GENET news: Protein

05.12.2008

Environment ministers want reform of EU GMO authorisation system

EU environment ministers have called for assessing the long-term effects of GMOs on the environment, living organisms and health. They also encourage independent research by scientists on GMOs and access to information that is currently kept secret by agro-biotech companies. Ministers meeting at the Environment Council also urged the European Food Safety Authority, which is at the heart of all decisions taken in the EU on GMOs, to consider the environmental impact of herbicides spread over GM crops. They also said that pesticide-producing GM crops should be treated in the same way as chemical pesticides and recognised the right of regions and local communities to establish GM-free zones.

05.12.2008

UCD researcher honored for non-GE rice breakthrough

A University of California, Davis, geneticist is among three researchers being honored this week for their work in developing flood-tolerant rice. [...] Identifying the gene allowed plant breeders to use ”precision breeding” to create new rice varieties that could recover after severe flooding and ”produce abundant yields of high-quality grain,” the release states.

05.12.2008

Monsanto drought-resistant corn seen ready for the U.S. market by 2012

The St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. may be ready to commercialize a genetically modified corn seed that protects the plant from drought conditions in the U.S. as early as 2012, a company official said Wednesday. Brett Begemann, executive vice president of global commercial for Monsanto, told Dow Jones Newswires that different technologies for different regions of the world are being developed to make corn, soybean and cotton plants that can thrive in dry weather, but the U.S. will be the first commercial market.

05.12.2008

Bt-maize affects non-target crops negatively compared with unsprayed fields

Bt crops such as maize and cotton are genetically engineered to produce insect-specific toxins. They target specific insect pests, but the researchers wanted to determine how these crops influence non-target insects in the environment. [...] The researchers concluded that when it comes to killing non-target insects, no treatment at all has the least impact. Bt crops have considerably less impact on non-target insects than do conventional insecticides.

05.12.2008

Pakistan and China sign agriculture agreements to develop Bt cotton

Pakistan and China signed two agreements to co-operate in agriculture on Monday. The agreements were signed in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Chinese Bio-Technology (BT) Cotton and the Punjab Seed Corporation signed the first agreement. Under the agreement, the inventor and developer of gene of BT Cotton, Professor Gu, will soon visit Pakistan and start work on pest-resistant crops.

04.12.2008

Explosive advance of transgenics in Brazil

Lula´s government promotes genetically-modified organisms despite social opposition. Brazil is home to one of the world´s largest areas of genetically-modified seed cultivations with 15 million hectares in 2007. The greatest increase of these crops occurred under the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, despite growing opposition from Brazilian farmers and environmentalists.

04.12.2008

Lawlessness and loopholes for transgenics in Peru

Peru´s biosafety law dates back to 1999, but supplemental legislation was required to give authorities the power to supervise transgenic products in the country. [...] But the law has been at a standstill for nine years, and even now, some experts, citing contamination of genetically-modified corn seeds in other nations like Mexico, say it would fall short of its aim: to protect farmers and consumers.

04.12.2008

Native Mexican corn endangered through GE contamination

The potential effects of transgenic corn on the native species of this key crop have been a long-running debate in Mexico. [...] ”This issue was considered of great potential environmental importance, given that Mexico is a center of origin and diversity for maize and that maize is so intrinsically linked to Mexican culture, especially that of Mexican indigenous groups,” says a study by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America, entitled ”The Effects of Transgenic Maize in Mexico.”

03.12.2008

Philippine Cabinet officials back biotech use to boost food production

TWO Cabinet officials on Monday stressed the need to harness biotechnology for the country to boost food production, develop cheaper but effective medicines, and upgrade the production of commodities using higher-yielding crops with higher nutritional content. [...] ”If we do not use biotechnology for our benefit, we may just be left out by other governments and other societies that would harness it for their own good,” he told a group of scientists and biotechnology advocates.

03.12.2008

Cloned meat, ’Golden Rice’ among top-100 science projects in South Korea

Would anybody’s idea of a gourmet meal ever include a T-bone steak from cloned cattle? Genetic scientist Seong Hwan-hu from the Rural Development Administration (RDA) is certainly hoping that day will come, as he is as a pioneer in the cloning of ”hanwoo,” a native breed that is a popular source of prime beef in the country.

Go to page: ← 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 →

Home: GENET