Save our Seeds

ZIMBABWE will not allow the production of Genetically Modified Organisms even if they could help ensure food sufficiency, agriculture mechanisation minister, Dr Joseph Made has insisted. Made said the government would, instead, concentrate on making available fertilizer, seeds, irrigation and other essential farm inputs to boost food production rather than use cheaper but unsustainable means which have a detrimental impact on the environment. “Scientific research shows that GMOs contain toxic substances, are less nutritious than non-GMOs and have negative effects on humans and the environment,” he said here Thursday.

An effort by US donors and multinational agribusiness Monsanto to partner with Nepal to boost local maize production with imported hybrid seeds has met civil society opposition calling - instead - for home-grown solutions. ”If an organization like USAID [US Agency for International Development] wants to help us with a company like Monsanto, we would hope that they would help us to actually develop our own hybrids instead, not to import their foreign seeds,” said Hari Dahal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives

More than 100 of the 110 municipalities (novads) of Latvia have decided that their land will be GMO-free by the end of 2012. Cultivation of GM crops will be prohibited on municipal land, according to Eric Leitis, senior consultant of the protection of species and habitats at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia. The 101 novads have adopted mandatory rules on the cultivation of genetically modified plants on their territory, including the five districts that already made this policy-move last year.

One of the nation’s most widely planted crops - genetically engineered corn that makes its own insecticide - may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected. [...] The hybrid was such a swift success that it and similar varieties now account for 65 percent of all U.S. corn acres - grain that ends up in thousands of everyday foods such as cereal, sweeteners and cooking oil.

But over the past few summers, rootworms have feasted on the roots of Bt corn in parts of four Midwestern states, suggesting that some of the insects are becoming resistant to the crop’s pest-fighting powers.

The Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic is concerned about genetically modified seeds being brought into the country by the multinacional Monsanto and the Eurosuministros company. These products, they say, affect the island’s genetic pool and create a monopoly that puts local farmers out of business. “As these organisms are modified they are not natural products. Biologically speaking, any modified product has an unknown effect on the organisms of humans, and of the animals that we eat, which are fed on this genetically modified material”, said Academy president Milciades Mejía.

The regional government of the Azores archipelago on the mid-Atlantic ridge has declared it is a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) free zone. As such, the region “prohibits the growing, sowing, planting nor breeding of any GMOs throughout its territory”. The regulation still permits exceptions for scientific research and technological development that are clearly in the public’s interest.

Monsanto Co. spent $2 million in the third quarter to lobby the federal government on issues including regulations for genetically engineered crops and patent reforms, according to a recent disclosure report. [...] The company lobbied the Congress and the Department of Justice on issues surrounding agricultural consolidation and antitrust enforcement.

Testbiotech is today publishing a database designed to give an overview of the risks associated with genetically engineered plants allowed for marketing in the European Union, or being about to be authorised soon. The current version of the database, called PlantGeneRisk, gives an overview of thirteen genetically engineered crops, four soy plants and nine maize plants. Ten of these plants already have EU authorisation for use, import and usage in food and feed, one of them is also allowed for cultivation.

Genetically modified animal feed without GMO labeling is being sold on the Bulgarian market, according to reports of the Public Environmental Center for Sustainable Development/ PECSD/ in Varna and environmental NGO ‘Za Zemiata’ (For the Earth). […..] A Varna-based laboratory concluded that five types of feed containing soybean meal produced in Bulgaria contain over 5% of GMO soy “RoundupReady Soya 40-3-2”, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA) announced.

The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday affirmed a nearly $50 million verdict for farmers who say they lost money because a company’s genetically altered rice seeds contaminated the food supply and drove down crop prices. Bayer, the German conglomerate whose Bayer CropScience subsidiary produced the seeds, had argued that Arkansas tort laws set a limit on punitive damages and that courts should set aside jury awards that “shock the conscience.” In the April 2010 verdict, a Lonoke County jury awarded $42 million in punitive damages and $5.9 million in actual damages.