SlowFood EU and FoE Cyprus have produced two excellent and simple videos why new GMOs must be kept regulated. They can be watched here and here. Please watch and share! SlowFood EU and FoE Cyprus

 

 

The German Consumers organisation Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e.V. (VZBV) has published a short position paper in English and in German, calling for comprehensive risk assessment, labelling and technology assessment for new GM techniques. VZBV also compiled further information on the topic in German. VZBV

 

 

The wealth and diversity of seeds is the result of generations of saving, sharing and collective innovation by farmers. These farmer seed systems still provide 70–90% of what is planted every year in many parts of the global South. But they are under threat. Corporations cannot make money from seeds when farmers are free to save, share and innovate with them. So ever since the world's largest agrochemical corporations began buying up seed companies in the 1980s and developing genetically modified crops, they have been aggressively pushing for laws to give them monopoly rights over seeds and to criminalise farmer seed practices. Perhaps the most important tool in their arsenal is UPOV--a legal regime of monopoly rights over plant varieties administered by an intergovernmental body based in Geneva, called the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. UPOV requires draconian restrictions on farmer seed saving and sharing. As UPOV has expanded, the global seed market has been taken over by a cartel of agrochemical companies. Today, just four of these companies - Bayer (19%), Corteva (18%), Syngenta (8%) and BASF (4%) - control half (49%) of the US$47 billion seed market. They also control 75% of the global agrochemicals market. GRAIN

 

 

Genetically modified (GM) food, which sparked a debate for years that led to an indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal (eggplant) in 2010, is a cause of concern again after the central government permitted “environmental release” (one step away from “commercial release”) of GM herbicide-tolerant mustard (DMH-11 hybrid) on October 18, 2022. The Supreme Court is now hearing the case – a continuation of long-pending litigations relating to GM crops beginning in 2004 (after Bt cotton was released in 2002). The approval is based on the developer's claim of higher yields, but the yields are actually lower than those of widely planted non-GMO hybrid varieties. Fortune India

 

 

Proposals to ban the use of glyphosate in Guernsey will be considered by the island's States. Deputy David De Lisle is leading a plan to stop the use of the herbicide by the end of 2023. Mr De Lisle is leading a political petition, or requete, signed by six other politicians to have a debate on the issue next year. In October, the States of Guernsey banned the personal use of glyphosate. BBC News

 

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