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Peddling ecological farming in India
Posted by reyestirado on 17 June 2009.

Reyes works for Greenpeace's Research Labratories and is normally based in Exeter but she's just begun a year long project working with our office in India. Reyes already wrote for the blog relay last month but we convinced her to write a monthly update about her adventures in India and here's her first update.
Antibiotic resistance and Syngenta's Bt 10 Maize
By Dr. Sue Mayer, Executive Director, GeneWatch UK
Summary
In May the journal Nature revealed that Syngenta had inadvertently produced and distributed a variety of GM maize, Bt 10, which did not have regulatory approval. Several hundred tonnes of the Bt10 maize was grown and distributed in the US between 2001 and 2004 and possibly exported elsewhere.
It has emerged that the Bt10 also contains a gene that gives resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin. Yet Syngenta will not disclose the full details of how Bt10 has been genetically modified.
Genetically engineered rice: illegal and unwanted in China
Summary
Greenpeace has discovered that GE rice seeds have been sold and grown commercially for a number of years. The GE rice is illegal, and has not been approved as safe for either human consumption or the environment. It has entered the Chinese food chain and environment, and may have contaminated Chinese rice exports.
Syngenta contaminates US maize with illegal GM variety
Summary
Swiss chemical giant Syngenta has admitted it sold hundreds of tonnes of an illegal variety of GM maize to farmers in the USA over the past four years. The illegal GM crop, called Bt10, was modified with a gene from the soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis, which makes the crop produce its own pesticide to kill insects.
EC Recommendation: In the Matter of Coexistence, Traceability and Labelling of GMOs
Summary:
As European Commissioners gather to debate the future of Genetically Modified (GM) crops and food in Brussels, environment and consumer representatives have exposed an EC Recommendation, guiding member states on GM crops, as legally and fundamentally flawed. The NGOs are calling for the Recommendation to be withdrawn and are calling for an urgent meeting to discuss its legal status and content.
Paul Lasok QC, a leading European Lawyer, was asked by Greenpeace, Which? (the UK consumers’ association), Friends of the Earth, The Soil Association, the Five Year Freeze Campaign and GeneWatch UK to advise on the EC Recommendation on the growing of GM crops alongside non GM and organic crops (co-existence).
Background to the WTO GM dispute
Summary
At a time when GM food continues to cause controversy worldwide, and the legitimacy of the WTO itself has come under question, the WTO GM dispute between the US and EU looks set to be one of the most challenging in the WTO's history. The outcome of the WTO GM dispute will have major ramifications for the development of the environmental, social and health aspects of trade policy and is likely to have both substantive and symbolic importance worldwide.




