South Africa makes history: 9/17/09 MANDATORY LABELING OF GMO FOODS

[Guest guest]

>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:40:27 -0400

> " Dannemann " <ncowmail

> " Dannemann " <ncowmail

>Wow, I could cry, ...South Afrika

>makes history: 9/17/09 MANDATORY LABELING OF GMO FOODS

>X-ELNK-Received-Info: spv=0;

>

>

>Thank you, Tayton!

>This is huge! This is history making. Continue good luck!

>

>

>

>Sept. 17, 2008 SOUTH AFRICA LABEL'S GMO FOODS

>

>

>

>

>Dear

>

>Thanks for your concern. We brought Jeffrey

>Smith out to South Africa where he did an

>extensive media and speaking tour and

>distributed his books and DVD's. Raja John Fagan

>has also visited South Africa as has Dr Arpad

>Pusztai, Dr Michael Hansen, Dr Vandana Shiva and

>others who are concerned about GMO's. In

>addition we have a number of NGO's working on

>the GMO issue such as SafeAge, Earthlife Africa,

>African Center for Biosafety, Safe Food

>Coalition, Biowatch South Africa and others. We

>have been working against GMO's for over 10

>years now, Biowatch even took the government to

>court, find out what happened on their web site.

>I have probably had over 200 letters and

>articles in the print media as well as been on

>radio and TV. Last week I did three radio interviews.

>

>Our biggest victory came a few days ago in South

>Africa when the government agreed to mandatory

>labeling of GM foods. See our media release below.

>

>Best regards

>Andrew

>

>PRESS RELEASE from SAFeAGE

>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

>

>CONSUMER RIGHTS RECOGNISED: GM FOODS WILL BE LABELLED IN SOUTH AFRICA

>

>Wednesday 17 September 2008

>Cape Town : History was made yesterday when the

>Department of Trade and Industry handed down a

>ruling for mandatory labelling of genetically modified foods.

>

>The decision came after a clause to this effect,

>which had been removed from the draft Consumer

>Protection Bill last year, was

>reinstated. National Co-ordinator of SAFeAGE, a

>consumer GMO watchdog that has been lobbying for

>two years to have this clause reinstated said,

> " The GMO Act does not protect consumers, it is

>rather a permitting system that welcomes

>untested, unlabelled and irresponsible genetic

>modification to run rife in our country.

>Consumers will finally have the right to choose

>once this Bill is implemented " .

>

>Parliament's Trade and Industry committee also

>withdrew a clause from the original Bill that

>rendered GMOs exempt from liability for damage

>caused by them. " Why should food that has been

>spliced with virus, anti-biotic resistant and

>herbicide genes be exempt from liability, "

>questioned Treherne. " These foods should be

>subject to more stringent labelling, not exemption. "

>

>The Department of Trade and Industry's labelling

>laws have not gone unopposed. Both the

>Department of Agriculture and Department of

>Health have opposed mandatory labelling saying

>it would send out a confusing signal to

>consumers. However, spokesperson for the Safe

>Food Coalition, Andrew Taynton said that " the

>Department of Trade and Industry should be

>congratulated for this bold move. Current GM

>labelling laws in South Africa are so flawed

>that they do not label any of the GM foods currently on the market. "

>Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety

>(ACB) commented that " government has embarked

>upon the first step towards regulating

>agribusiness involved with GMOs. Not only have

>consumers been given a choice to reject GM

>foods, now, GM food can also be tracked from

>farm to fork in order to hold Monsanto and

>others liable when we discover that something has gone wrong. "

>Treherne was however concerned that the

>Department of Agriculture would still be

>responsible for determining the thresholds and

>technical requirements of these new regulations,

>saying, " We hope this does not undermine the

>excellent work done by Parliament and the

>Department of Trade and Industry on the Consumer Protection Bill.

>

>ENDS

> For more information contact:

>Charmaine Treherne, National Coordinator, SAFeAGE

>Phone 021-4478445 or 072-450-8229

>Email <safeagesafeage

>www.safeage.org

>

>Andrew Taynton, spokesperson for the Safe Food Coalition,

>Phone 083 662 0411,

>Email

><tayntontaynton

> < taynton

>

>Notes for editors:

>- Clause 61 was removed from the Draft Bill, which read ..........

>- Approximately 60% of our maize crop

>is GM, 70% of our soya crop, and 90% of our

>cotton crop is now genetically modified. South

>Africa also imports GM canola oil used in

>vegetable oils and margarine. Rice, beans,

>wheat, fresh fruit and vegetables are still non-GM

>- SAFeAGE recently released the

>results of random tests conducted on a number of

>food products, including breakfast cereals, baby

>foods and staple foods. Some breakfast cereals

>include a high content of genetically modified

>organisms (GMO's) while one of the baby products

>contained a staggering 97.49%.

>- The GMO Executive Council is

>currently assessing an application to bring a

>new GM food crop onto the market, potatoes.

>Potato SA is opposing the application.

>

>

>

>

>

>

> " Dannemann " <<ncowmailncowmail

>To:

><tayntontaynton,

><jeffreyjeffrey,

><durrandurran,

> " Zhawu M "

><<mzhawumzhawu,

> " Winfred Mwebe "

><<wmebewmebe,

>Kolbe

><<tmpretoriatmpretoria,

><leopold1leopold1,

> " Chris Gupta "

><<chrisguptachrisgupta,

> " Bob Phelps "

><<infoinfo,

>rose

><<roserose,

> " Beth H. Harrison "

><<BethBeth,

><enb1enb1,

> " June Varner "

><<justjust,

>Kuhn's

><<kuhn98kuhn98,

>jwhitaker

><<jwhitakerjwhitaker,

>Andrea

><<flyingfish631flyingfish631,

> " dean goodale "

><<dagoodaledagoodale,

> " Jeri Neal "

><<winkwink,

><blackblack,

><enb1enb1,

> " John fagan "

><<scisci,

> " Sally Fallon "

><<SAFallonSAFallon,

> " Julia Busch "

><<jbuschjbusch,

><michaelomichaelo

>Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:00:00 -0400

>Afrikan colleagues....Keep us posted on the Afrikan potato

>

>We wish you luck in South Afrika! But this

>happens all the time in US. Since the US

>driven, multinational biotech companies plan to

>own the world food supply, little will stop

>them. We had many big food manufacturers resist

>the approval by the FDA of cloned meat and milk

>from cloned cows...it went through anyway. It

>is unlabeled on the supermarket

>shelves. Monsanto has patents pending on

>livestock as well as seeds and grains.

>

>CODEX (WTO food arm), has not addressed the

>labeling issue in 15 years since we started

>blowing holes in their progress with Dr. John

>Fagen's precautionary principle documents and

>the Natural Law Party in the US and Canada.

>. However, not dealing with such an important

>issue as labeling has let to the default

>position...no labeling despite European

>protests. This indicates that the US is in the driver's seat.

>

>If I were you, I would get a hold of Jeffrey

>Smith's new book GENETIC ROULETTE and start

>pointing out that rats bleed from their guts and so will babies.

>

>Here is Jeffrey's

>email: <<jeffrey jeffrey,

>

>Dear

>An answer below from the head of our Anti-GMO team, Andrew Taynton.

>Love

>Ansie

>

>---------- Forwarded message ----------

>taynton <<taynton taynton

>Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 12:43 PM

>Re: Fwd: Poisoning South Afrikans:

>Insider thread on GMO potato (w/virus related to HIV and HepB)

>TM Centre Pretoria

><<tmpretoriatmpretoria,

>Angus & Ingrid Durran <durrandurran

>

>

>Hi Ansie

>

>We are fighting this tooth and nail and it looks

>like we may win. See article below.

>

>Jai Guru Dev

>Andrew

>

>South African Farmers Oppose GM Potatoes

>

> " This is the first time organised agriculture has opposed the introduction

>of a GM crop in South Africa. "

>

>

>CAPE TIMES, 17 September 2008

>Farmers oppose GM potatoes

>By Melanie Gosling

>

>The proposed commercial release of a genetically modified (GM) spud in South

>Africa has become something of a hot potato as farmers and some major food

>giants say they will not use them.

>

>Potato SA, which represents potato farmers, has written to the department of

>agriculture saying the potential costs, particularly of consumer backlash

>and possible loss of exports, outweigh the potential benefits.

>

>This is the first time organised agriculture has opposed the introduction of

>a GM crop in South Africa.

>

>The submission is in response to a permit application by the Agricultural

>Research Council (ARC), which has been working with Michigan State

>University to develop tuber moth-resistant potatoes with funding from USAid.

>

>Ben Pieterse, research manager at Potato SA, said tuber moth was not a major

>problem in South Africa.

>

> " The benefit is far less than the potential damage to the industry. We won't

>save that much on pesticide as we will still have to spray for other pests.

>

> " There is no mandatory labelling for GM products, and no testing or tracing

>procedure, so how do you keep the GM potatoes separate? "

>

>Pieterse said this was important for export markets and farmers who supplied

>major food companies that would not take GM crops.

>

>Diale Mokgojwa, who manages Potato SA's emerging and small farmers'

>programme, says this sector also opposes the commercial release of GM

>potatoes.

>

>The GM potato is the Spunta variety, which is not suitable for processing,

>so the big food chains would not use it anyway.

>

>The plan is to transfer the GM technology to other varieties of potato in

>time.

>

>Owen Porteus, managing director of McCain Foods, the biggest producer of

>frozen potato products globally, said all the company's products were

>GM-free.

>

> " We're very much driven by consumer needs and they don't want GM. "

>

>Kobie de Ronde, the ARC scientist who heads the GM potato project, said much

>of the resistance to GM was because of lack of understanding. All GM crops

>underwent a full safety assessment before being approved for production.

>

>ARC's application for commercial release contained a " full set of

>environmental, food and feed safety data " that indicated GM potatoes were as

>safe to grow and eat as conventional spuds.

>

> " This is not an application for a full commercial permit so that potatoes

>will be on the market tomorrow. We'd still have to plant them in specific

>areas so we can evaluate certain questions, " De Ronde said.

>

>She agreed GM labelling needed to be addressed. ARC was discussing this with

>the department of health.

>

>

>This article was originally published on page 6 of The Cape Times on

>September 17, 2008

>

>

>

>Regards,

>

> Dannemann

>Standing director, National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW)

><http://www.ProgressiveConvergence.com>www.ProgressiveConvergence.com

>917 804-0786

>

>

> " It requires courage to utter truth; for the

>higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will

>error scream, until its inarticulate sound is

>forever silenced in oblivion " …Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science

>

>

>917 804-0786

>

>

> " It requires courage to utter truth; for the

>higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will

>error scream, until its inarticulate sound is

>forever silenced in oblivion " …Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science

>

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