13 March 2020 — Colin Todhunter
Colin Todhunter
3 March 2020 — GMWatch
Judging from the high number of media articles drawing attention to the post-Brexit threat of the US’s GM foods invading British supermarket shelves, it’s clear that the GM food issue is far from dead in the UK. It appears that it was only “sleeping” due to the fact that EU labelling and risk assessment requirements for GMOs, combined with public resistance, have mostly kept GM ingredients from going directly into human food for over two decades.
27 February 2020 — Global Research
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was launched in 2000 and has $46.8 billion in assets (December 2018). It is the largest charitable foundation in the world and distributes more aid for global health than any government. One of the foundation’s stated goals is to globally enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty.
18 February 2020 — Sustainablepulse.com
7 February 2020 — 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 has come out against using genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Indian agriculture.
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 idea was conceived and developed, who did the research and who provided the funding, how would we reply? We might reasonably suggest that perhaps the concept originated in the Biology or Agricultural Department of some university, or that a government lab doing research on food supplies might have conceived and pursued the idea. Or, we might suggest a private company in the agricultural field was looking for more productive varieties of grains and stumbled on this process.
6 February 2020 — True Publica
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.
7 February 2020 — Off Guardian
Colin Todhunter
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’.
28 January 2020 — GMWatch
Gene editing “could lead to unexpected toxins or allergens” in food
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.
22 January 2020 — Colin Todhunter
Colin Todhunter
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.
18 January 2020 — Global Research
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 soil a limited doughnut diet of unhealthy inputs.
6 December 2019 — GMWatch
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.
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