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2009-08-26 |

Feed industry predicts rocketing prices - EU sticks to GM-zero tolerance policy

The concession that feed groups have been clamouring for to restart US soybean shipments to Europe has been put on hold raising the prospect of rocketing feed prices. The European Commission has sidelined a proposal to soften its zero tolerance on imports of unapproved genetically modified crops, for fear of the controversy such a measure would cause, an insider told Agrimoney.com. ”Even if it was agreed at commission level, the difference of opinion [over GM] in EU member states would make this very difficult,” the source said. ”It has been put on the backburner for the foreseeable future.”

2009-08-26 |

Boulder County (USA) commissioners delay decision on GMO beets

The Boulder County Board of Commissioners wrapped up a seven-hour-long meeting Tuesday night by agreeing to delay a decision about whether genetically modified sugar beets can be grown on open space land. ”I don’t think today is the right day to make a final decision about genetically modified beets,” said Commissioner Ben Pearlman. ”They need to be part of a comprehensive look at what we want out of agriculture on our county’s open space land.”

2009-08-26 |

’214 million hungry in India as food prices soar’

As food prices soar to the skies, the poor are eating less and the Government has camouflaged this brand of inflation by combining food with other commodities like steel and metals whose prices are falling, said environment activist Vandana Shiva here on Thursday. [...] ”India has emerged as the capital of hunger with 214 million people being denied the right to food. This is more than sub-Saharan Africa. Fifty-seven million children in India are underweight because of lack of adequate nutrition. This is one-third of all underweight children in the world,” she said.

2009-08-26 |

Different views on India’s Bt cotton revolution

Bt cotton was approved for release in India by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, on March 26, 2002. Over the last seven years, it has revolutionized cotton production in the country, doubling it from 13.6 million bales in 2002-03 to 31.5 million bales in 2007-08. The yield per hectare, which was hovering around 300 kg per hectare for more than a decade until 2002, touched an all time high figure of 560 kg per hectare in 2007-08. In fact, India emerged as the world’s second largest cotton producer in 2006-07, edging past the US, which held the second rank till then.

2009-08-25 |

Cross-breeding could create non-GE rice varieties that can survive flooding and fungi

Japanese research teams have pinpointed the genes in hardy varieties of rice that help the plants to outgrow rising paddy-field waters and fend off fungal infections. Having these genes in more vulnerable rice varieties could save billions of dollars and feed millions more people.
The two papers are ”very welcome at a time of increasingly difficult challenges to rice growing”, says Michael Jackson, a plant physiologist at the University of Bristol, UK.

2009-08-25 |

Chinese agrobiotech experts expect approval of GE rice for food

Genetically modified (GM) rice, which proponents say is more resistant to pests and more satisfying to taste buds, may be edging toward the market in China. Government officials said Monday final approval to sell GM rice is close. Experts said a change in attitude toward the production of the engineered food began last year. China has not allowed any selling or planting of GM rice. In 2005, the sales of transgenic rice in Hubei province was revealed by Greenpeace causing a big controversy.

2009-08-25 |

Improve yield of inbred rice, instead of investing in hybrid variety, says Ifpri study

THE government should channel its limited resources on research and development (R&D) that focuses on improving the yield of inbred rice, instead of prompting costly technologies such as hybrid rice. This was one of the recommendations of a research report, titled ”Philippine Agricultural and Food Policies,” published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (Ifpri). ”Enhancing an inbred-based system that is adapted to farmers’ familiar practice of saving, reusing and exchanging seeds would be a more responsive approach to improving productivity than promoting...hybrid rice, which has not yet achieved commercially viable levels,” the study read.

2009-08-25 |

Bayer CropScience and China National Rice Research Institute sign agreements for rice research and development

Bayer CropScience and the China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI) have today signed two agreements in the area of rice research and development. Both parties will begin collaborations in trait development and breeding. The agreements build on a cooperation framework between Bayer CropScience and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) which was established in 2008. Under this framework, Bayer CropScience is engaged in dialogue with CAAS affiliated institutes such as the CNRRI in the areas of rice, cotton, canola, soybean and safety assessment.

2009-08-25 |

Bayer CropScience to gobble up biotech firm Athenix

International giant Bayer CropScience is gobbling up venture capital-backed Athenix in a deal that combines companies focused on advances in crop technology. [...] Bayer CropScience, which is based in Germany, announced plans in May to expand its operations in Morrisville with as many as 128 new jobs over the next five years. The firm said it would invest some $10.2 million in its Morrisville facility.

2009-08-25 |

BASF chief says hostile takeover bid possible

The head of Germany’s BASF, the world’s top chemicals group, said on Sunday a hostile takeover bid for his troubled company was possible but added that the firm was preparing defensive measures. ”Certainly an attack is possible, there is no question about it,” Juergen Hambrecht, chief executive officer, told business weekly Wirtschaftswoche in an interview due to appear tomorrow. ”Our shares have been widely scattered. But like other companies, we have already considered the possibility and drawn up a defensive plan with the help of advisors,” Hambrecht said.

2009-08-24 |

Boulder County (USA) commissioners to consider modified sugar beets

After a summer full of public meetings, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners will have the last say on whether six local farmers can grow genetically modified sugar beets on open space land. Since the first public meeting was held in May, the sugar beet debate has gotten hot, pitting opponents from Boulder’s extensive natural and organic products industry against supporters from local farming operations and big agribusiness corporations.

2009-08-24 |

Augusta Margaret River Council (Austalia) adopted modified GE-free resolution

COUNCIL Chambers overflowed with more than 100 people last Thursday night to hear the council agree it did not support the use of genetically modified crops in the shire. The council opted to a modified approach to a motion originally put up by Councillor Lyn Serventy. Theywill send copies of a petitions signed by almost 1500 shire residents, and another signed by seven local doctors, to Agriculture Minister Terry Redman along with an expression of the strong local concerns.

2009-08-24 |

GMO taro ban proposal goes to full Maui County Council (USA)

A Maui County Council committee picked up Thursday where it left off six weeks ago to discuss a bill to prohibit genetically modified taro in Maui County. Economic Development, Agriculture and Recreation Committee members got close to passing the measure, but instead the panel’s five members voted unanimously to forward the ”confusing” issue to the entire nine-member County Council.

2009-08-24 |

Genetically-modified barley harvest in Iceland sabotaged

Genetically-modified barley, which was being grown for experimental purposes in Gunnarsholt, south Iceland, by start-up company ORF Líftaekni, was damaged by a group of activists in the early hours of Wednesday. There will be no harvest this fall. ”We are naturally shocked about this,” CEO of ORF Líftaekni Björn Lárus Örvar told visir.is, adding that the activists have caused ISK millions of damage to his company.

2009-08-24 |

GM crops important, Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines says

The Biotechnology Coalition of the Philippines, in a copy of is presentation sent to the DAILY STAR, said that the country is among the regions in the world that is home to some 642 million people suffering from hunger based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [...] While the country is affected by food insecurity, the BCP showed in its data that biotech crops can help reverse the situation, with yields projected to reach as much as 18 tons per hectare in 2030 for corn alone.

2009-08-24 |

Government of Pakistan asked to stop Bt cotton and land deals with foreigners

The government was asked on Saturday to immediately stop all land deals being negotiated with foreign governments, investors, US seed company Monsanto and other agro-chemical companies promoting genetically-modified crops, especially BT cotton. Executive Director of Roots for Equity, Dr Azra Talat Syed, made this demand while speaking at a news conference at the Hyderabad Press Club along with Executive Director of Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific, Sarojeni Rengam and farmer leader Ghulam Mohammad.

2009-08-21 |

Researchers restore maize defense mechanism with oregano gene

Researchers at the German University of Neuenburg have used genetic technology to restore to maize a scent that defends it from pests. The maize then attracts nematodes that kill harmful insects in the root area of the plant. [...] In collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, researchers at the Neuenburg University discovered that many maize varieties in the USA no longer produce such chemical cries for help against the root borer.

2009-08-21 |

GE tobacco plants yield the first vaccine for the dreaded ”cruise ship virus”

Scientists have used a new vaccine production technology to develop a vaccine for norovirus, a dreaded cause of diarrhea and vomiting that may be the second most common viral infection in the United States after the flu. Sometimes called the ”cruise ship virus,” this microbe can spread like wildfire through passenger liners, schools, offices and military bases. [...] ”We think we have a major advantage in using engineered plant viruses to scale-up vaccine manufacture within weeks instead of months.”

2009-08-21 |

Japanese scientists aim to create GE robot-insects

Police release a swarm of robot-moths to sniff out a distant drug stash. Rescue robot-bees dodge through earthquake rubble to find survivors. These may sound like science-fiction scenarios, but they are the visions of Japanese scientists who hope to understand and then rebuild the brains of insects and programme them for specific tasks. [...] In an example of ’rewriting’ insect brain circuits, Kanzaki’s team has succeeded in genetically modifying a male silkmoth so that it reacts to light instead of odour, or to the odour of a different kind of moth.

2009-08-21 |

Yeast cell surrogate may help scientists to engineer synthetic life

Scientists have devised a way to modify an organism that was previously impossible to genetically engineer in the lab. The method, developed by researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and San Diego, California, could aid the development of biomaterials and biofuels by helping scientists to genetically engineer species that have so far been beyond their reach. It could also aid the Venter institute’s project to create synthetic life.

2009-08-21 |

Biofuels from GE algae - Craig Venter’s twist

On July 14th [Exxon] said it would put $300m into what is probably the biggest effort so far to create a new generation of biofuels—with a further $300m to come if things go well. The beneficiary of this largesse is Synthetic Genomics, a firm based in San Diego that is the commercial vehicle of Craig Venter [...] He proposes the industrial-scale culturing (biomanufacturing, as he describes it, rather than farming) of single-celled algae that have been genetically engineered to turn out fuel-ready hydrocarbons.

2009-08-21 |

U.S. Biotechnology Industry Organization asks USDA to clarify its power to deregulate Syngenta’s GE agrofuel corn 3272

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to clarify its authority to regulate genetically engineered (GE) corn and other biotech crops due to widespread confusion prompted by recent suggestions from USDAs Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that it lacks authority to regulate [...] Syngenta Seeds Inc. [...] GE corn, known as Event 3272, that is designed to ease ethanol production.

2009-08-20 |

Must Malaysia (still) become a bio-tech nation?

Technology is artifact. Artifacts have creators. Creators are people. And people have politics. Where will technological determinism as ideology be if we could name the shadows on the wall of the cave? Let us gather our own homegrown intellectuals together with the leaders of our grassroots movement and enlightened and rakyat-friendly NGOs to debate on this issue, so that the new discourse on development will not be dominated by the members of the International Advisory Panel.

2009-08-20 |

Are stink bugs on the raise due to Bt cotton?

Once considered a minor pest, stink bug populations are increasing and they are causing serious damage to vegetable, fruit and nut crops. [...] Another theory is the decreased use of insecticides and the increased use of genetically modified crops. In cotton production for example, due to the boll weevil eradication in our area and the use of genetically modified varieties of cotton, little insecticide is applied.

2009-08-20 |

Glyphosate-resistant Palmer pigweed: An old botanical nemesis refuses to be rounded up

Palmer pigweed, often called ”careless weed” by field hands, often is surviving and even thriving despite treatments with the chemical glyphosate -- most commonly sold under the trade name Roundup. In Arkansas alone, the weed has invaded some 750,000 acres of crops, including half the 250,000 acres of cotton. In Tennessee, nearly 500,000 acres have some degree of infestation, with the counties bordering the Mississippi River hardest hit. The infestation is cutting farmers’ cotton yields by up to one-third and in some cases doubling or tripling their weed-control costs.

2009-08-20 |

U.S. Biotechnology Industry Organization applauds biotech promotion act of Puerto Rico

”BIO commends the Puerto Rico Legislative Assembly and Governor Fortuño for their combined leadership and foresight in enacting and signing into law a bill that promotes agricultural biotechnology research and development in the Commonwealth. [...] ”The new legislation also provides for preemption of any local authorities from attempting to regulate in this area.

2009-08-20 |

Plaintiffs in breast cancer gene suit hope to overturn U.S. patent policy

Brenner’s group [Breast Cancer Action] is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit recently filed in federal court challenging patents controlled by Myriad Genetics on BRCA1 and BRCA2, two genes that can carry mutations dramatically increasing the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. The cancer-causing mutations on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes disproportionately afflict Jews, with one in 40 Ashkenazic Jews carrying the mutations.

2009-08-20 |

Monsanto could be target of U.S. government antitrust enforcement

The Obama administration is stepping up its antitrust enforcement, Cramer said Thursday, and Monsanto could be the first target. Recent moves by the company seem to be daring the Justice Department to file a suit. [...] Monsanto maintains strict agreements with its farmer clients that leave them virtually no choice but to feed at the corporate trough. Plus, the company plans to push through a 42% price increase on its new seeds, and there’s nothing these farmers can do about it.

2009-08-19 |

GM crops are answers to food security in the Philippines

Amid lingering scepticism about possible health risks of GM (genetically modified) crops, Philippines is going ahead with its biotechnological adventures in crops. After commercializing the GM corn, Philippines government is set to introduce GM Golden Rice enriched with Vitamin A. The government funded Philippine Rice Research Institute (Phil Rice) executive director Ronilo A. Beronio told ET that GM crops are answers to food security. ”We are aiming to be self sufficient by 2013.

2009-08-19 |

Non-GMO corn pushed in Negros Occidental (Philippines)

Corn farmers in Negros Occidental should be able to meet local demand without having to use genetically modified varieties, given the availability of modern post-harvest facilities, [...] Rommel Ledesma, executive director of Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (NISARD), told reporters [...] ”There’s no question about the number of farmers [who want to plant corn] and even the hectarage. There’s more than enough [land],” said Mr. Ledesma.

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