GMW: Stop Feeding Kids GMOs/Alaska to label GM fish/Demand for Organic Soaring i

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GMW: Stop Feeding Kids GMOs/Alaska to label GM fish/Demand

for Organic Soaring in America

" GM WATCH " <info

Wed, 11 May 2005 10:16:47 +0100

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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FOCUS ON AMERICA

1.Stop Feeding Kids GMOs

2.Demand for Organic Foods Soaring

3.Bill requires labelling of GM fish

4.USDA issues two biotechnology reports

 

The passage of the labelling legislation in Alaska (item 3) is being

hailed as an important victory for consumers and a significant setback

for the biotech industry.

 

As Craig Winters of The Campaign has commented, " Polls consistently

show that an overwhelming majority of consumers want genetically

engineered foods to be labeled. Yet the biotech industry

continues to fight consumers' right to know this information. What are

they trying to hide? "

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1.Stop Feeding Kids GMOs

 

Tue, 10 May 2005

Laurel Hopwood <lhopwood

Launching the Stop Feeding Kids GMOs Campaign

 

Greetings fellow activist,

 

Today we announce the release of our new campaign to Stop Feeding Kids

GMOs!

 

Our country's children are fed inadequately tested and unlabeled GMOs

(genetically manipulated organisms) in their school meal programs, but

it doesn't have to be this way. It's time we pay closer attention and

advocate for school meals that don't present hidden dangers.

 

We are encouraging school districts to offer, as an alternative, foods

in schools that pose no harm for the children and for the community.

 

We invite you to participate in this campaign and are ready to help you

with more support as you embark on the process of making changes in

your school meals.

 

Please let me know if you are ready to receive a packet of materials,

which includes the video, Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals, and a CD

titled, You're Eating WHAT? produced by Jeffrey Smith, director of the

Institute for Responsible Technology.

 

Kindly let me know what Sierra Club group/chapter in which you are a

member or can forward this email to!

 

many thanks,

Laurel Hopwood, Sierra Club

Chair, Genetic Engineering Committee

Email: lhopwood

www.sierraclub.org/biotech

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2.Demand for Organic Foods Soaring

Associated Press, May 9, 2005

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0509-10.htm

 

Dairy cows munch lazily on a grassy hilltop overlooking Traders Point

Creamery as 23-year-old Marc Murnane strides into the organic creamery's

store in search of chocolate milk - lots of it.

 

In short order, he loads 12 one-quart bottles, at $3.50 each, into a

box bound for Chicago, where his girlfriend's father is among the growing

number of Americans who've developed a taste for organic foods.

 

" He just loves the chocolate milk - and it really is the best stuff

I've ever had, " Murnane says, describing the rich blend of sweet milk

from

grass-fed cows, organic sugar and cocoa.

 

The farm northwest of Indianapolis is part of a nationwide move to put

organic foods in consumers' reach.

 

Nationwide, the market for organic foods has soared from $3.57 billion

in 1997 to $10.38 billion in 2003, according to Organic Trade

Association. The group predicts sales will reach $14.5 billion by the

end of

2005 as Americans buy everything from radishes to beef grown without

conventional pesticides and fertilizers, biotechnology, antibiotics or

growth hormones.

 

Indiana was late to join the organic food movement, which arose in the

1960s in response to modern chemical farming, but the state is starting

to make up lost ground, said Cissy Bowman, executive director of

Indiana Certified Organic, LLC.

 

As the state's only government-approved organic certifier, she has

given the stamp of approval to more than 50 Hoosier organic farms and

expects that to double this year.

 

Herself an organic farmer, Bowman said the organic market has undergone

incredible growth since she began raising organic vegetables 20 years

ago on six acres near the Hendricks County town of Clayton.

 

" Any food you can think of, you can buy an organic version now. It's

not just that bag of whole wheat flour on the store shelf anymore, " she

said.

 

Traders Point Creamery delivers to about 70 area stores, with weekly

shipments to Chicago-area stores, but demand often outpaces supply,

particularly during the winter and summer.

 

" The cows can't keep up. We sell pretty much everything we produce, "

said David Robb, the creamery's manager of business development.

 

Cathy Greene, an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of

Agriculture's Economic Research Service, said the retail market for

organic foods continues to grow about 20 percent each year.

 

Most people buy organic out of health concerns, she said. Some want to

support environmentally friendly farms, but for others, it's a quest

for food with superior taste and nutrition.

 

" Whether the food tastes better or not is kind of subjective, but

whether it's more nutritious is something researchers are just

starting to

study, " Greene said.

 

According to the USDA, certified organic cropland in the United States

grew nearly 75 percent between 1997 and 2001, the last year for which

figures are available, and accounted for more than 2.3 million acres in

2001.

 

The USDA found an estimated 4,175 acres of certified organic cropland

in Indiana in 2001, but Bowman said the 54 organic farms she's certified

in the state account for only about 2,370 acres.

 

Barbara Haumann, a senior writer with the Organic Trade Association,

said there is no clear gauge of the nation's organic agriculture

industry. " The numbers are quite hazy, " she said. " The government just

needs to

do some better tracking. "

 

Although organic foods can cost two to three times more than their

conventionally raised alternatives, Corinne Alexander, a Purdue

University

assistant professor of agricultural economics, said people, herself

included, are willing to pay.

 

" I like the idea that right now the organic farmers are being rewarded

with premium prices for their hard work. It's really backbreaking

work, " she said.

 

Traders Point Creamery's 140 acres of pastures are planted with a mix

of grasses and meadow plants that make its milk superior to that

produced by grain-fed cows, said Robb.

 

The pastures are enriched with natural compost and by tilling under

cover crops. The nutrient-rich droppings from the 60 Brown Swiss dairy

cows also help green the fields, he said.

 

The fields thrive, Robb said, because they work in concert with nature.

" The soil is a really a living entity, and chemicals kill all the good

things in the soil when what we really need to be doing is stimulating

those, " he said.

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3.Bill requires labeling genetically altered fish

By HAL SPENCE

Peninsula Clarion

 

Genetically altered fish will need to be labeled as such when products

are to be sold in Alaska.

 

That's the effect of Senate Bill 25, sponsored by Sen. Gary Stevens,

R-Kodiak, and Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau. The Alaska House approved the

measure unanimously Monday. It had previously won unanimous support in

the

Senate.

 

Known as the " Frankenfish " bill, the measure is headed for the

governor's desk.

 

" The message that Alaska seafood is more natural than seafood that has

been engineered in a lab is a highly important marketing tool, " Stevens

said.

 

" This bill helps highlight Alaska seafood as distinct from genetically

modified seafood, doing away with any vagueness that may exist to the

consumer when purchasing seafood without labeling, and reinforcing the

natural message. "

 

Prompting lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 25 was the fact that the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration is considering an application by an

aquaculture company to sell a genetically modified, growth-enhanced

salmon.

According to a press release from Elton's office, Atlantic salmon are

expected to be the first species slated for genetic modification, but

catfish, tilapia and others would follow.

 

Meanwhile, according to the Pacific Fisheries Legislative Task Force, a

biotech company called Aqua Bounty has sought Canadian approval to use

genetically modified fish in Canada's fish farms, Elton said.

 

" I am encouraged by the bipartisan support this bill received, " he

said. " It is a sign that, when it comes to seafood, Alaskans stand up for

informed

consumers and friends and neighbors working in the wild fish industry. "

 

According to Stevens and Elton, legislation requiring labeling

genetically modified fish products already exists in the European

Union, Japan,

New Zealand and Australia. SB 25 is similar to legislation introduced

in Oregon and California.

 

The bill requires Alaska retailers to identify and label foods

containing fish and shellfish, or fish and shellfish products, which

have been

genetically modified.

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4.USDA issues two biotechnology reports

May 9, 2005

USDA Media Release No. 0155.05

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true & content\

id=2005/05/0155.xml

 

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture today issued two

reports on agricultural biotechnology that cover the evolving world

requirements for the traceability and labeling of agricultural

biotechnology

products and on the complexities of predicting the use of these products

in the future.

 

" These reports will help us to better understand how biotechnology is

changing the face of agriculture, " said Agriculture Secretary Mike

Johanns.

 

" Enhancing our understanding of the marketing regulations of biotech

products and how producers and consumers may be affected by the adoption

of

this technology will help to guide USDA's future decision-making in

this area. "

 

The reports, developed by USDA's Advisory Committee on Biotechnology

and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21), are entitled (1) Global Traceability

and

Labeling Requirements for Agricultural Biotechnology-Derived Products:

Impacts and Implications for the United States; and (2) Preparing for

the Future.

 

The first report considers the proliferation of mandatory biotechnology

traceability and labeling requirements in other countries; how

different

segments of the United States food and feed supply chain are addressing

those requirements; and marketplace issues and tools that are relevant

to

these developments.

 

The second report provides USDA with an analysis of the factors that

will shape the use of biotechnology in the future. It identifies broad

trends that are likely to influence the future in some predictable ways

as well as key uncertainties that could drive the future in different

directions. The report also provides three examples of scenarios for the

future, not as predictions but as tools to provoke thought and further

analysis, plus a series of questions to help understand the impacts of

each scenario. The questions can be applied to help analyze any

scenario that may be developed.

 

The AC21 was established by the Secretary of Agriculture in 2003 and

examines how biotechnology is likely to change agriculture and USDA's

work

over the next five to ten years and other biotechnology issues sent to

it by the Secretary.

 

The 18-member committee represents a broad spectrum of views and

interests and is composed of farmers, technology providers, academics,

representatives

from the food manufacturing and shipping industries, and

representatives from consumer and environmental organizations. The

committee meets in

public session three to four times per year.

 

For copies of the reports and more information about the AC21, visit

http://www.usda.gov/event_15.xml

 

 

 

 

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