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LIMA, Peru -- On Monday October 22, 2001, two years to the day after 24 children in the remote Andean village of Tauccamarca were killed and 18 more severely poisoned when they drank a powdered milk substitute that had been contaminated with the pesticide methyl parathion, their families brought suit against the product's principle importer and manufacturer, the agrochemical company Bayer.
Leading consumer and environmental groups are fuming because the Clinton administration has appointed a former Monsanto Corp. lobbyist to represent U.S. consumers on a transatlantic committee set up to avoid a trade war over genetically engineered foods.
The Indian government's decision to allow field trials of the controversial genetically-engineered (GE) cotton has come under flak from farmers' rights activists who allege this would ruin thousands of tillers in the country.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has encouraged all UN agencies to form partnerships with the private sector. Most UN agencies are actively pursuing these partnerships.
Delegates from 130 nations arriving this morning at the International Aviation Building in Montreal to restart talks on a set of rules for the transborder movement of genetically modified organisms were greeted by protesters and police. But temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius below zero kept demonstrators subdued and police idle.
A German government backed consumer foundation has reported that over one-third of food products it tested contained either genetically modified (GM) soya or maize (corn).
Novartis, one of the world's leading producers of genetically engineered seeds, has been phasing out genetically engineered ingredients in its food products worldwide for over a year.
Greece and a few other countries in the European Union that have banned genetically modified organisms are on the front lines of a war over the future of modified food in Europe, the only large swath of the world that does not already grow or buy the crops. Facing international pressure and a lawsuit brought by the United States, Canada and Argentina at the World Trade Organization, the union said this year that all member states must open their doors to genetically engineered crops and prepare practical and legal regulations to ensure safety for health and the environment.
The Bay Area-based online auction site Wednesday removed a notice asking for bids on the credibility of Stossel, who last week was reprimanded by ABC News after the Washington-based Environmental Working Group documented that he lied about lab tests for pesticide residues on organic food. In a rare on-air apology last Friday, Stossel was forced to admit the tests were never performed.
Environmental groups, while praising aspects of the first worldwide treaty governing trade in genetically modified organisms (GMO), criticise the scope of the agreement and worry it could be subverted by powerful free trade interests.
Scientists have found DNA from genetically modified crops in wild maize growing on remote mountains in Mexico.
An association that represents Ontario lawn-care companies is selling cherry and bubble-gum flavoured scents to mask the smell of toxic pesticides.
This speech was given by Martin Khor, Director of the Third World Network at the opening plenary of the Millenium Forum in late May 2000. The Millenium Forum was a gathering of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) designed to generate input for the Millenium Assembly -- a UN-sponsored meeting of world leaders slated for early September 2000.
Unperturbed by threats of legal action from environmental groups, the UK's agriculture ministry announced Wednesday that it will allow genetically modified (GM) crop trials to go ahead this fall.
Snoopy, Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty toys sold with McDonald's meals in Hong Kong are made at a mainland Chinese sweatshop that illegally employs child laborers to package the toys, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Scores of underage workers hired in a mainland China factory that makes toys for McDonald's were fired following recent media reports about the situation, a Hong Kong labor-monitoring group said Monday.
Farmers, who have maintained the consumer's trust by producing safe, reasonably priced and nutritious food, now fear losing that trust as a result of consumer rejection of genetically engineered foods. Here is a statement from the National Family Farm Coalition on genetic engineering.