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Nanoparticles found in common food products
Independent testing has found potentially harmful nanoparticles in a range of food products.
WEBINAR: What you need to know about nanotechnology and our food
Friday, September 9, 6:30 am – 8:00 am (AEST) Register now While nanotechnology and nanomaterials may be tiny, they have huge human and environmental health ramifications. A growing body of scientific research demonstrates that engineered nanoparticles pose threats to human health, raising concerns about their use in food and many other consumer products. Despite these concerns, nanomaterials can be found in everything from baby formulas to candy to fertilizers, and are largely unapproved and unregulated by the government. Novel...
read moreBiohacking ban needed
US biohacker Ellen Jorgensen recently toured the country encouraging members of the public to genetically modify microbes prompting the GM Free Australia Alliance to call for a ban on the genetic engineering of microbes outside contained and certified laboratory facilities. Biohacking generally means genetically modifying a bacteria, yeast, plant or animal to change its function or physical characteristics. Whilst such tinkering currently appears to be legal in Australia, the development of new genetic modification (GM) techniques such as...
read moreThe Productivity Commission drinks the biotech industry’s Kool-Aid
The Productivity Commission is the latest Government body to drink the biotech industry’s Kool-Aid, recommending that GM food labelling and states’ rights to ban genetically manipulated (GM) crops for marketing reasons be removed. In its draft report on the Regulation of Agriculture the Productivity Commission has ignored the compelling evidence from the Tasmanian and South Australian Governments, and other stakeholders, that show the value of remaining GM-free. Instead its report reads like a Monsanto press release. Among the many...
read moreStudy raises concerns about the impacts of nanomaterials on plants
The first multi-generational study looking at the impacts of cerium oxide nanoparticles on plant growth has found that plants are more vulnerable to toxic nanoparticles if their parents were grown in contaminated soil. The study by Ma et al. over three generations of plants found that exposure to cerium oxide nanoparticles lowered the quality of the plant’s seeds; slowed plant growth; and reduced yield and biomass. The offspring plants also exhibited more signs of stress than the parent plants even though they were grown under the same...
read moreCloud zapping
Ok, climate change – and the lack of concerted global action – demands some radical thinking, but some ideas are beyond the pale. Geoengineering, the manipulation of the earth’s systems in order to address climate change, is crazy enough. It has been born out of an abject failure to address the causes of climate change and to insist on the behavioural and cultural changes that are needed. It is an attempt to find a technological solution to allow business as usual, when business as usual is what put us in this mess in the first place....
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And that could destroy life on Earth.