GENET news: Misc

10.11.2008

Australian farmers could face prosecution over GM canola

A growing number of Australian farmers who have signed on to grow genetically modified canola have begun to express growing concerns as to the ”onerous” obligations they are exposing themselves to. [...] The contract, as exposed in the Canberra Times recently, signifies that if the land is sold, contractual obligations are passed on to the new owner for up to two years after they have signed on the dotted line. The onerous liability in this situation means that the new owner could be liable for any breaches of the contract incurred by the previous owner.

13.10.2008

Why on earth doesn’t Europe have its own BIO?

Why on earth don’t we get the backing from the European Commission to imitate BIO – forcing our divided European bioindustries to unite and speak with one voice – which is the only way to rationalise and acknowledge their inderdependence? Why on Earth do the European Commission, Europe’s bioclusters, Europe’s larger companies, European Investors, European contract research organisations, European patient organisations, spend so few of their marketing euros in Europe and so many dollars at BIO – and in many instances to meet fellow Europeans?

10.10.2008

GE horse vaccine could harm birds

A submission from MAF Biosecurity New Zealand said there was no such thing as ”no risk”.
”The ... studies that need to be carried out on all manner of indigenous New Zealand species ... have simply not been done.” However, a submission from the Conservation Department said there was no reason to oppose the vaccine and that the risk of the virus spreading to native birds was ”very low to nil”. Racing Board chief executive Graeme Hansen said any delay in introducing a vaccine after a flu outbreak would harm the industry and could cost it $219 million in the first three months. ”We need to be able to act immediately.”

07.10.2008

Lord Drayson takes science brief in UK government

The UK has a new science minister - the third in two years. Lord Drayson takes up the post in the recently created Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. It is a quick return to government for the multi-millionaire businessman who quit a position in defence in 2007 to pursue his interests in motor racing.

02.10.2008

Assault on farming in India: Punjab Government ties with Syngenta

Now it is understandable that government machinery in Punjab is more worried to offer market to MNCs rather then serving the genuine interests of farmers. Recently a Punjab government agency Markfed has signed a MoU with Syngenta to provide agrochemicals and its right practices on farmers’ doorstep. This indicates that either the government officials do not have understanding of real crisis of farmers or they do not want to understand it. There is a strong third possibility also that Marked and its parent department wants to serve MNCs only sans the poor farmers.

19.09.2008

Obama announces former Monsanto and Amgen directors as science advisors

Obama announced his science platform earlier this month in response to questions posed by ScienceDebate2008, a nonpartisan political education group. [...] Obama’s team is a mix of contrasting approaches: Lamb and Agre are both academics, while Omenn is a director of the biotechnology company Amgen and Long was a director at agricultural giant Monsanto. In other ways, their expertise is narrow: four of the five advisors come from the life sciences.

03.09.2008

University of Paris-South (France) makes a commitment to support GE critic Christian Vélot

On July 9, 2008, the biologist and whistle blower Christian Vélot met the Presidency of the University Paris-South (Orsay). [...] The results are a willingness to listen and certain commitments. [...] The affair has involved two years of administrative hardship and stormy relations with the University hierarchy, 50,000 signatures of support, the support of several hundred people at the Orsay University itself and at the Ministry of Education and Research, and finally, a victory.

22.07.2008

Ecoterrorists may have kept GM bug from wreaking climate havoc

A widely despised plant pathogen may play a vital role in the formation of rain and snow -- and had ecoterrorists not fought a genetically modified version of the bacteria, unforeseen weather shifts might have followed. [...] In in a study published this week in Science, Christner found that ice-forming bacteria, or ”biological ice nucleators,” are more common than anyone ever expected. Snow samples around the world contained high levels of bacteria, and these appear to be especially important to the precipitation cycles of moderate climes.

30.06.2008

Opinion pieces from Kenya on GE crops and food

Mbaria’s frustration is that African countries - and the media - are ”coaxed and coerced... to extol (the GM) technology as the panacea for the continent’s hunger and low agricultural productivity.” He laments that ”almost all reports on the GMO initiatives either explicitly endorse them or end up reproducing without comment, the glowing positive picture painted by the GMO proponents.”

15.04.2008

Anti-GE international activists in Indonesia freed

Three harrowing days after they were hijacked by the police, and with their passports confiscated, the 15 international activists attending the WORA events in Jakarta, Indonesia to highlight the threats of genetically engineered (GE) rice, were today freed.
Speaking over the phone, Sarojeni Rengam (PAN AP, Malaysia) who was one of the detainees, said that ”the unconditional release was possible due to the tremendous support from the People’s Food Sovereignty Coalition (KRKP), Women’s Solidarity (Solidaritas Perempuam), Alliance of Agrarian Reform Movement (AGRA), the Indonesian Human Rights Commission for Social Justice, Gita Pertiwi and other Indonesian NGOs.

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