Organic news archive: January 2004
A showcase project to develop a genetically modified crop for Africa has failed. Three years of field trials have shown that GM sweet potatoes modified to resist a virus were no less vulnerable than ordinary varieties, and sometimes their yield was lower, according to the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute. The GM project has cost Monsanto, the World Bank and the US government an estimated $6 million over the last decade. It had been held up worldwide as an example of how GM crops will help revolutionise farming in Africa. Embarrassingly for GM business, in Uganda conventional breeding has produced a high-yielding resistant variety more quickly and more cheaply. (New Scientist)
A new £1bn supermarket price war could shatter the fragile recovery in the British farming industry. Sir Don Curry told The Guardian (19 January) that he was "deeply concerned" that prices were being cut on the high street "without serious thought being given to the impact on the supply chain." He said there was no more slack for farmers to take up.
Organic farmers say that another supermarket price war will have devastating consequences for them, too. Patrick Holden, head of the Soil Association, warned that any further cuts would drive many of them off the land: "The supermarket buyers are putting relentless pressure on price. The downward slide of prices leads to a dilution of standards and scaling up to industrial production. There's a real threat here. Our individual reaction to price cuts is 'Oh good, my food will be cheaper' but we don't realise we are destroying farming in this country. If you buy on price you compromise on quality and safety. We seem to understand that with cars, but not with our food."
Bruce Carslisle, a second generation organic potato and broccoli farmer in Wales, said any further cuts in the price of organic produce would push the market to the continent. "A new price war, coupled with the increasing competitiveness over cosmetic standards for organic produce, would be disastrous. We've already got waste levels that average 50%, because of small blemishes on potatoes or bent carrots."
The UK Government will approve the commercial growing of genetically modified maize crops in Britain next month. But ministers will impose strict conditions on the cultivation of GM maize, and ban commercial GM sugar beet and oilseed rape after trials showed that they could be more damaging to the environment than conventional crops.
Farmers wanting to grow GM maize are unlikely to be able to go ahead before 2005, and will be subject to similar restrictions to those governing the trials, which specify the type of herbicide and the variety of GM seed they can use, and the type of plants they can grow in neighbouring fields. As such, the restrictions will be so tight that many farmers will be put off planting the first GM commercial crops. With no market demand for GM maize, and a seriously tight atmosphere of checks and legislation, it's hoped that any farmers tempted to grow GM by incentives from the GM corporations will give up because of the amount of bother it would entail. Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, said that questions over health risks had still to be resolved. He said: "I do not believe the Government has a mandate to proceed with the commercialisation of any GM crop." (The Independent - 15/01/04)
A study by scientists at Liverpool University has confirmed that TV food commercials have a direct effe
A showcase project to develop a genetically modified crop for Africa has failed. Three years of field trials have shown that GM sweet potatoes modified to resist a virus were no less vulnerable than ordinary varieties, and sometimes their yield was lower, according to the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute. The GM project has cost Monsanto, the World Bank and the US government an estimated $6 million over the last decade. It had been held up worldwide as an example of how GM crops will help revolutionise farming in Africa. Embarrassingly for GM business, in Uganda conventional breeding has produced a high-yielding resistant variety more quickly and more cheaply. (New Scientist)
A new £1bn supermarket price war could shatter the fragile recovery in the British farming industry. Sir Don Curry told The Guardian (19 January) that he was "deeply concerned" that prices were being cut on the high street "without serious thought being given to the impact on the supply chain." He said there was no more slack for farmers to take up.
Organic farmers say that another supermarket price war will have devastating consequences for them, too. Patrick Holden, head of the Soil Association, warned that any further cuts would drive many of them off the land: "The supermarket buyers are putting relentless pressure on price. The downward slide of prices leads to a dilution of standards and scaling up to industrial production. There's a real threat here. Our individual reaction to price cuts is 'Oh good, my food will be cheaper' but we don't realise we are destroying farming in this country. If you buy on price you compromise on quality and safety. We seem to understand that with cars, but not with our food."
Bruce Carslisle, a second generation organic potato and broccoli farmer in Wales, said any further cuts in the price of organic produce would push the market to the continent. "A new price war, coupled with the increasing competitiveness over cosmetic standards for organic produce, would be disastrous. We've already got waste levels that average 50%, because of small blemishes on potatoes or bent carrots."
The UK Government will approve the commercial growing of genetically modified maize crops in Britain next month. But ministers will impose strict conditions on the cultivation of GM maize, and ban commercial GM sugar beet and oilseed rape after trials showed that they could be more damaging to the environment than conventional crops.
Farmers wanting to grow GM maize are unlikely to be able to go ahead before 2005, and will be subject to similar restrictions to those governing the trials, which specify the type of herbicide and the variety of GM seed they can use, and the type of plants they can grow in neighbouring fields. As such, the restrictions will be so tight that many farmers will be put off planting the first GM commercial crops. With no market demand for GM maize, and a seriously tight atmosphere of checks and legislation, it's hoped that any farmers tempted to grow GM by incentives from the GM corporations will give up because of the amount of bother it would entail. Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, said that questions over health risks had still to be resolved. He said: "I do not believe the Government has a mandate to proceed with the commercialisation of any GM crop." (The Independent - 15/01/04)
A study by scientists at Liverpool University has confirmed that TV food commercials have a direct effe