###BASE_URL###

GENET-news

To stay informed you can subscribe to the GENET-news list.

 

2009-09-02 |

European Commission ’sitting on’ GE contamination report on seeds

According to Agra Europe, the European Commission is sitting on the results of the impact assessment study on GMO traces in conventional seed in a bid to avoid legislating on the sensitive issue. This impact assessment is understood to have been completed last year, not surprisingly showing that the lowest thresholds under consideration - like the current zero tolerance threshold - entail punishing costs and are economically not workable.

2009-09-02 |

Sangamo BioSciences and Dow AgroSciences cooperate in zinc finger technology

This technology, which Dow AgroSciences is moving toward the market, is called a zinc finger, a naturally occurring protein that can be used in a cell nucleus like an editor’s red pencil. Zinc fingers, so named because they contain a zinc atom and are shaped like an index finger, can turn specific genes off or on or to some point in between, delete genes altogether or add new genetic material. ”Within biotech,” says the 54-year-old Peribere, ”we believe this is one of the very disruptive technologies.” Success with the zinc finger could also give Dow AgroSciences, the crops unit of $54 billion Dow Chemical, the second-largest chemical company in the world, a bigger share in the global agbiotech boom

2009-09-02 |

Monsanto backs French biotech firm Cellectis

Cellectis, a $150 million French biotechnology company that specializes in ”gene clipping”--or the targeted removal, insertion or manipulation of genetic material--has just landed its biggest backer yet in the shape of Monsanto. The $45 billion agribusiness leviathan is paying Cellectis 3 million euros ($4.3 million) upfront to access the French firm’s proprietary technology, and is also buying a 1% stake for 1 million euros ($1.4 million) to beef up its investment.

2009-09-02 |

Livestock deaths may impact talks on Monsanto mine

The Bureau of Land Management’s draft environmental impact study on Monsanto’s proposed Blackfoot Bridge mine is open for public comment at a time when mining is back in the public eye because of a connection to more livestock deaths. Eighteen cattle were recently found dead in the region, likely of selenium poisoning. The Associated Press reported the cattle died around Aug. 5 near the defunct Lanes Creek Mine, formerly mined by Alumet Co., which is no longer in business after it went bankrupt in 2002.

2009-09-01 |

UK food giants counting the cost of ban on GM food

Britain’s food giants have privately warned that they are struggling to maintain their decade-long ban on genetic modification and called for the public to be educated about the increasing cost of avoiding GM [...] Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield, Aldi and Co-op met civil servants to explain their problems in finding non-GM supplies.

2009-09-01 |

GM foods in Ghana: Will Parliament yield to US pressure?

Ghana’s Parliament and the US Congress are gearing up to pass bills that would introduce controversial foods from genetically modified organisms (GM foods) into Ghana’s food chain. GM foods, derived when genes from, for example, cows are inserted into corn to either increase yield or make them resistant to pests or weeds, have been dogged by controversies over their potential impact on human health, environment, intellectual property rights, and food security.

2009-09-01 |

Japan’s GM stance ’may impact Australia’

The new Japanese government’s position on genetically-modified food may impact future growth of GM canola crops in Australia, Greenpeace says. The anti-GM group claims the Democratic Party of Japan has said it will establish a food traceability system and has repeatedly called for more stringent labelling of genetically-engineered food.

2009-09-01 |

’Non-GMO’ seal identifies U.S. foods mostly GM-free

Alarmed that genetically engineered crops may be finding their way into organic and natural foods, an industry group has begun a campaign to test products and label those that are largely free of biotech ingredients. [...] The industry group, the Non-GMO Project, says its new label is aimed at reassuring consumers and will be backed by rigorous testing.

2009-09-01 |

Indonesia inspects GE soy bean imports

The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) rejected the imported soybean which contains genetically modified organism. [...] BPOM sent the suspected dangerous imported goods to the biological safety commission to be analyzed its safety. BPOM will issue a permit based on the commission’s recommendation.

2009-09-01 |

Greenpeace campaign starts in Luxembourg

Greenpeace launched their European campaign against genetically modified rice in Luxembourg last Friday. The aim of the campaign is to reject the European Commission’s proposal to authorise pharmaceutical giant Bayer’s genetically modified rice LL62. The rice is resistant to glufosinate, a pesticide which is produced by the same company. The product is highly toxic and the new European reform on pesticides plans to ban the use of glufosinate once the current authorisation expires.

2009-08-31 |

DuPont, Monsanto trade barbs over competition

In an Aug. 25 letter to Hugh Grant, Monsanto’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, Thomas L. Sager, DuPont’s senior vice president and general counsel, dismissed allegations by Monsanto earlier this month that DuPont had engaged in covert attacks on its seed business practices. Mr. Sager said Monsanto was trying to raise ”two-year-old accusations that were all proven false,” adding that DuPont’s right to speak out was ”constitutionally protected.” He said DuPont would ”welcome and encourage broad participation” in a wide-ranging public debate over competition in seed production and biotechnology.

2009-08-31 |

Africa’s alliance for a green revolution a hoax

This Asian Green Revolution is celebrated by its proponents as having brought sufficient and affordable food to the poor. What with the total food available per person in the world rising by 11% and the estimated number of hungry people falling from 942 million to 786 million, a 16% drop? However, if China, where the number of hungry people dropped from 406 million to 189 million is eliminated from the equation, the number of hungry people in the rest of the world actually increased by more than 11% from 536 million to 597 million. In South Asia, there was 9% more food per person by 1990, but there were also 9% more hungry people.

2009-08-31 |

Closing agriculture’s global productivity gap: Sustainably meeting the needs of a growing world

The enormity of the challenge faced by global agriculture in meeting the needs of our growing and more affluent population is widely accepted. Land, water and habitat constraints are tightening, as recognition grows of the critical need to protect these resources for future generations. Failure to meet these expectations sustainably has implications that transcend agriculture, with enormous ramifications for political stability in many parts of the world.

2009-08-31 |

GM foods promise to feed the world says M.S. Swaminathan

In India, very soon, we will have in place a very effective, independent credible regulatory authority to ensure safe release of GM products. GM foods have the potential to solve many of the world’s hunger and malnutrition problems, and to help protect and preserve the environment by increasing yield and reducing reliance upon chemical pesticides. Yet there are many challenges ahead for governments, especially in the areas of safety testing, regulation, international policy and food labelling.

2009-08-31 |

India to increase area under organic farming, boost organic exports

India has planned to increase its area under certified organic farming to 2,000,000 hectare and sale of organic products to one billion US dollars by 2012. A special agency under the Union agriculture ministry - National Centre for Organic Farming - has taken up the task of achieving this target. [...] Currently, organic cotton account for 25% of the total organic products export, followed 20% share for organic tea, 18% share for dry fruits, 13% share for Basmati rice and 10% share for organic honey.

2009-08-31 |

Life is cheap in the killing BT cotton fields of Gujarat (India)

It was on the night of August 17 that Punjilal Ahuri received the body of his 16-year-old daughter, Haju Ben. She had apparently died of snake bite while working in the BT cotton fields of Gujarat. [...] There are large BT cotton farms in Banaskantha district of Gujarat. And when cross-pollination work begins in the end of July, a large number of children from Rajasthan’s Udaipur and Dungarpur are taken there, often by coercion or deception, as the local people allege.

2009-08-28 |

Thailand strenghthens environmental and community health protection guidelines

Environmental and community protection rules are being strengthened as a condition for obtaining operating permits for a number of industries, the Industry Ministry said yesterday. The tougher rules will affect power plants, certain types of mines, petrochemicals, steel, industrial waste treatment, airports, seaports that handle hazardous substances, dams, and agricultural ventures involving genetically modified substances. A ministry working group has identified the sectors as potentially harmful, saying they would be subject to environmental and community health protection guidelines enforced under Article 67 of the 2007 Constitution.

2009-08-28 |

Lake County (USA) Supervisors give GE Crops Advisory Committee October deadline

The Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to give the county’s Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops Advisory Committee additional time to finish its final proposal. Meeting since late last year the group indicated that its work is close to completion, but a few more months should lead to a completed product.

2009-08-28 |

Negros Occidental (Philppines) committees agree to amend GMO ordinance

After a series of deliberations and feedback from scientists and experts, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Negros Occidental reached a consensus to amend the controversial ordinance banning the entry of genetically-modified organisms into the province, ViceGovernor Emilio Yulo III said yesterday. This was after majority of the members of various committees who reviewed the ordinance, made four preliminary agreements that include among others, allowing the entry of GMO products for processing into feeds to cater to the needs of livestock and poultry industries, the entry of non-living GMOs as well as pharmaceuticals and medical products, and the conduct of research and development under strict controlled conditions.

2009-08-28 |

GMO debate in Boulder (USA) could stretch on for another year

The county commissioners could have made a final decision Tuesday night on a request by six local farmers to grow Roundup Ready sugar beets [...] But instead, the commissioners delayed their vote and asked the open space staff to create a broader vision for managing the 17,000 acres of cropland owned by the county. ”I don’t think today is the right day to make a final decision about genetically modified beets,” Commissioner Ben Pearlman said at the end of a seven-hour-long public meeting that lasted until nearly midnight. ”They need to be part of a comprehensive look at what we want out of agriculture on our county’s open space land.”

2009-08-28 |

Risks involved with the release of transgenic fish

Fast growing transgenic fish can revolutionise commercial fish farming and relieve the pressure on overexploited fish stocks. But what happens in the natural environment if transgenic fish escape? Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have studied transgenic fish on behalf of the EU and are urging caution: Until further notice transgenic fish should be bred in closed systems on land, says Fredrik Sundström at the Department of Zoology, University of Gothenburg.

2009-08-28 |

International Paper treads Monsanto’s path to ’Frankenforests’

International Paper Co., the world’s largest pulp and paper maker, plans to remake commercial forests in the same way Monsanto Co. revolutionized farms with genetically modified crops.
International Paper’s ArborGen joint venture with MeadWestvaco Corp. and New Zealand’s Rubicon Ltd. is seeking permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to sell the first genetically engineered forest trees outside China. The Australian eucalyptus trees are designed to survive freezes in the U.S. South.

2009-08-27 |

Why big pharma wants to be like big biotech

Plant-based drugs have been used by cultures around the world for thousands of years. Drugs based on chemical synthesis have been with us since the latter half of the 1800s. Now, the era of biologics—genetically engineered protein drugs made in living cells—is upon us. Biologics now account for 20 percent of the global drug market [...] By 2008, five of the top 10 drugs in sales were biologics, and by 2014 biologics are expected to occupy six of the top ten positions, according to EP Vantage.

2009-08-27 |

Sigma-Aldrich to create genetically modified rats in new lab

Hoping to grab a slice of the $1 billion lab animal industry, Sigma-Aldrich has opened a new lab that focuses on developing a new generation of genetically engineered rodents to further research into human disease and drug discovery. The dozen scientists at the new, multi-million-dollar Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering lab in St. Louis will initially create rat models with a focus in toxicology, neuroscience, cardiovascular and inflammatory disease using technology Sigma-Aldrich created and touted in a paper published in Science magazine last month.

2009-08-27 |

Local engagement key to bringing biotech to Africa

To ensure that biotechnology is appropriate, effective and sustainable, its intended users must be involved in its development, and it must improve their capacity rather than create ties of dependency. For example, communities need to be empowered to use biotechnology to produce locally grown food, rather than rely on imports. My own research on community-based food technologies in Ghana suggests that people adopt technologies more readily if they are involved in their development and if they hold power over the decisions that affect them.

2009-08-27 |

Seeds imported from Israel are not infertile says Turkish agriculture minister

Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Mehdi Eker has responded to claims that seeds imported from Israel are sterile and create diseases. Eker asserted that the seeds are not infertile, but since they are obtained through the interbreeding of carefully selected seed parents, they will produce decreased yields if they are sown for another season. He indicated that it is not harmful to consume such seeds. Referring to genetically modified (GM) seeds, he said, ”The impact of the produce obtained [from these seeds] is still being studied.”

2009-08-27 |

Non-GE drought-tolerant pigeon peas released in Kenya

Faced with increasingly unreliable rains, farmers in Kenya’s eastern district of Mbeere South have started growing drought-tolerant crops to meet their food and subsistence needs instead of the staple maize. [...] Four new drought-tolerant pigeon pea varieties are being piloted in Mbeere, and specialists say the crop is hardy and can grow in a range of environments and cropping systems. The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is providing farmers with free seeds.

2009-08-27 |

Nigeria to roll out fungus-resistant non-GE soybean crops

A variety of soybean resistant to a devastating Asian rust will soon be widely available in West and Central Africa. The rust, a fungal disease that entered Africa in 1996, can wipe out 80 per cent of infected crops. Scientists from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria and the country’s National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) developed the rust-resistant variety, named TGX 1835-10E.

2009-08-26 |

Recent successes in non-GE plant breeding in the USA

This year farmers in the Midwest are growing a new variety of soybeans developed by University of Illinois researchers that has resistance to soybean aphids. However, in addition to the resistant plants, U of I researchers also discovered a new soybean aphid which is not controlled by this resistance. Soybean aphids made their first appearance in North America in the summer of 2000, resulting in tremendous crop losses for farmers. U of I researchers began immediately searching for a variety of soybean that is resistant to the new pest.

2009-08-26 |

US farmers suing German-based Bayer Cropscience over GE rice contamination

Nearly 1,500 rice farmers are suing the German conglomerate Bayer Cropscience and affiliated companies over a genetically engineered strain of rice. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Little Rock claims the farmers’ crops were corrupted by the rice that was produced by Bayer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in August 2006 that traces of an unapproved genetically engineered rice had been found in U.S. supplies of long-grain rice.

Go to: ← ... 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 ... →

Overview

News

Go to: ← ... 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 ... →

Go to: ← ... 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 ... →

Home: GENET

GENET-news & GENET-forum

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.

The GENET-forum list provides you with additional background information and more voluminous reports. It is only open for GENET members. Please contact the  coordinator for membership and subscription.