Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

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01.01.1970

A million acres of glyphosate-resistant weeds in Canada?

More than one million acres of Canadian farmland have glyphosate-resistant weeds growing on them, including 43,000 in Manitoba, according to an online survey of 2,028 farmers conducted by Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. based in Guelph, Ont. The shockingly high Canadian numbers met with skepticism from some experts who suggest farmers might be mistaking hard-to-kill weeds with glyphosate resistance. But others say the farmers are probably right. Even though there hasn?t been a single documented case of a glyphosate-resistant weed in Manitoba, the 281 Manitoba farmers surveyed said they believe there?s glyphosate-resistant kochia on 23,000 acres in this province.

01.01.1970

USDA to tackle 2,4-D-resistant engineered crops without needed regulations

It is encouraging that USDA will produce an Environmental Impact Statement for crops resistant to 2,4-D or dicamba. These crops, through the herbicides they are designed to use, have potential to cause substantial environmental and human harm, especially due to drift and volatility. Weed scientists have projected dramatically increased use of these herbicides, and herbicides in general, if these crops are approved. Dicamba and 2,4-D herbicides have been known to travel considerable distances from the fields where they are applied, harming fruit, vegetable and other crops, and natural areas that provide pollinators and other beneficial organisms for crops.

01.01.1970

Genetically modified foods: A 30-year history of promise still unrealized

I learned from Nature that work continues on genetically modified cassava, an important staple for the poor in tropical regions of the world, and that ?Golden Rice? with GM-driven beta carotene enrichment may clear its last regulatory hurdles next year. But rather more excitement seems to surround the work on a new stone-free plum that makes for cheaper processing, and a non-browning apple that can be sold pre-sliced. I would like to hope, with Nature?s editors, that our first 30 years? experience with GM foods might lead us to redirect our efforts in more helpful and less harmful ways. But making that shift is a social problem, not a scientific one, and it?s hard to see a new way forward from today?s messy middle ground.

01.01.1970

Swedish researchers busting the myths about GMOs in agriculture

It is now four decades since the first experiments with recombinant DNA that led to a brief voluntary moratorium. It is also about two decades since the first genetically modified plant was commercialised. [...] The precautionary measures taken at an early stage in these developments were justified by lack of knowledge about a new technology and our inability to predict its negative consequences for environment and society. In particular in Europe, this is the way biotechnology is often still discussed. We think it is time to dismiss three myths that are common in those discussions.

01.01.1970

USAID and Syngenta collaborate to improve global food security

The U.S. Agency for International Development today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Syngenta International AG to support agriculture and food security activities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Under this MOU, USAID and Syngenta will further collaborate in research and development and smallholder capacity building, working with key agriculture and food security partners including scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers and other donors. Syngenta and USAID already work together in many countries and will broaden their relationship through this MOU.

01.01.1970

U.S. tax dollars promote Monsanto?s GMO crops overseas reveals Food & Water Watch

U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for overseas lobbying that promotes controversial biotech crops developed by U.S.-based Monsanto Co and other seed makers, a report issued on Tuesday said. A review of 926 diplomatic cables of correspondence to and from the U.S. State Department and embassies in more than 100 countries found that State Department officials actively promoted the commercialization of specific biotech seeds, according to the report issued by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer protection group. The officials tried to quash public criticism of particular companies and facilitated negotiations between foreign governments and seed companies such as Monsanto over issues like patents and intellectual property, the report said.

01.01.1970

GE crop risk assessment challenges: An overview

The move to stacked varieties expressing multiple traits, coupled with the above changes in the intensity of chemical use required to bring GE crops to harvest, raises new questions about new routes of exposure and about cumulative levels of exposure to GE proteins, potential allergens and pesticides [...] These changes pose serious risk assessment challenges that are, for the most part, being ignored by the industry and regulatory authorities. New information is essential to convince regulators that they must invest substantially more public resources in the independent testing of GE crop safety.

01.01.1970

U.S. company run by high schoolers is trasmforming mosquitoes into a ?flying syringe?

Provita, a company staffed entirely by kids under 18, is working on a project (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry important vaccines. Joshua Meier, CEO of biotechnology company Provita Pharmaceuticals, spends about 20 hours a week on research projects in the various labs at his disposal. In January, the company gave a presentation to the FDA on its work with the flying syringe, a tool that uses mosquitoes as a vector to deliver vaccines to those who need them. Provita has also submitted a grant idea to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

01.01.1970

Genetically modified dragonflies can reduce harmful effects of carbon dioxide atmospheric build up

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in conjunction with the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University is proud to announce the Grand Prize Winner of the Searching for the Next Einstein contest. [...] This year?s winner is Charles Rose from London, Ontario for his BIG IDEA to genetically modify dragonflies which can help reduce the harmful effects of the Carbon Dioxide buildup in the atmosphere. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been associated with global warming and climate change and it may influence the plant ecology on earth, affecting not only the economy of nations but also all forms of wildlife.

01.01.1970

Dutch scientists engineer the $325,000 in vitro burger

As a gastronomic delicacy, the five-ounce hamburger that Mark Post has painstakingly created here surely will not turn any heads. But Dr. Post is hoping that it will change some minds. The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world - including potential sources of research funds - that so-called in-Vitro meat, or cultured meat, is a reality. ?Let?s make a proof of concept, and change the discussion from ?this is never going to work? to, ?well, we actually showed that it works, but now we need to get funding and work on it,? ? Dr. Post said in an interview last fall in his office at Maastricht University.

01.01.1970

Into the wildwood - GM chestnut may soon be liberated deliberately in the USA

The chestnut population of North America was reckoned then to have been about 4 billion trees. No longer. Axes and chainsaws must take a share of the blame. But the principal culprit is Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungus that causes chestnut blight. In the late 19th century, some infected saplings from Asia brought C. parasitica to North America. By 1950 the chestnut was little more than a memory in most parts of the continent. [...] Until now, the genetic modification of trees has had strictly commercial aims: speeding up the growth and extending the environmental tolerance of species intended for plantations. [...] The Forest Health Initiative?s goal, though, is to heal wild forests, not hurt them. If its experiments do produce a strain of chestnut that could do the job, it will be interesting to see how enthusiastically greens embrace it.

01.01.1970

U.S. biohackers are kickstarting some unregulated experiments with GE trees

You may have heard of Kickstarter -- the darling crowdfunding site where artists, designers, moviemakers, and others pitch pet projects to an online funder audience. [...] Generally Kickstarter projects promote such innocuous products as comic books, and sensibly, Kickstarter even has its own ethical limits on what it will host: Guns, drugs, and porn are forbidden for obvious reasons. [...] But as reported this week three biohackers from California have hijacked the Kickstarter machinery [and] made Kickstarter the conduit for a nationwide release of untested, unregulated and unmonitored bioengineered organisms by mounting a Kickstarter funding project to use Synthetic Biology to engineer glow-in-the-dark plants.

01.01.1970

Azerbaijan conducts large-scale monitoring of products containing GMO

Large-scale monitoring of the products containing Genetically Modified Organisms will be conducted in Azerbaijan this month, director of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Institute of Genetic Resources, Zeynal Akberov told APA. He said monitoring to be jointly conducted in 5 directions by the ANAS, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents will cover two stages. During the initial monitoring, sown areas will be inspected and samples of some products will be analyzed in the laboratory at the second stage. The results of the research will be submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers.

01.01.1970

Homemakers United Foundation (Taiwan) wants removal of GM soybean items from schools

The Homemakers United Foundation (HUF) started a petition yesterday to demand all schools remove items made with genetically modified soybeans from their lunch menus and replace them with options made with food-grade soybean. The HUF urged parents to write letters to schools requesting the removal of GM soybeans from school lunches to avoid putting students at risk of the potential problems resulting from consuming GM foods. According to the HUF, over 90 percent of the soybeans imported annually are GM, and many countries do not allow these to be used as an ingredient in foods for human consumption.

01.01.1970

South African Nestlé baby food shuns GMOs, Purity GM baby food not

The African Centre for Biosafety has today released results of tests conducted on 7 baby formulas and cereals, by an independent and accredited GM testing laboratory. The results reveal that Purity baby cereals contain extremely high levels of GM content whereas Nestlé?s infant formulas and cereal indicate that Nestlé appears to be going GM free. Aspen?s infant formulas also indicate GM avoidance. Shockingly, comparisons also reveal that Purity?s GM baby cereals cost 250% more than non-GM cereals, exploding the myth that GM free food is an expensive and impractical luxury.

01.01.1970

UK supermarkets accused of caving in to cartels and GM food giants

Britain?s supermarket giants have been accused of caving in to the genetic modification lobby by dropping their decade-long stance against selling chickens fed on genetically modified crops. The move has been seen as a key victory for GM food giants such as Monsanto [and] as a precursor to the introduction of GM meat and poultry by ?softening up? consumer resistance to the controversial technology. [?..] non-GM feed producers in Brazil, a major source of animal feed to the UK, expressed surprise at the claims, saying they were producing record amounts of animal feed.

01.01.1970

European Patent on conventionally bred ?red hot chili peppers?

The European Patent Office has done it again. Yesterday they granted a patent on pepper plants, such as chili, derived from conventional breeding (EP2140023). The patent covers the plants, fruits and seeds and even claims the growing and harvesting of the plants as an invention. The patent was granted despite the fact that the European Parliament and the German Parliament have asked the EPO to stop these patents, and over 2 million people have signed an online petition against patents on conventionally-bred seeds. There are two precedent cases pending at the EPO waiting for a final decision for over five years. No Patents on Seeds! is urging the Member States of the EPO to become actively involved in order to stop the EPO from granting further patents on plants and animals.

01.01.1970

U.S. Supreme Court rules for Monsanto in patent case on GE seed replication

The Supreme Court said Monday that an Indiana farmer violated Monsanto Co.?s patents on soybean seeds resistant to its weed-killer by growing the beans without buying new seeds from the corporation. The justices unanimously rejected the farmer?s argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company?s Roundup herbicide. While Monsanto won this case, the court refused to make a sweeping decision that would cover other self-replicating technologies like DNA molecules and nanotechnologies, leaving that for another day. Businesses and researchers had been closely watching this case in hopes of getting guidance on patents, but Justice Elena Kagan said the court?s holding Monday only ?addresses the situation before us.?

01.01.1970

Simplot (USA) announces low-acrylamide and anti-browning GE potato

Simplot argues that its new Innate-brand potatoes, which mix genes of five potato varieties, are pretty much like the old. ?Innate potatoes provide no adverse impacts to human health, other (crops) or the environment, because they contain only potato DNA and are grown just like regular, cultivated potatoes,? Simplot spokesman Doug Cole told the Idaho Statesman. [...] Simplot says the potatoes reduce bruising and lower potential for cooked potatoes to carry acrylamide, a human neurotoxin and potential carcinogen that can appear in potatoes and other starchy foods cooked at high temperatures. The modified potatoes also have fewer reducing sugars, which cause browning in cut and cooked potatoes. ?Innate potatoes will not turn brown after being cut for many days until they dry out and degrade naturally, while normal potatoes often begin to turn brown within 10 minutes,? said Haven Baker, Simplot vice president of plant sciences

01.01.1970

Non-browning GMO apples may be deregulated in tghe USA by the end of 2013

If approved, two varieties of apple, Arctic Granny Smith and Arctic Golden Delicious, will be the second GM fruits allowed into the U.S. food supply. Created by Okanagan Specialty Fruits in British Columbia, Canada, Arctic apples do not bruise or brown when sliced. Browning in apples and potatoes results from polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that produces melanin, a compound that contains iron and gives cells a brown tint. To create Arctic apples, Okanagan scientists silenced the apples? PPO genes by inserting a man-made gene that contains portions of four natural PPO genes. As a consequence, Arctic apples produce less than ten percent of the PPO produced by conventional apples and therefore do not brown when sliced.

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