GENET-news

23.10.2008

GM crops deserve more reasoned debate

As the world considers how to respond, the debate about genetically modified (GM) crops has inevitably reared its ugly head. ’Ugly’ because the public exchange about this technology has usually seen extreme viewpoints gaining the most airtime. For example, in the United Kingdom, Prince Charles’ spirited but ill-informed attack on GM crops this summer led to a flurry of opinionated responses. We could have been back in the polarised debates of the earlier part of this decade.

23.10.2008

Biotechnology credited with helping corn crop survive rough weather

This year, much of the nation’s Corn Belt suffered from above-normal wet weather that either caused planting delays or flooded fields, forcing farmers to replant. [...] But despite the rain, Nebraska’s corn crop is forecast at 1.39 billion bushels. Yield is forecast at 161 bushels per acre, four bushels above last month’s forecast and the second highest of record, 5 bushels below the previous high set in 2004. The reason for the high productivity is biotechnology crops, according to a new study from grain crop specialists and entomologists at the University of Kentucky.

23.10.2008

Delays in GM authorisation costing EU livestock sector 2,500 million Euros

Delays in authorising GM traits in feed and a zero tolerance on non-authorised material has accounted for about 15% of the losses incurred by the livestock sector - some 2,500 million Euros in the past year, according to a report sent to European Commission President Dr José Manuel Barroso. The case study report, prepared by COCERAL, FEFAC and UECBV with UK input from the Agricultural Industries Confederation, recognises that the poor harvest in 2007 was a key problem, but the inability to import feedstuffs from around the world also had a significant impact.

23.10.2008

A Declaration of Seed Sovereignty: A living document for New Mexico

26. Be it further resolved that we consider genetic modification and the potential contamination of our landraces by GE technology a continuation of genocide upon indigenous people and as malicious and sacrilegious acts toward our ancestry, culture, and future generations.
27. Be it further resolved that we object to the cultivation of GE seeds in general but especially within range of our traditional agricultural systems that can lead to the contamination of our seeds, wild plants, traditional foods, and cultural property.
28. Be it further resolved that we will work with each other, local, tribal, and state governments to create zones that will be free of genetically engineered and transgenic organisms.

23.10.2008

Red, green or GMO? The future of chile agriculture in New Mexico (USA)

Scientists believe genetically modified chile seeds could be the answer to the crop’s woes. But farmers like Brascoupe fear the changes could affect traditional communities, family farms and the future of the chile itself. In fact, two years ago, the New Mexico Acequia Association and the Traditional Native American Farmers Association drafted ”A Declaration of Seed Sovereignty: A living document for New Mexico.”

22.10.2008

GE crops prohibited in Lake County (California, USA)

Genetically engineered crops are prohibited in Lake County after a 3-2 vote by the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Supervisors Rob Brown and Jeff Smith voted against the ban. The vote came after three and a half hours of discussion. The board took input on both sides of the issue from farmers, business owners and representatives from the Lake County Farm Bureau, Lake County Agricultural Department, Lake County Sierra Club, Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce and California Certified Organic Farmers.

22.10.2008

France hopes to break GMO deadlock by December

EU envrionment ministers continued to disagree on whether member states should be allowed to establish GMO-free zones for sensitive areas, although they did concur on the need for better long-term environmental risk assessment of GMOs. Following a number of informal discussions earlier this summer, the EU-27 environment ministers debated the bloc’s GMO authorisation procedure in a Council meeting on 20 October. But member states clashed on the issues of protecting sensitive and protected territories and establishing GMO-free zones.

22.10.2008

Italy should lift GM ban

Italy should lift a ban on growing genetically modified crops, Welfare and Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi said on Monday. ’I think it’s time to lift this de facto moratorium which has been in place for many years,’ Sacconi told reporters on the sidelines of an international food forum. Italy does not grow GM crops and opposes use of GM products because of concerns that crops whose genes have been altered, for example to provide higher yields, might contain hidden risks to health or the natural environment.

22.10.2008

EU’s Vassiliou: no need to change GM zero tolerance

Europe’s food safety chief said on Thursday she did not believe there was any need to change the European Union’s ”zero tolerance” policy on unauthorised genetically modified material in food imports. [...] ”My cabinet advises me that there is no need at this point to change the zero tolerance because we have already approved one event, we are in the process of approving a second event.

22.10.2008

Is China ready for GM rice?

After ten years of field testing at a dozen locations, the researchers are confident that farmers would use less pesticide with GM rice strains. But David Andow, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota in St Paul, says he is unconvinced. In the past few decades, the stem borer has been overtaken by another pest, the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens), which wreaks havoc every spring and has become the main concern of farmers in Asia. Bt and CpTI toxins have no effect on the insect.

22.10.2008

GE maize planting started in Egypt - without proper biosafety approval

Courtesy of the American-based seed conglomerate Monsanto, Egypt has begun planting its first genetically modified crop. [...] But because there is no enforcement mechanism for the Cartagena Protocol — which automatically assumes national law status in Egypt — and because there is confusion about the proper way to register a seed, El-Tayeb says Monsanto was able to certify MON 810 without submitting a comprehensive biosafety dossier or proper assessment of its trials to the relevant authorities.

21.10.2008

Victorian (Australia) councils vote to become GE crop free zones

East Gippsland Shire Council last night supported an approach to State Government for East Gippsland to be declared a zone free of Genetically Modified crops. The agreement was reached following extensive debate on a motion put by Cr Jane Rowe that Council.

21.10.2008

Australian GE canola grows so well because it is hybrid seed

The 5000-odd hectares of genetically modified (GM) canola crops planted in NSW this year following the lifting of the embargo on commercial production are reportedly performing well for the growers involved. [...] Central NSW sales manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred, John De Lyall, said grower feedback on the company’s GM canola hybrid, 46Y20, was that it was ”absolutely fantastic”. ”It’s going so well, not because it’s GM, but because it’s a hybrid.

21.10.2008

Gene Ethics (Australia) launches GE canola map for New South Wales

Gene Ethics’ has released a map of Genetically Modified (GM) Roundup tolerant canola sites and GM canola depots in NSW. The map shows the GM Canola is being grown in the Cowra district and was published this month with information gleaned from media reports. ”Our map will help protect GM-free grain growers, beekeepers and harvesters from GM contamination,” says Bob Phelps, Executive Director of Gene Ethics.

21.10.2008

Critics say Western Australian 5 m GM canola buffer zone is too small

Growers of genetically modified canola will need to set up buffer zones of just 5m to keep the GM crops away from regular varieties if WA follows national industry guidelines, sparking fears of contamination if the State adopts the controversial technology. As the new State Government prepares for large scale trials of GM canola, possibly by next year, critics of the technology warned yesterday contamination of non-GM crops would be inevitable if industry was allowed to ”self-regulate” segregation. Network of Concerned Farmers spokeswoman Julie Newman said that as a result, farmers would not be able to promise consumers that their crops were entirely free of GM seed.

21.10.2008

Australian food authority accused over GM decisions

THE food authority responsible for approving genetically modified products has been accused of pandering to agrochemical giants at the expense of consumer health, in a report set to be released today analysing the authority’s recent decisions. Food Standards Australia New Zealand is gambling with the health of consumers, the director of the University of Canterbury’s Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, Professor Jack Heinemann has warned, and is one of only a few regulators to have approved every application for genetically engineered food products.

21.10.2008

Major German poulty producer presents GE-free certification

At [the] InterMeat [trade fair in Cologne, Germany], poultry producer Stolle presented certification according to a new standard for GM-free products. [...] As soon as two additional plants are certified, the volume will rise to 450,000 broilers per day. [...] In the market of domestically raised and slaughtered broilers, Stolle has a market share of 20 percent. Focke emphasized that Stolle has always used GM-free soy in its feed.

17.10.2008

Indian ’I am no lab rat’ campaign launched against GM food

HAMARA BEEJ Abhiyan, a movement to restore the right to seed of farmers, has launched a campaign against the introduction of Genetically Modified food. Formally titled ’I am no lab rat’, this campaign highlights the fact that human beings are being subjected to a mass experiment by way of GM food [...] The concern that this campaign points out is that genes of sexually incompatible species are being interchanged. Spider, scorpion, toxic bacteria and even human genes are being introduced into such commonly consumed food such as brinjal, cabbage, cowpeas, okra and even rice

17.10.2008

Shiva: Food-first policies needed to tackle hunger in India

Dramatic price increases have left nearly a billion people hungry worldwide. As World Poverty Day draws attention to the issue, DW’s Dennis Stute speaks with activist Vandana Shiva about India’s huge hunger levels. Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist and author. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights. She also directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy.

17.10.2008

Cotton’s second coming in India

We chose this predominantly dry district in central Tamil Nadu as the entire cotton-growing area of 80,000 acres (largest in the state) is under BT cotton cultivation. What’s more, the farmers have seen both the eras: they grew the conventional cotton varieties for decades till the massive crop failure of 2002-03. The magnitude of loss was so great that they gave up on cotton for the next few years and shifted to cultivating maize. Only after the introduction of BT cotton (in 2004-05) did the farmers gradually return to their preferred crop.

17.10.2008

Processed food to carry GMO labels in South Korea

All processed food with genetically modified organisms (GMO) will be required a GMO mark regardless of the amount. The Korea Food and Drug Administration notified the new rules on GMO indication standards. According to the new rules, all processed food products including soy sauce, soy oil, ice-cream products and drinks will be required to indicate their GMO contents.

17.10.2008

GM food labelling may add 15% to prices in South Africa, says AfricaBio

The mandatory labelling clause for GM food in the Consumer Protection Bill will increase the price of food by 15% and more, a senior official at a GM foods lobby group said on Wednesday. ”The parliamentary procedure to include the clause was flawed as the agricultural, food, and biotechnology stakeholders and the Departments of Agriculture and Health were not consulted,” said Professor Jocelyn Webster, executive director of AfricaBio, the biotechnology stakeholders’ organisation.

17.10.2008

Kenyan farmers’ groups oppose Biosafety Bill

Farmers’ groups have faulted the Biosafety Bill 2008, dismissing it as offering little to protect Kenyans from hunger, poverty and health concerns surrounding genetically-modified organisms. The Kenya Biodiversity Coalition said that in formulating the Bill, the Government listened to multinational corporations instead of ordinary farmers. To mark World Food Day on Thursday, they had planned a march in support of an alternate Bill, the Biosafety and Biotechnology Bill 2008, but were denied permission by the police.

16.10.2008

Cyprus Greens claim President misled public on GM foods

THE GREEN Party has called President Demetris Christofias to meet his pre-election promise of proclaiming Cyprus a genetically-modified-free country. According to the Greens, no progress has been made on GMOs eight months after President Christofias took office, because of the inactivity of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture.

16.10.2008

61% of New Zealand’s farmers reject GE animals

A Colmar Brunton Omnijet survey of over 1000 people, commissioned by the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand and the national animal advocacy organisation SAFE, found that only 27 per cent of New Zealanders, and just 28 per cent of farmers, support genetic engineering (GE) of animals. However six out of ten farmers (61%) who stated an opinion in the survey said they do not support GE of animals, and almost a third of all farmers surveyed (28%) stated they ’don’t know.’

16.10.2008

Sterile GE insects to be released within the next two years

Scientists are about to unleash a new weapon in mankind’s running battle against insect pests: a genetically modified flying army. The first commercial release of GM insects, to protect US cotton fields from the voracious pink bollworm, is expected within the next two years. [...] And if the terminator gene does inadvertently get into wild mosquitoes, it ”absolutely will not spread”, because any insects carrying it would not survive.

16.10.2008

Labelling of GM food in India: Health ministry passes on the buck to FSSA

Mandatory labelling of genetically modified (GM) food in India is likely to be delayed as the Union health ministry has planned to pass on the responsibility to the newly set up autonomous Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSA). [...] The panel recommendations on a vital issue like mandatory labelling of GM food has not been implemented due to pressures from the biotech industry and the US, which had cited reasons for hampering global trade.

16.10.2008

Bayer faces 1,200 rice-damage suits after blocking class action

Bayer AG’s defeat of a bid by U.S. rice farmers to sue the company as a group doesn’t end the matter. The German producer of genetically altered seeds still faces 1,200 individual claims of crop contamination. [...] While the farmers lost group leverage for forcing settlements because of the ruling, they may regain it should Bayer lose early trials, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who teaches tort and product-liability law and is an expert on federal courts and civil procedure.

16.10.2008

National Biosafety framework ready for parly approval in Swaziland

THE ministry of tourism, environment and communications is lobbying parliament to adopt a National Biosafety framework that would enable farmers to try out new technology to address the country’s food security and economic challenges. As recommended by former Tourism, Environment and Communications Minister Thandi Shongwe, if approved and adopted by parliament, a National Biosafety law would help the country protect its rich biological diversity.

15.10.2008

Why GMOs will not perform miracles in Africa

THERE is a frenzy among policy makers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) fronting Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to be elevated to the first priority in government’s realm to addressing challenges to reduced agricultural productivity in the country. The thinking is that with the numerous pests and diseases out breaks in the fisheries, livestock, forestry and crop sectors, products of genetic modification will do a wonder and correct the situation almost at once. [...] For the last ten years, this school of thought is spending colossal sums of money in luxurious hotels toying with this idea, at the expense of a dwindling agricultural productivity.

15.10.2008

Europeans unconcerned about GM foods says study of GE crop proponents

The results unveiled significant discrepancies when comparing people’s everyday choices at supermarkets to the attitudes they expressed towards GM foods in questionnaires. Nearly half of the people who bought GM-labelled foods said they would not buy such products, while 30% of consumers buying them did not know whether they had bought them. [... Friends of the Earth] expressed concerns about the limited scope of the study, as four of its ten countries did not actually have GM products on the market. Cooking oil derived from GM-soya was the main product in question.

15.10.2008

Meeting the challenge to feed the world with GE crops

The U.S. presidential election is less than a month away--which makes this as good a time as any to remember that politics isn’t everything. No matter who is in or out of power in Washington, India, Brazil or the UK, we’ll always need farmers. [...] Genetically modified crops are a proven method of boosting yield without requiring more land, chemicals or fuel. Very soon, GM plants may also require less water.

15.10.2008

We have to reassess attitudes to GMOs, says IFPRI reseracher

Are transgenic or genetically modified (GM) foods the answer to world hunger?
We have to reassess attitudes to GMOs (genetically modified organisms). They could counteract the effects of land degradation. We need salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant crops to maintain the yields we are at now, let alone to achieve the higher yields we want. Other efforts are focused on improving the iron, vitamin A, or beta-carotene content of crops, especially for people who rely on staple foods. Countries need to consider this bio-fortification as a way to improve nutrient intake.

15.10.2008

No genetically modified seeds in Mozambique’s Green Revolution

The ”Green Revolution” in Mozambique does not depend on genetically modified seeds, Prime Minister Luisa Diogo assured the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday. [...] Diogo said that Ismael Mussa, a deputy from the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, was quite wrong to assume that higher yields require genetically modified seeds. ”In fact, the use of genetically modified seeds in Mozambique is banned”, said Diogo.

15.10.2008

A green revolution for Africa without GE crops?

”We now know,” Namanga Ngongi, a Cameroonian who is AGRA’s director, told me, ”that with the use of high-quality seeds — and please note, I am not talking about genetically modified seeds here — and with a serious effort to rejuvenate African soil, we can absolutely reverse the terrible situation in which so many African smallholders have found themselves for so long. We can do it. I’m sure of that.”

14.10.2008

Drought resistant GM crops ready ’in four years’

Genetically modified crops that are drought resistant will be grown by farmers within four to five years, according to scientists developing the technology. Dr David Dennis, the chief executive of Performance Plants Incorporated in Kingston, Ontario, said varieties of drought-tolerant oilseed rape and maize were already being tested in field trials in the US. He claimed the new varieties can increase yield by 40% when the plants are most water-stressed.

14.10.2008

61% of New Zealand’s farmers reject GE animals

A Colmar Brunton Omnijet survey of over 1000 people, commissioned by the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand and the national animal advocacy organisation SAFE, found that only 27 per cent of New Zealanders, and just 28 per cent of farmers, support genetic engineering (GE) of animals. However six out of ten farmers (61%) who stated an opinion in the survey said they do not support GE of animals, and almost a third of all farmers surveyed (28%) stated they ’don’t know.’

14.10.2008

Israeli scientists can genetically boost the smell of flowers and even implant new scents

A team of researchers claim to have discovered how to not only boost the natural smell of flowers by up to 10 fold but also transfer different scents between plants. The scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have successfully introduced the genes from a rose into a petunia and from a rose into a carnation. [...] Eventually they hope the technology could also be used in yeast so that flowery smells can be added to wine, chocolate and bread.

14.10.2008

Tropical wastelands to cropslands with aluminium-resistant Arabidopsis

”It’s a potential magic bullet, depending on how society decides to use it,” says Larsen. [...] Larsen did his original experiments with Arabadopsis, an easily-manipulated member of the mustard family. He’s now seeking the funding to transform tomatoes, and ultimately a whole range of food crops. [...] Will this new breakthrough finally force the Green movement to recognize the vital potential of biotechnology to both feed poor people and save wildlife habitat?

14.10.2008

U.S. begins to turn its back on GM crops, report claims

The U.S. is turning its back on the controversial GM crops and food it created, it is claimed today. There is widespread distrust of genetically modified produce and a demand for labelling that would allow consumers to decide whether to eat it, according to a report from green campaigners. Research shows that 87 per cent of Americans believe their food should carry a label showing whether it contains GM ingredients.

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