Saturday, June 30, 2012
Illegal papaya in EU
Expert warns of illegal GM papaya on EU market
Food Navigator
June 29, 2012
The food and fruit industries to be vigilant against a banned variety of genetically modified papaya coming into the EU from Thailand, say experts.
The warning comes after a ‘wave’ of genetically modified (GM) papaya was rejected by European Union Border Controls in June.
Richard Werran, Managing Director of Cert ID Europe, noted that Thailand is an important global producer of papaya – with a significant percentage exported primarily to Europe.
“Although genetically modified crops are not permitted in Thailand, there is support for GM technology and it would appear that GM seeds for an EU banned variety of papaya have been illegally distributed to farmers across Thailand,” he suggests.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Monsanto in Pakistan
US wants to control Pakistan agriculture
Pakistan Observer
June 24, 2012
Islamabad—Chairman Agriforum Pakistan Ibrahim Mughal has claimed that the US agrichemical Company Monsanto has planning to get its control over Pakistan’s agriculture for setting up its monopoly.
While talking to media on Friday Ibrahim Mughal said that for the free economy it was necessary that Monsanto should not be allowed in Pakistan.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Bollworms adapt
Bt cotton toxic, bollworms seek new hosts
By Syed Akbar
Deccan Chronicle
June 23, 2012
The agricultural gains by Bt cotton farmers seems to be at the cost of other farmers. The bollworm, which the Bt cotton is resistant to, has now found new hosts in other varieties of plants, putting them at risk.
Bt cotton is poisonous for the cotton bollworm and it cannot survive on its leaves. So the insect, which belongs to the butterfly family, has migrated to non-Bt plants such as tomato, pigeon pea, chickpea, sorghum and maize.
The agricultural loss, which cotton growers suffered earlier, is now being experienced by farmers growing food crops. This has led to increase in the use of pesticides by non-Bt cotton farmers to reduce the additional loss.
There are no reports of reduction in the population of cotton bollworm and this indicates that it has adapted to non-Bt cotton crops to lay eggs and populate its species.
Friday, June 22, 2012
India: Labeling mandatory
Centre makes labelling of GM foods mandatory
By Gargi Parsai
The Hindu
June 21, 2012
Now, consumers can make ‘informed choice’ on buying packaged food products
Consumers in India can now make “informed choice” on whether they want to buy packaged food products that are genetically modified or contain genetically modified ingredients.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in an extraordinary gazette notification, has made an amendment to make labelling of every package containing genetically modified food mandatory from January 1, 2013.
The move will impact the imported GM foods that are flooding the markets.
The notification published on June 5, 2012 says: “Every package containing the genetically modified food shall bear at the top of its principal display panel the words ‘GM.’”
Thursday, June 21, 2012
GM India
Genetically modified India
By Gokul Chandrasekar (writing by Robert MacMillan)
Reuters
June 20, 2012
The debate over regulating genetically modified crops in India is back after two years of silence that followed the moratorium on the Bt brinjal, a genetically modified eggplant. This is thanks to the government’s wavering policy on agricultural biotechnology. If you study its policy since the eggplant flare-up, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was designed to do two things that don’t quite fit together.
Here is what happened:
The government released its report on the hills of the Western Ghats nearly nine months after the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) submitted it, and then only under a court order. The report, among other things, warned that genetically modified organisms were a threat to biodiversity in India. The government attached a disclaimer to the report, saying that it has not formally accepted the conclusions.