Articles

Supermarkets across the UK are selling products from GM-fed animals and customers are being kept in the dark. Join GM Freeze's new campaign to let them know that's just not good enough.

What's the problem?

Most people in the UK don't eat food made from GM ingredients but they are eating eggs, milk, dairy products, poultry, red meat and farmed fish from animals that have been fed GM soya and/or maize. GM-fed products don't have to be labelled so consumers are being kept in the dark. As David Hughes, professor of food marketing at Imperial College London told the National Farmers Union Conference in February 2016, "we find it convenient not to make a big noise about it."

What are we doing about it?

GM Freeze has ranked the UK's top ten supermarkets on their policy relating to GM animal feed, on the information they provide to consumers and on the range of non GM-fed own brand products they have available. In our October 2016 rankings, Waitrose received 2 of a possible 5 stars, while everyone else failed to score!

After Bt cotton was introduced in India in 2003, it took no time for it to take the lion’s share in India’s cotton area, but 2016-17 saw the first steep decline in its attraction to the domestic growers of the fibre, reports Sandip Das in New Delhi.

Citizens’ tribunal against the big bad wolf

While Sri Lankans are campaigning for a toxin free nation, globally an increasing number of activists are taking the bull of harmful agrochemicals by its horns. The Monsanto Tribunal is one such international civil society initiative attempting to evaluate allegations made against industrial agriculture giant Monsanto, with regards to damage caused to the environment and human health.

The event was held at The Hague between the 14th -16th of this month, organised by a global group of professionals, scientists and environmentalists to take on the global GMO seed giant Monsanto. The steering committee of the crowd funded group includes vociferous activists Vandana Shiva, Corinne Lepage, Olivier De Schutter and Andre Leu, all of whom have been unapologetically critical of the dangers posed by industrial agriculture. While many have criticised the group for their individual and collective work, the steering committee explains that the trial was used to assess whether or not Monsanto could be eligible for criminal proceedings, as the first step to prosecution in the future.

The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has warned Super-store operators in Nigeria to withdraw all Genetically Modified (GM) products from their shelves within 7 days or face sanctions.

A statement by the Head of Press, Ovuakporie Efe said Director General of the Agency, Dr Rufus Ebegba gave the warning at a meeting with representatives of super-stores owners on Friday in Abuja,.

(....)

"There is a law in place. We will not want any segment of the society out of ignorance to act in manners that will infringe on the existing law. The Act establishing the NBMA empowers the Agency to regulate the activities of modern biotechnology and the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)," he said.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE WORLD FOOD DAY 2016

To Professor José Graziano da Silva

Director General of the FAO

Illustrious Sir,

1. The fact that the FAO has chosen to devote today’s World Food Day to the theme “Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too”, leads us to consider the struggle against hunger as an even more difficult objective to attain in the presence of a complex phenomenon such as climate change. With regard to facing the challenges that nature poses to man, and that man poses to nature (cf. Enc. Laudato si’, 25), I would like to submit some reflections to the consideration of the FAO, its Member States and those who participate in its activity.

What is the cause of the current climate change? We must question our individual and collective responsibilities, without resorting to the facile sophistry that hides behind statistical data or conflicting predictions. This does not mean abandoning the scientific data we need more than ever, but rather going beyond merely interpreting the phenomenon or recording its many effects.

(.....)

From the wisdom of rural communities we can learn a style of life that can help defend us from the logic of consumerism and production at any cost, a logic that, cloaked in good justifications, such as the increasing population, is in reality aimed solely at the increase of profit. In the sector in which the FAO works, there is a growing number of people who believe they are omnipotent, or able to ignore the cycles of the seasons and to improperly modify the various animal and plant species, leading to the loss of variety that, if it exists in nature, has and must have its role. Producing qualities that may give excellent results in the laboratory may be advantageous for some, but have ruinous effects for others. And the principle of caution is not enough, as very often it is limited to not allowing something to be done, whereas there is a need to act in a balanced and honest way. Genetic selection of a quality of plant may produce impressive results in terms of yield, but have we considered the terrain that loses its productive capacity, farmers who no longer have pasture for their livestock, and water resources that become unusable? And above all, do we ask if and to what extent we contribute to altering the climate?

Not precaution, then, but wisdom: what peasants, fisherman and farmers conserve in memory handed down through the generations and which is now derided and forgotten by a model of production that is entirely to the advantage of a limited group and a tiny portion of the world population. Let us remember that it is a model which, despite all its science, allows around eight hundred million people to continue to go hungry.

RE: Begin

Over the last century, the word “science” – rooted in Latin: scire (to know) – has had all meaning raided and stripped off it, leaving nothing – zero. The actual pursuit of knowledge has been replaced by silver-spoon-fed-shills parading as “defenders of science”.This “Data”-driven Zero-knowledge is being “hailed” as the solution, to all the very real problems faced by real people around the world. The problems caused by Zero-knowledge, Zero-cience.

(.....)

For the last century Zero-science has been the compass that has dictated the direction of the vector called “progress”, and therefore all “progress” has meant the “growth” of zeros in the accounts of the guilty. The entire Industry – automotive, container, shipping, piping, food, pharma, media and IT, share the same patent toting Original Equipment Manufactures (OEM).

“Innovation” now means “inventing” new language, to refresh the “tired” wheel before the old patent runs out, revolving in perpetuity, moving forward, in what has been established as the wrong direction. Ever faster.

We pledge, to the mountains of wisdom we stand atop, and the diverse possibilities of our collective futures, that the Patent Cartel will not be at the re-invented wheel of the bus to extinction any longer, they will be under it. The world will not be string-theoried along by the Geppettos above.

This is our “Stop!”, we are yanking the chain. We are getting off the patented vend-bus.

Each step we take back to our roots, guided by the soil under our feet, will bring us closer to harmony – with each other and nature.

We are here, present, and this is our time.

(The Hague, 15 October 2016)

To cope with drought and rising food prices, we need to urgently move away from genetically modified food and towards indigenous African crops. So warns the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB).

“We need to urgently shift away from maize towards embracing a diversity of crops – particularly indigenous African summer grain crops such as sorghum and millet – and agro ecology,” says ACB director, Mariam Mayet.

Coinciding with World Food Day, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), has released an important report. It is called “Transitioning out of GM maize: towards nutrition security, climate adaptation, agro-ecology and social justice.”

It makes a compelling case for South Africa to urgently transition out of GM maize production, to systems that are socially just, ecologically sustainable and provide nutrition security for a rapidly urbanising population in the face of the current crippling drought.

According to Mariam Mayet, Director of the ACB, “South Africa is at a crossroads: either it must abandon Monsanto’s GM maize including its bogus drought tolerant GM maize seed or face an economic, social and ecological crisis.”

France has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the legal classification of products generated by new plant breeding techniques (NPBTs).

Laying hens are proving to be the point of entry sector for inclusion of the Europe grown GM free Danube Soya, says the association behind the program.

Since November 2013, consumers can buy Donau Soja labelled eggs in Austrian supermarkets. Since then, the demand is continuously rising: today laying hens in Austria, Germany and Serbia are fed with Donau Soja. Donau Soja members thus advocate sustainable agriculture. Together with them, we

are celebrating the 21st World Egg Day!

Donau Soja, a program for sustainable, non-GM and regional cultivation of soya, finds greater application: More and more poultry farmers all over Europe choose European, certified soya. They are thus an important part of a sustainable and regional

agriculture.