Save our Seeds

We all love mealies and the many other food products that we get from maize seeds. But Monsanto, a multi-national seed and chemical company, is busy colonising Mzansi's food system. Monsanto genetically engineers the DNA of different plants, and sells their products to farmers promising a better harvest. But wherever Monsanto does business communities health and the environment are at risk. In order to make even more money, they are trying to push through their so-called "drought tolerant maize" seed to be commercially available to our farmers.

Monsanto is using the drought and our rising food prices as a means of inserting its bogus drought tolerant technology and maize into the South African food systems. We strongly challenge claims of drought tolerance as a trojan horse and yet another risky and novel gene introduced into our staple food.

If we are going to live so intimately with these

chemicals—eating and drinking them, taking them into

the very marrow of our bones—we had better know

something about their nature and their power, wrote

environmentalist Rachel Carson in 1962 in her book

Silent Spring, which hauntingly described the damaging

effects of indiscriminate pesticide use in agriculture

on animals and people in the USA. 55 years later, a new

report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

and the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics, presented to the

Human Rights Council on March 7, details the health and

The Sainsbury Laboratory wants to plant experimental GM potatoes that haven't even been trialled under controlled conditons. Please make your views known in the public consultation which ends on 23 March.

What you can do

Just one year after gaining consent to plant GM blight-resistant potatoes, the Sainsbury Laboratory has applied for permission to plant a series of much more complicated GM potatoes at its farm in Norwich. Defra is considering the application and a public consultation is now open. GM Freeze has submitted a detailed objection on behalf of 33 different organisations, but it is important that other voices speak out against this crop too.

Glyphosate, the main ingredient of Monsanto’s Roundup, is Europe's most heavily used weedkiller. Traces have been found in food, drinks and even in people’s urine. RIGHT NOW European leaders must take this opportunity - to protect people and the environment.

Take the first step to stop Glyphosate!

How do I use this database?

If you want to know if a specific ingredient, compound, or product is produced using GMO 2.0 techniques, you can search for that item under search full database or Ingredient name

You can also search by current market status and category using the drop down menus – to find a list of all GMO 2.0 ingredients used in cosmetics currently on the market, for example.

You can also view a list of companies manufacturing GMO 2.0 ingredients, a full list of GMO 2.0 ingredients, and do an advanced search using the menu at the top of the page.

Antonio Roman-Alcalá, currently the sustainable food campaigner for Friends of the Earth US, shares why agrichemical and seed mega-mergers are harmful to the food system.

The agricultural seed and pesticide market is already extremely concentrated. Three impending mergers between six of these corporate giants (Bayer/Monsanto, Dow/DuPont, and ChemChina/Syngenta) will further consolidate market and political power, leading to even greater corporate control of our farms and plates.

The companies involved are confident that the mergers will be approved, and President Trump’s pre-inauguration meeting with CEOs from Bayer and Monsanto indicates that politics might trump antitrust legal procedure and precedent. Still, there is widespread opposition to the merger from farmers, consumers, workers, environmentalists, and regulators, as evidenced by the 320 organizations and farmers who recently sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking them to block the mergers. The mergers are far from a done deal.

Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons? —Dr. Jane Goodall

Two new reports published in recent weeks add to the already large and convincing body of evidence, accumulated over more than half a century, that agricultural pesticides and other toxic chemicals are poisoning us.

Monsanto claims that the genetically modified cotton seeds they sell are superior. So why are so many people trying to switch?

Monsanto is losing millions of dollars now that farmers in India are switching to indigenous cotton seeds rather than Bt cotton.

The agrochemical company is known for pushing a form of Bt cotton in India for the last decade. They have been accused of manipulating laws in order to enter the Indian market.

Monsanto’s manipulation and greed in India has caused hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers to commit suicide. Between the years of 1995 and 2013, more than 300,000 farmer suicides occurred, many of which were linked to Monsanto. Farmers are forced to pay for Monsanto’s costly seeds, which then force them to pay for the expensive pesticides to effectively grow them, as Bt cotton’s pest resistant quality fades over time.

Do you want GMOs in the EU’s fields? If not, tell your Minister now to block them!

Mid-March, the European Commission will propose to the Member States’ experts to allow two GM maize varieties (Bt11 from Syngenta and 1507 from Dupont) and to renew the authorization of one further variety- Mon 810 from Monsanto.

If enough member states’ experts are not voting against, there is a high risk that these regulations will pass, even though a clear majority of EU citizens is against the use of biotechnologies in fields and food. These GM maize would then be cultivated in the fields of several EU countries, and probably contaminate fields of neighboring countries.

The member states have the possibility to STOP GMOs from the fields NOW. If they are serious about environment and food safety they have no reason to hesitate! There are ample reasons not to allow GM cultivation in the EU. Tell your Minister that he/she has the choice to make the difference!

Despite continuing interest in organic feed production, organic crops production is not keeping pace, says analyst.

However, non-biotech or non-GM feed crops have been expanding more quickly to meet increased market demand, said Dan Kowalski, director in the knowledge exchange division at CoBank.

He published a report recently on both organic and non-GMO specialty grains, assessing the impact and opportunity for growers. It is estimated that it would require an additional one to five million acres of US agriculture land to meet the domestic demand for organic corn and soybeans for feed.

US feed producers have been turning to imports organic feed ingredients to meet their needs, he said.

“US producers still have financial incentive to grow organic crops,” he told FeedNavigator. “However, the strong US dollar, and lower costs associated with organic production in some other countries could cause more foreign organic acreage to be added. If organic production continues to rise overseas, and imports are abundantly available in the US, it will drag on prices, reducing domestic incentive for growers.”

GMO-free production