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HEALTH: Potato Drags GM Food Into Europe
06 03 2010 BRUSSELS, Mar 5 (IPS) - Genetically modified (GM) foods appear to be back on the European Union's political menu - thanks to a potato.
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BULGARIA: Govt Forced Down on Genetically Modifed Crops
22 02 2010 BUCHAREST, Feb 21 (IPS) - Campaigning by environmental groups and the general public has weakened the determination of the Bulgarian government to allow the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in this country.
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BIODIVERSITY: India Bans Farming of GM Aubergine
10 02 2010 NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (IPS) - After India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced Tuesday a ban on the cultivation of Bt brinjal, the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop, food security experts and activists said this major farming country has been saved from a biodiversity disaster.
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DEVELOPMENT: India Holds Public Meetings on GM Food Crop
14 01 2010 NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (IPS) - As India's central government begins a series of public meetings across the country this month on the commercial release of genetically modified (GM) brinjal – or eggplant - in this country, activists and farmers’ groups are mobilising to oppose such a plan.
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SOUTH AFRICA: GMOs - Strategic Priority in Whose Interest?
27 10 2009 CAPE TOWN, Oct 27 (IPS) - The South African government is in the process of drafting regulations to police genetically modified organisms (GMO) as part of the national Consumer Protection Act, but environmental experts are worried the GMO section of the new Act, which was signed into law last April, will not be put into practice.
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INDIA: Controversy Rages over Genetically Modified ‘Brinjal’
22 10 2009 NEW DELHI, Oct 22 (IPS) - Scientists and activists say that but for the fact that the 'brinjal', also called 'eggplant' or 'aubergine', is native to India and a favourite on the table, the decision to allow commercial release of its genetically modified (GM) variety may have gone unremarked.
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CHILE: Maize Contaminated with Transgenics
03 09 2009 SANTIAGO, Oct 30 (IPS) - The Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INTA) at the University of Chile has detected genetically modified organisms in four samples of conventional maize grown near fields where transgenic maize seeds are being produced for export.
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DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Seeks a Green Revolution in Food
03 09 2009 UNITED NATIONS, Feb 18 (IPS) - The food crisis that spilled over from last year could take a turn for the worse in the next decade if there are no explicit answers to a rash of growing new problems, including declining agricultural production, a faltering distribution network and a deteriorating environment worldwide.
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CLIMATE CHANGE: New Thinking to Tackle Old Problems
03 09 2009 ROME, Feb 26 (IPS) - Organic and eco-friendly farming can feed the world, contrary to the common belief that biotechnology and chemical-intensive farming are indispensable, modern strategies to increase production, agricultural experts say.
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MEXICO: Cradle of Maize Rocked by Transgenics
03 09 2009 MEXICO CITY, Mar 16 (IPS) - Mexico has lifted the ban on experimental cultivation of transgenic maize imposed in 1999 in this country where the crop was first domesticated and shaped human culture. Biotech giants have put forward two dozen projects for approval and have announced investments of 382 million dollars up to 2012.
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AGRICULTURE: GM Maize Finds Its Way to Cuba's Fields
03 09 2009 HAVANA, Apr 11 (Tierramérica) - With little fanfare, genetically modified maize produced by Cuba's genetic and biotechnology engineering centre, CIGB, is being grown on test plots as part of a new project involving five of the Caribbean island nation's provinces.
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HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Scientists Reveal Effects of Glyphosate
03 09 2009 BUENOS AIRES, Apr 15 (IPS) - Glyphosate, the herbicide used on soybeans in Argentina, causes malformations in amphibian embryos, say scientists here who revealed the findings of a study that has not yet been published.
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AGRICULTURE-GHANA: Few Signs of Concern as GM Crops Advance
03 09 2009 ACCRA, May 15 (IPS) - Ghanaians are daily consuming genetically modified (GM) products imported by various traders without much care. However, as the government prepares to allow the planting of GM crops locally in a bid to boost food production, one non-governmental organisation, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Ghana is sounding the alarm.
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ENVIRONMENT: GM Should Not Just be Dismissed, Nor Just Accepted
03 09 2009 CAPE TOWN, Jun 16 (IPS) - After a protracted court battle of seven years, a small South African environmental organisation won a major legal victory against the multinational agri-chemical and seed giant Monsanto.
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AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Questioning Old Traditions
03 09 2009 CAPE TOWN, Jun 17 (IPS) - Inefficient production, bad infrastructure, poor access to markets, a lack of capital investment: the challenges facing smallholder farmers across Africa are many. A 'green revolution' which appears to be gaining ground in Africa seeks to change all this.
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AFRICA: "Boost Development Through Labour-Intensive Farming"
03 09 2009 CAPE TOWN, Jun 18 (IPS) - Development in Africa should be boosted through labour-intensive production on small to medium-sized farms. To advance food security in Africa, governments should assist small farmers with credit lines and infrastructure while buffering them against fluctuations in world food prices.
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AGRICULTURE-AFRICA: Seeking Diversity, Resilience and Farmer Control
03 09 2009 CAPE TOWN, Jun 20 (IPS) - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) claims that its "stress breeding", high-yield seed program and its emphasis on grassroots farmer input will boost agricultural production among poor, small scale farmers. But NGOs and environmentalists say AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) is essentially a top-down, corporate driven approach that further threatens food security on the continent.
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DEVELOPMENT: Investment in Small Farmers Crucial in Africa
03 09 2009 CAPE TOWN, Jun 22 (IPS) - Attempts to alleviate poverty and hunger and boost African economies are futile if the needs and potential of small-scale farmers in the region are ignored and the issue of trade barriers remains unaddressed.
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AGRICULTURE: Biotechnology: Africa Must Not Be Left Behind
03 09 2009 KAMPALA, Jul 3 (IPS) - Africa must embrace agricultural biotechnology or risk being excluded from a major technological revolution that has had increased food production in the Europe, North America and Asia.
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ENVIRONMENT: Monsanto, Dow Stacking the Deck, Critics Say
03 09 2009 BERLIN, Jul 29 (IPS) - The most complex genetically engineered corn (maize) yet has been approved for use next year in Canada and the United States without its potential health and environmental risks being investigated, anti-biotech activists charged Wednesday.
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CHILE: War Over Seeds
03 09 2009 SANTIAGO, Sep 3 (IPS) - Environmental organisations, organic farmers and indigenous people in Chile are opposed to a draft law that would expands the rights of the developers of new varieties of plants, while the government and seed companies argue that there will be no negative impacts on small farmers and biodiversity.
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