Date: 28 February 2001
HEADLINES IN BIO-TECH FOOD DEBATE - FROM THE DAILY
BRIEF
Five items
FarmPowerNews@Starpower.net - reporting breaking news in the Biotech
Food Debate
1. Monsanto Admits Breach of Gene Technology Guidelines.
28 February 2001
- Australian Broadcasting Service
(ABC)).
http://www.excite.com.au/news/story/abc/20010228/18/domestic/abc-28feb2001-110.inp
The multinational crop company, Monsanto, has admitted to breaching
Federal guidelines for conducting gene technology trials. The Interim
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has found Monsanto and another
company, Aventis, did not carry out adequate clean up procedures at 11
Tasmanian sites used for trials of genetically engineered canola.
The findings have outraged the Tasmanian Government, which is investigating
if there are any grounds for prosecution under state quarantine laws. Spokesman
for Monsanto, Brian Arnst, says regrowth of trialled canola plants was
found at two of the company's sites during a federal
government check. He says Monsanto has been quick to fix the problem.
"These plants have subsequently been destroyed and the remedial monitoring
as suggested by the office of the GTR, we have adopted that obviously straight
away," he said.
2. Bush seeks to fully fund US food safety programme
and biotechnology
By Tom Doggett, WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - 27 February 2001
http://news.excite.com/news/r/010227/22/bush-agriculture
President Bush proposes in his first budget to fully fund the Agriculture Department's food safety programs, including money to pay for 7,600 meat and poultry inspectors. According to White House budget documents, Bush also plans to prioritize USDA research to provide new emphasis on biotechnology and developing new agricultural products.
Bush is set to unveil Wednesday his $1.9 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2002, which begins on Oct.
3. Europe Rethinks Policies, Organic methods on
Increase
Country-by-Country View - 28 February
2001, The Guardian, London. http://www.organicts.com/ or theguardian.com
news.
Special report: what's wrong with our food? Excerpts:
France: Sales of organic meat, fruit and vegetables have risen by 25%
over the past two years. Successive food crises only increase Europe-wide
calls for a fundamental shift in agricultural policies and practices. But
agricultural reform to improve food production methods - and particularly
any reform of the EU's common agricultural policy (CAP) - will be more
difficult to sell in France than anywhere else in Europe. French farmers
benefit more than any others from the CAP. They are capable of bringing
the country to a standstill and used to getting
what they want from nervous French governments...
4. Gene-Spliced Wheat Stirs Global Fears (front page
WashingtonPost)
By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post
Staff Writer. - 27 February 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60222-2001Feb27.html
Buyers Spurn Grain Before It's Planted.
Excerpts:
"Some have said that the wheat's very presence on American farms could
threaten future purchases of all U.S. wheat.... an unprecedented
wheat industry request to put in place a system to strictly segregate the
modified wheat before it is ever sold to farmers or even approved by regulators.
The company has also agreed generally to promote wheat biotechnology to
buyers and consumers abroad."
5. Traders Fret Japan's StarLink review may drag on
- 28 February 2001
By Jae Hur - Reuters
http://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=26073&app=1
Japan could take at least five months to decide whether to approve
gene-altered StarLink corn as animal feed, raising fears of possible supply
disruptions, traders said on Wednesday.
Japanese feed importers cautiously welcomed an application last week
by Aventis CropScience Japan KK, a unit of Franco-German life sciences
company Aventis SA , to sell its StarLink biotech corn to Japan for use
in animal feed. The gene-spliced corn is controversial in Japan, where
consumer opposition to genetically modified products has intensified since
traces of StarLink were detected in food and animal feed last October.
The discovery prompted Japan, the single-biggest buyer of U.S. corn, to
sharply cut its corn purchases, leading the U.S. and Japanese
governments to set up a testing protocol to prevent StarLink from being
mixed in U.S. corn exports to Japan.
(6) Editor's Note: Our abbreviated format for the next severalweeks is due to time constraints in searching for articles. Let us know what we've missed.
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