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2007-01-10 |

New report: GM crops still not performing

A new report to be released tomorrow shows that genetically modified (GM) crops have failed to address the main challenges facing farmers in most countries of the world, and more than 70 percent of large scale GM planting is still limited to two countries (U.S. and Argentina). The new report, 'Who Benefits from GM crops? An analysis of the global performance of genetically modified (GM) crops 1996-2006' [1] also notes that the 'second generation' GM farm crops with attractive 'traits' long promised by the industry has failed to appear. "No GM crop on the market today offers benefits to the consumer in terms of quality or price, and to date these crops have done nothing to alleviate hunger or poverty in Africa or elsewhere," said Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Africa in Nigeria.

2007-01-10 |

Grow Green

It’s often said that the largest of trees comes from the smallest of seeds. When Ibrahim Abouleish opened the Sekem Farm on a plot of empty desert, his critics must have thought he was crazy. But now, with a network of crops covering more than 70,000 acres of organic farmland, he is all smiles. [...] Genetically modified foods are among organic farms’ top enemies. To create a GMO, scientists manipulate genes in a plant’s or animal’s DNA to produce desirable characteristics, for example, a certain pest resistance or a larger fruit. Although some GE proponents say it can reduce the use of chemicals, the evidence is so far inconclusive. On the other hand, claims that GMOs are more susceptible to diseases and infestation are equally unproven. The use of GMOs does, however, risk uniformity across species because it reproduces the same strain of plant over and over again.

2007-01-10 |

Avesthagen advances in Salt Tolerance Program

Today, Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt.Ltd,India’s leading fully integrated biotechnology & bioinformatics firm, announced that the Indian Patent Office has granted a patent to the company on ‘cloning and sequencing of AGTSAL 11 rice gene from IR-64 variety implicated in salinity stress tolerance’.

2007-01-09 |

Canada and India to collaborate on agriculture and biotechnology information exchange

Canada's New Government has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with India to extend scientific collaboration in exchanging technology and expertise and in conducting research. The agreement will provide opportunities for researchers and institutions to exchange information and expertise in agriculture, agri-food and rural development. Of particular interest to both countries are agricultural biotechnology, bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers, functional and nutraceutical foods and environmental technologies.

2007-01-09 |

The next considerations about cloned food are the ethical ones

The end of the year is often the time for prophecies of doom and, at the end of 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration helped those prophecies along by releasing a long-awaited report on cloned food. The document, which was itself peer-reviewed, reviewed hundreds of studies and concluded that meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and goats "are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals." This echoes an earlier report from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

2007-01-09 |

Wine industry and environmentalists eye government over GMO applications

The government is being watched like a hawk by the wine industry and environmentalists as it prepares to make two key decisions on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in wine. The first relates to an application by Professor JJ Hennie van Vuuren, director of the British Columbia Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, to use genetically modified yeast in wine-making in 20 wine- producing regions of the western and southern Cape. The second - completely unrelated - is by Stellenbosch University's Wine Biotechnology Institute for field trials for genetically modified (GM) grapevines to produce both fruit and wine for research purposes.

2007-01-09 |

Wine industry and environmentalists eye government over GMO applications

The government is being watched like a hawk by the wine industry and environmentalists as it prepares to make two key decisions on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in wine. The first relates to an application by Professor JJ Hennie van Vuuren, director of the British Columbia Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, to use genetically modified yeast in wine-making in 20 wine- producing regions of the western and southern Cape. The second - completely unrelated - is by Stellenbosch University's Wine Biotechnology Institute for field trials for genetically modified (GM) grapevines to produce both fruit and wine for research purposes.

2007-01-08 |

ArborGen, Scion sign deal to benefit global forestry, develop new bio-based products

ArborGen LLC and Crown Research Institute Scion of New Zealand have signed a multi-million dollar partnership deal in a move that will build significant biomaterials expertise and benefit the productivity of plantation forestry worldwide. ArborGen based in Summerville, S.C., and Scion, based in Rotorua, New Zealand, have signed a research and development agreement to focus on the areas of gene discovery and molecular breeding for forest trees.

2007-01-08 |

Pakistan to release insect-resistant Bt cotton variety

Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL) is planning to release first home-grown insect-resistant Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) cotton variety during next sowing season to maximise the production of cotton crop for domestic needs and exports. “Insect-resistant BT cotton variety, IRFH-901 developed by National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad is all set to become the first home-grown variety for commercial cultivation in the country,” Commissioner, Agriculture Development, Dr Qadir Bux Baloch told APP.

2007-01-08 |

Rise in ethanol raises concerns about corn as a food

Renewing concerns about whether there will be enough corn to support the demand for both fuel and food, a new study has found that ethanol plants could use as much as half of America’s corn crop next year. Dozens of new ethanol plants are being built by farmers and investors in a furious gold rush, spurred by a call last year from the Bush administration and politicians from farm states to produce more renewable fuels to curb America’s reliance on oil. But the new study by the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group, found that the number of ethanol plants coming on line has been underreported by more than 25 percent by both the Agriculture Department and the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol industry’s main lobbying group.

2007-01-08 |

AP govt agrees to out-of-court settlement with Monsanto

In a significant move, the Andhra Pradesh government expressed its willingness to have an ‘out-of-court settlement’ with Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Ltd in the ‘BT cotton seed’ issue, however, with a rider. Speaking to the media here on Sunday, AP agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy said the AP government had no objection to the out-of-court proposal by the company as long as it would be beneficial to farmers in the country. “The government has no problem and is even ready for the out of the court settlement, if the proposal benefits the farmers and reduces the cost of cotton crop,” Reddy said.

2007-01-08 |

Monsanto, cereal killer GM and agrarian suicides in India

The Green Revolution is dead. Its hybrids and high-yield varieties allowed for significant increases in the production of crops like wheat. But its negative side effects have intensified rather than gone away. [...] Anil Shinde had decided to plant Bt cotton, a transgenic variety produced by Monsanto that supposedly reduces the need for insecticides and increases the return for the grower. Shinde is not an exception. Hundreds of farmers who had planted transgenic cotton in the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have sought suicide as way out of a desperate situation that worsens year after year. An important element of the tale is that Monsanto’s Bt cotton variety offers some protection against cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea) but not against other pests (Spodoptera, for example) which affect this commercial crop in India. Producers like Shinde, who turned to Monsanto cotton looking to lower pesticide costs, were taken by surprise though in any case, they have had to keep using the inputs. Even worse, the debt trap got on top of them much quicker as the Monsanto cotton seeds are more expensive.

2007-01-08 |

Sri Lanka enforces labelling of GM food

Sri Lanka brought in labelling regulations from Jan 1 to ensure stricter control of Genetically Modified (GM) food but it's a far cry from the original plan to altogether ban GM food. Under new rules by the Health Ministry, all GM food or food that includes GM organisms must be labelled to state that they are GM modified. If the products are GM or contain GM organisms, the sellers or importers have to specify so. If they fail to do so they are liable to a fine of up to 10,000 rupees (US$100).

2007-01-08 |

Idaho company tries to perfect genetically modified potatoes

In the potato capital of the world, spud honchos made sizzling rich on America's french fry affair fill downtown offices. In the distance, potato fields sprawl east and west and there are ample cafes to carbo-load on spuds served baked, stuffed, fried and, somewhat miraculously, frozen into ice cream. And inside tucked-away laboratories in the town that hash browns built, teams of scientists are splicing potato genes, working daily to perfect Idaho's top cash crop with modern biotechnology. At J.R. Simplot Co., the eponymous potato company founded by Idaho's richest man, biologists have used gene technology to design a spud that's tastier and resistant to unsightly bruises and sprouts.

2007-01-08 |

The struggle for the expropriation of Syngenta in Brazil

The recent decree by Roberto Requião, Governor of the state of Paraná, to expropriate the Syngenta corporation's experimental site in Santa Tereza do Oeste has become a powerful symbol for all interests in the struggle over the future of Brazilian agriculture. The magnitude of Requião's decision was highlighted on November 30th when members of the rural social movements the Via Campesina and the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST) closed the first Meeting of Education in Agrarian Reform, in Cascavel, with a march to the Syngenta site. En route to the march, the movements' busses were halted by a blockade of tractors formed by about 100 members of the Rural Society of the West (SRO), an elite group representing the interests of large landowners and commercial agricultural producers in western Paraná. Some SRO members were on horseback and armed with guns. As the marchers began to cross the barricade on foot, a violent conflict began. Shots were fired into the air, and pieces of wood were used to beat the marchers. While no one was hospitalized, the confrontation resulted in the injury of nine people. According to Alessandro Meneghel, President of the SRO, the blockade was created "to show that the rural producers will no longer peacefully accept land invasions and political provocations."

2007-01-08 |

’113 institutions charged with refusing to reveal biotech research

Some 113 university, government, hospital and corporate laboratories engaged in research often with potential to be used for germ warfare have refused to disclose their operations to the public as required by Federal rules, a nonprofit watchdog agency has charged. Instead of shutting their operations down, however, the National Institutes of Health(NIH), of Bethesda, Md., the government agency tasked with oversight of these laboratories, allows them to continue to operate, a peculiar stance for an entity that describes itself as ”the steward of medical and behavioral research for the Nation.”

2007-01-05 |

SemBioSys to proceed with abbreviated regulatory path for plant-produced insulin after meeting with the FDA

SemBioSys Genetics Inc. (TSX:SBS), a biotechnology company developing a broad pipeline of protein-based pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceutical products, today provided an update on the expected regulatory strategy for the Company’s plant-produced insulin after a recent meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The preparatory meeting for the Company’s Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for plant-produced insulin was scheduled as part of the normal development process. SemBioSys approached the FDA to confirm the viability of submitting plant-produced insulin under Section 505(b)(2) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in order to achieve approval for a New Drug Application.

2007-01-05 |

Bt cotton crop fails in Tamil Nadu

After Andhra Pradesh, it is now Tamil Nadu where the much hyped Bt cotton seeds of Mahyco has run into rough weather. The Tamil Nadu government has asked Mahyco to pay compensation to farmers for failure of Bt cotton in the state in the current season. Bt cotton crop has failed in Dharampuri, the major producing district in the state. The farmers and the local NGO Pasumai Vakatan had complained to the district collector and subsequently to the joint director for agriculture in charge of Dharampuri, Duraisamy.

2007-01-05 |

Non-authorised GMOs: Operation of the precautionary principle

Commission Decision on emergency measures regarding the non-authorised genetically modified organism LL RICE 601 in rice products
In August 2006, the European Commission issued a provisional Decision significantly restricting the importation of rice from the US, under fears that it may be contaminated with a strain of genetically modified rice. This issue highlights the precautionary approach currently taken by the EU authorities to issues relating to new technologies that have the potential to affect consumer health and safety in the EU.

2007-01-05 |

FDA’s cloning report bypasses ethics, exposes European dilemma

As the FDA inches toward approving food products from cloned animals, the EU stays mute, setting up another potential trade conflict. After many years of delay, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has apparently completed a study into the risks of meat and milk from cloned animals and their progeny, supporting their safety. In clearing the way for such products, the agency kicks off a national public debate. But Europe, too, now faces a difficult question: should it start writing ethics into its food laws?

2007-01-05 |

Monsanto sees new genes, new products in pipeline

Crop biotechnology company Monsanto Co. (MON.N: Quote, Profile , Research), said on Thursday its research and development of new products is accelerating at a record pace, with a range of genetically altered crop enhancements on the horizon. "Our R&D engine is really humming," said Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Fraley in a conference call. "We will screen and test more genes in 2007 than in any other year in our history." St. Louis-based Monsanto is considered a global leader in genetically altering crops to resist pests and tolerate weed-killing treatments. The new offerings would include soybeans with healthier oils and higher oil yields; higher-yielding corn; beans, cotton and corn that grow well in drought conditions, and crops that make more efficient use of costly nitrogen applications.

2007-01-05 |

Gates Foundation taps a second St. Louisan

A second prominent figure in the St. Louis plant science community will be leaving for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been gobbling up America's best and brightest to help it spend billions of dollars on issues of global poverty and hunger. Lawrence Kent, the director of international programs at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur, said he would begin work in Seattle on March 1.

2007-01-04 |

Tanzania to establish biotech centre

THE Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) will establish an agricultural biotechnology centre aimed at modernising agriculture within and outside Tanzania. The Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology, Ms Gaudentia Kabaka, told the 'Daily News on Saturday' in Dar es Salaam that the move would enable Tanzanian farmers to get better seeds that will result in better yield and increased income. Ms Kabaka said the move would also put SUA on the world map in agricultural research activities as it would be assigned to compliment and consolidate the just approved third component in Africa to be established in Cape Town, South Africa after those in Italy and New Delhi.

2007-01-04 |

Organic Valley calls on USDA to clarify position on cloning

In response to the F.D.A's tentative approval of food from cloned animals, George Siemon, CEO of Organic Valley, the nation's oldest and largest organic farmers cooperative, called on the USDA to clarify its position on the use of cloned animals. Siemon assumed that cloning would be prohibited in the national organic standard as it falls within the ban on GMOs, excluded methods and prohibited technologies. Explained Siemon, "Organic farmers work in harmony with nature, not to change it. Consumers can be assured that Organic Valley and its meat brand, Organic Prairie, will never allow the use of cloned animals on our farms and in our products."

2007-01-04 |

The DNA so dangerous it does not exist

Could there be forbidden sequences in the genome - ones so harmful that they are not compatible with life? One group of researchers thinks so. Unlike most genome sequencing projects which set out to search for genes that are conserved within and between species, their goal is to identify "primes": DNA sequences and chains of amino acids so dangerous to life that they do not exist.

2007-01-04 |

New soybean pulls nitrogen from soil, not air

Growers may soon have the option of planting a non-transgenically modified soybean variety that improves recovery of nitrogen from land-applied animal waste. That's thanks to a newly released soybean germplasm that removes large amounts of nitrogen applied to soil. If developed into a new cultivar, it could become an ideal candidate for animal producers managing waste generated by their operations.

2007-01-03 |

India’s cotton output seen at record 25 mln bales

Is India's Record Cotton Production Attributable To Bt Cotton? - Table 1 Compiled from USDA, ISAAA and media (2006-07 cotton production) data

India’s cotton output is likely to notch a record 25 million bales in the crop year to September 2007, with growing use of genetically modified cotton, industry officials said on Thursday. Last season, the output was 24.4 million bales, which was also a record crop. Industry officials said though the area under cotton cultivation was virtually the same in the last two years at 8.9 million hectares, farmers were able to reap bumper harvests with the use of the new variety of cotton. Out of 8.9 million hectares, about 30 percent of the area was under bacillus thuringiensis or Bt Cotton, they said.

2007-01-03 |

F.D.A. says food from cloned animals is safe

After years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration tentatively concluded yesterday that milk and meat from some cloned farm animals are safe to eat. That finding could make the United States the first country to allow products from cloned livestock to be sold in grocery stores. Even if the agency’s assessment is formally approved next year, consumers will not see many steaks or pork chops from cloned animals because the technology is still too expensive to be used widely.

2007-01-03 |

Stringent laws suggested for transgenic seeds in India

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture has criticised the provision in The Seeds Bill, 2004, that provides for ``provisional registration/clearance for two years'' for transgenic (genetically modified seeds) irrespective of such a clearance under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The Government proposes to allow provisional registration merely on the basis of the information furnished by the seed company. In its 22nd report, the panel has rejected the idea saying this would bring untested seeds and genetically engineered food crops into the market through ``the backdoor.'' Also, since the transgenic seeds cannot be released for commercial cultivation without the approval of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, provisional registration/clearance should not be allowed. ``This proviso to Clause (15) 1 in the Seeds Act should be deleted,'' the committee headed by Ram Gopal Yadav has said.

2007-01-03 |

Giant ragweed added to glyphosate resistant list

Giant ragweed soon could cast a giant shadow on the world's most popular herbicide. Researchers at Ohio State and Purdue universities have confirmed glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed populations in Indiana and Ohio. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in herbicides such as Roundup and Touchdown, which are used for burndown weed control in no-till cropping systems and postemergence in Roundup Ready soybeans and corn. The weed species is the seventh in the United States to show resistance to glyphosate.

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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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