Genetic engineering
GM is a matter of life and death, not lifestyle
IPN Opinion article
Prince Charles claimed GM crops could be "the biggest disaster environmentally of all time" in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. IPN Environment Director Caroline Boin's response gave the Telegraph letters page its top headline.
Fencing In Europe's Farmers
IPN Opinion article
EU environment ministers will decide this week whether Europe should have GMO-free zones - although genetically-modified crops have been in commercial production in the USA for a dozen years now, and, so far, there are no signs of killer tomatoes rampaging through California. Yet some environmentalists still so oppose modern agricultural biotechnology that the fear is still widespread.
Blocking Biotechnology
How cultural and religious attitudes in the west are stifling investments in biotechnology, with speaker Professor Lee Silver, Princeton University
Biotechnology: How to set African women free
IPN Opinion article
A trade dispute between rich nations could unlock or tighten the chains on the world's poorest farmers - meaning most African women. The World Trade Organisation's forthcoming ruling on GM foods could keep them scratching at the soil for subsistence or help them conquer famine.
Packaging precaution
IPN Opinion article
The European Union\'s Agriculture Council\'s decision in July 2002 to make labelling of genetically modified (GM) foods mandatory has created more problems than it solved.
European Union (EU) health and consumer protection commissioner David Byrne welcomed the decision, but simultaneously deplored \'scaremongering\', stressing that all genetically modified organisms authorised in the EU have been evaluated for safety. The new rules allegedly cater to consumer concerns, but in effect they accommodate to powerful lobbies - while maintaining doubt on the safety of GM products.
Labels and Trade Wars
IPN Opinion article
This week the Environment Committee of the European Parliament met to discuss the traceability of genetically modified (GM) food and its labeling. With some luck Parliament will base its decisions on sound science.
But it got no help or guidance last week when the European Union\'s Agriculture Council botched an opportunity to resolve the genetically modified food labeling dilemma. It chose to make labeling mandatory, shamefully exempting those products of large European multinationals.
