GENET-news

 Below you find the postings of the last seven days.

 

2012-02-04 | permalink

Danish EU Presidency propose compromise on partial GM ban

Biotech companies should be allowed to grow genetically modified crops in some EU countries if they agree to avoid sales into the countries that want to ban them, a draft compromise proposal drawn up by Danish EU diplomats shows. The compromise is designed to break a deadlock in talks among member states on draft EU rules to allow them to decide individually whether or not to ban GM cultivation - a proposal by the European Commission in 2010 that has made little headway so far.

2012-02-04 | permalink

French food companies can use ’GMO Free’ labels, government says

French food companies can label products as ”GMO Free” to indicate they contain no or trace amounts of genetically modified crops, the government said. Rules will take effect July 1 for producers that want to label foods as biotechnology-free after ministers signed a decree yesterday, according to a joint e-mailed statement from four ministries today. Existing regulations require labels to indicate the presence of genetically modified organisms, according to the statement.

2012-02-04 | permalink

GE food safety data from Monsanto do not meet basic scientific standards

In a letter to Commissioner Dalli, Testbiotech and GeneWatch UK give new evidence of EFSA´s failure to perform risk assessment of genetically engineered plants. A detailed analysis of original documents as filed by Monsanto for their genetically engineered maize sold under brand of Genuity VT Triple PRO shows that crucial documents do not meet the standards of so called Good Laboratory Practice. As for example the company states in their investigation of the combinatorial toxicity of insecticides produced in the plants ”there was no intention to conduct this study according to Good Laboratory Practice Standards.”

2012-02-04 | permalink

Opposition to Monsanto´s patent on Indian melon

The renowned Indian activist Vandana Shiva and the European NGO-platform ”No Patents on Seeds” joined forces today to file an opposition against European Patent EP1962578. This patent claims melons with a natural resistance to certain plant viruses originating in India. The patent was granted in May 2011 as an invention to the US company Monsanto by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich, Germany. Critics point out that the patent was granted even though European Patent Law does not allow patents on conventional breeding. Furthermore, the reasons for the opposition also include the issue of biopiracy, which is why Vandana Shiva and her organisation Navdanya from India are engaged in this opposition.

2012-02-04 | permalink

GE papayas for Japan regarded as ”Super Bowl” test case for GE food acceptance

They are the only gene-altered fruit on the market today in Japan, a country with strict laws regarding genetically-modified organisms. [...] U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Dennis Gonsalves, who helped develop the new fruit variety, may be its best salesman. [...]
Gonsalves calls it the ”Super Bowl” of marketing challenges: getting a population that’s still widely skeptical of genetic-engineering technology to enjoy a beautiful, delicious papaya with a GMO label on it.

2012-02-04 | permalink

EU arable farmers must embrace new tech or risk being overtaken

Speaking at the annual Nuffield Ireland conference in Killkenny this month, arable consultant Mr Hughes, who also farms carrots and daffodils with his father, said producers in developing economies such as Argentina had slashed costs while increasing production levels. Meanwhile, producers in Europe had been forced to focus on short-term environmental protection rather than investing in technology that could produce more food while impacting less on the land.

2012-02-03 | permalink

China won’t have genetically modified crops in 2012, official says

China hasn’t approved large-scale commercialization of genetically modified grain seeds and won’t produce GM crops this year, Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural Work Leading Group under the State Council, said at a press conference in Beijing today. The nation has no corn shortage and imported the grain last year to balance supply and demand made difficult by geographical issues, Chen said.

2012-02-03 | permalink

Support Ugandan farmers to save their indigenous seeds from GMOs

Uganda has a National Biosafety Policy (2008) in place and is also in the process of formulating a law to officially introduce GMOs in the country. Surprisingly, the absence of the biosafety law has not stopped laboratory and field testing for GMO crops such as GM bananas in Kawanda, BT cotton in Serere, GM maize in Kasese (under Water Efficient Maize for Africa -WEMA project), and cassava, rice and sweet potatoes at Namulonge research institute. [...] Ugandans should note that introduction of GMOs is likely to quicken the distortion of Uganda’s rich biodiversity and cause farmers to be dependent on external inputs for their livelihoods.

2012-02-03 | permalink

GM mosquito release not transparent, say German scientists

A group of independent scientists say that the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia and Brazil was not sufficiently transparent or properly regulated which risks undermining the research of what they say is promising technology. The German scientists published a paper on Monday based on their analysis of the insect release which found a deficit in the scientific quality of regulatory documents and a general absence of accurate experimental descriptions available to the public before the release started.

2012-02-03 | permalink

U.S. National Public Radio’s bias against genetic engineering

Among the most egregious previous transgressions by NPR of fair, professional journalism was a series of programs called ”The DNA Files,” which set up a false moral equivalence by juxtaposing the views of polymathic Princeton Professor Lee Silver against those of Margaret Mellon, long-time NGO-dweller, troglodyte and antagonist of any and all applications of biotechnology. This pairing was a typical example of NPR’s notion of ”balance” – really ”pseudo-balance”: an eminent mainstream, nonideological academic versus an intransigent, anti-industry, anti-technology, uneducable activist.

2012-02-03 | permalink

Landmark lawsuit against Monsanto gets day in court

On Jan. 31, a Federal District Court judge agreed to hear oral arguments for a landmark lawsuit - Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) et al. v. Monsanto.
Over 300,000 people are represented by 83 plaintiffs from 36 organizations in the case against Monsanto. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seeds and to prohibit the company from suing those whose crops become genetically contaminated because they drift through the air.

2012-02-03 | permalink

Many speak out on GMO food and labels in Washington State (USA)

Two bills in the Washington Legislature would require labels on genetically modified food, but many proponents talk more about food than labels, a senator says. Reflecting on a hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Water and Rural Economic Development Committee, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said he noticed a common theme among many people supporting one of the label bills, Senate Bill 6298. Their testimony ”wasn’t about a labeling bill, but about some people’s opposition to GMOs.”

2012-02-01 | permalink

GE mosquito industry and scientists develop risk assessment and approval procedures

Mosquitoes such as Aedes aegpyti are less likely to play a significant ecological role compared with species associated with natural wetlands that may be an important food source for birds, bats, fish and other animals. But this doesn’t mean that the community or government regulators will be immediately supportive of GM mosquito release. So while there’s no doubt that any new technology that assists the fight against malaria or dengue will be welcome, the question of how the environmental risks associated with GM mosquitoes will be assessed, on balance, with the potential benefits to human health remains unanswered.

2012-02-01 | permalink

What should the public know about GM insect trials?

Guy Reeves, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, Germany, and his team analyzed publicly available information on the safety assessments conducted by government regulators for the Oxitec trials [...] Too often scientific information important to determining the safety of the releases was not available, Reeves says. [...] ”I entirely understand his calls for transparency in the context of public confidence in the process,” Alphey says. ”But I think he confused transparency and scientific quality.” Just because some safety data is not public, does not mean it is not of high quality, he says.

2012-02-01 | permalink

U.S. researchers launch first anthocyanin-rich non-GE tomato

OSU horticulture professor Jim Myers says the fruit’s genisis began in the 1960’s when two breeders, from Bulgaria and the U.S., cross-cultivated tomatoes with wild species from Chile and the Galapagos Islands. [...] ”It is the first improved tomato variety in the world that has anthocyanins in its fruit,” he says. [...] ”It’s also important to know that genetic engineering techniques are never used to develop these lines – these tomatoes are not GMO,” says Myers.

2012-02-01 | permalink

Japan receives first shipment of Hawaiian Rainbow GE papayas

After 13 years of negotiations, Japan has approved its first shipment of genetically-modified Rainbow papayas from Hawaii. ”The fact that the Japanese have tested it to the nth degree and evaluated its food and environmental safety proves it’s a good product,” said Rod Yonemura, consultant to the 160-member Hawaii Papaya Industry Association based in Hilo, capital of Hawaii’s Big Island. The Dec. 5 shipment consisted of 1,248 5-pound cases for sale and 32 cases for sampling at Coastco Japan, Yonemura said.

2012-02-01 | permalink

EU GMO honey ruling can be challenged, claims legal expert

Honey producers and importers in the EU and elsewhere face legal and economic uncertainty arising out last autumn’s European Court of Justice’s ruling, claims a legal expert calling for an amendment of the Regulation to exclude honey. [...] Teufer argues that the ECJ ruling goes against the spirit and purposed of the original legislation covering GMOs in food with the European legislator having purposefully excluded several scenarios from the application of the Regulation in order to make it work in practice.

2012-02-01 | permalink

British farmer union calls for government to show leadership on GMs

The government should show leadership over the issue of genetically modified crops and be more prepared to explain the potential benefits of modern technology, the NFU has warned. NFU president Peter Kendall said there were too many senior politicians who did not grasp the realities of biotechnology in modern agriculture, but made sweeping comments about how the technology was not needed.

2012-01-30 | permalink

Election of Boulder County (USA) Commissioners to become political battlefield

Commissioner candidates are being asked if they would support a countywide vote by residents on the issue, said Mary VonBreck, a GMO-Free Boulder spokeswoman. “We want to work with people on how they’ll go about implementing a policy,” Von Breck said. “It’s a platform issue, and we’re going to take it all the way to November.” GMO-Free Boulder has not yet decided which candidates to support for the county commissioner election, and has not spent any money yet on campaigning, VonBreck said.

2012-01-30 | permalink

Biosafety and biotechnology reinforce Nigerian economy

Bio-safety can enhance the national economy by providing a useful regulatory framework on the use of genetically modified organisms, Mr. Rufus Ebegba, the Assistant Director, Bio-safety Unit, Federal Ministry of Environment, has said. [...] ”Biotechnology itself as a tool of enhancing the economy in the agricultural and industrial sectors in the country will be regulated by bio-safety.” According to the environmentalist, a lot of industries can come into biotechnology activities, thereby generating employment, while new products will also generate revenue for the nation.

2012-01-30 | permalink

DuPont’s crop protection and seed business soars in Latin America

DuPont reported tough markets for several of its key businesses for the end of 2011, but once again, it was agriculture that led the way: Latin America is simply dominating growth at the multinational chemical companies. [...] DuPont, which received regulatory approval last summer for Optimum AcreMax and Optimum AcreMax Xtra, expects to get clearance for the next product in the genetically engineered insect-resistant corn line, AcreMax XTreme, in the first half of this year. [...] Sales for its Pioneer Hi-Bred International seed business posted a 17% gain for the year to $6.3 billion, boosted by volume growth and higher prices.

2012-01-30 | permalink

No opposition against GE banana trials in Australia

WHILE other food crops have faced considerable hurdles in both public and industry acceptance of genetically modified products, the ”GM bogey man” has seemingly not raised his head when it comes to bananas. [...] ”We’ve had no push back at all, which has been wonderful,” [Prof James Dale] said. In January last year, the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator authorised the QUT’s application for controlled release of 151 lines of genetically modified banana at Litchfield Municipality, Northern Territory.

2012-01-30 | permalink

Will the GM mosquito be the feared dragon?

the announcement that the Malaysian government is keen to release GMMs in areas occupied by humans has raised more questions and concerns than the earlier trial release in uninhabited areas. It has been pointed out that while dengue is a serious problem, there are other effective, safer and less costly alternatives exist to reduce the number of dengue hotspots like the ministry’s Communication for Behavioural Impact programme. What would likely escalate this whole affair into a crisis would be a move to now release GMMs into the open without consulting local residents and keeping in the dark the very people who would be exposed to the creatures.

2012-01-30 | permalink

Philanthropy is the enemy of justice

It’s strange that at this week’s World Economic Forum the designated voice of the world’s poor has been Bill Gates, who has pledged £478m to the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, telling Davos that the world economic crisis was no excuse for cutting aid. [...] Am I saying that philanthropy has never done good? No, it has achieved many wonderful things. Would I rather people didn’t have polio vaccines than get them from a plutocrat? No, give them the vaccines. But beware the havoc that power without oversight and democratic control can wreak. [...] top-down nostrums for the rural poor don’t end well. The list of autocratic hubris in pseudo-scientific farming is long and spectacularly calamitous.

2012-01-27 | permalink

Washington State (USA) wheat farmers back labels for GM foods

Some Washington state wheat farmers have thrown their support behind legislation requiring labeling of genetically modified foods, giving food safety advocates fresh hope that lawmakers also will get behind the bill. They haven’t been receptive to the idea in the past, and lawmakers at the national level and in more than a dozen states have rejected similar proposals in the past year. But in an unusual pairing, a handful of Washington wheat farmers have joined so-called ”foodies” to back the latest bill, fearing exports will be hurt if and when genetically modified wheat gains federal approval.

2012-01-27 | permalink

USDA greenlights Monsanto’s utterly useless new ”drought resistant” GE corn

The drought-tolerant corn the USDA signed off on in December is the first approved crop of that kind. The trouble is, it doesn’t work very well. [...] It makes clear that the product’s “drought tolerance” extends only to “moderate” drought conditions, and it has the same “minimum water requirements” as conventional corn. And then it drops this bombshell, citing Monsanto’s own field tests: “It is prudent to acknowledge that the reduced yield-loss phenotype of MON 87360 does not exceed the natural variation observed in regionally-adapted varieties of conventional corn (representing different genetic backgrounds).”

2012-01-27 | permalink

Dow and Monsanto team up on the mother of all herbicide marketing plans

Dow has engineered a corn strain that withstands lashings of its herbicide, 2,4-D. The company’s pitch to farmers is simple: Your fields are becoming choked with weeds that have developed resistance to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. As soon as the USDA okays our product, all your problems will be solved. [...] If Dow’s new corn makes it past the USDA and into farm fields, it will mark the beginning of at least another decade of ramped-up chemical-intensive farming of a few chosen crops (corn, soy, cotton), beholden to a handful of large agrichemical firms working in cahoots to sell ever-larger quantities of poisons, environment be damned.

2012-01-27 | permalink

EU Commission plans new Regulation for risk assessment of genetically engineered plants for food and feed

The European Commission has presented a new draft Regulation for the risk assessment of food and feed. For the first time, it would mean that the European Food Safety Authority EFSA would have to work to legally binding standards. However, as a first Testbiotech analysis shows, the proposed standards are not sufficient to exclude risks for human health and the environment. ”The planned new EU regulation shows that current risk assessment as performed by EFSA is not sufficient. But there is still no concept for a comprehensive risk assessment. In result, this Regulation would allow fast track authorisation without delivering the high level of protection for consumers and the environment required by the EU legal framework,” says Christoph Then from Testbiotech.

2012-01-27 | permalink

Philippine experts advocate use of GM sugarcane to produce ethanol

The holding of the 1st Philippine International BioEnergy Conference at the Manila Hotel comes on the heels of the $1.78 billion investment of China in Nigeria to produce bioethanol using sweet sorghum as feedstock. [...] Experts have said that for sugarcane to be a major feedstock for ethanol, the best option is to use genetically-modified sugarcane like the Honeywell strain developed by the University of Queensland in Australia.

2012-01-27 | permalink

More GM crop propagation seen in the Philippines

The number of genetically-modified crops with stacked traits will increase in time as more farmers opt for them, beginning with corn. This prediction was made by Dr. Clarito Barron, director of the Bureau of Plant Industry, after noting that 70 percent of farmers using GM corn are propagating crops with double traits and the use of three or four stacked traits may not be far off. Barron confirmed that BPI reviewed and approved 67 transformation events, eight of which have applied for propagation.

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