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2007-06-11 |

Chinese consumers wary of GMO food: Greenpeace

Consumers in China’s big cities do not welcome genetically modified (GMO) food on their table, according to a Greenpeace survey, although it also showed not many were familiar with such food. Greenpeace International has released the survey to coincide with the end of the bi-annual meeting of China’s biosafety committee, which examines the safety of genetically modified crops for large-scale production. Among consumers surveyed in the three big cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 65 percent would not choose GMO food and 77 percent would not buy GMO rice.

2007-06-08 |

USDA must reject permit for engineered Eucalyptus trees, campaign demands

The STOP GE Trees Campaign is demanding the USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reject a request by ArborGen to allow a field trial of genetically engineered eucalyptus to flower and produce seeds. The Campaign wants to ensure APHIS destroys the Baldwin County, Alabama field trial before it produces seeds to prevent escape of the GE eucalyptus.

2007-06-08 |

AviGenics (USA) to build an USA 5.7 mill facility for GE chicken

The next big breakthrough in cancer treatment may come a little quicker through a biotech company about to expand into Wilkes County, state and local officials announced Friday. ”AviGenics, an Athens-based biotech company, has gotten a $773,300 OneGeorgia loan to help pay for an egg production facility to be built here in Wilkes County,” said Wilkes County Commission Chairman Sam Moore. ”The process they’ll develop here, if it all works as planned, could help speed up the development of the next treatment for cancer and liver disease.”

2007-06-08 |

Monsanto moves to tighten its control over Latin America

For the past two months, the Latin American press has been inundated with news of a fresh offensive by Monsanto in several Latin American countries. The US transnational corporation appears determined to complete the invasion of GM (genetically modified) crops throughout the continent and to crush the resistance that has arisen in response to the company’s attempt to control and dominate Latin American agriculture.

2007-06-08 |

Monsanto warns it may withdraw from wheat-seed market in South Africa

WHEN the world’s largest seed company and leading producer of genetically engineered seed asks everyone involved in the wheat value chain to help pay for its plant breeding programme in SA, one has to ask why. Is the business not profitable without an industry subsidy? If that is the case, why should it be the concern of farmers, millers and distributors? At a presentation to the media last week, Monsanto’s product manager for wheat and oil seed, Patrick Graham, said the company was sounding a warning to the wheat industry that it could not be expected to continue paying the research and development costs involved in producing new and improved cultivars.

2007-06-08 |

Optimal pesticide use can save cotton farmers in India

A relatively low-tech approach to managing pesticides promises to help hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers across Asia raise yields and reduce environmental contamination. Melbourne scientists are already collaborating with groups across Asia to combat the cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), an agricultural pest that causes five billion US dollars worth of crop damage each year and serious distress to farmers in countries like India.

2007-06-08 |

New study finds Bt GE plants reduce insecticide impact

According to lead author, Michele Marvier, of Santa Clara University, ”We can now answer the question: Do Bt crops have effects on beneficial insects and worms? The answer is that it depends to a large degree upon the type of comparison one makes. When Bt crops are compared to crops sprayed with insecticides, the Bt crops come out looking quite good. But when Bt crops are compared to crops without insecticides, there are reductions of certain animal groups that warrant further investigation.”

2007-06-07 |

Farmers are dying in Gujarat too

”Gujarat’s farmers are not like those in other States. Our farmers drive Maruti cars,” Chief Minister Narendra Modi declares in his speeches at public meetings. However, the widows of farmers have a different story to tell. [...] Gujarat was considered the rare cotton-growing State that was immune to farmers’ suicides. Now inflation and the unsustainable commercial mode of cultivation have affected them too. ”Earlier, farmers only had to pay for seeds. Now, they pay for everything - tractor, power, water and labour. Farming has become more cost-intensive and less viable,” says Sudarshan Iyengar, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapith.

2007-06-07 |

Rutgers scientists propose biotech crop containment strategy

Plant geneticists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, may have solved one of the fundamental problems in genetically engineered or modified (also known as GM or GMO or Biotech) crop agriculture: genes leaking into the environment. In a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Rutgers Professor Pal Maliga and research associate Zora Svab advocate an alternative and more secure means of introducing genetic material into a plant. In GM crops today, novel genes are inserted into a cell nucleus but can eventually wind up in pollen grains or seeds that make their way out into the environment.

2007-06-07 |

India grapples with food security

Cotton output in India is surging just a few years after it started growing genetically modified varieties. Now some are saying the country may have to shift that model to other crops if it is going to succeed in its quest for food security. Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, cotton, is the only genetically modified crop commercially grown in India. And the wide acceptance of Bt cotton has catapulted India into its new role as a major producer and exporter of raw cotton and textiles. Cotton production is on an upswing at a time when production of most food crops, including staples such as wheat and rice, has stagnated, leaving a supply gap for food that can be met only by high-priced imports.

2007-06-07 |

Opportunity for Indian rice exporter

The sustained and no-holds-barred campaign by Indian farmers against the ”backdoor and sly” move to introduce the genetically modified GM rice variety into the country, has resulted in the farmers in parts of Haryana and Tamil Nadu destroying the trial plots of GM rice. These experimental rice fields were being monitored by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco) on behalf of the American agro-business outfit Monsanto.

2007-06-07 |

Three members on India GM panel back off from report

In an intriguing development, three members of a Planning Commission taskforce on genetically modified organisms have dissociated themselves from the report submitted by the study group months after it was released. The report had castigated existing GM regulatory authorities and rules, as TOI had reported earlier. But, in an odd coincidence, the letter, though shot off more than two months after the report was made public, was sent on the same day - April 11, 2007 - when the three members and other taskforce members received an e-mail request from a pro-GM group. The e-mail warned that the report could be used to support a certain argument in an ongoing Supreme Court case where an argument has been made out by a petitioner against GM trials in India.

2007-06-07 |

’Importing agricultural produce is like importing a loss’

Chairperson of the Planning Commission’s Task Force on Agro-biodiversity and Genetically Engineered Organisms and founder of Gene Campaign, Suman Sahai has been advocating for farmers’ rights and against the dangers of genetically-modified (GM) crops for more than a decade. One of India’s foremost agro-economists, Sahai feels the country should avoid buying expensive gm seeds from global monopolistic corporations when it has the resources to develop indigenous technology. What is required, she told Harsha Baruah and Swati Mongia, is to develop a methodology to solve problems at an affordable cost and increased agricultural research.

2007-06-06 |

Adopting agricultural biotechnology in Uganda

”There are some GM bananas that are imported from Belgium that will arrive in Uganda next week. These bananas are going to be tested under confined field trials in Kawanda. The cultivars are not Ugandan so we are going to import the technology to see if it works in Uganda. If it works then we shall transfer it to the popular East African Highland banana cultivars. We have the capacity to this technology.” Baguma said.

2007-06-06 |

New Zealand compensated farmers planting GE contaminated corn

Farmers caught up in last year’s genetically engineered (GE) contaminated corn debacle have all been compensated satisfactorily, Biosecurity Minister Jim Anderton said. Mr Anderton told NZPA that negotiations with growers had taken some time because of the number of parties involved and the complexity of some of the claims. He was commenting on claims by National Party Associate Agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy that a group of farmers had been hung out to dry over the contaminated GE corn seeds.

2007-06-06 |

Iron-fortified non-GE maize cuts anaemia rates in children

Fortifying cereals with a type of iron supplement reduces anaemia, iron-deficiency anaemia and general iron deficiency in children in developing countries, according to new research. [...] The porridge given to one group contained unfortified flour. The other groups received porridge fortified with either a high dose of the iron formulation sodium iron edetic acid (NaFeEDTA), a low dose of the same formulation, or a dose of electrolytic iron ? a commonly used iron supplement. [...] The prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia in children who received unfortified flour was ten per cent, 90 per cent higher than in children who had received high-dose NaFeEDTA. The high dose of NaFeEDTA also decreased the level of anaemia, and increased levels of all iron indicators.

2007-06-06 |

More EU states wary on GMO maize

Several influential EU states have dug in their heels on whether their farmers may grow one of Europe’s oldest genetically modified (GMO) crops, raising the stakes in the EU’s long-running stalemate over biotech policy. [...] In the past few weeks, two EU agricultural powerhouse countries -- France and Germany -- entered the fray. Not only do they wield huge clout under the bloc’s weighted voting system for decision-making, they also grow vast amounts of cereals.

2007-06-06 |

Gene mutation described that can lead to carotine-rich vegetables

The genetic mutation recently isolated by Cornell plant geneticist Li Li and colleagues -- and described in the December issue of the journal Plant Cell -- allows the vegetable to hold more beta-carotene, which causes the orange color and is a precursor to the essential nutrient vitamin A. While cauliflower and many staple crops have the ability to synthesize beta-carotene, they are limited partially because they lack a ”metabolic sink,” or a place to store the compound. [...] Orange cauliflower was first discovered in a farmer’s white cauliflower field in Canada about 30 years ago and is now available at supermarkets.

2007-06-06 |

Danforth Center and Monsanto restart GE sweet potato project

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center today announced that the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has granted more than $3 million to fund research to enhance resistance to virus infection and increase the nutritional content of sweet potato for Africa. [...] In the 1990s, a project to control the disease caused by SPFMV was initiated in a collaborative between a Kenyan research institute and Monsanto Company, with limited success. Researchers later demonstrated that the disease was caused by co-infection by SPFMV (+) SPCSV, rather than by single virus.

2007-06-05 |

DNA co-discoverer Watson gets his genome sequenced

More than 50 years after helping to uncover the double-helix structure of DNA, James D. Watson has seen his own genome, and said on Thursday he will publish it for science to use. ”I’m thrilled,” said Watson, 79, who with Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize in 1962 for work in the early 1950s identifying the structure of the human genetic code. Crick died in 2004.

2007-06-05 |

Majlis Center against GM food import into Iran

Majlis Research Center has warned against official and unofficial entry of genetically-modified crops and foodstuffs into the country while commending Iran’s progress in its fight against rice stem borer larvae. Following comparative studies on social and economic condition of transgenic agricultural products in Iran and the world, the research arm of Iran’s legislature regretted that GM crops or foodstuffs containing them still find their way into the country.

2007-06-05 |

Irish GE crops ban estimated to cost 7 to 40 Mill EUR

This analysis provides an assessment of the likely impact on profitability of a ban on the use and production of GM crops in Ireland. Dr Thorne said:”From this research it is clear that the likely costs to the livestock industry in particular are significant, when a total ban on the import and cultivation of GM crops is considered. While the net benefit, for crop, livestock and dairy farms, resulting from the growing of GM cereal crops is not as significant as the benefits arising from the use of imported sources of GM soyabean and maize, it is important not to consider these two scenarios in isolation from each other.” The net economic cost, if Ireland adopted a voluntary ban on the import and cultivation of GM crops is estimated to be approximately €7 million per annum, rising to nearly €40 million per annum when different scenarios were analysed.

2007-06-05 |

Victoria moratorium: CSIRO races to breed GE chicken immune to bird flu

CSIRO scientists in Victoria are in an international race to develop a genetically modified chicken immune to the killer bird flu. Research has begun at the CSIRO’s Geelong compound as British scientists at Cambridge University also seek a breakthrough. At stake are millions of dollars that farmers and breeders could spend worldwide to replace chicken flocks with flu-immune birds.

2007-06-05 |

GM: debate the science not the values

The recent claim that southern Australia is in the grip of a lobbying war over the impending expiry of the moratoria on genetically modified crops is a manifestation of the silliness that impedes progress on many science-based issues in society today. If indeed there is a lobbying war over whether to allow the expiry of the moratorium on growing GM crops on February 29, 2008, imposed by the Victorian Government in 2004 - or to extend it to 2013 - then it is a war based on imposition of values, not science.

2007-06-04 |

Bill paves way for regulation of GMOs on Saint Kitts and Nevis

A national consultation to discuss the Draft Biosafety Bill has paved the way for the National Biosafety Framework that will see to the safe handling and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or Living Modified Organisms (LMOs).

2007-06-04 |

Bahrain"s Industry and Commerce Minister assures GE food safety

A TOP official yesterday reassured consumers that any Genetically Modified (GM) foods that enter the country are safe. [...] Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro said any imported foods are accepted internationally - despite concerns voiced about GM products. [...] ”The genetically-improved foods sold here are the same allowed all around the world, which have received licensing that they are not harmful to people’s health.”

2007-06-04 |

U.S. rice producers hope for new markets in Cuba

As U.S. Rep. Marion Berry attends agriculture trade talks this week in Cuba, Arkansas rice producers and others are hoping restrictions on trade to the Communist nation will be lifted. Dropping current rules that require all purchases be paid in advance could let growers enter a market estimated to consume 700,000 tons of rice a year, of which only 79,000 tons came from the United States last year, said Greg Yielding, executive director of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association. That new market could buoy an industry whose European markets dwindled after discoveries of unapproved strains of genetically modified rice.

2007-06-04 |

Pakistani research organisations entered deal to sell unapproved BT cotton

Two leading research institutes for developing Bt cotton locally have signed commercial agreements with two private marketing firms for the sale of unapproved varieties of cotton. National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE), Faisalabad and Centre of Excellence Molecular Biology (CEMB) have entered into a deal with two seed marketing companies, namely Ali Akbar Sons and FMC.

2007-06-04 |

New Democratic Party (Canada) tables ban on Terminator seeds and technology

Today the NDP’s agriculture critic, Alex Atamanenko (British Columbia Southern Interior), announced the tabling of a Private Member’s Bill to ban ”terminator technology,” making a commitment to sustaining Canadian farmers and the farming industry.

2007-06-04 |

Monsanto v. McFarling: CAFC affirms ”reasonable royalty” of 140% of purchase price

Monsanto is one of the few patentees that sues individuals for patent infringement. In Monsanto’s case, the infringers are farmers who allegedly save & replant Monsanto’s patented genetically modified seeds violation of their ”Technology Agreement”. When McFarling was found liable, the Missouri jury assessed damages of $40 per seed-bag and the court issued an injunction.

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