Articles

We all love mealies and the many other food products that we get from maize seeds. But Monsanto, a multi-national seed and chemical company, is busy colonising Mzansi's food system. Monsanto genetically engineers the DNA of different plants, and sells their products to farmers promising a better harvest. But wherever Monsanto does business communities health and the environment are at risk. In order to make even more money, they are trying to push through their so-called "drought tolerant maize" seed to be commercially available to our farmers.

Monsanto is using the drought and our rising food prices as a means of inserting its bogus drought tolerant technology and maize into the South African food systems. We strongly challenge claims of drought tolerance as a trojan horse and yet another risky and novel gene introduced into our staple food.

As the ECHA maintain “that the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen, as a mutagen or as toxic for reproduction” we take a look at how closely European politics and industry work together on pesticide regulation – and what this means.

As expected, the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) has refused to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen. The ECHA maintained that glyphosate is “a substance causing serious eye damage and being toxic to aquatic life with long-lasting effects” in their opinion, published last week. However the RAC concluded “that the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen, as a mutagen or as toxic for reproduction.”

If we are going to live so intimately with these

chemicals—eating and drinking them, taking them into

the very marrow of our bones—we had better know

something about their nature and their power, wrote

environmentalist Rachel Carson in 1962 in her book

Silent Spring, which hauntingly described the damaging

effects of indiscriminate pesticide use in agriculture

on animals and people in the USA. 55 years later, a new

report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

and the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics, presented to the

Human Rights Council on March 7, details the health and

SALEM, Ore. — The controversy over genetically modified organisms is back in the spotlight at the Capitol.

Legislative committees held public hearings Thursday to discuss two new bills.

Farm advocates say they’re designed to protect family farmers from genetically engineered crops.

One bill would hold GMO companies accountable for contaminating traditional crops.

The other bill allows local governments to adopt their own laws to protect farmers from unregulated GMO companies, reversing a law banning local governments from regulating crops or seeds.

Court Documents Reveal EPA Official May Have Suppressed Evidence that Roundup Causes Cancer

FINLAND, Minn. – The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today called on members of Congress to launch a full investigation into whether or not some EPA officials conspired with Monsanto (NYSE:MON) to suppress legitimate scientific evidence of Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller’s potential to cause cancer.

The OCA, whose US network includes more than two million consumers, also called on Congress to immediately suspend all sales of Roundup until the investigation has been completed.

“Consumers are told to rely on the EPA to determine the safety of chemicals like glyphosate, and products like Roundup,” said Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association. “When credible sources indicate that EPA officials have deliberately compromised the safety of the public, consumers have a right to know. Monsanto should not be allowed to continue to profit from sales of a product that some EPA scientists, and scientists at World Health Organization, have determined is likely to cause cancer.

“Congress should immediately launch a full investigation into this new evidence of collusion. And until the truth is known, sales of Roundup products should be banned.”

Monsanto suffered a major setback Tuesday when a federal judge in San Francisco unsealed documents that call into question the agrichemical giant's research practices and the safety of its best-selling herbicide, Roundup, the world's most-produced weedkiller. The documents counter industry-funded research that has long asserted Monsanto's flagship product—used by home gardeners, public park gardeners and farmers and applied to hundreds of crops—is relatively safe.

On 15 March 2017 the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced its decision on the weedkiller glyphosate: a complete acquittal with regard to cancer risk, possible genotoxicity and reproductive toxicity.

At a press conference, the representatives of ECHA explained that there was "not enough evidence" for carcinogenic effects. It was admitted that there were signs of cancer in the studies, which, however, were only "slightly" above background. It can be seen in the available official reports that the "background data" - the so-called historical control data - were violating the scientific rules and purpose-made to dismiss the findings. This clearly did not seem to have disturbed ECHA's Risk Assessment Committee. Asked whether the precautionary principle was applied to the evaluation, Jack de Bruijn from the ECHA said that all the data had been looked at and then a "weight of evidence approach" had been used. The precautionary principle was "not so much applied". PAN Germany recently presented a thorough review of such a "weight of evidence judgment" (http://www.pan-germany.org/download/The_Carcinogenic_Hazard_of_Glyphosate.pdf). "It is disappointing that the ECHA has apparently also made use of such an industry-friendly weight of evidence", says Peter Clausing of PAN Germany.

The Sainsbury Laboratory wants to plant experimental GM potatoes that haven't even been trialled under controlled conditons. Please make your views known in the public consultation which ends on 23 March.

What you can do

Just one year after gaining consent to plant GM blight-resistant potatoes, the Sainsbury Laboratory has applied for permission to plant a series of much more complicated GM potatoes at its farm in Norwich. Defra is considering the application and a public consultation is now open. GM Freeze has submitted a detailed objection on behalf of 33 different organisations, but it is important that other voices speak out against this crop too.

The reputation of Roundup, whose active ingredient is the world’s most widely used weed killer, took a hit on Tuesday when a federal court unsealed documents raising questions about its safety and the research practices of its manufacturer, the chemical giant Monsanto.

Roundup and similar products are used around the world on everything from row crops to home gardens. It is Monsanto’s flagship product, and industry-funded research has long found it to be relatively safe. A case in federal court in San Francisco has challenged that conclusion, building on the findings of an international panel that claimed Roundup’s main ingredient might cause cancer.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is due to publish a safety assessment of glyphosate, a controversial weedkiller linked to cancer by the WHO. Twenty health and environmental organisations expressed concerns regarding conflicts of interest and transparency at the agency. The executive director's response fails to address these concerns.

This page was updated on 14 March to include a second letter from ECHA to Greenpeace dated 10 March.

According to ECHA's own standards, the chairman and two members of the Risk Assessment Committee appear to breach the agency’s own conflict of interest rules. NGOs also criticise ECHA’s practice of basing assessments on unpublished industry studies.