Save our Seeds

George W. Bush has stepped up his rethoric about GMO imports and accused the EU of impeding the fight against hunger with its policy. The EU has politely rebutted such claims at a EU-US summit in Washington. In his speech to biotech industry representatives Bush also announced 1 bio $ for food aid and a 6 bio $ programme called "BioShield" for research in biological weapons and defense against bioterrorism. At the same time the US government organised a Biotech-Exhibition for Ministers from developing countries in California.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/bush_23_06_03.pdf">George W. Bush full speech to biotech industry</a></p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/us_clips_23_06_03.pdf">US Press clippings</a></p><p><a href="http://www.fas.usda.gov/icd/stconf/conf--info.html">homepage of Biotech expo</a></p><p><a href="http://sacmobilization.org">homepage of protesters</a>

In the USA, according to the US Department of Agriculture, 33.6 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 12.7 million children. Of these individuals, 6.1 million adults and 3 million children lived in households where someone experienced hunger during the year. The number of children living in households classified as 'food insecure with hunger among children' was 467,000 (0.6 percent of the children in the Nation).</p><p><a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodsecurity/trends/">ERS/USDA Briefing Room - Food Security in the United States: Conditions and Trends</a>

Monsanto will go ahead seeking approval for genetically modified wheat in Canada, despite threats of legal action and fears that approval could ruin the market for Canadian wheat.The company was responding to demands from the Canadian Wheat Board that it withdraw its wheat, engineered to withstand Roundup weedkiller.</p><p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2990178">Reuters</a>

The European Environmental Bureau, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have written a joint letter to members of the European Parliament, urging them to vote for low thresholds and anti-contamination measures next Monday, when the Parliament will vote on the genetically modified Food and Feed regulations.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/nog_letter_200603.pdf">Letter to MEPs for download</a>

LE MONDE, Mardi 24 juin 2003, par Hervé KempfA Paris, deux réunions scientifiques ont confirmé la division des chercheurs sur la question des organismes génétiquement modifiés. Les discussions ont montré qu'il ne faut pas s'enfermer dans une seule technologie et que "l'agriculture est avant tout un processus social".</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/lemonde_24_06_03.pdf">Le Monde 24.6.2003 pdf</a>

Friday, 20 June 2003The UK Food Standards Agency is today publishing a UK report to the European Commission on the EC co-ordinated programme of checks on the labelling of genetically modified foods. 18 samples made 'GM Free' claims, three of which were found to contain undeclared GM ingredients. Five samples were found to contain GM ingredients below the 1% threshold for adventitious presence of GMOs. Three samples declared the presence of GM ingredients on their label but none were found on analysis.</p><p><a href="http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/gmlabellingchecks20june2003">UK Food Standards Agency Press Release and list of tested products</a>

Greenpeace today released a report accusing the US government of using the WTO as a weapon to bully developing countries into accepting genetically engineered (GE) crops and food. When the US government filed a WTO complaint on May 13 this year against the European Union`s de facto ban on approving new GE crops, the real intention was to prevent and roll back restrictions on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in both the EU and the rest of the world.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/GP_TheUSWaronBiosafety.pdf">"The US War on Biosafety"</a>

Former Minister for the Environment, Michael Meacher explains his reservations on GMOs, which are suspected to be a major reason for his sacking two weeks ago.</p><p><a href="http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=417687">Article of Michael Meacher in The Independent</a>

The Bush administration called Europe`s policy illegal, saying that scientific research had shown genetically altered crops to be safe. The European Union "denies choices to European consumers," Richard Mills, a spokesman for the United States trade representative, Robert Zoellick, said in a statement today.European officials said the long-term effects of altered food remained uncertain.EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said any U.S. legal proceedings at the WTO would be overtaken by events, because the moratorium on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, is gradually ``defreezing.'' Talks between the two sides broke off Thursday in Geneva, and U.S. officials said they would soon request the world`s top trade regulator to convene a panel to hear the case. The United States says the WTO should order the 15-nation European Union to end the moratorium on grounds that it is an unfair trade barrier.</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/20/international/europe/20TRAD.html">NYT: Talks Collapse on U.S. Efforts to Open Europe to Biotech Food</a>.</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-US-EU-Biotech.html">NYT: EU`s Lamy dismisses US case</a></p><p><a href="http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/eu_meets_us_over_gm_trade.html">Friends of the Earth: Press Releases: 2003: EU MEETS US OVER GM TRADE WAR</a>

With the final vote on the Regulation on gm Food and Feed coming up on July 2nd in the European Parliament, intensive negotiations between the political groups and the different EU institutions are presently under way. The Parliaments EPP group (christian democrats) is blocking any substantial progress on those contentious issues, which the Parliaments majority has insisted on: Lower thresholds, member states full participation on approvals for GMO releases and insurance of proper co-existence measures between GMO and non GMO farming. The group is the biggest in the Parliament and could prevent the necessary absolute majority needed for adoption of these amendments, if their pro-GMO hardliners succeed and are backed by all EPP members.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/ff_preconciliation_130603.pdf">report on the present negotiations in the Parliament</a></p><p><a href="http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A5-2003-0202+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&L=EN&LEVEL=1&NAV=S&LSTDOC=Y#TOP">List of amendments this report refers to</a></p><p><a href="http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/oeil/oeil_ViewDNL.ProcViewCTX?lang=2&procid=5457&HighlighType=2&Highlight_Text=modified">All legislative acts regarding the Food and Feed Regulation</a>