Consumers Union of Japan and No! GMO Campaign have written to Californian rice growers, asking them to strictly implement and enforce the March 2007 moratorium on GM field trials in California. We are still concerned about the undetermined events that led to the contamination of long grain rice in the Southern States and skeptical about the control of genetically modified crops. The events demonstrate that even experimental plots of small sizes could cause a large scale of contamination. The fact that a California mill was contaminated by GM Liberty Link rice is of great concern to us. We have learned that field trials of genetically modified rice in California have…
Stop aerial spraying of banana plantations!
Consumers Union of Japan supports the campaign against aerial spraying (using airplanes) on bananas in the Philippines. CUJ signed the online petition which can be found here. In the Philippines, only export Cavendish banana plantations use aerial spraying to apply pesticides. Communities within and around these plantations complain of the health effects they suffer, contamination of water sources and destruction of their livelihoods. After enduring this for years, affected residents and civil society groups waged an intensive campaign to stop the aerial spraying practice of banana plantations. For more information, please visit the website http://www.dirtybananas.org/
Hair analysis as a possible way to investigate heavy metal pollution
FSCW General Meeting Special Lecture: “Hair analysis as a possible way to investigate heavy metal pollution – interim report” by Dr. Hiroshi Yasuda, Director of La Belle Vie Preventive Medicine Laboratory Summary of Lecture by Hiroshi Yasuda April 26, 2008 Tokyo, Japan We have conducted investigations to determine the degree of heavy metal pollution in hair from parents and children in Japan. This kind of study is rarely done, so we think the data is very valuable. Among the heavy metals that are needed by the body, intake of minerals through food is necessary to a certain degree. However, there are substances that do more harm, such as mercury, lead…
Please continue raising your dairy cattle with non-GMO feed!
080401-non-gmo-feed-letter (pdf) The Non! GMO Campaign has sent a letter to Australian food producers regarding GM-free dairy products: Japan currently imports farm products, beef and other meat products, dairy products, natural cheese, and wheat from the following top four countries: The United States, China, EU and Australia. Due to the outbreak of BSE in North America, Japan has increased its imports of beef from Australia and New Zealand, as we are aware of the fact that safe and delicious beef as well as dairy products are produced by grass feeding. In particular, we understand that since Australia has sufficient pasture land, you are raising cows with grass instead of feeding…
G8 Action Network: Declaration of Participants in the International Solidarity Days
Make the Hokkaido Summit the Last Summit of the G8!–Declaration of Participants in the International Solidarity Days of the G8 The G8 Summit opened in Hokkaido in July, 2008 with the usual rhetoric of concern about conditions in Africa. These are statements that few people in Africa and the rest of the world take seriously, given how far the G8 governments are from raising the $20 billion they pledged for Africa at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005. Indeed, if there is anything that distinguishes this particular G8 summit, it is its low credibility. In George Bush, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Yasuo Fukuda, we have a group of discredited leaders…