Actualité
19.08.2008
Soybean farming in Argentina takes heavy toll on fragile lands
Family agriculture experts and environmental groups are warning about the severe social and environmental effects of soybean production, even as the price of soy soars on the international markets.
Soy is Argentina’s main export crop. Covering 16.6 million hectares, more than half the country’s cultivated land, soybeans, which command prices of around $600 a ton, are expanding at the expense of maize, wheat, citrus fruits and cattle ranching, among other farming activities.
This expansion is likely to continue after the recent repeal of the controversial hike in export taxes on soy adopted by the government in March. ”Soy is an example of the ’boom and bust’ model, much like fishing, mining or intensive logging,” said Jorge Cappato, of the Fundacion Proteger. ”An ecosystem is pressured beyond its limits, to generate enormous profits in the short term, at the cost of renewable natural resources.”
19.08.2008
Honduras embraces genetically modified crops
As governments search for solutions to the global food crisis, some are taking a second look at a controversial technology: genetic engineering. Many Third World countries have banned genetically modified crops. But Honduras now is encouraging farmers to plant them. Rodolfo Rubio, who grows corn and vegetables on about 50 acres near the city of Comayagua, needs no convincing. He’s an evangelist for the virtues of genetically altered corn.
19.08.2008
Ecuador can be a country free of transgenic organisms
Within the constitutional process that Ecuador is going through at the moment, one of the issues that has generated most discussion has been centred on food sovereignty and whether or not to ban genetically modified organisms. [...] Table 5 carried out a series of forums throughout the country, everywhere that the forums took place, peasant farmer organizations, indigenous groups, consumers groups and the general public asked for Ecuador to be declared free of transgenic organisms. To these calls others joined such as a working group on health and organisations that promote rural development. It is difficult to think of any other issue that has had such a high level of unanimity within society as the need to declare Ecuador free of transgenic organisms.
19.08.2008
Greenpeace demands Mexican ban on genetically modified corn
Greenpeace demanded Thursday that Mexico ban the planting of genetically modified corn, using a giant ear of corn covered with a condom to dramatize the idea of protecting native crops. Greenpeace activists protested against GM crops in front of the Agriculture and Ranching Secretariat in Mexico City. The group said that the Mexican grain can only be protected from contamination with a solid ”regime of special protection for corn” and criticized those who support the experimental sowing of GM corn in Mexico.
19.08.2008
Jefferson County (USA) farmers sue Bayer over genetically modified rice
Four Jefferson County residents and two farms have filed a lawsuit against several chemical companies and Riceland Foods, Inc., alleging they lost money because of genetically modified rice. Clay and Brenda Jeter, W.S. Jeter Sr., and Alan Erstine, and Jetco Farms and J&E Farms filed the lawsuit Thursday morning in Jefferson County Circuit Court against Bayer AG and a number of its subsidiaries, and Riceland Foods Inc., of Stuttgart, seeking damages for lost of income, damage to their property and equipment, including storage and transportation facilities.
19.08.2008
As GMO sugar beets sneak into the U.S. food supply, citizens fight back
All around the world, small groups of people are organizing public support for improved food safety and successfully challenging large corporations to change their behavior. That’s exactly what Flint Michigan residents Kathleen Kirby and Mark Fisher are banking on: their power to influence change. They’re participating in a nationwide consumer boycott of Kellogg’s Co. instigated by the Organic Consumers Association. By boycotting the world’s largest cereal company, they hope to pressure Kellogg’s into rejecting the use of sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets and to spark widespread market rejection in products ranging from cereal to baby food to candy. As you may know, Roundup Ready sugar beets are genetically altered to resist Monsanto’s toxic weed killer, Roundup, and its active ingredient, glyphosate.
19.08.2008
Monsanto looks to sell dairy hormone business
After struggling to gain consumer acceptance, Monsanto on Wednesday announced that it would try to sell its business of producing an artificial growth hormone for dairy cows. [...] The decision comes as more retailers, saying they are responding to consumer demand, are selling dairy products from cows not treated with the artificial hormone. Wal-Mart, Kroger and Publix are among the retailers that now sell house-brand milk from untreated cows. Almost all of the fresh milk sold by Dean Foods, the nation’s largest milk bottler, also comes from cows that were not treated with the artificial hormone, a spokeswoman said.
- The New York Times, USA (06.08.2008): Monsanto looks to sell dairy hormone business
- The Wall Street Journal, USA (07.08.2008): Monsanto to sell unit that 
makes dairy-cow hormone
- NutraIngredients, France (07.08.2008): Monsanto plots growth hormone exit
- Greenpeace Canada, Canada (08.08.2008): Good news for Canadian consumers: Monsanto is dropping a genetically engineered hormone for milk
- Food and Water Watch, USA (07.08.2008): Not even Monsanto wants rBGH
- Monsanto, USA (06.08.2008): Monsanto to pursue divestiture of POSILAC
- Chews Wise, USA (25.07.2008): Got (rBGH) milk? You may not know in Ohio
18.08.2008
South Korea bans cloning scientist Hwang from resuming stem cell research
South Korea will not approve the request by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk to resume human stem cell research, sources said July 31, 2008, a decision that could deal a blow to his efforts to recover honor by proving his ability to make a breakthrough in the field. Hwang, once considered a national hero, has been on trial since 2006 on charges of fraud and violation of bioethics laws after his team was found in January 2006 to have fabricated laboratory test results to claim success in his study. He was dismissed by his employer Seoul National University in the same year amid a global furor over his fabricated study results.
18.08.2008
Hexima shares jump in Sydney on DuPont seed development accord
Hexima Ltd., an Australian agricultural biotechnology company, rose by the most since first trading last year in Sydney after signing a corn seed development agreement with DuPont Co., the third-largest U.S. chemical maker. The Melbourne-based company will work with DuPont’s Pioneer unit to establish a commercial genetically modified corn product resistant to fungal diseases, Chairman Dan O’Brien said today in an interview at a commodities conference in Sydney.
18.08.2008
Agresearch (New Zealand) seeks new long term GE pharma animal approvals
The Government’s biggest science company, Agresearch, has asked regulators to approve a wide-ranging application to genetically engineer 18 different animals for commercial production of pharmaceuticals. The pastoral science company would develop in the laboratory cell-lines including humans and monkeys, E coli and yeast. Using these they would develop GE cows, buffalo, sheep, pigs, goats, llamas, alpacas, deer, and horses.
18.08.2008
Puppies of hero pit bull Booger are world's first commercial clones
South Korean biotechnologists have engineered a pet resurrection that, until recently, seemed commercially impossible: they have reunited a Californian woman with her dearest friend - or, at least, genetic copies derived from the frozen remains of his ear. More than £25,000 the poorer but weeping with joy, Bernann McKinney, 57, became the world’s first paying customer yesterday in the strange new industry of canine cloning.
18.08.2008
South Korea bans cloning scientist Hwang from resuming stem cell research
South Korea will not approve the request by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk to resume human stem cell research, sources said July 31, 2008, a decision that could deal a blow to his efforts to recover honor by proving his ability to make a breakthrough in the field. Hwang, once considered a national hero, has been on trial since 2006 on charges of fraud and violation of bioethics laws after his team was found in January 2006 to have fabricated laboratory test results to claim success in his study. He was dismissed by his employer Seoul National University in the same year amid a global furor over his fabricated study results.
18.08.2008
The future of biotech is in rabbits, says entrepreneur Johnny Stine
Rabbit antibodies have 1,000 times higher «affinity” than mice (they bind with their target on cells much more tightly and for longer). For the biotech business, that means rabbit-generated antibodies can be given in fewer shots, and at much lower doses, saving a bundle on manufacturing costs. And here’s the part that Stine says «blows people away.” With rabbits, he has developed a way to yield hundreds of antibody drug candidates in less than a month. By comparison, it can take several months for mouse methods to yield a single drug candidate, he says. He calls it BLAST (B-Lymphoblast Activation and Selection Technology).
18.08.2008
Biolex Therapeutics (USA) irrigates growth with $10.5M in debt capital
Biolex Therapeutics, a company developing hard-to-make proteins and optimized monoclonal antibodies via the aquatic Lemna plant, has secured a $10.5 million loan from Silicon Valley Bank and Oxford Finance Corp. The company says it will use the capital to help fund its pipeline of therapeutic candidates. Biolex raised more than $100 million in venture funding since its founding in 1997. It filed for an $80 million initial public offering of stock last year, but withdrew the IPO registration in February, citing ”unfavorable market conditions.”
18.08.2008
Amgen soars as new drug shows promise
Shares of Amgen Inc., which has a drug-manufacturing plant in West Greenwich, reached their highest point in more than a year yesterday, buoyed by positive study results on the company’s next possible blockbuster drug, the osteoporosis treatment denosumab. The stock hit $62.50 at one point during the trading session, marking more than a 12-percent jump and its highest level since May 2007. It closed up $6.56, or 12.2 percent, at $60.48, and rose a further $1.22 to $61.70 in after-hours trading. Second-quarter profit at Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company, slipped as a series of restructuring and other charges further stunted a second quarter already hit by a continued decline in anemia drug sales.
18.08.2008
U.S. institution cancels huge HIV vaccine study, calls for alternative concepts
In canceling the Partnership for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation (PAVE) study, which would have cost $63 million, Fauci also challenged researchers to come up with a ”lean and mean” alternative. Fauci, who lately has faced intense pressure from AIDS vaccine investigators to put more money into fundamental research (see p. 530), says so much confusion exists about what a vaccine should contain that proceeding with this particular vaccine was simply too dicey. ”Given the fuzziness of all this, I’m just not willing to go ahead with such an expensive trial.” Fauci encouraged researchers to design a smaller, cheaper clinical trial that would reveal whether the vaccine has sufficient promise to warrant a larger efficacy study.
01.08.2008
Genetic engineering can help solve food crisis: US expert
The assistant dean (office of research) of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois said: «By 2025, there will be a shortage of 400 billion tonnes of cereal grains that make up our staple diet.” Speaking to IANS here, Chassy said: «Biotechnology, more precisely genetic engineering, can be a part of the solution, if not a complete answer, to this problem. [...] Chassy does not think using genetically engineered seeds is at all complex for farmers. «Genetic farming is the easiest way to cultivate crops. All that farmers have to do is to plant the seeds and water them regularly. The genetically modified seeds are insect resistant, so there is no need to use huge amounts of pesticides.”
01.08.2008
Indian farmers shun GM for organic solutions
"My family was one of the first to stop using pesticides," says Sattemma, a lively Indian woman in her mid-40s, confidently talking to a group of visiting farmers. "Three years ago, we realised we were spending over half our income on chemicals. It was too much. We were getting into debt and the pesticides were making us ill." Sattemma is in the village of Lakshminayak Thanda in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The visitors are keen to know how she and other villagers are progressing after their decision to stop using pesticides and Bt cotton, the genetically modified variety manufactured by US biotechnology firm Monsanto.
01.08.2008
Will a genetically modified papaya seed help Indian farmers?
In the face of soaring global food prices, more and more countries are looking to genetically modified, or GM, crops as the solution to feeding their people. India itself took another step forward in the cultivation of these crops in October 2007: the Missouri-based global seed giant, Monsanto, donated technology to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, for developing a papaya resistant to the ringspot virus, which causes India's farmers heavy losses.
01.08.2008
Money for crop research just a drop in the bucket
A deadly wheat fungus known as stem rust is shriveling crops from Africa to the Middle East, threatening the breadbasket of Pakistan and India, and could eventually reach the United States. [...] Help now appears to be on the way. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation this spring promised $27 million to Cornell University to run an international research effort to thwart stem rust: a fungus borne by the wind, on clothing or in cargo holds that creates sores on wheat stems that blacken and wipe out once-healthy plants.
