Munich, 29.11. 2013 The editors of the international journal Food and Chemical Toxicology have asked the group around French scientist Gilles-Eric Seralini to withdraw their publication on the long- term impact on health from feeding herbicide mixtures such as Roundup (active ingredient glyphosate) and genetically engineered maize NK603. They are saying the data are insufficient to back up severe impacts on the health of rats, as described in the French scientists’ publication. This is an unusual attack on a peer reviewed scientific publication.
A joint letter from twelve organisations sent to investors in companies filing patents on genetically engineered chimpanzees was published today. Companies filing patents on genetically engineered great apes include Altor BioScience (US), Bionomics (Australia) and Intrexon (US). Research conducted at the European Patent Office in Munich shows that five patents claiming genetically engineered great apes have already been granted to some of these companies, and a dozen further patent applications have been filed.
Contamination in biodiversity will burden following generations
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Today Testbiotech published the first global overview showing how genetically engineered plants such as maize, rice, cotton, oilseed rape, bentgrass and poplar trees are spreading uncontrollably. This is happening in regions and countries such as the USA and Canada, Middle America, Japan, China, Australia and Europe. In many cases, the plants have escaped far beyond the fields into the environment. In some regions, the transgenes have already moved into populations of wild relatives.
The EU Commission today authorised the controversial genetically engineered maize SmartStax for food and feed. The decision was taken despite thousands of protest mails being sent to the Commission. Testbiotech and experts from EU Member States have previously pointed out many flaws in the risk assessment performed by Monsanto, DowAgroSciences and the European Food Safety Authority, (EFSA). Testbiotech will now file an official complaint against the Commission decision.