LOTSA  GM  SHORTS

Thanks to Luke Anderson and Richard Wolfson for several of these
*  *  *
Brazilian poultry producer fined for feeding GMO corn
Selected by Pro Farmer Editors, Agence France-Presse - 4 December 2000

RIO DE JANEIRO—Avipal, Brazil’s fourth-largest poultry producer, has been hit with a 250,000-dollar fine for not warning southern Brazilian consumers that the company’s laying hens were fed with genetically modified corn, a Brazilian consumer safety agency said Monday.
*  *  *
Civic group protests imports of GM rice
Thanks to Martin Frid for this:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20001206b1.htm

TOKYO Dec. 5 Kyodo - A civic group in Tokyo sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Tuesday protesting imports and sales of genetically modified rice.
The group, called NO! GMO Campaign, submitted the letter, signed by around 122,000 people, saying that GM rice being developed by industrialized countries would pose health hazards.
Officials of the group said that measures need to be taken against the strong possibility that Japan will consider importing and marketing GM rice in the future.

They said the government should protect the public’s health as well as the domestic agriculture industry, which they say has helped maintain the natural environment.

According to the group, the Japanese government has already approved the planting of a total of 16 types of GM rice.

Applications are likely to be made with the Health and Welfare Ministry for 10 of these types of rice to be approved as food products, the officials said.
*  *  *

Negligence Suit Is Filed Over Altered Corn - 4December 2000
By DAVID BARBOZA

CHICAGO, 3 Dec. - A class- action lawsuit accuses the developer of StarLink, a variety of bioengineered corn that accidentally entered the food supply, of harming American farmers through negligence.

The suit, filed on Friday in United States District Court in East St.  Louis, Ill., on behalf of farmers, is the first to seek damages. It contends that the developer of the corn, Aventis CropScience, a unit of Aventis S.A., was negligent in bringing StarLink to market.
*  *  *
Aventis to repay grain handlers for bio-corn  - By Julie Vorman - Reuters - 4 December,

WASHINGTON, 4 Dec - Aventis SA (, the maker of a biotech corn variety that contaminated vast amounts of the U.S.  corn supply, sought to reassure grain handlers Monday that the company would compensate them for storage, freight and other extra costs.

John Wichtrich, an Aventis vice president, emphasized the giant Franco-German company’s plan to spin off its agricultural biotech unit would have no impact on compensation for the tainted corn.
*  *  *
Aventis offers reparation to Brazil soy farmers  - By Reese Ewing, Reuters - 5 December

SAO PAULO, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The French-German biotech firm Aventis is paying reparations to Brazilian soybean farmers for a bad fungicide but farmers say it’s too little too late, local industry officials said on Tuesday
.
The life-science firm’s local arm Aventis CropScience do Brasil pulled its Rhodiauram SC fungicide off shelves after it found a bad batch was blocking newly planted soybeans from sprouting and retarding growth in seeds that did germinate.
*  *  *
GM chicken eggs may become cancer busters - report - 5  December

LONDON - The Edinburgh scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep in 1997 have developed genetically modified chickens whose eggs may yield ingredients for cancer fighting drugs, the Mail on Sunday newspaper said.
*  *  *
U.S. Science Panel Concerned StarLink Corn Allergenic
By Julie Vorman, Reuters - 5 December

WASHINGTON - An independent panel of U.S. scientists on Tuesday dealt a blow to  Aventis SA’s bid to win temporary approval of StarLink bio-corn for human food by finding that the corn had a “medium likelihood” of causing allergic reactions.

The group of physicians, chemists and other scientists concluded that there were still many questions about the safety of StarLink, a type of corn engineered to repel pests.
*  *  *
US farm group against sale of unapproved corn seed - 6 December

CHICAGO - In the wake of an unapproved gene-altered corn turning up in the  food chain, an Illinois farm group on Monday called on companies to stop  selling genetically-modified corn seed that have not been approved for both  food and feed use in world markets.

Illinois Farm Bureau President Ron Warfield, speaking as the corn market  remained shrouded in the StarLink controversy, said the group had conveyed  its proposal to seven major seed companies, adding that some of them were taking it into consideration.
*  *  *
Canada urged to speed up detection of GM grains -  6 December

OTTAWA - Rapid detection of genetically modified grains and oilseeds has  become an urgent necessity for Canada’s agricultural export industry, which  sells food around the world, an industry official said on Tuesday.

“Canada really needs to make a concerted effort about detection in grains,”  said William Scowcroft, a director with the Canadian Grain Commission’s  research laboratory.

Detection of genetically modified grain and oilseeds will become increasinglynecessary as countries, scrambling to regulate the relatively new technology  entering their markets, begin to require formal detection.