News items related to ag biotech, trade ? and perhaps some other interesting items out there related to agriculture ? will be posted on this page throughout the week (as the week progresses newly added items will be in?green at bottom of sections). ?Be sure to check in regularly!
*Athugið – last week’s GFN column by board member Terry Wanzek appeard in the Sunday edition ?(Aug 28) of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, How using technology makes our family farm better.
TRADE, TRADE RELATED ISSUES:
China re-imposes anti-dumping duties on US chicken?- GlobalMeatNews.com -?By Mark Godfrey (Aug 24)
“US white-feather chicken meat imported into China will face ?anti-subsidy duties? for five more years, China?s ministry of commerce has announced. ”
Link:?http://www.globalmeatnews.com/Industry-Markets/China-re-imposes-anti-dumping-duties-on-US-chicken
Adam Smith Takes on Critics of Free Trade – Barron’s – By Gene Epstein (Aug 27)
“Clinton and Trump are wrong on free trade, as Adam Smith so clearly explained 240 years ago.”
Link:?http://www.barrons.com/articles/adam-smith-takes-on-critics-of-free-trade-1472273077
Obama’s TPP deal won’t get Senate vote this year: McConnell – Reuters – By David Lawder (Aug 25)
Link:?http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-tpp-mcconnell-idUSKCN1102CM
Germany’s economy minister: U.S.-EU free trade talks have failed – Reuters (Aug 28)
Link:?http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-ttip-germany-idUSKCN1130FB
Is the U.S. Missing the TPP Train? – Bloomberg Businessweek – By Bruce Einhorn (Aug 25)
“With congressional approval uncertain, Pacific nations consider a China option.”
Link:?http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/is-the-u-s-missing-the-tpp-train
EU insists ‘ball still rolling’ on US trade deal -?AFP?(
“The European Commission on Monday insisted talks on a huge US free trade deal were on track, rejecting German claims that irreconcilable differences had left the deal dead in the water.”
Link:?https://www.yahoo.com/news/eu-insists-ball-still-rolling-us-trade-deal-153940558.html
White House says it sees a path to approval of Pacific trade deal – Reuters (Aug 29)
Link:?http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-idUSKCN11423V
Canadian support for China free-trade deal growing: poll – The Globe And Mail (Kanada) – By Sunny Dhillon (Aug 29)
TTIP in further doubt as Hollande questions timing – BBC News (Aug 30)
Link:?http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37220701
Why Can’t We See That We’re Living In a Golden Age? – RealClearMarkets -?By Johan Norberg?(Aug 23)
Pro-trade Democrats call Labor?s bluff – Politico – By Edward-Isaac Dovere (Aug 31)
“Dem lawmakers who gave Obama fast-track sail through labor-challenged primaries.”
Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/pro-trade-democrats-call-labors-bluff-227566#ixzz4J7egZ0eu
US Says It Wants to Complete European Trade Deal by Year’s End – Voice of America (Aug 30)
Link:?http://www.voanews.com/a/united-states-wants-european-trade-deal-this-year/3487052.html
BIOTECH, AG TECH, CROP PROTECTION, and RELATED:
A plant breeder takes the ‘mystery’ out of GMO crops -?Southeast Farm Press -?By?Aug 25)
“In the era of genome sequencing, we find that nature is the most prolific gene splicer of all. Although the DNA changes made by gene splicing resemble those made by nature, GMOs are set aside for safety testing.”
Link:?http://southeastfarmpress.com/soybeans/plant-breeder-takes-mystery-out-gmo-crops
China seeks to assuage consumer fears over GMO foods – Reuters – By Dominique Patton (Aug 25)
Link:?http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-gmo-idUSKCN1110GV
Americans love genetically modified mosquitoes much more than other GMOs – Grist -??(Aug 27)
REGULATORY, POLICY, ACTIVISTS, etc:
BandarÃkin. Approval of Syngenta Deal Brings GMO Food a Step Closer to China – TIME – By Charlie Campbell (Aug 23)
Link:?http://time.com/4462394/syngenta-chemchina-gmo-foods/
Bayer, Monsanto said to be moving closer to a merger deal – St Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug 23)
Monsanto Shelves Plans for New GMO Cotton Seeds in India – Wall Street Journal – By Biman Mukherji (Aug 25)
“Decision casts a cloud over the future of genetically modified organisms in India”
Link:?http://www.wsj.com/articles/monsanto-shelves-plans-for-new-gmo-cotton-seeds-in-india-1472121478
Fsanz calls for opinions on GM potato that produces less acrylamide?- Food Navigator Asia -?By RJ Whitehead (Aug 25)
“The antipodean food regulator has begun public consultation as it reviews whether to allow a potato that has been genetically modified to reduce bruising.”
Size Doesn?t Matter: How little NGOs pretend to represent the people – RiskMonger (Aug 21)
“NGOs have been successful over the last decade of presenting small groups as parts of big networks, pretending to speak on behalf of the ?people? when in reality they are only a couple reactionaries in a room with a laptop and a web-designer, accountable to no one and driven by a self-centred emotional zeal.”
Fake Food Group: The Center for Food Safety – HawaiiFarmersDaughter (Aug 20)
“Hawaii has been experiencing a hepatitis A outbreak…?Since June, there has been no peep from the Hawaii Center for Food Safety or its parent group, the Center for Food Safety, warning the public of this at all…”
Link:?https://hawaiifarmersdaughter.com/2016/08/20/fake-food-group-the-center-for-food-safety/
The GMO Labeling Fight Is Not Industry Versus Consumers – Forbes.com – By Steve Ansolabahere and Jacob E. Gersen (Aug 26)
“But it is a mistake to think the labeling fight is about the food industry versus consumers. In reality, it is about one segment of the food industry versus another. Companies that have sourced non-GE materials stand to profit from a rigorous labeling regime; those who have not stand to lose.”
Crusade Or Charade: What’s Really Motivating Efforts To Mandate GMO-Labeling? – Forbes.com – By Glenn G. Lammi (Aug 25)
“Because ?public-interest? groups cloak themselves with the feel-good mantle of protecting consumers, the environment, animals, etc., the motives of such groups rarely get questioned. But several recent developments show that all too often, activists put their own self-interest before the public?s interest.”
In a fight between environmentalists and farmers, the bees lose. And that stings. – Washington Post – By Tamar Haspel (Aug 26)
Growing monstrous organisms: the construction of anti-GMO visual rhetoric through digital media -?Critical Studies in Media Communication,?Volume 33, 2016 – Issue 3 – By Kelly A. Clancy & Benjamin Clancy (Published online: 27 Jun 2016)
Link:?http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15295036.2016.1193670
Counterview: In GMO debate, Vandana Shiva has chosen fear-mongering and denialism – Scroll.in (India) – By?Girish Shahane?(Aug 25)
“A rebuttal of the claims the activist made in a recent Scroll article.”
The Buzz: Six Reasons Not To Worry About The Bees – Forbes.com – By Henry I. Miller (Aug 24)
“The truth about the bees turns out to be far more complex, and far more interesting, than the alarmist headlines suggest.”
Bt Brinjal ? Destroying the Anti-GMO Narrative – Neurologica blog – By Steven Novella (Sept 1)
Link:?http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/bt-brinjal-destroying-the-anti-gmo-narrative/
The real story of anti-GMO teen sensation Rachel Parent: Idealist or pawn of ?natural? marketers? -?Erfðalæsisverkefni -?
“Expos?–Teen anti-GMO activist Rachel Parent supports mandatory GMO labeling but never discloses her family runs a multimillion dollar ‘natural’ products business that benefits from her advocacy.”