sábado, agosto 31, 2013
What should you do when Mark Lynas comes to town?
The critical role of civil society in biosafety
TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=993
Etiquetas: en, Third World Network
miércoles, agosto 28, 2013
Africa’s Food Sovereignty Under Attack By Corporate Interests
lunes, agosto 26, 2013
Golden rice, not the solution to Vitamin A deficiency
http://bulatlat.com/main/2013/08/17/golden-rice-not-the-solution-to-vitamin-a-deficiency/
Etiquetas: en, Golden Rice, Rice
More pro-GMO drivel from the New York Times
Golden Rice: Lifesaver?
By AMY HARMON
Published: August 24, 2013
Etiquetas: en, Golden Rice, New York Times, Rice
Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food
Etiquetas: en, Thierry Vrain
viernes, agosto 23, 2013
New info on glyphosate
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=994
August 22, 2013 |
THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Re: New Evidence on the Health Impacts of Glyphosate
Glyphosate is the world’s most popular herbicide, applied not only on farms but also in forests, parks, public spaces and gardens. It is the active ingredient in Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ and is regularly used in the widespread cultivation of the company’s Roundup Ready crops genetically engineered to be resistant to glyphosate. For years, industry has claimed that glyphosate is minimally toxic to humans but new studies indicate otherwise.
A new Thai in-vitro study on human cells (Item 1) shows that glyphosate induces the growth of human breast cancer cells via estrogen receptors. Even low, environmentally relevant doses were found to stimulate estrogenic activity. In addition, the study found that there was an additive estrogenic effect between glyphosate and genistein, a phytoestrogen in soybeans. This is worrying as glyphosate-based herbicides are widely used in soybean cultivation.
Another study found that acute Roundup exposure at low doses for 30 minutes disrupts male reproductive functions by triggering calcium-mediated cell death in rat testis and Sertoli cells (Item 2). Sertoli cells play an important role in sperm cell production and hence male fertility.
Glyphosate residues have been found in the main foods of the Western diet, comprised primarily of sugar, corn, soy and wheat. New research by Friends of the Earth detected glyphosate residues in the urine of 44 per cent of people tested from 18 different European countries (Item 3).
Another study (Item 4) presents evidence that glyphosate could disrupt gut bacteria, suppress the CYP enzyme class, and likely impair suphate transport, thereby inducing disease. One of the roles of CYP enzymes is to detoxify xenobiotics (foreign chemicals found in a living organism). This means that glyphosate could effectively enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and environmental toxins. According to the authors, the medical conditions to which glyphosate could plausibly contribute to include inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia, infertility, and developmental malformations. The researchers call for more independent research to validate the findings presented and if verified, to take immediate action to drastically curtail the use of glyphosate in agriculture.
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Etiquetas: en, Glyphosate, Third World Network
jueves, agosto 22, 2013
Nathanael Johnson: Grist to whose mill?
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/15012-nathanael-johnson-grist-to-whose-mill
GMWatch, 21 August 2013
The online magazine Grist is well known for its coverage of environmental issues and for its incisive writing on food, agriculture, and GM, from the likes of Tom Philpott (now with Mother Jones) and Tom Laskawy, the founder and executive director of the Food and Environment Reporting Network.
Recently, Grist has offered us a new food writer, Nathanael Johnson, a Philpott replacement who has started to pen a series about GMOs. Johnson says a friend asked him before he started, "So are you for them, or against?" to which he answered, "I'm trying to figure that out."
His figuring out has given considerable pleasure to GM supporters. Jon Entine of the Cato Institute, whom Tom Philpott has called an "agribiz apologist", has celebrated in the columns of the business magazine Forbes "the sudden and surprising turn” of Grist. Entine uses Johnson’s pieces to pontificate on what constitutes good science journalism – the creators of which, in his view, include himself, Mark Lynas, the pro-GM blogger Keith Kloor, and the bloggers at Biofortified, who are keen admirers of the GM plant scientist Pam Ronald.
Ronald might be said to typify the problems with Johnson's series exploring the GM issue. In the third piece in this series, Johnson set out to explore the differences between conventional breeding and genetic engineering, with Ronald as his principal guide. For additional information he turned to another pro-GM plant scientist, Margaret Smith of Cornell. Unsurprisingly, the resulting article was supportive of GM’s safety.
The only real balance he offered to these two keen GM supporters were some things he had heard at a talk given by the microbiologist Dr Ignacio Chapela. This juxtaposition would seem to suggest a severe lack of balance: on the one hand, direct quotes arising out of hours apparently spent meeting and talking to Ronald and her assistant, and a direct interview with Margaret Smith, contrasted with notes from a lecture Chapela gave “years ago”. Again unsurprisingly, it's Smith who gets the final word.
Sadly, Johnson's latest article, "Is extremism in defense of GM food a vice?", is full of the mistakes and misleading statements that I have come to expect from his supposedly open-minded series.
Etiquetas: en, GM Watch, Grist, Nathanael Johnson
miércoles, agosto 21, 2013
Informe sobre maíz transgénico en México
Scientific input from GenØk to the Mexican government on GM maize
GenØk researcher David Quist, in collaboration with researchers at the Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM – Mexico, posted a report as a public hearing in relation to the use of two types of GM maize in Mexican agriculture.
SUPERWEEDS – HOW BIOTECH CROPS BOLSTER THE PESTICIDE INDUSTRY
The full study by Food & Water Watch can be downloaded from:documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/Superweeds.pdf.
Executive Summary
Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first approved in the United States in the 1990s, and since then the United States has been the biggest global adopter of this technology. GE crops were supposed to improve yields, lower costs for farmers and reduce agriculture’s environmental impact. Yet nearly 20 years after their introduction, genetically engineered crops have not provided the benefits promised by the companies that patented them. Food & Water Watch examined U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data to document the increased use of herbicides that has accompanied the adoption of herbicide-tolerant GE crops. Our analysis looks at the rapid proliferation of GE crops and affiliated pesticides in the United States and points out the interdependent relationship between these two industries that also fuels the crisis of weed resistance. Food & Water Watch evaluated data from the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds that reveal burgeoning herbicide-resistant weeds caused by the over-reliance on glyphosate for broad control of weeds. These data make it clear that the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds will not be solved with the intensified use of older, more toxic herbicides like 2,4-D and dicamba.
Some of Food & Water Watch’s findings include:
• Herbicide use on corn, soybeans and cotton did fall in the early years of GE crop adoption, dropping by 42 million pounds (15 percent) between 1998 and 2001. But as weeds developed resistance to glyphosate, farmers applied more herbicides, and total herbicide use increased by 81.2 million pounds (26 percent) between 2001 and 2010.
• The total volume of glyphosate applied to the three biggest GE crops — corn, cotton and soybeans — increased 10-fold from 15 million pounds in 1996 to 159 million pounds in 2012.
• Total 2,4-D use declined after glyphosate was widely adopted, but its use has increased since glyphosate-resistant crops became widespread, growing 90 percent between 2000 and 2012. 2,4-D application on corn could easily increase by nearly three-fifths within two years of 2,4-D-tolerant corn’s introduction. And if just a million dicamba-tolerant soybean acres are planted, it would increase dicamba use 17 times.
• Reports of weeds developing glyphosate resistance are popping up in more and more states. In 2008, glyphosate-resistant waterhemp was reported in five states, but by 2012 it was reported in 12 states. Glyphosate-resistant Palmer amaranth was reported in eight states in 2008 but 17 by 2012. Resistant horseweed spread from 12 states in 2004 to 21 in 2012.
• The International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds found only about one weed infestation per year that was resistant to multiple herbicides between 1997 and 2001, but a decade after GE crops were introduced (2007 to 2011), there were three times as many multiple herbicide-resistant weed infestations.
• Herbicide-resistant weeds’ costs to farmers can range from $12 to $50 an acre, or as much as $12,000 for an average-sized corn or soybean farm or $28,000 for an average cotton farm.
More biotech industry-led solutions will only perpetuate agriculture’s reliance on chemicals as the end-all-be-all solution to weed and insect management. But this approach drives the rise of superweeds, poses risks to human health and threatens critical habitat for wildlife in the process.
Food & Water Watch recommends that:
• The USDA, EPA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must work together to thoroughly evaluate the potentially harmful effects of GE crops and linked chemicals before commercialization, to ensure the safety of humans and the environment.
• The USDA should support and encourage cultivation best management practices to prevent weed resistance in the first place.
• The USDA should educate and encourage farmers to adopt non-chemical strategies for long-term weed control. The USDA must dedicate research dollars to developing alternatives for sustainable management of herbicide-resistant weeds.
• The U.S. government must improve the collection and distribution of weed resistance and agricultural pesticide application data.
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lunes, agosto 19, 2013
GMO risk assessment
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domingo, agosto 18, 2013
Cultura Profética: Fuera Monsanto de Puerto Rico!
Etiquetas: Cultura Profética, es, Monsanto, Puerto Rico, Video, Video Espanol
Solicitando tu firma por un Mexico libre de transgenicos
Etiquetas: es, maiz, Mexico, Schmeiser, Video, Video Espanol
sábado, agosto 17, 2013
viernes, agosto 16, 2013
El delito de tener semilla
http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/tener-una-semilla-un-delito-nueva-dictadura-alimentaria-columna-439703
12 Ago 2013 - 10:11 pm
Tener una semilla es un delito: la nueva dictadura alimentaria
Por: Dharmadeva
Hace ya décadas estaba pronosticado que llegaría el momento en que tener una semilla sería un crimen. Parecía ciencia ficción imaginar que un campesino no podría guardar semillas para la próxima cosecha, como lo había venido haciendo por milenios. Sin embargo, es un hecho.
Carmelo Ruiz: Monsanto faces rough waters in Puerto Rico
MONSANTO FACES OPPOSITION IN PUERTO RICO
Etiquetas: Carmelo, en, Monsanto, Puerto Rico, World War 4 Report
jueves, agosto 15, 2013
Carmelo on Occupy Monsanto
Madeline Buthod and her two children protest Monsanto and GMOs outside of the Millennium Hotel. Photo: Langelle/GJEP
OCCUPY MONSANTO GOES TO THE HOME OF MONSANTO
Carmelo Ruiz MarreroEtiquetas: Carmelo, en, Monsanto, Occupy Monsanto, St Louis
miércoles, agosto 14, 2013
India: Indefinite moratorium on GM field trials recommended
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/indefinite-ban-gm-field-trials-recommended
lunes, agosto 12, 2013
Tres agriculturas: keynesiana, neoliberal y ecologica, por Carmelo Ruiz Marrero
jueves, agosto 08, 2013
lunes, agosto 05, 2013
Monsanto Winning Our Hearts and Minds? WTF?
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Etiquetas: en, Organic Consumers Association, Washington State