Save our Seeds

Genetically modified canola has escaped from the farm and is thriving in the wild across North Dakota, according to a study that indicates there are plenty of novel man-made genes crossing the Canada-U.S. border. GM canola was found growing everywhere from ditches to parking lots, the scientists report, with some of the highest densities along a trucking route into Canada. [...] At almost half of the 634 stops they found genetically modified canola. At some locations there were thousands of GM plants growing. [...] Perhaps most significant, they said, is the fact that two of plants had combinations of herbicide resistance that had not been developed commercially. “That suggests to us there is breeding going on, either in the field or in these roadside populations, to create new combinations of traits,” said Sagers. “In terms of evolutionary biology it’s pretty amazing.”

Home to a fast-growing network of farmers’ markets, cooperatives and organic farms, but also the breeding ground for mammoth for-profit corporations that now hold patents to over 50 percent of the world’s seeds, the United States is weathering a battle between Big Agro and a ripening movement for food justice and security.

Conflicting ideologies about agriculture have become ground zero for this war over the production, distribution and consumption of the world’s food.

The Chinese government may be taking a bold new step by halting the commercialization of GE rice. It’s a move that we at Greenpeace would widely welcome as the long-term effects of GE products on human health are still unknown. China’s major financial weekly the Economic Observer quoted on Friday, Sept 23rd, 2011, an information source close to the Ministry of Agriculture that China has suspended the commercialization of genetically engineered rice.

Permits to plant large extensions of genetically modified corn for the first time in Mexico are likely to be approved before the end of the year, said a company lobby group on Monday. Monsanto, DuPont’s Pioneer seed unit and Dow Chemical’s agricultural arm have all applied to expand on tiny experimental plots of GM corn in northern Mexico, said AgroBIO, an organization that represents the biotech companies. The group expects the government will approve more sizable pilot plots for the corn-growing state of Sinaloa by the end of October and in Tamaulipas by November with other states following soon after.

Turkey’s economy grew in Q2 for the ninth successive quarter, and by 8.8% on the previous year. The rate of GDP growth surprised even the central bank, and while inflation is not yet a concern, food prices are high and rising. This has brought the complicated issue of genetically modified food to the fore, with a request to the government from feed, poultry and egg producers to allow imports of three types of genetically GM corn to be used as animal and chicken feed. “We can solve our raw material problem only through imports,” says Ulku Karakus, chief of the Turkish Feed Industrialists Union, explaining the problem. “Costly feed translates into expensive meat. Unless we pull down the cost of feed, we cannot drive down meat prices.”

The Philippine Rice Research Institute and the International Rice Research Institute are tapping the Helen Keller International to carry out feeding trials for the pro-Vitamin A-rich Golden Rice which should boost the crop’s market potential. An institution aiming to prevent blindness and malnutrition, HKI has started mapping out a program with Philrice and IRRI on the feeding trial. This may happen at least two years from now after Golden Rice developers will have obtained approval for the nutrient-rich rice.

Is Europe in favour of the freedom of Member States as regards a ban on cultivation of GMOs within their territories? The Polish government, holding the EU presidency in the second half of 2011, calls upon EU member states to come forward with their opinions on a pending proposal of the EU Commission to allow for national bans of GMO cultivation.

Honey containing pollen from genetically modified maize MON 810 is not marketable. This was announced by the European court of justice today in its groundbreaking verdict. Even tiniest traces of genetically modified (GM) material in food or feeding stuff demand a safety control and a special approval following genetical engineering law. Without an approval, it is illegal to market

such food. With this decision, the German beekeepers‘ association Mellifera e. V. celebrates a big success as it means that bee keepers have a right of compensation if their honey has been contaminated with genetically modified poll that has not been approved as food.

The dispute arose between Mr Bablok, an amateur beekeeper, and Freistaat Bayern (State of Bavaria, Germany), which owns a number of plots of land on which MON 810 maize has been cultivated for research purposes in recent years. In 2005 MON 810 maize DNA and genetically modified proteins were detected in the maize pollen harvested by Mr Bablok in beehives situated 500 metres from the plots of land belonging to Freistaat Bayern. Very small amounts of MON 810 maize DNA were also detected in a number of samples of Mr Bablok's honey. As German authorities held that such contaminations have to be tolerated, Mr Bablok, together with the help of Mellifera e.V., brought legal proceedings against Freistaat Bayern before the German courts and claimed for the damage.

Due to unsettled questions of European law, the Bavarian Higher Administrative Court presented a few decision points to the European Court of Justice in 2009. Today, the court decided in favour of the bee keepers and consumers who predominantly disapprove of genetically engineered organisms in their food. On the occasion of the judgement, the environmental organisation BUND (friends of the earth germany) requests the German government to regulate the protection of honey in the genetical engineering law.

In December 2010, an international workshop for Islamic scholars was held in Penang, Malaysia on the theme ”Agribiotechnology: Shariah Compliance.” [...] A web report claimed that the workshop was ”attended by high-ranking ulama from Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia and scientists from Malaysia, USA, Iran and Egypt.” In fact, anyone with differing views from the organisers was not invited. The discussion was also limited to the halal/haram debate and, not surprisingly, resulted in a fatwa that stated that GM is permissable in Islam.

The South African Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry says Kenya authorised the import before the department could issue a commodity export permit. The department then issued export permits for 240,000 tonnes of genetically modified maize for use as a commodity (not for planting), director Peter Thabete told the South Africa parliamentary Committee on GMOs. [...] The African Centre for Biosafety says South Africa exported 300,000 tonnes of GM food to the region, of which 280,000 came to Kenya. It says Kenyans have been eating GM food for the past three years.