
in place so that the USA could off-load its GM crops, which no one else
will take, onto vulnerable Latin American countries. Indeed, Greenpeace
estimates that the six million tons of US maize imported annually into
Mexico are 40-60% transgenic
- Biofuels:
the sums don't add up
Biofuels are shaping up to become a 'GM success story' of the
sustainable, economical, clean, safe, environmentally friendly,
solution to our energy problems and global warming. But, what does the
bottom line actually look like?
- No GM
potatoes in York
After fierce and organised public opposition to the planting of GM
potatoes in Yorkshire, the biotech company, BASF, which created them,
has decided not to proceed with the trial this year.
- Biofuels:
a sustainable sham
Anyone who has opened a newspaper or magazine this year will have read
a great deal of hype about biofuels. What are the issues?
- Soya
patent in the dock
Three cheers for common sense! Even if it has taken over a decade. The
European Patent Office has revoked one of the basic
patents on GM soya.
- A nation
of moaners
A recent international petition to the Codex Task Force on Foods
Derived from Biotechnology called US proposals to allow food
contaminated by undefined 'low levels' of any GM
material in our food to be rejected.
April 2007
- Competing
with reality
Two major biotech companies, which should be locking horns in 'healthy'
competition to win the agri-GM race, seem to be holding hands instead.
Monsanto and BASF are entering into a long-term joint venture,
supplying three quarters of a million dollars each, to develop
high-yielding and drought resistant crops. A second agreement is
falling into place to research nematode (root-worm) control.
- Patent
insanity
In view of the expense of development, limited successes and customer
rejection of GM crops, the only reason to continue with the technology
is because its outcomes can be protected by patents.
- Lights,
camera... action
With only one month left before the 2007 sowing of GM crops might
begin, activists in Montreuil, France, have only one month in which to
convince their government to implement a moratorium .
- GM Fads
Five varieties of GM crop have been quietly dropped from the European
market by their manufacturers. All of these crops have a history of
causing concern.
- Eternal Q
& A
A recent TV programme on the uses of GM seems to have raised all the
same tired issues which should have been laid to rest, finally, with
the GMNation Debate in 2003. The focus remains on avoiding inconvenient
research, and on discrediting the views of anti-GM lobbyists as
backwards, unethical, and intent on making a fuss about nothing.
- Mutatoes
GM potatoes have had a bad press ever since 1998 when Dr Arpad Pusztai
catapulted the dangers of high tech gene tinkering into the public
awareness with the revelation
that rats fed on lectin-containing GM potatoes had suffered organ
damage and had ominous signs of immune-system stimulation.
- Killer
in the fields
The Indian press has reported that, during January and February this
year, over 200 animals have died and huge numbers have fallen ill after
grazing on residual Bt cotton crops.
- Omega-3 with
everything
A biotech team, including Monsanto, is gearing up to produce a
genetically modified food which they hope will excite health-conscious
customers into, not just accepting, but demanding GM food.
March
2007
- A fatal
black eye
An article in the Wall Street Journal in 2005 paints a vivid picture of
Monsanto's modus operandus and connections with the US overseers.
Without admitting or denying anything, Monsanto agreed to pay $1.5
million to settle charges of bribing foreign government officials. The
Company is quick to point out that it voluntarily notified the US
authorities after uncovering the evidence of wrong-doing in its
Indonesian operations.
- Natural GM?
The suggestion that an organism can live a healthy life with
uncontrollable, man-made genes attached to bacterial, viral and totally
invented bits of DNA, tacked inside its cells would be a joke if it
wasn't seriously being done.
- Roll
out the spin doctors
In 1999, in the immediate aftermath of Dr. Arpad Pusztai's broadcast of
research suggesting that the health of rats was damaged by GM potatoes,
the Guardian newspaper asked “How do you handle an explosive
issue that embraces food safety, the environment, corporate power,
little understood science, and ethics?” How, indeed?
- A slow
awakening
Since 1986, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has
approved over 10,600 application for more than 49,300 field trials of
GM crops. The biotech industry is investing millions of dollars to
develop GM plants for food and feed, or to produce industrial compounds
and medicines.
- US courts
rule
So far, the biotech industry has had pretty much its own way with its
commodity crops of soya, maize, oilseed rape and cotton, genetically
modified to resist herbicides, produce insecticides, or both. Attempts
to develop a GM grass industry and drug-producing crops, however, are
meeting with resistance from the most powerful possible source. In a
decision which may broadly affect all field trials of such crops, a US
judge has ruled that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt
all new GM field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are
conducted.
- Bye Bye BST
US coffee shop giant, Starbucks, is dropping milk products from cows
treated with Monsanto's 'recombinant Bovine
Somatotrophin' (rBST). rBST is an artificial hormone produced by GM
bacteria which is injected into about 22% of US dairy cows to boost
milk production.
- Just too
convenient
A review of media spin on the potato crop trials run by biotech
company, BASF in December 2006.
- The big
question
From 1965 onwards, Monsanto knew that toxic PCBs were accumulating in
human milk, rivers, fish, seafood, wildlife and plants and did nothing.
Has it improved its attitude in the intervening years? And what might
this mean for GM pollution?
February 2007
- Shooting
the messenger
Oil companies, discourses and the environment - lessons for the organic
food movement
- Cloned
realities
The prospect of food derived from cloned animals coming onto the market
has suddenly moved a definite step closer
- A step too far
Besides the obvious global regulatory deficiencies revealed by the
world-wide contamination achieved by a tiny field trail in a single
area more than five years ago, does LL601 rice present other causes for
alarm?
- Action
on illegal rice
Friends of the Earth Europe has spelled out a clear list of lessons to
be learned and action to be taken following the LLRICE 601
contamination incident in which a GM strain, trialled on a very small
scale and rejected FIVE years previously, has contaminated staple food
on every continent.
- Regulatory
elastoplast
Codex Alimentarius, the United Nation's food regulatory agency, has
agreed to accept a US proposal on procedures for dealing with low-level
presence of engineered DNA in crops, commonly referred to as
'adventitious presence'.
- Comfortable with
potatoes
The Government has decided to allow trials of a new strain of potato,
genetically engineered to be resistant to 'late blight', which is the
disease responsible for
the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.
- Purgative
tests
Now that Romania has joined the EU, it will have to put its GM House in
order.
January 2007
- MAS rice
MAS is a form of biotechnology in which a distinctive section of DNA is
identified within or close to a gene or genes of interest. Is MAS
better than genetic engineering?
- A
question of qualification
The Scottish Executive has recently appointed a new chief scientific
adviser, Professor Anne Glover of Aberdeen University.
- Last word
or first?
The European Union (EU) has made a decision, described by one green
group as 'disappointing', not to appeal the World Trade Organisation
(WTO)'s final ruling on the complaints brought by America, Canada and
Argentina on the regulation of GM foods crops.
- Action on oil
By law, catering establishments which use GM ingredients must inform
their customers. One English anti-GM campaigner recently reported a
restaurant and a pub to his local Trading Standards Office for covertly
using GM cooking oil.
- Approval
by contamination
The latest way to get GM crops approved in the USA is to cause
widespread genetic contamination using a few GM field trials. Then you
sit back and wait a few years for the contamination to spread across
the American continent and around most of the globe.
- Europe in 2006
A review of the current situation across the EU at the end of 2006.
- Legal
wake-up call
Friends of the Earth have won the right for a full judicial review in
the High Court of the Government's policy on the contamination of our
food supplies by GM rice, LL601.
- 'Twisnae me
Contamination, evasion and other fiascos - the need for stronger and
more effective legislation to close loop-holes.
- Wriggling out
As the full impact of the illegal LL601 GM rice contamination is
beginning to be felt in the US, the future looks bleak.
December
2006
November
06
October 2006
September 2006
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