GM SHORTS:
1. Portugal: government agency urges wide GMO ban
2. Poland: Ecologists Urge Strict GM Ban on European Union Candidates
3. USA: Nebraska AG Skeptical of Aventis Claims
4. NZ: Scientists to create anti-possum GM bug
5. Germany: Government Shelves Research Program on GM Crops
6. USA: GM Transgenic Cafe - url for upcoming GM goodies
7. Colombia: 'NO' to BIOLOGICAL AGENTS FOR DRUG ERADICATION
8. SWITZERLAND: ACTION AGAINST WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
9. UK: Law of the lab - HLS and Blair etc.
10. NZ: Greenpeace GE protesters avoid prosecution
11. UK: BEEKEEPER LOSES GM COMPENSATION CLAIM
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1. Portuguese agency urges wide GMO ban
ENDS Daily - 24/01/01
Portugal should suspend or severely restrict commercial use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), according to the government-appointed advisory body for the environment, the National Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development (CNADS).
In a report presented to the Portuguese parliament yesterday, CNADS accepts that GM foods could have potential benefits but argues that "until the beneficial impact on human health has been scientifically demonstrated, the precautionary principle should prevail". It calls on the government to "severely restrict and/or suspend the production, importation and commercialisation of GMOs and GM foods and to promote this position in community and international forums". It also recommends stricter controls on experimentation with live GMOs and their release into the environment.
According to Ana Cardoso, one of the report's authors, a major concern is a "lack of human and financial resources available in Portugal" to ensure GMOs don't cause environmental damage. The environment ministry had only one civil servant available to deal with a wide range of GMO regulations, Dr Cardoso said.
The Portuguese parliament is due to discuss the report before any decision is taken to act on its recommendations. In 1999, two varieties of "Bt" engineered maize went into commercial production in Portugal, but the agriculture ministry withdrew the authorisations the same year under pressure from environmental NGOs.
Follow-up: CNADS, tel: +351 21 392 9926.
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2. European Union / Poland: Ecologists Urge Strict GM Ban on European Union Candidates
(www.Just-Food.com news 1/25/01)
Excerpt: A number of countries are lining up for assession to full EU membership, and an EU-backed ecological lobbying group has taken this as an opoortunity to highlight its concerns over genetically modified food. The organization, ANPED (Formerly the Alliance of Northern People for Environment and Developemnt, northern Alliance for sustainability, is lobbying Brussels to address positions on GM food and crops as part of.... END excerpt.
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3. Asst. Nebraska AG Skeptical of Aventis Claims (EHarvest.com & Farms.comnews, 01/24/2001) DTN Top News: Full Text: http://www.eharvest.com/readstory.cfm?dtnnewsid=16084
Nebraska Assistant Attorney General Russ Barger, the pointman for the state on legal negotiations with Aventis CropScience, told AgDayta.com this morning he's skeptical of claims by the company they can identify and appropriately channel all corn contaminated with the Cry9c protein. "If you look at the forms on their web site, they don't ask for a legal description of the area planted to StarLink, so how can they possibly identify all the buffer growers?" Barger pointed out to AgDayta.com this morning. Barger said a further complicating factor, brought to his attention by a Nebraska farmer this morning, is the possibility of volunteer StarLink cropping up in fields planted to the hybrid last year. "Unless all those fields are planted to beans, you've got a real possibility of more StarLink growing this year," Barger said. Barger said another area of concern is the possibility that corn grown close to StarLink fields was cross-pollinated with StarLink. "I don't think anyone knows where all that (StarLink) grain... END excerpt.
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4. Scientists to create anti-possum GM bug
[remember myxamatosis and the recent GE mouse pox mistake?] http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_185172.html
New Zealand scientists want to create a genetically-modified parasite which they hope will control the country's rampant possum population.
The marsupial is seen as a pest but scientists think they can alter a bug, which thrives on possum poo, to kill the animals off.
David Heath, of the Wallaceville Animal Research Centre, said experts are looking at modifying the parasite so it will secrete a substance that would affect the possum's fertility.
Dr Heath said: "It is perhaps the only way there will ever be an effective control of possums in New Zealand."
Researchers say they are sure the GM parasite will not affect any other ferrets, chickens or rabbits, reports the Otago Daily Times.
Last updated: 14:45 Thursday 25th January 2001 --- 5. German Government Program Shelves Research Program on GM Crops ((AP 25 Jan 01)) http://www.individual.com/servlet/BuildIssue Excerpt: Citing the need to reassure consumers already worried by the mad cow disease crisis, the German Government said Wednesday it has shelved plans for research on genetically engineered crops. Under the three-year plan, initiated by Chancellor Gerhard... END excerpt.
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6. Union of Concerned Scientists' GM Transgenic Cafe - upcoming GM foods
http://www.ucsusa.org/?food/tcmenu.html
Excerpt: Salad Surprise includes a mix of salad greens, with secret ingrediants that give it a unique, indescriable essence. END excerpt.
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7. COLOMBIA ABANDONS RESEARCH ON BIOLOGICAL AGENTS FOR DRUG ERADICATION
((The Sunshine Project News Release 25 January 2001
http://www.sunshine-project.org En español:
http://www.sunshine-project.org/pr250101es.html ))
Now all research on anti-coca agents illegal under the Bioweapons Convention (Hamburg and Austin, 25 January) - Colombia has abandoned a project to develop biological agents to eradicate coca and opium poppy plants, dealing another major defeat to the US-promoted idea to use biological weapons in the Drug War.
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8. SWITZERLAND: ACTION AGAINST WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
http://www.ecn.org/agp/index1.html
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9. Law of the lab - Blair and HLS
SchNEWS excerpts ISSUE 291
Last week showed just how far governments are prepared to go to protect private business interests from campaigners who expose their unethical practices. Science Minster Lord Sainsbury stepped in to shore up the sinking vivisection agency Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), whileTony Blair underlined the company’s right to conduct legitimate research as the government pressured the Royal Bank of Scotland to extend the company’s overdraft and forked out an extra £1 million to help the Cambridgeshire police protect the company’s laboratories. If only Britain’s public transport, organic farming, and alternative energy industries received such commitment.
Protests against HLS have attracted massive support, so guess what Labour’s answer has been. In response to calls for action from the vivisection industry, Jack ‘Boots’ Straw wants to pass new laws to clamp down on troublesome campaigners. Just how many laws do they want? The police can
already stop protests using the Public Order Acts, the Criminal Justice Acts, the Criminal Damage Act, the Harassment Act, the Interfering in Fat Cats Making Money Act, numerous trade union laws, and long-standing legislation outlawing obstruction, conspiracy, and breach of the peace (OK, we made one of them up). Even Ann Widdicome has raised concerns about the human rights implications of the proposed new laws! And coming soon is the Terrorism Act (see SchNEWS 268) which one MP described as 'potentially turning activist movements into terrorist movements'.
* The Terrorism Act comes into force on Feb 19th. Call 01273 298192 for more info or http://go.to/ta2000
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Greenpeace activists get diversion
The Press (Christchurch) January 23, 2001
Two Greenpeace activists arrested at a genetic engineering protest have been granted diversion, avoiding prosecution in court.
Registrar's remands were also granted, which meant the two people arrested outside the Tegel Foods factory on Friday did not appear in the Christchurch District Court.
Diversion is usually granted to first offenders facing less serious charges, who admit the offending. With the agreement of the prosecution, they are allowed to pay for damage or do community service instead of being prosecuted. No convictions appear on their records. Paul Richard Earnshaw, 32, an English-born artist, was charged with behaving in a disorderly manner within view of the public place. He had set himself up atop a 4m tripod blocking one of the factory gates. Tania Michelle Caruth, Irish born, a 27-year-old chef, was charged with trespassing and not leaving after being warned. As part of the action, protesters from the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which was in Lyttelton, had dumped two tonnes of "GE-free" soy, blocking the front entrance of the factory. They were protesting against the feeding of genetically engineered soy to Tegel chickens. LOAD-DATE: January 23, 2001 [Entered January 24, 2001]
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11. BEEKEEPER LOSES GM COMPENSATION CLAIM; NO CASH HELP FOR HONEY PRODUCER FORCED TO MOVE HIS HIVES
Rachel Pinder Coventry Evening Telegraph
January 23, 2001
A HARBURY beekeeper has lost his fight for compensation over the cost of moving his hives away from a controversial GM crop site in the village. Aventis CropScience UK Ltd has been given permission by the DETR to sow genetically-modified herbicide-tolerant winter oilseed rape at 21 sites in England, including three in Warwickshire - at Harbury, Long Marston and Alderminster.
As a result, John Home, of Deppers Bridge, who produces the well-known Fosse Way honey, has been told to move his hives because his contract with a major supermarket chain follows Soil Association advice that he has to be more than six miles away from all genetically-modified crop sites.