Agriculture
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Toxic residues through the back door
Pesticide corporations and trade partners pressured EU to allow banned substances in imported crops Continue reading
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Apocalypse Now! Insects, Pesticide and a Public Health Crisis
In 2017, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, and UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics, Baskut Tuncak, produced a report that called for a comprehensive new global treaty to regulate and phase out the use of dangerous pesticides in farming and move towards sustainable agricultural practices. Continue reading
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Bayer On The Edge As Jury Awards $265 M To US Peach Farmer Over Illegal Dicamba Drift
A jury on Saturday awarded US$ 250 million in punitive damages to a southeastern Missouri peach farmer who argued that weedkiller dicamba that had drifted onto his orchards from other farms had severely damaged his trees — an award that could bode well for over 140 other farmers suing the chemical’s makers – Bayer (Monsanto)… Continue reading
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BT Cotton: Cultivating Farmer Distress in India By Colin Todhunter
This month, India’s Supreme Court will hold a lengthy hearing on the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) mustard, which would be the country’s first GM food crop. The court has asked the chair of the Technical Expert Committee to be present and says that the decision on GM mustard cannot be kept pending. The TEC… Continue reading
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Genetically Modified Seeds: Conceived as a Weapon
GM seeds and GM food carry great risks for all nations, so much so that for many reasons it is probably imperative these foods be banned outright. This subject is too large to be discussed here, but one aspect requires brief notice. If we were to ask about the origin of GM seeds, how the… Continue reading
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Global Breaking News on GMOs and Pesticides
14 February 2020 — Sustainable Pulse Editors’ picks Fraud in German Laboratory Casts Doubt on 2017 EU Re-Approval of Glyphosate Fraud in a German laboratory has cast additional doubts on the 2017 re-approval of glyphosate and on the entire EU pesticide safety evaluation procedure, Pesticide Action Network Europe reported on Tuesday. A new study has… Continue reading
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Catastrophe is upon us – the grim view from Southern Africa
The word catastrophe is being used more and more by institutions reporting on the effects of extreme weather in the two regions of Africa, Southern and South Eastern Africa, and of late Australia. The word means a number of things: tragic; fiasco; utter failure; sudden and violent change in a feature of the Earth. All… Continue reading
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Johnson confirms US GMO food will be on our tables with trade deal
Boris Johnson has opened a whole new can of worms by implicitly stating the door to genetically modified food from the US entering Britain after Brexit is wide open. Continue reading
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Why Food Systems Are Breaking Down Across The World
Daniel Maingi works with small farmers in Kenya and belongs to the organisation Growth Partners for Africa. He remembers a time when his family would grow and eat a diversity of crops, such as mung beans, green grams, pigeon peas and a variety of fruits now considered ‘wild’. Continue reading
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Scientist warns scrapping the EU’s strict GMO rules threatens health
A scientist has warned that gene-edited foods could prove toxic or allergenic and that if the UK scraps or weakens EU rules after Brexit, public health could be put at risk. Continue reading
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“Organic is the future”
Vandana Shiva, a pioneer of organic farming in India, is incensed by the 2019 draft law to compulsorily register all seeds used by farmers. On a wintry afternoon, at her farm Navdanya in the Himalayan foothills, the noted ecologist spoke on the future of the organic farming movement in India. Excerpts: Continue reading
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In Cuba, greener farming means cleaner rivers
When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, food production on the island of Cuba was reduced—as the supply of Russian fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, and oil dried up. Under the stress of an imminent food crisis, the island quickly rebuilt a new form of diversified farming—including many urban organic gardens—that depended less on imported… Continue reading
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Monsanto/Bayer News Links 30 January 2020
30 January 2020 — The New Dark Age There may be some duplication due to cross-posting and may be updated throughout the day, so please check back EPA Reapproves Glyphosate, Claims Pesticide Poses No Human Health Threat https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/01/30/epa-reapproves-glyphosate-claims-pesticide-poses-no-human-health-threat?cd-origin=rss Kellogg’s will phase out pre-harvest glyphosate use https://www.gmwatch.org/en/news/latest-news/19298-kellogg-s-will-phase-out-pre-harvest-glyphosate-use Continue reading
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Can GM crops really “feed the world”? Challenging the Flawed Premise Behind Pushing GMOs into Indian Agriculture
A common claim is that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are essential to agriculture if we are to feed an ever-growing global population. Supporters of genetically engineered (GE) crops argue that by increasing productivity and yields, this technology will also help boost farmers’ incomes and lift many out of poverty. Continue reading
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Capitalism and the Gut-Wrenching Hijack of India by Colin Todhunter
In India, the ‘development’ paradigm is premised on moving farmers out of agriculture and into the cities to work in construction, manufacturing or the service sector, despite these sectors not creating anything like the number of jobs required. The aim is to displace the existing labour-intensive system of food and agriculture with one dominated by… Continue reading
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Gone Fishing? No Fish but Plenty of Pesticides and a Public Health Crisis
There is mounting evidence that a healthy soil microbiome protects plants from pests and diseases. One of the greatest natural assets that humankind has is soil. But when you drench it with proprietary synthetic chemicals or continuously monocrop as part of a corporate-controlled industrial farming system, you can kill essential microbes, upset soil balance and end up feeding… Continue reading
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Syngenta says media has ‘overstated’ the science on insect declines
Pesticide giant Syngenta has said that the media is “overstating the science that clearly exists” on insect declines. Continue reading
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Nestlé: Multinationals as the New Colonial Powers. A tale of Many Cities
On November 14th the Canadian group Wellington Water Watchers organized the «All Eyes on Nestlé» conference in the city of Guelph, Ontario, bringing together indigenous’ peoples and citizens’ movements fighting Nestlé’s water takings from Canada, the US, France and Brazil. Continue reading
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Fake “Farmer Willi” part of an international fake parade
Five thousand tractors caused severe disruption in Berlin last week as farmers protested against the German government’s environmental protection policies. These include plans to limit the use of fertiliser in order to tackle nitrate pollution in groundwater, and to phase out glyphosate by 2023 to protect biodiversity. Continue reading
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Sustainable Pulse: Global Breaking News on GMOs and Pesticides
20 December 2019 — Sustainable Pulse Editors’ picks The Future of Wheat Farming is Glyphosate Residue Free – Exclusive Interview with Axis Farms Sustainable Pulse interview with Axis Farms’ Partner, Mark Sanders, discussing the future of wheat farming in Canada and why they decided it is important to certify their harvest as Glyphosate Residue Free.… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 