Save our Seeds

Glyphosate, also known by its tradename Roundup, is commonly found in rain and rivers in agricultural areas in the Mississippi River watershed, according to two new USGS studies released this month. [...] “Though glyphosate is the mostly widely used herbicide in the world, we know very little about its long term effects to the environment,” says Paul Capel, USGS chemist and an author on this study. “This study is one of the first to document the consistent occurrence of this chemical in streams, rain and air throughout the growing season.

Dozens of United States diplomatic cables released in the latest WikiLeaks dump on Wednesday reveal new details of the US effort to push foreign governments to approve genetically engineered crops and promote the worldwide interests of agribusiness giants like Monsanto and DuPont. The cables further confirm previous Truthout reports on the diplomatic pressure the US has put on Spain and France, two countries with powerful anti-GE crop movements, to speed up their biotech approval process and quell anti-GE sentiment within the European Union.

President Bronislaw Komorowski vetoed a new controversial seeds bill, which fails to properly regulate GMO production but does not ban it [...] Though he himself is not against GMOs, he says the bill is a ”bad and irresponsible” piece of legislation with controversial provisions relating to GMOs included at the last moment. ”It is bad legislative practice to throw socially controversial problems into a bill at the very last moment,” Komorowski said last week.

A demonstration calling for President Komorowski not to sign off on a new law allowing GM seeds to be used in Poland took place in Warsaw over the weekend. On 31 July 2011 the Senate, the upper house of parliament, voted to pass into law the ‘Seeds Act’, which legalises the planting of GM seeds in Poland. The vote went through parliament after MPs and senators from the ruling coalition of Civic Platform and Polish Peasant Party supported the bill.

Construction of new Belarus testing ground for first genetically modified crops to be completed in 2012. The site will be established in Minsk on the territory of the biological test station of the National Academy of Sciences. [...] The spokesmen of the Academy of Sciences emphasize that nobody is talking about instant potato sales so far. The transgenic plant line must undergo a number of tests first, which is rather time consuming.

The European Patent Office in Munich has recently granted a patent for the German company Bayer for breeding plants with a higher stress tolerance (EP1616013). The comprehensive patent will give Bayer monopoly control over important food crops including both genetic engineering in plants and the process for conventional breeding and plants derived thereof. [...] “This new patent for Bayer breaks the law. It conflicts in particular with the prohibition of patents on essentially biological’ processes for breeding.”

Friends of the Earth Spain celebrates the suspension of GM trials with human genes after mass mobilisations by the general public. Valencia’s local government has revoked the permit of an Italian pharmaceutical company to experiment with GM rice combined with human genes in Vinaros, Castellon. [...] The aim of the GM trial was to obtain enzymes to treat Gaucher’s disease. However, there are several treatments for this disease that are obtained through genetic engineering in confined environments.

American seed giant Monsanto and its Indian collaborator, Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company are to be prosecuted for allegedly ‘stealing’ indigenous plant material for developing genetically modified brinjal variety known as Bt brinjal. The National Biodiversity Authority, a statutory body set up under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, has decided to initiate legal proceedings against the two companies and their collaborators for using indigenous brinjal germplasm without necessary permission.

A new variety of sugar cane promising yield increases up to 25 percent, while being more drought-tolerant than conventional strains, is expected to be commercially available in Brazil by 2020.

The non-profit organisations Testbiotech and GeneWatch UK have submitted a formal request to the European Commission re-examine market authorisation of a genetically engineered maize produced by Monsanto sold under brand Genuity VT Triple PRO Corn (event MON89034 x MON 88017) [...] It produces a combination of three different insecticidal toxins, one of which is synthesised artificially. Further, the plants are made tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate (known as Roundup). [...] The plants were not tested for health effects in feeding studies. Only a short term trial for its nutritional quality was performed in poultry. The residues from spraying with glyphosate formulations were also not considered by the European Food Safety Authority EFSA.