GMOs - Slow Food International

EU Member States Show Support for the Deregulation of New GMOs

7 June 2021 Madeleine Coste & Alice Poiron

Last week, EU Member States welcomed the alarming Commission’s study on “New Genomic Techniques”, which suggests certain new GMOs to be exempt from rigorous safety assessments. Slow Food sees this disappointing conclusion as a proof of the EU’s resort to biotechnologies as a silver bullet for current food system problems and calls on the EU …

European Commission Opens the Door to New GMOs

3 May 2021

European Commission backtracks and opens the door to the deregulation of new GMOs, putting citizens and farmers’ freedom of choice at risk Slow Food is deeply alarmed by the European Commission’s conclusions from the study on “new genomic techniques” which opens the door to the deregulation of new GMOs, ignoring the precautionary principle. “Through the EU Green …

UN showcases the Impossible Burger: A reaction from Gilles Luneau

6 October 2020 MADELEINE COSTE

The UN Climate Change recently sent a tweet about Impossible Foods, who, one year ago, was awarded a United Nations Global Climate Action Award. The tech start–up that invented the “Impossible Burger”, a plant-based alternative to the regular beef patty, was rewarded by the UN Climate Change’s “Planetary Health” program which seeks to recognize and …

Free seeds and South America without Transgenic Crops

8 July 2020

With the wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the large agro-industry companies, along with governments in the Andean region, have been pushing for even stronger cultivation of the GMOs portraying it as a way to survive or create jobs or production. South American Slow Food Network, composed of ten countries in the region, has been …

South Africa’s Agriculture Minister Rejects Monsato’s GM Maize Seed

28 November 2019

Amidst the clamor that surrounds Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) globally, a small but significant triumph panned out in South Africa last month. The country’s Agriculture Minister, Thoko Didiza, upheld the decision by the Executive Council to reject American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, Monsato’s request for the commercial cultivation of its allegedly drought-tolerant MON87460 x …

Australian Federal Government and the Opposition Sign Off on Uncontrolled Genetic Experiment

18 November 2019

Slow Food in Australia is deeply disappointed that the Federal Government and the Labour party ignored calls from farmers, organic food producers and agricultural exporters to disallow amendments to the Gene Technology Regulations, submitting Australians to a nationwide genetic experiment. Both parties failed in the Senate to support the Greens’ motion disallowing amendments to the …

Unlabeled, untested Genetically Modified Foods including animals to be unleashed on Australian consumers, farmers and exporters if the Gene Technology Amendment is defeated in the Senate on November 13, 2019

25 October 2019

Slow Food in Australia is calling on all members and supporters to mobilize and make their voices heard to stop the deregulation of genetically modified foods (GMOs) On November 13 in response to public and scientific concerns, Senator Janet Rice will table a motion in the senate to disallow the governments deregulation of a whole …

“The Gene Technology Amendment puts Australian families at risk of eating untested, unlabeled genetically modified foods – including animals”

9 September 2019

Amorelle Dempster, Slow Food International Councillor for Australia and Oceania, is leading the charge to stop changes to the regulation of genetically modified food and is calling for supporters to voice their concerns. It started yesterday, September 5, on the occasion of a public event held in Maitland (Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales), …

The European Court of Justice takes a stance on new biotechnologies

25 July 2018

Today the European Court of Justice decreed that new organisms obtained from mutagenesis are subject to the same security controls that apply to GMOs. Slow Food welcomes the ruling but calls for vigilance among Member States. There will be opportunities to engage in this relevant debate on new genetic modification techniques and GMOs during Terra Madre Salone del Gusto.

Bayer-Monsanto merger: A battle to be won with forks

7 June 2018

If controlling access to food means controlling the destiny of humanity, from today the most powerful player worldwide is not a government or a coalition of States, but a single multinational corporation, Bayer, after acquiring the infamous Monsanto. Slow Food and other environmental and civil society organizations have been warning about this for two years, and it happened in the end. In fact, until yesterday, Bayer was a German pharmaceutical chemical giant. As of today, it is also the world’s largest group in the field of seeds, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.