THIS PAGE IS
CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION...........
SPAR –
If they’re so good for you,
why not label them proudly?
Spar have an appallingly pro-GM produce, saying that
they can be eaten safely and that anything that comes onto our
shelves has been “tested for environmental and human safety for 6
growing seasons”. It’s a mystery where they get their
information from; we know that not 1 environmental impact assessment
has ever been carried out in all the years that GM crops have been
growing in South Africa. Independent studies on the health effects
are extremely rare. Have a look at their policy on GMO’s at:
http://www.spar.co.za/SPARGMpolicy755.aspx
We
are writing SPAR on your behalf.
Click here to see the letter.
Should you wish to add your own voice the email address of their MD
is on the website too.
|
SUPPORT
THE SAFEAGE FOOD LIST - Have Pick n Pay and Spar's house brands
tested for GM content!
We are about to start
selecting random products from the house brands of Pick n Pay and
Spar, and testing them for GM content so that we can continue to
build our “Proudly SAFeAGE” Food List. WE REALLY NEED YOUR
SUPPORT!!
You can support us by sponsoring the testing of a food (R1500.00) or
making a donation into the SAFeAGE account, with the reference
“Safe Food”.
Account
details:
STANDARD
BANK
Branch :THIBAULT SQUARE
Swift code: SBZA-ZA-JJ
Branch: THIBAULT SQUARE,
Branch
Number: 020909
CAPE TOWN, RSA
Account number :074807315
Account
name: SA Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE
WE
ARE ALSO INVITING REGULAR SUPPORT BY WAY OF AN ELECTRONIC TRANSFER
DIRECTLY INTO OUR ACCOUNT.
You can also buy any of our books or dvds for friends
and families and the proceeds of them will go toward food testing.
|
FAITH
GROUPS - THE LARGEST ORGANISED CONSUMER GROUPS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
Without our faith groups under the inspired leadership of Bishop
Geoff Davies, our campaign would not have gotten off the ground. We
sincerely thank those who have signed up so far, representing a
total of 3.6 million consumers.
Bishop Geoff Davies, SA Faith Communities
Environmental Institute (SAFCEI)
Rabbi Hillel Avidan, Durban Progressive Jewish
Congregation;
Joan Kerchoff, PmB Society of Friends;
Ronald Nicolson, Parish of Karkloof, Howick;
Bsp. DR Lilje, Evangelical Lutheran Church SA;
Mrs A Swart, Moravian Church of SA:
K Read, St Cyprians Anglican Church, Cape Town;
Adv. KD Matji, Hervormde Kerk in SA;
Archbishop Seraphim Kykkotis, Greek Orthodox Patriachate of
Alexandria and All Africa, Houghton;
AB Ijzerman, Uniting Reformed Church, Khayelitsha;
John Clarke, Roman Catholic Church; Pinegowrie
Dr Michael Strauss, Dutch Reformed Church;
Welgelegen
Joani Reynders, Methodist Church, Waterberg
Jackie Trollip, St Francis Anglican, Jeffreys Bay
Moulana Mohammed Navlakhi, De-Deur Mosque, Roshne;
Peter Just, Tibetan Buddhist, Bronkhorstspruit;
George G Berkowitz, Sanctuary of the Soul, Sandton;
DA Shivanand, President ISKON Hare Krishna, Chatsworth;
Dhruva Maharaj Das, President, Hare Krishna Temple, Cape Town
TRENDS
Biofuels
”There is no mystery to big
biotech’s love affair with agro-fuels. More agro-fuels translates
into more soya and more hybrid maize production – meaning more
sales of GM seeds and pesticides. Robert Fraley, the Vice-President
of Monsanto and co-inventor of its Roundup Ready crops, gleefully
told an audience at a recent agribusiness exhibition in Argentina
that the growth of agro-fuels was “unimaginable in terms of what
it’s going to mean for corn and soybean surface”.
Biofuels, or agrofuels, are big in the world of
genetic engineering. They are touted as the answer to our depleting
fossil fuels and carbon emissions creating global warming. As with
genetically engineered foods, the logic is appealing, until you
scratch beneath the surface and look at what growing agrofuels
entails..
What are the problems with agrofuels?
They’re monocrops and therefore need a lot of land that could be
used for food. Monocrops also need a high level of pesticides and
mechanisation. That mechanisation is driven by fossil fuels. The
process of extracting oils and turning them into a usable product
takes more energy than it produces.
Agrofuels only make sense on a small, local scale
where farmers are growing crops for their own use.
See www.grain.org/agrofuels
for excellent further reading on the issue as well as GRAIN’s
latest issue of
Seedling, dealing entirely with this issue. You can download
it for free!
Green Revolution for Africa.
Stick with what you know Mr. Gates – but, hey, isn’t that
exactly what you are doing – making money?
Bill Gates is giving bucket loads of
money towards the “Green Revolution” in Africa. We wish he
wouldn’t.
Bill Gates and the Rockerfeller foundation are pouring money (US$150
million over 5 years) into catalysing the “Green Revolution” for
Africa. Ironically the so called Green Revolution heralded a move
away from ecological family farming to export oriented
mono-cropping, farm mechanisation and the use of corporate seed and
chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Since the start of the
revolution in the 1960’s, agriculture has become one of
humankind’s most destructive practises for the planet.
Small-scale farmers all over Africa are
demanding that their indigenous seed, agricultural knowledge and
systems be supported rather than replaced.
Organic agriculture is the fasted growing sector of
agriculture today. The heavy use of petroleum based agricultural
poisons and transportation of food all over the world is so last
century.
Catch
up Bill! Local is lekker.
African farmer organizations will
meet in Selingué, Mali on November 27-28, 2007 to discuss
ecological alternatives to the Bill & Melinda Gates and
Rockefeller Foundations' proposal for a new Green Revolution in
Africa.
http://www.foodfirst.org/issues/africanfoodsovereignty
and http://www.foodfirst.org/issues/greenrevolution.)
in the news
Monsanto Fudges the
Truth
In February Monsanto placed an advert in YOU Magazine, with the heading “Is your food safe?” Underneath a
picture of a family in the kitchen, the ad said, “Biotechnology – the true facts ……this is one of the most
extensively tested and controlled types of food and no negative
reactions have ever been reported”.
Mark Wells, an active supporter of SAFeAGE was well aware that this
is far from the truth and took it up with the Advertising Standard
Authority (ASA). He sent in a selection of published, peer reviewed
scientific papers to the contrary. After investigation and
submissions from Monsanto, the ASA ruled that the advert was false
and ordered it withdrawn. ASA said, “the claim may not be used again
in its current form until new substantiation has been submitted,
evaluated and a new ruling is made”.
Monsanto has since issued a
statement saying that that ASA has now accepted the advert with the
revised wording: “no substantiated scientific or medical negative reactions to GM foods
have ever been reported”. Even Parliamentarians in the
Department of Environment’s Portfolio Committee were fed this
story at a recent hearing they held on GMO’s.
However, Biowatch SA
followed up on the story with the ASA, who say, in writing,
that no such thing has
happened. The original ruling still stands and if the advert
appears again consumers are entitled to object. See Biowatch’s
press release Another spin from GM seed giant
Monsanto at www.biowatch.org
New study raises concern over GM maize
A recent study conducted by French scientific research
institute CRIIGEN, on a Monsanto maize variety called NK603, showed
that rats fed GM maize and those fed conventional maize differed in
brain, kidney, heart and liver measurements and had significant
weight differences. This variety was approved in South Africa in
2002 and is one of the varieties that we eat.
South Africa is the only
country in the world that grows a genetically modified staple food
– maize. While maize is often consumed in highly processed forms,
such as chips in the USA, pap is a favourite daily staple here. We
still have no idea of the impacts of this on the health of our
population because no research has been carried out.
In granting permits for new varieties our government relies
heavily on information supplied by the applicant, (in this case
Monsanto), often prepared in a foreign country. Our regulatory
system is not ensuring the safety of our foods and neither are we
being afforded the choice to avoid these foods because there is no
mandatory labelling.
Write to the GMO Registrar and ask to see independent, South
African research on the health impacts of GM foods.
Contact The Director: Genetic Resources
Department of Agriculture, Private Bag X973, Pretoria 0001
Tel: (+27 12) 319 6024
Fax: (+27 12) 319 6329
E-mail: DGR@nda.agric.za
http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/geneticresources/geneticresources.htm
Cc our Health
Minister and the Chair
of the Portfolio Committee on Environment.
Dr Mantombazana Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang
Department of Health
Private Bag X828
Pretoria, 0001
Tel: 012-3120000 fax 012-326-4395
Chair of Portfolio Committee on Environment:
Langa Zita: 083 286 7215 or
Secretary of PC DEAT
Moses Manele: tmmanele@parliament.gov.za
(021) 403 3749
083 709 8524
(021) 403 2808
CASSAVA
Cassava is one of the oldest cultivated crops and a staple food for 600
million people throughout Africa. In 2002, when Zambia suffered a
terrible drought and refused GM food aid, they came through their
food crisis by relying on indigenous crops such as cassava. In March
we celebrated when our government turned down the Agricultural
Research Council’s (ARC) application to experiment with GM cassava
in open field trials. The ARC is now appealing this decision.
Watch this space for the outcome.
See http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/
- Book Releases” for their new publication on GM Legislation in
South Africa
Portfolio Committee Hearing
SAFeAGE presented to the
Portfolio committee on Environment and Tourism, who requested input
on the Environmental Impact Assesments and on traceability and
labelling of GM foods.
We found the committee most
responsive to our concerns and they were especially concerned about
the degree of misinformation emanating from industrial interest
groups like AfricaBio and Hans Lombard Public Relations, who both
purport to be independent but which in fact have significant vested
interests in promoting GM crops and food products.
We showed that there are no real
impediments to putting a proper tracing regime in place on GM crops
as there are already some in place throughout the agricultural
industry.
Furthermore the SABS (now SA
National Standards Organisation – SANS) has put several tracing
regimes in place to assist farmers, producers and to track food
through the chain. The problem with this is that it is non-GM food
which is tracked and
which has to prove its lack of contamination. Talk about reversing
the onus of responsibility. But then this is nothing new for an
industry that has grown on the back of misinformation and outright
lies to the public, so is only to be expected.
As far as EIAs are concerned we showed that there is an
increasingly strong call for a need for proper EIAs to be
undertaken. Previous environmental impacts have relied entirely on
desktop studies and on information supplied by industry itself,
clearly a situation that raises conflicts of interest. Given that
EIAs are the responsibility of DEAT we suggested some solutions to
implementing proper transparent public participation processes.
We thank this particular portfolio committee for its
transparent and objective perspective on this issue and will
continue to work with them in an open and positive manner.
EVENTS
Past
SAFeAGE Events:
SAFeAGE has been showing the movies Future of Food, Hidden
Dangers in Kids’ Meals and our newest acquisition: Patent
for a Pig: The Big Business of Genetic Engineering. We
have done well with these DVD's and if you'd like us to come and do
a showing please call us!
COMING
UP
Rocking
the Daisies 28-30
September. Come and visit us at this revolutionary green rock
festival in Darling. Bring your kids, neighbours, friends.
We will be in the Hemporium tent.
www.rockingthedaisies.com
SAFeAGE will have a consumer awareness stall at the
Rocking the Daisies music festival in Darling, Western Cape. The
promoters say, “We see great importance in using Rocking the
Daisies as a platform to promote a “Green Attitude”. We are
therefore making it our mission to be an eco-friendly event wherever
possible”. They intend raising awareness about our “footprint”
and demonstrate alternatives through the ways we put the festival
together and the products we use.
The SAFeAGE stall will educate festival-goers on issues around
genetically engineered foods, canvass support for our labelling and
food testing campaign and highlight positive alternatives.
World
Food Day
16 October
The Daikonia Council of Churches, will
combine with the local Botanic Gardens and the Anglican
Diocesan Environmental Group to highlight the importance of
traditional/indigenous foods to combat hunger and as a response to
health, nutrition and climate change. The problems around GMOS
will included. The event will be on Saturday. In Durban.
Contact: Phone:
031 310 3500
Fax: 031 310 3502
e-mail: the.director@diakonia.org.za
National Organics Festival
12-16 October, Cape Town Convention Centre
We are having a stand at this festival in October and have some VIP
tickets for some of our members. Please let us know if you would
like one or two. Numbers of limited, so it’s first come-first
served!
SAFEAGE
AGM – 28/29 NOVEMBER
Please
watch this space. We are planning on having a night of fun and
frolic on 28th November followed by our AGM on 29th.
Please pencil these dates in your diary. More info will follow in
mid October.
We are looking for donations of a VENUE
as well as some organic GMO FREE snacks for both the evening function
on 28th and the day function on 29th.
|
STAFF
In
July we said farewell to Maarten Bazuin. Maarten will
be getting married at the end of the year and moving to New
Zealand. In the meantime he is doing a temp archiving stint
for Biowatch.
We
are pleased to have Haidee Swanby on board as general
assistant in National Office until December (hopefully
longer).
Adrian
Alberts is doing a fantastic job as our field/ outreach officer.
An-Li
Theron has been holding a focus for Gauteng
ANNUAL REPORT
Charmaine is busy compiling our 2006-07
Annual Report which will be on the website soon. Look out for
that, lots of news and photos etc.
RESOURCES
-
The African
Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has published a new
booklet in their “Biosafety, Biopiracy and Biopolitics”
series call Regulation of GMO’s in South Africa
Details and short comings. See http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/portal/
-
For those of you who want to familiarise yourselves with
the nitty gritties of our policies.
- Urban Sprout
is a wonderful green news and organic directory www.urbansprout.co.za
-
We sell the following resources:
Future of Food (DVD) We have two versions now, one is 88
minutes and one is 60 minutes;
Genetic Roulette (book by Jeffrey Smith)
Hidden Dangers in Kids Meals
Seeds of Deception by Jeffrey Smith
Click
here for more
details on these.
Best,
Charmaine, Haidee, Adrian, An-Li
Click
here to go back to home page