International News
2002-06-21 | permalink
EU environment council will discuss GMOs in Seeds June 25
Upon the initiative of the German delegation Environment ministers of the EU will discuss the implications of commercial GMO releases for the co-existence of conventional organic and GMO agriculture at their meeting next week.
Environment Council, German submission
2002-06-21 | permalink
New International Seed Federation
FIS and ASSINSEL, the World Seed Industry Organizations, have merged to International Seed Federation, ISF. At their first general assembly the organisation adopted a position paper on GMOs in Seeds. The first president is Dr. Christopher Ahrens, board-member of KWS Saat AG, Germany. FIS/ASSINSEL MergerDeutsche Meldung: AgroOnline - Nachrichten/Personen
2002-06-18 | permalink
Draft report of Euopean Parliament on traceability and labelling of GMO food and feed
Full text of the Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC(COM(2001) 182 - C5-0380/2001 - 2001/0180(COD)) Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy. Vote in the plenary session of the EP in July. Environment Committee Report as Doc file - 52 pages
2002-06-14 | permalink
Farmer wants Nort Dakota to ensure protection of foundation wheat seed stocks
(June 13, 2002 - CropChoice news) - Todd Leake fears that genetically engineered wheat could contaminate North Dakota`s pure seed stocks, even before it`s available commercially for planting. He fears that wheat which Monsanto genetically engineered to resist the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) could appear in the conventional varieties that the state`s farmers grow, because North Dakota State University is under contract with Monsanto to conduct nursery trials on the Roundup Ready wheat. CropChoice.com News
2002-06-12 | permalink
European Parliaments Environment Committee on GMO food and feed regulation
Last week the EPs committee on Environment and Consumer Protection voted on nearly 600 amendments regarding two proposed EU regulations on GMOs:1. Regulation on traceability of GMOs, GM food, feed (COM(2002) 182),2. Regulation on genetically modified food and feed (COM(2001) 425).The Committee demands labeling of all GMO products, including animal products derived from GMO feeding, and a maximum threshold for labelling GMOs in food at 0,5%. It rejected any exemptions for unauthorised GMOs. The plenary of the EP will vote on the proposal in its July session.
Full debriefing on the Committees vote
2002-06-12 | permalink
US Food Aid contained illegal "Starlink" maize
Corn sent to Bolivia under the US food aid programme by USAID contained "Starlink" corn, which is prohibited for human consumption because of allergenicity concerns world wide. Also other GMOs have been detected in food aid corn, Friends of the Earth revealed. Friends of the Earth : ILLEGAL GENETICALLY ENGINEERED STARLINK CORN CONTAMINATES FOOD AID
2002-06-11 | permalink
Seed purity in Greece
According to a press release issued by the Greek Ministry of Agriculture on June 5th, the PCR testing of all seed lots of cotton, maize, sugarbeet and tomato is over and the results are1. maize: 475 samples , 474 negative, 1 positive, the entire seed lot was destroyed2. tomato: 115 samples, all negative3. sugar beats: 19 samples, all negative4. cotton: 640 samples, 638 negative, 2 positive (the seed lots were re-exported).Interesting to note, that nearly half of the cotton seeds (approx 45%) were of US origin. In other terms there is plenty of clean seed.Nikos Charalambides, Greenpeace Greece
2002-06-09 | permalink
Liabilities and Economics of transgenic crops
Crosspollination will be a major stumbling block for transgenic crops in the future.June 2002 Nature Biotechnology - Volume 20 Number 6 pp 537 - 541By Stuart Smyth, George G. Khachatourians & Peter W.B. Phillips Article in Nature Biotechnology
2002-06-04 | permalink
FAO starts forum on gene flow from GM to non-GM crops
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of th UN has opened an electronic discussion about gene flow from GMOs to non-GM crops with special emphasis on their impact on developing countries. FAO: Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture: Conference 7
2002-05-30 | permalink
EU Parliament`s Committee on Consumers and Environment concerned about Seed Directive
The Committee, which is presently discussing labeling and treaceability regulations for GMOs in food and feed, will send a letter to the EU Commission asking not to set thresholds for seed contamination while thresholds for GMOs in food and feed are still under discussion. Meeting documents of the Environment and Consumers CommitteehThe Green member of the Committee, Hiltrud Breyer issued a press release on the Seed Directive press release of Mrs Breyer in Englishh Presseerklärung in Deutsch
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