Resources about GMOs

                From:

• Andrew Kang Bartlett  PHP
• 
  

GMO Goodies  (with crazy numbering)

Urge Congress Not to Fast Track the Trans-Pacific Partnership – This enormous Free Trade Agreement would further strengthen corporations, including biotech corps, while likely hurting family farmers and workers in dozens of countries. Read more here

1. PCUSA on GMOs (below) 
2. Barbara Kingsolver on Genetic Engineering ~ "A Fist in the Eye of God" http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/SmallWonders.cfm
3. Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops – Impt report on productivity of GMOs!  http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/our-failing-food-system/genetic-engineering/failure-to-yield.html
4. One Million More for the Right to Know What We Eat; Bal­lot Ini­tia­tive: Label Genet­i­cally Engi­neered Foods or GMOs A Let­ter from Andrew Kang Bartlett http://justiceunbound.org/action-alerts/one-million-more-for-the-right-to-know-what-we-eat/ 
5. LINK to DropBox Folder on Genetic Engineering AKB, full of many good resources! - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gxcziu5ne2d32en/Ma4uI6Mnqo

10 Reasons to Avoid GMOs (this has the reference about the animal studies mentioned on the webinar) - http://www.responsibletechnology.org/10-Reasons-to-Avoid-GMOs 

1. 10 Apps to Help You Eat GMO Free - http://www.foodrevolution.org/blog/non-gmo-apps/

Hey, Non-GMO Activist: Monsanto's CEO Thinks You're an Elitist, by Anna Lappe - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-lappe/hey-nongmo-activist-monsa_b_3421674.html      

What's for Dinner? (Radio airdate: 07-22-13) Amber Heckelman is documenting climate resilience of rice varieties developed by Philippine rice farmers and scientists to reverse negative results of Green Revolution practices.

1. Monsanto http://www.pcusa.org/blogs/foodfaith/2010/10/8/monsanto/
2. World Food Day, Monsanto http://www.pcusa.org/blogs/foodfaith/2009/10/19/world-food-day-update-monsanto-monopoly-peasants-f/ 

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   Italy Prepares to Ban Monsanto’s GM Corn - http://www.foodrevolution.org/blog/italy-gmo-corn/

1. MONSANTO: Who Benefits from GM Crops: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/who_benefits_from_gm_crops.pdf 
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   India says N0 to Bt Brinjal-But the fight must go on http://www.relufa.org/partners/jhnewsletter/archives/india13.htm 
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   Monsanto Protection Act - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/monsanto-protection-act 

1. Surge in Corporate Patents on “Climate-Ready” Crops Threatens Biodiversity and Signals Grab on Land and Biomass - http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/crop-patents-biodiversity-zb0z10zarc.aspx#axzz2bsYcTpOR 

Presbyterian Church USA on GMOs

The PCUSA has strong cautionary policy on GMOs/genetically engineered food in the Just Globalization report. 2006 General Assembly Resolution on Just Globalization, Justice, Ownership, and Accountability - http://www.pcusa.org/resource/resolution-just-globalization-justice-ownership-an/  

2. Concerning Agricultural Technology

a. Call upon governments, including ourown, to enforce restraints on commercial activity in genetically modified foods until these crops are certified as safe by appropriate international, science-based organizations and in the United States, to include such “GM” food products under the Food and Drug Administration’s jurisdiction for testing and approval.

b. Call upon governments, including ourown, to ban the development and marketing of “terminator seeds” because of the genetic and economic risk they entail for the food production system and the livelihoods of farmers.

Genetically modified (GM) foods have become a great divide in economic globalization. Genetic modification is achieved by combining genes from different plants, animals, or bacteria to attain an organism with a set of desired characteristics. The potential benefits touted by some scientistsand corporate developers are of staggering significance: the quick improvement of crop yields, pest resistance, or herbicide tolerance to a degree not attainable by traditional methods. Even more far reaching are claims that GM crops can be manipulated to produce synthetic substances. For Africa, that could mean sweet potatoes bred resistant to a virus threatening to decimate this basic food of the poor. Rice might be genetically engineered to carry increased iron and vitamins helping to end chronic malnutrition in many Asian countries. “On the horizon are bananas that produce human vaccines against infectious diseases such ashepatitis B; fish that mature more quickly; fruit and nut trees that yield years earlier; and plants that produce new plastics with unique properties” (Human Genome Project information, August 4, 2005). 

However, GM techniques may also threaten human health, the environment, and the economy. New substances from combining the DNA of different organisms may create new and dangerous allergic responses to the genetically new foods and products. Plants bred to be resistant to pests or herbicides may see those characteristics transferred to wild plants with disastrous consequences for the delicate balance of local and regional ecosystems. There is also the risk that the complex science and expensive technology involved will increase the control that a small number of biotechnology corporations already have over the world’s agriculture.

The development and growth of GM crops has been largely a Western  hemisphere phenomenon with 63 percent of world plantings in the U.S., 7 percent in Canada, and 25 percent in Argentina and Brazil together. In Europe there has been a huge public outcry opposing “Frankenfoods” and the European Union has created high bureaucratic hurdles to receiving approval for member countries to grow and market such crops. Corporate developers and their political backers hoped that a large British field test of GM rape seed would convince the public not only that GM food is safe for human consumption butthat it would also benefit wildlife in the growing area because of a lower utilization of herbicides. The final report issued in early 2005 proved just the opposite, concluding that both birds and plants would suffer if the newseeds were grown widely in the United Kingdom (UK) (The Guardian Unlimited, June 14, 2005). Still, even in Europe GM foods are making inroads. More significantly, China, which currently plants only 4 percent of the world’s GM crops, may be ready to set a new course. A member of the Chinese Academy ofScience says that half of the country’s agricultural produce will be genetically modified by 2015 (Ibid.).

A related issue of great concern is thedevelopment of so-called “terminator seeds.” By a numberof technologies, seeds can be produced that grow plants to maturity but whose seeds will not germinate when replanted. The result will be to end the centuries-old practice of saving a portion of a crop as seed for next year’s planting. Farmers who intentionally or accidentally plant such seeds would become annually dependent on the purchase of seeds from suppliers. No convincing arguments have been made that such a system will result in more or better food. Its sole purpose appears to be increased profits to the seed industry. While “terminator technology” has not yet been commercialized, and some companies have disavowed the intent, firms continue to obtain patents for the technology.

Internationally, the 1995 Trade-RelatedAspects of Intellectual Property Rights  agreement (TRIPs) requires that all inventions be patentable. The World Trade Organization (WTO) does allow member states to exempt animals and plants from patenting, but this exemption does not extend to new plant varietiesincluding those produced using GM technologies (Genetically Modified Food–General Principles: Approved by the 38th General Council of the United Church of Canada–August 2003).

Best,

andrew

Andrew Kang Bartlett

Associate for National Hunger Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program

Presbyterian Mission Agency * (502) 569-5388 or (888) 728-7228 x5388 andrew.kangbartlett@pcusa.org