How do agribusiness corporations impact decisions on our food system?
A luxurious venue, corporate propaganda in the corridors, co-optation of the co-organisers, lobbyists in the room, civil society hardly present and heavy-weight politicians on stage: welcome to Syngenta's 4th Forum for the Future of Agriculture.
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) last week highlighted in a report that at least four members of EFSA’s management board are employed by or otherwise linked with food industry lobby groups and other commercial interests, a situation that creates potential conflicts of interest.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is responsible for assessing and communicating food safety in the European Union, for everything from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to pesticides. However EFSA has recently been criticised because its scientific assessments of new GM crops and pesticides rely almost exclusively on corporate research data. Some EFSA experts have also been accused of being too close to the food and drink industry .
A recent draft Commission proposal to change the legislation governing genetically modified (GM) foods and feeds has revealed that the Commission is giving in to a long-standing combined demand from the biotech, food and animal feed industry to break down the so-called ‘zero-tolerance policy’ regarding contamination with non-authorised GM food and feed.
Leading French researcher on the impacts of GMOs Gilles-Eric Séralini has won the court case against Marc Fellous of the Association Française des Biotechnologies Végétales (AFBV) for libel. Fellous was convicted to the symbolic fine of 1 euro for damages. Many people showed up on 17 January in front of the court in Paris. Corinne Lepage, MEP, said “When a whistleblower moves from the defensive to the offensive, this is now bearing its fruits.”
The European Commission continues its secrecy regarding the accreditation of voluntary schemes under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). At least eleven voluntary agrofuel accreditation schemes are currently seeking approval - but the EU Commission has refused to release details of which schemes and companies are involved. In October, CEO, ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth and FERN have sent the Commission an access to document request demanding full and ongoing disclosure of both the names and the content of these schemes.
Public relations expertise developed by a food-and-drink-industry-funded think tank seems to be being promoted by the European Union’s food safety agency, following the appointment of a food industry insider. The PR strategy on dealing with risks has even been included in official guidelines. Recent cases of former Commissioners going through the revolving doors into lobbying jobs have raised questions about conflicts of interest.
The Farmers Biotech Network GM Food tasting event,reported on by Corporate Europe Observatory recently, was not paid for by the farmers network, CEO has learned, but by EuropaBio.
After Commissioner Janez Potocnik's very weak reply to the letter sent by Food and Water Europe, CEO and other organisations, the organisations replied back again, stressing the demand for the EC to withdraw from the "European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Roundtable (SCP Roundtable).
Read the letter here.
A peculiar pro-biotech event took place in Brussels. A 'farmers network' gave Brussels the chance to sample some genetically modified (GM) cuisine at an event in the upmarket Renaissance Hotel on 28 June, just across the road from the European Parliament. Lucky Brussels?
CIAA's €1-billion campaign to promote the GDA labelling system was clearly a key element in its political strategy to combat other, stricter labelling options which it feared would damage sales of unhealthy food, such as the 'traffic light' system.
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has collected more than twenty e-mails from industry lobbyists with “voting recommendations” for MEPs ahead of the ENVI committee vote, in March 2010, on the ‘Sommer report’ about the new EU regulation on food labelling.
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