Save our Seeds

Last week about 40 activists from France, UK and Germany came together in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) to protest against the GM potato, Amflora. Also the provincial minister for agriculture called for a ban of amflora. Now the federal minister for economics and technology and members of the BASF management board join the harvest.

The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) provokes strong reactions in India. The Bill proposes a centralized technocratic authority to approve GM (genetically modified) crops with no involvement of elected governments, said Mr Rajesh Krishnan, Greenpeace Campaigns Manager. The Madhya Pradesh government has reacted strongly and suspects the effort to re-introduce Bt brinjal. “It will have disastrous consequences for Indian Agriculture, which still relies heavily on traditional technologies. It will take the control of food from the farmer and give it to multinational corporations, who will enslave our agriculture,” said State Agriculture Minister Ramakrishna Kusumaria.

A recent Testbiotech survey shows that DNA fragments from transgenic

plants are increasingly found in animal tissue such as milk, inner organs and muscles.

Recently scientists from Italy reported DNA sequences stemming from genetically

engineered soy in milk from goats. A few years ago, DNA from genetically engineered maize was found in samples from pigs. Also traces from transgenic plants were found in the organs of fish, namely rainbow trout and tilapia.

US Federal Court in California banned any new plantings of Monsanto’s GM “Roundup Ready” sugar beet for the foreseeable future. but denied an injunction that could have required the destruction of seed crops planted in the past few days. A federal judge has revoked the government's approval of genetically altered sugar beets until regulators complete a more thorough review of how the scientifically engineered crops affect other food.

After Rudimas´ laugher (undersecretary of the department of agriculture) on the health risks of Bt eggplant Proceso Alcala, secretary of the department of agriculture, said Bt eggplant could not be sold in Philippine markets unless it was proven that it would not pose harm to the health of consumers. However, he was allowing the field testing to continue. The tests also do not validly measure the long-term effects of Bt eggplant. Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini from the Caen University pointed out, the recommendation of the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco), that consumption of Bt bringal be limited to 50-100g for a person per day for five days “for a safe dose level” puts to doubt the safety of Bt eggplant as food.

Scientific studies about the Indian Bt eggplant demonstrated that it is unfit for human consumption and detrimental to a healthy environment as cited by the Indian government in rejecting the release of Bt eggplant. This evidence should have already compelled Joel S. Rudinas the representative of the Department of Agriculture in the Philippines to stop the field tests.

Support the Petition to stop Bt eggplant in the Philippines!!!

On Monday 70 anti-GM activists destroyed a GM maize field in Italy and effectively prevented harvest. Although there is no outright ban on the cultivation of GM crops in Italy, a long-running legal tangle effectively prevents farmers from doing so. As the second-largest producer of organic crops in Europe, the issue of GM contamination is particularly explosive in Italy.

Scientists at the University of Arkansas identified genes from GM-canola in wild plant populations in the United States. Wild canola was found at almost half of the tested sites along the highway. About 83 percent of the weedy canola contained transgenic material. Wild canola contained herbicide resistance genes from genetically modified canola. Further, some of the plants contained resistance to both herbicides, a combination of transgenic traits that had not been developed in canola crops. "That's not commercially available. That has to be happening in the wild," said Schafer, from the University of Arkansas.

Swiss scientists have demonstrated alarming effects in genetically engineered wheat. They have shown that a particular transgene can have large effects on the entire phenotype of a plant and that these effects can sometimes be reversed when plants are from the glasshouse to the field. Hence 'Crash tests' (simulating a change of extreme climatic conditions) should be mandatory for the risk assessment of GM plants.

Biotech industry welcomes EU approvals on GM maize. “These approvals show promising movement in the EU for biotech approvals,” said Pioneer Hi-Bred President Paul E. Schickler.

Among the new GM maize products are Herculex RW and Herculex I, which contain two different Bt traits (59122 and 1507) and the glyphosate tolerant Roundup Ready Corn 2 (NK603).These products have been jointly developed by DuPont business Pioneer Hi-Bred and Dow AgroSciences LLC (Dow Chemical Company).