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Soil & Health is calling for more integration of environmental and food safety analysis on GE and pesticide applications, following last weeks Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) Bt Brassica hearing. ERMA denies food safety responsibility, as Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) develops food standards covering the content and labelling of food, and the New…
The Soil & Health Association is pleased that efforts to have organic bread exempted from mandatory fortification with folic acid appear to be successful. As part of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) review, released last night, of its 2006 Final Assessment Report which proposed mandatory fortification of bread with folic acid, FSANZ is proposing…
Combined mMedia Release: Safe Food Campaign, Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa, The Soil & Health Association of NZ The reassessment of a pesticide linked with cancer is great news, according to the Safe Food Campaign, Pesticide Action Network Aotearoa and Soil and Health Association. The three groups all commend today’s announcement by the Environmental Risk Management…
Soil & Health wants a ban on seed imports of alfalfa, soy, corn & maize, as well as GE foodstuffs, from the USA and other GE producing countries, following shonky environmental and food safety appraisals by overseas agencies coming to light. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto have both been found wanting…
The Soil & Health Association welcomes the launch of the Green Party initiated $2.1 million Organic Advisory Program, and sees the program as part of New Zealand’s aim of being a truly sustainable nation. The Organic Advisory Program, operated through Organics Aotearoa New Zealand, is an outcome of the post election negotiations between Labour and…
The report by David Oughton from his inquiry into the importation of genetically engineered corn seeds in late 2006, shows institutional corruption and calls into question the ethics of at least some individuals involved in border surveillance according to the Soil & Health Association spokesperson Steffan Browning. The continued GE incursions also show the need…
A pesticide that has been linked to breast cancer needs to be banned, say several community groups. The pesticide, endosulfan, is already banned in at least 20 countries. The pesticide is at the top of the priority list of hazardous substances that the groups say the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) ought to reassess. ERMA…
Time for Government to Pull Up NZ’s Slide into Dirty Food Technologies. The Soil & Health Association wants 2007 to be the year that New Zealand confirms its Clean Green image and snaps the crown agencies out of the slide into the unsustainable and unwanted activities of GE and animal cloning. Soil & Health also…
Following the latest GE seed border incursion, the Soil and Health Association of New Zealand is once again calling for a stop to imports of sweet corn and maize seed, until absolute certainty of nil GE contamination is achieved. ‘Clean green New Zealand farmers deserve better protection by Biosecurity NZ, and those affected by dirty…
Organic farming offers solutions to the current food miles debate. Not only that, but it leads the way in low energy farming, and will help New Zealand reach its carbon neutral targets, according to the Soil & Health Association. “Consumers are rightly becoming concerned about ‘food miles’, because the fossil fuel used in transporting food…
Crop & Food’s intended GE Brassica field trial is even crazier than their existing GE onion trial, according to Soil & Health, and move in the opposite direction to the Prime Ministers sustainability vision. Potential key drawbacks are: 1. Early resistance by pests 2. Fast spread of GE brassicas and interbreeding contamination 3. Contamination of…
The Soil & Health Association congratulates Prime Minister Helen Clark for the vision of New Zealand being the world’s first truly sustainable nation. Yesterday at the Labour Party Conference the Prime Minister asked, “Why shouldn’t New Zealand aim to be the first country which is truly sustainable… I believe that sustainability will be a core…
The Soil & Health Association is thrilled that there is to be a review of the decision to mandatorily fortify bread with folic acid. The review allows further opportunity for an exemption from the fortification proposal for organic breads to be considered. “Soil & Health is grateful that New Zealand Food Safety Minister Annette King…
As further exposed in Monday’s TV3 Let Us Spray documentary, the clear links between 2-4 5 T and 2-4-D manufacture and use, and spina bifida and other tragic deformities, show a need for a quick conversion by mainstream agriculture to organic production. Tomorrow Food Safety Minister Annette King considers, with her Australian counterparts, another chemical…
Never before have New Zealanders’ been subject to mandatory fortification of their food. Never before have New Zealand’s organic bakers been faced with having to add synthetic additives to their bread. Organic products must have an exemption from mandatory fortification. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) have decided to mandatory fortify bread with folic acid…
Soil & Health is appalled at the lack of consumer choice from Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s (FSANZ) mandatory folic acid fortification of bread proposal released on Friday evening. The proposal is for effectively all bread to have synthetic folic acid added. With no meaningful exceptions in the proposal, Soil & Health is calling on…
The Soil & Health Association is calling for certified organic foods to be exempt from any possible mandatory food fortification schemes. Today Soil & Health presented a submission to Food Standards Australia New Zealand calling for consideration of consumer choice, particularly for those choosing a healthy diet free of additives. FSANZ had called for submissions…