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.
CURITIBA, Brazil - Meanwhile, Greenpeace International added another urgent action for saving life on earth: protecting international waters.
These announcements were made by the two global movements on Tuesday, at the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8), taking place in this southern, "ecologically-minded" Brazilian city from Mar. 20 - 31. ...the central, strategic battle will be waged around seeds, pitting peasant farmers who have produced and improved seeds for 10,000 years, thus expanding their genetic diversity, against the
Read moreThis week saw the report of a drug trial that led to catastrophic injury to human volunteers. Six volunteers were injured , one of whom, may face up to a year or more of coma. The drug being tested (TGN 1412) was a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody being developed to treat diseases including leukemia and arthritis. The tests of the drug were being undertaken in Britain by a German biotechnology company (TeGenero).. The six young men participating in the drug trial were healthy volunteers paid a small fee to participate in the experiment
(1,2,3,4). The Mab and its properties
OTTAWA - Canada is lobbying at a major UN conference this week for an end to an international moratorium on the field testing of controversial so-called suicide seeds, despite opposition from farm organizations around the world, activists say.
The seeds, which are genetically modified to produce sterile offspring, are among the most controversial products biotechnology has yet produced, and critics say they could undermine traditional small-scale farming.
The seeds, officially known as Genetic Use Restriction Technology, require farmers to buy new seed every spring
Read moreCURITIBA, Brazil - On Tuesday morning, as delegates arrived at the conference venue, they faced more than 100 peasant and indigenous rights activists at the main gates staging a demonstration in support of a complete ban on the sale and use of Terminator seeds, officially known as Genetic Use Restriction Technology.
"These seeds are killed seeds," the crowd shouted as they watched delegates arrive in cars and buses.
"Terminate the Terminator", the activists chanted in unison, while demanding tough laws against field testing and sale of so-called "Terminator" technology, which
Read moreMonsanto Co. said Monday it is beginning in-house production of Posilac, which should ease a two-year-old shortage of the hormone used to boost milk production in cows.
The Creve Coeur company received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin formulating and packaging Posilac bovine somatotropin at its plant in Augusta, Ga.
Since 2003, the facility has manufactured the Posilac active ingredient and shipped it for final production to Sandoz GmbH, an Austrian subsidiary of Novartis AG.
Monsanto has been rationing Posilac since December 2003, when
Read moreFrom: <gaia@gaianet.org>
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The Biosafety Protocol negotiations ended with a limited victory for the majority of countries who wanted to ensure stringent regulations on transboundary movements of GMOs. Although New Zealand and Brazil had originally opposed the other 130 member countries who wanted "contains GMOs" labelling instead of the weak and unspecific "may contain GMOs", these two countries shifted their position during negotiations and supported the stronger language. However, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru, evidently under influence from
Read moreEDMONDS INSTITUTE PRESS RELEASE
Monday, March 20, 2006
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sunday, March 19. On the eve of the Eighth Conference of the Parties
(COP 8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Edmonds
Institute, a US-based public interest, non-profit organization, released a report entitled, "Out of Brazil: A Peanut Worth Billions (to the US)" . Described by Institute director Beth Burrows as "a case of old-fashioned, but highly lucrative biopiracy," the report exposes how a peanut collected at a market in Porto Alegre,
GM WATCH NOTE: Despite claims of victory by the US Administration and the biotechnology industry - widely reported in the media in February 2006 - the three countries that started the WTO trade dispute against the European Union (US, Canada and Argentina) failed to win most of their arguments! preliminary analysis of the WTO's leaked report available in the briefing 'Looking behind the US spin' is online at www.foeeurope.org/publications/2006/WTO_briefing.pdf
MEDIA ADVISORY
Web Note:
Comments by Prof Joe Cummins
jcummins@UWO.CA |by way of SANET-MG discussion group
The article below is a useful general description of the general problem with pharm crops. The point about people being informed is a worthwhile piece of advise, but contra productive unless the state government acts to insure that the test sites are revealed to bystanders and neighbors. Washington State University already undertook secretive large field tests of barley with human genes but those field tests were recently
Even hay is going biotech.
Monsanto Co.'s latest genetically engineered crop is alfalfa that is resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller.
Farmers planted the first 50,000 acres of the biotech alfalfa last fall, and there will be enough seed this spring for an additional 90,000 acres, the company says.
Farmers harvest about 22 million acres of alfalfa annually, 1.3 million acres of which is in Iowa.
A small amount may be growing in Iowa. Fewer than 10 farmers bought seed last fall, according to Monsanto. How much of the seed was
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