Tag Archive: food sovereignty

Friends of the Earth Adelaide > food sovereignty

TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) trade election scorecard media release

June 17, 2016

Friends of the Earth Adelaide welcome the initiative shown by FOE Melbourne with their ranking of parties and candidates on trade related issues, especially the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Media release June 17, 2016

Parties and candidates rated on trade issues

Today the TPP Unions and Community Roundtable Coalition, of which Friends of the Earth is a founding member, has released a Federal Election 2016 TPP Scorecard ranking all currently elected parties’ and independents’ stance on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

In order to accurately score the parties and politicians on their commitment to disabling the TPP, the Roundtable asked two questions:

If elected, will you:
1: Vote against the enabling legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
2: Introduce or support legislation to ban ISDS in all trade agreements?

So far the TPP Union and Community Roundtable has received responses from the ALP, the Greens, the Nick Xenophon Team, Glenn Lazarus and Andrew Wilkie. As evidenced by their ticks on the scorecards, the Greens, Xenophon, Lazarus and Wilkie all responded with an unambiguous “Yes” to both questions.

However, the response from the ALP demonstrated an alarming vagueness, stating that Under Australia’s treaty-making arrangements the Parliament must examine trade agreements. The review of the TPP by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) was not concluded at the time Mr Turnbull caused the dissolution of the Parliament. The TPP will be examined by JSCOT in the next Parliament whoever forms government – that’s how our treaty system works; and that A Shorten Labor Government will not agree to Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in new trade agreements. A Labor Government will seek to remove these provisions from existing trade agreements and work to ensure ISDS provisions do not prevent governments from pursuing legitimate public policy goals.

Friends of the Earth TPP and trade spokesperson Kat Moore said “time and again, the major parties have bluffed their way through questions regarding the TPP, committing to nothing, whilst meanwhile our sovereignty is being eroded, and our environment, health, jobs and basic freedoms put at risk.… Read more >>

Environmental Law, FoE, Media releases, Old_Notes, Publications

,

Petition: No New GMOs through to back door

May 4, 2016

Please sign Friends of the Earth’s petition to Fiona Nash Assistant Minister for Health against ‘new’ GMO techniques. Include your street address and ask for a written reply.

https://friendsoftheearthmelbourne.good.do/whatpartofnogmosdonttheyunderstand/tellfionanashtoreinintheregulators/

Big agrochemical chemical companies are trying to sneak crops derived from a range of new genetic modification (GM) techniques into our food chain without safety testing or labelling. And our regulators – Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) – seem only too happy to help them!

New GM techniques such as oligo-directed mutagenesis, zinc finger nucleases and CRISPR pose the same risks as older GM techniques and need to be assessed for safety before they are allowed in our food. They should also be labelled to protect choice for farmers, food producers and consumers.

Most Australians don’t want to eat GM food and it’s high time our regulators stopped letting industry write the rules for them.

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

,

Invitation: The GM-Free Australia Alliance (GMFAA) April 2-4 in Melbourne

March 17, 2016

Friends of the Earth are a member group of the GM-Free Australia Alliance.

The GM-Free Australia Alliance (GMFAA) would like to extend you a warm invitation to attend the 9th Annual GMFAA Conference in Melbourne, 2nd-4th April.
As global GMO and chemical conglomerates consolidate their grip on farming and seed ownership, our networks are gaining strength to combat their hold over the future of food on our planet.
Seed saving, community gardening, food hubs, regenerative agriculture and indigenous food movements are growing and gaining popularity.
That is why strategic work like ours is so important.
The Alliance brings together campaigners from Foodwatch WA, SAGFIN, Gene Ethics, MADGE and Friends of the Earth with activists based in the Pacific and New Zealand.
Topics covered will include:
· Creating glyphosate-free spaces.

· GM-free food labelling, the GM-Free Shopping list and using social media to promote GM-Free food choices.

GM-free zones and the right to farm GM-Free.

· World-wide threat : New GM techniques are escaping regulation.

· How the industrial food system drives climate change.

· Solidarity with indigenous groups – protecting our region, seeds and food production from climate disasters and biopiracy.

****************************************************************************************************** Keynote Discussion:
10am to 12.00 on Sunday 3rd April at the Green Building
Networking Cool Food Futures – an invitation to join forces – with Nick Rose, Sustain and Fran Murrell, MADGE

*********************************************************************************************************
Social night :
7pm on Monday 4th April at Friends of the Earth, 312 Smith St, Collingwood.
Snacks, skits and GM-free songs. GMFAA fundraiser.

*********************************************************************************************************

The GMFAA Conference will be held at the Green Building, 60 Leicester St, Carlton, Melbourne, Australia.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please RSVP and we will send the full Agenda for the weekend.

More info : GMFAA Co-ordinator Jessica Harrison 0407307231
info@gmfreeaustralia.org.au
GM-Free Australia Alliance Inc www.gmfreeaustralia.org.au

Food

, , ,

Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch Sat Oct 31st

August 18, 2015

March Against Monsanto Adelaide and Fair Food Adelaide presents

“Ask Jamie Oliver to be a Bee/GMO-Free Advocate Lunch”

12pm Saturday 31st October

Jamie’s Adelaide Restaurant

2 King William St Adelaide

Celebrating Fair Food Week – Lunch at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant to plan and sign a letter asking him to be an Advocate for Bees and a GMO-free world. We will tick off a list how much of our food depends upon bees to send to him. We will ask staff questions about GMOS and their menu, we have been told by Jamie’s HQ they don’t use GMOs but do they really know?

Menu here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/australia/restaurants/adelaide/menu/

Facebook event page to RSVP – limited spaces

Contact robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information

 

FoE, Food, Old_Notes

, , , , , , , ,