Several items via AgWeb - some radically shortened.
Delicious to see (item 1 - laugh of the day!) that the Canadian Wheat Board has been hoodwinked by "subMarxist theories". So that's what they call economic sanity (ie not destroying Canada's global wheat market).
-GM FOOD V. MANURE
-PROTESTERS FEAR CHANGE
-EU PLANS MAY SOUND DEATH KNELL FOR GM FARMING
-AVENTIS KEEN ON MORE BIOTECH DEALS
GM FOOD V. MANURE
August 2, 2001
National Post
A long list of organizations -- among them the National Farmers Union, the Council of Canadians, the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, the Canadian Health Coalition and the Canadian Wheat Board -- demand, according that Ottawa end its experimental planting of genetically modified wheat....
The primary beneficiaries [of GM] will be the world's poor. GM rice will help prevent Vitamin-A deficiency, a condition that every year causes hundreds of thousands of people in the Third World to go blind. Other GM products will permit crops to resist drought, floods and harsh soil. In the future, vaccines will be delivered with bananas and potatoes. Enemies of genetically modified crops have become so engrossed in their subMarxist theories of corporate conspiracy that they dismiss all of these advances. They want to destroy the technologies of the new green revolution, and they regard the impoverishment and continued suffering of millions of poor people around the world as an acceptable level of collateral damage.
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PROTESTERS FEAR CHANGE
July 30, 2001
The Scotsman
Letter from Prof Anthony Trewavas
Sceptics within the government listen to a lot of small, vociferous activist groups who seem determined to keep us in the Stone Age regarding biotechnology. [etc. etc.]
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EU PLANS MAY SOUND DEATH KNELL FOR GM FARMING
August 2, 2001
PA News
Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent,
Friends of the Earth (FoE) was cited as saying that moves to control contamination of seeds from genetically modified crops could mean an end to GM farming in the UK, and that proposals to change the directives controlling seed purity, put forward by the European Commission, will require big increases in separation distances between non-GM seed crops and GM crops.
TheEU is proposing a less than 1% contamination of non-GM crops by Brussels approved GM varieties - a level which has been widely criticised as being far too high by consumer and environment groups.
Imported seed will be required to have zero contamination from genetic modifications which are not approved in the EU.
The UK Government last week announced further sites for the GM winter oilseed rape farm scale trials where separation distances from non GM crops are no more than 200 metres.
FoE GM Campaigner Carol Kearney was quoted as saying, "These new proposals should sound the death knell for GM farming in the UK. The new proposals in practice will mean a choice between a GM free future for farming, or GM only seed and food. The seed industry knows what UK consumers want and expect. A GM free future is the only real option they face. Friends of the Earth is delighted that the new proposals take the threat of GM contamination so seriously. This is the only way to protect consumers from the unknown hazards of GM food. The UK Government should take note of the EU proposals and immediately stop the oilseed rape farm-scale trials they have justannounced, where the 200 metre separation distance is completely inadequate."
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AVENTIS KEEN ON MORE BIOTECH DEALS
August 2, 2001
Reuters
Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON - Aventis SA Chief Financial Officer Patrick Langlois was cited as saying on Thursday that Aventis would like more tie-ups with biotechnology companies and will consider acquisitions to bolster its presence in the ll-important U.S. market. Aventis, which reported strong second-quarter results, last year clinched one of the world's biggest biotech deals when it paid Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc $450 million for a stake in the U.S. firm and rights to its drug discovery skills.