planorganic.com

Links         Hot Links        Updated April 2004  Email me:

News Sites   Health/Food Safety   Education/Research   Government 
Finance   Activists   GM Food   Certification   Reference   Others 

NEWS SITES

www.ngin.org.uk Norfolk Genetic Engineering Network (NGIN) are one of the most productive and up-to-date news services on the web in their specialist area. Their free Newsletter subscription will get you several emails a day covering the main breaking stories - on GM issues primarily. Their news' reports on organic and sustainable agriculture and related issues, though less frequent, are invariably the first. Email; ngin@icsenglish.com

www.bbc.co.uk  Huge archive. Search, Organic Farming, finds 4,990 documents; Organic Food, 19,500; Alternative Agriculture, 4,889; Sustainable Agriculture, 3,113.

www.lycos.com/ens Environmental News Service of the Lycos search-engine site is always necessary reading.

www.guardianunlimited.co.uk. The Guardian (UK) and Observer newspaper site have good, archive-search facilities, which lead to some first-class articles on food production and food safety issues.

www.independent.co.uk  Use Search to find articles on organic farming/food.

ww.organicts.com "The Organic Industry Portal on the Web". Its UK, European and world organic news coverage is very comprehensive. The weekly Newsletter from Organic Trade Services is an absolutely must-have for the serious organic journalist/researcher. It charges a very modest £30.00 per year for this superb service -  a fraction of what some specialist organic information sites charge for theirs. Neil Butler is the man in charge there. 

www.planetark.org Planet Ark is an Australian environmental group linked to Reuters Environmental News Service. They cover world-wide environmental news. Organic news is occasional.

www.farmersjournal.ie Weekly, Irish Farmers' Journal, increasingly has organic news and articles.

www.purefood.org  News from the Organic Consumers Association (US).

www.ireland.com  Irish Times newspaper. Good search engine leads to quality articles.

www.just-food.com Although this company is mainly a general food industry analyst and consultant it has a good current news section with occasional organic information. It is educational to hear what it is saying to the conventional industry about organics; " dazzling growth", etc. You can glean this from the generous introductions and content lists of its reports. To get details however you may have to pay up to £10,000-00 per volume e.g. "From Subculture To Supermarkets – Organic Foods Grow Up", 2 Vols, presumably aimed at corporate customers. Pity we can’t have access to at least a precis of contents free.

www.cnn.com Good search engine for small number of relevant articles

www.organic-research.com is mainly an information resource for practical organic research. But it often has general news not covered by others. There is a CD offered which gives access to world-wide research on organics. Monthly, free e-zine well worth having. Members-only areas on the site.

www.ota.com The Organic Trade Association has over a thousand, producer, wholesaler, and processor members in the US, Canada and Mexico. Has some news. Its main mission is to encourage global sustainability.

www.linksorganic.com  Attractive site but seems to take a long time to get what you want. All news feeds by www.moreover.com.

www.fwi.co.uk The Farmers Weekly is the largest circulation UK farmers'  magazine. Practically every issue now has organic items. 

www.examiner.ie 

HEALTH / FOOD SAFETY

See this wonderful site and believe? www.irishhealth.com  Email: info@irishhealth.comEU, Health and Consumer Protection, Directorate General, Commissioner David Byrne (Irish).

Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Director, Dr. Patrick Wall. Chief Specialist in Environmental Health, Mr Raymond Ellard. Press Officer, Jane O'Reilly. Email; slally@fsai.ie  Helpline: 1800 33 66 77. www.fsai.ie. 

www.wddty.co.uk This is the, What The Doctors Didn’t Tell You, site that has been favourably reported. Its panel of widely-experienced doctors advocate fresh organic produce and point out the medical problems caused by chemicals in our food. Much quality, free information on the site.

The Herbal Clinic, William Street, Galway, founded by Dr Dilis Clare, also incorporates an herb shop. Dr Clare strongly advocates an organic diet. She also suggests we need only three doctors in our lives; Dr Diet, Dr Quiet and Dr Laughter. Tel: 091 58326 (Ireland). Email: clareherbs@eircom.net 

BSE/Mad Cow disease and nvCJD are well covered in these sites;
www.mad-cow.org Very large data base on BSE/nvCJD.
www.purefood.org has good information on BSE internationally, but especially in the US.
www.maff.gov.uk/animalh/bse/
www.bse.org.uk/  Official govt. site of the BSE Enquiry
www.bbc.co.uk Search for BSE - very large archive of articles.

Check references in Google to Mark Purdey, the campaigning British organic farmer, for one alternative, well-researched theory on BSE. He has put forward a strong case for BSE being caused by the weakening effects on animals' neurological systems by the use of the organophosphate, Phosmet, in warble fly treatment. 

There are now more than 175,000 sites on BSE on the Web.

www.fluoidefree.com is an Irish based group campaigning against fluoride in water supplies. Canadian Government Report Questions Value Of Water Fluoridation,  dated 23 April '01. http://www.e-dental.com/content/news/article.asp
?DocID={2F4410D3-37D6-11D5-A770-00D0B7694F32

GM FOOD

www.ngin.org.uk and http://ngin.tripod.com
Norfolk Genetic Information Network - the thorn in the side of the ABC*s; fresh news from all over the world on the doings of the GM industry. Alex Avery, of the pro-GM Hudson Institute, warns; "Personally, I don’t believe anything that comes from NGIN". Judge for yourself. Their newsletter is an absolute must for the serious activist, researcher, student or journalist.
 *ABC is an acronym for; Agricultural Bio-technology Corporations.

www.cropchoice.com   is concerned with the ethics and risks of genetic engineering.

www.percyschmeiser.com  Mr Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer recently prosecuted by Monsanto who has become  an articulate celebrity speaker for the anti-GM movement. 

www.infoxgen.com  Information on Genetic Engineering and Organic Farming

www.nytimes.com An article published in the New York Times, 25^th Jan.’01, Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle, is very revealing of the inside-government and inside-industry collaboration over standards, research and marketing of GM products.

www.monsanto.com The best known of the AgBiotech Corporations (ABCs). They were at the forefront of promoting GM food. Manufacturers of Roundup, Roundup- Ready crops, and Terminator Seeds. It’s ex-CEO, Robert Shapiro, said they were guilty of "condescension or indeed arrogance" in promoting GM foods. Also www.monsanto.co.uk. Adele Pollard, Manager of Public Affairs. This site has details of anti-GM orgs. 

www.i-sis.org  Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Director of ISIS Institute of Science in Society gave evidence against GM Crops to the New Zealand Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering on Monday, 29^th January, 2001. She explained why "genetic engineering has unleashedan uncontrollable, self-amplifying process of horizontal gene transfer and recombination that can sweep across the whole of the living worldwith potentially explosive consequences in terms of creating viruses andbacteria more virulent than nature's worst." She made the case that theterms of the genetic engineering debate have changed. "It is no longer amoratorium that is needed. GM crops are unsafe and unsustainable as wellas immoral. We must abandon GM crops right now, along with intensivecorporate agriculture."

www.purefools.com You will get this site if you slightly misspell www.purefood.com  It is virulently anti-organic and pro GM. It is conjoined with www.junkscience.com.

www.biointegrity.org  Stephen M.Drucker, US lawyer, another thorn in the flesh of the ABCs, is founder of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity. Their motto is - Preserving the safety of our food, the health of our environment, and the harmony of our relationsip with nature.

www.pbs.org/wgph/harvest/ Find out more about the controversial programme, Harvest of Fear, screened in US, April, '01. 

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD - Changing the Nature of Nature, Martin Teitel and Kimberly A. Wilson, (foreword by Ralph Nader), Park Street Press, Vermont, USA, 2001, IP 14.20.

Thanks to Mrs. Z. Vallings, organic farmer and activist, New Zealand who sent this list to me. Three * indicate importance of sites.

GENETIC ENGINEERING Website addresses-
for STUDENTS, PARENTS & TEACHERS & other HUMANS!

Physicians & Scientists for the Responsible Application of Science &

Technology http://www.psrast.org/  ***

The Freepost AntiGE Postcard campaign! (in New Zealand, to put pressure on

government) http://nzgefree.nelson.org.nz 

Biotech-Info http://www.biotech-info.net/  ***

Physicians & Scientists for Responsible Genetics (NZ) http://www.psrg.org.nz/ 

Tiki the Penguin GE links for students ***

http://www.oneworld.org/penguin/genetis/genetics_links.html 

GE FREE NZ (in Food & Environment) http://www.gefree.org.nz  

Greenpeace- including the new edition of the TRUE FOOD guide (how to find

which manufacturers/food companies are GE free!) (your local Greenpeace

website, will be more relevant.

http://www.greenpeace.org.nz/truefood 

l0 Reasons Not to Grow GE Crops by Professor E. Ann Clark,

Guelph University, Canada

http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/faculty/eclark/l0reasons.htm ***

Risks of GE in Agriculture by Prof E. Ann Clark

http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/faculty/eclark/risks.htm ***

Philip J. Regal, PhD Biologist website

http://biosci.umn.edu/~pregal/biosafety.html

Alliance for biointegrity-Steven Druker (lawsuit against the FDA for the

premature release of GE foods without appropriate toxicological tests

against the advice of the FDA’s own scientific experts)

http://www.biointegrity.org ***

Sustainable Agriculture, Prof Jules Pretty director Centre for Environment

& Society

University of Essex

http://www2.essex.ac.uk/ces/CES/Jppage.htm

Institute of Science & Society  http://www.i-sis.org/

Crop Choice- info for farmers  http://www.cropchoice.com/  ***

Farmpower News

FarmPowerNews@starpower.net 

Indigenous Peoples Against Biopiracy

http://www.niec.net/ipcb/  

Natural Law Party

http://natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html 

and “scientists on the dangers of GE”:

http://natural-law.ca/genetic/ScientistsonDangers.html 

Genetic ID testing

http://www.genetic-id.com/  ***

Friends of the Earth

http://www.foe.co.uk/camps/foodbio/index.htm 

RAFI (Rural Advancement Foundation International)

http://www.rafi.org/ 

NGIN- Norfolk Genetic Information Newsletter

http://www.ngin.org.uk  

GeneWatch

http://www.genewatch.org 

and special farmers information on GE

http://www.genewatch.org/Publications.farmers.htm 

http://www.actionbioscience.org/  ***

including

“The Ecological Impacts of Agricultural Biotechnology”

by Miguel A. Altieri, PhD. (Prof of Agroecology in the Dept of Environmental

Science, University of California at Berkeley and the General Coordinator

for the United Nations Development Programme’s Sustainable Agriculture

Networking and Extension Programme)

http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/altieri.html 

“Genetically Modified Foods: Are they a Risk to Human/Animal Health?”

by Arpad Pusztai, Phd (Senior Researcher at the Rowett Research Institute,

Aberdeen-B.Sc in Physiology and PhD in Biochemistry- until being sacked

after publishing his findings on adverse effects from GE potatoes fed to

rats)

http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/pusztai.html  ***

http://www.ssu.missouri.edu/faculty/jikerrd

U.S. prof involved in Sustainable Ag

Venerable environmental group SIERRA CLUB, USA- good section on GE

http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/ 

Section on adverse impacts on the environment from GE crops

http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/references.asp
 

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www.ecology.co.uk The Ecology Building Society.

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OTHERS

www.pan-uk.org  Pesticide Action Network and www.pan-international.org which represents over 600 orgs.

www.factoryfarming.org. Campaigns against factory farming and links to animal shelters(US)

Slow food Movement, Italy,  www.slowfood.it . Not necessarily organic but good food from quality craft producers. 

The SARD Prize is a $10,000 award given annually to the best sustainable and rural development project in the world. www.sard-mallinckrodt.de

www.earthfirst.com Earth First is a magazine with15,000 members.

www.saveorganic.org  Now out-of-date and describing itself as an "Archival Site". But still has good material on the history of agriculture and organic farming.

www.organicgardening.com The famous gardening magazine site. Huge circulation and long established. Irish correspondent, Aileen Smiddy, Cork.