Source: Basta!
Translation: Leslie Thatcher, t r u t h o u t

by Agnés Rousseaux
January 14, 2010

After GMO, nanotechnologies come uninvited onto our plates: nanofoods, treated with nanopesticides and contained in nanopackaging, are on the rise. At stake: colossal financial profits for manufacturers and environmental and health risks impossible to evaluate today. All in a complete and unbelievable absence of rules and controls.

Smart foods that adapt to the consumer’s tastes, clothing that repels water, materials that repair themselves, “intelligent dust” that discreetly records conversations … Welcome to the nanoworld! A universe where science tinkers with particles invisible to the microscope and piles up atoms on the scale of a nanometer, that is a billionth of a meter [1]. We are promised nanotechnologies will be the foundation of a third industrial revolution during the twenty-first century. Read the full story

Fuente: Ecoportal

por REDES-Amigos de la Tierra Uruguay
15 de febrero, 2010

Desde 2006 se han comprado en África más de 9 millones de hectáreas. De ellas, al menos 5 millones se dedicarán a producir agrocombustibles mediante el cultivo de jatrofa, palma aceitera y sorgo dulce, entre otros. Pero las cifras son mayores, ya que sólo en Mozambique, funcionarios de gobierno informan que inversionistas han solicitado 4,8 millones de hectáreas (casi un séptimo del área cultivable del país) para dedicarlas a los agrocombustibles.Los gobiernos africanos reconocen la pérdida de tierras, los desplazamientos de comunidades y su preocupación por los impactos que tendrán estos proyectos en la capacidad de sus países para satisfacer las necesidades internas de la producción agrícola de alimentos. Read the full story

Fuente: La Jornada

por Silvia Ribeiro
13 de febrero, 2010

Del primero al 4 de marzo 2010 se realizará en Guadalajara, México, una conferencia “técnica” internacional de la FAO (Organización de Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura) sobre cómo se podría manipular y/o hacer transgénico casi todo lo que esté vivo: desde los cultivos y microorganismos hasta los bosques, peces y ganado, pasando por cómo usar más biotecnología en procesos agroindustriales.

Cínicamente, los objetivos manifiestos de la conferencia afirman que se hace para plantear las “oportunidades y opciones” para los países pobres frente a las crisis alimentaria y climática. Read the full story

Artículo publicado en Amauta con permiso de Argenpress

Fuente: Argenpress

por Pedro Rivera Ramos
11 de febrero, 2010

La producción de medicamentos constituye uno de los componentes más importantes, más sólidos y más poderosos, conque cuentan en la actualidad las gigantescas corporaciones transnacionales, que luego de la reestructuración que hiciesen de su producción de plaguicidas, se autocalificarán como “industrias de las ciencias de la vida”, al pasar a controlar virtualmente todas las actividades esenciales para los seres humanos en todo nuestro planeta. Read the full story

Fuente: Rebelión

por Medardo Ávila Vázquez
26 de enero, 2010

Los transgénicos son organismos modificados genéticamente con biotecnologías que permiten crear plantas, animales y microorganismos, transgrediendo formas de vida y fronteras entre las especies. Un transgénico se genera cuando material genético de un virus o bacteria, vegetal o animal, es aislado e introducido al genoma de otro organismo; esto lo hace comportarse de manera diferente a organismos de su misma familia, género o especie.

Esta tecnología no es una simple prolongación de la mejora vegetal, llevada a cabo por la agricultura tradicional: al permitir franquear las barreras entre especies, crea seres vivos que no podrían obtenerse en la naturaleza, en un proceso rodeado de incertidumbres, que puede dar lugar a multitud de efectos imprevistos. Read the full story

(Photo: InertiaCreeps; Edited: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t)

Source: t r u t h o u t

by Rady Ananda
January 8, 2010

In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers have linked organ damage with consumption of Monsanto’s GM maize.

All three varieties of GM corn – Mon 810, Mon 863 and NK 603 – were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities. Made public by European authorities in 2005, Monsanto’s confidential raw data of its 2002 feeding trials on rats that these researchers analyzed is the same data, ironically, that was used to approve them in different parts of the world. Read the full story

A farmer holds Monsanto's Roundup Ready Soy Bean seeds at his family farm in Bunceton, Mo. Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops. (Dan Gill/AP Photo)

Source: Associated Press

by Christopher Leonard
December 14, 2009

ST. LOUIS – Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.’s business practices reveal how the world’s biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

With Monsanto’s patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts. Read the full story

“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” This written statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the health care bill was identical to one by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer and used language suggested by lobbyists. (Luke Sharrett/The New York Times)

by Robert Pear
November 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans. Read the full story

pintura de Frida Kahlo

Cumbre Mundial de Seguridad Alimentaria

por ALAI (América Latina en Movimiento)
14 de noviembre, 2009

Movimientos sociales y agricultores presentes en Roma expresan su preocupación por el acaparamiento mundial de tierras de cultivo.

“Apoyar el desarrollo de cadenas de valor que beneficien a pequeños productores y propietarios”, fue una de las recomendaciones que hizo el Foro de Expertos de alto nivel a la Cumbre Mundial de Seguridad Alimentaria que se reunirá en Roma del 16 al 18 de noviembre. Read the full story

A Greenpeace activist displays signs symbolising genetically modified maize crops during a protest in front of the European Union headquarters in Brussels November 24, 2008. (REUTERS/Thierry Roge)

by Carey Gillam
November 17, 2009

KANSAS CITY – The rapid adoption by U.S. farmers of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton has promoted increased use of pesticides, an epidemic of herbicide-resistant weeds and more chemical residues in foods, according to a report issued Tuesday by health and environmental protection groups.

The groups said research showed that herbicide use grew by 383 million pounds from 1996 to 2008, with 46 percent of the total increase occurring in 2007 and 2008.

The report was released by nonprofits The Organic Center (TOC), the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Center for Food Safety (CFS).

The groups said that while herbicide use has climbed, insecticide use has dropped because of biotech crops. They said adoption of genetically engineered corn and cotton that carry traits resistant to insects has led to a reduction in insecticide use by 64 million pounds since 1996. Read the full story