Grist | Topics | 19 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 19 of 19
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Not a sweet proposition As GMO sugar beets sneak into the food supply, citizens fight back	Lisa J. Bunin	08 Aug 2008	Gristmill
'Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.' -- Anthropologist Margaret Mead Even if you've heard the above quote many times before, the sentiment expressed is so powerful that I think it's worth repeating. All around the world, small groups of people are organizing public support for improved food safety and successfully challenging large corporations to change their behavior. That's ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, GMOs, grassroots activism (all these topics)

Monsanto: still reading blogs PR firm Edleman launches charm offensive for the GMO giant	Tom Philpott	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Not so long ago, I was an utterly obscure farmer-blogger dashing off indictments of industrial agriculture for some 30 loyal readers (many of them house-mates and relatives). And then, evidently by the miracle of the Google search, a functionary from Monsanto's legal office discovered my blog and fired off a cease-and-desist letter. I published it, added a tart response, and alerted a few editors to the exchange. Within days, my site meter showed thousands of reade ...
Topics: agriculture, Big Ag, business, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

Biofuels: good for agrochemical/GMO biz GMO giant Monsanto wows Wall Street, consolidates its grip on South America	Tom Philpott	13 Feb 2008	Gristmill
While debate rages on Gristmill and elsewhere about whether biofuels are worth a damn ecologically, investors in agribusiness firms are quietly counting their cash.As corn and soy prices approach all-time highs, driven up by government biofuel mandates, farmers are scrambling to plant as much as they can -- and lashing the earth with chemicals to maximize yields. At a Wall Street meeting on Tuesday, genetically modified seed/herbicide giant Monsanto promised investors ...
Topics: agriculture, Argentina, Big Ag, biofuels, Brazil, business, energy, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

GMOs as environmental pollution Schmeiser to play David to Monsanto's Goliath again	Kurt Michael Friese	28 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Most of you will recall the high-profile battle fought by Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser when he was sued for growing their GM seed without tithing to the corporation for the privilege. Schmeiser insisted that Monsanto's patented DNA blew onto his land, but he lost an acrimonious fight in Canada's Supreme Court anyway. Now Percy's back for more. Schmeiser has filed suit against the agribusiness giant in his Bruno, Saskatchewan, small claims court ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, GMOs, industrial ag, litigation (all these topics)

Seeds of wisdom Seed-savers and greens unite to challenge Monsanto's latest cash cow	Tom Philpott	23 Jan 2008	Gristmill
For years, candy makers and other industrial food manufacturers refused to use genetically modified sugar, fearing a consumer backlash. Photo: iStockphoto As a result, Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet -- designed to withstand heavy application of Roundup, Monsanto's herbicide -- has been dead in the water. (Sugar beets, grown in the Midwest and Northwest, account for half of U.S. sugar production; cane, grown mainly in Florida, provides the rest.) B ...
Topics: GMOs, food, agriculture, business, industrial ag (all these topics)

Franken-broccoli? The GM seed giants lumber into the veggie patch	Tom Philpott	19 Dec 2007	Gristmill
In 2005, Monsanto bought Seminis, the world's largest vegetable-seed company. At the time, Monsanto -- which enjoys a dominant position in the global market for GM soy, corn, and cotton traits -- claimed it had no imminent plans to subject veggies to genetic modification. Now I learn from the excellent new blog SeedStory, by Matthew Dillon of the Organic Seed Alliance, that Monsanto is working on RoundUp Ready lettuce. And the few other transnational giants that domi ...
Topics: agriculture, business, food, GMOs, industrial ag (all these topics)

O Me! O Life! Of the Questions of These Recurring Synthetic DNA could soon yield entirely new life forms		17 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 7:02 AM on 17 Dec 2007 For opponents of genetically modified crops, the possibility that scientists could soon create entirely new life forms out of synthetic DNA may provoke similar worries and safety concerns. Recent improvements in technology have made the lab creation of complex DNA strands possible, and some researchers intend to use them to manufacture new life forms -- in on ...
Topics: business, GMOs, news, scientific research (all these topics)

Father of the Bribe Monsanto agrees to pay $1.5 million in penalties for Indonesian bribes		07 Jan 2005	Daily Grist
Father of the Bribe Monsanto agrees to pay $1.5 million in penalties for Indonesian bribes When agrochemical giant Monsanto's bid to introduce genetically modified cotton to Indonesia was met with widespread protests from farmers and activists, it bribed a government official in order to avoid having an environmental impact study conducted on its GM crop. Yesterday Monsanto agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines -- $1 mi ...
Topics: business, food and agriculture, GMOs (all these topics)

Say It Ain't Soy Brazil Will Allow Planting of GM Soybeans		29 Sep 2003	Daily Grist
Say It Ain't Soy Brazil Will Allow Planting of GM Soybeans In a big blow to opponents of biotechnology, Brazil announced last week that it will allow farmers to plant genetically modified soybeans, ending its role as one of the leading nations opposed to GM crops. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government had previously promised to oppose GM plantings, bu ...
Topics: Amazon, Brazil, business, deforestation, food and agriculture, GMOs, rainforests (all these topics)

Eat, Drink, and Be Wary Genetically modified animals could make it to your plate with minimal testing -- and no public input	Shelley Smithson	30 Jul 2003	Main Dish
Last January, inspectors with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration paid a visit to the University of Illinois, where researchers have been studying the DNA of pigs. The pig project, based in Champaign-Urbana, is one of dozens of experiments being conducted across the country in which scientists are altering the genetic structure of animals ...
Topics: business, commercial and industry organizations, fishing, Food and Drug Administration, GMOs, health, marine life, United States, wildlife (all these topics)

Weed Between the Lines		24 Jun 2003	Daily Grist
Weed Between the Lines In a finding that undermines one key argument in favor of genetically modified (GM) crops, researchers at Iowa State University have discovered that a number of "superweeds" have developed a resistance to Monsanto's widely used Roundup herbicide. Monsanto has engineered crops that are tolerant of Roundup, the idea being that the chemical would kill everything in a field but the desire ...
Topics: business, GMOs, toxics, United States (all these topics)

Standing the Rules on Their Ear		19 Jun 2003	Daily Grist
Standing the Rules on Their Ear More farmers are failing to comply with the rules for planting genetically modified (GM) corn than the biotechnology industry claims, according to a new study of government data. Almost 20 percent of U.S. farms growing BT corn, the main type of GM corn, violate the rules for doing so, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Those rules require farmers to plant at least 20 percent of their a ...
Topics: business, GMOs (all these topics)

Hunger Strike		29 May 2003	Daily Grist
Hunger Strike The backlash has begun against President Bush's comment last week that a European Union ban on genetically modified (GM) foods is contributing to world hunger. The reality, critics say, is that the dispute over GM crops is an international agricultural battle with billion-dollar stakes, and that concern about famine in the developing world is a sideshow at best and a smokescreen ...
Topics: Africa, business, European Union, GMOs, politics, population (all these topics)

Seedy		19 May 2003	Daily Grist
Seedy Members of Brazil's Landless Peasant Movement occupied a test farm owned by biotechnology giant Monsanto last week, in a bid to expel the company and establish an organic farm on the site instead. The protestors say neither the people nor the government of the Brazilian state of Parana support genetically modified (GM) crops, such as the transgenic soybeans an ...
Topics: Brazil, business, environmental non-government organizations, food and agriculture, GMOs (all these topics)

You Will Live a GM-free Life ... in Bed		22 Oct 2002	Daily Grist
You Will Live a GM-free Life ... in Bed Until recently, China seemed to be positioning itself as a world leader in bioengineered foods, spending tens of millions of dollars on new technologies and touting the benefits of genetically modified rice, soybeans, and other crops. Now, though, the nation has imposed tough restrictions on domestic planting of genetically modified (GM) crops and strict labeling rules fo ...
Topics: business, China, food and agriculture, GMOs (all these topics)

Measure for Measure		08 Oct 2002	Daily Grist
Measure for Measure The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added its voice to those of the agriculture, biotechnology, and food-processing industries in opposing Oregon's ballot measure 27, which would require labeling of genetically modified foods sold in the state. In a letter sent Friday to Gov. John Kitzhaber (D), FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford said that GM foods "ar ...
Topics: business, Food and Drug Administration, GMOs, green living, Oregon (all these topics)

Pick Your Poison		06 Aug 2002	Daily Grist
Pick Your Poison In the First World, debate over genetically modified (GM) foods is about differing ideologies; in southern Africa, where famine is deepening its grip, it is about life and death. The U.S. has offered to provide emergency food aid in the form of corn to seven stricken African countries, but some of that corn has been genetically modified. That leaves the governments of those nati ...
Topics: Africa, business, GMOs, health, population, United States (all these topics)

Oh, I'm Glad I'm Not in the Land of Cotton		21 Jun 2002	Daily Grist
Oh, I'm Glad I'm Not in the Land of Cotton For the first time, genetically modified insects have been released in the wild, in a secret location in the cotton fields of Arizona. The insects, pink bollworms, were modified by scientists to effectively destroy their own species; they are designed to be sterile, so that when they mate with natural bollworms, no offspring will result. Concern about the development is coming f ...
Topics: Arizona, business, GMOs, wildlife (all these topics)

Two Mindsets, Two Visions of Sustainable Agriculture	Donella H. Meadows	03 Aug 1999	Global Citizen
"I guess you must be in favor of pesticides," concluded a Monsanto public relations guy, after I objected to his company's genetically engineered potato. "I guess it's okay with you if people starve," said a botanist I deeply respect, with whom I have carried out a fervent argument about genetic engineering. Accusations like these astonish me. I'm an organic farmer; I'm not in favor of p ...
Topics: business, food and agriculture, GMOs (all these topics)

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