Govt decides to ban GMO food production in Russia | Share of GMOs in the Russian food industry has declined from 12% to 0.01% over the past 10 years, official statistics say |
EXCERPT: The law ordering obligatory state registration of GMO products that might contact with the environment will come into force in mid-2017.
— Govt decides to ban GMO food production in Russia – deputy PM
Russia Today, 18 Sept 2015
http://www.rt.com/politics/ A senior Russian government member told reporters the cabinet decided that any food production in the country will completely exclude any genetically-modified organisms or parts thereof. “As far as genetically-modified organisms are concerned, we have made decision not to use any GMO in food productions,” Deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich said at an international conference on biotechnology in the Russian city of Kirov. At the same time the official emphasized that there was a very clear line between this decision and the development of science, medicine and some other branches. “This is not a simple issue, we must do very thorough work on division on these spheres and form a legal base on this foundation,” he said. In February 2014, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the creation of a national research base for genetically-modified organisms that would provide the authorities with expert information and allow for further legislative movements and executive decisions. Medvedev also warned against perceiving GMO products as “absolute evil,” but said that the government did not support their use in the food industry. At the same time a group of MPs backed by parliamentary majority party United Russia drafted the bill that severely restricted the imports of genetically-modified agricultural produce, and completely banning its domestic production. This draft has not passed through parliament, but later in the year the State Duma approved a package of amendments imposing fines on businesses which sell products containing genetically-modified organisms without adequate labeling to warn consumers. According to official statistics the share of GMO in the Russian food industry has declined from 12 percent to just 0.01 percent over the past 10 years, and currently there are just 57 registered food products containing GMO in the country. The law ordering obligatory state registration of GMO products that might contact with the environment will come into force in mid-2017.
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Friday, September 18, 2015
RUSSIA: GMO CROP BAN APPROVED
FRANCE: GMO? MAIS NON! OPTS OUT OF EU GMO PUSH
France bolsters ban on GM crops | EU’s largest grain grower and exporter asks to be excluded from some GM maize crop cultivation |
In opting out of GMO cultivation, France joins Germany, Scotland, Latvia, and Greece. Hungary and Slovenia are also expected to opt out.
--- UPDATE 2 - France bolsters ban on genetically modified crops
(Adds detail on seed producers)
Reuters, 17 Sept 2015 http://www.reuters.com/ France is to use a new European opt-out scheme to ensure a ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops in the country remains in place, it saidon Thursday. The European Union's largest grain grower and exporter has asked the European Commission for France to be excluded from some GM maize crop cultivation under the new scheme, the farm and environment ministries said in a joint statement. As part of the opt-out process, France also passed legislation in the National Assembly that would enable it to oppose the cultivation of GM crops, even if approved at EU level, on the basis of certain criteria including environment and farm policy, land use, economic impact or civil order, the environment ministry added. Widely grown in the Americas and Asia, GM crops have divided opinion in Europe. France had already banned cultivation of U.S. group Monsanto's GM maize, saying it had serious doubts that it is safe for the environment. Monsanto says its maize (corn) is harmless to humans and wildlife. The EU opt-out, agreed in March, allows individual countries to seek exclusion from any approval request for GM cultivation in the 28-member bloc or varieties already cleared as safe by the EU. Monsanto's MON810 maize is the only GM crop grown in Europe, where it has been cultivated in Spain and Portugal for a decade, but other maize crops are in the process of being approved at EU level. One of them is an insect-resistant maize known as 1507. Its developers, DuPont Pioneer and Dow Chemical, have been waiting nearly 15 years for the EU executive to authorise its cultivation in the bloc. The French request concerns nine GM maize strains. Producers also include Switzerland's Syngenta, a spokesman for the environment ministry said. Germany also intends to make use of the new EU rules to stop the growing of GM crops, documents seen by Reuters showed last month. The European Commission is responsible for approvals, but under the new rules requests for opt-outs also have to be submitted to the company making the application. Monsanto has said it will abide by requests from Latvia and Greece to be excluded from its application to grow a GM crop in the EU but accused them of ignoring science. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, Gus Trompiz and Valerie Parent; Editing by Jane Merriman and David Goodman)
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Tuesday, September 15, 2015
CA TO ADD GLYPHOSATE TO TOXICS LIST: PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD THRU OCT 5, 2015
URGENT ALERT!!!
PUBLIC COMMENT Needed by
PUBLIC COMMENT Needed by
OCTOBER 5, 2015
Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
September 4, 2015: CA Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), State Agency which administers Proposition
65* (Safe Drinking Water and Toxic
Enforcement Act of 1986), announced that it will publish a notice of intent to
list glyphosate, malathion, and two other chemicals which will require product labeling, on the
State’s Proposition 65 list. This
notice of intent starts a 30 day public comment period until October 5,
2015, before a final determination is made.
This is in response to the April
2015 request by the CSG (formerly California State Grange) and the Sacramento
Community Grange, jointly submitted with the Environmental Working Group, to
the California OEHHA, (part of the Cal/EPA, California Environmental Protection Agency), to the list glyphosate (RoundUp) as a
Proposition 65,
carcinogen. Glyphosate,
both herbicide and antibiotic, is one of the most commonly used herbicides in
the world, most closely associated with GMO (genetically modified organism)
crops engineered to possess traits making them resistant to this herbicide,
allowing more to be applied without danger to the life of the plant.
A March 20, 2015 finding by
the IARC of the WHO (World Health Organization) confirms glyphosate is a
probable carcinogen to humans.
See: http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
TO COMMENT on this law change and demand that OEHHA classify GLYPHOSATE as a carcinogen:
Written comments must be received by
5:00 p.m., Monday, October 5, 2015, to be considered.
TO COMMENT on this law change and demand that OEHHA classify GLYPHOSATE as a carcinogen:
Written comments must be received by
5:00 p.m., Monday, October 5, 2015, to be considered.
1) Please submit comments in electronic form, rather than in paper form.
2) Comments
transmitted by e‑mail should be addressed to P65Public.comments@oehha.ca.gov
3) Please
include “NOIL” and the GLYPHOSATE in the subject line.
4) Comments
received during the public comment period will be posted on the OEHHA web site
after the close of the comment period.
5)
Comments submitted in paper form may be mailed,
faxed, or delivered in person to the address below.
Mailing Address: Ms. Esther Barajas-Ochoa
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
P.O. Box 4010, MS-19B
Sacramento, California 95812-4010
Fax: (916) 323-2265
Street Address: 1001 I Street
Sacramento, California 95814
Questions? Please contact Esther Barajas-Ochoa at Esther.Barajas-ochoa@oehha.ca.gov or at (916)445-6900.
Mailing Address: Ms. Esther Barajas-Ochoa
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
P.O. Box 4010, MS-19B
Sacramento, California 95812-4010
Fax: (916) 323-2265
Street Address: 1001 I Street
Sacramento, California 95814
Questions? Please contact Esther Barajas-Ochoa at Esther.Barajas-ochoa@oehha.ca.gov or at (916)445-6900.
*What is Proposition 65?
PROP 65 ACTION ALERT links below to add your Comments to the CALIFORNIA EPA Toxics list, mandating a label on any products containing glyphosate (RoundUp) used in air, water, food or soils application in California....
Seeking 1 Million Public COMMENTS by October 5, 2015
(just a few weeks!!). They prefer online comments but will accept snail mail comments as well....
This addition of glyphosate to the TOXICS list happened only because citizens went to the CA EPA and demanded it be added to the list after the March 2015 WHO (World Health Organization) determined glyphosate to be a human carcinogen (causing cancer)!
Monday, September 7, 2015
IMMORAL "TERMINATOR SEED" GMOs APPROVED BY USDA - CONDEMNED WORLDWIDE
Destroying Biodiversity: The US Department of Agriculture Says Yes to GMO “Terminator Seed” Technology
This article was one of the first articles published by Global Research in September 2001
It’s official [2001]. The US Department of Agriculture announced that it has concluded negotiations to license the notorious Terminator technology to its seed industry partner, Delta & Pine Land (D&PL). As a result of joint research, the USDA and D&PL are co-owners of three patents on the controversial technology that genetically modifies plants to produce sterile seeds, preventing farmers from re-using harvested seed. A licensing agreement establishes the terms and conditions under which a party can use a patented technology. Although many of the Gene Giants hold patents on Terminator technology, D&PL is the only company that has publicly declared its intention to commercialize Terminator seeds. (for details, see “2001: A Seed Odyssey” RAFI Communique, January/February 2001, www.rafi.org)
USDA’s decision to license Terminator flies in
the face of international public opinion and
betrays the public trust,” said Hope Shand, Research
Director of RAFI. “Terminator technology has been
universally condemned by civil society; banned
by international agricultural research institutes,
censured by United Nations bodies, even
shunned by Monsanto, and yet the US
government has officially sanctioned
commercialization of the technology by
licensing it to one of the world’s largest seed
companies, explains Shand.
USDA’s role in developing Terminator seeds is a disgraceful example of corporate welfare involving a technology that is bad for farmers, dangerous for the environment and disastrous for world food security,” adds Silvia Ribeiro of RAFI. Terminator has been universally opposed as an immoral technology because over 1.4 billion people, primarily poor farmers, depend on farm-saved seeds as their primary seed source.
MONSANTO PAID FOLTA $25KFOR GRANT HE PROPOSED TO PUSH GMOs - EMAIL TRAIL
Email Trail
SOURCE: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2303691/kevin-folta-uoffloridadocs.pdf
http://fortune.com/2015/09/07/academics-gmo-organic/
Kevin Folta, chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida, began to correspond regularly with executives at Monsanto in early 2013. He soon teamed up with the company and other industry representatives to defend their genetically engineered crop technologies as they lobbied Congress and other government authorities. Dr. Folta has said he worked as an independent scientist. But Monsanto helped cover his costs.
Biotech Industry's Big Gifts to University of Florida
An Email Relationship Begins
'Misinformation Campaign' Is 'More Than Overwhelming'
Enlisting Academics in P.R. Campaign
Drafting Answers for Academics
Monsanto Relies More on Folta
A Trip to Hawaii to Testify, Paid by Industry
'I Have Not Been Compensated for Any Testimony'
Monsanto Expands Its Efforts
Sending Folta to Washington
Sunday, September 6, 2015
ROUNDUP on GMO News September 6, 2015
"I think it is important you read this book carefully, assessing for yourself how firmly it is grounded in fact and logic. You may well come to the same conclusion as I have: that Steven Druker is upholding the tradition of good science."– Jane Goodall ...
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Little is known about the long-term effects on the soil and people of glyphosatesprayed as part of the Colombian government's anti-cocoa fumigation campaign.
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Delegates from around the world will gather to hear from Dr. Vandana Shiva, a global leader in the fight to protect farmers and the food web; John Roulac, activist and founder of super food company Nutiva; professors from UC Berkeley; and other leaders ...
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| DailyO | - |
In addition to illegal royalties, the firm owes the families of 'prime aged' working Indian farmers $1.764 trillion. 10722.
| Environmental Working Group | - |
As the New York Times reveals today, the “science” served up to legislators considering whether to block state and federal GMO labeling has been cherry-picked by GMO labeling opponents.
The EPA's office of environmental health hazard assessment in California wants to label four chemicals, including the most popular herbicide and key ingredient of Monsanto's Roundup
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Two weeks after Scotland announced it would be banning the growth of genetically modified crops on its soil, Germany is moving ahead with a similar plan.
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Indigenous and Campesinos From 15 Countries Reject GMOs. The International Meeting on Campesinos Economy and Agroecology in America held a three-day meeting in Mexico City.
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Apparently the writer of the letter concerning GMO propaganda (Monitor letters, Aug. 28) has not read the article “GMOs, herbicides and public health” in the Aug. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article, which was co-authored by a ...
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Researchers, led by Gilles-Éric Séralini, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen in France, reported cancers and other health impacts from both the corn itself and the herbicide.
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In addition to the recent IARC findings, the timing of Drs. Landrigan and Benbrook's positions is critical as both the U.S. and Europe examine GE labeling laws. In the U.S., Congress is considering H.R. 1599, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of ...
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The USDA is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) for its alleged failure to provide records on GMO crops as requested by the group. ... A recent study showed that a GMO label would not necessarily scare off consumers.
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According to the Center for Food Safety, it is in Kauai that four of the five big chemical agricultural companies spray 17 times more pesticides per acre than on any cornfield on the U.S.
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So far this year, food and beverage companies have spent $51.6 million on a series of lobbying including efforts efforts to defeat GMO labeling laws such as the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 (H.R. 1599), which opponents have dubbed the ..
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GMO Foods European Union members Latvia and Greece are the first countries in the 28-member bloc to make use of an opt-out law, allowing them to decide whether or not to grow genetically modified (GMO) crops.
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Albert Dess, author of the agriculture committee's opinion, said Thursday's vote “sends a clear message” that the Commission's proposal to allow member states to decide whether or not to restrict or ban the use of GM food and feed on their territory ..."decision is totally flawed"
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So much for Europe's efforts to put the junk science surrounding genetically modified (GMO) food to rest. Berlin last week signaled it will prohibit cultivation of GMO crops in Germany, even if the crops have been approved by EU scientific bodies and ...
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