World Bio-technology Feature Archive

This week sees GM firmly back in the spotlight. On Wednesday the EU took a huge step in pushing forward the genetic modification agenda by copping out of regulation and putting the decision on whether to GM grow or not back into the hands of national governments. The European Commission approved changes to the rules which may break the deadlock that has prevented any significant cultivation of GM crops in Europe. What does this mean for GM production in the UK and other nation-states? And where does this leave the resistance movement?

On the Newswire: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

In SchNEWS: 622 | 583 | 346 | 319

AS REPRESSION INC ARRIVES IN LONDON TO PEDDLE ITS WARES.....

Roll up, roll up, one and all for the ‘Counter Terror’ Expo 2010. Kicking off at London’s Kensington Olympia on April 14th, the two day event will showcase the surveillance and ‘security’ technologies of 250 companies hoping for a slice of the paranoia dollar. Also on the Big Brother bandwagon are NATO, the MoD and other representative associations from the police, military and private security industry. There are several good reasons to show up at 12pm, Wednesday 14th April (at Olympia Way W14) and counter the terror expo.

Action Reports: 1 | 2
Other Sites: Disarm DSEi | Corporate Watch | Counter Terror Expo homepage

After a global campaign that lasted for six years, the Nepal government has decided to definitely halt the breeding of monkeys for biomedical research in the USA. A letter from the Ministry of Forestry will be sent to Pravesh Man Shrestha, who has been breeding monkeys for the past five years, asking him to release the 310 rhesus monkeys back into the wild. Last year Shrestha planned to sell 25 of the 300 monkeys to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research Center, but following a temporary court injunction, the Nepalese Parliament banned the export.

The Nepalese government repeatedly claimed on numerous occasions that the monkey farms don't exist, that any monkey farms are illegal and that Nepal doesn't have a policy of breeding monkeys for export to American vivisection laboratories. This was later proven to be all lies when the farms were exposed in August 2008 (Photos | Video | Report).

Newswire: Victory! Nepalese monkeys saved from vivisection | Gateway To Hell Campaign Update | Nepalese Parliament Orders End To Monkey Exports | Situation Update Nepal -- G2H Demands Justice for the Monkeys | Week of action for Nepal's monkeys | It's Decision Time For Nepal's Monkeys | Nepal to Export 25 monkeys 'soon' | Nepalese Monkey Export Ban Under Threat | Footage of the Nepalese Monkey Farms Released | Export banned of Nepalese monkeys for vivisection | Protest against monkey export in Belgium | Demo against Nepal's plan to export monkeys | Stop The Monkey Business -- Photos of the Monkey Farms

Campaigns: Gateway To Hell | Stop Monkey Business

In the largest procedure of its kind in the world, the UK government wanted to make sure that the introduction of GM crops in the UK would be based on scientific facts and public approval. For a change it seems to have been good that they have done so. It is now obvious that the public are against GM food and GM crops, and the trials showed that herbicide tolerant GM crops can be worse for the environment than conventional agriculture.

Public meetings were held all over the country, a website gave the opportunity to state one's opinion, a scientific commission wrote a report, and farm-scale field trials where conducted over several years. All of these results are now going into a final report (overview). Besides this official programme numerous actions took place. Meanwhile some GM companies have decided to reduce their activites in the UK.

[ Corporate Watch UK | Genewatch | GMwatch |Green Gloves Pledge | Stop Bayer's GM crops! | Greenpeace UK | Friends of the Earth | | Guardian GM debate | GM nation? Official Website | Full text of reports on GM field scale evaluations | BioTech IMC ]