Posted: January 31, 2013
Washington state recently made national news after the "Label It Wa" grass-roots campaign successfully collected and submitted over 350,000 signatures in order to get "I-522 The People's Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act" on the 2013 ballot. This bill would require genetically engineered food in the state to be labeled.
Also in Washington, San Juan County residents and farmers passed Initiative Measure No. 2012-4 to ban the growth of genetically modified organisms. Now, Republican Representative Cary Condotta has stepped up and introduced House Bill 1407, which aims to remove the bureaucratic red tape, allowing local legislative authorities to regulate genetically modified organisms from foods to seeds as they see fit, instead of relying on the state to take action.
Read more here: http://www.examiner.com
Posted: January 31, 2013
A bill that would require labeling of genetically modified organisms is dead for the year after the Senate failed to adopt the committee report of its passage from that committee.
The Senate voted to move the bill to another committee but it was a moot point. A majority of the Senate voted to not adopt the committee report and afterwards to move the bill to Senate Corporations and Transportation instead of the Senate Judiciary Committee as it was originally scheduled.
But the initial vote to not adopt the committee report resulted in the bill being "deemed lost," which means it is for the year.
The bill's sponsor Sen. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, announced the news on Twitter Thursday morning.
Read more here: http://www.nmtelegram.com
Posted: January 31, 2013
How should a regulatory agency announce they have discovered something potentially very important about the safety of products they have been approving for over twenty years?
In the course of analysis to identify potential allergens in GMO crops, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has belatedly discovered that the most common genetic regulatory sequence in commercial GMOs also encodes a significant fragment of a viral gene (Podevin and du Jardin 2012). This finding has serious ramifications for crop biotechnology and its regulation, but possibly even greater ones for consumers and farmers. This is because there are clear indications that this viral gene (called Gene VI) might not be safe for human consumption. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance.
What Podevin and du Jardin discovered is that of the 86 different transgenic events (unique insertions of foreign DNA) commercialized to-date in the United States 54 contain portions of Gene VI within them. They include any with a widely used gene regulatory sequence called the CaMV 35S promoter (from the cauliflower mosaic virus; CaMV). Among the affected transgenic events are some of the most widely grown GMOs, including Roundup Ready soybeans (40-3-2) and MON810 maize. They include the controversial NK603 maize recently reported as causing tumors in rats (Seralini et al. 2012).
Read more here: http://independentsciencenews.org
Posted: January 29, 2013
Leading medical bodies are calling for a 20p-per-litre levy on soft drinks to be included in this year's Budget.
More than 60 organisations, including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, are backing the recommendation by food and farming charity Sustain.
They say it would raise ?1bn a year in duty to fund free fruit and meals in schools to improve children's health.
The soft drinks industry says raising taxation is unnecessary.
Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21228122
Posted: January 29, 2013
BASF said it will "discontinue the pursuit of regulatory approvals for the Fortuna, Amadea, and Modena potato projects in Europe because continued investment cannot be justified due to uncertainty in the regulatory environment and threats [over the destruction of crops]."
Environmental activists have destroyed genetically modified crops on fields in Europe for fears they might harm health and erode biological diversity.
BASF also said it will continue its crop biotechnology business in the U.S. and has added corn as a target crop under its fungal resistance research.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com
Posted: January 28, 2013
Why would a city pay to force its residents to ingest nocuous industrial waste for no reason?
That's what the reams of documents on fluoridating water, the conflicting claims and counter-claims threatening to bury city council, boil down to.
I was horrified to find out where the fluoride added to our drinking water comes from: it's an industrial derivative called hydrofluorosilicic acid, and it comes from the scrubbers of smokestacks at fertilizer factories. As Dr. Hardy Limeback writes in a letter to council, "I find it absurd that industrial toxic waste is shipped to the water treatment plants in large tanker trucks and trickled into the drinking water of major cities in North America."
Read more here: http://www.windsorstar.com
Posted: January 28, 2013
Sales of natural products featuring third party certifications surged in 2012, according to new data from SPINS, with non-GMO project verified products leading the charge (+18%), followed by Fair Trade USA (+17%), Certified Gluten Free (+17%), and Certified B Corporation (+15%).
Read more here: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com
Posted: January 28, 2013
Critics call it "Frankenfish," but the trade name is AquAdvantage - an Atlantic salmon endowed with DNA and growth hormones from both the Chinook salmon and an eel-like ocean pout.
The result is a fish that reaches market weight in one-half the normal time.
Once approval is granted - and it is expected to come soon - the transgenic salmon will be the world's first genetically engineered animal available for human consumption. It's a worrisome prospect for some, but to the biotech industry, the road to approval has been one frustrating delay after another.
The fast-growing AquAdvantage salmon has a competitive edge over conventional fish farming, but getting the new fish to market has taken much longer than expected. Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies first sought U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1989, and their creation has remained under scrutiny ever since.
Read more here: http://www.theepochtimes.com
Posted: January 28, 2013
The European Commission (EU) has announced its plans to reopen the debate on a draft legislation that would allow each Member State to choose whether to grant or refuse permission to cultivate genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on their own territory. The draft law, which must be approved by a majority of governments and the European Parliament before becoming law, was submitted by the Commission in 2010 but blocked by France, Germany and Britain.
In the statement issued last week, the EC said that was not planning to proceed with the pending approval of several new GM crops in the immediate future, but first wants an agreement on the draft legislation. "We are going to discuss the issue with the three governments to see if we can reopen negotiations on the proposals," said Frederic Vincent, spokesman for EU Health Commissioner Tonio Borg last week. Currently, EU rules state that any GM crop approved for cultivation can be grown anywhere inside the bloc, unless countries have specific scientific reasons for banning their cultivation.
Only two GM crops have been approved for cultivation in Europe to date, and many consumer and environmental groups are vocal in their opposition. Seven crops are currently waiting approval for cultivation on the continent, developed by agri-giants Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, and Syngenta.
Read more here: http://www.slowfood.com
Posted: January 28, 2013
MONTPELIER - Vermont-based ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's has come out in support of state legislation requiring labeling of products containing genetically modified organisms, and says it will stop using such products by the end of this year.
The company, a subsidiary of international food conglomerate Unilever, said 26 of its ice cream flavors - ranging from Cherry Garcia to Mint Chocolate Cookie - already come without GMOs.
The company's stance is winning praise from groups supporting GMO labeling, including Rural Vermont and the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
Read more here: http://www.timesargus.com
Posted: January 16, 2013
Officially California has voted "No" on Proposition 37, which required labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs), even though 96 percent were in favor of labeling before elections according to MSNBC poll.
A $46 million ad campaign by Monsanto, DuPont, and the food industry succeeded, claiming that labeling would be a major inconvenience that would raise costs and food prices.
Organic farmers, retailers, environmentalists, consumers, and other groups comprising over 10 million individuals raised $8 million. In the end, the vote was 4.8 million against Proposition 37 to 4.3 million in favor, according to Acres USA, Jan. 2013.
Read more here: http://www.theepochtimes.com
Posted: January 16, 2013
It's no secret that Americans throw away an enormous amount of food, sending day-old leftovers and slightly wilted spinach straight to the garbage. But what about the food that never even makes it to the kitchen table? A new report released by a British engineering society reveals that worldwide, billions of tons of food are squandered each year because of poor agriculture practices, which include inefficient harvesting and inadequate infrastructure and storage - and it's depleting Earth's water supply.
"This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands," writes the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. "The potential to provide 60-100% more food by simply eliminating losses, while simultaneously freeing up land, energy and water resources for other uses, is an opportunity that should not be ignored."
Read more here: http://www.motherjones.com
Posted: January 16, 2013
Earlier this month, Mark Lynas, a prominent UK environmentalist and author, delivered a blunt attack (text here; video below the fold) on critics of agricultural biotechnology at a farming conference at Oxford University.
Reviewing the development of his opinions on GMOs, Lynas reports that back in the '90s, he had an instant emotional reaction against them. He saw the situation like this: "Here was a big American corporation with a nasty track record, putting something new and experimental into our food without telling us." And so he "helped to start the anti-GM movement," and "spent several years ripping up GM crops." Then, in the process of researching climate change, he "discovered science"; and soon after, he reports, he "discovered that one by one my cherished beliefs about GM turned out to be little more than green urban myths," which he goes on to list.
Lynas is quite correct that the backlash against GMOs is often clouded by emotion.
Read more here: http://www.motherjones.com
Posted: January 16, 2013
I was cruising the web reading gun articles and then I started wondering about writing an article on anti-gun organizations and people. Since anti-gunners are always saying "no one wants to take your guns away" or they want me to live under their take of "sensible gun laws" (neither of which I believe to be prudent, sensible or anything remotely truthful) I figured I would go to the NRA's Institute of Legislative Action to find out who are the people that want to be sure that I can't defend my home or go shooting my .22 in the woods (both heinous acts of human behavior to be sure).
So, hats off the the NRA-ILA team for compiling this list. Here is what the NRA-ILA team had to say.
The following organizations have lent monetary, grassroots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations.
Read more here: http://dailycaller.com
Posted: January 15, 2013
1. Judges deny anti-GMO activists a fair trial
Debate on GMOs refused by court
Announcement by Field Liberation
15 Jan 2013
Dendermonde/Brussels, 15/01/2013 - In the presence of a huge crowd of supporters from a range of organisations, the court of Dendermonde (Belgium) has denied 11 anti-GMO activists the legal right to a defence in court. The court refused to allow defence witnesses to give their statements, and also refused to allow video footage to be shown. This is in violation of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees defendants the right to a fair trial. In response, the 11 field liberators and their lawyers decided unanimously to leave the court room.
In contrast to the vast majority of Belgian court cases, no independent investigating judge was appointed. This is despite the fact that the prosecution has politicised the trial by introducing the charge of forming a criminal gang. The summons to appear was issued directly by the public prosecutor. The investigation was therefore only conducted for the prosecution. In order to be a fair trial, the investigation should also be conducted for the defence. In order to ensure a fair trial, the defence lawyers wanted at least an investigation during the trial, including a number of defence witnesses and video clips. This was refused by the court. At this point the defendants and their lawyers left the courtroom, let the case continue in their absence, and took no further part in the trial.
The civil parties to the case - including ILVO (The Flemish Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research), VIB (Flemish Institute for Biotechnology), University of Gent, Hogeschool Gent - put forward their case, and demanded damages.
Read more here: http://www.gmwatch.eu
Posted: January 15, 2013
Should the government be recommending mercury-containing flu shots to everyone, especially if they are useless for 97.5% of adults?
One prominent media outlet says, "Influenza has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with 7.3 percent of deaths last week caused by pneumonia and the flu," according to the CDC. Another's report, released the same day, says that "despite all those news reports about overcrowded emergency rooms, it's too soon to say whether it will be worse than normal" and quoted the CDC as saying that the number of states reporting "high" levels of flu activity has actually dropped from 29 to 24. A third wonders why fewer than 65% of Americans got a flu shot this year, while a fourth notes that the flu vaccine is only about 62% effective, meaning that over a third of the people who do get flu shots still get the flu.
But that 62% figure is misleading. There are currently three different "epidemics" hitting the US: "true" influenza (type A, type B, or seasonal H1N1 influenza), norovirus ("stomach flu"), and whooping cough. According to a meta-analysis published in the weekly peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet, the flu vaccine is only 62% effective in preventing type A or B influenza or seasonal influenza A (H1N1). It doesn't protect at all against norovirus and whooping cough. In other words, only 2.7% of all adults get type A or B or H1N1 influenza, and of them, the vaccine will fail 38% of the time, which means it really benefits only about 1.8% of the population.
Read more here: http://www.anh-usa.org
Posted: January 15, 2013
Would you be surprised to learn that vaccine makers are among their corporate donors? And that their recommendations influence the FDA?
In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), together with the US Public Health Service, jointly recommended that thimerosal, a vaccine preservative that contains mercury, should be removed from vaccines. In response,the FDA removed thimerosal, or limited it to trace amounts, in all vaccines except flu shots. Now the AAP has reversed itself and says it wants the mercury left in.
In January, the UN Environmental Program will be working on a global treaty to reduce health hazards by banning certain products and processes that release mercury into the environment, and thimerosal in vaccines is one of those products under discussion.
Read more here: http://www.anh-usa.org
Posted: January 15, 2013
Washington (CNN) -- A package of gun control proposals including a ban on assault weapons will be unveiled on Wednesday by President Barack Obama in response to last month's Connecticut school massacre.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will announce the proposals, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday.
They will be joined by a group of children who wrote letters to the president in the aftermath of the December 14 shooting rampage by a lone gunman who killed 20 students and six adults at a Newtown elementary school, Carney said.
Read more here: http://www.cnn.com
Posted: January 15, 2013
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A measure to ban genetically modified crops in Jackson County in Southern Oregon has qualified for the ballot in 2014.
County officials confirmed that petitions seeking the vote had enough valid signatures - 4,662 were required.
The Medford Mail Tribune reports that means the measure goes to a vote in the May primary election in 2014.
The measure would ban anyone from raising genetically engineered plants in Jackson County, with exemptions for scientific research.
It also calls for the county to conduct inspections and allows enforcement through citizen lawsuits.
Read more here: http://www.kval.com
Posted: January 14, 2013
A new study using data from the US government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) shows that the more vaccines given, the more likely children will die or be hospitalized. The increased rates are highly significant, with a 50% greater chance of death with doubling the number of vaccines and more than 100% increase in hospitalizations - that's double the number of hospital visits!
VAERS is recognized to contain only a small percentage of all adverse vaccination events. As GS Goldman and NZ Miller point out,
[A] confidential study conducted by Connaught Laboratories, a vaccine manufacturer, indicated that ''a fifty-fold under-reporting of adverse events'' is likely. According to
David Kessler, former commissioner of the FDA, ''only about one percent of serious events [adverse drug reactions] are reported.
Read more here: http://gaia-health.com
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