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FRI 13 FEBRUARY Genetic Engineering – the risks to food, farming and biodiversity 7.30pm (click for map etc.) This talk will look at the impacts of genetic engineering on food safety and food security, as well as its impacts on farming, seed supplies and biodiversity. Dr Ricarda Steinbrecher will discuss and counter the claims by industry: that GM will feed the world, offer an answer to climate change, make agriculture more sustainable and protect biodiversity. It will show how GM is being used as a control instrument over global food and seed supplies, especially when combined with the patenting of genes and seeds. It will highlight the push for the EU to open its doors widely to GM foods, crops and trees for both food and agrofuel purposes. Dr. Ricarda A. Steinbrecher is a biologist and geneticist. She is Co-Director of EcoNexus (www.econexus.info), a not-for-profit public interest research organisation based in the UK and is a member of the Federation of German Scientists. She is advisor to many national and international organisations, has acted as scientific expert in governmental and public consultations and has been closely involved with UN-led international negotiations since 1995, working closely with groups in the global South. She is author of many scientific papers, commentaries and reports, and co-authored the book Hungry Corporations – Transnational Biotech Companies colonise the Food Chain (Zed Books, 2003). 'What is wrong with Nature?' : article by R.S., originally appeared in Resurgence magazine Richard Twinch has written a thoughtful review of this talk, to be found at www.jupitertrust.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1236610002. £8.00 (Friends £3.00) |