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Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>: Civil groups want a halt to patenting on life



  Read past the lead item to see what several European countries are
doing about GE plants and vaccines.

--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
To: info@natural-law.ca
Subject: Civil groups want a halt to patenting on life
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 18:12:12 -0400
Message-ID: <l03102802b06edb1bc13c@[206.173.215.13]>

Civil groups want a halt to patenting on life

[this text was exerpted from an IPS release that can be viewed in total
at:

http://www.link.no/IPS/art/eng/serv/WD/97/10/16/17.27_088.html    ]


By Niccolo Sarno

BRUSSELS, Oct 16 (IPS) - Consumer organisations, development NGOs,
academics, and environmental and farmers' groups have jointly
called on the European Union to invest in food security -- and
stand up to the food processing and biotechnology industries.

	To mark Thursday, World Food Day, the groups urge the EU's
leadership to reject a draft EU directive allowing the patenting
of the genetic structure of living organisms, be they vegetable,
animal or human, whether laboratory made or found in nature. <P>
	Such 'patents on life' are already legal in the United States and
in Japan, where the gene or sequence of genes patented become the
intellectual property of the researcher, institution or a private
company which discovered, not invented, it. <P>
	Patenting of living organisms opens up new markets to
pharmaceutical and agrochemical transnational companies, the only
beneficiaries of such patents, notes the joint statement. It
called the patenting of living organisms ''is an act of 'bio-
piracy' which would dispossess local communities in developing
countries of the wealth they protected and improved for
centuries''. <P>
	The Commission's directive upholds the bio-engineers' rights to
'own' biological material while nominally restricting patenting of
actual varieties of flora. ''Under its present form, the proposed
directive allows the plundering of genetic resources of foreign
countries, essentially Southern countries,'' warns the document.

=2E......................................

 NORWAY REJECTS RELEASE OF GE MAIZE, TOBACCO, CHICORY, RAPESEED AND
PSEUDORABIES VIRUS


Pursuant to the Norwegian Gene Technology Act =A7 10 implementing  the
EEA
Agreement, Annex XX no 25, the Norwegian Competent Authority has on the
1st
of October 1997 made the following decisions;

The following releases have been prohibited

1. Releases of genetically modified rabies vaccine is prohibited.  The
decision is based on an evaluation of the vaccine as representing risks
to
health and environment. The risks are related to the possible
recombination
of vaccine virus and non-target and long term effects.

2. Genetically modified pseudorabies vaccine, Vemie Veterin=E4r Chemie
GmbH,
Germany, is prohibited.  The decision is based on an evaluation of the
vaccine as representing risks to health and environment. The risks are
related to the possible recombination of vaccine virus and non-target and
long term effects.

3. Release of genetically modified maize, Ciba Geigy Limited, Seeds
Division Switzerland, is prohibited.  The decision is based on an
evaluation of the product as representing a risk to human and animal
health
because of its containment of an antibiotic (ampicillin) resistance gene.

4. Release of genetically modified chicory, Bejo Zaden BV, the
Netherlands,
is prohibited. The decision is based on an evaluation of the product as
representing a risk to human and animal health because of its containment
of antibiotic (kanamycin and neomycin) resistance gene.

5. Release of genetically modified oilseed rape, Plant Genetic systems
NV,
Belgium, is
prohibited. The decision is based on an evaluation of the product as
representing a risk to human and animal health because of its containment
of antibiotic (kanamycin and neomycin) resistance gene.

6. Release of genetically modified tobacco, SEITA, France,is prohibited.
The decision is based on an evaluation of the product as representing a
risk to human and animal health because of its containment of antibiotic
(kanamycin and neomycin) resistance gene.

With respect to the products referred to in points 3-6, there is a
possibility of antibiotic resistance genes being transferred to
pathogenic
bacteria. Antibiotic resistance is a steadily increasing problem in both
human and veterinary medicine resulting in increased morbidity, mortality
and costs. The existence of antibiotic
resistance genes in the products therefore implies severe health risks.

Moreover, the antibiotic resistance genes have no function in the
commercial products, and techniques for removing such genes are
available.
The possibility of using alternative marker genes in the modifying
process
exists, and indicates that other solutions implying no risk may be
chosen.
Hence the antibiotic resistance genes represent an unnecessary and
unacceptable risk to health. Marketing of the maize, chicory, oilseed
rape
and tobacco is therefore considered not to be in accordance with the
precautionary principle.

_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson,  PhD
Campaign for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods
Natural Law Party, 500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON  Canada  K1N 6N2
Tel. 613-565-8517  Fax. 613-565-1596
email:  rwolfson@concentric.net

Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
contains more information on genetic engineering.

To receive regular news on genetic engineering and this
campaign, please send an email message with 'subscribe GE'
in the subject line to rwolfson@concentric.net   To
unsubscribe, please send the message 'unsubscribe GE'
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________



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