GM-free Scotland

News index

All the up-to-date news issues, alerts, opinion and advice on action.

August 2008

Let's take the GM-free high road
Engraved on our sceptre, the ever-present symbol of sovereignty in the Scottish parliament at Holyrood, are Scotland's tenets: compassion, integrity, justice and wisdom. Let's hope these sentiments are applied, above all, to our food: compassion to livestock and to the environment, integrity at all stages of production, justice for farmers, and wisdom from farm to fork.
An explosion looking for a place to happen
We take a look at four major warnings of the potential for unexpected harmful qualities to emerge in GM food over the years, and the inadequate assessment procedures used to 'check' its safety.
GM - more spin less science
We assess one of the fundamental problems of the GM issue. GM is a branch of chemistry treated as biology. It's a reductionist technology which produces organisms of unknown, unstudied and unpredictable biology. These mystery organisms are going to become part of you and of your environment.
The alliance for abundant spin
In all our recent 'conspiracy theory' articles biotech industry pressure has been very little in evidence. In fact, apart from twisting our Environment Minister's arm (behind closed doors until the newspapers got wind of it), and Syngenta giving a pep talk to farmers courtesy of the BBC, there's been nothing to report... until now.
Splurge of GM spin
Eight days in April saw a flurry of pro-GM media releases surrounding the publication of two extensive, and damning, reports on GM crops. The first report was prepared by the Soil Association and described the generally disappointing yields of GM crops to date, and the second was the results of a four-year study by the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) which concluded that GM crops do not have a role in a sustainable future.
The costs and benefits of a life
Have you ever noticed how the GM issue is always turned into one of 'costs and benefits'?
King commerce
The doubling of animal feed prices in the last year, and its knock-on effect on meat, dairy and processed foods, are being used to put significant pressure on the EU to weaken its laws on GMOs.

July 2008

Light GM relief
We have selected a range of videos and articles from the internet. They might, or might not, give you some light relief, with a bit of education on the GM issue thrown in, incase it makes you feel too decadent?
Conspiracy? - never!
If you're fond of conspiracy theories, it would be very, very easy to view the current global food price escalation as an American plot to control the world, using GM crops as a convenient lever.
Biofuels: simple, neat and wrong
Why are we finding ourselves short of oil, short of affordable food and pulled every-which-way by a shifting debate on biofuels and GM food? We have, after all, had plenty of time to prepare.
Creative grumbling
According to Gene Sharp's 'Consent Theory of Power”, governments stay in power only with society's consent. The ruling body will collapse if consent is actively withdrawn.
Zambian mini-lesson on agriculture
A glance at the recent agricultural history of Zambia reveals an interesting mini-lesson about a lot of things going on at the global level.
Global PR machine leads us all up the GM garden path
That the practical realities of GM crops are all 'idea' and no substance is borne out by what seems to be a terror of true data.
Saving the Polish countryside
We take a look at how traditional Polish agriculture has fared since its entry into the EU and reaction to pressure to adopt GM technology.
Still no confidence in GM safety
While the biotech industry tries to convince itself that the US public has always accepted GM food and that Europe is softening to it, what are the realities?

June 2008

German GM contradictions
At the start of 2008, the German government announced in the same breath that it puts safety and consumer opinion above economic concerns, while passing legislation to help the country's biotech industry “catch up” with competitors.
"Facts", US-style
A report in the Chicago Tribune in May this year, painted an interesting picture of America's concept of 'facts'.
Commission reviews safety of GM potatoes and maize varieties
Among crops sent back into the EU authorisation queue are BASF's Amflora potatoes, which contain a gene to alter their starch composition for industrial uses plus an antibiotic resistance gene, Syngenta's Bt11 (insecticidal) maize, and Poineer/Dow's 1507 (insecticidal and herbicide-tolerant) maize.
GM crop yields do not live up to claims
GM soya farmers in the US have been asking a question : “How come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?
Bt63 rice and other contamination still ongoing
Just when the global rice industry thought it was safe to breath again as the threat from illegal GM rice contamination seems to be receding, guess what's happened again? Yes, another experimental rice grown in another research station has gone rampaging across the world.
Computers at dawn
We look at how free speech can be systematically undermined by internet hacking, spamming and other forms of cyber attack.
More on Morgellons
At first glance, the emergence of the Morgellons at the same time and place as GM crops could be pure coincidence. We look at some of the evidence.
MON 810 - Is this regulation?
Our attention was recently drawn to worrying scientific doubts about the only GM maize approved for cultivation in Europe - not only the integrity of the GM maize itself, but of its manufacturers, and the competence of regulators world-wide.

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.