Quezon City, PHILIPPINES — A new Greenpeace report released today in Manila effectively puts genetic engineering where it belongs—into the dustbins of history. The report “Smart Breeding: Marker Assisted Breeding, a non-invasive biotechnology alternative to genetic engineering of plant varieties” focuses on the technical possibilities of Marker Assisted Selection or MAS and its strengths compared to genetic engineering. Particular attention is given to rice crops, drought tolerance, harnessing of biodiversity and breeding for better nutrition. The report shows how MAS renders genetic engineering—which is expensive and unsafe—obsolete and completely unnecessary.

When Boston University first announced the construction of a Level Four Biosafety Lab on the border of Roxbury and Boston's South End in 2002, they had planned to have the lab fully operational by 2005. Now, seven years later, the lab is built and ready to operate, but is at a legal standstill due to years of hard fought struggle by opponents of the lab, who claim that the lab's operations will endanger the lives of those living in the surrounding communities.

Manila, PHILIPPINES — The Philippines is in danger of losing its organic farming capital because a provincial ordinance promoting sustainable agriculture is under attack. Greenpeace issued the warning today as a series of deliberations are launched in Negros Occidental which could repeal a landmark provincial ordinance aimed at transforming Negros Island into the premier organic food bowl of Asia.

Manila, PHILIPPINES — Amidst continuing interception and seizures of illegal GMO corn varieties in Negros Occidental, Greenpeace today demanded that the Philippine Government issue an outright ban on all genetically-modified (GMO) food crops. Earlier this month, Germany became the sixth European country to declare the GMO corn MON810 illegal, which, along with other GMO corn strains similarly banned or found to be toxic in other countries, is approved as food and feed in the Philippines.

WASHINGTON - December 4 - Genetically modified crops reached 9 percent of global primary crop production in 2007, bringing the total GM land area up to 114.3 million hectares, according to Worldwatch Institute estimates published in the latest Vital Signs Update. The United States continues to be the global leader in production, accounting for half of all GM crop area.

The chefs, who comprise the roster of the country's foremost food experts, signed a commitment to serve and prepare only non-genetically modified rice—or GMO-free rice—in support of the Greenpeace "I Love my Rice GMO-Free" campaign. The campaign aims to protect the Philippines' rice varieties from contamination from GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) which pose serious risks to the environment and human health.

The signing of the "I Love My Rice GMO Free Chefs' Charter" was held during the first ever GMO-Free Rice Festival at Mara's Organic Market in Makati City. The festival is meant to celebrate the diversity of traditional Philippine rice varieties. The event featured seminars and cooking demonstrations on organic rice varieties, including purple, black, brown and red rice, by chefs and food experts Miguel Ongpin, Ed Quimzon, Jason Stacy, Heny Sison, Katrina Ponce Enrile, and Nancy Lumen-Reyes.

Boston -- Dr. Adel Mahmoud sat with his head in his hands at the center of the table seating 13 elite scientists. His frustration was obvious to everyone in the audience, but that did not stop speaker after speaker from coming up to the microphone and saying the same thing, in many different ways, basically amounting to this: the people of Boston don't feel safe and don't want Boston University's Biosafety Level 4 lab to operate. Yet the message for Mahmoud was hard to take.

Why are millions of Mexican “illegal aliens” looking for work in the United States? Because the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed US companies to dump subsidized corn into Mexico – genetically modified corn, no less (in violation of Mexican law). With NAFTA, millions of Mexican farmers lost their jobs, as did millions of American industrial workers, whose factories relocated to Guadalajara and Toluca, Mexico.

Despite the high surveillance on the field, people managed to mix up seeds of bio-potatoes with the ones of the GMO-potatoes present on the field, which means that those last one will have to be destroyed, because thanks to this mix-up its uniqueness will not guaranteed any further. Few weeks before, the field had been squatted by anti-GMO opponents, an eviction followed to this.

As the global food crisis escalates, Big Biotech (Monsanto, Novartis, Syngenta, Dupont-Pioneer, Dow et al) are capitalizing on the desperation of the hungry at runaway prices and rapidly diminishing reserves as a wedge to foist genetically modified (GMO) seeds on a reluctant Third World.