Genetic Engineering
GMO = Genetically Modified Organism
GMOs are created in a lab, by inserting a gene from one organism into another unrelated organism, producing plants and animals that would never occur in nature. No long-term safety studies have been done on humans, but animal studies link the consumption of GMOs to an increase in allergies, kidney and liver disease, ADHD, cancer, infertility, chronic immune disorders and more.
Say no to GMOs!
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)—Monsanto’s Evil Twin—is pulling out all the stops to keep you in the dark about what’s in your food. The GMA plans to sue in federal court to overturn Vermont’s new GMO labeling law, H.112. And it’s pushing a bill in Congress that would not only overturn every state’s right to enact a GMO labeling law, but also legalize the practice of labeling GMO foods “natural.”
Take the pledge today to boycott the 300-plus members of the GMA,
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Many consumers and food activists use social media platforms to stay informed and engage in important debates about the future of our food system. But increasing corporate influence in these spaces requires us to differentiate fact from spin as we encounter hundreds of posts and tweets per day. Big Ag’s attempts to shape social media debates expose its fear of criticism from a growing food movement demanding corporate transparency, regulation, and sustainable alternatives to industrial agriculture.
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In the wake of prominent media reports about supposed scientific agreement on the safety of genetically engineered food, including a cover story in National Geographic that equates concerns about GMOs with climate change denial, U.S. Right to Know is calling on media to accurately report that the science on GMOs is contradictory, unsettled, and has been largely controlled by corporations that profit from GMO seeds and the pesticides that go with them.
Read moremosquitoes
KEY HAVEN, Fla. — In this bite-size community near Key West, like so many other mosquito-plagued spots up and down the Florida Keys, residents long ago made peace with insecticides dropped into town by planes or rumbling by on trucks. Cans of Off are offered at outdoor parties. Patio screens are greeted with relief.
But Keys residents are far less enamored of another approach to mosquito control — a proposal to release the nation’s first genetically modified mosquitoes, hatched in a lab and pumped with synthetic DNA to try to combat two painful mosquito-borne viral diseases, dengue
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ALBANY, N.Y. - Farmers in New York state would be better protected against lawsuits from biotech companies if genetically modified crops inadvertently grow on their fields under a bill passed by the state's Assembly.
Seed producers have sued farmers around the country for allegedly growing their bioengineered crops without buying the seed. Farmers often argue the seeds arrived by wind or other natural means.
Assemblyman Tom Abinanti said Wednesday that his legislation will make it easier for New York farmers to defend themselves
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Feb. 12 — The Environmental Protection Agency's top pesticide regulators met privately last month with pesticide industry-funded researchers to hear them make the case for the value of neonicotinoid insecticides, according to documents made public Feb. 10.
The researchers, Paul Mitchell and Pete Nowak from the firm Ag Informatics, were responding to a recently issued EPA study that found treating soybean seeds with neonicotinoids provides farmers with no significant financial or agricultural benefits.
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Some Maryland lawmakers want to better protect bees from certain pesticides, but opponents testified Tuesday that it's unclear whether the pesticides are causing a drop in bee populations.
The Pollinator Protection Act would require any plants, seeds or nursery stock treated with certain pesticides to include a warning label. It also seeks to prevent people who are not experienced with using the pesticides, which are known as "neonics," from using them.
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photo: pixabay
The company (Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.) that makes the apple wants you to believe that consumer demand was behind the invention.
But the real target customers for GMO apples are fast-food restaurants and food service businesses—companies that want mothers of young children to think they’re selling healthy fresh fruit, even if that fruit is a genetically engineered apple that has undergone no meaningful safety testing for human consumption.
It’s up to consumers to make sure the main customers for Okanagan’s frankenapple—fast-food restaurants who want to serve the apple in
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Over the last 20 years, industrial agriculture in Argentina has expanded by almost 50 %, taking over regions intended for other productions, for family farming, and most of all, forests.
A ton of soy was priced at US$16o in 2001; in July 2012, it reached US$600. At an average yield of 3 to 4 tons (T) per hectare (ha) and production costs 200-250 US$/ha, the profit is enormous.
Of the 300 000 farmers nationwide, 80 000 are engaged in transgenic and chemical agriculture; of those, 20 000 account for 70 % of the production
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Africa's biotech establishment is deploying its biggest guns to attack NGOs opposed to GMO crops to help push through Ghana's corporation-friendly Plant Breeders Bill - a key element in the corporate enclosure of Africa's farming, seeds and agricultural heritage.
Speaking at a public meeting organised for farmers in Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region entitled "GMOs the truth and misconceptions", Professor Walter Sandow Alhassan advised farmers to avoid being misled by anti-GMO groups, telling them:
"We should get away from this misinformation and try to see how we can
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