GM crops: Wikileaks exposes US push

 Agrobusiness/GM food, Corporate agenda, Europe, Health care, United States  8 Responses »
Dec 262010
 

Cables released by Wikileaks have exposed United State diplomatic efforts to strongly back the corporate push for GM crops to be accepted in Europe and elsewhere. Not only that, the US diplomats under the Bush administration recommended retaliatory action against a list of ‘targets’ in Europe for failing to embrace GMOs. In a leaked cable, US Ambassador to France Craig Stapleton wrote: Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory.

Not just Sarawak natives losing land

 Accountability, Agrobusiness/GM food, Corporate agenda, Environment, Global justice movement, Marginalised groups  5 Responses »
Oct 172010
 

For the past couple of days, I have been going in and out of a global conference in Penang on forests, biodiversity, community rights and indigenous peoples organised by Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific. The theme “Ecological equity: Sharing the stories, reclaiming our rights” couldn’t have been more timely. Listening to the heart-rending stories from indigenous representative and activists from places such as Philippines, Uganda and Bolivia, I realised that the indigenous groups in Sarawak who are struggling to protect their native customary rights land are not alone.

GM mosquitoes plan squashed for now

 Accountability, Agrobusiness/GM food, Health care, Malaysian finance/business, Neo-liberal economics  9 Responses »
Sep 232010
 

The plan to introduce GM mosquitoes in Malaysia will not be implemented “at the moment”. “Seemingly it is quite an interesting (solution) to deal with such a problem but I think… not until and unless every aspect of research being carried out is clinically tested and… environmental issues have been addressed,” AFP reported Muhyiddin as saying. That is of course welcome news; good sense has prevailed. Now can we look into eliminating the breeding sites of the aedes mosquito? It was shocking to hear that a spot check for dengue breeding grounds by the authorities found the Penang Hospital compound teeming with aedes mosquitoes and larvae, as reported in theSun.

Almost zero production after RM22b spent

 Agrobusiness/GM food, Malaysian finance/business  27 Responses »
Sep 112010
 

They invested RM22 billion in the hope of hitting a ‘gold mine’. And now they have almost zero production. That’s the fate of the Malaysian biodiesel industry players, which have an installed capacity of 2.6 million tonnes. Read The Star report here. And now, guess what, they are asking the government for subsidies. How do you like that? Didn’t they factor in the various risks? I still remember a business weekly gushing about the prospects of the biofuel industry and the big moves planned by the various players.

GM mozzies … now, GM fish? What’s next?

 Accountability, Agrobusiness/GM food  26 Responses »
Sep 102010
 
GM mozzies ... now, GM fish? What's next?

Genetically modified salmon could be next on your menu. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is soon going to decide whether to approve GM salmon as food. See the story on Natural News here. (We have already seen the so-called ‘genetically improved’ fish tilapia. See WorldFish Centre website here.) Aedes Aegypti – Image via Wikipedia A GM goat and GM pig could be next on the cards. See the Telegraph story here. At the end of the day, it’s all about business interests and profits. Notice that one of the main concerns in GM salmon centres on the supposed sterility of the male:

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