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2007-06-29 |

Debating the prospect of GMO grapes in California (USA)

Will genetically modified grapes be used by Napa Valley’s wine industry in the future? A panel of experts offered sweeping discussion of possible benefits and pitfalls of the increasingly controversial topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at a forum Wednesday sponsored by the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Association.

2007-06-29 |

Irish Minister to act quickly on the issue of GM-free food

The first moves to have Ireland move to where it can claim its food is produced without the aid of GM feed will be made soon by Minister for Food Trevor Sargent. On his first official engagement as Minister of State for Agriculture with responsibility for food and horticulture, Mr. Sargent said yesterday there was an urgency to move on the GM issue. ”I have been getting reports from our markets in Italy and France that they are increasingly moving in the direction of requiring that produce be fed on GM-free feed,” he said.

2007-06-29 |

Monsanto profit rises 71% on U.S. corn seed demand

Monsanto Co., the world’s biggest seed producer, said third-quarter profit jumped 71 percent as U.S. farmers planted the most corn since World War II.
Net income in the quarter ended May 31 rose to $570 million, or $1.03 a share, from $334 million, or 60 cents, a year earlier, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in a statement. Sales gained 23 percent to $2.84 billion from $2.31 billion.

2007-06-29 |

Growing rice and a cholera vaccine at the same time

Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestines. Today it is found mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Current vaccines to protect against cholera must be kept in cold storage. The need for refrigeration limits use in poor countries. But research in Japan may lead to rice plants that contain a cholera vaccine that does not need to be kept cold. So far, the research has been carried out only on mice.

2007-06-29 |

SemBioSys presents positive insulin data from GE pharma crops

SemBioSys Genetics Inc., a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of therapeutic proteins for metabolic and cardiovascular disease, today announced positive preclinical data supporting the development of plant-derived recombinant human insulin. The Company presented its findings at the 67th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Chicago. Specifically, the Company’s abstract and poster presentation highlighted its recent accomplishments in the development of a highly-scalable, lowcost source of insulin.

2007-06-29 |

Loud no to Bt Brinjal in Orissa (India)

The Orissa government will not allow Bt Brinjal inside the state because it fears that the genetically modified crop may endanger the bio-safety of native farm products. ”We are not for any genetically modified (GM) crop, let alone Bt Brinjal. There is no credible scientific study to stand by the GM crops. Nor are there reports from any where in the country about farmers welcoming it,” agriculture minister Surendra Nath Nayak said. ”On the contrary, public protests against GM crops are galore,” he added.

2007-06-28 |

Ontario grower ordered to pay Monsanto $107,000 for violating patent rights on Roundup Ready® soybeans

The Federal Court of Canada has issued a judgment against Mr. Edward Wouters and Northspruce Farms Ltd. of Forest, Ontario for patent infringement pertaining to the Roundup Ready® gene in soybeans. In a judgment dated June 14, 2007, the Honourable Mr. Justice Barnes determined that Mr. Wouters and Northspruce Farmers Ltd. infringed certain claims of Monsanto’s patent by growing, harvesting and selling 392 acres of soybeans which they ”knew contained genes and cells as claimed in the said claims of the Patent.”

2007-06-28 |

Isreali researchers produce GE tomato with lemon taste

Israeli researchers say they have genetically engineered tomatoes to give hints of lemon and rose aromas that have done well in testing on volunteers. The transgenic tomato includes a gene from a variety of lemon basil, Ocimum basilicum, that produces an aroma-making enzyme called geraniol synthase, Efraim Lewinsohn of Newe Yaar Research Centre and colleagues report. [...] When put to the taste, the GM tomatoes were preferred by 49 members of the panel, while 29 preferred unmodified tomatoes and four expressed no preference.

2007-06-28 |

Non-GE cowpea production technology brings benefit to Niger

Resource poor farmers who were introduced to dry season cowpea production technology in the fadama areas of Radi and Adrawa, two villages near Maradi, Niger Republic have expressed delight at the technology, which has great potentials to improve their livelihoods. After harvest, the farmers sold their cowpea seeds at the rate of 1000 CFA per kg (more than US$ 2 /kg), as against 550CFA normal cost of cowpea grains during the season of plenty. The farmers also made a lot of money from sales of cowpea fodder, often in high demand at the peak of the dry season in the entire Sahel region.

2007-06-28 |

Stink bugs becoming pests in Florida (USA)

Stink bugs populations are on the increase. Once considered a minor pest of vegetable, fruit and nut crops, they are now causing serious damage. [...] ”Cleaner” fields, borders and landscapes with fewer native weeds and other herbaceous plants causes stink bugs to home in on whatever is available. This is often a single crop in the area that attracts them for lack of other host plants in the area. Another reason is the change in insecticide use over the past several years. Farmers are using fewer of these chemicals and those used are more specific as to the target pest and are shorter lived in the environment. In cotton production for example, little insecticide is applied any more due to the boll weevil eradication in our area and the use of genetically modified varieties.

2007-06-28 |

Transcontainer reply to ETC Group communiqué

On 13 June 2007 the ETC Group, a Canadian NGO, issued a communiqué on research related to biological containment strategies for genetically modified (GM) crops. A major part of this 28-page communiqué evaluates ”Transcontainer”, a research project partly funded from the European Commission 6th Framework Programme. In the view of the ETC Group, biologically contained GM crops pose unacceptable threats to farmers, biodiversity and food sovereignty. It further maintains that this taxpayer-financed research would subsidise the corporate agenda. The ETC Groups therefore demands that the EU should discontinue funding of the research project on Recoverable Block of Function (RBF) and re-assess funding for the six other research projects undertaken by Transcontainer. Since communication forms an integral part of Transcontainer, the communiqué provides a good opportunity to discuss the issues raised by the ETC Group.

2007-06-28 |

Genetically engineered rice gets into the U.S. food supply

In January 2006, small amounts of genetically engineered rice turned up in a shipment that was tested - we don’t know why - by a French customer of Riceland Foods, a big rice mill based in Stuttgart, Ark. Because no transgenic rice is grown commercially in the U.S., the people at Riceland were stunned. At first they figured that the test was a mistake or that tiny bits of genetically modified corn or soybeans had somehow gotten mixed up with rice during shipping. They said nothing.

2007-06-27 |

Malaysia‘s Biosafety Bill to make labelling of food ingredients mandatory

MANDATORY labelling of food ingredients, especially genetically modified food, will be made compulsory once the Biosafety Bill 2006 is approved. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said labelling was important as Malaysians were religiously sensitive about food. He said the law would protect the people by ensuring that the Government was aware of the type of food being imported into the country, adding that labelling would also help to boost the image of the country as a halal hub.

2007-06-27 |

Syngenta agrees agriculture biotechnology research collaboration in China

Syngenta announced today that it has agreed a five-year research collaboration with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) in Beijing, China. The agreement focuses on the identification and development of novel agronomic traits including drought tolerance for key crops, including corn, soybean, wheat, sugar beet and sugar cane. IGDB forms part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and is one of China’s leading biotechnology research institutes.

2007-06-27 |

Greece extends ban for MON810 GE maize for two years

Greece on Tuesday extended for two more years a ban on genetically modified maize seed developed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto. A decision also expanded the sale-and-cultivation ban from 31 to 51 varieties of the MON810 seed type, Deputy Agriculture Minister Alexandros Kondos said.

2007-06-27 |

Kenyan NBC approves field trails on Bollgard II Bt cotton

The National Biosafety Committee (NBC) in conjunction with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) have recommended the introduction of Bollgard II, an enhanced earlier type called Bollgard I that was tested between 2003 and 2005. [...] The new variety offered by the US-based agriculture technology firm Monsanto is expected to save farmers up to 32 percent in production costs, as it removes the need for pesticides required for conventional cotton farming.

2007-06-27 |

Group in legal bid to stop GE field trial in New Zealand

Environmental group GE Free New Zealand is taking legal action to stop a Crop and Food field trial. A challenge against an Environment Risk Management Authority (Erma) decision allowing a field trial of genetically engineered crops was launched at the High Court in Wellington last night.

2007-06-27 |

Ruling of the ASA Directorate (South Africa) on Monsanto advertisement

Mr Wells lodged a consumer complaint against a Monsanto print advertisement referring to genetically modified grain products, featured in the February 2007 edition of the You magazine. The advertisement features the heading ”Is your food SAFE?” and contains an image of a woman with two children in a kitchen looking at a cake. Below the sub-heading, ”Biotechnology - the true facts” it states, ”This is one of the most extensively tested and controlled types of food, and no negative reactions have ever been reported.”

2007-06-26 |

GE microbes might reduce methan production in ruminants

But in New Zealand, one-third of these warming gases come from animals, in the form of methane. So researchers are trying something unique to lower New Zealand’s greenhouse-gas hoofprint: They want to change what goes on inside the stomachs of millions of sheep and cows. [...] One strategy used is to genetically engineer the microbes so they won’t make methane. Another is to give the sheep and cows some type of feed that the bugs won’t like.

2007-06-26 |

U.S. dairies to require farmers to quit rbST

Lebanon County dairy farmer Daniel Brandt had a shock June 13 when the milk inspector stopped by with some news. According to Brandt, the inspector told him that beginning Oct. 1, Swiss Premium Dairy (formerly Wengert’s) will be requiring all its producers to supply 100 percent of its milk without using rbST. Brandt, of Annville, had already heard that Rutter’s Dairy in York had notified its farmers of similar news. But Brandt said the announcement from Swiss Premium came ”out of the blue.” At a meeting last December, he said, the Dean Foods-owned company told farmers it wouldn’t require them to give up the production-boosting hormone.

2007-06-26 |

Monsanto India gives incentives to farmers to produce cotton seeds without child labor

Monsanto offered incentive to its seed growers for the second consecutive year for producing cottonseed without involving child labour. Collector M. Dana Kishore, Manufacturing Lead South and North Asia of Monsanto, Ravinder Reddy, and representatives of NGOs attended and disbursed an amount of Rs 1.4 crore to some 4,000 farmers at the rate of Rs 15 a kg over the contracted seed price at a function in Nandyal on Tuesday.

2007-06-26 |

Biotech for sustainable agriculture

In the 1960s, India produced only about 10 million metric tonnes of wheat annually, and crop failures created massive food shortages that required emergency shipments of grain to prevent widespread famine. Today, India produces over 70 million metric tonnes of wheat. This is due in large part to the success of the Green Revolution, based on new genetic improvements of crops combined with efficient use of crop production inputs. However, food security remains a global challenge today and famine still threatens several parts of the globe. [...] Often called the Gene Revolution, advances in biotechnology are having dramatic impacts on global agricultural production.

2007-06-26 |

Indian municipalities have a saying in approval of GE crop trials

[...] the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) - which is the apex regulatory body for looking into GM crop research and development in the country – brought in a new condition (in its meeting on 13/12/2006) for any GM crop field trials to be conducted in India from this year onwards. As per this, Panchayats have to give prior permission for such a trial to take place in their jurisdiction before the GEAC considers any application. This is also in conformity with the constitutional rights bestowed on Panchayats with regard to their natural resources. Panchayats have to make good use of this authority that they enjoy now.

2007-06-26 |

Indian panel to allow more GM crops for field trials

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is slated to approve multi locational research trials of a number genetically modified (GM) food crops at its meeting on Friday. These GM crops include six Bt rice hybrids, three Bt okra hybrids, two GM corn crops, eight Bt eggplant hybrids. The six Bt rice hybrids developed by Mahyco slated to undergo field trials are MRP 5305 Bt, MRP 5319 Bt, MRP 5401 Bt, MRP 5445 Bt, MRP 5629 Bt and MRP 5631 Bt. Field trials are slated to be conducted in 12 locations in 10 states.

2007-06-25 |

West Australian Agriculture Minister thinks about ending GE cotton ban

Agriculture Minister Kim Chance has raised the prospect of ending the State Government’s moratorium on genetically modified cotton, promising the controversial policy will be clarified before new expressions of interest are called for the long-awaited expansion of the Ord River irrigation scheme. The Government’s opposition to GM cotton is part of a moratorium that bans all GM crops and is not due to be reviewed until the end of next year. But the policy has been criticised by agriculture experts, who say GM cotton is more profitable than sugar, uses far less water and is integral to the expansion of the Ord.

2007-06-25 |

Association of Iranian Flower and Ornamental Plant Producers call for GE flowers

The Association of Iranian Flower and Ornamental Plant Producers is encouraging cultivators to use genetic engineering in production. ”While most world cultivators produce genetically modified flowers, Iranian flower cultivators’ still use traditional methods. However, we have taken necessary steps to revolutionize traditional cultivation methods and are trying to encourage production units to incorporate genetic engineering to enhance flower production,” the chairman of the Association of Iranian Flower and Ornamental Plant Producers said.

2007-06-25 |

New GE pharma plants: mosses and Mushrooms

German biotech company, Greenovation has received a broad ranging US patent for its unique moss-based biopharmaceutical production technology. The company’s first US patent covers the use of plant-based glycol-engineering and offers wide-ranging protection for the processing of plant-specific sugar residues as an alternative to conventional production techniques. By genetically engineering mosses to produce specific proteins as well as to over-express the glycotransferases that glycosylate the proteins, biopharmaceutical products can be produced in a cost effective and safe manner.

2007-06-25 |

Future of biopharming in NZ still too early to tell

A Lincoln University study says it is too early to forecast what economic benefits - if any - are to be gained from New Zealand establishing a commercial biopharming industry. Biopharming - the production of pharmaceuticals compounds from genetically modified crops and livestock – is touted by some as an emerging success story in both agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry. Its advocates say biopharming has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of manufacturing compounds used in medicine, food manufacturing and dietary supplements.

2007-06-25 |

Want to be sure it’s GM-free? Buy food in Moscow

Moscow next week introduces a city-wide label to identify GM-free foods, a move ecologists hail as ground-breaking but which foreign producers say is complex and costly. A handful of individual food producers around the world already use labels certifying their food is free of genetically modified elements -- but this is the first large-scale political effort to introduce such a system, Greenpeace says, expecting it to be watched by others as a test-case.

2007-06-25 |

EU stands up to US pressure – unfazed by genetically modified ’Herculex’

EU member states today stood up to intense pressure from the US and refused to allow a new strain of genetically modified maize to be imported into the EU. The move has been welcomed by Friends of the Earth Europe. European Commission documents show US pressure to ignore risk assessment concerns and push GMOs - including this GM Maize ’Herculex’ of biotech company Pioneer - onto the European market.

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