Resource mobilisation for the CBD: Innovative financial backtracking?

It was clear from the beginning of the biennial United Nations biodiversity conference in Nagoya that money was - and is - a crucial issue. Unfortunately, the conference confirmed a consistent pattern of failure to make sufficient provision for developing countries to enable them to implement their commitments under the CBD.

December 2010

Antje Lorch, Third World Resurgence No. 242/243, Nov. 2010

Amflora authorized for contamination

On of the first things new EU Commissionair for Health and Consumers John Dalli did today was to authorized BASF's GM potato Amflora.
The EU Commission is only in office since a week, and the responsibility for GM crops was moved from DG Environment to DG Health. Yesterday Dalli talked to members of the EU parliament, but he then nevertheless took a fast decision then.

Submitted by Antje on 2 Mar 2010.

Agriculture and Climate Change - Real Problems, False Solutions

Few would deny that agriculture is especially severely affected by climate change and that the right practices contribute to mitigate it, yet expectations of the new climate agreement diverge sharply, as well as notions on what are good and what are bad agricultural practices and whether soil carbon sequestration should be part of carbon trading.

December 2009

Helena Paul, Almuth Ernsting, Stella Semino, Susanne Gura & Antje Lorch (EcoNexus, Biofuelwatch, Grupo de Reflexion Rural, NOAH - Friends of the Earth Denmark), and The Development Fund Norway.
Report published for COP15, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, December 2009.

Who used an additional 144 million kg of herbicides in the last 13 years?

A new study by Charles Benbrook shows that farmers in the US from 1996 to 2008 used 144 million kg (318 million pounds) of herbicides more then compared to conventional agriculture.
This is mainly caused by the development of herbicide resistant weeds and due to the fact that herbicide applications in conventional agriculture continuously decreased in the same period.

Submitted by Antje on 17 Nov 2009.

South Africa stops GM potatoes

It's not often that governments stop GM crops, but it happens - this time it's the South Africa government that rejected the Agriculture Research Council's (ARC's) application to provide Bt potatoes to local farmers, saying it was concerned about its safety and economic effect.

Submitted by Antje on 27 Oct 2009.

Flax contamination: "It's not even grown commerically anymore"

One crop, one country, and officially only for one year, 9 years ago - and yet there is contamination. On 8 September 2009, German authorities notified the other EU member states that they had found unathorized GM flax (linseed) in a shipment from Canada via Belgium (RASFF 2009.1171). The flax (FP967/CDC, Triffid) is herbicide-tolerant, but to a different class of herbicides then usually used with GM crops, and it carries an antibiotic resistance gene as marker.

Submitted by Antje on 17 Sep 2009.

EFSA and the minorities

For the third time the EU Commission handed the Amflora dossier back to the EFSA in 2008. This time not only the GMO panel but also the Biohazard panel are asked about their opinion. And after months EFSA announced that they would need more time to come to a conclusion because two of their experts have a different opinion then the rest.

Submitted by admin on 13 May 2009.

GM maize cultivation forbidden in Germany

Today the German minister for Agriculture Aigner announced that she would use the safety clauses in Article 20(3) of the German law on genetic engineering as well as Article 23 of the EU Directive 2001/18 on Deliberate Release to stop the cultivation of Monsanto's GM maize MON810.
In a press conference she stated: "The cultivation of MON810 is thereby forbidden." The assessment of the different authorities gave no consistent opinion on environmental effects of MON810.

Submitted by Antje on 14 Apr 2009.

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