Save our Seeds

[Steve Marsh, from Kojonup in WA’s Great Southern region] is suing a neighbour for negligence after genetically modified canola seed blew onto his land, causing the loss of his organic crop certification. [...] Scott Kinnear of The Safe Food Foundation said protocols for growing GM crops needed strengthening and there was a good argument for canola to be banned as a GM crop in Australia. “Canola is probably the most difficult grain to deal with from a contamination point of view,” he said.

To date, the widespread planting of Bt crops has resulted in pest resistance for only a small subset of all pest populations managed by this technology. However, these recent cases suggest a need to develop more integrated management solutions for pests targeted by Bt crops. A common pattern observed among problem fields in this study was the consecutive planting of the same type of Bt maize over several seasons. Even with resistance management plans in place, sole reliance on Bt crops for management of agriculture pests will likely hasten the evolution of resistance in some cases, thereby diminishing the benefits that these crops provide.

The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and several NGOs took out a protest on Tuesday against US genetically-modified seed producer Monsanto. They took out their protest on the lines of the ‘Quit India Movement’ launched by Mahatma Gandhi against the British on August 9, 1942, and asked Monsanto to stop its activities in the country and quit India. NGO representatives told mediapersons at Gujarat Vidyapeeth that if Monsanto gets total control over the country’s agriculture, it will begin interfering in the political affairs and virtually become another ‘East India Company’.

Genetically modified food in China is unlikely to be commercially available for large-scale planting for at least three to five years, said a top agriculture expert. “Given the constraints on natural resources in China, particularly land and water, the government will definitely need transgenic technology to raise food production in the long term” Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Chinese Agriculture Policy at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily in an exclusive interview. [...] Still, some experts take a more guarded view of GM crops.

Jing Fei, a seed expert at Bohai University in Northeast China’s Liaoning province, said there was no need for the country to approve the commercialization of GM food over the next few years.

According to the results of a case study on Brazil, the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology confirmed that the need for plant protection and the number of resistant weeds has grown since the introduction of GM soy. There is also fear that some farmers are using outdated herbicides that are banned in Europe. The development of genetically engineered plants with multiple resistance offers no solution. The predominant use of GM soy in the main producing countries USA, Argentina and Brazil is characterized by its unilateral weed management and a lack of tillage. Both practices favor the formation of resistant weeds. From 2007 to 2009 the import from Europe to Brazil of highly toxic herbicide Paraquat has increased from 0 to 66 million kg. This indicates an increased use of the herbicide, which was banned in Europe since 2007. The Round Up Ready Plus Program by Monsanto shows that the manufacturers themselves are taking the resistance problem in weeds seriously. The company will pay for an additional herbicide application at planting of glyphosate-resistant GM soya. Even with multiple resistant GM soybeans, resistance problems will continue. This study recommends that the use of herbicides with different mechanisms of action should not be developed, as they are merely due to the monopoly position of GM soybean. Above all. alternative farming methods should be used.

The Hungarian unit of US seed giant Monsanto has appealed to Budapest Municipal Court to suspend a resolution by the Agriculture Office ordering the destruction of corn thought to be genetically modified, Monsanto Hungaria technical director Mihály Czepó told state news agency MTI on Monday. [...] Monsanto tested the seeds they sold to Hungary in their own laboratories and found no GMO, Czepó said. An independent laboratory in France also tested the seeds, getting the same results, which they sent to Hungarian authorities as well, he said.

A former Purdue University professor says it will be a few more months before he can support his claim that Roundup Ready technology is responsible for the proliferation of a previously unknown microscopic organism he says causes plant diseases and livestock abortions. A sample of the organism was sent to a lab in March for sequencing so the organism could have its characteristics clearly identified, said Don Huber, the retired Purdue professor. However, a contaminant was found in the sample, ”so we had to take more time to get the material that is required,” Huber said.

Within six years, 92% of the conventional soybean crop in Bolivia has been replaced by transgenic varieties. Since its authorization in 2005 and until the introduction of the Law of Productive Revolution on June 26, it was the only genetically modified product allowed in Bolivia.

Hungarian farmers will receive HUF 360,000 (€1,320) in compensation for each hectare of maize ploughed under due to contamination from genetically modified (GM) seeds, the state secretary in charge of government communications said on Wednesday.

A ten-year moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been rejected by Alan García, Peru’s outgoing president who says the move breaches the country’s WTO commitments. The bill will now be sent back to Congress for reformation.