¡Join the fight!
The USDA extended its extension for hearing public comments on whether or not, upon appeal by Monsanto, that company's new GE RoundupReady alfalfa should be approved.
Now I know most of you Fair Food Fighters are opposed to GMOs and Monsanto. But have you actually written your comment on this matter? Sure, you've Tweeted about it, forwarded emails, Facebooked, and Dugg it, but have you written your letter? Read more...
By John Mesko, Lighthouse Farm
Over the past several years, people in the food producing industry have been faced with new challenges brought on by new technology. One of the most visible challenges to the food industry has been the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). Read more...
The little guys win some gold from Goliath. From AP News:
A federal court jury has ordered the German conglomerate Bayer CropScience to pay $1.5 million to farmers in Arkansas and Mississippi whose rice seed was contaminated with a genetically altered strain.
Friday's verdict was the second against Bayer CropScience for losses sustained by farmers when an experimental variety of rice that the company was testing infiltrated crops. Read more...
Via the National Organic Coalition
Tell the USDA Not to Approve Monsanto's GE Alfalfa
The USDA just released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on GE alfalfa and NOW is your chance to demand that USDA protect organic food from GE contamination. Comments are due February 16, 2010! Read more...
Michael Sykuta, associate professor at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri at Columbia, wrote an opinion piece for the Modesto Bee asking Why are Feds Launching Ag Antitrust Probe? and it's not a rhetorical question:
Why, one may wonder, is the Department of Justice launching an antitrust investigation against some of U.S. food system’s major players at a time when Americans are enjoying a widening array of food choices and spending less and less of their disposable income to do so? Read more...
I first came across The Earthnik Gazette while following and reading about the "ProFood" posse on Twitter.
It caught my eye because The Earthnik Gazette, an online satirical "broadsheet" that parodies the ills and weirdnesses of an out of control food system, was clearly taking a "Fair Food Fight" approach, that is, through the time-honored avenues of sarcasm and mockery. I liked that a lot and thought Fair Food Fighters should get to know The Earthnik Gazette. Read more...
I heart Dan Mitchell's Daily Bread blog. Ordinarily, it is excellent: witty, (see: "beware of Ex-Lax sushi"-- my personal recent favorite), clear-headed, and normally very fair. I sometimes disagree with Mitchell's conclusions, but I never get the sense that he's written something without thought. Read more...
I was discussing GMOs and genetic engineering with contacts on Twitter a few days ago, and Joya, a very smart farmer out in Delaware, said she thought that all corn in the US was probably tainted with GMO traits now, thanks to widespread use of GMOs and its pollen drift
Organic farming, of course, requires farmers to source non-GMO seed, so the implications of what she said were sobering to me. I'd imagined this would eventually be true, but hadn't given it much thought recently. Read more...
Speaking of Monsanto, it looks like they're in full retreat from a new generation of GMO corn in Europe -- and, from where I sit,it's hard to imagine that this retreat wouldn't raise questions about GM corn products in the US, too. Via GMWatch on Twitter:
and from CheckBiotech Read more...
Here's my question. OK, I have a few questions.
Monsanto can win proprietary infringement lawsuits when Monsanto seeds drift on to a farmer's land. But what happens when Monsanto GMO seed drifts on to certified organic land? As organic ag expands, this is bound to happen.
Doesn't this scenario set the stage for a class action suit pitting organic farmers against Monsanto? If Roundup Ready soybeans wind up on a certifed organic soybean farmer's field -- whose organic certification specifically forbids GMO seeds -- can't that farmer claim damages from Monsanto for pollution, now that Monsanto has argued and proven that it owns its Roundup Ready pollen drift? Read more...
