Now you see it, now you don’t: How EFSA and BfR reached a different decision than the IARC Working Group on glyphosate.
Presentation by CSS member Prof. Dr. Christopher Portier, Senior Collaborating Scientist with the Environmental defense Fund and former member of numerous WHO/IARC scientific committees.
Open letter on new biotechnologies from the Latin American Union of Concerned Scientists with Society and Nature (UCCSNAL)
- Details
- New GE techniques
In their letter, UCCSNAL question the safety of CRISPR/Cas9 and other new biotechnologies as well as the influence of science in the decision-making process regarding the adoption of the new technologies. They fear that these technologies will further increase monopolistic powers over seeds, land grabbing and migration from the land and also have other, unanticipated impacts.
"The new technologies facilitate faster, more extensive changes in the genetic material of more organisms, and at lower cost", they argue.
UCCSNAL demands a halt of all experimentation in this field. Rather, science should be based on acroecological techniques and local knowledges.
Open letter (English)
Open letter (Spanish)
LASER - Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendevous
- Details
- Events
Biohacking or Ecohacking?
07 June 2016, 18.00 - 19.30
Salotto Café, Hardturmstrasse 169
8005 Zürich
Speakers:
Rüdiger Trojok, Ignacio Chapela, Christoph Kueffer
Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Jill Scott
Autrement ça va?
- Details
- Events
Au nom du profit tout est permis
Regards croisés sur les multinationales
21 avril - 21 octobre
Alliance Sud Infodoc
Espace Dickens
Maison de Quartier Sous-Gare
Pôle Sud
Critical Discussion
- Details
- Events
Klimaabkommen von Paris - Erfolg oder Beruhigungspille?
Friday, 8th April 2016, 17:30 Uhr
University of Zurich, Hauptgebäude,
Rämistrasse 71, KOL H 312
Speakers:
Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Fischlin
Dr. Michael Dittmar
Dr. Juanita Schläpfer-Miller
Marcel Hänggi
Martina Munz
German
Conference
- Details
- Events
Population, Envrionment, Ethics:
Where We Stand Now
April 28th 2016
5:30 PM
Metro m1, Station UNIL-Sorge
Building Amphimax
Auditorium 350
Speaker:
Professor Paul R. Ehrlich
Moderation:
Christian Arnsperger
Round Table:
Guido Palazzo
Eric Verrecchia
Civil society organisations ask to revoke MON810 authorisation
- Details
- Bt crops
The wild ancestor of commercial maize, teosinte, has been detected in Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra, Spain and is spreading as an invasive species in maize growing areas. In one region where growing maize is the main source of income for farmers, the teosinte population has already reached such a high density, that the local governments has issued and enacted a ban on maize cultivation to prevent teosinte from spreading further.
Since in Spain the transgenic maize MON810 is grown on more than 100’000 hectares, it is feared that teosinte could interbreed with MON810, potentially resulting in an invasive transgenic teosinte species. If the hybrids between MON810 and teosinte inherit the insect resistant trait from MON810 they are likely to show higher fitness compared to the native teosinte plants, thereby increasing the invasive potential.
The fact that maize has no wild relatives in Europe to cross and interbreed with, was an important precondition for allowing genetically modified maize to be cultivated in the EU. Thirteen civil society organisations have now asked the EU Commission and the Spanish government to ban the cultivation of MON810 in 2016.