Articles

The EU Commission is planning to lower the standards for the approval and labelling of genetically modified plants and food. The German government should not support this, according to a distinct majority in a new VLOG survey.

58 percent of respondents in a representative Civey survey at the beginning of January 2023 opposed the German support for the EU Commission's plans to deregulate genetic engineering, only 25 percent were in favour, and just under 17 percent were undecided.

Company is one of the first U.S.-based ingredient providers to verify its sustainable practices under rigorous global standard

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Benson Hill, Inc. (NYSE: BHIL, the “Company” or “Benson Hill”), a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, announced today that it became one of the first U.S.-based ingredient providers to achieve the international ProTerra Certification, a rigorous global standard that sets the bar for sustainable agricultural practices and labor practices as well as segregated non-GMO programs and more. Benson Hill also joins the respected ProTerra Network, a group of companies dedicated to sustainable practices and continuous improvement.

DEMO 21.01.2023

Warming up after the Wir haben es satt!-Demo, eating soup, meeting people and hear and see what great approaches and projects for transformation already exist in agriculture - that's Soup&Talk!

In 5-minute turns, makers and shakers will present what they have already achieved or are currently starting, how we can participate, and what is next for farming, eating and sharing.

We will show how things can be done differently in food and farming. Over good soup for all, grassroots and agro-policy initiatives, sustainable companies of all kind and activists from all over the world will present their big and small contributions to social and ecological change. The last two years, we could only zoom. This time we'll mix contributions on site and online, German and English.

USDA Must Not Deregulate GMO American Chestnut Trees

“In any revolutionary area, and biotechnology is a revolutionary area, most of our current ideas are wrong. Then I ask you, what the hell is the rush to apply these ideas… we’re still at the very beginning of understanding what we’re doing. The rush to apply these ideas is absolutely dangerous, because we don’t have a clue what the long term impacts of our manipulations are going to be.” - Dr. David Suzuki, geneticist and educator

The USDA is accepting public comments on its plan to deregulate genetically engineered (GE/GMO) “Darling 58” American chestnut trees and allow for the tree to be planted in wild forests.

The Alphabet of Complexity Webinar Series!

N as in "narrative" - 8th of February 2023

This webinar will be our fourteenth meeting within the series of The Alphabet of Complexity webinars. The letter N (as in “narrative”) will guide us through the main question of the day: How can the narrative of restoration and reciprocity influence the course of agricultural policies? The lectures of three key speakers (Nara Petrovic, Anna Nacher, Marek Styczyński) will be followed by a discussion on how the perspective of restoration and reciprocity can inform our actions for the purity of seeds and against GMOs.

N as in Narrative:

How can the narrative of restoration and reciprocity influence the course of agricultural policies?

Key speakers: Nara Petrovic, Anna Nacher, Marek Styczyński

Time and date: 8.02.2023, 11a.m. - 1 p.m. CET

The Marine Stewardship Council, the Non-GMO Project, and Fairtrade America have joined forces to launch a campaign to promote the contribution of third-party certification labels on food products in ensuring sustainable and resilient food systems.

The “Little Labels, Big Impact” campaign will run through January 2023, MSC said in a press release.

Environment ministry releases response to Coalition of GM-free India’s allegations over environmental approval to GM crop

The Coalition for a GM-free India, a pan-Indian citizen’s platform, has claimed the Union environment ministry’s response to allegations over violating statutory regulations to approve genetically modified (GM) mustard were evidence that due procedures were not followed.

The coalition, a group of farmers, activists, researchers and scientists, has locked horns with the Union government, demanding adequate information on the grounds for the approval of the controversial Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11), which received the nod October 18, 2022.

There were 15 instances where the Union government compromised on appraising and approving the GM mustard, the coalition claimed January 6, 2023.

Many European distributors and supermarket chains, mainly German and Austrian, are mobilizing. They demand that all GMOs, transgenic or resulting from new techniques of genetic modification, be correctly labelled.

Activists write to environment ministry against allowing commercial use of genetically modified crops

The Indian variety of GM Mustard was conceived in 2022 by Deepak Pental, the then-vice chancellor of Delhi University.

Genetically modified crops may soon get the central government nod, a move that could pose a threat to crop diversity, food security and increase tolerance for use of pesticides. The move might also severely affect the agrarian sector, as the seed market will be in the hands of private companies instead of farmers, according to experts.

Brussels/Vienna, October 20, 2022 –The two biotech companies Corteva and Bayer have accumulated hundreds of patent applications on plants in recent years. Corteva has filed 1,430 patents - more than any other company - on crops using genetic engineering methods. A joint international research by GLOBAL 2000, Friends of the Earth Europe, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), ARCHE NOAH, IG Saatgut - interest group for GMO-free seed work and Vienna Chamber of Labor examines this flood of patents against the background of the currently discussed deregulation of EU genetic engineering law with imminent Exceptions for New Genetic Engineering (NGT). "The growing number of patent applications to increase the profits of these NGT methods reveals the double play of the corporations," say the authors of the report published today.