GENET-news

 Below you find the postings of the last seven days.

 

2008-01-14 |

Protein from transgenic corn is immunogenic at extremely low levels

Minute quantities of a bacterial protein inserted in corn provoke immune reactions in mice. The protein is added to increase the effectiveness of plant-based transgenic vaccines. The results indicate that special care will be needed with transgenic corn to reduce exposure to workers and the public if this protein is used commercially in corn or other food crops, to avoid unwanted immune responses in people and decreased effectiveness of oral vaccines that use the protein.

2008-01-14 |

In defense of cloning

A University of Maryland professor who helped the FDA assess the potential dangers of selling meat and milk from cloned animals maintains that such food is safe. Carol L. Keefer has played a significant behind-the-scenes role in the government’s deliberations on whether to permit sales of meat and milk derived from clones. An associate professor at the University of Maryland, Keefer was one of three animal scientists who reviewed the Food and Drug Administration’s research into the safety of such food last year.

2008-01-14 |

EFSA launches its draft opinion on animal cloning for public consultation

EFSA is launching a public consultation on its draft scientific opinion on the implications of animal cloning on food safety, animal health and welfare and the environment. The work follows a request from the European Commission (EC) to EFSA for advice on this issue in February 2007. EFSA’s opinion will help inform consideration of any future EU measures in relation to animal clones and products obtained from these animals.

2008-01-14 |

Philippine Maize Federation laudes Bt corn subsidies

The Philippine Maize Federation Inc. has lauded the support of the Department of Agriculture to corn farmers under the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani [...] The P2,000 per bag seed subsidy for Bt corn, a genetically-enhanced corn variety, is P800 more than the P1,200 subsidy farmers get under the program for conventional corn seeds. This is because Bt corn seed is more expensive, compared to conventional corn varieties [...]

2008-01-14 |

Canada agrees to extend deadline for EU to comply with WTO ruling

Canada has agreed to extend a deadline for the European Union to change its rules on the import of genetically modified foods, trade officials said Friday. Officials at the World Trade Organization said a joint letter had been received from the Canadian and EU trade representatives in Geneva laying out a new ”reasonable period of time” for Brussels to comply with a WTO panel ruling that deemed the restrictions imposed by some European countries illegal. Canada originally demanded that the EU comply by Friday, but that deadline has now been extended to Feb. 11.

2008-01-14 |

France extends ban on GE maize MON810

France will activate a safeguard clause that will effectively prohibit growing the sole genetically modified (GMO) crop grown in France, Prime Minister Francois Fillon’s office said in a statement on Friday. Last month, France, pressured by consumers, suspended the commercial use of MON 810, a maize developed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, in order to look into the environmental and health implications of its use.

2008-01-11 |

Indian National Research Centre for Weed Science cooperates with Monsanto on RR crops

Notwithstanding the ongoing controversies related to Bt cotton and Bt brinjal, the government is all set to embrace another genetically modified technology which generated considerable heat in the US and Canada during the last decade. Known as ”herbicide tolerance”, the technology actually offers a package to the farmer — a broad spectrum pesticide that can kill allmost all types of weeds and a GM crop that can withstand that pesticide. The net result is an increase in productivity.

2008-01-11 |

Biotech applications need to be amply regulated

Ethical, social and environmental concerns relating to the application of biotechnology in several areas need to be recognized, addressed and regulated adequately by law, said the Padma Bhushan awardee and former director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB), Pushpa M Bhargava. Delivering his public lecture at the 95th Indian Science Congress here in Visakhapatnam, Bhargava said, ”biotechnology is being applied in at least 32 areas. In some areas it has created wonders, but there are genuine concerns which need to be addressed.”

2008-01-11 |

Harmonise organic farming with biotechnology, says M. S. Swaminathan

Renowned Indian scientist M.S.Swaminathan has stressed the need to ”harmonise organic farming and the new genetics” to ensure that agricultural productivity does not compromise ecological sustainability. Addressing a seminar in Chennai, southern India, a couple of days ago, Dr.Swaminathan, hailed as the father of India’s green revolution, affirmed that while biotechnology had a vital role to play in helping India and the world achieve food security.

2008-01-11 |

Suicide seeds? Biotechnology meets the developmental state

Globally, the battle over biotechnology is largely a contest of metropolitan middle classes engaged in proxy wars on the terrain of relatively poor farmers. Ironically, opposition to biotechnology in India has been largely an urban phenomenon, a creature of media and various websites. Opponents are backed by international NGOs and aid projects brokered through claims of indigenous authenticity. Reciprocally, middle-class proponents occupied positions within the state and formal-sector firms and organizations. Farmers were largely absent, though everyone speaks in their name.

2008-01-11 |

Pakistani Government to introduce BT cottonseed in 2009

A genetically modified cottonseed, with inbuilt resistance against pests that is significantly expected to increase production of the crop will be introduced next year, a top official said here on Tuesday. Deputy Director of National Biosafety Centre (NBC), Afzaal Ahmed, told Daily Times that Bt cottonseed would be available in the market from 2009, which would tremendously increase per acre production of the cotton, accounting 10 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 55 percent to the foreign exchange earnings of the country.

2008-01-11 |

Argentine Agricultural Federation is ”enemy of ’soyification’”

Dairy farmers in Argentina have led the latest in a long series of protests by agricultural associations, despite the record high prices for farm products. [...] ”A 200 hectare dairy farm employs five families year-round, while 200 hectares of soybeans employ one person for 10 days a year,” Ulises Forte, vice president of the Argentine Agricultural Federation (FAA), which groups some 60,000 small rural producers, told IPS. This is because of the mechanisation that has accompanied large-scale agriculture and the concentration of land necessary for the direct sowing methods used for genetically modified soybeans, the main type grown in Argentina. ”We are enemies of ’soyification’: the seeding pools (consolidated land for planting soybeans, some of which is rented from adjacent small producers) have displaced dairy farmers and other producers,” Forte said.

2008-01-10 |

Arcadia (USA) plans to fund Chinese GM rice crops with carbon credits

Money paid by green consumers to offset their flights and by companies that go carbon-neutral will be used to fund the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops under plans drawn up by a US biotechnology company. Arcadia Biosciences is working with the Chinese government to reward farmers in China that grow the firm’s genetically modified (GM) rice, with carbon credits that they can sell for cash.

2008-01-10 |

Is growing GE pharma lettuce a ”no-brainer” for U.S. farmers?

The summit’s keynote speaker described a genetically modified lettuce that could produce insulin, the hormone used to treat diabetes. Farmers could sell insulin-producing lettuce for higher prices than regular lettuce and help bring down health-care costs at the same time, said Henry Daniell, Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. [...] Daniell said it wouldn’t be very difficult for a farmer to switch from growing regular lettuce to insulin-producing lettuce. It only requires using new seeds, he said. ”For a farmer, it’s a no-brainer,” Daniell said.

2008-01-10 |

U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks public comment on GE alfalfa

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is seeking public comment to shape the scope of an environmental impact statement (EIS). The EIS is prepared to assist in the determination of the status of genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready (RR) alfalfa under APHIS biotechnology regulations.

2008-01-10 |

Bt could stand for ”big trouble” when farmers do not care about refuges

Bt could stand for ”big trouble” in the years ahead if farmers aren’t careful in their use of biotech corn, said a Purdue University entomologist. Corn varieties containing Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, genes to control corn rootworms and corn borers, and genetically modified to withstand Roundup herbicide, could become more susceptible to rootworms unless growers keep soybean fields free of volunteer corn and continue planting refuge acres, said Christian Krupke.

2008-01-10 |

EU may face trade sanctions over WTO biotech case

Europe may soon face more transatlantic ire over its policy on genetically modified (GMO) foods as a deadline to comply with an international trade ruling slips past with little evidence that GMO imports are increasing. The European Union has until Friday to comply with a World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling in a case that pitted it against Argentina, Canada and the United States -- the world’s top three growers of GMO crops.

2008-01-10 |

French experts say doubts remain on GMO maize risks

French experts said on Wednesday serious doubts remained over whether the only genetically modified (GMO) crop grown in France was safe, a move likely to prompt the extension of a current ban on GMOs. A government-appointed committee of scientists, farmers, politicians and non-governmental organisations had examined MON 810, a maize developed by US biotech giant Monsanto. ”The committee cannot say anything but that there are serious doubts on the use of MON 810,” the head of the committee, senator Jean-Francois Legrand, told a joint news conference with French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo.

2008-01-08 |

Monsanto reaps huge rewards from its blossoming seed business

Genetic engineering was once an immensely controversial concept. A U.S. firm, Calgene Inc., created line of genetically engineered tomatoes and became the first genetic-engineering biotech firm to go public. But it found a lot of resistance, particularly in overseas markets, and Calgene ended up selling out - to Monsanto - in 1997. Once viewed as controversial, genetically engineered crops are now viewed as essential, if not crucial. And Monsanto is benefiting from the huge surge in demand that has resulted. The company has established firm footholds in markets around the globe. Farmers in China and India planted more than 17 million acres of biotech crops last year, according to BusinessWeek. Approximately 7% of the world’s farmland acreage is planted with genetically modified crops. If Monsanto’s profit is any indication, those numbers are likely to increase.

2008-01-08 |

Taiwanese Government says no to food from cloned animals

An expected decision from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to declare cloned animals safe to eat will not affect Taiwan’s policy on food produced from such animals, a Department of Health (DOH) official said yesterday. ”We have taken a go-slow approach and it will be a long long time -- if ever -- before food from cloned animals is allowed on the shelves [here],” Bureau of Food Sanitation (BFS) Director Cheng Huei-wen said. ”The US decision will not sway our judgement,” Cheng said.

2008-01-08 |

Cloned livestock poised to receive U.S. FDA clearance

Get ready for a food fight over milk and meat from cloned animals and their offspring. After more than six years of wrestling with the question of whether meat and milk from them are safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that they are. The FDA had asked producers of cloned livestock not to sell food products from such animals pending its ruling on their safety. It isn’t clear whether the FDA will lift this voluntary hold.

2008-01-08 |

UK govt scientist sees few benefits from biofuels

Rising production of biofuels has distorted government budgets, helped to drive up food prices and led to deforestation in south-east Asia, the chief scientist of Britain’s farm ministry said on Friday. ”The way we are currently producing biofuels is not the way to go,” former World Bank chief scientist Robert Watson said, citing the U.S. ethanol programme and German support for biodiesel as among the least cost effective. Watson told the Oxford Farming Conference that biofuels production from sugar cane in Brazil may be one of the only sustainable current methods.

2008-01-08 |

French government to debate GE crop policy

France’s environmental policy will be discussed in a hearing at the Senate tomorrow in the lead up to a vote on whether or not to extend the country’s temporary ban on genetically modified (GM) crops. Last October, President Sarkozy put into place a moriatum on the commercial cultivation of GM maize, meaning no new crops could be planted until the country’s biotech position is made clear. The ban is due to come to an end in February, by which time a decision is expected to be announced.

2008-01-08 |

Europe ’will be forced to re-think on GM crops’

High grain prices and new carbon-saving crop varieties will force Europe to rethink its opposition to genetically modified crops, the Oxford farming conference has been told. Neil Parish, Conservative MEP for the South West and chairman of the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, said that the likelihood of high grain prices for the foreseeable future would create a gap between domestic livestock and imports fed on cheaper GM grain. At the same time, the latest GM wheat and oil seed rape crops now predicted to hit the market within three years by Monsanto, the genetic engineering company, were capable of reducing the need for nitrogen fertiliser by 30 per cent.

2008-01-07 |

Update on GE pharma plants

SemBioSys Genetics Inc., a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of therapeutic proteins for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, today announced that it has signed an option agreement with The Instituto de Agrobiotecnologia Rosario S.A. (INDEAR) based in Rosario, Argentina. [...] Under the terms of the agreement, INDEAR will evaluate the utility of using plant-produced chymosin for the production of cheese in South America.

2008-01-04 |

Monsanto’s rich harvest

Forget the ”ag” label—its genetically altered seeds have helped quarterly earnings to nearly triple and share prices are tracking the rise of oil Monsanto’s profits are growing like kudzu. The St. Louis producer of genetically modified seeds has been a prime beneficiary of the growing demand for food and alternative fuel sources. Farmers around the world, but particularly in the U.S., Argentina, and Brazil, are planting more of Monsanto’s seeds, most of which are genetically engineered to resist herbicides and repel bugs.

2008-01-04 |

Philippine Senator urges end of subsidies for hybrid rice and GE crops

Senator Loren Legarda on Wednesday urged the government to diversify its agricultural development program this year instead of limiting it to promoting hybrid rice and genetically modified crops. Legarda noted that while the hybrid rice subsidy program was supposed to have ended in 2007, the Department of Agriculture had sought for a three-year extension on the subsidy. [...] ”The contention basically is that increased hybrid rice adoption and production have not materialized,” she added.

2008-01-04 |

French anti-GM activist Jose Bove on hunger strike

French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove has launched a hunger strike, saying on Thursday he would not eat until the government imposes a year-long ban on genetically-modified crops. The 54-year-old Bove launched his protest action with 15 supporters in a vacant building in Paris’ financial district that was taken over last year by the homeless. ”I have stopped eating since last night,” Bove said.

2008-01-04 |

Vietnam creates first ever glittering GE sea horses

Under the blue light of a fluorescent lamp, 108 striped sea horses glitter like gold. These sea horses are worth their weight in gold – literally: they are the first genetically engineered animals to be created in Vietnam. [...] These sea horses were born using the ”gene-shooting method” pioneered in this country by Phan Kim Ngoc and his colleagues at Viet Nam National University’s College of Science, in Ho Chi Minh City.

2008-01-04 |

India’s cotton sales may beat forecast on U.S. crop

India is forecast to gather a record 31 million bales in the year to September after farmers increased the use of genetically altered seeds, Commissioner Singh said. A bale weighs 170 kilograms (375 pounds). The U.S. will plant cotton on 9.19 million acres this year, the smallest in more than two decades and down 15 percent from the previous year, Tennessee-based Informa said last month. ”India is filling in the gap” created by reduced supplies from the U.S., Singh said.

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