Another CA initiative, position on Durbin bill, Syngenta leaves UK + PharmCrops web site

[Guest guest]

--- News Update from The Campaign

 

> " News Update from The Campaign "

> <newsupdate

 

> Another CA initiative, position on Durbin

> bill, Syngenta leaves UK + PharmCrops web site

> Fri, 2 Jul 2004 08:15:52 -0500

>

> News Update From The Campaign to Label Genetically

> Engineered Foods

>

----

>

> Dear News Update Subscribers,

>

> This News Update will cover several items of

> interest.

>

> ANOTHER BALLOT INITIATIVE IN CALIFORNIA

>

> First, congratulations to the folks in San Louis

> Obispo, California! This

> week 12,000 signatures were turned in to get an

> initiative on the ballot in

> November that is similar to the one that was passed

> in Mendocino County

> earlier this year. This initiative would ban

> genetically engineered crops

> from being grown in San Luis Obispo County.

>

> As we reported a couple weeks ago, a similar

> initiative will be on the

> ballot this November in Butte County, California.

> Further, Humboldt Country

> is apparently close to having enough signatures to

> get on the ballot and

> efforts are underway in several other California

> counties.

>

> Santa Rosa, California television station KFTY had a

> short article on their

> web site about the San Luis Obispo County initiative

> that we posted below.

>

> WE OPPOSE SENATE BILL 2546

>

> Next, we recently reported that Senator Richard

> Durbin (D-IL) introduced

> legislation before the U.S. Senate called the

> Genetically Engineered Foods

> Act. After reviewing this bill, The Campaign to

> Label Genetically Engineered

> Foods has decided to oppose this inadequate

> legislation.

>

> The bill, S.2546, simply does not provide adequate

> safeguards to assure the

> safety of genetically engineered foods. It could

> allow weak guidelines to be

> established by the Food and Drug Administration

> (FDA) and cause people to

> have a false sense of safety. The tone of the bill

> is pro-biotech making

> statements such as " the potential positive effects

> of genetically engineered

> foods are enormous. " And the bill was introduced

> without any co-sponsors so

> it has little chance of passing this session of

> Congress.

>

> We have posted this 37-page bill on our server in

> case any of you wish to

> read it:

> http://www.thecampaign.org/S2546.pdf

>

> SYNGENTA PULLS OUT OF UK

>

> Biotech company Syngenta has announced they are

> closing down their research

> projects on genetically engineered foods in the

> United Kingdom.

>

> This is great news for anti-biotech activists and a

> real blow to the biotech

> industry.

>

> Bayer CropScience pulled out of the United Kingdom

> earlier this year. Now

> that Syngenta has done the same, genetically

> engineered foods appear to have

> lost their support in the UK and most of Europe.

>

> Posted below is an article from the

> news.telegraph.co.uk web site about this

> development.

>

> PHARMCROPS WEB SITE COMING JULY 6th

>

> The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

> is launching a new web

> site on Tuesday, July 6th called PharmCrops at

> www.pharmcrops.com.

>

> If you visit the PharmCrops web site now you can

> preview the new PharmCrops

> logo:

> http://www.pharmcrops.com

>

> As you are probably aware, the term " PharmCrops "

> refers to plants that have

> been genetically engineered to contain

> pharmaceutical drugs. We expect the

> PharmCrops web site to be quite popular since this

> issue has generated a lot

> of attention recently from the media, the grocery

> industry and environmental

> activists.

>

> In March, the California Rice Commission granted

> Ventria Bioscience

> permission to grow 120 acres of commercial rice in

> California that contains

> genetically engineered pharmaceutical drugs.

> However, a couple weeks later,

> permission to grow this controversial rice was

> turned down by both the U.S.

> Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the California

> Department of Food and

> Agriculture.

>

> The PharmCrops web site will serve as an educational

> resource center and

> provide activist tools to oppose the USDA's plan to

> allow the commercial

> growing of these risky and controversial crops.

>

> Have a great 4th of July weekend!

>

> Craig Winters

> Executive Director

> The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods

>

> The Campaign

> PO Box 55699

> Seattle, WA 98155

> Tel: 425-771-4049

> Fax: 603-825-5841

> E-mail: label

> Web Site: http://www.thecampaign.org

>

> Mission Statement: " To create a national grassroots

> consumer campaign for

> the purpose of lobbying Congress and the President

> to pass legislation that

> will require the labeling of genetically engineered

> foods in the United

> States. "

>

>

***************************************************************

>

>

> GM Crops Ban Could Be On San Louis Obispo Ballot

>

> KFTY - News Channel 50 - Santa Rosa, CA

> June 30, 2004

>

> Crops Activists want to place an initiative on the

> November ballot that

> would ban genetically engineered crops in San Luis

> Obispo County. Yesterday,

> organizers turned in 12-thousand signatures to

> county elections officials

> who say it could take two weeks to verify the

> petitions. About the number of

> signatures, Teresa Campbell of the " Keep SLO G-E

> Free " group say, " We are

> hopeful that we are beyond worrying. " The petition

> drive was prompted by a

> proposal by a biotechnology firm to grow rice

> engineered with human genetic

> material. Ventra Bioscience identified Luis Obispo

> and nine other counties

> as potential sites for growing the rice. Mendocino

> County passed the state's

> first ban on genetically engineered foods in March.

> Other counties are

> working on similar initiatives include Marin, Butte,

> Sonoma, Humboldt,

> Alameda and Santa Barbara.

>

>

***************************************************************

>

>

> Firm shuts British project on GM crops

>

> By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

> news.telegraph.co.uk

> July 1, 2004

>

> The last big biotechnology company working on

> genetically modified crops in

> Britain is to transfer its efforts to the United

> States.

>

> Academics said the departure of Syngenta, with the

> loss of 100 jobs, marked

> the final nail in the coffin for GM research in

> Britain. They blamed the

> Government as much as environmental groups and gave

> warning that a brain

> drain might follow.

>

> " If you are looking for a symbolic moment, this is

> it, " said one professor

> of plant genetics. " It is the end of big plant

> biotech in the UK. But, then

> again, can you blame them? "

>

> Earlier this year, the GM food lobby was dealt a

> blow when Bayer CropScience

> gave up attempts to grow GM maize in Britain. Now

> the Government faces

> further embarrassment with Syngenta moving its

> project from Bracknell,

> Berks, to North Carolina, according to today's issue

> of the Times Higher

> Education Supplement.

>

> Syngenta is the largest agribusiness in the world

> and produced the first GM

> product on the British market: tomato puree. A

> spokesman said it planned to

> invest £10 million in a biology complex in Bracknell

> focusing on herbicides

> and fungicides.

>

> Many plant scientists have already left Britain and

> some said Syngenta's

> move might prompt a further exodus to GM-friendly

> countries such as America

> and Australia. Prof Michael Wilson of Warwick

> University said GM science had

> been undermined by Britain's " Luddite landscape. "

>

> He said: " Anyone who isn't about to retire will

> leave the country. We are

> all feeling, 'What the hell is the point'. "

>

> Prof Anthony Trewavas of Edinburgh University said

> morale in the plant

> science community was at an all-time low. " We are

> noticing a reduction in

> students wanting to do molecular courses. They don't

> see a career in it

> anymore. All they hear is antagonism and anxiety. "