ENVIRONMENT-GERMANY: Fleeing Famine, Bees Seek Asylum in Cities

For German bees, the countryside is no longer what it used to be. They are fleeing insecticides and genetically modified crops to take refuge in cities.

AGRICULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed

Baphethile Mntambo has been farming organically for the past five years because she knows that avoiding chemicals will in the long-term benefit her yield. She decided not to plant genetically modified seeds because she has heard that they cannot be saved for the next season and will eventually deplete her soil. But she is not entirely sure how and why.

Q&A: ‘Need For a New Social Alliance’

A global alliance of human rights activists, environmentalists and ethically run small enterprises is needed to save the planet from self-destruction, says Susan George, chair of the Planning Board of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. The institute works "to contribute to social justice."

BIODIVERSITY: GE Tree Dispute Exposes Biosafety Inequities

An intense North-South debate over genetically engineered trees has sidetracked delegates at a U.N. conference on biodiversity here: African nations want a global moratorium, while a few rich countries led by Canada say it should be up to individual countries to regulate.

ENVIRONMENT: GM Foods the Problem, Not the Solution

The food crisis has prompted some looks towards genetically modified food production as a solution. That in turn has led to stronger warnings over the consequences of such food for health and the environment.

BIODIVERSITY: Privatisation Making Seeds Themselves Infertile

Seeds were once for ever. After harvest, a few from the crop would be planted for the following year, and so it went on.

ENVIRONMENT: Only the Cover Is Green

Notice how green the public relations campaigns of multinational corporations have become.

EUROPE: Warnings Against Biofuels Get Louder

European efforts to promote biofuels should be rethought because of the contribution they have made to rising food prices, according to Jeffrey Sachs, a top economic advisor to the United Nations.

Q&A: “Transgenic Seed Companies Lie and Bribe”

Biotech corporations that developed genetically modified seeds are bribing authorities and carrying out costly advertising campaigns "plagued with lies in order to create monsters that attack life," says Jesús León Santos, an indigenous man who is one of this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

MEXICO: New Rules Pave the Way for Transgenic Crops

After a three-year-long process, Mexico is about to clear the way for legal cultivation of transgenic crops, in spite of resistance from environmentalists and several small farmer associations.

PARAGUAY: Fighting for Survival in a Green Desert Wonderland

"The first red stains on Nicanor’s white shirt" reads the inscription on a memorial niche at the side of the road to Ypecuá, 230 kilometres from Asunción, where peasant farmers are fighting for their land and against the diseases caused by agrochemicals used on nearby soybean plantations.

Q&A: &#39&#39Plan by TNCs to Control Seeds Bound to Fail&#39&#39

An attempt by a handful of developed countries and trans-national corporations (TNCs) to monopolise and control the world's seeds is doomed to failure, says Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher, director-general of Ethiopia's Environment Protection Agency, and a formidable negotiator at biodiversity-related fora.

BRAZIL: GM Maize ‘Worst Tragedy’ of Lula Administration – NGOs

Non-governmental organisations actively involved in the Campaign for a GM-Free Brazil are protesting against what they call "the worst tragedy" to befall the country during the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: the release for cultivation and sale of two transgenic varieties of maize.

SCIENCE-US: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics

Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.

Q&A: "It Is Upon Us to Pave the Way for Sustainability"

Anuradha Mittal is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture. In 2004, she founded the Oakland Institute, a policy think tank focused on social, economic and environmental issues.

ICELAND: Resistance Rises Against GM Imports

Icelanders are beginning to protest more forcefully against import of genetically modified food, leading the government to tighten regulations.

Q&A: ‘If the WSF Didn’t Exist, It Would Be Necessary To Create It’

Aminata Dramane Traoré, one of the leaders of the anti-globalisation movement in Mali, reckons that the World Social Forum (WSF) is a representative movement that is essential to the common struggle of people oppressed by a "violent world economy" which often flouts fundamental rights.

ENVIRONMENT-THAILAND: Green Groups Will Take GM Crops Issue To Court

Thai environmentalists are banking on the country’s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.

MEXICO: Transgenic Maize Knocking at the Door

Mexico’s first experimental trials of genetically modified maize will take place next year, a government official has announced. The news has put environmental and campesino (small farmer) organisations, still hoping that this will not happen, on the alert.

ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA: Ban on Logging Approved

Pressure exerted by civil society and the creation of a compensation fund were crucial in securing the passage of a national law suspending all logging in native forests in Argentina, until such time as each province has a land use plan defining forest areas to remain untouched, and those that may be developed.

PARAGUAY: State Accused of Violating Rights of Rural Poor

Civil society groups in Paraguay are hoping to persuade a United Nations expert committee to send international observers to investigate allegations of violations of the rights of peasant farmers and indigenous people in this country.