Monsanto Defeated by Roundup Resistant Weeds
GMOs — by I-SIS December 1, 2011
An explosion of glyphosate resistant weeds forces Monsanto to run away from farmers’ rising weed control costs
Monsanto is surrendering to glyphosate resistant weeds [1], according to a new briefing by UK based GM freeze. They are spreading at ‘exponential’ rates in US farms and are increasingly documented in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Europe and South Africa.
While Monsanto grandly claims that its GM technologies help the environment by reducing pesticide use, resistant weeds springing up across the world paints a different picture. Glyphosate resistance has developed as the result of large-scale use of their pesticides. Glyphosate is the active ingredient of Monsanto’s world best-selling herbicide, Roundup.
And now, Monsanto aims to combat this serious agronomic, environmental, socio-economic, and health problem with even further increases in pesticide use.
The company is refusing to accept responsibility for rising weed costs, stating that [2] “Roundup agricultural warranties will not cover the failure to control glyphosate resistant weed populations.” Rising costs are burdening farmers across the globe.
Comments (8)Sustainable Agriculture and Off-Grid Renewable Energy
Biodiversity, Biofuels, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Energy Systems, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Land, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by I-SIS July 20, 2011
Small integrated farms with off-grid renewable energy may be the perfect solution to the food and financial crisis while mitigating and adapting to climate change
Note: A fully referenced and illustrated version of this report is posted on ISIS members’ website and also available for download here.
A Sarvodaya villager sells a diverse range of organic produce roadside
– with more than 95% of it grown behind the stall, and by her own family
Photo © copyright Craig Mackintosh
In a Nutshell
An emerging scientific consensus that a shift to small scale sustainable agriculture and localized food systems will address most, if not all the underlying causes of deteriorating agricultural productivity as well as the conservation of natural soil and water resources while saving the climate.
Comments (1)Fukushima Nuclear Crisis – Chronicle of a Disaster Foretold
Consumerism, Energy Systems, Health & Disease, Nuclear, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by I-SIS April 14, 2011
Fukushima is just one among many similar disasters waiting to happen worldwide; governments and regulators have systematically downplayed the risks and hidden the real costs of nuclear power; there is no place for nuclear in a truly green energy portfolio; furthermore, there is a lot we can do to put the nuclear genie back into the bottle.
A fully referenced and illustrated version of this report is posted on ISIS members website and is available for download here.
Nuclear crisis following earthquake & tsunami
On Friday 11 March 2011, Japan was hit by a magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a gigantic tsunami. The official toll by 6 April was 12 468 dead, and more than 15 000 missing [1], hundreds of thousands lost their homes, millions are still either without electricity or affected by shortages of electricity [2]; and most worrying of all, a nuclear disaster with no end in sight. The earthquake and tsunami were unstoppable, but was the nuclear disaster waiting to happen, and could it have been avoided?
Comments (6)Sustainable Agriculture Urgently Needed, UN Agencies Say
Food Shortages — by I-SIS
There is now widespread recognition that a rapid shift from industrial monoculture to sustainable farming is needed to save the climate and guarantee food security for all.
by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho.
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
A rapid and significant shift from conventional, industrial, monoculture towards sustainable production systems is needed, says a new discussion paper from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) [1]. This follows on the heels of a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, demonstrating that agroecology or eco-farming can double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty [2]. These two new papers confirm what we have found in our comprehensive report released in 2008 [3] (Food Futures Now: *Organic *Sustainable *Fossil Fuel Free , ISIS/TWN publication), which supports our call for a global shift to non-GM sustainable agriculture in 2003 [4] (The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World, Independent Science Panel Report, ISIS publication).
Comments (8)AquAdvantage Salmon Ready for Commerce?
GMOs, Health & Disease — by I-SIS September 23, 2010
AquAdvantage© Salmon, next to its smaller, natural Atlantic Salmon counterpart
In the absence of feeding studies the commercial release of GM salmon is too hazardous to consider Prof. Joe Cummins
This report has been submitted to US Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the Institute of Science in Society. © I-SIS.org.uk
The United States Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee will meet on 19 September 2010, and on 20 September 2010, it will consider issues regarding the safety and effectiveness of the new animal drug that is the subject of a new animal drug application (NADA) concerning AquAdvantage salmon produced by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. These genetically engineered Atlantic salmon are intended to grow faster than conventionally bred Atlantic salmon [1]. The new drug being considered is a growth hormone gene that was transferred from Chinook salmon to the genome of the Atlantic salmon. Both the gene and the protein it produces are presumed to be a new veterinary drug that is to be released to the environment in the genetically modified (GM) Salmon.
Comments (3)
