February, 13 2015, 01:15pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Expert contact: Dana Perls, (510) 978-4425, dperls@foe.org
Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org
Scientists, Environmental and Consumer Groups Denounce USDA Approval of Genetically Engineered Apple
Major food companies, apple growers are already rejecting "Arctic" apple
WASHINGTON
Scientists, environmental and consumer groups denounced the U.S. Department of Agriculture's deregulation of the Arctic(r) apple, the first genetically engineered apple, produced by a Canadian corporation, Okanagan Specialty Fruits. The USDA's deregulation technically allows the Arctic(r) apple to be planted and sold without specific oversight, although the FDA may engage Okanagan in a voluntary safety consultation process prior to the GMO apple being available on the U.S. market. According to Okanagan, the apples will be labeled as Arctic(r), but will not be labeled as genetically engineered.
Despite this approval, major food companies including McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) and Gerber (OTCMKTS: NSRGY) have already stated that they have no plans to source or sell this genetically engineered apple. These companies join major apple growing associations, including USApple and the Northwest Horticultural Council (representing Washington apple growers who grow more than 60 percent of U.S. apples), that have stated opposition to this GMO apple.
"Despite the USDA's flawed approval of the GMO apple, there is no place in the U.S. or global market for genetically engineered apples." said Lisa Archer, Food and Technology program director at Friends of the Earth. "Farmers don't want to grow it, food companies don't want to sell it and consumers don't want to eat it."
The GMO Arctic Apple(r) is genetically engineered via a new, virtually untested experimental technique called RNA interference -- or RNAi -- that many scientists are concerned may have negative, unintended impacts on human health and the environment. This technique was used in the Arctic(r) Apple to silence genes related to the production of enzymes which cause apples to brown when cut. Without natural browning, apples may look fresh when they are actually decaying.
Scientists believe that the natural browning enzyme in apples may help to fight diseases and pests, meaning that famers may have to increase their pesticide use on these new GMO apples. Conventional, non-GMO apples already carry some of the highest levels of toxic pesticide residues, many of them linked to hormone disruption, reproductive harm and ADHD.
"We are concerned that USDA's safety evaluation of this apple was inadequate, particularly with regard to the health and environmental implications of this particular RNAi technology," said Dr. Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union.
Scientists also worry that while Okanagan's RNAi process aims to silence four of the apple's genes, the process may be dangerously imprecise: targeted gene sequences are similar to other closely related genes, so the silencing process could unintentionally impact genes that affect other functions in the plant. Okanagan's petition for deregulation also does not adequately analyze the other potential functions that the targeted gene sequence could have, other than browning in apples, nor does it address the risk of unintentionally silencing the non-targeted genes. It is unclear how the USDA evaluates the risks from gene silencing and other powerful new biotechnologies.
If grown commercially, organic and conventional farms also face risks of contamination from neighboring GMO apple groves. Apple industry officials have voiced concerns that potential cross-contamination may cause important export markets such as Europe and China to reject U.S. grown apples or require costly testing and certifications from farmers and exporter companies.
Like other GMOs, this genetically engineered apple won't be labeled and won't have undergone independent safety assessment; regulators will rely on the company's own assessment that the apple is safe for human consumption.
Apples are just the beginning: Okanagan Specialty Fruits has also announced plans to introduce genetically engineered peaches, cherries and pears in the near future.
"It's interesting that USDA chose to approve this GMO apple on Friday the 13th -- it's certainly an unlucky day for the apple growers, consumers and food companies that don't want this unnecessary new GMO," Archer said. We will keep working to ensure that the market -- from grocery retailers to baby food companies -- continues to listen to the majority of consumers who don't want to eat this and other new, genetically engineered foods that are inadequately studied and unlabeled. And we will continue the fight to ensure all GMOs are labeled to protect consumers' right to know what they are feeding their families."
Note to editors: Letters to McDonald's and Gerber signed by of environmental, consumer, parent's and food safety groups and letters from McDonald's and Gerber here: www.nogmoapples.org
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Amid Israeli Bombs, Bullets, and Blockade, Gazans Now Face Suffocating Heat
"The tent feels like it's on fire," said one young refugee mother. "It's so hot you can't bear it, especially with young children."
Apr 26, 2024
Just a few months ago, Palestinian children exposed to the elements amid Israel's genocidal assault on of Gaza were dying of hypothermia. Now they're facing potentially deadly heat as temperatures soar to over 100°F in the embattled strip, where hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people are sweltering in tents and other makeshift shelters.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) warned Friday that "unexpected blistering temperatures across Gaza have added to the daily misery faced by the enclave's people and sparked new fears of disease outbreaks amid a lack of sufficient clean water and waste disposal."
"It is so hard. It's a heat that I can't describe."
Although there was a repsite Friday, temperatures in Gaza have soared as high as 108°F in recent days, and it's not even May yet. During the hotter summer months, the mercury can soar to over 120°F. Even with air conditioning and refrigeration during less trying times, Gazans often struggled with the summertime heat.
Now those luxuries are gone, replaced by suffocating heat, privation, and the ever-present threat of death or injury from Israeli bombs and bullets as the approximately 1.5 million people sheltering in Rafah brace for an impending invasion.
Many refugees are sheltering in structures made from heat-trapping agricultural greenhouses.
"The tent feels like it's on fire," Maryam Arafat, a young mother of three, toldThe New York Times earlier this week as her infant daughter screamed in discomfort. "It's so hot you can't bear it, especially with young children."
Gaza City refugee Mustafa Radwan told U.N. News that "it is like living in a greenhouse, no one can tolerate living inside."
Arafat and Radwan are but two of the approximately 2 million Palestinians forced from their homes by Israel's relentless bombardment and invasion of Gaza following the October 7 attacks.
Day after day, refugees are forced to wait in long lines for water and other necessities. Safe drinking water is particularly hard to find. Ice is nonexistent.
"Everything is a queue, everything is suffering in displacement," lamented Radwan.
Arafat said: "Everything has become difficult in this world. There is no water."
The scorching heat only adds to the misery. So do recent decisions—trees that were chopped down in the cold months for heating and cooking fuel are no longer there to provide shade as spring marches into summer.
Warmer temperatures also bring insects, some of which carry diseases.
"We can't sit outside and we can't sit inside the tent," Fadwa Abu Waqfa, another mother of three living in a tent in Rafah, told the Times. "It is so hard. It's a heat that I can't describe."
Dr. Ahmed Hanouda, director of a pop-up clinic in the Mawasi area of the devastated southern city of Khan Younis, told U.N. Newsthat "with the onset of summer, difficulties increase from water scarcity and overcrowding, leading to the spread of infectious diseases, skin sensitivities, lice, and other illnesses."
"We are, of course, trying to address these problems and provide services to the displaced people under these challenging circumstances based on the available resources," Hanouda added. "We look forward to offering better services and providing better facilities in the coming days."
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Progressives Blast Attempts to Discredit Pro-Gaza Campus Protests
Rep. Ayanna Pressley condemned "misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement."
Apr 26, 2024
Progressives in Congress this week have joined professors and Holocaust survivors in supporting peaceful student protests against the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip as the demonstrators have been demonized by the White House, Democratic and Republican political leaders, police, administrators, and the corporate media.
"Peaceful protest is a central tenet of our democracy and students standing for justice have often been a catalyst for much-needed change," Rep. Ayanna Pressleysaid Friday. "From the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War protests, the struggle for gender equality, and the movement for Black lives, to the global movement for peace in Israel and Palestine, many of the rights we tout today were earned thanks to the sweat equity of students demonstrating on college campuses across the nation."
Already, hundreds of students and faculty have been arrested for protesting at dozens of U.S. college and university campuses.
Pressley, who supports a cease-fire in Gaza, stressed that "every student, regardless of background or faith, has a right to feel safe and show up in the world without fear or discrimination—and we must ensure that those exercising their right to free speech are met with dignity and respect, not criminalization."
"We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing."
"That is why I am deeply concerned about misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement to students peacefully protesting across the country," Pressley said. "The National Guard or riot police should not be called in response to students' peaceful freedom of expression."
"I am grateful to students nationwide and across the Massachusetts 7th—at Emerson, Northeastern, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Harvard, and more—who are raising their voices and putting their bodies on the line to press for action to save lives in Gaza," she added. "That is what this movement is about. We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing and I am proud to stand in solidarity with peaceful protestors."
Since October, Israeli forces have
killed at least 34,356 Palestinians, wounded another 77,368, and displaced around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Thousands more remain missing in the rubble of devastated civilian infrastructure. The International Court of Justice has deemed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war—fueled by U.S. weapons and diplomatic support—plausibly genocidal.
Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) daughter Isra Hirsi was suspended from Columbia University's Barnard College earlier this month for "standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide." Omar—a war refugee and longtime critic of the Israeli government—has not only grilled the Ivy League school's president at a congressional hearing but also attended the ongoing demonstration.
"I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand," Omar said Thursday. "Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. I'm in awe of their bravery and courage."
I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand.
Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza.
I’m in awe of their bravery and courage. pic.twitter.com/yC6hcBMwCP
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 25, 2024
Omar is a frequent target of right-wing attacks, which she has faced in the past for being outspoken on foreign policy issues and this month for supporting student anti-war protesters.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) claimed that "Omar's pro-Hamas rhetoric solidifies the Democrat Party as the pro-terrorist party."
Responding to Emmer, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said that "this rampant Islamophobia is unacceptable. My sister Ilhan Omar is standing up with the students peacefully demanding a cease-fire to end the bombing, starving, and killing of Palestinian people. No amount of hatred is going to stop this movement for peace."
Bowman—who faces a primary challenger backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—has also slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) trip to Columbia and law enforcement's crackdown against students.
"As an educator who personally experienced the overpolicing of our schools, this is personal to me," Bowman said. "We must resist right-wing demagoguery and stop suppressing peaceful protest if we are to keep students safe."
Both Bowman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) visited the Columbia encampment on Friday. The congresswoman has also publicly
challenged comments from New York Police Department of Patrol John Chell and taken aim at "vulnerable N.Y. Republicans in tight seats" who have gone to campus to condemn the nationwide demonstrations.
"They have played a key role drumming up pressure to crack down on students and asymmetrically police Palestinian human rights speech," Ocasio-Cortez said of her Republican colleagues. "Those campus hearings? GOP-led. They need to lose."
Police violence against students and professors has been on display across the country. A day after state troopers descended on a demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) addressed protesters, noting the decades of protests at the campus.
"We need a cease-fire now in Gaza. And it is up to us to live that out here today," Casar said, with the crowd echoing his speech line by line. "My message to the university is clear: Students and faculty are not the enemy. Students and faculty are the university. We are the university. This is our democracy. And we are going to save it, here and for the world."
"I am so proud of each and every one of you. Because you have raised your voices, Austin is the largest city in this country where your entire Democratic delegation voted 'no' on sending more weapons to Netanyahu," he noted, eliciting cheers. "There are millions more lives at stake and your continued organizing is the only way we can stop being complicit in this killing and instead get to saving our shared humanity. Solidarity forever."
After defeating a primary challenger backed by a billionaire Republican megadonor and Netanyahu ally earlier this week, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) on Thursday addressed the University of Pittsburgh's encampment.
"While Netanyahu compares students on campuses like Pitt—including Jewish students—protesting peacefully against genocide to Nazis and attempts to define the limits of our free speech and assembly, it's worth noting that there are no universities left in Gaza from Israeli and U.S. bombs," Lee said in a social media post about her speech.
"We must always confront and root out antisemitism anywhere it appears, and not let the white nationalist GOP be the arbiters or weaponizers of it," she continued. "Students engaging in the time-honored tradition of activism and civil disobedience is a crucial right we must all protect."
Rep Summer Lee @RepSummerLee drops by the University of Pittsburgh’s Palestine encampment to support and give propers to the students leading the fight for Pitt to divest from the occupation as part of the broader student movement that erupted across the US. 🇵🇸✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/KFeTNX138G
— Abdelrahman ElGendy (@El_Gendy_95) April 25, 2024
As
Common Dreamsreported Thursday, Jewish Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who lost family members to the Holocaust—also pushed back against Netanyahu's mischaracterization of U.S. campus protests, asserting, "It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions."
Others who have spoken out this week include Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who denounced Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to deploy the Georgia State Patrol at Emory University, saying the officers have "no place on the college campus. And neither do outside agitators who seek to usurp the peaceful protests against the Netanyahu government's killing of tens of thousands of innocent Gazans by giving life to a false narrative that the protest movement is violent and antisemitic."
Drawing on her own experiences with the Black Lives Matter movement, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said that "as a Ferguson activist, I know what it's like to have agitators infiltrate our movement, manipulate the press, and fuel the suppression of dissent by public officials and law enforcement. We must reject these tactics to silence anti-war activists demanding divestment from genocide."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) declared that "the rights to peaceful assembly and to express dissent are constitutional freedoms. Criminalizing young people who are using their voices to call for peace is not only harmful; it endangers the well-being of the students and the health of our multiracial, multicultural democracy. Resisting war and standing up for peace are not a crime."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Alabama House Passes Bill That Could Be 'Used to Arrest Librarians'
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," one Democratic lawmaker said.
Apr 26, 2024
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 on Thursday in favor of a bill that would apply the state's criminal obscenity laws to public libraries, public school libraries, and the people who work there.
Critics, including the Alabama Library Association, have warned that the bill could see librarians jailed and argued that it violates the First Amendment.
"This is a pig," Rep. Chris England (D-70), said during the debate, as AL.com reported. "It is a bad bill, and when you attempt to take what is normally non-criminal conduct and make it criminal, you bend yourself into ways that potentially not only violate the Constitution but potentially subject somebody to an illegal arrest with no due process."
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?"
House Bill 385 would allow anyone to write a letter to a school district superintendent or head librarian claiming a book is obscene. The Montgomery Advertiser explained further:
The library would be required to remove the materials within seven days of receiving the required written notice. Failure to remove said materials would result in a Class C misdemeanor upon the first offense, a Class B misdemeanor upon the second offense, and a Class A misdemeanor after the third and beyond. They may challenge the claim during the seven-day period.
In Alabama, a Class C misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of three months in jail and fee of $500. The maximum sentence for a Class B misdemeanor is six months of jail time and a $3,000 fee, while a Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $6,000 fee.
The bill also adds to the definition of the "sexual conduct" minors must be protected from to include "any sexual or gender-oriented material that knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent."
During the debate, England warned, "This process will be manipulated and used to arrest librarians that you don't like, and not because they did anything criminal. It's because you disagree with them," as The Associated Press reported.
Rep. Mary Moore (D-59) warned that the description of sexual conduct was loose enough that it could apply to students dressed up for prom, according to AL.com.
"Some of them would be under the jail because of this," Moore said.
Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-54) also expressed concerns that the language could apply to people in Halloween costumes or wearing summer clothing.
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," he said, according to AP.
Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-103) said the bill was "putting lipstick on a pig," and added that the government "can't legislate morality," and that it would prevent children from "having an open mind," AL.com reported.
The bill comes amid increased politicization of libraries and attempts to ban books, especially in Republican-led states.
In Alabama, the legislature is also considering making $6.6 million in public library funding dependent on whether a library relocates materials deemed inappropriate for children, AL.com reported further. Nationwide, PEN America found that the total number of book bans in schools and libraries during just the first half of the 2023-2024 school year was greater than all the titles banned in 2022-2023, and that number had already jumped by 33% from the school year before.
The bill applying obscenity laws to libraries now heads to the Senate, but Alabama Library Association president Craig Scott told AP the state should expect to lose "lawsuit after lawsuit" if it becomes law.
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?" Scott asked.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular