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General International Policy

• The sinister sacking of the world's leading GM expert - and the trail that leads to Tony Blair and the White House, The Daily Mail, July 7 2003

• Grassley Meets with Administration Officials, Urges Quick Decision on WTO Biotech Case, Press Release, May 6, 2003
  • Grassley letter

• German Marshall Fund meeting on GM Crops, Brussels, January 10-12, 2003
  The focus of the meeting is on how the transatlantic dynamics regarding agricultural biotechnology are affecting developing countries in Africa as they confront issues associated with the importing and growing of GM crops and products.
  • Statement by Dr. Michael Hansen, representative of Consumers International
  • "Government lack of safety standards for GM crops revealed", Consumers International Press Release

• Biopiracy By Another Name? A Critique Of The FAO-CGIAR Trusteeship System, Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), Seedling Magazine, October 2002

• Request for comments on the Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Produced Using Recombinant-DNA Microorganisms at Step 6, Codex Alimentarius Commission, September 2002

• WFP grapples with GMO dilemma in southern African food crisis, Agence France Presse, July 24 2002

  Switzerland: UN Says GM Crop Trial Fail to Help Developing Countries, from: just-sites.com, April 17, 2002

• Due to public interest in the outcome of the ad hoc Codex Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology held in Yokohama, 4-8 March 2002, the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS COMMISSION has posted advance copies of the two main texts adopted by the Task Force:
  • Draft Principles for Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology
  • Draft Guidelines for the Safety Assessment of Recombinant-DNA Plants

• "Biotechnology, GMOs, ethics and food production" presented at the European Media Seminar on Global Food Security, Stockholm, 14-16 October 2001

• Keynote address on GMOs by FAO Assistant-Director General Louise Fresco, Assistant-Director General, FAO Agriculture Department gave the keynote address to a conference on "Crop and Forest Biotechnology for the Future", Falkenberg, Sweden, 16-18 September 2001

• The United Nations released a new report this month. The "Human Development Report 2001 - Making New Technologies Work for Human Development", which was commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • UN food agency approves GM framework, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, November 4, 2001

  • UNDP Responds to Critics of HDR 2001 Report Open Letter from Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Lead Author of the UNDP HDR 2001 report, August 7, 2001

  • "Human Development Report 2001 will spotlight technologies' role in reducing poverty" United Nations Development Programme press release, Monday, 9 July 2001

  • HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2001 or a Corporate Marketing Strategy?, Statement on UNDP Report from the farmers organisation UBINIG in Bangladesh, July 2001

  • The Seed and the Spinning Wheel: The UNDP as Biotech Salesman, (Reflections on the Human Development Report - 2001) by Dr. Vandana Shiva, July 25, 2001

  • The UNDP Exploits the Poor and Hungry to Push Genetic Engineering, Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), Posted on CropChoice.com -- CropChoice Opinion, July 26, 2001

  • UNDP's Human Development Report 2001: Technofixes Within a Sugar Coating by Ashish Kothari in The Hindu, June 2001

• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Politics, Profits Increasing Risks of Biotech Foods Agence France Presse, July 10,2001

• Codex Alimentarius Commission discusses safety of genetically modified foods, approves toxin limits and guidelines for organic livestock farming, Press Release 01/44 Joint WHO/FAO, July 6, 2001

• UN Explores Ethical Issues of Bioengineered Organisms, Environmental News Service, May 7, 2001

• Agenda Item 11 CRD.1, Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Committee on Food Labeling, Twenty-ninth Session, Ottawa, Canada, 1 - 4 May 2001

• Codex Alimentarius Commission Task Force Announces Significant Progress Toward Agreement on Worldwide Standards for Biotech Foods, Press Release Joint WHO/FAO, April 2, 2001

• New AgBioForum Issue: Why Does Biotech Regulation Differ So Much Between The U.S. And EU? Editors introduction, March 9, 2001

• Davos Essay: GM Foods, eCountries, January 31, 2001

• Labeling Foods With Designer Genes, New York Times, January 3, 2001

• Biotech Food, The Associated Press, Washington Post, December 18, 2000

• Commission Takes Initiative to Restore Confidence in GMO Approval Process, Brussels, July, 2000

• Cartagena Biosafety Protocol Officially Signed at Convention on Biological Diversity, Nairobi, May 25, Third World Network

• Stunting Green Progress, Financial Times, July 8, 2000

• FAO Background Paper, Proposed Draft Guideline for the Conduct of Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants
     (To be read in conjunction with General Principles for the Risk
     Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology)

•  Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Committe on Pesticide Residues, "Feasibility of Establishing MRLs for Genetically Modified Crops and for Metablolite Residues" (Prepared by Canada), Agenda Item #6, January 2000

• World Needs GM Crops, Says UN Food Chief, Financial Times, June 28 2000

• Ag BioTech InfoNet section on Labeling includes international information.

• Ag BioTech InfoNet Consumer Choice, International Concerns

• Ag BioTech InfoNet's coverage of the international FAO electronic conference on biotech and food security.

• Report on the First Meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, and on Related NGO Activities, Tokyo (Chiba), March 14-17 2000.

• ... amid calls for international biotech panel, Nature, 403: 821, February 24, 2000.

• Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue Organics Resolution, National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, February 2000

• Cartagena protocol on international trade in GMOs, drafted in Montreal as an amendment to the Rio protocol, January 29, 2000.

• Developing Countries Look for Guidance in GM Crops Debate, Nature 401: 831 - 832, October 28, 1999
  • Collaborations Essential for Food in the Developing World, Nature 401: 829, (Opinion); Editorial, October 28, 1999

• EU Official Warns GMO Foods Could Beget Trade War Between United States, Europe, Bureau of National Affairs, October 22,1999

•  Policy briefs on "Biotechnology for Developing-Country Agriculture: Problems and Opportunities", the 2020 Vision Initiative of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

• Consumer Representatives Applaud a Decision Today Which Could Severly Limit the Use of the Genetically Engineered Hormone BST Around the World, Consumers International Press Release, June 30, 1999

• Time to Grasp the International Perspective on GM Crops, Nature 399, 715 (1999)

• CARE Rejects Plan to Work with Monsanto, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 12, 1999

• Monsanto Hires the Public Face of Safeway, Scotsman, March 4, 1999