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2009-06-30 |

Indian Department of Biotechnology ordered to disclose toxicity and allergenicity data of GE crop and food

The CIC has directed the Department of Biotechnology to provide crucial data pertaining to genetically modified agricultural products to an environmentalist working with voluntary group Greenpeace. [...] The company claimed non-disclosure of data citing section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act which exempts information from disclosure if it includes commercial confidence, trade secrets and intellectual property. But it has a rider that such details can be disclosed in larger public interest. The Commission held, ”toxicity and allergenicity of any product to be put on large-scale trial is a matter of overriding public interest.”

2009-06-30 |

Poll soon on GMO regulations in New Zealand

Market research firm Colmar Brunton will survey Aucklanders and Northlanders next month on behalf of an inter-council working party that has been evaluating risks associated with GMO land uses. Working party chairman Dr Kerry Grundy says the telephone poll will ask people if they are happy with the regulation of GMOs under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act or if they would like councils to control these under the Resource Management Act.

2009-06-30 |

Maui County Council (Hawai’i, USA) takes up a ban on GMO taro

Maui County may become the second county in the state to ban the genetic engineering of taro, the Polynesian staple that is considered sacred by many Native Hawaiians. County Council Member Bill Medeiros, who is Native Hawaiian and holds the rural Hana residency seat, introduced his bill Thursday for discussion that prohibited ”any person from testing, propagating, cultivating, raising, planting, growing, introducing or releasing genetically engineered” taro in Maui County.

2009-06-30 |

Monsanto announces EFSA MON810 decision before EFSA

Monsanto Company announced today that experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) issued a favorable scientific opinion on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 corn product for cultivation and reconfirmed the safety of its YieldGard insect-protected corn trait. ”These announcements from the European Union demonstrate a strong commitment to science-based decision-making to allow farmers to choose biotech crops for their farms,” said Jerry Hjelle, regulatory lead for Monsanto. ”These are critical steps forward in affirming the safety and benefits of biotech crops.”

2009-06-29 |

Glyphosate kills human cells. Study intensifies debate over ’inert’ ingredients.

Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup’s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. The new findings intensify a debate about so-called ”inerts” — the solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

2009-06-29 |

Canadian farmers opposed to GM wheat: survey

Canadian farmers oppose the introduction of genetically modified wheat until market conditions change, a Canadian Wheat Board survey has found. In the CWB’s annual survey of 1,300 Western Canadian farmers, only 9 percent said GMO wheat should be grown as soon as it’s available, with the majority saying it shouldn’t be grown until conditions are met such as proving benefits to farmers and demonstrating market demand. Nineteen percent said it should not be grown in Canada.

2009-06-29 |

U.S. EPA says Monsanto phosphate mine contaminates environment

Federal regulators said Thursday an Idaho mine that Monsanto Co. depends on to make its Roundup weed killer has violated federal and state water quality laws almost since it opened, sending selenium and other heavy metals into the region’s waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency said problems at the St. Louis-based company’s South Rasmussen Mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border were first documented in April 2002.

2009-06-29 |

Austria proposes GMO ’opt-out’ clause

After a debate on environmental risks related to the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Austria is now calling for an opt-out clause to be introduced to related EU legislation to allow individual member states to decide on cultivation. [...] The delegation argues that ”relevant socio-economic aspects could form a basis for individual member states to prohibit or regulate the cultivation of GMOs on the whole territory, or certain defined areas, of individual member states”.

2009-06-29 |

U.S. court cuts off appeals in Monsanto alfalfa case

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday left in place an injunction barring Monsanto Co from selling its Roundup Ready alfalfa seed until the government completes an environmental impact study on how the genetically modified product could affect neighboring crops. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the company’s request for a rehearing of its appeal and said it would accept no more petitions for rehearing in the three-year-old case.

2009-06-29 |

Monsanto to cut 900 jobs

For more than two decades, it was the exclusive maker of the herbicide, and capitalized on the product’s success by developing crops that are genetically engineered resistant to its effects. Today, the herbicide tolerance trait is at the heart of the company’s multibillion-dollar seed business. But the last patents on Roundup herbicide expired nine years ago, opening the door for rivals like Dow and Syngenta to sell competing products and erode Monsanto’s market share.

2009-06-25 |

South Africa short of maize for biofuels says Monsanto

South Africa is still not producing enough maize to use in its biofuels programme and the government was right to exclude the grain from the plan, a Monsanto official said on Monday. South Africa’s government removed maize from the list of crops that could be used in its biofuels strategy two years ago, citing concerns over food security.

2009-06-25 |

Monsanto and Dole cooperate to build better veggies

Monsanto Co and Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc are formalizing a partnership to breed broccoli, spinach and other vegetables that would be more attractive to consumers. The five-year collaboration, announced on Tuesday, will focus on creating variations of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach, the companies said in a statement. The focus of their efforts is to breed more colorful, tastier vegetables that are less susceptible to bruising and have a longer shelf-life.

2009-06-25 |

Dow AgroSciences, World Wide Wheat agree to collaborate on non-GE wheat

Dow AgroSciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, and World Wide Wheat (W3) LLC of Phoenix, Ariz., announced today a collaboration agreement for the development and commercialization of advanced germplasm and traits in wheat. ]...| World Wide Wheat operates research stations in 18 countries, producing superior varieties of cereal grains that are not genetically modified.

2009-06-25 |

News on GE-free breeding successes

When the world gets warmer with climate change, the dryland tracts will become even drier making it more difficult for the farmers to grow crops in this region. The improved crops developed by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and its partners, are able to withstand severe droughts, tolerate higher temperatures and mature early, enabling the farmers to be ready to meet the challenges of climate change.

2009-06-25 |

African farmers develop new type of rice well-adapted to poor soils

The Wageningen researchers used molecular techniques to show that the new hybrid was genetically different to African and Asian rice. The new type of rice gives fairly stable yields and has a short growing season, making it suitable for the short rainy season in Gambia and Senegal, says Nuijten. The hybrid is also well-adapted to the poor West African soils.

2009-06-25 |

Breeder of non-GE drought-tolerant and Striga-resistant sorghum wins World Food Price

The 2009 World Food Prize will be awarded to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia, whose sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed have dramatically increased the production and availability of one of the world’s five principal grains and enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.

2009-06-24 |

Pakistan may buy Monsanto’s Bt cotton seed worth $1bn

”Last year, around 28 per cent land was cultivated with BT cotton, but this year our target is 60 per cent,” Textiles Adviser Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig told The News. ”There are also arrangements to produce BT seeds locally” [...] Pakistan is in the process of signing a $1bn agreement for the purchase of BT cotton seed from Monsanto, a seed developing company of the United States, with a view to increasing cotton production by 40 per cent.

2009-06-24 |

President issued decree foreseeing creation of chain of GMO testing laboratories

The Head of State ordered the Government to ensure that a network of experimental laboratories for checking food containing GMOs (genetically modified organisms), as well as the national centre for the scientific and methodological coordination of activities of GMO testing laboratories, is established by September 1, 2009.

2009-06-24 |

Mexico works on applications to start experimental planting of GMO corn

Since publishing regulations in March last year to allow select plantings, the government has received 25 requests from farmers and companies interested in the GMO seeds. ”The permits are in the process of being reviewed,” agriculture ministry official Enrique Sanchez told reporters. Sanchez said that four of the requests are near the final stages and once they are approved by the environment ministry planting could start at the beginning of the fall harvest season in September.

2009-06-24 |

Frankencrop experimentation in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico - Biotech Island

In the global debate regarding genetically modified (GM) foods and organisms (GMO’s), the little-known role of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico in testing and propagating GM crops has gone largely unnoticed and unexamined. The agricultural biotechnology activity in this tropical US colony is simply massive. ”Puerto Rico attracts agricultural biotechnology companies because of the tropical climate that permits up to four harvests yearly and the willingness of the government to fast-track permits”, according to professors Margarita Irizarry and José Rodríguez Orengo, of the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus.

2009-06-24 |

Genetically modified food will be ’on shelves by 2015’ in Australia

There were major health benefits to be had from GM crops. ”There are literally billions of people in the world, in both developed and developing countries, surprisingly, who are suffering from major diseases which result from changes in our lifestyle,” [...] ”The good thing is we should be able to reduce their bad effects by optimising the nutritional value of our major foods. This tie-up between agriculture and health is an important step in value adding to our commodity grains,” [former chief scientist of Australia, Dr Jim Peacock] said.

2009-06-24 |

Why do the Europeans mistrust GE science claims?

Most Europeans don’t consider themselves to be anti-science or particularly technophobic. In fact, Europe’s full embrace of the scientific consensus on another environmental issue, global warming, has enabled the continent to take the clear lead on climate change, with the most ambitious emissions targets, the first carbon trading market, and the greenest urban infrastructure plans on the planet. [...] Why do many environmentalists trust science when it comes to climate change but not when it comes to genetic engineering? Is the fear really about the technology itself or is it a mistrust of big agribusiness?

2009-06-23 |

Colombian cotton growers want to sue Monsanto

Colombian cotton growers want to sue U.S. agricultural company Monsanto for selling them a bad genetically engineered seed that caused damage to crops. According to the cotton growers, the seed caused damage to 13 percent of the cotton crops in the north of Colombia, resulting in a 7 million dollar loss, economic magazine Portfolio reported Wednesday.

2009-06-23 |

Russians plan to release GE trees with with super fast growth rate

Russian biologists plan to plant 300,000 genetically modified aspens and birch trees at two experimental fields, Informnauka news agency reports. In the autumn of 2009 the trees, currently in greenhouses, will be planted in the open air near the cities of St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. The trees’ DNA has been modified by researchers at the Institute for Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences to provide for faster growth and harder wood pulp.

2009-06-23 |

Activists convince CBD Member States to block GE tree research

Increasingly stringent recommendations by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are hindering the field research needed to develop safe uses of genetically modified (GM) trees, say Steven H. Strauss and colleagues. [...] And the strong anti-GM stance taken by some countries and prominent nongovernmental organisations are influencing CBD recommendations, say the authors.

2009-06-23 |

Danish Government to accelerate GMO approvals to feed the hungry

The Danish government thinks that genetically modified organisms may be the way to feed the increasing world population. Danes are going to have to get used to their cows chewing away at genetically modified maize and soya beans, at least if the Danish Minister for Food Eva Kjær Hansen (Lib) could decide. The minister wants to make it much easier to get approval for GMO products – initially GMO feed, in order to help the world’s starving millions.

2009-06-23 |

Philippine sugar producers oppose provincial ban on GMO’s

The group noted that if studies by the Philippine Sugar Research Institute on High Yielding Varieties of sugarcane will have to stop due to the GMO ban, the sugar industry in Negros will be in danger of collapsing. PHILSURIN, which, Montinola, Valderama, and De la Cruz said, will be introducing a new sugarcane variety that is nitrogen fixing and uses biotechnology, has placed an advertisement in newspapers today in opposition to the ban.

2009-06-23 |

NGO hails Negros (Philippine) GMO ban

THE Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP), along with the Negros Rural Assistance Program Inc., supports the implementation of the memorandum of agreement on the establishment of the ”Negros Organic Island” and Negros Occidental’s provincial ordinance (passed on April 25, 2007) banning the entry, planting, transport and selling of GMOs, both living and non-living. GMOs have been touted as the solution to hunger, but it is not a feasible solution. In Negros Occidental, hunger is being worsened by the recurrent ”Tiempos Muertos” or the yearly off-milling season.

2009-06-22 |

Biotechnology to increase agriculture output in Azerbaijan: American University Professor

The introduction of biotechnology in agriculture in Azerbaijan will help local farmers to significantly increase their incomes, professor at the American Tuskegee University Channapatna Prakash said. [...] According to him, the introduction of biotechnology will increase the agricultural productivity, and improve product quality and reduce toxins.

2009-06-22 |

Eleven EU countries will call for right to create GMO-free regions

Eleven European Union countries will call next week for the right to opt-outs for growing genetically modified (GM) crops, to cut through complex EU decision-making and end years of stalemate on biotech policy. The suggestion, to be floated at a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, would be for governments to restrict cultivation of specific GM crop types if they saw fit.

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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.

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