USDA often sides with and promotes industry interests. Its new pilot program allowing biotech developers to prepare their own safety studies or pay for those selected by the agency will only reinforce the image of an agency regulating for the industry.
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The organic food sector grew last year by nearly 8 percent, far out-pacing the overall stagnant U.S. food industry and providing new jobs. Consumers continue voting organic with their dollars. The Russian government is eager to sell off land that houses one of the world’s largest and oldest collections of seeds and plants — dosvidanya biodiversity. A study confirms what many in rural communities know too well — some factory farms are industrial-scale polluters. These polluters, however, still escape clean air regulations. Lawsuit by organic groups asks Federal court to invalidate Monsanto’s patents and to end Monsanto’s practice of suing farmers over GMO contamination. A bill that waters down EPA protections of the Clean Water Act is recommended for consideration by the House as a whole. This is one of several Republican sponsored bills aimed at reducing EPA powers. Conventional and organic farmers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the USDA’s decision to permit the unrestricted commercial release of genetically engineered alfalfa. At least one African government petitioned to include the paraquat herbicide formulation in the Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention. This could have far reaching consequences for the export of the herbicide. PAMTA – the legislation that addresses overuse of antibiotics in the agricultural system, which leads to antibiotic resistance in the human population, is once again introduced by Congresswoman Slaughter. A California Appeals Court reversed a lower court’s ruling which would have required the destruction of genetically modified sugar beet seedlings planted in September 2010. The usual and unusual politics surrounding the deregulation of genetically engineered alfalfa. In less than a month, USDA has approved for unrestricted growth GE alfalfa and partially deregulated GE sugar beets. Now, it deregulates GE corn for biofuel production with no environmental impact study of novel proteins it contains. New FDA data shows that almost 80% of all antibiotics sold in 2009 were reserved for animal farming. Part two of our series on antibiotic overuse in healthy farm animals examines the response from the FDA and the proposed legislation. On the heels of the decision to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa, this Friday USDA announced that it will allow the planting of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” GE sugar beets even though the agency has yet to finalize conducting an Environmental Impact Statement. Cardinal Turkson, the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, discussed GMOs in an interview with the Vatican newspaper. Yesterday, USDA’s Sec. Tom Vilsack announced that genetically engineered alfalfa, that has been modified to withstand repeated application of Monsanto’s RoundUp herbicide, will be completely deregulated nation-wide, without any restrictions. The recently released WikiLeaks cables confirm Vatican’s secret support for GMOs and demonstrate the critical role U.S. diplomacy plays in the spread of biotechnology. Several scientists at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences recently released a statement fully backing GMOs. While the Holy See tried to distance itself from these statements, recent WikiLeaks revelations belie the Vatican’s claim to neutrality. A Federal Court ordered the removal of genetically modified beet seedlings. After USDA and Monsanto appealed, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is delaying the removal until a hearing that was rescheduled for February. Follow the money and you will see that the meat and the GMO industry are inextricably tied. GMOs have started to proliferate in Africa and other developing nations. The growth of GMOs in developing nations, however, brings to the forefront deeply rooted issues of social injustice. The practice of feeding antibiotics to healthy farm animals is widespread among industrial animal farm operators despite warnings of many medical experts. USDA was asked to approve a genetically modified apple variety that keeps from oxidizing and going brown when cut or damaged, but this is produce nobody wants. |
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