GENET-news

 Below you find the postings of the last seven days.

 

2013-05-15 |

A million acres of glyphosate-resistant weeds in Canada?

More than one million acres of Canadian farmland have glyphosate-resistant weeds growing on them, including 43,000 in Manitoba, according to an online survey of 2,028 farmers conducted by Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. based in Guelph, Ont. The shockingly high Canadian numbers met with skepticism from some experts who suggest farmers might be mistaking hard-to-kill weeds with glyphosate resistance. But others say the farmers are probably right. Even though there hasn’t been a single documented case of a glyphosate-resistant weed in Manitoba, the 281 Manitoba farmers surveyed said they believe there’s glyphosate-resistant kochia on 23,000 acres in this province.

2013-05-15 |

USDA to tackle 2,4-D-resistant engineered crops without needed regulations

It is encouraging that USDA will produce an Environmental Impact Statement for crops resistant to 2,4-D or dicamba. These crops, through the herbicides they are designed to use, have potential to cause substantial environmental and human harm, especially due to drift and volatility. Weed scientists have projected dramatically increased use of these herbicides, and herbicides in general, if these crops are approved. Dicamba and 2,4-D herbicides have been known to travel considerable distances from the fields where they are applied, harming fruit, vegetable and other crops, and natural areas that provide pollinators and other beneficial organisms for crops.

2013-05-15 |

Genetically modified foods: A 30-year history of promise still unrealized

I learned from Nature that work continues on genetically modified cassava, an important staple for the poor in tropical regions of the world, and that “Golden Rice” with GM-driven beta carotene enrichment may clear its last regulatory hurdles next year. But rather more excitement seems to surround the work on a new stone-free plum that makes for cheaper processing, and a non-browning apple that can be sold pre-sliced. I would like to hope, with Nature’s editors, that our first 30 years’ experience with GM foods might lead us to redirect our efforts in more helpful and less harmful ways. But making that shift is a social problem, not a scientific one, and it’s hard to see a new way forward from today’s messy middle ground.

2013-05-15 |

Swedish researchers busting the myths about GMOs in agriculture

It is now four decades since the first experiments with recombinant DNA that led to a brief voluntary moratorium. It is also about two decades since the first genetically modified plant was commercialised. [...] The precautionary measures taken at an early stage in these developments were justified by lack of knowledge about a new technology and our inability to predict its negative consequences for environment and society. In particular in Europe, this is the way biotechnology is often still discussed. We think it is time to dismiss three myths that are common in those discussions.

2013-05-15 |

USAID and Syngenta collaborate to improve global food security

The U.S. Agency for International Development today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Syngenta International AG to support agriculture and food security activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Under this MOU, USAID and Syngenta will further collaborate in research and development and smallholder capacity building, working with key agriculture and food security partners including scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers and other donors. Syngenta and USAID already work together in many countries and will broaden their relationship through this MOU.

2013-05-15 |

U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto’s GMO crops overseas reveals Food & Water Watch

U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said. A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group. The officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed companies such as Monsanto over issues like patents and intellectual property, the report said.

2013-05-14 |

GE crop risk assessment challenges: An overview

The move to stacked varieties expressing multiple traits, coupled with the above changes in the intensity of chemical use required to bring GE crops to harvest, raises new questions about new routes of exposure and about cumulative levels of exposure to GE proteins, potential allergens and pesticides [...] These changes pose serious risk assessment challenges that are, for the most part, being ignored by the industry and regulatory authorities. New information is essential to convince regulators that they must invest substantially more public resources in the independent testing of GE crop safety.

2013-05-14 |

U.S. company run by high schoolers is trasmforming mosquitoes into a “flying syringe”

Provita, a company staffed entirely by kids under 18, is working on a project (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry important vaccines. Joshua Meier, CEO of biotechnology company Provita Pharmaceuticals, spends about 20 hours a week on research projects in the various labs at his disposal. In January, the company gave a presentation to the FDA on its work with the flying syringe, a tool that uses mosquitoes as a vector to deliver vaccines to those who need them. Provita has also submitted a grant idea to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

2013-05-14 |

Genetically modified dragonflies can reduce harmful effects of carbon dioxide atmospheric build up

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in conjunction with the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University is proud to announce the Grand Prize Winner of the Searching for the Next Einstein contest. [...] This year’s winner is Charles Rose from London, Ontario for his BIG IDEA to genetically modify dragonflies which can help reduce the harmful effects of the Carbon Dioxide buildup in the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been associated with global warming and climate change and it may influence the plant ecology on earth, affecting not only the economy of nations but also all forms of wildlife.

2013-05-14 |

Dutch scientists engineer the $325,000 in vitro burger

As a gastronomic delicacy, the five-ounce hamburger that Mark Post has painstakingly created here surely will not turn any heads. But Dr. Post is hoping that it will change some minds. The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world - including potential sources of research funds - that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality. “Let’s make a proof of concept, and change the discussion from ‘this is never going to work’ to, ‘well, we actually showed that it works, but now we need to get funding and work on it,’ ” Dr. Post said in an interview last fall in his office at Maastricht University.

2013-05-14 |

Into the wildwood - GM chestnut may soon be liberated deliberately in the USA

The chestnut population of North America was reckoned then to have been about 4 billion trees. No longer. Axes and chainsaws must take a share of the blame. But the principal culprit is Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus that causes chestnut blight. In the late 19th century, some infected saplings from Asia brought C. parasitica to North America. By 1950 the chestnut was little more than a memory in most parts of the continent. [...] Until now, the genetic modification of trees has had strictly commercial aims: speeding up the growth and extending the environmental tolerance of species intended for plantations. [...] The Forest Health Initiative’s goal, though, is to heal wild forests, not hurt them. If its experiments do produce a strain of chestnut that could do the job, it will be interesting to see how enthusiastically greens embrace it.

2013-05-14 |

U.S. biohackers are kickstarting some unregulated experiments with GE trees

You may have heard of Kickstarter -- the darling crowdfunding site where artists, designers, moviemakers, and others pitch pet projects to an online funder audience. [...] Generally Kickstarter projects promote such innocuous products as comic books, and sensibly, Kickstarter even has its own ethical limits on what it will host: Guns, drugs, and porn are forbidden for obvious reasons. [...] But as reported this week three biohackers from California have hijacked the Kickstarter machinery [and] made Kickstarter the conduit for a nationwide release of untested, unregulated and unmonitored bioengineered organisms by mounting a Kickstarter funding project to use Synthetic Biology to engineer glow-in-the-dark plants.

2013-05-13 |

Azerbaijan conducts large-scale monitoring of products containing GMO

Large-scale monitoring of the products containing Genetically Modified Organisms will be conducted in Azerbaijan this month, director of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Institute of Genetic Resources, Zeynal Akberov told APA. He said monitoring to be jointly conducted in 5 directions by the ANAS, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents will cover two stages. During the initial monitoring, sown areas will be inspected and samples of some products will be analyzed in the laboratory at the second stage. The results of the research will be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.

2013-05-13 |

Homemakers United Foundation (Taiwan) wants removal of GM soybean items from schools

The Homemakers United Foundation (HUF) started a petition yesterday to demand all schools remove items made with genetically modified soybeans from their lunch menus and replace them with options made with food-grade soybean. The HUF urged parents to write letters to schools requesting the removal of GM soybeans from school lunches to avoid putting students at risk of the potential problems resulting from consuming GM foods. According to the HUF, over 90 percent of the soybeans imported annually are GM, and many countries do not allow these to be used as an ingredient in foods for human consumption.

2013-05-13 |

South African Nestlé baby food shuns GMOs, Purity GM baby food not

The African Centre for Biosafety has today released results of tests conducted on 7 baby formulas and cereals, by an independent and accredited GM testing laboratory. The results reveal that Purity baby cereals contain extremely high levels of GM content whereas Nestlé’s infant formulas and cereal indicate that Nestlé appears to be going GM free. Aspen’s infant formulas also indicate GM avoidance. Shockingly, comparisons also reveal that Purity’s GM baby cereals cost 250% more than non-GM cereals, exploding the myth that GM free food is an expensive and impractical luxury.

2013-05-13 |

UK supermarkets accused of caving in to cartels and GM food giants

Britain’s supermarket giants have been accused of caving in to the genetic modification lobby by dropping their decade-long stance against selling chickens fed on genetically modified crops. The move has been seen as a key victory for GM food giants such as Monsanto [and] as a precursor to the introduction of GM meat and poultry by “softening up” consumer resistance to the controversial technology. […..] non-GM feed producers in Brazil, a major source of animal feed to the UK, expressed surprise at the claims, saying they were producing record amounts of animal feed.

2013-05-13 |

European Patent on conventionally bred ‘red hot chili peppers’

The European Patent Office has done it again. Yesterday they granted a patent on pepper plants, such as chili, derived from conventional breeding (EP2140023). The patent covers the plants, fruits and seeds and even claims the growing and harvesting of the plants as an invention. The patent was granted despite the fact that the European Parliament and the German Parliament have asked the EPO to stop these patents, and over 2 million people have signed an online petition against patents on conventionally-bred seeds. There are two precedent cases pending at the EPO waiting for a final decision for over five years. No Patents on Seeds! is urging the Member States of the EPO to become actively involved in order to stop the EPO from granting further patents on plants and animals.

2013-05-13 |

U.S. Supreme Court rules for Monsanto in patent case on GE seed replication

The Supreme Court said Monday that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto Co.’s patents on soybean seeds resistant to its weed-killer by growing the beans without buying new seeds from the corporation. The justices unanimously rejected the farmer’s argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company’s Roundup herbicide. While Monsanto won this case, the court refused to make a sweeping decision that would cover other self-replicating technologies like DNA molecules and nanotechnologies, leaving that for another day. Businesses and researchers had been closely watching this case in hopes of getting guidance on patents, but Justice Elena Kagan said the court’s holding Monday only “addresses the situation before us.”

2013-05-10 |

Simplot (USA) announces low-acrylamide and anti-browning GE potato

Simplot argues that its new Innate-brand potatoes, which mix genes of five potato varieties, are pretty much like the old. “Innate potatoes provide no adverse impacts to human health, other (crops) or the environment, because they contain only potato DNA and are grown just like regular, cultivated potatoes,” Simplot spokesman Doug Cole told the Idaho Statesman. [...] Simplot says the potatoes reduce bruising and lower potential for cooked potatoes to carry acrylamide, a human neurotoxin and potential carcinogen that can appear in potatoes and other starchy foods cooked at high temperatures. The modified potatoes also have fewer reducing sugars, which cause browning in cut and cooked potatoes. “Innate potatoes will not turn brown after being cut for many days until they dry out and degrade naturally, while normal potatoes often begin to turn brown within 10 minutes,” said Haven Baker, Simplot vice president of plant sciences

2013-05-10 |

Non-browning GMO apples may be deregulated in tghe USA by the end of 2013

If approved, two varieties of apple, Arctic Granny Smith and Arctic Golden Delicious, will be the second GM fruits allowed into the U.S. food supply. Created by Okanagan Specialty Fruits in British Columbia, Canada, Arctic apples do not bruise or brown when sliced. Browning in apples and potatoes results from polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that produces melanin, a compound that contains iron and gives cells a brown tint. To create Arctic apples, Okanagan scientists silenced the apples’ PPO genes by inserting a man-made gene that contains portions of four natural PPO genes. As a consequence, Arctic apples produce less than ten percent of the PPO produced by conventional apples and therefore do not brown when sliced.

2013-05-10 |

Vermont (USA) House of Representatives approves GMO labeling bill

H112 does not require meat from animals fed genetically engineered feed to be labeled. However, it does includes some of the controversial clauses in Californian GMO labeling initiative Prop 37, including the stipulation that foods containing genetically engineered ingredients cannot be marketed as ‘natural’. The Vermont House of Representatives has passed H.112 , a bill requiring the labeling of all genetically engineered food sold in Vermont. However, there are plenty of hurdles ahead. First, the bill must be approved in the Senate, which will not now likely get the opportunity to look at it until January 2014.
If it is approved by the Senate, it will then be effective two years after the date it is passed, or 18 months after at least two other states adopt similar bills, whichever comes first.

2013-05-10 |

USDA says more review needed for new Monsanto, Dow double-HT GE crops

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it will extend its scrutiny of controversial proposed biotech crops developed by Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. after receiving an onslaught of opposition to the companies’ plans. The news frustrated Dow officials who had hoped to have secured regulatory approval and have their new herbicide-tolerant corn called “Enlist” on the market by 2013 or 2014 at the latest. But 2015 is now likely the best hope for commercialization, said Dow AgroSciences spokeswoman Kenda Resler Friend. Farmers need the new technology to better manage weeds, she said. “They (regulators) have had a long time to look at the information,” said Friend. “This is something that farmers are going to lose from.” USDA said it will conduct two separate environmental impact statements “to better inform decision-making” on the approvals sought by Dow and Monsanto.

2013-05-10 |

Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (Canada) bans GMO food and seeds

If the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities gets its way, genetically modified crops will no longer be welcome on Island soil. The collective of regional politicians voted Sunday to ban GMO food and seeds. The motion, put forth by Metchosin Coun. Moralea Milne, passed by an overwhelming margin. [...] Although she’s “very proud” of the motion, Milne admits that it’s mostly a symbolic gesture. AVICC will move the motion to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, but it is not likely to garner much traction.

2013-05-10 |

Test on GMO rice inadequate and ‘technically invalid,’ Turkish university says

A haul of 21,000 tons of genetically modified rice seized in southern Turkey may have been inadequately analyzed, officials announced May 8. The rectorate of Istanbul Technical University (ITÜ) stated that the bio-genetic research center that performed the tests has made some mistakes during the experiment. “The methods of experiment carried out are not suitable to assess if the GMO allegedly found in the rice was not caused by the risk of contamination. Hence, the results are technically invalid,” the statement read.
Six people were arrested on April 9 in connection to the rice that was seized at the docks of Mersin.

2013-05-09 |

New non-GE cowpea varieties offer promise in South Africa, other parts of the world

New cowpea varieties developed by Texas A&M University and tested at the Nature Conservation Trust Ukulima Farm in South Africa could make a major contribution toward production in other tropical and subtropical countries, according to one of the breeders. [...] The varieties [were] developed during the last five years from crosses involving the best cowpea lines from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and those from Texas A&M [...] the new stress-resilient cowpea varieties combine extra-early maturity, high protein and high yield potential with resistance to major diseases and aphids, as well as high levels of tolerance to heat and drought.

2013-05-08 |

Wild parent spawns super non-GE salt-tolerant rice

The new rice was bred by successfully crossing (or mating) two different rice parents – the exotic wild rice species Oryza coarctata and rice variety IR56 of the cultivated rice species O. sativa. What is extra special about this breakthrough is that O. coarctata is extremely difficult to cross with cultivated rice varieties. The location of O. coarctata in the rice genome sequence is at the other end of the spectrum from that of rice varieties such as IR56. Dr. Jena’s team successfully rescued three embryos out of 34,000 crosses. Out of these three, one plant survived to give scientists enough material to back-cross and make sure that only the desired trait - double salt-tolerance - is acquired from the wild species.

2013-05-08 |

Orange non-GE maize improves yields and nutrition for families in Zambia

A Feed the Future-supported program implemented by HarvestPlus has been demonstrating the benefits of orange maize ever since three new varieties that provide higher levels of vitamin A were released in 2012 by the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute. Promising varieties were bred in Mexico at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) under the HarvestPlus program and then extensively tested in Zambia. In addition to providing more vitamin A than white maize, the new varieties are also high-yielding, disease-resistant, and drought-tolerant, reducing farmers’ vulnerability to threats like reduced rainfall.

2013-05-08 |

Early maturing non-GE maize lines at IITA hold drought tolerance that could save farmers in Africa

Researchers have identified maize parental lines and hybrids with high levels of drought tolerance among the early and the extra-early maturing maize genotypes developed and conserved by IITA. This successful identification has led to the availability and the possibility of sustainable development of more resilient maize varieties with dual characteristics of escaping and tolerating drought in the near future. The discovery of a high level of drought tolerance among early maturing maize parental lines is also seen as ‘good news’ for farmers, especially in drought-prone areas of Africa where maize is a key staple.

2013-05-08 |

KARI (Kenya) develops disease resistant non-GE napier grass

RESEARCHERS have developed two varieties of Napier grass that are resistant to the Smut and Stunt diseases that threatens to wipe out the fodder. Napier grass, a main fodder is under threat from the two diseases that hit the horn of Africa twenty years ago. the centre director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Kakamega said the two varieties Ouma and South Africa3 were developed by scientists at the centre and a masters student at the Masinde Muliro University. Early last week, Kari Kakamega centre released tons of the disease resistant Napier grass to farmers. “We have distributed the materials to farmers in Siaya, Kakamega, Bungoma and Busia counties for multiplication purposes,” said.

2013-05-08 |

GM crops have role to play in feeding the world says Prof. Leaver

An Emeritus Professor of Plant Science, University of Oxford , Prof. Christopher Leaver, has said that Genetically Modified crops will have a role to play in order to beat the growing population demand. Leaver said people are dying because of hunger, “we need to give them the capacity and an opportunity to let them grow their own food to feed themselves and their families but also let them improve their income as well.” [...] Leaver quickly added that GM crops are not a ‘silver bullet’ and alone cannot solve the global challenges, “ We must evaluate all available technologies and, subject to appropriate and realistic evidence-based, biosafety regulations and in combination with conventional approaches, deploy those which are most effective and sustainable.

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GENET-news is providing a daily news service on a range of topics regarding genetic engineering. We are screening the worldwide English news, press releases and other publications to provide you with a strategic selection of information. GENET-news enables you to stay informed about all aspects of the global controversy around GE technologies and GE organisms. You can subscribe by  email.

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