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2007-01-03 |

Hazy future for genetic drugs, tests

There may be no better example of the promise and pitfalls of so-called personalized medicine -- tailoring treatments to individual genetic traits -- than the test Genomic Health developed for breast-cancer patients like Katherine Young. [...] Despite widespread hopes that mapping the human genome this decade would usher in a flood of drugs for genetically similar patients, few such products have hit the market, largely because of fears that insurers won't cover their cost.

2007-01-03 |

No good reason exists for rush to cloned food

[...] But even if such food is formally declared safe, consumers won't see cloned meat in the grocery store any time soon because the technology is still too expensive to be used widely, The New York Times reported. Which begs the question: Is there any demand for cloned spare ribs? If cloning isn't somehow more efficient or cost-effective than breeding, what could possibly be the reason to approve cloned food for consumption? Critics say the FDA is looking out for a handful of cloning companies, which are still trying to build a business. Some farmers and breeders who already have cloned animals also have interest in the approval. Other than that, no one is clamoring for it. There is no shortage of cows or pigs.

2007-01-03 |

Sri Lanka restricts GM foods

All imported food items that contain genetically modified (GM) substances need to be labeled starting in 2007 in accordance with the Food (Control of Import, Labeling and Sale of Genetically Modified Foods) Regulations 2006, which were enacted on January 1. Importation, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of any kind of food that contains a genetically modified substance without the approval of the Chief Food Authority is illegal under the new regulations.

2007-01-03 |

Gene-engineered cattle resist mad cow disease: study

U.S. and Japanese scientists reported on Sunday that they had used genetic engineering to produce cattle that resist mad cow disease. They hope the cattle can be the source of herds that can provide dairy products, gelatin and other products free of the brain-destroying disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, the researchers said their cattle were healthy at the age of 20 months, and sperm from the males made normal embryos that were used to impregnate cows, although it is not certain yet that they could breed normally.

2007-01-03 |

Summit participants express varying views on GMOs

Participants at a food summit have expressed varying views on the introduction of Genetically Modified Food (GMO) technology on the continent. Wilson Selenge, a parliamentarian from Malawi, told Newsmen at the just-ended Food Security Summit in Abuja, that his country rejected GMO technology because it transferred foreign genes into local crops. “When you produce maize or any other crop through GMOs you are applying a foreign gene, and that foreign element can be harmful to the body system”, he said. According to him, if you therefore eat such food you will be damaging your body system, which can even lead to death. Dr. Olaseinde Afrigbede, national coordinator, United and Medium Scale Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (USMESFAM), said that farmers in the country were against the used of GMO technology in food production.

2006-12-28 |

Tanzanian Government introduces policy on GMOs

THE government has devised a new policy to control the importation of GMOs technology in order to curb its environmental and socio-economic effects. The policy, know as National Biosafety Framework (NBF), which has been prepared in accordance with the Cartagena Protocol, of which Tanzania has ratified, is also expected to introduce the legal, technical and administrative mechanisms to deal with the
technology.

2006-12-28 |

China breeds 55 profitable new GM cotton varieties

Chinese scientists have developed 55 new genetically modified (GM) cotton strains, bringing economic returns of 16.8 billion yuan (2.1 billion U.S. dollars), said Vice Minister of Science and Technology Liu Yanhua. "The cultivation of new strains, covering an area of more than 100 million mu (12.5 million ha.), has already been put into commercial production," said Liu. The new varieties boast traits such as worm, herbicide and disease resistance, and high yields, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

2006-12-28 |

DBT contemplates changes to GM crop field trial regulations

Faced with the problem of maintaining the country’s image as an exporter of GM-free rice, the department of biotechnology (DBT) is now contemplating changes in its guidelines for regulation of field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops. DBT secretary, MK Bhan , DBT advisor KK Tripathi and advisor in the science and technology ministry, SR Rao have suggested that no field trials of GM rice should be allowed in Basmati rice producing states—Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

2006-12-28 |

Ottawa rejects concerns over fertility panel

Health Minister Tony Clement tried to reflect a cross-section of Canadian views when he appointed a national board to set the standards for assisted human reproduction, his spokesman said yesterday. That 10-member board, which was announced late last week to oversee Assisted Human Reproduction Canada, has been criticized as being long on socially conservative values but short on fertility experts and stem-cell researchers.

2006-12-27 |

Victoria (Australia) seeks permission to grow trial crops of GM drought-tolerant wheat

THE first genetically modified wheat crop in Victoria's history could be growing within six months. The Victorian Government has applied to a Federal Government regulator for permission to grow trial crops of drought-tolerant GM wheat. If the application is approved, as critics expect, by the Gene Technology Regulator within the Federal Government's Department of Health and Ageing, two crops of the GM wheat would be grown in Horsham and Mildura.

2006-12-27 |

Why the omega-3 piggy should not go to market

The paper in your April issue by Lai et al. entitled "Generation of cloned transgenic pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids" (Nat. Biotechnol. 24, 435–436, 2006) perfectly captures the fundamental problem with American biotech research. That problem is that scientists pursue their research agenda to further scientific knowledge—all well and good—but when the project succeeds they invent problems for which their research results can be marketed as a solution. This unreflective move from 'pure science' to commercialization may end up as biotech's undoing.

2006-12-27 |

GM in India: the battle over Bt cotton

The chequered history of Bt cotton in India — marked by pest resistance and farmers' suicides — has polarised opinions over the technology, reports TV Padma. 'Bt and the beast' is how cotton scientist Keshav Raj Kranthi refers to the controversial genetically modified cotton so widely planted in India. The 'beast' is the American bollworm — a moth larva that devours cotton bolls — while Bt is its nemesis, a protein crystal from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

2006-12-27 |

Arkansas Plant Board bans planting of Cheniere variety

Arkansas rice growers will be banned in 2007 from planting the Cheniere variety, a seed rice that has tested positive for a genetically modified rice that contaminated some long-grain supplies this year. The decision Wednesday by the state Plant Board came as farmers are making decisions about planting for next year. "We need to act as quickly as possible, because producers are making business decisions right now," Plant Board Director Darryl Little said at the meeting in Little Rock.

2006-12-27 |

Sahelian cotton farmers on their knees

The head of a delegation from the main cotton buying company in Burkina Faso, Sofitex, recently met with some 200 local farmers under a mango tree in western Burkina Faso to explain to them that they should expect to get 150 CFA (US 30 cents) a kilo for their next harvest, or 9 percent less than they got for the previous year. [...] But these and other cotton farmers are not in a mood to listen. The price of cotton has fallen every year since 2003 when it was 210 CFA (US 42 cents, converted at the current rate). The industry, which counts for 60 percent of Burkina Faso's cash exports, provides more than a quarter of the 13 million people in one of the world's least developed countries, with some income.

2006-12-27 |

Allergen-free cats coming to market

It could be the perfect solution for a cat lover who sneezes and wheezes when a kitten comes too close -- a hypoallergenic pet guaranteed to leave its owner sneeze free. Researchers in the United States say the ultimate prize of the $35-billion pet industry is within reach: a cat that has been either selectively bred or genetically altered so it does not produce the allergens that trigger such misery in so many people.

2006-12-27 |

Scientists get OK to genetically engineer peanuts

A leading industry group has given scientists the go-ahead to build genetically engineered peanuts that could be safer, more nutritious and easier to grow than their conventional version. The work could lead to peanuts that yield more oil for biofuel production, need less rainfall and grow more efficiently, with built-in herbicide and pest resistance — traits that have already been engineered into major crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans and canola. [...] with the two leading peanut-producing countries, China and India, working aggressively on transgenic peanuts, the American Peanut Council and its research arm, the Peanut Foundation, this month approved a major policy change.

2006-12-27 |

NZ firm winning race to fight depression

A small New Zealand company says it is winning a worldwide race to extract a brain acid from algae which may provide a remedy for depression. Henderson-based Photonz, backed by The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, is producing micro-organisms which generate eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), one of the two omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids normally found in fish which eat the algae. [...] e Australian Government had put more than $10 million in the past year into a plan to genetically engineer terrestrial plants to produce EPA and DHA, and the European group BASF and academic groups in Europe, America and Australia were also working on it, he said.

2006-12-22 |

GMO brings back good insects in Philippine farms

Many of the "good guys" in the insect world are back in Philippine farms. In corn fields, particularly. Credit for this encouraging development goes mainly to genetically modified organisms (GMO), specifically the so-called Bt corn. Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium that naturally occurs in soil. Through biotechnology (genetic engineering) technique, a specific gene of Bt has been introduced or inserted in a corn variety. The Bt corn produces its natural pesticide against the Asian corn borer, one of the most destructive pests attacking corn in the Philippines and in other Asian countries.

2006-12-22 |

Wine industry leaders explore issues surrounding biotechnology and winegrapes, consider consumer reactions, regulatory issues

In July 2006, the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the American Vineyard Foundation held a workshop in San Francisco, CA examining issues relating to the potential adoption of biotechnology in the winegrape and wine industries. Over the course of the two-day event, grape growers, winemakers, grape and yeast research scientists, federal and state government representatives and agricultural commodity and specialty crop producers gathered to discuss the scientific, regulatory and marketing issues associated with the potential development of genetically engineered (GE) winegrapes.

2006-12-22 |

First GM-Free schools declared in Borjomi, Samtskhe-Javakheti Region, Georgia

On 12-13 December 2006 the Greens Movement of Georgia / Friends of the Earth – Georgia organized series of eco-seminars for schools of Borjomi town, Samtskhe-Javakheti Region on the issues of genetically modified organisms. After the eco-seminars the improvised action was arranged with the participation of pupils from all 6 schools of Borjomi town, which resulted with declaration of Borjomi schools GM-Free.

2006-12-22 |

Modify minds about GM

VICTORIANS are vastly uneducated and uninformed about gene technology issues and need a major campaign to bring them up to speed, according to a report tabled in State Parliament this week. [...] A panel of three senior Victorian experts and bureaucrats — former GHS Victoria boss Professor Bob Williamson, Equal Opportunity Commission chief executive Dr Diane Sisely, and Victoria's former Crown Counsel, Professor Peter Sallmann — recommended state and federal governments fund a major advertising campaign.

2006-12-22 |

JRC report weighs up economic benefits of GM crops

Growing genetically modified (GM) crops can bring farmers economic benefits. But these are made from savings on herbicides, pesticides and machinery, not from higher yields, as was previously thought, according to a new study by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) on the economic impact of GM crops worldwide. [...] Weighing up the economic impacts, the report finds that for some GM crops, the difference between their yield and that of conventional crops is almost negligible. A 2000 study of Delaware farmers in the US reported only a small increase in the crop yield of herbicide tolerance (Ht) soybean compared to traditional crops. In another sample, farmers growing Ht soybean reported that they spent on average €13 per hectare more on seeds than before. However, the yield of some other GM crops, like the pest resistant cotton (Bt), has been much higher than non-GM crops. The study refers to reports from China, India, Argentina and South Africa of yields from Bt cotton crops which are anything between 10% and 87% higher than conventional cotton. In Spain, farmers growing Bt maize reported that the average yield over three seasons was just under 5% higher than that from traditional crops.

2006-12-22 |

GM potato trials will go ahead despite location withdrawal

On-farm trials of genetically modified potatoes will go ahead in 2007 despite the withdrawal of the proposed site near Borrowash in Derbyshire. The farm owner had agreed to host the trial of chemical company BASF’s late blight resistant potatoes but he pulled out saying that he feared for his personal security. A spokesman for Derbyshire Police said the force was aware that the intense publicity surrounding the GM trial had made the farmer concerned about his family’s safety. Although, the spokesman said, it was understood that no specific threat had been made to the farmer.

2006-12-22 |

Syngenta to pay $1.5M fine to EPA

A company that sold and distributed seed corn containing an unregistered genetically engineered pesticide has agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The settlement between the EPA and Syngenta Seeds Inc. was filed Thursday with the Environmental Appeals Board, which must still approve the penalty, the EPA said in a news release. Syngenta voluntarily disclosed in 2004 that it may have unintentionally distributed the genetically modified corn, called Bt10, to the United States, Europe and South America.

2006-12-21 |

EU Environment Ministers vote against sound science

The EU's Environment Council has today delivered a blow to the prospects for growth
and jobs in Europe, according to EuropaBio. By backing Austria's illegal ban on the
cultivation of EU-approved GM crops, the Council has seriously damaged the
credibility of the regulatory system on which much of Europe's innovative and
industrial capacity relies, says the European biotechnology industry association.
Today’s vote denies Austrian farmers the freedom of choice and the possibility to
grow GM if they want to.
"At issue is whether scientific opinions are to be respected and whether decisionmaking
is to be rational in Europe", said Johan Vanhemelrijck, EuropaBio's Secretary
General.

2006-12-21 |

Mexican farmers fight transgenic foods

Farmers from 19 Mexican states began a campaign Friday to protect natural corn and beans from their transgenic counterparts. The National Farmers' Association (ANEC) says the goal is to recover arable land now neglected or given over to a different use. Their strategy includes assembling a network of companies that exclusively produce beans to seek commercial and industrial alternatives.

2006-12-21 |

Bon Appetit Management Company signs on to GE Policy Alliance

Taking a stand against the environmental destruction caused by genetically engineered foods, Bon Appetit Management Company has signed on to the Genetic Engineering Policy Alliance (www.gepolicyalliance.org), a network of organizations and individuals promoting precautionary policies on genetically engineered food and agriculture. Bon Appetit sees the unmediated proliferation of GE crops as potentially devastating to the environment and to non-GE farms, especially as little is known about the long-term effects of genetic engineering. In signing on to the Alliance, Bon Appetit pledges its support to the principles outlined in the Policy Platform and adds to its list of socially responsible business initiatives.

2006-12-20 |

Youth media for sustainable agriculture - GMOs in Vermont (USA)

GMOs in Vermont, a two part series of interviews, made by students from the Gailer School and Montpelier High School are the first products of our Youth Media for Sustainable Agriculture program. These videos are airing on Vermont Public Access stations around the state this summer and fall. Our objective in showing the videos is to strengthen local communities’ awareness and activism around issues of food safety and biotechnology.

2006-12-20 |

EFSA adopts opinion on Bayer GM crop

Europe's Food Safety Authority has ruled that a genetically-modified cotton plant, which can be used for food applications, presents no cause for concern. EFSA's GMO panel has now adopted an opinion on the application for the commercialisation of glufosinate-tolerant genetically modified LLCotton25. [...] The panel concluded by saying that LLCotton25 is unlikely to have any adverse effect on human and animal health or on the environment in the context of its intended uses.

2006-12-20 |

Farmers quit cotton despite WTO victory

The future loomed bright for Brazilian cotton growers after their government won a headline-grabbing victory at the World Trade Organization, which declared some U.S. cotton subsidies illegal. Backed by West African producers and the British charity Oxfam using American data, Brazil contended that billions in U.S. subsidies brought down international prices, thereby hurting Third World growers whose governments could not lavish cash incentives or price guarantees on their farmers, processors and exporters. The 2004 victory, repeated last year when the U.S. government's appeal was rejected, prompted speculation that all American cotton subsidies would end, devastating U.S. farmers who depend on price supports. Producers in Texas, the country's biggest cotton grower, would be hit particularly hard.

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