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2006-12-13 |

Canola crop battle hits Court of Appeal

A nearly five-year legal battle between organic farmers and two companies over genetically modified canola moved into Saskatchewan's highest court on Monday, as farmers made another bid to launch a class action lawsuit. The farmers are appealing a 2005 ruling that denied their attempt to have a lawsuit against Monsanto and Bayer CropScience certified as a class action. [...] The farmers involved want to hold Monsanto and Bayer CropScience liable for losses they say are due to the introduction of genetically modified canola and the contamination of organic crops.

2006-12-13 |

More for Less? - The development of hybrid rice in Egypt

Although Asian countries produce the majority of the world’s rice, Egypt is beating out its global competitors when it comes to crop yields. Years of breeding programs have created strains of rice that are high yielding and well adapted to the local environment. With an average of 10 tons of rice per hectare (t/ha), Egypt is now the world’s highest-yielding rice producer, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture’s Rice Research and Training Center (RRTC). [...] Egypt does not ban GM foods, and Tantawi says the Agricultural Research Center is already working with GM organisms (GMOs) “in research conditions.” He says he is not opposed to the use of GMOs in Egypt, arguing, “If we can find good quality seeds with GMOs we will consider them.” Discussions about potential concerns and benefits related to the widespread use of hybrid rice in Egypt are something of a grasp into the dark. The RRTC is still conducting research, hybrid rice is not yet being mass-marketed, and private seed companies are not yet producing hybrid seed.

2006-12-13 |

Syngenta starts testing of GM corn crops in Romania

Syngenta Agro SRL is the first company to test genetically modified corn in Romania. The moves comes as the Romanian authorities have decided to ban GM soy crops because the “problem” was not managed properly in the country at a time when the European Union is pushing to stop such crops. The Environment Ministry authorized the testing of GM corn in May this year. The authorization is valid until 2009. Syngenta Agro SRL represents Swiss group Syngenta Agro AG in Romania. The group is one of the major providers of crop protection products worldwide. Its best financial year so far was 2004, when company sales rose to 7.3 billion US dollars.

2006-12-13 |

Brazil Government considering approval of Bayer’s LibertyLink

Brazil’s biosafety agency, CTNBio, said Tuesday that the group will discuss possible commercial approval of LibertyLink technology from Bayer CropScience for Brazil’s corn farmers. LibertyLink was rejected in the last two meetings by the vegetable and plant safety committee, a press agent said, because of lingering doubts on the technologies impact on local plants. Other committees, such as animal and environmental impact committees, have also yet to approve of Bayer’s genetically modified corn.

2006-12-13 |

Genetic modification turns plant virus into delivery vehicle for green-friendly insecticide, say UF researchers

A plant-destroying virus farmers call one of their worst enemies may soon be an ally in the fight against crop pests and mosquitoes, say University of Florida researchers. Scientists genetically modified tobacco mosaic virus so that it produces a natural, environmentally friendly insecticide, turning the pathogen into a microscopic chemical factory, said Dov Borovsky, an entomologist with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The modified virus is almost completely harmless to plants and simply produces the insecticide.

2006-12-13 |

AAI calls on Department of Justice to evaluate competitive issues of Monsanto/Delta and Pine Land deal

In a white paper the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) calls on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division to evaluate the competitive issues raised by Monsanto's proposed acquisition of Delta and Pine Land (D&PL). AAI noted the deal raises both competitive issues and broader public policy concerns associated with dominant firm control of an important agricultural supply chain. The white paper analyzes six major issues raised by the transaction, which include: vertical integration, closed "systems," potential competition, consumer choice, efficiencies and entry barriers, and up-front fixes.

2006-12-13 |

Time for straight talk about transgenics in Chile?

In Chile, transgenic seeds may only be planted to produce crops for export. However, imported transgenic foods can be eaten here. Both those in favour of and against transgenics, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), agree on the need to regulate an area described as "confusing," "contradictory" and "inconsistent." Environmental organisations have been on red alert since a bill was introduced in Congress to promote cultivation of GMOs in order to develop the biofuels industry.

2006-12-12 |

300 bushels per acre corn yield no longer a pie-in-sky goal

A generation ago, Iowa farmers would not have imagined harvesting 200 bushels of corn per acre. Now it is commonplace, and crop experts see 300 bushel-per-acre yields on the horizon. [...] Robb Fraley, Monsanto's chief technology officer, told European investors last month that conventional plant breeding on average results in 1.5 percent genetic improvement per year, while molecular breeding - enabled by biotechnology - doubles that rate of improvement. Together, the two approaches promise "to lift the ceiling on yield," Fraley said in his presentation. [...] Traditionally, it has taken 10 to 12 years to develop and commercialize a new seed corn hybrid. Now, that time has been cut in half through the use of biotechnology and off-season production in such places as Hawaii and South America.

2006-12-12 |

Philippine scientists to develop genetically-modified abaca

Scientists are developing a genetically-modified (GM) abaca to come up with a variant that is resistant to major viral diseases threatening the country's fiber industry. The project aims to come up with the GM-abaca that is resistant to bunchy-top, mosaic and bract mosaic viruses by 2011, a report from the Biotechnology for Life Media and Advocacy Resource Center said Monday. A P20-million budget has been proposed to finance the project. This will be led by the Fiber Industry Development Authority and the Biotechnology Program Implementation Unit of the Department of Agriculture.

2006-12-12 |

GM paddy runs into rough weather in Tamil Nadu (India)

Field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice in Tamil Nadu may be nipped in the bud. While the Centre has done virtually nothing to dispel the Frankenstein theories about the anti-GM crop groups, the state is mulling a legislation to ban such trials altogether. "The government may issue a law banning GM crop trials. We hope the Centre will support us," said Tamil Nadu agriculture minister Veerapandi Arumugam. The minister's reply came in the wake of severe concerns raised by legislators across party lines. While Congress leader, Peter Alphonse, said: "GM crops will wipe out traditional crops", PMK legislator Velmurugan, said: "GM crops are being dumped in India to harm the farming sector."

2006-12-11 |

New Zealand Government may face $1 million bill for corn botchup

Sweet corn investigation. Update 2 - Table 1 Sweet corn investigation. Update 2 - Table 1

The Government may face a hill of up to $1 million to clean up the latest border bungle - allowing genetically-engineered (GE) contaminated seeds to enter the country. Imports of a total of 4420kg of sweetcorn seed is being being investigated for possible GE contamination. About two-thirds of the sweetcorn seed -- 3067.5kg -- was planted in Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, and Ashburton, on about 373ha spread over 25 properties. The bill the Crown faces for cleanup of the latest incident is understood to be in the vicinity of $1 million," Sustainability Council executive director Simon Terry said today.

2006-12-11 |

China delays GM rice, again

China, the world's biggest rice producer and consumer, has further delayed the introduction of genetically modified rice amid growing concerns about biosafety. Chinese authorities approved several varieties of GM rice for human consumption in early 2005 but they never cleared the rice for licencing to farmers. Further discussion by the country's biosafety committee last month has brought no further progress in commercializing the crops. At its bi-annual meeting, the committee sent back Bt rice for more testing, one of its members, Lu Baorong from Shanghai Fudan University, told Reuters.

2006-12-11 |

Mixed prairie grasses are better biofuel source, U of M study says

Highly diverse mixtures of native prairie plant species have emerged as a leader in the quest to identify the best source of biomass for producing sustainable, bio-based fuel to replace petroleum. A new study led by David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology in the University of Minnesota's College of Biological Sciences, shows that mixtures of native perennial grasses and other flowering plants provide more usable energy per acre than corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel and are far better for the environment.

2006-12-11 |

Public sentiments about genetically modified foods (2006 update)

A recent survey revealed that public awareness and understanding of genetically modified (GM) foods remains relatively low and consumers' opinions about GM foods are as divided now as they were five years ago. The survey also shows that while religious belief has some impact, it is not a key source of variation in public attitudes toward biotechnology and finds that animal cloning evinces much stronger opposition than does the modifications of plants. This is the fifth comprehensive survey of U.S. consumer attitudes about public sentiment about genetically modified food conducted by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Similar comprehensive surveys were previously conducted in January 2001, August 2003, September 2004, and October 2005.

2006-12-11 |

MRTPC issues notice to Monsanto

he Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has asked Monsanto, US seed multinational to respond within four weeks to the Andhra Pradesh government’s contention that it was liable to pay compensation to the farmers for selling Bt cottonseeds at exorbitant prices. In response, Monsanto said that its Indian subsidiary Mahyco—Monsanto Biotech (MMB) was responsible for operations in the country. Opposing Monsanto’s contention, the state government had said the US company has been controlling stake in its sister concern and demanded refund of the excessive money paid by cotton growers on the company’s Bt cotton seeds.

2006-12-11 |

Super lettuce turns sour sweet

A chemical that makes sour, acidic food taste wonderfully sweet may soon be flowing from a genetically altered lettuce created by scientists in Japan. A team of researchers at the University of Tsukuba genetically engineered lettuce into a living factory capable of producing large quantities of miraculin, a protein that can fool taste buds into thinking acidic foods and liquids are actually sweet.

2006-12-11 |

What does GM potatoes mean for future blight control?

If you asked consumers whether they would like to buy potatoes which hadn't been sprayed eight to 10 times for potato blight, one would assume most would be in favour. Of course, ask them if they wanted to eat genetically-modified spuds and the answer might be very different. Commercially that's what BASF will have to work hard to overcome in the next eight to 10 years - it is going to be that long before its blight-resistant GM potatoes are likely to be launched.

2006-12-11 |

Monsanto, Pioneer locked in fight over biotech seeds

Winter months are quiet on the farm, but it's crunch time for seed companies Monsanto Co. and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. While farmers place their orders for next year's crop, the companies are fighting for market share in the multibillion-dollar market for genetically engineered seeds. Pioneer is developing new strains of biotech seeds, while Monsanto has been aggressively buying up small seed-dealing companies to get better access to farmers. The result seems to be a tight competition this year, with Monsanto possessing an edge, according to a recent report from analyst Kevin McCarthy with Bank of America in New York.

2006-12-11 |

Lab-altered grapes uncork fears of 'Frankenwine'

The young chardonnay vines climbing from terra cotta pots in the Institute for Wine Biotechnology's greenhouse look like grapevines anywhere, vigorous and green. But the carefully monitored plants, produced in the institute's spotless, state-of-the-art labs, carry a transgenic gene that researchers hope will one day lead to South African wine grapes that don't need spraying to resist fungal infection. "The whole aim is to make wine more environmentally friendly and let farmers use less of these horrible chemicals," said Sarita Groenewald, a wine biotechnology research manager at the institute based at the University of Stellenbosch.

2006-12-11 |

Ventria growing larger crop in Washington County

Ventria Bioscience, a California-based company, has been flirting with establishing a rice-processing operation in Beaufort or Washington counties for years; but in a recent interview, a spokesman for the company said that a new plant wasn’t in the cards. “We have invested time, people and made capital investments in Washington County,” Scott Dieter said Friday. “We certainly plan to continue and maintain that operation. Other than that we have no plans except to grow our rice and continue to combat the number-two killer of children.” The company already operates 200 acres on various farms in Washington County where genetically altered rice is grown. But the locally grown rice has to be processed elsewhere, outside the state. It is that operation, which includes husking the rice kernels and extracting the proteins, that the counties are competing to attract.

2006-12-11 |

O Frankentree - GE trees in Canada

When Christmas snows thaw this spring, Armand Seguin will cut down a stand of about 300 trees outside Quebec City. Although he spent years growing these spruce and poplars, he will take care to completely burn their trunks, branches, leaves and roots. And environmental groups such as Greenpeace can hardly wait for the chainsaws to rev up. That's because these are Canada's first and only genetically modified trees to be grown outdoors. While some scientists believe that they represent the future of our forests -- and a forest-product industry that accounted for nearly 60 per cent of our $55.1-billion trade balance in 2005 -- others fear the fallout from experimenting with "frankenpines."

2006-12-11 |

Can a biotech cassava ease hunger in Africa?

Scientists genetically engineered the plant in 1999 to resist the virus. Since then, they have been trying to give the technology away. But African nations, caught between the United States and Europe in a smoldering fight over biotechnology, have yet to allow field tests on their soil. [...] Nigeria was very interested in the biotech cassava at first. The Danforth Center flew Nigeria's national biosafety committee to St. Louis. But the committee postponed approval meetings. In 2004, Malawi nearly approved a field trial, but it was held up indefinitely by one official. [...] Last spring, he discovered that offspring from the cassava developed in 1999 had suddenly lost their resistance to the mosaic virus. The current cassava was engineered more cleanly, Fauquet says, and should retain its resistance.

2006-12-07 |

Communities must have the right to reject GMOs

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) organised a regional conference on Biosafety in Abuja, Nigeria from November 27 to 29th, 2006. The theme of the conference was “African Biosafety Response.” The conference ,which was attended by NGO representatives from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo and Cameroun as well as international scientists, academics, officials of Nigerian government agencies and ministries, farmers’ bodies, lawyers, journalists and students, deliberated on biosafety challenges facing the continent.

2006-12-07 |

Impoverished Burkina Faso turns to GMO cotton to boost output, quality

Africa's leading cotton producer has decided to launch a genetically engineered culture next June to boost crop production, overriding protests from anti-GMO activists. Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in west Africa, is banking on the transgenic culture to increase output and lower production costs as it battles to weather the effects of the falling prices of the so-called white gold on the international market. "This new technology will reduce the cost of production for farmers and eliminate the predators of the cotton sector," said Agriculture Minister Salif Diallo.

2006-12-07 |

Federal Court suspends decision about Bayer's GM maize

In the afternoon of Dec 05, the Federal Court of Curitiba (Parana, Brazil) determined the suspension of "any deliberation regarding the administrative process 12000.005154/1998-36, until the Federal Government makes any statement”. The referred process is related to the commercial release of Bayer's herbicide-tolerant maize, genetically modified to tolerate gluphosinate. The civil court case was proposed by the NGOs Terra de Direitos, AS PTA and IDEC (Consumer's Protection Institute), because CTNBio (National Technical Comission on Biosafety) denied - without justifying its decision - to carry out a Public Hearing, granted by the law and resquested by the same NGOs in October 18, 2006. The National Association of Small Farmers (ANPA) - which gathers more than 80,000 farmers all over the country - had also requested the Public Hearing at the time.

2006-12-07 |

Australia ends ban on embryo cloning for research

Australian scientists will be allowed to create human embryo clones for medical research after the country's lawmakers voted to end a four-year ban on the practice. New legislation legalizes the creation of human embryos through so-called somatic cell nuclear transfer to aid treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. Lawmakers approved the bill in Canberra today after a rare conscience vote that allowed them to ignore the party line.

2006-12-06 |

Gene flow from GE to conventional maize in real situations of coexistence

Gene flow from GE to conventional maize: Figure 2 - Crop map from Foixa area Figure 2 - Crop map from Foixa area

Results obtained in this study perfectly match those obtained in field trials specially designed to study pollen mediated gene flow in maize. We have shown that coexistence between GE and conventional fields can be achieved by establishing simple rules that take into account the synchronicity of flowering and distance between fields. Moreover, data collected in this study will be very useful for validation of models to predict pollen flow at landscape level with different spatial distributions (smaller and larger fields).

2006-12-06 |

Ecological impacts of genetically engineered crops: Ten years of field research and commercial cultivation

Conclusions: The risks GE crops pose for the environment, and especially for biodiversity, have been extensively assessed worldwide during the past ten years of commercial cultivation. Consequently, substantial scientific data on environmental effects of the currently commercialized GE crops is available today, and will further be obtained given that several research programs are underway in a number of countries. The data available so far provide no scientific evidence that the commercial cultivation of GE crops has caused environmental harm. Nevertheless, a number of issues related to the interpretation of scientific data on effects of GE crops on the environment are debated controversially. To a certain extent, this is due to the inherent fact that scientific data is always characterized by uncertainties, and that predictions on potential long-term or cumulative effects are difficult. Uncertainties can either be related to the circumstance that there is not yet a sufficient data basis provided for an assessment of consequences (the "unknown"), or to the fact that the questions posed are out of reach for scientific methods (the "unknowable"). Although some might argue that experience and solid scientific knowledge are still lacking, the debate is generally not purely due to a lack of scientific data, but more to an ambiguous interpretations of what is considered an ecologically relevant effect of GE crops. The interpretation of study results is thereby often challenged by the absence of a defined baseline to evaluate environmental effects of GE crops in the context of modern agricultural systems. There is thus a need to develop scientific criteria to assist regulatory authorities when deciding whether environmental effects of GE crops are considered relevant.

2006-12-06 |

South Africa to host a laboratory of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

South Africa will be the first country in Africa and the third in the world to host a laboratory of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said South Africa had won the bid to house one of the world's most important research laboratories at the University of Cape Town's Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine. This was announced at a meeting of the ICGEB's board of governors in New Delhi, India last week.

2006-12-06 |

Monsanto needs to charm

Tweaking crop DNA has been good for Monsanto (NYSE: MON). The agricultural technology giant saw its fiscal 2006 revenue climb 17% to $7.3 billion, thanks in large part to ongoing growth in its corn seed and traits business. The success is impressive, but recent comments from a General Mills (NYSE: GIS) executive suggest that unless it takes action soon, Monsanto might have trouble maintaining its torrid growth rate. Not everyone is a fan of Monsanto. Plenty of folks have raised questions about genetically modified (GM) crops' impact on human health and the environment, even as millions regularly consume foods containing GM ingredients. In the U.S., concern over GM foods is relatively muted, in part perhaps because most consumers probably aren't aware that they are buying and eating such products.

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