Food & agriculture

How do agribusiness corporations impact decisions on our food system?

How EFSA dealt with French GM study: what lessons ?

29.11.2012

The way the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has managed the Séralini case does not meet the standards that should be expected from the “keystone of European Union (EU) risk assessment regarding food and feed safety”.

Study on Monsanto's GM maize intensifies concerns about EFSA's reliability – Monsanto strikes back with PR offensive

21.09.2012

Monsanto launched a PR offensive to try to spread doubt about a study published two days ago by French scientist Gilles-Éric Séralini: the study showed that the biotech giant's flagship herbicide, Roundup, and one the GM maizes produced by the firm, NK603, are having disastrous effects on rats' health when those are studied during their lifetime and not over the industry-favoured 90 days.

‘Responsible soy’ nominated for Belgian Greenwash award

27.06.2012

At the event, 'Silence of the Panda' by Wilfried Huismann was screened for the first time in Belgium. This film, currently forbidden in Germany, focuses on the pro-industry strategies followed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), accused by many of helping corpotations to greenwash their image with flawed ‘green’ labels. Parts of the movie are available on youtube.

Research & innovation

Agribusiness CAPturing EU research money?

26.06.2012

The future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2013 is now being debated, with the Commission proposing a new €4.5 billion budget for agricultural research. The proposal is highly strategic: the research projects that are prioritised and funded today may have a decisive impact on the way agriculture is practised in the future. That is why the ongoing lobbying battle for the control of these funds is so important: behind these projects, it is the very vision for the future of agriculture in Europe which is at stake.

A Trojan … Bee? Front group for BASF co-organise event at the Parliament on ‘bees and biodiversity’

11.06.2012

In the build-up to Rio+20, the European Parliament played host to the “first ever European Week of the Bee and Pollination” from 3 to 6 June. Events included a high-profile conference inside the European Parliament and a large flower garden in front of the Parliament building. The conference in the Parliament was hosted by conservative MEP Gaston Franco, and held under the patronage of Commissioner Potocnik. It even featured ‘honey tasting with beekeepers’. Both events prominently carried the logos of the UNEP and the ‘Bees Biodiversity Network’.

Roundtable on Responsible Soy - the certification smokescreen

22.05.2012

The Roundtable on Responsible Soy launched its voluntary certification process in 2006, with the first certificates introduced in 2011. Audits of 10 of the companies certified have now been published online. This briefing by the GM Freeze, Friends of the Earth (England Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Europe Observatory analyses the audits and finds they show little evidence of responsible soy production on the ground.

New briefing: The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), a corporate lobbygroup

03.05.2012

Today groups have written to the European Parliament in anticipation of the vote on 10 May in plenary session on the EFSA 2010 budget. A letter signed by Corporate Europe Observatory, Earth Open Source, Testbiotech and Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) introduces a new briefing, focusing on the problematic links between EFSA panel members and the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), an industry lobby group.

Conflicts on the menu

14.02.2012

As the European Food Safety Authority celebrates its 10th anniversary, a new report from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Earth Open Source questions the independence of its advice. Conflicts on the menu: a decade of industry influence at the European Food Safety Authority highlights the agency’s reliance on industry data and industry-linked experts and calls for a complete overhaul of EFSA’s operations.

EFSA's new policy fails to ban experts with industry links

14.12.2011

The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) new independence policy allows the possible subversion of scientific advice by industry’s vested interests, Corporate Europe Observatory said following publication of the policy on Wednesday. It is due for approval by the EFSA Management Board when it meets tomorrow in Warsaw.

What you should know about EFSA - in 3 minutes

09.12.2011

CEO publishes a new educational tool explaining some of the major problems at EFSA, the agency responsible for scientific advice on food
safety to the EU institutions.
A 3 minutes animation allows you to find out more how EFSA operates and to what extent this benefits the big food, biotech and pesticides corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Unilever, Nestlé... Are EFSA's experts and management independent from industry? What role does industry play in EFSA food safety tests? Doesn't EFSA look at other, independent research on these products?

Approving the GM potato: conflicts of interest, flawed science and fierce lobbying

07.11.2011

In March 2010, the European Commission approved BASF's genetically modified Amflora potato for cultivation in the European Union. CEO has investigated the background to this decision, including the controversial scientific advice provided by the European Food Safety Authority on the use of antibiotic resistant marker genes. CEO found that more than half of EFSA's GMO panel had conflicts of interest, as defined by the OECD.

EU food additive experts fail to declare links with food industry

13.09.2011

Two experts from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in charge of evaluating food additives, including aspartame, have failed to report active collaborations with ILSI, a scientific lobby group funded by the food industry – major user of additives and aspartame. EFSA rules on conflicts of interest require these experts to report such activities.