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2007-05-04 |

U.S. judge extends ban on planting genetically engineered alfalfa

A federal judge extended his nationwide ban on the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa Thursday and faulted federal officials for approving an herbicide-resistant strain of the crop without studying the dangers of contaminating other farmers’ alfalfa or breeding tougher weeds. [...] ”The contamination cannot be undone,” he said. ”It will destroy the crops of those farmers who do not sell genetically engineered alfalfa. ... It is not in the public interest to take action that has the potential of eliminating the availability of a non-genetically engineered crop without adequate investigation into the long-term impact of such action.” [...] ”This crop represents a very real threat to their crops and their livelihood,” Kimbrell said. ”This ruling is a turning point in the regulation of biotech crops in this country.”

2007-05-04 |

EFSA seeks cloned animal studies

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has called on industry and other groups to submit scientific information as part of its review on cloned meat. The request for scientific data is the next phase in forming an opinion that will be presented to the European Commission, which will then decide whether to allow cloned products to enter the food supply chain.

2007-05-04 |

Report claims crop approval processes are biased against GM

THE approval processes for genetically modified and conventional crops are fundamentally flawed and biased against GM. That is the renewed message from a sub-group of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) in a report this week. The sub-group was set up to assess the wider implications of the Farm-Scale Evaluations of genetically modified herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crops.

2007-05-04 |

REVOKED!! Monsanto monopoly nixed in Munich

The European Patent Office today put the brakes on Monsanto’s over-the-top corporate greed by revoking its species-wide patent on all genetically modified soybeans (EP0301749) – a patent unprecedented in its broad scope. ETC Group, an international civil society organization based in Canada, won its 13-year legal challenge against Monsanto’s species-wide soybean patent when an EPO appeal board ruled that the patent was not new or sufficient (i.e., the invention claimed was not sufficiently described for a skilled person to repeat it). The patent challenge was supported by Greenpeace and ”No Patents on Life!” Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher of UK-based EcoNexus also joined the opposition team in Munich as a scientific expert.

2007-05-03 |

Genes being developed for diseases resistant chicken in India

Scientists are working on identification of genes resistant to diseases like pathogenic bird flu to implant these into poultry but it may take six to seven years before it is fully developed. ”It is going to take at least 6 to 7 years for developing totally disease resistant chicken. As of now we have initiated efforts for its which would take about three years and then these genes would be transferred into developing disease resistant chicken which may again take couple of years,” a senior scientist of UP-based Central Avian Research Institute told PTI. [...] Kumar, who was here to participate in a symposium on Poultry Production, said adding we could focus on transferring these genes into high producing chickens.

2007-05-03 |

Brazil and China should boost partnership in agriculture, sign Bt-cotton agreement

Sao Paulo, Brazil, 27 April – Brazil and China have signed three research and technology agreements for agriculture since 2003 and should increase that cooperation, the supervisor for cooperation at Brazilian farming institute, Embrapa, Bonif agreementácio Magalhães told Macauhub. [...] Magalhães told Macauhub that the next steps in the partnership with China would be an agreement in the area of genetically-modified cotton, which would be signed with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

2007-05-03 |

The truth about GM crops - as told by ISAAA

In March a three days media workshop on ”innovative aspects of Biotechnology and its better awareness and dissemination” was jointly organised by Comstech, ISESCO based in Tehran, Pakistan Biotechnology Information Centre (PABIC) as well as ISAAA. The main objective was to ensure that members of the media, especially those who have opportunities to write about agriculture biotechnology are well informed about advancements in modern biotechnology. Pakistan has several good institutions currently working on various aspects of biotechnology. There are a number of universities; which offer various degrees in this discipline. However, there is a serious lack of appreciation of biotechnology at the public and industrial levels. Coordination and exchange of information among institution and practitioners of biotechnology is less then adequate.

2007-05-03 |

Biowatch South Africa: Cost ruling under fierce attack

Did High Court Judge Eric Dunn act ”capriciously” against the environmental watchdog group Biowatch, or was he dispensing a legal ”healing balm” to tame its ardour for information? These are some of the legal arguments which a full Bench of the High Court is mulling over at the moment in an appeal case that is expected to have major ramifications for public interest bodies that challenge the actions of large multinational corporations in South Africa.

2007-05-03 |

Update from the GM-Free Brazil Campaign

In this first issue we discuss the three most important events in the country this month: a public hearing to debate the commercial release of GM maize, President Lula’s signing into law of a lower quorum for GM authorizations and the CTNBio’s attempt to block the public participation at its meetings. At the public hearing held last week by the National Technical Biosafety Commission (CTNBio) to discuss the commercial release of several types of transgenic maize in Brazil it was clear that there is no safe basis for GM approvals in the country.

2007-05-03 |

Genetically modified crops ’becoming popular’

Opposition from various non-government organisations notwithstanding, the area under genetically modified (GM) crops is increasing rapidly in the country. [...] Asked about reports that genetically modified crops created health problems like skin diseases, he said there was no such report from any part of the cotton belt so far. ” I believe it is just propaganda against such crops and there is no authentic report in this regard”, he added.

2007-05-02 |

Dutch must return GMO maize if unauthorised - EU

A maize shipment to the Netherlands that Greenpeace said contained illegal genetically modified grain must be returned to the United States if testing confirmed this, the European Union said on Monday. A European Commission spokesman said the European Food Safety Authority had found that the type of genetically engineered maize Greenpeace said was in the shipment was not a health threat, but it had yet to be approved for use in the EU. ”It is still unlawful at the moment,” Michael Mann said.

2007-05-02 |

U.S. judge mulls making GE alfalfa ban permanent

A U.S. judge questioned whether he should lift a ban on the sale and planting of Monsanto Co.’s genetically modified alfalfa without a government study of the crop’s potential impact. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer on Friday told lawyers defending the use of Monsanto’s alfalfa that it was up to the government -- not him -- to determine whether use of the seed posed a potential threat to the environment. He also said that lifting his preliminary injunction before such a study was complete could lead to greater harm to the environment. He challenged defense lawyers to show him case law establishing a precedent for him to do so.

2007-05-02 |

Minnesota (USA) gives thumbs up to Syngenta, Pioneer/DowAgroSciences rootworm events

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) granted on Friday a commercial use exemption to Herculex RW, a rootworm event developed and sold by Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Dow AgroSciences. [...] Both products had received federal approval. ”Once the USDA has given approval to a product, in this case the specific traits, the MDA wants to review the USDA documentation along with the EPA documentation,” says Margaret Hart, MDA communications coordinator. ”It’s an extra step the state of Minnesota takes to examine any perceived threats to the environment or human health.”

2007-05-02 |

GE pharma crops grown by SemBioSys in Chile cannot enter Canada

Close to 200 tonnes of a genetically modified seed, which is not allowed anywhere near Canadian dinner tables or farm fields, is sitting at a Chilean port waiting to be loaded onto a ship for Vancouver. The safflower seed, laden with fish growth hormone, was due to leave today, slip into Vancouver in a few weeks and be trucked to Calgary for processing, say the Canadian entrepreneurs who engineered the seed for use in aquaculture. But their plan is in limbo because the federal government late last week refused to issue the permit needed to import the seed into Canada.

2007-05-02 |

Down on the pharm

A new breed of genetically modified crops could provide cheap drugs and vaccines for the developing world. Only one problem: what if they get into the food chain? Environment correspondent David Adam reports on ’pharming’, the new GM front line.

2007-05-02 |

Monsanto’s soybean monopoly challenged at the European Patent Office in Munich

On 3 May 2007 ETC Group together with ”No Patents on Life!” and Greenpeace will continue a 13-year legal battle against one of biotech’s most notorious patents. At an appeal hearing at the European Patent Office i
n Munich, civil society organizations will argue that Monsanto’s patent (European Patent No. 301-749) on all genetically engineered soybeans - unprecedented in its broad scope - must be revoked. ”No patent symbolizes the brokenness of the patent system better than Monsanto’s species-wide patent on genetically engineered soybeans,” said Hope Shand of ETC Group. ”Monsanto’s patent is both technically flawed and morally unacceptable,” said Shand.

2007-04-30 |

Bt cotton brands leave Andhra Pradesh (India) farmers confused

Genetically-modified crops continue to make news for the wrong reasons. The Andhra Pradesh government recently sought a ban on Bt cottonseeds following the death of cattle which reportedly grazed on leftover Bt cottonfields. And now, a study by a US professor in AP’s Warangal district finds that farmers growing Bt cotton there are not being able to keep pace with the biotechnological changes.

2007-04-30 |

Indian Government refuses to divulge details of GM field trials

In an era of transparency, the government has been less than candid on issues of public health. It has, despite an SC order, avoided explicitly mentioning the ”implications and biological results” of field trials of genetically modified crops. In fact, it has questioned the competence of the court to decide matters of ’science and technology’. The ministry of environment, in its affidavit filed as a reply to the SC order, has divulged the complete list of 144 applications it has approved for testing since 2006, including ones of crops meant for human consumption like okra, rice, cauliflower, groundnut, tomato and potato.

2007-04-30 |

A sweet smell - Israeli scientists enhance food with the scent of flowers

Prof. Alexander Vainstein is proud of his greenhouses. Located at the Hebrew University’s Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture in Rehovot, these greenhouses offer visitors both a delight to the senses, and a trip to a futuristic world where flowers emerge in different colors, with different scents, and a whole new genetic make-up designed to enhance and improve the flower stock. ”You’ll see types of flowers in our greenhouses that do not exist anywhere else in the world,” says Vainstein, the head of the institute, with satisfaction. ”People are stunned at what we are doing here. We have petunias, which traditionally don’t have a smell, giving off such a strong perfume that it overpowers you as you walk through the greenhouse doors.”

2007-04-30 |

Dutch researcher bred non-GE fungi-resistant tomato

Tomato growers are likely to soon be able to cultivate new tomato varieties without having to use pesticides against grey mould (Botrytis cinerea). [...] Finkers started off with wild tomato accessions that were resistant to grey mould. When crossing the resistant wild tomato Solanum habrochaites LYC4 with the susceptible S. lycopersicum cv. Moneymaker, he identified two areas with resistant genes in the DNA.

2007-04-30 |

Golden potatoes engineered to give beta-carotene boost

A 250 gram serving of ”Golden” Potatoes, engineered to produce high quantities of of the pro-vitamin A beta-carotene, could provide half the recommended daily intake of vitamin A, suggests new research. Writing in the Public Library of Science, researchers from Rome-based Casaccia Research Center and Germany-based Freiburg University report that using the mini-pathway of bacterial origin technique the beta-carotene content of potatoes could be increased 3600-fold.

2007-04-30 |

Changes to pesticide spraying could reduce GM harm

British crop researchers are claiming that they have developed a method to stop transgenic crops from damaging the biodiversity of weeds and seeds. By leaving two rows in every 100 unsprayed with pesticides, enough diversity can be preserved to prevent knock-on effects on birds and other animals, they calculate.

2007-04-27 |

Sudan to release Darfur-bound aid - WFP

Sudan will release 100,000 tonnes of cereals bound for the troubled Darfur region after holding it in Port Sudan for checks, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday. The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday Sudan was holding the aid on the basis it was genetically modified, a charge the WFP has strongly denied.

2007-04-27 |

2007 White Paper - American Business in China: Regulation and approval of genetically modified organisms (GMO)

China’s GMO approval process continues to be a significant barrier for U.S. companies in that they are excessively burdensome, are not in conformity with international practice, and put applicant’s intellectual property at risk of being copied. China requires that a trait be reviewed and approved each time it is used in a new product, in contrast to the international practice which requires that a trait only be approved once in order to be used in other agricultural products. Conventional ”stacked” traits that have already been individually approved are considered to be new products and must be re-approved.

2007-04-27 |

UK imported unauthorised GM in rice protein for animal feed from China

Animal feed containing unauthorised GM in rice protein has been imported into the UK via the Netherlands. This came to the Agency’s attention via an alert (RASSF) issued by the European Commission on 22 March 2007, following investigations in Cyprus that showed that the GM line Bt63 had been found in rice protein concentrate imported from China via the Netherlands. This GM line has not been authorised in the EU.

2007-04-27 |

US exporters fear GMO corn seed will hurt oversea sales

US farmers are planting a genetically modified corn seed that has not yet been approved overseas, and exporters said on Tuesday they were concerned that any accidental commingling with regular supplies could hurt corn exports that were worth US$4.8 billion last year. Swiss-based Syngenta AG is selling seed that contains a trait called Agrisure RW that allows corn to resist root worm, an insect that can cause crop losses.

2007-04-27 |

Labeling transgenic food is the law in Brazil. But nobody obeys it

The multinational food giant, Bunge, has 60 days to inform the public in Brazil what kind of transgenics it uses and the quantity of transgenics used in each of its food products. In a civil action suit, Brazilian federal judge Regis de Souza Araújo also ruled that the federal government should ensure that the company complies with the ruling.

2007-04-27 |

Landmark law bans GMOs in Negros Occidental (Philippines)

The Negros Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan passed Wednesday a landmark legislation that bans the entry of genetically modified plants and animals in the province and imposes penalties for its violation. Provincial Ordinance No. 07, Series of 2007, or ”The Safeguard Against Living Genetically-Modified Organisms”, was sponsored by Board Member Adolfo Mangao Sr., chairman of the SP Committee on Agriculture. The ordinance helps bring Negros Island a step closer to its goal of becoming the organic food bowl of Asia, Patrick Belisario, executive director of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation Inc., said yesterday. In Aug. 24, 2005, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon and Oriental Negros Gov. George Arnaiz signed a memorandum of agreement committing to 10 percent organic production islandwide by the year 2010 and to the banning of GMOs.

2007-04-26 |

”Unease finds a legitimate expression in risk.”

Public reservations concerning plant genetic engineering appear to have increased even further over the past five years. The view that genetically modified plants are ”not safe” or have scarcely been researched in terms of their potential risks is almost taken for granted. Under these circumstances, what impact can technical information have? Are we talking about gaps in people’s knowledge that are to be filled by means of scientific explanation?

2007-04-26 |

Monsanto crying over labeled milk

Monsanto, the multinational biotechnology corporation and leading producer of genetically engineered seed with a near monopoly on many crops and annual revenue exceeding $7 billion, is worried that you are being misled. For this reason, the company wants to ban shady dairy farmers like those rascally Amish and weirdo hippies from labeling their products free of artificial hormones.

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