Testbiotech report shows substantial failures in work of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and in decision making of the EU Commission
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Munich/ Brussels
According to a proposal of the EU Commission, genetically engineered maize 1507 will be approved for cultivation in the EU. The Member States of the EU are due to vote on maize 1507 within the next few weeks, and the European Parliament is currently preparing a resolution for next Tuesday. Maize 1507 is genetically engineered to produce a Bt toxin and was made resistant to the herbicide glufosinate. As a new report of Testbiotech shows, there is no doubt that maize 1507 poses a high level of risk to the environment.
The European Commission's Health and Consumers Directorate (SANCO) has short-listed a Director of the biggest EU food industry lobby group FoodDrinkEurope among the candidates to the Management Board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Ms. Beate Kettlitz works in a leading position for the lobby group, which represents all major European food and drink corporations.
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.
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