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December 3rd is both Pesticide Action Network's International Day of No Pesticides and the 18th anniversary of the explosion of the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.

France's highest court ruled Tuesday that militant French farmer Jose Bove must serve 14 months in prison for destroying two fields of genetically modified crops.

LOS ANGELES (October 14, 2002) -- Every parent has gained a right to know of pesticide application to which their children may be exposed if they are enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District. At the beginning of the school year, parents are given a list of pesticide products that have been approved for use at LAUSD sites.

Precision farming: high tech corporate responsibility or agribusiness expansion? We look at the use of satellites and new technology in farming.

Identity protection is the name given to novel techniques to keep crops properly segregated, and to compile detailed information on them for the benefit of a variety of agribusiness corporations, grain traders, retailers and restaurants.

Rio Tinto could be a poster child for corporate malfeasance. The largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto has headquarters both in Melbourne, Australia and London, England and operations on all continents except Antarctica. For years, Rio Tinto has had a reputation for being responsible for environmental and human rights violations at its mines and smelters.

A state report on pesticides and birth defects might have been influenced by the company that was its focus, some researchers who worked on the report say.

Bhopal -- A court ruled that a former chairman of US-based Union Carbide should face culpable homicide charges over the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, rejecting the Indian government's attempt to dilute them to negligence.

Governments in South Asia are failing to make significant progress in reducing high levels of hunger in the region because they are not aware of the difficulties faced by farmers, a New Delhi-based campaigns group said Wednesday.

I'm reminded of the 1950's...TV newscasts showing clouds of DDT sprayed on a clueless public, compromising their health and contaminating the environment for decades to come, as Rachel Carson writes "Silent Spring." But the time is now, other toxic pesticides have joined the ranks in our wayward war against mosquitoes, and the Rachels of today are drowned out by a media rushing to sound the alarm, rather than report the news.

Zambia is expected to import genetically modified maize (corn) from the United States to feed its 2.3 million starving citizens, according to the Biotechnology Trust of Africa, a regional charitable trust. Zambia has decided not to follow in the footsteps of hungry Zimbabwe, which two months ago rejected 10,000 metric tons of genetically modified maize from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Environment and anti-globalization organizations worldwide called on all citizens suffering from 'U.S. injustice' to give up drinking American soft drinks, especially Coca-Cola, for the day of Monday, July 22, 2002.

The Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero Brazil 1992 was supposed to result in countries across the world restructuring their development in order to guarantee sustainability for future generations. After 10 years no positive changes can be seen. The exploitation of natural resources and the destruction of the environment continue, access to productive resources has become more difficult.

The controversy over genetically engineered crops is disrupting U.S. efforts to provide food aid to starving people. The government of Zimbabwe and citizens groups in Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua are resisting U.S. supplied foods that contain transgenic corn, or maize. Citizen's groups say the GMO crops are not proven safe.

ROME -- At 3:00 AM on Monday morning the United States stood alone among all nations of the world in blocking further discussion of the draft text of the declaration that governments will sign at the World Food Summit. What was leading the U.S. to stop the all night negotiating session? First, the U.S. wanted all references to ''food as a human right'' to be deleted, and second, the U.S. wanted strong language saying that genetically modified (GM) crops are a key way to end hunger. The Third World nations organized in the Group of 77 wanted mandatory language on the Right to Food, while Europe and Canada held out for the compromise of a voluntary Code of Conduct. No other nation felt strongly that GM crops should receive prominence.

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Farmers would face higher, and in some cases unsustainable, production costs if genetically engineered crops were commercially grown on a large scale basis in Europe, according to a secret European Union study leaked to Greenpeace.

The Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN is a global network of human rights, environment and development groups working to address undue corporate influence in the United Nations, and to support UN initiatives to hold corporations accountable on issues of human rights, labor rights and the environment.

This articles lists the world's seven largest agrochemical companies and according to 2001 sales reports, published in Agrow: World Crop Protection News the gap in sales between these companies has narrowed. Syngenta continued to maintain highest revenues, with nearly US$5.4 billion in pesticide and seed sales. However, Bayer's anticipated purchase of Aventis CropScience (formerly Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst/AgrEvo) may increase Bayer's 2002 sales to over US$6 billion.

Over the last two years, thousands of people have gathered to counter the annual conventions of the biotechnology industry in Boston and San Diego. This year, people will be converging on Toronto to broaden the biojustice movement and challenge the biotechnology industry and their vision for our future. It will be a gathering to learn, strategize and network about genetic engineering in agriculture and pharmaceuticals, biowarfare, genetic and non-genetic discrimination, trade regimes and corporate control, patenting of life and more. This event is timed to challenge the industry's annual convention BIO2002, Toronto, June 9-12.