In a sneaky plan to get around regulatory approval, one US-based company tried to ship genetically modified salmon eggs to Prince Edward Island in Canada, which were then meant to be sent to Panama to be used in what activists are calling a ‘huge, live experiment’ which could have permanently damaged non-GM salmon.
The biotech firm Editas Medicine says that humans who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within the next 2 years. The company announced that it will soon start the first trials of what it calls a groundbreaking new technique.
Basing their decision on evaluations of hundreds of thousands of women and minorities, Fortune Magazine has named Monsanto one of the ‘50 best places to work’ based on diversity. But can a workplace be all that great when its main objective is to genetically manipulate nature and leave the planet a genotoxic, pesticide-riddled, soil-ruined mess.
How do you continue to push GM crops on a population that has overwhelmingly voted against them in poll after poll? You start a campaign similar to the one the tobacco industry began in the 1920’s with the help of Edward Bernays to discredit any naysayers and even put doctors in commercials smoking cigarettes. You also do whatever it takes to buy out ‘real’ scientists and call those into question who inquire about the true safety of GM foods. You label them anti-science and discredit their credentials.
In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruled that the there was “no convincing evidence” that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide ‘Roundup,’ is an endocrine disruptor. The conclusion was based on an assessment of 52 chemicals and the likelihood that any of them could be classified as such. [1]
A Supreme Court in Mexico recently denied biotech the right to push GM soy in the country, and the ramifications of the decision is helping to save Mayan beekeepers’ honey.
Beekeepers in the Mexican sates of Yucatan and Campeche were concerned about GM contamination of their honey, but will now be protected.
Three environmental groups are calling for a halt to the open field trials planned for GM moths at Cornell University.
Farmers in India are having doubts that genetically modified cotton is providing much benefit after a whitefly attack ravaged their fields.
The whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety in Punjab and Haryana reportedly contributed to the suicides of at least 3 farmers around the city of Bhatinda and tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to demand state aid. [1]
The Hawaii State Department of Agriculture conducted an impromptu meeting to allow biotech to ‘field test’ genetically modified bananas. This is of great concern to the people of Hawaii, and no public notice was made of the meeting until very recently. UH received a $1.5 million research grant from the US federal government to develop a GMO banana variety, even though Hawaii residents have made it very clear they oppose GM crops.
The Big Six biotech companies have had their way patenting genetically modified foods for decades now; that, we know. But unsuspecting individuals likely have no idea that companies like Syngenta and Monsanto have been patenting REAL food (also known simply as food) which was not made in a lab using gene splicing or editing techniques.
