| | 05/June/23
| | Illegal GMO rice in Europe again In January 2023, German customs intercepted illegal rice noodles. The noodles, from Thailand, were made from transgenic rice, which it is illegal to import into the EU. Germany informed the European Commission of this new incident and the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) issued an alert on 11 January 2023. The Netherlands is the point of entry for these illegal noodles, but the RASFF states that they have been distributed in other European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom. On 16 May 2023, it was Spain’s turn to inform the RASFF of the detection of unauthorised GM rice flour, this time from India. The European Commission said two containers were involved (48 tonnes in total). By 2021, 500 tonnes of transgenic rice flour from India had already been intercepted in the EU. In November 2021, the Coalition for a GMO-free India called on the country’s authorities and highlighted the lack of coexistence measures between the GMO and non-GMO supply chains. In an open letter, it pointed out that several GM rice field trials had been carried out in India. It warns that these trials have led to "contamination and leakage" reaching the food chain. Inf'OGM Brazil: GMO insects to the rescue of Bt maize? After releasing transgenic mosquitoes, Oxitec is disseminating transgenic larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm) on several thousand hectares of GM Bt maize in Brazil. This agricultural pest has become resistant to several chemical insecticides and to many transgenic Bt plants. Oxitec hopes that the release of GM males can circumvent this resistance. The new “solution” is to “sterilise” the insects themselves in an attempt to eradicate their population. The male sterile insect technique is not new. It has been used in Brazil on populations of mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus. This new Oxitec dissemination project is carried out in partnership with Bayer. The CTNBio, the body in charge of GMO evaluation in Brazil, had already given its approval for a commercial use of Spodoptera frugiperdra in 2021. Inf'OGM India: Punjab's cotton sowing falls short of target Punjab has failed to achieve its target cotton planting area due to inclement weather and lower profits compared to rice. This year, the Punjab government has offered a 33% subsidy on Bt cotton seed, as per the recommendation by Punjab Agricultural University. However, at the end of the sowing season, the cotton crop was sown on around just 58% of the target area. Last year, the crop was sown on 62% of the target area. According to reports, farmers have chosen not to sow cotton – despite a price higher than MSP fetched last year – because of the threat of whitefly and pink bollworm attack (pink bollworm is the pest that Bt cotton is supposed to kill – but doesn't). Newsclick We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible by readers’ donations. Please support our work with a one-off or regular donation. Thank you! __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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