Save our Seeds

SMALL organic farmers in Davao City hailed Mayor Sara Duterte’s stance in opposing the second round of Bt talong field testing in Davao City. Tranquilina Alibango of Kababaihang Nagtataglay ng Bihirang Lakas (KNBL), a network of women farmers in the city’s third congressional district, welcomed the city mayor’s move, saying it showed her commitment towards protecting the welfare of small organic farmers.

Local perceptions and myth are that Bt cotton increases yields, but the available data tells a different story. According to the data published by United States Department of Agriculture, the agriculture cotton data about Pakistan and Australia clearly shows that average yields have remained the same between 1990 and 2010, although Bt technology is being experimented in Australia since 1996 and in Pakistan informally since 2005. In Australia, yield per acre in 1991 (before Bt cotton) was 1,588 lbs and in 2010 (with BG-II & RRF) was 1,457 lbs. Similarly, in Pakistan, the yield was 685 pounds per acre in 1990-91 but it went down to 622 pounds per acre in 2009.

Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance to the plants’ insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from entomologists, the EPA said in a memo dated Nov. 22 and posted Nov. 30 on a government website. Monsanto’s program for monitoring suspected cases of resistance is “inadequate,” the EPA said. “Resistance is suspected in at least some portions of four states in which ‘unexpected damage’ reports originated,” the EPA said in the memo, which reviewed damage reports.

When environmentalist Juan Rosario traveled to an Amish religious community in Iowa, to learn to make compost, he was surprised that they had a laboratory and the services of an expert in chemistry. What was a scientist doing in a place where people live far from technology and practice ecological farming with the simplest of methods? An Amish dressed in their style, with a wide-brimmed black hat, white shirt, and black pants and black jacket, pointed toward a large cornfield on a nearby farm. “The scientist helps us verify that pollen from genetically modified corn does not contaminate our crops,” he told Juan Rosario. “It’s the same corn that you develop in Salinas.”

In March 2010, the European Commission approved BASF’s genetically modified Amflora potato for cultivation in the European Union. CEO has investigated the background to this decision, including the controversial scientific advice provided by the European Food Safety Authority on the use of antibiotic resistant marker genes. CEO found that more than half of EFSA’s GMO panel had conflicts of interest, as defined by the OECD. Their advice, which contravened WHO guidelines, contributed to the approval of the GM potato - and is likely to lead to the approval of similar GM crops in the near future.

The European Union decided yesterday to reinforce its controls on imports of Chinese rice products. In a move to respond to an increasing detection of products contaminated with unauthorised genetically modified (GM) rice, Member States endorsed a European Commission Decision to that effect at the meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH). The Commission based the Decision on an audit carried out in China by its Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in March 2011 and on the continuing notifications through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).

Two proposals to authorise GM soybean products were not endorsed yesterday by Member States during a meeting of the standing committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH). The commission presented to SCoFCAH one proposal for the authorisation of GM soybean A5547-127 and another one on the renewal of the authorisation of GM soybean 40-3-2.Both authorisations concern food and feed uses, not cultivation.The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in both opinions that these soybeans are as safe as their non-genetically modified counterparts, with respect to potential effects on human and animal health and the environment. For more information, please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/index_en.htm

Peru’s Congress announced Friday it overwhelmingly approved a 10-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified organisms in order to safeguard the country’s biodiversity. The measure bars GMOs -- including seeds, livestock, and fish -- from being imported for cultivation or to be raised locally. Exceptions include the use of GMO products for research purposes in a closed environment, but those will be closely monitored, the legislature’s official news service said.

Europe’s largest and most influential biotech industry group, whose members include Monsanto, Bayer and other GM companies, is recruiting high-profile ”ambassadors” to lobby European leaders on GM policy. [...] The 10 or more ambassadors will not be paid directly, but the lobbyists have offered to write, research and place articles in their names, arrange interviews and speaking engagements with the Financial Times and other international media, and secure for them what could be lucrative speaking slots at major conferences.

The Toledo Maya who have been planting corn for genertions are skeptical of these claims, because innumerable other schemes have been foisted upon them by agricultural “experts” over the decades,causing hardship for the Maya while their traditional methods continue to sustain them. They see GMO corn as a dangerous experiment which can cause them grief. The Toledo Maya are not the only opponents to GMO crops being introduced to Belize, Mark Miller of Punta Gorda Town also called for the Belize Agricultural Health Authority to stop any importation of GMO seed until proper consultations with the public can be held.