National interactive map of GM-free farms, businesses and councils - register now

Gene Ethics has developed an Australian interactive map which shows those farms, retailers, restaurants, caterers, seed suppliers and local government councils which are proudly GM-free.

The map also shows GM farms and receival depots.

To get your NSW North Coast GM-free business on this register, Download this form and email it back to Gene Ethics.

Congratulations to Truefood Trading at Diggers Camp for being the first North Coast business to register.

Monsanto can Twitter but it can't hide

Not long back I added MonsantoCo to my Twitter list.
It has been fascinating to watch the parallel universe in which its public relations employees live.

Equally fascinating is that this urge to tweet appears to follow on from its earlier advertising campaign which was apparently based around the concept of 'sustainability'.

One has to suspect that the campaign in print and radio was not the success Monsanto hoped for, hence the back-up.

Of course Monsanto & Co is not alone in pushing the GMO cause - its clones are out there doing their bit as well.

The Mid America Croplife Association apparently wrote to Michelle Obama trying to head that new White House vegetable garden off at the pass and, Croplife Australia is still plugging way.

Needless to say SourceWatch cites BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agrosciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta as key funders for the Croplife group.

Such is Monsanto's chutzpah that through Croplife International (of which it is a member) the company attempted to hijack the U.N. sponsored International Day for Biological Diversity this month which had as its theme Invasive Alien Species.

Invasive alien species are plants, animals, pathogens and other organisms that are non-native to an ecosystem, and which may cause economic or environmental harm or adversely affect human health. In particular, they impact adversely upon biodiversity, including decline or elimination of native species - through competition, predation, or transmission of pathogens - and the disruption of local ecosystems and ecosystem functions.

If you believed Croplife, the international day was actually all about the pesticides/herbicides, genetically modified seed etc., supplied by its member companies.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine Calls For Immediate Moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods

Press Advisory
May 19,

The American Academy Of Environmental Medicine Calls For
Immediate Moratorium On Genetically Modified Foods

Wichita, KS - The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) today released its position paper on Genetically Modified foods stating that "GM foods pose a serious health risk" and calling for a moratorium on GM foods. Citing several animal studies, the AAEM concludes "there is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects" and that "GM foods pose a serious health risk in the areas of toxicology, allergy and immune function, reproductive health, and metabolic, physiologic and genetic health."
The AAEM calls for:

• A moratorium on GM food, implementation of immediate long term safety testing and labeling of GM food.
  
• Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community and the public to avoid GM foods.
  
• Physicians to consider the role of GM foods in their patients' disease processes.
  
• More independent long term scientific studies to begin gathering data to investigate the role of GM foods on human health.

"Multiple animal studies have shown that GM foods cause damage to various organ systems in the body. With this mounting evidence, it is imperative to have a moratorium on GM foods for the safety of our patients' and the public's health," said Dr. Amy Dean, PR chair and Board Member of AAEM.

"Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions," said Dr. Jennifer Armstrong, President of AAEM. "The most common foods in North America which are consumed that are GMO are corn, soy, canola, and cottonseed oil."

The AAEM's position paper on Genetically Modified foods can be found at http:aaemonline.org/gmopost.html.

AAEM is an international association of physicians and other professionals dedicated to addressing the clinical aspects of environmental health. More information is available at www.aaemonline.org.

-more-

About AAEM The American Academy of Environmental Medicine was founded in 1965, and is an international association of physicians and other professionals interested in the clinical aspects of humans and their environment. The Academy is interested in expanding the knowledge of interactions between human individuals and their environment, as these may be demonstrated to be reflected in their total health. The AAEM provides research and education in the recognition, treatment and prevention of illnesses induced by exposures to biological and chemical agents encountered in air, food and water. ###

More GM lobby machinations?

Times Higher Education earlier this year:

A charity has come under fire for failing to declare all industry affiliations of the experts it enlisted to compile a booklet explaining genetic modification to the public.
The pamphlet was produced by Sense About Science (SAS), a charity that claims to promote scientific reasoning in public discussions.
According to anti-genetic modification campaigners and academics, it failed to mention links between some of the experts who wrote the booklet and GM firms.
For example, the guide's biography of Vivian Moses, emeritus professor of microbiology at Queen Mary, University of London, and visiting professor of biotechnology at King's College London, does not mention that he is also chairman of CropGen, a GM lobby group that receives funding from the biotechnology industry.
It says only that he has been "a full-time researcher in biochemistry and microbiology" and is now "primarily concerned with communicating science to the public".
Critics also argued that the guide should have noted that the John Innes Centre, where eight of its 28 contributors are based, received funding from biotechnology companies.
Michael Antoniou, a geneticist at King's College London, described the omissions as "outrageous".
He said: "GM is a sensitive issue. People have been extremely suspicious because of its industrial connections. So it is imperative that they declare these in this context, as in a journal publication."
Dr Antoniou, who himself provides technical advice to anti-GM campaign group GM Watch, speculated that SAS had not disclosed Professor Moses' directorship because it was afraid of arousing public suspicion.

GM Watch tells us that there are even more 'scientists' hidden in the woodpile:

The pro-GM lobby group Sense About Science (SAS) has been caught with its pants down by Private Eye. The famous satirical magazine has obtained a confidential draft copy of SAS's recently published GM guide which shows it had a "ghost writer" that SAS failed to declare. Here's the article.
Private Eye No. 1232, 20 March - 2 April 2009, Books and Bookmen (p.26)
A spat has broken out over a Times Higher Education article highlighting the failure of a new guide to GM food, 'Making Sense of GM', to disclose its industry connections. Tracey Brown of Sense About Science, publisher of the guide, condemned the T.H.E. article as "mischievous" and "rude" and claimed it relied on "tortuously indirect links" between the authors and the GM industry.
But the Eye has a copy of an unpublished draft of the guide - and it seems it wasn't just the industry links of some of its authors that didn't appear in the final published version. One of the guide's listed authors, Andrew Cockburn, is also missing. Who he? None other than GM giant, Monsanto's former director of scientific affairs, and a figure so controversial that when former PM Tony Blair invited him to author part of the government's official GM Science Review, it led to questions being raised in the House and the resignation of one of the expert panellists. No wonder Sense About Science felt erasure was the better form of valour.

*Sense about Science issued a statement to the effect that in the end Cockburn did not review its GM guide.

In addition,this month MADGE blew the whistle on Graincorp:

AUSTRALIANS will soon be eating genetically modified food whether they like it or not.

The nation's major grain handler, Graincorp, announced this week that genetically modified canola will be mixed in with the main crop in this year's harvest.

Anti-GM groups say the decision means canola oil and a large amount of commonly bought processed food made with canola will now be genetically modified.

They say staples that will become genetically modified include baby food, potato chips, biscuits, frozen vegetables, crackers and pre-prepared meals.

They claim the move is premature because GM food has yet to be tested properly.

"All GM food has been created randomly. The DNA of these plants has been altered and no one really knows where it will go," said Madeleine Love, spokeswoman for Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering (MADGE).....

Graincorp corporate affairs manager David Ginn confirmed the two streams of canola will be mixed together this year after the October harvest.

Meanwhile, GMO bananas are being trialled in Queensland and can be now added to North Coast Voices' March 2009 GMO watch list.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Biotech: the unmet promise of genetically engineered crops?

In the face of a review of GM crop yield studies which concluded that there was no appreciable difference between crops grown from conventional and genetically modified seed, talk of herbicide resistant weeds being associated with land used for GM crops and the banning of GM maize MON 10 by Germany on environmental grounds, the big biotech companies are pretending that is still business as usual.

And if you are a large multinational corporation like Monsanto, with lobbyist tentacles reaching into so many national or state governments around the world, I expect that it really is business as usual.

So usual that it is thinking of starting yet another court case in its pursuit of the 'golden' apex of a global agricultural food chain.

Still it doesn't hurt if you also create a slice of corporate propaganda like this:











View and Download this Ad
from Monsanto website











* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Monsanto goes a-Twittering

It's no secret that Agwired has a relationship with Monsanto the biotech giant.
So when it came out with this it was hardly surprising:

I ran across this article, Planting Cyber Seeds, written by Jeffrey Tomich for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and I thought I would share it will all of you. The article is about how Monsanto has worked to tackle big issues through Twitter, the social networking tool that answers the question, What are you doing?

Because environmentalists were constantly trying to derail Monsanto in the media, the company quickly realized that they needed to address some big issues in the news for themselves. The group uses Twitter to discuss controversial topics like food labeling and genetically modified foods. Like many agriculture groups, Monsanto has realized that this is the best outlet to interacting with the nation's food consumers.

Sounds as though Monsanto is on top of the social media game doesn't it? However when you search for Monsanto on Twitter you find a different story.

MonsantoCo shows the company-endorsed face of Monsanto tweets, but over at the official Monsanto blog they linked to a Twitter realtime search which showed 5 pages of more varied results, with anti-GM tweeters hogging the space right now.
Including beekeeper protests and links to media articles about GM crop failures.
Although it has to be said the Monsanto Twitter is hardly overwhelmed with people tweeting it.

Seems that whatever online PR Monsanto tries, it comes to grief.

Suicide: Monsanto blames it on the weather and ........

Monsanto according to Monsanto, the official blog of that monolithic U.S. bio-tech multinational corporation, has decided to tackle those posts out in the blogosphere which draw a correlation between an increase in suicides amongst Indian farmers and the introduction of GMO cotton seed into that country in 2002.

In its post Indian Farmer Suicide - The Bottom Line Monsanto has decided that these suicides are due to a number of factors including the weather, but finally plumps for personal debt as the chief cause; A variety of third-party studies have proven that personal debt is the historical reason behind an Indian farmer's decision to commit suicide, not biotech seed.

The company blog points to an article in The Financial Express, which it implies exonerates biotech crops (such as cotton) from culpability.
However, this article points out that; "Increased liberalisation and globalisation have in fact led to a shift in the cropping pattern from staple crop to cash crops like oilseeds and cotton, requiring high investment in modern inputs and wage labour. This increases credit needs. But when the prices declined farmers have no means to supplement their incomes,".

Not quite the clean report card for biotech multinationals as Monsanto according to Monsanto would have us believe.
Modern inputs for an Indian farmer with a GM cotton crop in the field can include recurring annual seed costs and Monsanto's technology fee as part of seed price.

Nor does a 2008 study cited by Monsanto undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPR) give unqualified support for Monsanto's assertion that the introduction of GMO cotton was benign; in specific regions and years, where Bt cotton may have indirectly contributed to farmer indebtedness, leading to suicides, its failure was mainly the result of the context or environment in which it was planted. We close the paper by proposing a conceptual framework for empirical applications linking the different agricultural and institutional factors that could have contributed to farmer suicides in recent years in certain districts of Central and Southern India.

The Monsanto blog goes on to mention the Virdabah district as being an area where GM cotton was a great success, but neglects to mention that according to that same IFPR paper ; The largest number of reported cases [of suicide] was concentrated in districts of northeast Maharashtra (Vidharba District).

According to a March 2008 3D paper on intellectual property rights asserted by biotech companies in India;
Owners of IPRs can prevent others from producing or selling the seeds or plant varieties over which he or she owns the rights, which makes farmers dependent on the owner of the intellectual property to supply the seeds. The IPR owners (usually private corporations) are free to set high prices or royalties on the seeds, and they retain a degree of control over how seeds are used or reused. With increasing corporate concentration in the agricultural sector, the seed owners have the power – which they already use – to raise prices of seeds and other agricultural inputs. In India the introduction of genetically-modified cotton has already had devastating effects. In addition to increasing the cost of food, jeopardizing the ability of farmers to derive a livelihood from farming when seed prices increase, and slowing down public-interest-oriented agricultural research, the ownership of IPRs on seeds goes counter to traditional practices of exchanging and saving seeds, thus undermining community and cultural rights.

The Indian Journal of Psychiatry in 2007 confirmed a rise in official suicides rates over the last twenty years, that the 'real' rate is probably somewhere in the vicinity of six to nine times the official rate and, that there has been a recent spate of farmer suicides.

Monsanto according to Monsanto is right when it points to the complexities surrounding suicide, but that doesn't mean that it can ignore the fact that the economics of growing GM cotton may place an onerous burden on poor, marginal farmers in India.

Neither can it chose to ignore the fact that in India in 2006 Monsanto through its joint venture Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB) went to court in an effort to force an increase in GM cotton seed prices or the fact that Monsanto is also accused of profiting from bonded child labour on that continent.

Australian consumers need to decide whether buying products containing GM ingredients is supporting biotech companies truly committed to environmentally sustainable and socially responsible agriculture production or is just supporting companies who put such sentiments on their websites and forget these principles thereafter.

Saturday's grab bag

As sometimes happens a couple of North Coast Voices authors are off in parts unknown or down and out with a lurgy.
So I'm posting a few links that might keep readers up to date on a few issues:

The Monsanto blog is currently taking exception to 10 Reasons Why We Don't Need GM Food.
The biotech monolith is also on Twitter now as MonsantoCo.

Malcolm Truffles Turnbull unsuccessfully tried a censure motion against the Federal Minister for Defence over the SAS pay bungle.
Joel Fitzgibbon answers on this issue and the Department of Defence sends out a media release.
And yesterday The Australian went with a pay slip which is now in dispute.

The whaling debate continues in the American media which reports Japan's heavy handed approach to Japanese Greenpeace members and Australian Federal Police board the Steve Irwin on its return from Antarctic waters.

The Clarence Valley sends goods and cattle fodder south to communities and farmers in Victorian bushfire areas.

Getup! gets into Rudd Government over its proposed emissions trading scheme.

The Far North Coaster reports that; "The second combined exhibition featuring works from graduating Southern Cross University and TAFE visual arts students will be on show in Lismore from March 3 until March 21."

The Daily Examiner reports on the cost of Clarence Valley localized flooding this month.

Monsanto According To Monsanto: no blog is too big or small, we read all of them

No blog is too big or small, we read all of them says Monsanto on its new blog Monsanto According to Monsanto.

On the first post by Kathleen our blog North Coast Voices gets not one but two links within the text.

So if all blogs are read - does someone also go out on behalf of Monsanto and take notes at any protest rally or town meeting?

Spin Watch tells us a little about corporate strategy in relation to the Internet.
Source Watch tells a similar story and Gene Watch records Monsanto's alleged attempts to deceive as well as quotes a section of the book Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat .

Kathleen may like to think that she is the 'nice' face of a 'good' company.
Sadly for Kathleen I am too old to for fall for the froth and spin, when court transcripts and research papers (some discussed elsewhere on North Coast Voices) tell of a socially and environmentally irresponsible, destructive multinational who doesn't give a toss about the rest of the world.

Graphic is Kathleen's avatar

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Walking on the wildside: GMO transgenes found in wild maize

Evidence of the irresponsible nature of the biotechnology industry in general and Monsanto in particular.

Molecular Ecology:

A possible consequence of planting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in centres of crop origin is unintended gene flow into traditional landraces.

In 2001, a study reported the presence of the transgenic 35S promoter in maize landraces sampled in 2000 from the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Analysis of a large sample taken from the same region in 2003 and 2004 could not confirm the existence of transgenes, thereby casting doubt on the earlier results.

These two studies were based on different sampling and analytical procedures and are thus hard to compare. Here, we present new molecular data for this region that confirm the presence of transgenes in three of 23 localities sampled in 2001.

Transgene sequences were not detected in samples taken in 2002 from nine localities, while directed samples taken in 2004 from two of the positive 2001 localities were again found to contain transgenic sequences.

These findings suggest the persistence or re-introduction of transgenes up until 2004 in this area.

We address variability in recombinant sequence detection by analyzing the consistency of current molecular assays.

We also present theoretical results on the limitations of estimating the probability of transgene detection in samples taken from landraces.

The inclusion of a limited number of female gametes and, more importantly, aggregated transgene distributions may significantly lower detection probabilities.

Our analytical and sampling considerations help explain discrepancies among different detection efforts, including the one presented here, and provide considerations for the establishment of monitoring protocols to detect the presence of transgenes among structured populations of landraces.

This is not the first time transgenes have been found in the wild as GMO seed dispersal also leads to engineered seed establishing itself amid original species and cross-pollinating, as appears to be the case in relation to certain grasses.

Thanks to Balneus for pointing me in the direction of this information.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Monsanto related environmental and health risks lead to court case - again

According to The Madison St Clair Record last week:

A group of Illinois residents who live in or near Sauget have filed a class-action lawsuit over the release of various hazardous substances that they claim has created a severe health risk and has contaminated their properties.

Lead class plaintiffs Vernon Lee Anderson Sr., Ernestine Lawrence, Katie Burnett-Smith, Martha Emily Young, Marcella Phillips and Bernice Laverne Collins argue that three release sites - a 90-acre landfill operated by Sauget and Co., a 314-acre W.G. Krummrich Plant and property owned by Cerro Flow Products - have released PCBs and other various substances, including dioxins and furans, into the atmosphere for more than 70 years.

Residents fear they will develop a deadly disease from the PCBs, which have been shown to result in toxic effects in the brain and nervous system and in low birth rates and birth defects.

"According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, a lifetime dose of one milligram of PCBs is sufficient to cause cancer and other serious and life-threatening diseases," the suit filed Feb. 10 in St. Clair County Circuit Court states. "According to the World Health Organization, there is not safe level of exposure to PCBs."

Dioxins and furans are also known to be dangerous and to create significant health problems through inhalation, ingestion, dermal absorption and ingestion of homegrown produce.

In addition to the health risk, the residents claim the PCBs have contaminated property within a two-mile radius of the release sites, waterways and groundwater, the suit states.

The releases began after the W.G. Krummrich Plant, which is also referred to as the Monsanto Facility in the complaint, began producing, storing and disposing of PCBs at its facility, the residents claim.

In fact, "more PCBs were produced at the Monsanto Facility than at any other site in the United States, and perhaps even the free world," the suit states.

This Sauget flood plain region is well-known to the US Environmental Protection Agency and Monsanto had previously entered a negotiated settlement with the State of illinois.

Fox River Watch has a history of PCB health problems in the US here.

And with a corporate history like that Monsanto (along with the other biotech multinationals now operating here) expects Australians to take its word that the genetically modified crop types it is pushing onto often unwilling communities will do no harm?
Show us the longitudinal studies which scientifically demonstrate this, Monsanto.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Monsanto propaganda rules! Or does it?

Monsanto propaganda rules - or does it?

Here is Monsanto's spin laced with alternative images:

Monsanto's research program centers on increasing yields for three key crops used for food, feed, fiber and fuel - corn, soybeans and cotton. The company's research pipeline uses more precise breeding techniques to develop higher-yielding germplasm. Other technologies result in plant traits that provide better protection against pests and better weed control. Monsanto's objective under this new commitment is to double yield for these three crops by 2030 in countries where farmers have access to current and anticipated new seed choices offered by the company.
{Genetically Modified Crops Implicated in Honey Bee Collapse Disorder}

This would mean, for example, that corn production in the prominent agricultural markets of Argentina, Brazil and the United States would reach a weighted average of 220 bushels per acre by 2030, compared to 109.1 bushels per acre in 2000. Soybean production in those countries would rise from a weighted average of 39.5 bushels per acre in 2000 to 79 bushels per acre in 2030. Cotton would increase from 1.4 bales (672 pounds) per acre to 2.8 bales (1,344 pounds) per acre.
{GM crops have failed and Canola yeild stoush}

Monsanto will establish a five-year, $10 million grant for rice and wheat research to be administered by a panel of world experts on food production in developing countries. Rice and wheat are key crops for food security, but are not a primary focus for the company. The chairperson of this panel will be named in the near future. A panel of independent judges will select one project per year to receive a $2 million grant. Further details on this program will be developed and announced in the coming months. {GM trial results spark debate}

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Monsanto fruit?

From Animal Magic: or what happens when graphic artists get bored

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Australian genetically modified foods update

This post is by way of a catch-up on news about genetically modified (GM) food and crops in Australia.

ABC News reported last week:

When New South Wales and Victoria dropped their bans on genetically modified canola crops, GM supporters claimed farmers would have greater yielding crops as a result.
However recent trials showed there was little difference between the two.
So why bother growing GM canola if you can't get anything extra out of it?....
Chris Preston is associate professor at the School of Agriculture at the University of Adelaide.
He says trial results depend on region and climate, and the drought hampered the GM canola trails.
He says the trials do give an indication how canola performs in drought conditions, and if that's where it's being grown it's probably not worth growing GM canola variety. xxxx

WA Business News also ran this short article on 16 January:

Genetically modified canola crops in Victoria have performed no better than their non-genetically modified counterparts as Western Australia prepares to hold trials later this year.
Results from Grains Research and Development Council showed the yields, from the first independent trial crops in Horsham and Forbes in Victoria, were 0.7 tonne per hectare for GM and 0.8t/ha ha for non-GM.
The results are not good news for those wanting to farm GM canola, as to break even with the technology, profits must increase by up to 16 per cent.

Comment on the Business News article:

This article talks of yields, but what about sales? Thanks to this environmentally toxic rubbish being foisted on us Australians I simply boycott everything with Canola in it now because no-one can quickly prove to me it's GM free.

I'm not going to waste my time trying to find out either as you either encounter people who don't have a clue or spin doctors.

I'm becoming more aggressive with fish shops etc too, if they are using canola or cottonseed oil, the food could be GM contaminated.

We Can't Eat A Scorched Earth! Climate change and food security

Free public meeting promoted by Gene Ethics

Thursday 5th February 2009
5.45 pm for 6.00 pm talk start, concluding 7.15pm
NSW Teachers Federation

23 - 33 Mary St, Surry Hills Sydney - (between Albion & Reservoir)

True Food Network latest guide to GM-free food and what to avoid

Australian Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) list of genetically modified product approvals:
GM products approved as food, food additives and processing aids (PDF 79 KB)
GM products approved as therapeutics (PDF 19 KB)

OGTR current list of applications and licences to release GMO into the environment, laboratory trials and low risk dealings.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Monsanto, I presume........

Cartoon found at Red, Green and Blue

environmental politics from across the spectrum

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

We haven't forgotten you, Mr. Monsanto

It has been a while since North Coast Voices ran a post on Monsanto, the US-based biotech giant which dominates around 95 per cent of the global genetically modified seed market.

Here are some recent items:

Gene-altered crop studies grow

Labs move beyond corn and soybeans into rice, wheat

Worst Companies in the World: US, Monsanto, Peabody and Barrick

The United States was voted the Worst Company in the World, followed by Monsanto, Peabody Energy Corp. and Barrick Gold

Monsanto acts quickly to resolve harvest mistake
Monsanto Co. has claimed responsibility and pledged "to take appropriate actions," to prevent experimental cotton and cottonseed from entering the marketplace as either fiber, livestock feed or oil products.

Anger over first large-scale GM canola trial

OPPONENTS of a commercial trial of genetically modified canola in WA say there is no guarantee the 1000 hectare operation can be contained.

The State Government announced yesterday that 20 farmers would be involved next year in WA's first large-scale trial of GM canola.

It will be carried out by global seed and pesticide giant Monsanto, the Department of Agriculture and Food in WA and private grain carrier Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH).

MADGE Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering

MADGE is a network of individuals interested in how our food is grown and the effects it has on our health. We are concerned about the lack of adequate labelling and testing of GM foods.
We advocate on behalf of consumers for the right to know what is in our food. We promote information on natural foods and healthy farming practices.
Click here to receive our weekly newsletter.

Historical photograph found at Google Images.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

A bloke's gonna be sorry he said that

A link to last week's media release from Monsanto Australia was sent to me the other day.

In it this daft farmer from Borowa, Geoff Mason is quoted at length, in fact the entire release is all about Geoff and his luuurv for GM corn.

"It's stems are as strong as tree trunks. I'm impressed with the way it stands up. It'd take a cyclone to blow it down."

Yeah mate, and out Borowa way the flyers are so big that a horse and rider will travel 3 days before getting back out of that pouch they accidentally rode into.

Pic comes from Wikimedia.

True Food Network releases GM-free food guide

Click to enlarge

The pocket sized GE-free Food Guide can be ordered or downloaded here.

* This post is part of North Coast Voices' effort to keep Monsanto's blog monitor (affectionately known as Mr. Monsanto) in long-term employment.

Something for Australian supermarket chains to ponder as GM crops spread

Image from The Ecologist online 23 November 2008

The major supermarket chains operating in Australia need to ask themselves if graphs like the one here are likely to translate into consumer resistance to goods containing ingredients such as canola, soy, cotton seed oil, corn, rice etc. and if distinguishing their 'brand' as GM-free would be to their commercial advantage.

Gene Ethics creates 2008 GM canola site map for New South Wales

Click to enlarge

NSW and Victorian maps can be downloaded from Gene Ethics here.