Monsanto-FDA’s Michael Taylor to Keynote Food Safety Town Hall
By Rady Ananda
Activist Post
An agtivist with chutzpa might want to perform a GMO label action at the Food Safety Summit where Monsanto-lobbyist-now-Obama’s-Food-Safety-Czar, Michael R. Taylor, plans to wax tyrannical at a Town Hall on April 19.
For a mere grand, you can attend the entire 3-day Food Safety Summit set for April 17-19 in Washington, D.C. There you’ll get to hear Taylor describe how federal and state regulators will manage the inspectional requirements of the boondoggle Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
PermalinkEuropean Union approves 11 new transgenic crops in 8 months
By Rady Ananda
Food Freedom
In February, the European Commission (EC) approved four transgenic soybeans intended for food and feed, import and processing, reports Inf’OGM. This follows four approvals in December, on top of three last summer.
Three of the recently-approved GM soy varieties are tolerant to herbicides: DuPont-Pioneer’s 356043, Monsanto’s Glyphosate-tolerant soy GTS40-3-2, and Bayer’s A5547127. The fourth, Mon87701, produces an insecticide.
The US approved GTS40-3-2 in 1994, quickly followed by Canada, Japan, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. [1] In 2000, Monsanto discovered two extra bacterial DNA sequences, requiring global notifications to be sent. [2] Food safety authorities found no problem with the extra genetic material. [3]
Frito-Lay sued for labeling its GMO-filled snacks as “All Natural”
By Rady Ananda
Less than a year after Frito-Lay announced plans to make half their products without “any artificial or synthetic ingredients,” the $13 billion company was sued last week in federal court for fraudulently marketing the snacks that contain genetically modified ingredients.
Somehow, “artificial” and “synthetic” doesn’t include “genetically modified” in Frito’s mind.
In its April 2011 “Seed-to-Shelf” disclosure campaign, Frito-Lay promised to inform consumers about each individual snack’s ingredients, even setting up an app for smartphone users to swipe the product’s barcode and read about it. Ann Mukherjee, Frito-Lay’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer, gushed:
EU high court rules on GMO contamination; opens door to biotech liability
By Rady Ananda
EU beekeepers gain in genetic contamination case
On Sept. 6, the European Union’s top court paved the way for farmers and beekeepers to recoup losses when their crops or honey become genetically contaminated from neighboring GM fields.
The European Court of Justice ruled that all food products containing GMOs – whether intentional or not – must undergo an approval process.
This marks a much stricter view than that being pushed by European Union Commissioner for health and consumer affairs, John Dalli, who wants no regulation of foods genetically contaminated “by accident,” a ludicrous idea given that coexistence ensures genetic contamination.
USGS: Glyphosate pollutes air, rain and rivers in US
By Rady Ananda
Two new studies by the U.S. Geological Survey reveal the pervasive spread of the biocide, glyphosate, mostly used as a weedkiller for crops genetically engineered to resist it.
Used in formulations by Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and others, glyphosate has been linked to spontaneous abortions in livestock, birth defects in humans, insect resistance, and weed resistance.
Worse, regulators have known for years of these links, Earth Open Source reported.
Monsanto GM Corn in Peril: Beetle develops Bt-resistance
By Rady Ananda
Food Freedom
Nature herself may be the best opponent of genetically modified crops and pesticides. Not only plants, but insects are also developing resistance. The Western rootworm beetle – one of the most serious threats to corn – has developed resistance to Monsanto’s Bt-corn, and entire crops are being lost.
Farmers from several Midwest states began reporting root damage to corn that was specifically engineered with a toxin to kill the rootworm. Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann recently confirmed that the beetle, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, has developed resistance to the Bt protein, Cry3Bb1.
Behind the Foodborne Illness Numbers: Politics vs Science
By Rady Ananda
With all the milk raids over the past few years, you wouldn’t think that dairy is the safest type of food in the U.S., or that factory foods cause 70% of all foodborne illnesses – but that’s just what a new study by the University of Florida reveals. [1]
Using data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) [2] and other peer-reviewed sources covering the years 1999 thru 2008, UF sought to determine which pathogens on which foods pose the highest risk.
UF produced a Top 10 chart revealing that “complex” factory foods (defined as non-meat factory foods with a host of additives) account for a whopping 70% of 3.9 million annual foodborne illnesses (resulting in 765 deaths).
Agrochemicals, energy plants and GMO crops killing Bathinda residents
By Rady Ananda
Home to two coal power plants, a fertilizer plant, and a large oil refinery, the city of Bathinda in Punjab, India is making people sick. Forty percent of the population (nearly 90,000 people) suffers from respiratory ailments. The area also suffers from a host of other diseases including cancer, at a rate triple that of other areas, which has been linked to agrochemicals.
Doctors are urging people to use medicinal inhalers, which is culturally stigmatized. Rather than demanding strict environmental controls, doctors have asked authorities to fund an education campaign to dispel the stigma associated with inhaler use.
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