Monsanto blitzt vor Gericht ab und streut irrtümlich illegales Gentech-Saatgut in Rheinland-Pfalz aus.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21041/1.html

Kennzeichnungspflicht gefordert: Protest bei Raiffeisenverband für gentechnikfreie Futtermittel (27.09.05)

Landwirte haben auf dem Gelände des Deutschen Raiffeisenverbandes in Bonn gegen dessen Pro-Gentechnik-Kurs demonstriert. Seit Beginn der Kennzeichnungspflicht für gentechnisch veränderte Futtermittel im April 2004 weigere sich der größte deutsche Futterhändler beharrlich, gentechnikfreie Futtermittel zu verkaufen. Obwohl er diese eingelagert habe, gebe der Raiffeisenverband nicht bekannt, wo sie erhältlich seien. Unterstützt wurden die Bauern bei ihrer Aktion von der Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL), Bioland und dem Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND).

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=11939

ECOTERRA observed this day by planting a thousand self-raised non-GM seedlings of endangered indigenous trees as enrichment planting in the lands of a people, who were and are the guardians of their forests in Kenya since thousands of years. Not enough we believe, but if you think likewise then extend your support to people near you, who do just do the same. Traditional communities together with the global movement againt GM-trees and monocultures shall overcome the mafia of the corporate smokescreeners.

21 September

International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations

Planting trees is not always a good thing to do. It depends on the objective, the scale, the location of the plantation and the benefits or damages involved for the local population.

Large-scale monoculture tree plantations that have been promoted in the countries of the South with fast-growing species, such as eucalyptus and pine have generated considerable negative impacts, economically, socially and environmentally in the countries where they have been installed.

The Latin American Network against Monoculture Tree Plantations (Red Latinoamericana contra los Monocultivos de Árboles – RECOMA) an organization involving members from 16 countries, has been denouncing, inter alia, displacements of rural populations, loss of sources of work, appalling working conditions, the destruction of forests and other ecosystems, soil erosion, depletion and contamination of water.

In May 2004, the Brazilian "Network against the Green Desert" that has a considerable track record of resistance to tree plantations, held its 3rd National Meeting in the city of Bello Horizonte. On that occasion it decided to select the 21 September, National Tree Day, as a significant date to commemorate the struggle against monoculture tree plantations.

Convened by RECOMA, organizations from the whole region are adhering to this commemoration and will carry out various mobilizations.

In Brazil, the students of the Federal University have organized a mobilization to take place on that date in the capital of the State of Espirito Santo, with the participation of representatives of affected groups to denounce the workers’ situation and encroachment of the lands of the local communities by monoculture tree plantations.

In Argentina, in the Province of Entre Ríos the negative impacts of monoculture tree plantations will be given dissemination by the press and in the Province of Misiones native species will be planted as a symbolic way of rejecting the monoculture of exotic species that is covering the province.

Uruguay is joining in this celebration with an exhibition at the City Hall Esplanade, with the distribution of information, videos will be shown on a gigantic screen. they will include the impacts of monoculture tree plantations and the situation of Uruguayan forestry workers, prepared by the Association of Labour Inspectors of Uruguay.

For those of us who believe that "another world is possible", governmental policy must make a radical change. It must cease its support of monoculture tree plantation companies and centre its support on the men and women who live in rural environments to enable them to improve their quality of life, while ensuring environmental quality.

For more information:

Ana Filippini,
RECOMA Secretariat,
World Rainforest Movement
Montevideo - Uruguay Phones: (5982) 413 2989 - 410 0985
http://www.wrm.org.uy/plantaciones/RECOMA.html
recoma@internet.com.uy


This statement is distributed by the Timberwatch Coalition in South Africa, in solidarity with RECOMA. In South Africa, industrial timber plantations bring similar hardship and suffering to rural communities. Destruction of valuable grasslands, depletion of water resources, and displacement of people from their traditional lands are ongoing due to the insatiable desire of the timber industry to make ever larger profits at the expense of more sustainable and less environmentally damaging land-use activities. Wally Menne (Chairperson) Timberwatch Coalition Tel: +27 (0) 82-4442083 Fax: +27 (0) 31-2019958 Box 30577, Mayville, 4058, South Africa E-mail: plantnet@iafrica.com URL: http://www.timberwatch.org.za


From ECOTERRA Intl.

In a message dated 9/19/05 6:01:38 PM, L BUZZELL writes:

<< Dear Liz,

Tell KVIE and Your Local PBS Station to Pull the Plug on Monsanto!

Right now, Big Agriculture is trying to add public television to its arsenal of advertising tools, and it will succeed if the American public doesn't take back its airwaves. Take action today to stop Monsanto and other industrial agriculture interests from taking over your public airwaves. On September 24, American Public Television (APT), Sacramento's KVIE and PBS member stations across America plan to launch a television series called "America's Heartland" that is paid for by Monsanto and other corporate farming interests. Monsanto wouldn't be paying for this programming if it didn't tell the story Monsanto wants told about genetically engineered crops, and industrial, chemical-based agriculture. These just happen to be the company's core business interests. Thousands of people have written letters and e-mails to APT and KVIE expressing concern about the series, yet neither are willing to discuss the issue with CFS or other concerned organizations, like the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Stations planning to air the show just announced! <> Is your local station airing it?

Call KVIE, and your local PBS station today and tell them not to air the show until underwriters for the series can be found whose business interests are not directly linked to the subject matter of this series!

Call KVIE at (916) 929-5843. To find your local station, click HERE
http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html .

The series' promotional materials, as well as the press releases issued by Monsanto and the Farm Bureau, clearly state that America's Heartland is the result of a "strong partnership between Monsanto Company, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and other U.S. agriculture groups," and that the series is intended to raise "awareness of the agriculture industry, particularly among the nation's opinion leaders," leaving little doubt that business propaganda may take a prominent role.

KVIE, the series' producer, has already shown a strong bias in support of genetic engineering in its "California Heartland" segment called "Brave New Heartland" (episode #545), which was devoted almost entirely to a detailed presentation of the purported benefits of agricultural biotechnology.

This series even fails APT's own tests for "determining the acceptability of proposed program funding arrangements," including its straight-forward Commercialism Test: "Might the public conclude the program is on public television principally because it promotes the underwriter's products, services or other business interests?" According to APT's tests, "The most important factor to be considered is the character and directness of the perceived connection between the program funder and the subject matter of the program." This connection could hardly be clearer or more direct for the sponsors of "America's Heartland."

To protect the public airwaves from being co-opted by corporate interests, it is imperative that American Public Television and PBS's KVIE find underwriters for America's Heartland that do not have a vested interest in the practices, purchases and products of those farmers and to remove from the series any segment that discusses genetically engineered food or crops without also discussing the many scientific and public health concerns surrounding this technology.

Pbs Stations set to air America's Heartland. Is your local station on the list? Call them today!

ETV Update
Spartanburg
SC
8645039371
http://www.etv.state.ms.us
Jackson
MS >>


Informant: hopedance

September 14, 2005 | Issue 41•37

BOISE, ID—Tuber researchers from the Western Root Vegetable Institute reported Monday that they have discovered a strain of microwave-resistant potatoes. "Natural and commercial selection has resulted in strains of potatoes that just won't nuke up," said Dr. Bernard Anderson, standing in front of a Radarange in which a test potato had been rotating unaltered for 90 minutes. "If this mutation proliferates, it could have disastrous implications for the nation's impatient." The new strain is the most significant potato mutation since the emergence of the "inedible" frying potato, which is still in use at most fast-food chains.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/40528

http://www.physorg.com/news6318.html

A new rapidly-evolving pathogen spreading in east Africa could annihilate wheat plantations worldwide, posing a "catastrophic" threat to crops unless steps are taken quickly.

The genetically-variable stem rust strain, dubbed Ug99 after its discovery in Uganda in 1999, has moved into neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, where it has nearly affected all plantations and could spread further, scientists warned Thursday.

"The risk and losses will be tremendous if this gets on the loose," said US botanist and 1970 Nobel peace laureate Norman Borlaug.

Borlaug, now 91, who helped develop resistant wheat varieties 50 years ago, urged a restoration of the cooperation that helped suppress a stem rust outbreak in North America that destroyed nearly 70 percent of wheat plantations in 1950.

"The stem rust strains are changing through mutation ... coming up with new types," he told a news conference in Nairobi to release a report on the problem compiled by experts organized by the International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT).

"Maybe we got too complacent," he said. "We have to restore the cooperation (as the current threat) is potentially more serious than it was 40 to 50 years ago."

The report warns that wheat production could decline by nearly 60 million tonnes -- a tenth of world's supply -- if Ug99's miniature fungal spores are spread to Asia and the western hemisphere.

"It is only a matter of time until Ug99 -- which also affects barley -- reaches across the Saudi Arabian peninsula and into the Middle East, South Asia and eventually the Americas," said Ronnie Coffman, a plant geneticist at Cornell University in New York.

Should the Ug99 spores spread to Asia, they could have serious consequences for countries like Pakistan, where wheat accounts for 60 percent of calories and more than 40 percent of proteins in an average diet in a day, the report said.

"This could be catastrophic," said CIMMYT director Masa Iwanaga, adding that researchers were working to develop a Ug99 resistant wheat variety. "It could affect food security worldwide."

"The current crisis is a wake-up call about the continuing and potentially devastating impact the rust pathogens can have on susceptible cereals, and especially a staple food like wheat," Borlaug wrote in a forward to the report.

© 2005 AFP


Peace - Anna


"What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen." -- Henry David Thoreau