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The Bioscience Resource Project provides scientific and intellectual resources for a healthy future. It publishes Independent Science News, a media service devoted to food and agriculture, and their impacts on health and the environment. It also offers resources for scientists and educators and internships and training for students. Through its innovative scientific journalism and original biosafety review articles, the project provides unique and revealing perspectives on issues that are fundamental to the survival of people and the planet. The project does not accept advertising or corporate funding and is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. It is completely dependent on individual donations.We invite you to join the Project as a contributor or a donor.
Bioscience Resource Project News and Views
New Research Links Neonicotinoid Pesticides to Monarch Butterfly Declines
Independent Science News has just published: New Research Links Neonicotinoid Pesticides to Monarch Butterfly Declines by Jonathan Latham, PhD
Article synopsis: New research has identified the neonicotinoid insecticide clothianidin as a likely contributor to monarch butterfly declines in North America. The research, published on April 3rd 2015, identifies concentrations of clothianidin as low as 1 part per billion as harmful to monarch butterfly caterpillars. These concentrations of clothianidin were found on naturally growing milkweeds sampled by the researchers. read more…
Food Sovereignty — best bet for food and environmental security
“(P)romoting self-sufficiency and food sovereignty does not compromise global food security and environmental quality. On the contrary, it is the best option for feeding humans and safeguarding the planet. ”
Published today in Independent Science News: Will Food Sovereignty Starve the Poor and Punish the Planet? by Gilles Billen, Luis Lassaletta and Josette Garnier. read more…
Agroecology Declaration Outlines Food Sovereignty Vision and Rejects Co-option by Industrial Agriculture
The recent Declaration of the International Forum for Agroecology, Nyéléni, Mali (27 February 2015) represents “diverse organizations and international movements of small-scale food producers and consumers, including peasants, indigenous peoples and communities (together with hunter and gatherers), family farmers, rural workers, herders and pastoralists, fisherfolk and urban people.” According to the declaration, the peoples and organizations represented “produce some 70% of the food consumed by humanity. They are the primary global investors in agriculture, as well as the primary providers of jobs and livelihoods in the world.”
The declaration outlines the integral role that agroecology must play in creating equitable and healthy food systems while at the same time stabilizing, mitigating and allowing adaptation to climate change. As explained in read more…
No Scientific Consensus on GMO Safety Affirm 300+ Scientists
Environmental Science Europe just published a joint statement that concludes “the scarcity and contradictory nature of the scientific evidence published to date prevents conclusive claims of safety, or of lack of safety, of GMOs.” Developed and signed by “a broad community of independent reseachers” the paper states “Published results are contradictory, in part due to the range of different research methods employed, an inadequacy of available procedures, and differences in the analysis and interpretation of data.” It also asserts that “Rigorous assessment of GMO safety has been hampered by the lack of funding independent of proprietary interests. Research for the public good has been further constrained by property rights issues, and by denial of access to research material for researchers unwilling to sign contractual agreements with the developers, which confer unacceptable control over publication to the proprietary interests.”
Cite: Hilbeck, Angelika, et al. “No scientific consensus on GMO safety.” Environmental Sciences Europe 27.1 (2015): 4.
PDF File of the published Statement “No Scientific Consensus on GMO Safety.”
Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA
Independent Science News has just published Carol Van Strum’s review of: Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (Bloomsbury Press 2014), a new book by Evaggelos Vallianatos (with McKay Jenkins).
Summary: What goes on inside the US Environmental Protection Agency is no longer a mystery. Evaggelos Vallianatos had a twenty five year career as a staff officer in EPA’s Pesticides Division. Now that he no longer works there Vallianatos calls its activities “The Big Business of Fraudulent Science” and in Poison Spring he documents multitudinous ways in which, while he was there, EPA ignored and dismissed scientific evidence of harm for numerous synthetic chemicals. This downplaying of risk by the EPA is not based in ignorance; rather, it is a function of calculated collusion with polluters and “independent” testing organizations. The result is a complex and elaborate illusion of governmental precaution and rigor that ultimately gives the petrochemical industries and agribusiness free reign. Poison Spring is an essential guide to understanding – and rolling back – industrial and agricultural pollution.
To read Carol Van Strum’s review of this important book click on: Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA.
Dismantling The Big Lie About GMOs: Radio Interview
On Tuesday, 27 January, 2015, Food Integrity Now spoke with co-founder and executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, Dr. Jonathan Latham.
“We were intrigued by an article he recently wrote entitled “How the Great Food War Will be Won“. Dr. Latham’s spoke with me today about what he thinks is the answer to winning the food war–dismantling this lie that we need GMOs to feed the world.”
Interviewer Carol Grieve wrote a blog post about the interview: Dismantling The Big Lie About GMOs. The radio interview can be heard at: http://media.blubrry.com/foodintegritynow/p/content.blubrry.com/foodintegritynow/FIN-2015-01-29-E136.mp3.