Articles

Britain should develop more of the controversial plants, the experts said. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council based its recommendations on the results of a five-year, 4.5 million study into the safety of GM crops.</p><p><a href="http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/19487902">Evening Standard: GM crops get all-clear</a>

Despite a Supreme Court ruling in April the port turned back 745 truckloads that tested positive for GM soy. The port says it doesn't have the facilities to segregate GM and non-GM products.</p><p><a href="http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=61079">just-food.com: Port of Paranagua stops GM exports despite court ruling</a>

French farmers, Greenpeace, Attac and many additional organisations organised a European GMOpposition day on June 18th. More information and plenty of pictures from the manifestations and activities available at their web-site</p><p><a href="http://altercampagne.free.fr/pages/Manifs.htm">Manifestations in French and other Regions - pictures and reports</a></p><p><a href="http://altercampagne.free.fr/">AlterCampagne homepage</a>

The European Union launched an integrated research project Co-Extra with 52 partners from 18 countries to study and validate biological containment methods and model supply chain organisations for implementing co-existence of GMO and non-GMO supply chains. 13.5 millions will be spent to propose information structure, content and flow management and traceability. "Co-Extra's objective is to provide all the stakeholders of the food and feed chains with a central decision-support system integrating the tools, methods, models and guidelines needed". The four year project comprises major national research institutions, GMO-laboratories and PR companies experienced in promoting GMO in agriculture and food. NGOs, regional and farmers representatives are not included. It will be financed in addition to a similar project called "Sustainable introduction of GMO in European Agriculture", Sigmea.</p><p><a href="http://www.coextra.org/">Co-Extra Project - homepage</a></p><p><a href="http://sigmea.dyndns.org">SIGMEA - homepage</a>

The Committee of the Regions' Commission for sustainable development will hold a round table about "The regions, genetically modified organisms and coexistence" on June 27th in Brussels.</p><p>Contact: Commission for Sustainable Development, 101 rue Belliard, B- 1000 Brussels, Tel. +32 (0)2 282 21 43 Fax +32 (0)2 282 20 74, please register before June 21.</p><p><p><a href="http://www.cor.eu.int/document/activities/OGM%20CdR_176-2005_en.pdf">Invitation and programme of the round table</a></p><p><a href="http://www.cor.eu.int/document/presentation/liste_deve.pdf">List of regional members of the Commission for Sustainable Development</a>

We now have our 11th GMO Free Zone! This is Dolnoslaskie Province in SouthWest Poland, bordering Eastern Germany. It has an area of 19948 km2 and a population of 3 million. It has a beautiful mountainous terrain on the western side and there are a number of well established organic farms in this area. The Provincial board has come up with a strong statement which prohibits the selling or planting of GMO's. The capitol of Donaslaskie is Wroclaw.More than 70% of Poland is now covered by GMO Free Zones, representing approx. 80% of the population. Only 5 more Provinces to go!! See attached map.</p><p><a href="http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/countries/poland/poland.html">Map and info on GMO free Poland</a>

A conference on June 28 and 29 in Brussels will bring together soy crushers and processors from Brazil and their Europeancustomers for a constructive exchange of information and ideas. The Summit aims at enabling members ofthe European food and feed industries to assess the future of non-GM soy from Brazil and at communicating to representatives of the more than 160 GM-free Regions in Europe, to consumer groups andto NGOs the extent of ongoing industry efforts to meet consumer demands and allowing NGOs to understandand appreciate the technical, market, and regulatory challenges.</p><p><a href="http://www.avantel.de/soysummit2005/">Non-GMO Soy Summit 2005 website</a>

Canadians are joining regions, communities and countries around the world in declaring their communities GE-Free Zones.Launched June 2nd, the GE-Free Canada campaign is a nation-wide, grass-roots effort by farmers, environmentalists, and ordinary Canadians concerned with issues of food safety and food sovereignty.</p><p><a href="http://www.canadians.org/display_document.htm?COC_token=23@@b09375e5be3f0c1f651c3d7166fe5023&id=1125&isdoc=1&catid=67">The Council of Canadians</a>

Two thirds of Russians are against genetically modified foods and the majority of experts support a ban on GM crops as the government prepares new production laws.</p><p><a href="http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/news-ng.asp?n=60290russians-reject-gm">Foodproduction Daily</a>

Greenpeace and Japanese consumer, environmental and farmer organizations today appealed to the Canadian government to stop contamination of food products and the environment by exporting only non-GE canola in future.</p><p><a href="http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=2794">PR direct</a>