Save our Seeds

The German state “Schleswig-Holstein“ again belongs to the European GMO free regions network. With its re-entry, the network gains back one of its founder members after its exit from the alliance in 2005. The environmental minister Habeck justifies this step with locational advantages of his state. Schleswig-Holstein’s agriculture wants to continue GMO free to avoid ecological damages. With this decision, the federal state government also responds to the interests of its citizens. “Surveys show that the considerable majority of people oppose of genetically modified food on their plates. This concern we takes serious”, said minister Habeck. More than 50 regions with more than 140 million residents belong to the European GMO free regions network. Since 2008, no more GMO crops have been cultivated in Schleswig-Holstein.

Another right-wing coup d'état has toppled a democratically elected president in Latin America. Three years after the coup in Honduras that deposed President Manuel Zelaya in June 2009, the same forces have overthrown President Fernando Lugo in Paraguay. [...] The U.S.-based transnational giant Monsanto is implicated in the events in Paraguay. Monsanto planned to introduce a genetically modified seed for commercial use in the country. Under Lugo's administration, Paraguay's National Service for Plants and Seeds Quality and Health refused to approve the seed's use. The right-wing oligarchs favor the dissemination of Monsanto seeds, while the peasantry has been demonstrating against it. The Union of Associations of Producers, a landowners group tied to Monsanto, was preparing a demonstration for June 25 against Lugo to benefit the giant transnational and the ”liberalization” of its genetically modified seeds. Obviously, they do not need to protest at this point.

Wendel Lutz hardly qualifies as an anti-GMO activist. As a conventional corn and soybean farmer is nearly a polar opposite of an environmentalist. Yet, he shares some views with opponents of genetically modified foods based on his experience growing GM crops. [...] In his first year growing RR crops, he says, ”I had nice clean beans” with no weed problems.

But in his second year, he started seeing problems. ”We went from a 32 ounce formulation (with Roundup) to 36 ounces,” Lutz says. ”As time went on we were upping the rates,” he says.

Last year, Lutz grew Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans, but they didn't increase yields as promised. ”They were my worst soybeans,” he says. On top of that, weeds became resistant to Roundup, which was confirmed by lab tests on weed samples he submitted.

Recent investigations reveal that new approvals for the cultivation of genetically engineered crops in Europe in 2012 are unlikely. The Commission returned the dossiers for three maize lines to the European Food Safety Agency. [...] ”In our view, this is a first sign that the Commission acknowledges that the present risk assessment for genetically engineered crops must be improved considerably. If EFSA was honest they would admit that there isn't even any precise knowledge about the content of insecticidal Bt toxin in the plants”, says Christoph Then for Testbiotech „During the last ten years, there have been manifest problems with the independence of EFSA's GMO experts.

The European Commission (DG SANCO) is presently working on the review of the legislation on the Marketing of Seed and Propagating Material (S&PM).This review is a unique opportunity to improve biodiversity, consumers choice and to enhance the situation of diversity-farmers and seed savers.The current legal framework on S&PM has contributed to a massive loss of varietal agro-biodiversity within the last few decades. Furthermore, it has favored high-yield-by-high-input agriculture. It has fostered the concentration process in the seed sector and has led to increasing dependence of farmers and other seed users on industrial seeds.

In an Open Letter, addressed to the Commission and EU Parliamentarians, Save Our Seeds togehter with a number of other organizations representing civil society now demand for a decided improvement of the EU legislation on seeds, with regards to the environment, but also consumers and farmers demands for more biodiversity on the fields and tables.

The European Food Safety Authority has demanded that Diána Bánáti resign as chairwoman of its management board because she is rejoining the board of the International Life Sciences Institute Europe, a research and advocacy organisation for food science. She is to become the executive and scientific director at ILSI. Bánáti was the centre of controversy in 2010 when it was revealed that while chairing the EFSA board she also held an undeclared position on the board of ILSI. José Bové, a French Green MEP, demanded her resignation from EFSA, saying that her ILSI position was in conflict with EFSA’s role approving foods in the EU, including genetically modified organisms.

“Business as usual is not an option” was the wake-up call of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Organised by the United Nations and the World Bank, this groundbreaking report by more than 400 scientists called for a paradigm shift in global agricultural policies, research and development.

On the occasion of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), www.globalagriculture.org makes available the IAASTD’s findings by topics and offers updated figures, background information, further reading and news. Users can conveniently browse and search the 2,000 pages of the original reports. Scientific and institutional follow-up reports are presented, including new topics such as land-grabbing and food speculation.

“Agriculture must be at the core of all discussions about sustainability in Rio”, said Biovision’s president Hans Herren, who co-chaired the IAASTD and co-ordinated the chapter on agriculture in UNEP’s recent Green Economy report . On www.globalagriculture.org a special page reflects the discussion on food and agriculture in the run-up to Rio+20.

On 4 April 2012, the courts of Brazil's southern‐most state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the way of a preliminary injunction, suspended the collection of royalties on GMO soy seeds by Monsanto. The ruling by Judge Giovanni Conti also provides for the reimbursement of license fees paid (so‐called royalties) since the harvest campaign 2003/2004, as the business practices of seed multinationals Monsanto violate the rules of the Brazilian Cultivars Act (No. 9.456/97). According to Neri Perin, the attorney of the farmers associations of Passo Fundo, Santiago and Sertão, who filed a class action suit in 2009, the claim lodged may lead to an advantage for up to five million farmers in Brazil and could mean for them a reimbursement of about 6.2 billion euros.

BASF Plant Science will again conduct field trials this year with genetically optimized potatoes which are undergoing the EU approval process. The field trials will take place at various sites in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. In addition to the starch potato Modena, the company will also be planting its late blight resistant variety Fortuna. [...] Besides multiplication, the aim of the current cultivation is to test and document the performance of the potato varieties under different environmental conditions as well as the resistance characteristics of the Fortuna potato.

Poland has now officially imposed a ban on Monsanto’s MON810 GMO maize. Recent protests by beekeepers and anti-GMO activists have resulted in a successful conclusion. [...] Minister of Agriculture in the Polish Government, Marek Sawicki says that as well as being linked to range of health ailments, the pollen originating from this GM strain might actually be devastating to the already reduced bee population in the country. “The decree is in the works. It introduces a complete ban on the MON810 strain of maize in Poland,” Sawicki told the press.