11/October/21

 

While officially calling for adequate regulation and high safety standards, the EU Commission in reality seems to be following a different strategy, says Testbiotech. The Commission's document on future GMO regulation, published at the end of September, indicates a clear intention for far reaching deregulation of plants derived from new genetic engineering (New GE). Risks associated with the processes of New GE are either not given sufficient weight or are completely disregarded. [GMWatch note: Please comment on the Commission's proposals here. It's a quick and easy action and you can comment wherever you are in the world.] Testbiotech via GMWatch

 

 

The latest Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission outlook report warns of a possible market disruption from a new genetically modified wheat in Argentina. The outlook, prepared by Marlene Boersch of Mercantile Consulting, says controversy may be brewing around a new GM wheat developed in Argentina to be drought-tolerant. Boersch says Brazil buys six to seven million tons of wheat a year, usually from Argentina. She says if Brazil refuses the Argentinian wheat, it could cause market disruptions and push prices downward. There are reports millers in Brazil do not want genetically modified wheat. 620CKRM; comment by GMWatch

 

 

Mass dispossession of smallholder farmers is not a side effect of the US- and Gates-funded "African Green Revolution". It is the whole point, write two experts. At the heart of this massive philanthropic and governmental undertaking lies an essential contradiction: agricultural “modernisation”, we are told, will benefit Africa’s smallholder farmers by giving advantages to farmer-entrepreneurs with larger landholdings. The result is a “revolution” ostensibly meant to help the poor which actually makes rural life difficult for anyone but the most well-off, well-connected, commercially-oriented, and “efficient” business people. Aljazeera