By: Sustainablepulse, 12/09/2013

In Brazil, farmer-led court actions are piling up against Monsanto for collecting royalties on RR1 soybeans regarded as illegal and for conditioning the sale of new GM seed Intacta RR2 to the signing of a contract seen as abusive, according to an article for Valor Online (Brazil). Lawyers for the farmers and representative bodies estimate the value of the claims against Monsanto at 1.9 billion Brazilian real (about USD 1 billion). Processes have not been completed, but preliminary estimates say the claims may affect the company’s profits.

According to Orlando Julius Caesar, lawyer for the Sinop Rural Union, a settlement reached in a previous lawsuit against Monsanto has resulted in many farmers refusing to buy Monsanto’s seed. “Monsanto is trying to create market rules that do not exist for any other product,” he said.

For more on this story visit www.sustainablepulse.com

Natural News, By: Jonatha Benson, 12/08/2013

Known today as the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP), the laboratory collected seed data on 10 common produce items: beets, cabbages, sweet corn, lettuces, muskmelons, peas, radishes, squashes, tomatoes and cucumbers. NCGRP compared the availability of seeds for each of these items in 1903 to their availability in 1983, which was still long before the time genetically modified organisms (GMOs) hit the scene.

Based on the data, seed stocks have shrunk dramatically over the course of the past century, with many heirloom varieties of produce disappearing from the commercial seed supply. According to National Geographic, which recently put out an "infographic" illustrating this decline in seed diversity, many heirloom varieties of common fruits and vegetables that were cultivated by generations before us have gone completely extinct. "As we've come to depend on a handful of commercial varieties of fruits and vegetables, thousands of heirloom varieties have disappeared," explains National Geographic. "It's hard to know exactly how many have been lost over the past century."

(NaturalNews) Legislation outlawing all future plantings of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) as well as the very companies that manufacture and spread them has become law on Hawaii's "Big Island" following the historic passage of Bill 113. According to reports, the new law prohibits biotechnology companies like Monsanto and Dow from further experimenting with GMO crops and seeds on the Big Island, and also forbids any new GMOs from being cultivated there.

By: RT.com, 12/07/2013

Local communities that are involved in fracking of natural gas should get the greatest say whether or not such methods of gas extraction are safe, Adam Briggle, a professor at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, told RT.

For more on this story visit www.rt.com

By: Elizabeth Renter, 12/08/2013

The people of Bangladesh are facing a serious problem as their government recently approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified eggplant. Now, they need your help. While the Bangladehi government, and others who support GMO crops, believes the Bt is necessary for controlling pests, others see the lack of success with other pest-controlling GMO creations – along with all of the dangers that come along. When they say these GM-crops perform better than the conventional crops, again, they are wrong. Several studies have shown GMO crops to perform worse than their conventional and less-harmful counterparts, even transforming otherwise benign pests into major crop-damaging threats.

For more information visit www.naturalsociety.com