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In 2016 the agricultural turnaround must begin: We call on EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, German Federal Minister Sigmar Gabriel and German Federal Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt: Stop the blind support of agri-businesses! Instead of pushing for exports, stand in for more quality food. Ensure fair trade around the world – stop TTIP and CETA!

We are calling for farmers, manufacturers and consumers to send a common message in Berlin on 16. January 2016. We are the people from the countryside and from the city, from the north and from the south. We are fed up with agro-industry – we want a rural an organic agricultural and food system that is accepted by society.

More info (in English, French and German) visit: wir-haben-es-satt.de

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division of Consumer Reports, today praised Campbell Soup’s decision to label its products made with genetically engineered ingredients nationwide, not just in Vermont where a mandatory labeling law will go into effect in July. The company, the first major food company to agree to label products with these ingredients, often referred to as GMOs, also announced its support for a national, mandatory and uniform labeling system for foods containing GMOs.

Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union, said, “Campbell Soup has taken an immense step forward today. Their decision to disclose which of its ingredients are genetically engineered will give consumers the information they want and deserve, even going beyond what’s required in Vermont’s labeling law. This is an important development for consumers, who time and again have voiced overwhelming support for GMO labeling.”

Organic Farmers Win GMO Fight in Jackson County, Oregon

Organic farmers are racking up new victories in the fight against “franken-food,” as a growing number of counties line up to bar genetically engineered (GE) crop cultivation throughout the country.

A federal judge in Jackson County, Oregon, recently upheld a consent decree that designates the region a “GE-free zone,” a ruling which officially protects the decree from appeal, granting new protections to farmers, consumers and the environment.

That means organic and traditional farms in Jackson County will be protected from chemicals produced by Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont and other biotech giants. The ruling follows the passage of other similar ordinances in at least eight U.S. counties, including in Hawaii, California and Washington, along with another Oregon county. As the Washington Post pointed out on Monday, more bans are on the horizon, with Costilla County in Colorado pushing for its own GE-free zones.

“GE-Free Zones like Jackson County are important to the future of our food because they allow farmers to grow traditional and organic crops without risk of transgenic contamination,” George Kimbrell, senior attorney with the Center for Food Safety (CFS), said.

There is something special about the soil and the air of the north eastern plain. On the boundary of inhospitable wilderness – the Mongolian steppes and the frozen forests of Siberia – yet one of the most fertile stretches of land in all of China, the north eastern plain is a breadbasket for all of China.

Though the broad expanses of rich, black soil are a powerful sight, the great plain is also extremely delicate. Exposed to dangers such as overly intensive agriculture, its balanced ecosystem can easily be damaged.

In early 2015 we received reports from farmers in Liaoning province that genetically engineered (GE) corn was being cultivated illegally at the heart of the fertile plain. Further tip offs came from journalists and industry experts.

Venezuela approved a new law on Dec. 23, 2015, that imposes one of the world’s toughest regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The anti-GMO and anti-patenting seed law was approved by the National Assembly of Venezuela in its final session. Today, the new opposition coalition—the Roundtable of Democratic Unity—will take over.

The Seed Law seeks to consolidate national food sovereignty, regulate the production of hybrid seed, and rejects the production, distribution and import of GMO seeds, according to GMWatch. The law will also ban transgenic seed research.

The law will establish the National Seed System, a central body that will implement the new law. The group will monitor and sanction any agricultural violations, with a focus on the protection of traditional seeds, teleSUR reported.

The legislation, which comes after years of collective grassroots efforts, was promptly signed by Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.

Conventional corn increase

Transition to non-GMOs continues even without big premiums for the grain.

Conventional (non-GMO) seed planting is on the rise, even as grain price premiums fade away. Tight margins and profit-making opportunities are driving the trend. Scott Apple started his transition to conventional corn when commodity prices were still at an all-time high, and he didn't do it to capture premiums. His 1,900 acres are all planted to conventional seed and sold into local markets.

"It was a cost reduction decision," recalls Apple, who farms near Bowling Green, Ohio. "I didn't need the traits. Rootworm isn't a significant problem, and other insects aren't usually a problem. If they are, there are plenty of options to clean them up."

Taipei, Dec. 29 (CNA) Non-genetically modified crops such as soybeans and corn grown on government-subsidized fallow land have been gaining popularity as local consumers become increasingly aware of food safety issues.

The Council of Agriculture (COA) has implemented a "fallow land revitalization program" since 2013 that encourages farmers to grow non-GM grains and crops on farmland due for planting after a period of lying fallow.

The total value of crops grown under the program reached NT$17.8 billion (US$542.6 million) in 2013, far exceeding the amount -- NT$4 billion -- used to subsidize fallow land farmers, according to the COA's Agriculture and Food Agency.

The yearly output grew to NT$18.4 billion in 2014, and the 2015 figure is still being calculated, the agency said.

Part of the reason why non-GM crops have become popular on the Taiwan market is that most of their imported counterparts are genetically modified, it noted.

J-OIL MILLS, INC. in Japan sold NON-GMO soymeal imported from US mixed with GMO soymeal produced in China as NON-GMO

Something was different about a lot of the Hershey’s kisses in your stocking this year: The popular chocolates no longer contain sugar made in Minnesota.

For decades, the Hershey Co. has used sugar made from both sugar beets and sugar cane, but it decided earlier this year to stop buying beet sugar because it comes from genetically modified, or GM, seeds that some consumers don’t like.

Hershey, with 2014 sales of $7.4 billion and more than 80 brands of candy sold around the world, was a huge customer for beet sugar farmers, and its decision was significant enough to be noted earlier this month at two annual shareholder meetings of sugar beet cooperatives.

David Berg, president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar in Moorhead, Minn., the nation’s largest sugar beet co-op, told members gathered in Fargo, N.D., that the anti-GM movement is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. And Kurt Wickstrom, president and CEO of Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, N.D., said that anti-GM groups are a real threat whose claims need to be countered.

Hershey communications director Jeff Beckman confirmed that the kisses and many other products stocked on shelves since Halloween no longer contain beet sugar. The company also is transitioning away from artificial to natural ingredients, he said.

“More than three-quarters of the sugar we are using today is cane sugar,” which is not genetically modified, he said, “and as we get into 2016, our expectation is to be at or near 100 percent.”

Moratorium expected to remain in place until 2021

The Swiss Federal Council, meeting in Bern on 18 December 2015, has declared that it is in favour of continuing the country’s moratorium on the cultivation of GM plants until 2021.

The Federal Council said it ”has decided to maintain the ban on the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The current moratorium should be extended until 2021 under the Gene Technology Act (LGG)."

Currently, GMO cultivation is only permitted in Switzerland for research. The Swiss moratorium has been extended twice and expires in December 2017. Several cantons already have already indicated their interest in an extension of the moratorium and have adopted decisions to ban GM crops on their territory.

The Federal Council also asks that ”principles guaranteeing the protection of conventional crops as well as the free choice of consumers (coexistence) are specified.”