Beleid en debat

Bedeutendste Ursache für diesen dramatischen Artenschwund ist die starke Intensivierung der Landwirtschaft. In insgesamt 19 Staaten wurde die Entwicklung von 17 Wiesen-Schmetterlingsarten verfolgt. Seit 1990 gingen die Bestände von acht Arten zurück, darunter auch der bei uns (noch) häufige Hauhechel-Bläuling (Polyommatus icarus). Nur zwei Arten blieben stabil und eine Art, der Rote Würfel-Dickkopffalter (Spialia sertorius), konnte sich sogar ausbreiten. Für sechs Arten war die weitere Entwicklung "unsicher".

Der Agrarkonzern Monsanto hat seinen Rückzug aus Europa angekündigt, zumindest was gentechnisch veränderte Pflanzen angeht. Es ist bereits die zweite Ankündigung dieser Art innerhalb von sechs Wochen. Bei näherer Betrachtung wird jedoch schnell deutlich, dass es Monsanto wohl mehr um eine Image-Kampagne geht. Dass das US-Unternehmen seine Gentechnik-Ambitionen auf dem europäischen Markt aufgibt, davon kann nicht die Rede sein. Der angekündigte Rückzug ist allenfalls taktischer Natur. Zwar sollen einige Anträge zurückgenommen werden. Doch der Anbau der Maissorte Mon810 bleibt davon unberührt. Das gilt auch für die Importzulassung der besonders umstrittenen Genmaissorte Smartstax, die Monsanto so gut wie sicher hat.

Chemicals have become a weapon in man’s arsenal against crop-destroying insects and weeds. Fifty million tons of toxins are applied annually to soil and crops in America alone. What these poisons are doing to the entire web of life—and to personal health—began to be known some 40 to 50 years ago. We warned at that time that unless mankind drastically changed its ways, we were heading for disaster. And now, today, as you read these words, we are in the middle of that forecasted disaster—and are witnesses of an ever-expanding crisis!

Upon request from the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority prepared a scientific report that would aid the future establishment of protocols for chronic toxicity and/or carcinogenicity studies in rodents with whole food/feed. This scientific report provides a commentary on OECD TG 453 with considerations on its applicability to support the safety assessment of long term consumption of a given food with respect to its chronic toxicity or carcinogenicity potential. The decision to conduct chronic toxicity and/or carcinogenicity studies with whole food/feed should be taken on a case-by case basis. It should be based on the evaluation of all the available information on the whole food/feed resulting from compositional analyses and any other available nutritional and toxicological studies. The conduct of the study and its reporting should be in line with good laboratory practice standards. Preparation of appropriate test diets is a key element of the experiment with respect to characterisation of the starting material and of the diet, level of inclusion of whole food/feed, nutritional balance, processing and storage. Statistical considerations are discussed to assist in estimating the number of animals necessary to obtain a suitable sample size capable of detecting biologically relevant effects with a pre-specified power and significance level. A comprehensive set of endpoints as set out in the OECD TG 453 should be measured during and at the end of the study, as appropriate. The collection of data and reporting should ensure a thorough biological and statistical evaluation. Recommendations on the relevant issues to be considered when designing chronic toxicity and/or carcinogenicity studies in rodents with whole food/feed are provided throughout the report and summarised in the conclusions.

Two Congressional Democrats have co-sponsored new legislation called the Save America’s Pollinators Act of 2013 to take emergency action to save the remaining bees in the U.S., and in turn, the U.S. food supply. At issue is the use of toxic insecticides called neonicotinoids. Recent studies suggest that at least four types of these insecticides are a primary cause of the massive decline in bee populations seen in the U.S. in recent years. It is estimated over 10 million beehives been wiped out since 2007, as part of a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder. “Given that EPA allowed many of these insecticides on the market without adequate safety assessments and without adequate field studies on their impact to pollinator health, we feel it’s time that Congress support a bill like the Conyers-Blumenauer bill, which would suspend the use of the neonicotinoids until EPA does the adequate science to prove that these neonicotinoids… are not harmful - and if they are harmful, to keep them off the market,” Colin O’Neil, director for government affairs for the Centre for Food Safety, told IPS. “One-third of food that’s reliant on the honeybee pollination is really under threat, and threats to pollinators concern the entire food system,” O’Neil said.

The story started back in Germany when the cows of a farmer suffered and suddenly died from a mysterious disease after they were exclusively fed on Syngenta’s GM Bt 176. The farmer took Syngenta to court and Syngenta had to pay the farmer 40,000 Euros but the giant biotech completely denied that its GM corn caused the death of the livestock. However, few years later, the farmer found out that in a feeding study, Syngenta’s GM corn killed four cows in just two days. Now, few German farmers have come together and have taken Syngenta to the court for the death of famer’s cattle and covering up the deaths of livestock in the study. Most importantly, Hans-Theo Jahmann, the head of Syngenta is charged for not sharing his prior knowledge about the feeding study that resulted in the death of livestock in the first civil court.