Tag Archives: Genetically modified crops

Every January and for almost two decades GM crop proponents celebrate the arrival of report of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech (ISAAA) on commercialised GM crops. The truth is that nothing has changed since they started issuing these reports.  They have been making the same claims since 1996: more GM crops, more countries, and more hectares cultivated. Interestingly this ...

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a Pan African platform comprising civil society networks and farmer organisations working towards food sovereignty in Africa, has submitted an Open Letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Wendy White from Iowa State University and the Human Institutional Review Board of Iowa State University, expressing fierce opposition to the human ...

In keeping with our tradition of seeking ways to build common understanding on critical issues, no matter how complex, today we are considering “The Food We Want” and the need to have wholesome food. It is a great honour to examine this topic with you, members of The Young Environmentalists Network (TYEN). Being children from primary and secondary schools we ...

US corn prices plummeted as China rejected all shipments containing traces of Syngenta’s MIR162. Farmers from five major corn growing states have filed three class action lawsuits against Syngenta, claiming damages of more than $1 billion. Syngenta released MIR162, trade name Agrisure Vipera, in 2009. It is engineered to make a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein vip3Aa20 toxic to lepidopteran insect ...

H.A. Kwajaffa, Chairman of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), in a memorandum submitted to the Senate last week in Abuja during a Public Hearing on the Biosafety Bill, makes a case for the genetically-modified cotton (or Biotechnology Cotton), saying that its adoption will revive the presently moribund sector   Cotton is one of the most important commercial crops ...

Experts at the Africa Climate Change conference in Marrakech, Morocco have restated Africa’s capacity to feed itself now and in the future without genetically modified organisms. They however warned that it would require increased investment in climate change research, development and innovation to make technology accessible and affordable for farmers, to enhance opportunities for easy access to agricultural finance and ...

In a recent edition of “Fact Sheet,” a publication of the ecological think-tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), writers Juan Lopez, Mariann Orovwuje and Nnimmo Bassey insist that Nigeria does not need genetically modified crops to satisfy its food and agricultural needs. They claim that the National Biosafety Bill is deficient and that President Goodluck Jonathan should not assent ...