biotech

The idea of altering the genes of any biological thing is worrisome and hair-raising at the very least, but there’s just something especially freakish about the concept of genetically modified maggots. Aren’t they nasty enough without mankind tampering with their make-up?
Well, researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU) believe GM maggots could play a vital role in the wound healing process and encouraging new cell growth.

Kauaʻi mother Malia Chun is no stranger to fighting against biotech corporations that spray chemicals in her neighborhood. She flew all the way to Switzerland to attend Syngenta’s board meeting to draw attention to the fact that corporations like theirs are poisoning her children. Recent tests revealed that one of her daughters was riddled with 36 different pesticides – the shocking discovery was found from taking a simple hair sample to a lab.
Malia Chun stands in front of the GE corn fields near her home. Source: MIKE COOTS FOR EARTHJUSTICE

In a publicity blitz against GMO labeling, Big Food is using a six-figure campaign to run ads in prime time on network and cable TV in and around the nation’s capital. This is part of a last ditch effort for the biotech industry and Big Food to keep states from writing their own mandatory GMO-labeling laws.
The effort is likely due to the fast approaching date for Vermont’s mandatory labeling law to go into effect, July 1st. Opponents of on-package labeling are running out of time.

Monsanto recently lost a bid to take over Swiss pesticide company, Syngenta, one if its largest competitors. Instead, China National Chemical Corporation (Chem China) successfully bought out Syngenta for a whopping $43 billion cash offer.

County staff in Colorado’s Boulder County have been directed to draft a plan to rid county-owned land of genetically modified crops in the relatively near future. The directive was given recently (March 2016) by the Board of County Commissioners in the best interest of their people.

Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to limit the spread of the Zika virus will likely soon be unleashed in the southern United States, as the federal government said today decided to permit a field test in the Florida Keys.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it had made a preliminary determination that the GM mosquitoes are unlikely to harm humans, animals, or the environment.

Residents of the Hawaiian Islands just breathed a sigh of relief – literally, as the deadline passed for Hawaii’s House Judiciary Committee to hear House Bill 849, relating to Right to Farm, that would force residents to succumb to pesticide spraying without any say. All the while, companies like Monsanto, Dow, Syngenta, and BASF use Hawaii land as a testing ground for GM crops.

How did the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture vote this past Tuesday in the hearing for the DARK Act, (Deny Americans the Right to Know) strangely officially called the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (HR 1599)? You need to know before if goes to a full Senate floor vote!

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton, 1887

Two South Kona coffee growers have reportedly filed a lawsuit against Monsanto, claiming that the company lied about the possibility for glyphosate, the main ingredient in Round Up, to cause cancer.