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Mothers for Natural LawInternational News on Genetic Engineering in AgricultureBiweekly News 98/12/14Thanks to Cliff Kinzel and Richard Wolfson for these items.
Articles have been aggressively shortened. ------------------ Civil Disobedience in the USA
A group of conservative gardeners calling themselves the California Croppers held a tackle football match early Thanksgiving morning at the "Gill Tract" gardens, and in the process destroyed a crop of genetically-engineered corn owned and operated by the University of California. The Croppers took the opportunity to welcome biotech giant Novartis, who just signed a multimillion dollar research deal with UC-Berkeley. "As an informal welcome-wagon gesture, the Croppers would like to make it clear to Novartis that we will take similar actions against any future biotech experiments. Don't let our unseriousness make you think this isn't serious: the security of the world's food supply is at stake. http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/ ------------------ "Monsanto's [Bt Cotton] field trials in Karnataka [India] will be reduced to ashes in a few days. These actions will start a movement of direct action by farmers against biotechnology, which will not stop until all the corporate killers like Monsanto, Novartis, Pioneer etc. leave the country. We know that stopping biotechnology in India will not be of much help to us if it continues in other countries, [but] if we play our cards right at the global level and coordinate our work, these actions can also pose a major challenge to the survival of these corporations in the stock markets. Who wants to invest in a mountain of ashes, in offices that are constantly being squatted (and if necessary even destroyed) by activists?" Prof. Nanjundaswamy ------------------ The Guardian (London) December 2, 1998 Eco soundings - India
IT'S one thing taking on middle class anti-GM activists in Europe, but Monsanto, Novartis, Pioneer and gang are about to feel the wrath of the very organised Indian peasant farmers who say that corporate biotech will further destroy their livelihoods. The companies face the redoubtable Gandhian Professor Nanjundaswamy, who leads the Karnataka State Farmers' Association and claims the support of 10 million people. KSFA has declared war on biotech crops and are nothing if not direct. Their new campaign is called 'Operation Cremation Monsanto', and last weekend the professor and his activists visited the village of Maladagudda, north of Bangalore, where a farmer was unknowingly growing GM cotton for Monsanto. Having been compensated by KSFA, the farmer watched hundreds of peasants cut down the crops and torch them. ------------------ Monsanto taps Solly and Goldman for underwritings
Still smarting from the collapse of a planned $34.4 billion merger with [ American Home Products ] and thirsting for capital to fund a recent acquisition binge, executives at [ Monsanto Co. ] turned to Citigroup for $2 billion in fresh credit and called on Salomon Smith Barney and Goldman, Sachs & Co. to manage $4 billion in debt and equity offerings. Monsanto is tapping the capital markets to help bring order to its balance sheet after some $8 billion in acquisitions. These purchases were undertaken in the past two years as part of what Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Shapiro calls Monsanto's transformation from a chemical manufacturer to a "life sciences" company in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. "They have identified a new growth strategy, and they are attacking it," said one analyst. Executives at Monsanto originally hoped to finance this shift through a merger with a large pharmaceutical firm, so the company retained Goldman to advise it in negotiations with American Home Products. But that deal fell apart, amid widespread speculation of a struggle between Shapiro and AHP chairman John R. Stafford over who would run the show. As the dust from the failed deal cleared, Monsanto found itself without the capital to pay for its recent purchases in the seed and biotechnology sectors. So the company announced a major restructuring in which it plans to raise $5 billion through work force reductions, equity and debt offerings, and the sale of some businesses. ------------------ Food engineers warned to take note of market resistance
BRISBANE, Dec 3 AAP - The push towards genetically engineered food could leave Australian-grown food shunned by the rest of the world, Queensland sociologists have warned. A nation-wide survey conducted by Central Queensland University PhD student Janet Norton found strong resistance to genetically altered food among Australian consumers, particularly women... "This survey found consumers would accept products that assisted animal welfare or were neutral, like the blue rose, but when it came to ingesting food, they became very coy," he said. "What we find is that the more people learn about these products, the less they support them." Prof Lawrence said the survey findings pointed to a tension between food producers' desire for economically-produced foods with a longer shelf life and consumers' demands for "clean and green" produce. "We're saying to scientists: 'You're doing this work in the laboratory with millions of dollars of public and private money without thinking about public acceptance'," he said. Prof Lawrence said the Australian food industry did not seem to be coming to grips with the yawning gap between what consumers wanted and what scientists were intent on producing. "Australia could be left with food that no other nation will want by going down the biotechnological path," he said. ------------------ PRESS RELEASE DON'T CREAM THE CORN!!! (NE KUKORICAZZ A KUKORICAT!!!):
Hungarian protestors once again took to the streets on the afternoon of November 18th, in front of the Ministry of Agriculture, while inside, government authorities were drafting the final implementation legislation for the Hungarian genetic engineering law (coming into force January 1, 1999)... The gathered organizations, echoing the European Parliament Environmental Committee's vote on October 12, demanded a full MORATORIUM on the growth, use, and importation of genetically-modified organisms (plants and animals) and foodstuffs in Hungary. This moratorium should stay in place until such time as it is proven that genetically-modified organisms are safe for human consumption and the environment... For more information please call: Veronika Mora 36-1-466-8866 or 36-1-209-5624. E-mail: genlist@zpok.hu . ------------------ Go-ahead for NZ's first genetically altered crop
REGULATORY authorities have granted the first application to genetically alter a crop, sugar beet, amid criticisms that approval was a formality leaving New Zealanders with no forum in which to oppose the new technology. In its decision, issued yesterday, on the application to make sugar beet resistant to the herbicide Buster, the Environmental Risk Management Authority says it is aware of concerns raised at last month's hearing about the technology's acceptability... Copyright 1998 Wellington Newspapers Limited The Dominion (Wellington) ------------------ Global Organic Groups Urge Biotech Crop Ban London, UK
In a dramatic bid to heat up debate over genetic engineering, delegates from more than 60 countries attending the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) have called on governments and regulatory agencies throughout the world to immediately ban the use of genetic modification in all kinds of agriculture and food production. The call for concerted international global action was led by Patrick Holden, director of the UK's Soil Association. It received overwhelming support from 740 IFOAM member organisations attending an IFOAM congress in Mar del Planta, Argentina, especially those representing small farmers in the less developed nations. Helen Browning of the Soil Association said Thursday that the declaration was "highly significant for debate in Europe, where the widespread application of GMOs in agriculture is now far from inevitable and can still be stopped." ------------------ Medical Experts Consider Novartis Genetically Modified Maize Unacceptable
A poll published in the latest issue of the Newsletter of the International Society of Chemotherapy shows that a clear majority of medical experts working in the field of chemotherapy consider the presence of the antibiotic resistance gene within Novartis genetically modified maize as an unacceptable risk. Greenpeace calls on the European Commission to listen to experts concerns and immediately ban the use of Novartis genetically modified maize. Fifty-seven per cent of 198 experts from 25 different countries said that the risk was unacceptable, while 34 per cent recommended more risk assessment to be done before the maize can be cleared for full-scale use. Only two per cent of experts questioned judged the maize to be safe... ------------------ Wild Claims of Biotech Firms to be Curbed
SOME OF Britain's most innovative science-based companies, which have already courted controversy over genetically modified crops and cloning, face a clampdown over the dubious business ethics and behaviour of their well-paid executives. Biotechnology firms, whose bosses have been censured for their extravagant lifestyles, will be subject to a code of practice, endorsed last week by the Government. It is intended to stop them exaggerating the potential of their products to investors... Dr Ian Gibson, a Labour member of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee, says public confidence in the biotech industry is low and will be restored only if companies are monitored by an independent watchdog. "We are worried about the 'get rich quick' element who want to retire to their deckchairs after making a killing at the expense of thorough research," he said. "Everyone is so excited about the market that companies tend to talk up their products and let their mouths carry their brains. There has to be greater regulation." Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC The Independent (London) ------------------ Environmental Media Services (202) 463-6670
100th EMS Press Breakfast: Tuesday, December 15, 1998, 9:00 AM ...at the breakfast, the Center for Food Safety will unveil a legal action asking the FDA to suspend approval of BGH immediately. If the FDA does not take BGH off the market it will face a lawsuit. ------------------ Bug breaks up explosives
A genetically engineered bacterium may provide an answer to the problem of cleaning up land near explosives and polyurethane factories. These are often contaminated with DNT, a possible carcinogen that is produced by the breakdown of TNT. The problem with cleaning up DNT is that it requires oxygen, which is often scarce when the contamination extends deep into the soil. Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology have got round this problem by splicing a gene for haemoglobin into a bacteria called Burkholderia, which consumes DNT. The haemoglobin provides extra oxygen, making the bacteria more efficient at breaking down the contaminant. Illinois Institute of Technology, www.iit.edu/ Copyright 1998 The Financial Times Limited ------------------ Scots want transgenic sheep on NZ pastures
A PUBLIC hearing will be held today on an application by a Scottish company to field test sheep which have been modified with human genes. The company, PPL Therapeutics, has already imported semen from sheep genetically engineered in Britain for a conventional breeding programme using New Zealand ewes. PPL Therapeutics is farming a small flock of transgenic sheep at Whakamaru, 140 kilometres south of Hamilton, with permission from the Environment Ministry. Today's hearing in Wellington before the Environmental Risk Management Authority is part of a bid to increase the development flock to between 1000 and 1500. The company's original applications wanted to develop a flock of 4000 milking ewes and extract human protein for pharmaceutical use around the world... Supplied by New Zealand Press Association Copyright 1998 Wellington Newspapers Limited The Dominion (Wellington) ------------------ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is compiled for educational use only. |
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