Save our Seeds

The EU Commission accepted the ban of 16 maize varieties containing Monsantos Mon810 Bt gene (insecticide) based on the claim that they were not suitable for Polands climatic conditions. A Greek ban of 31 Mon810 maize varieties will be discussed in the Standing Committee on Seeds on May 16th.</p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEX/06/0508&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en">EU Commission announcement</a></p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/rc/scsp/rap75_en.pdf">Standing Committee on Seeds, minutes of March 9 - Polish bans</a></p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36283/story.htm">Reuters: EU Lets Poland Ban GMO Maize Seeds Across Country</a>

The French arm of US biotech giant Monsanto said on Friday it would continue experiments on genetically modified crops in France despite a court ruling stopping some of its tests. On the same day around 100 environmental activists entered a factory belonging to Monsanto in southwest France aiming to destroy any genetically modified seeds.</p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36239/story.htm">Reuters: Monsanto Continues French GMO Tests Despite Ruling</a></p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36264/story.htm">Reuters: Anti-GMO Groups Enter French Monsanto Factory</a>

Following a major coexistence conference held last month in Vienna, the EU ministers are expected to instruct the Commission to come up with specific growing guidelines for GMOs and thresholds for seed contamination. Swift action however is not expected.</p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36241/story.htm">Reuters: EU Executive Faces Pressure to Deal With GMO Laws</a>

Dennis Kucinich, Democratic congressman from Ohio, introduced a package of 6 bills on genetically engineered food and agriculture, which would fundamentally shift the present US approach on GMOs, including labelling, liability, safety assessment and farmers protection. While chances of these bills to be adopted in the US-Congress are extremely weak, they show there is substantial concern and a different view on GMOs than those of the government.</p><p><a href="http://kucinich.us/archive/home/display.php?src=k_20060503_tr_ert_senzrjbex.cuc">Kucinich Introduces Genetically Engineered Regulatory Framework</a></p><p><a href="http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/GE%20Bill%20Summary.pdf">Summary of Genetic engineering bills</a></p><p><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/">full text: Enter Bill Nos H.R. 5266 to H.R. 5271 in the search template</a>

While the Italian Parliament passed a coexistence law in January 2005, it provided only the framework in which the Regions would develop their implementing regulations. Now the Italian Constitutional Court has ruled that Italy`s Framework Law on Coexistence is unconstitutional.</p><p><a href="http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=5659">Truth about Trade</a>

With their bare hands and the most basic of tools, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have fashioned a secret garden where they have grown plants from seeds recovered from their meals. A UK human rights organisation, defending some of the Guanatamo prisoners has launched a campaign to send seeds to the prisoners.</p><p><a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article360820.ece">Independent: Guantanamo Bay prisoners plant seeds of hope in secret garden</a></p><p><a href="http://www.reprieve.org.uk/">Reprieve`s Seeds of Hope campaign for Guantanamo gardeners</a>

GM potato "Elisabeth" developed by Russian scientists and containing a Monsanto Bt-gene has been approved for human consumption after safety assessment of the Russian Institute of nutrition. As "Elisabeth" is not approved for cultivation anywhere in the world, this step is seen as a first move to approve the potato as the first GMO for cultivation in Russia, according to Victoria Kopeykina, secretary of CIS Alliance forBiosafety.</p><p><a href="http://www.gene.ch/genet/2006/May/msg00004.html">GENET: First "Russian" transgenic potato approved in Russia as food source</a>

From April 18th - 19th 2006 an expert conference on the role of the precautionary principle in GMO-politics took place in Vienna, Austria. Among its conclusions: Risk assessment is an important prerequisite for decision making but inadequate to adress the issue of uncertainty, ignorance and benefits. In that context also the EU system, including the institutions at member state but also at Community level, such as EFSA, faced some criticism concerning their approach to GMO risk assessment.</p><p><a href="http://www.umweltbundesamt.at/en/precautionandgmos/">Austrian Environment Agency: Results of the Conference web page</a>

A team of researchers at IBMs Watson Research Centre has published a mathematical analysis of the human genome, which suggests that so called "Junk DNA", the over 90 percent of not directly expressed material in our genome, may have important functions. The structural patterns, identified in these vast regions of the genome, seem to correspond as well with those areas known to be expressed in so called genes.</p><p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4940654.stm">BBC: Salvage prospect for 'junk' DNA</a>

Poland`s upper house of parliament banned trade and plantings of genetically modified seeds on Thursday, increasing the risk of a conflict with Brussels for adopting legislation that breaks EU rules.</p><p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36072/story.htm">Reuters</a></p><p><a href="http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=67435-gm-polish-crops">foodnavigator: Polish ban violates EU rules</a>