Genetic Engineering

Guest Contributor

Monsanto’s Quiet Coup: Will Congress Limit Scope and Time for GMO Reviews?

by Jill Richardson — August 1, 2012 - 7:32am
  • Topics: Genetic Engineering, Corporations, Food Rights Network, Politics

    • After a series of court defeats over the past few years, Monsanto and friends are trying to use Congress to make an end-run around the courts and current law. Lawsuits brought by opponents of genetically engineered (GE) crops resulted in the temporary removal of two products -- Roundup Ready Alfalfa and Roundup Ready Sugarbeets -- from the market. If the biotechnology industry and the legislators they support have their way, future GE crops will not suffer the same fate.

    Guest Contributor

    How the US Sold Africa to Multinationals like Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, PepsiCo and Others

    by Jill Richardson — May 25, 2012 - 7:30am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Genetic Engineering, Corporations, Food Rights Network

    • This story was first published by Alternet and is being cross-posted by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network.

    Driving through Ngong Hills, not far from Nairobi, Kenya, the corn on one side of the road is stunted and diseased. The farmer will not harvest a crop this year. On the other side of the road, the farmer gave up growing corn and erected a greenhouse, probably for growing a high-value crop like tomatoes. Though it's an expensive investment, agriculture consultants now recommend them. Just up the road, at a home run by Kenya Children of Hope, an organization that helps rehabilitate street children and reunite them with their families, one finds another failed corn crop and another greenhouse. The director, Charity, is frustrated because the two acres must feed the rescued children and earn money for the organization. After two tomato crops failed in the new greenhouse, her consultant recommended using a banned, toxic pesticide called carbofuran.

    News

    Rampant GMO Contamination Unchecked by Judge

    by Rebekah Wilce — March 5, 2012 - 8:00am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Genetic Engineering, Corporations, Food Rights Network

    • A judge in New York sided with Monsanto and against organic farmers in the first case of its kind seeking to protect famers from being accused of patent infringement upon unintentional contamination by Monsanto's GMO seed.

    Organic farmers sought a judgment against Monsanto to protect themselves from being sued for patent infringement when their crops are unintentionally contaminated with the company's genetically modified (GMO) seed, was dismissed in federal district court in New York by Judge Naomi Buchwald called the plaintiffs' concern an "intangible worry, unanchored in time."

    Leaked EPA Memos May Explain Massive Bee Die-Off

    by Anne Landman — January 3, 2011 - 4:28pm

    CMD's guest blogger, Jill Richardson, has done some ground-breaking reporting on the potential cause of the massive bee die-off.  According to Jill's investigation, leaked U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) memos reveal that the agency gave conditional approval to pesticides now in wide use, without requiring adequate proof that they are safe to use around honeybees. In the wake of the new information, beekeepers are starting to blame the country's massive die-off of honeybees on the pesticides. A leaked EPA memo dated November 2, 2010, discusses Bayer CropScience's efforts to legalize use of its pesticide clothianidin on mustard seed and cotton crops. EPA gave conditional approval for the chemical in 2003 and let Bayer start selling it, but told the company that they needed to complete further safety testing by a certain deadline to get full approval. The  additional testing was to assure the chemical was safe to use around honeybees. Bayer failed to do the testing for years, and instead sought and received an extension of the conditional permit to use the chemical. When Bayer finally performed the study, they did it in another country, and on crops that aren't grown much in the U.S. Bayer also used bees that were located on a small patch of treated crops surrounded by thousands of acres on untreated crops -- a design that handed Bayer the result it wanted by making the chemical appear safe to use. EPA deemed the defective study acceptable and gave full registration to clothianidin in 2007. In November, 2010, when Bayer asked to extend use of the pesticide to more types of crops, EPA still did not comment on the inadequacy of Bayer's study. Beekeepers are incensed at this information, and along with others are asking why EPA allows pesticides to go onto the market before they have been adequately safety tested. They also wonder how sound the science around such studies can be when they are performed by the pesticide makers themselves.

    Main Source: 
    Alternet, December 10, 2010

    Roche Flees Drug Dens

    by Bob Burton — July 1, 2009 - 6:14am

    The global drug firm Roche has decided to withdraw from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), the peak lobbying group for the U.S. drug industry.

    Main Source: 
    The Star-Ledger (New Jersey), June 29, 2009

    Science Needs Permission?

    by Sheldon Rampton — February 24, 2009 - 3:01pm

    "Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry’s genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists," reports Andrew Pollack.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, February 20, 2009

    Monsanto-Funded Front Group Fights Milk Labeling

    by Anne Landman — March 10, 2008 - 5:33pm

    A new "grassroots" farmers' group with close ties to Monsanto has been formed to outlaw labels that would notify consumers they are buying milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Monsanto genetically engineers rBGH, called Posilac, which is injected into cows, forcing them to produce more milk.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, March 9, 2008
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