Anniversary of a Whistleblowing Hero
By Jeffrey Smith
Twelve years ago, a 150-second TV broadcast changed our world; everyone everywhere owes a debt of gratitude to the man whose life it turned upside down—in his effort to protect ours. On August 10, 1998, eminent scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai (pronounced Poos-tie) dared to speak the truth.
U.S. unsure if cloned meat has been sold in North America
By Sarah Schmidt, Postmedia News August 10, 2010
OTTAWA — The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday said he doesn't know whether cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply.
But Tom Vilsack, in Ottawa to talk trade with food exporters and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, emphasized that if they have, the animals are safe to eat.
The Illusion of Cheap Food
Through subsidies and sacrifice, Americans foot the bill for factory farms
All Animals magazine, July/August 2010
by Julie Falconer
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, especially when it’s cooked up by the nation’s factory farms.
Though animal agribusiness giants have long touted their ability to produce cheap food for the masses, supermarket prices mask a largely hidden reality: Taxpayers shell out billions to prop up an inhumane, inefficient, and environmentally destructive industry.
Bayer Loses Fifth Straight Trial Over U.S Rice Crops
July 14, 2010 (Bloomberg) -- Bayer AG lost its fifth straight trial over contaminated U.S. long-grain rice to a Louisiana farmer who claimed the company’s carelessness with its genetically engineered seed caused exports to plunge. A jury in St. Louis said today the company should pay damages of $500,248. The company previously lost two trials in state court and two in federal, for a total of more than $52 million in jury awards. It faces about 500 additional lawsuits in federal and state courts with claims by 6,600 plaintiffs. It hasn’t won any rice trials so far.
Poised on History's Doorstep: Super Salmon or Frankenfish?
BY ANDREW ZAJAC, Tribune Washington Bureau August 9, 2010
WASHINGTON -- After 14 years of work, unceasing attacks from critics, and a $50 million investment without a penny of profit, a small New England biotech company stands on the doorstep of history – seemingly poised to join agriculture's "green revolution" as a game-changer in feeding the world.
Or not.
Genetically Modified Crop on the Loose and Evolving in U.S. Midwest
By David Biello
Outside a grocery store in Langdon, N.D., two ecologists spotted a yellow canola plant growing on the margins of a parking lot this summer. They plucked it, ground it up and, using a chemical stick similar to those in home pregnancy kits, identified proteins that were made by artificially introduced genes. The plant was GM—genetically modified.
GM plants 'established in the wild'
By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News Researchers in the US have found new evidence that genetically modified crop plants can survive and thrive in the wild, possibly for decades. A University of Arkansas team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola. Transgenes were present in 80% of the wild canola plants they found. They suggest GM traits may help the plants survive weedkillers in the wild.
GM crop escapes into the American wild
Transgenic canola found growing freely in North Dakota.
Natasha Gilbert
A genetically modified (GM) crop has been found thriving in the wild for the first time in the United States. Transgenic canola is growing freely in parts of North Dakota, researchers told the Ecological Society of America conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, today.
The scientists behind the discovery say this highlights a lack of proper monitoring and control of GM crops in the United States.
Clone-derived meat entered UK food chain last year, says FSA
Meat from second clone offspring was intercepted before it could be sold, and third animal found in dairy herd
James Meikle and Leigh Phillips
guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Meat from the offspring of a cloned cow entered the UK food chain a year ago, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed today, in the first official confirmation of a breach of food laws.
A second bull born from an embryo taken from a cloned cow was slaughtered last week, but the meat was intercepted before it could be sold. The agency has found another cloned offspring in a dairy herd.
GM crop escapes into the American wild
Transgenic canola found growing freely in North Dakota.
Natasha Gilbert
A genetically modified (GM) crop has been found thriving in the wild for the first time in the United States. Transgenic canola is growing freely in parts of North Dakota, researchers told the Ecological Society of America conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, today.
The scientists behind the discovery say this highlights a lack of proper monitoring and control of GM crops in the United States.
