GMO
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Obama's FDA is regulating genetically engineered salmon, a genetically modified organism (GMO) that is the first of its kind, not as an animal, but as an animal drug. Normally, a veterinary drug would be used for health purposes, but there's no therapeutic benefit associated with jacking up an Atlantic salmon with the genes of a Chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout to make it grow twice as fast. On the contrary, genetic engineering increases the salmon's mortality, disease and deformity. So, why would the FDA treat a the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption like a drug? The idea came from the biotech industry. They knew that the FDA's animal drug process would keep companies' "proprietary" information secret, while limiting public participation and downplaying food safety concerns.
Ronnie Cummins: 10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish
GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? Reports
A group of international scientists has released a report detailing health and environmental hazards from the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready soy and the use of glyphosate (Roundup®) herbicide. The report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?
Darío Gianfelici - Interview
"After many years of suffering, it is clear that the spraying has made it difficult to live in rural areas. The impact that [genetically modified Roundup Ready] RR soybeans and the agrochemicals released into the environment have had on the health of the population is real and palpable. Over the course of two years, in a small town, 20 people have died of cancer, some were young. I'm just a general practitioner.
Find More Stories Food security relies on fair access to land, water, and seeds. Yet Australia is doing its darndest to sell off all three to foreign investors, risking the future of our food. Those living on the land understand the emerging threat to Australia's food security.
ABC The Drum Unleashed - Spliced bread
Truthiness and Fairness on GMO Labels at FDA | Generation Green
Today the FDA is meeting to discuss labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) salmon. Assuming that the agency makes the experimental fish the first GMO animal approved for human consumption , FDA’s proposal suggests that no labels will be required to let consumers know when they are buying the GMO fish. What’s worse, some suspect that the agency will disallow “no GMO” labeling of salmon from fisherman or fish farms that reject the GMO variety.
After a two-day public hearing on the approval of the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption, the AquAdvantage GE salmon, FDA held a public hearing today to discuss whether or not these GE fish should be labeled as such should they be approved. A 60-day public comment period on the labeling issue will be open until November 22, 2010. “This transgenic salmon is the first GE animal intended for food, yet the human health impacts of eating these GE fish are completely unknown,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director at the Center for Safety (CFS). “These GE fish also pose unacceptable risks to wild salmon and the marine environment.”
Misguided FDA Opposition to Labeling Could Leave Public Permanently in the Dark About GE Animals « The True Food Network
Alice-in-FDA-Land: More Hypocrisy on GMO Labels | Generation Green
This week, in explaining its position that labels will not be required on genetically engineered (GMO) salmon, FDA says that they legally cannot require such labeling. The agency claims that they are bound by labeling laws, which call for a “material” change in the salmon before labels can be required. A material change, FDA says , has to be a change that impacts taste, texture, nutritional value, or other factors.
Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the world's best-selling weedkiller Roundup, causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying and well below maximum residue levels in products presently approved in the European Union. This is reported in research (1) published by a group around Professor Andrés Carrasco, director of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and member of Argentina's National Council of Scientific and Technical Research. Carrasco was led to research the embryonic effects of glyphosate by reports of high rates of birth defects in rural areas of Argentina where Monsanto's genetically modified "Roundup Ready" (RR) soybeans are grown in large monocultures sprayed from airplanes regularly. RR soy is engineered to tolerate Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the herbicide liberally to kill weeds while the crop is growing.
Groundbreaking study shows Roundup link to birth defects
Center for Food Safety:
Chefs, restaurants, grocers / retailers, food companies and distributors can sign our GE Fish pledge, pledging not to intentionally purchase, sell or serve GE fish
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent enforcement letters warning food makers that they cannot label their products as free of genetically modified or genetically engineered ingredients. The letters were sent as a heated debate is taking place over whether the agency should approve a genetically engineered (GE) salmon that grows at twice the rate of salmon in the wild.
Jeff Deasy: The FDA and Frankenfoods
Buried in a prospectus inviting investors to buy shares in a fledgling biotech company is an arresting claim attributed to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. "Commercial aquaculture is the most rapidly growing segment of the agricultural industry, accounting for more than $60bn sales in 2003. While land-based agriculture is increasing between 2% to 3% per year, aquaculture has been growing at an average rate of approximately 9% per year since 1970." And then the prospectus for the US company AquaBounty offers this observation to tantalise prospective investors: "The traditional fishery harvest from the ocean has stagnated since 1990."
GM food battle moves to fish as super-salmon nears US approval | Environment | The Observer
Academies copied to push for Bt brinjal: India : India Today
Dinesh C. Sharma New Delhi, September 26, 2010 | UPDATED 09:23 IST India's top science academies have done the unthinkable. They have copied and quoted extensively from an industry lobby report to give a clean chit to the controversial genetically modified (GM) brinjal.Last June the Argentinian newspaper Página 12 carried a report (see article in Spanish, below) regarding a publication prepared by a commission opened by the Chaco State Government (in the north of the country) analyzing health statistics in intensive agrochemical use zones. In one decade, the rates of childhood cancer tripled and babies with birth defects increased fourfold. These staggering data confirm denouncements that have been made for some years, by local residents, in the regions of intensive soya and rice crops.