Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

Actualité

01.01.1970

Scion (New Zealand) to seek approval for new GE trees

State science company Scion Research is putting together an application for genetic engineering of forestry trees which it hopes will lead to traits such as faster-growing trees. The project - to involve as many as 4000 trees -- is expected to go to new organisms regulator the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) in the next few months.

01.01.1970

China?s grain reserves may be contaminated with GE rice

China?s national grain reserves may be polluted by genetically modified (GM) rice after tainted rice was discovered in Central China?s Hubei province, Greenpeace representatives warned on Tuesday. Lorena Luo, a food and agriculture specialist with non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace, said its monitors found three distinct GM-positive rice samples produced in 2007 by two grain processing companies in the Hubei capital of Wuhan.

01.01.1970

Transgenes from GE canola found in wild plant in Japan

A type of wild Cruciferae growing near a national highway in Mie Prefecture has been found to have genes of a genetically modified rapeseed, possibly a result of crossing between the wild plants and imported rapeseeds that had fallen during transportation, a survey by a civic group said Friday. [...] ?As the possibility that modified genes could spread among wildlife emerged, we are concerned that it could have an impact not only to farming products but also to ecosystems,? said Masaharu Kawata, a Yokkaichi University lecturer who was involved in the survey.

01.01.1970

Phantoms in the machine: GM corn spreads to Mexico

On September 18, 2001, the Mexican environment minister announced that his experts had done tests in 22 farming communities and found contaminated corn in 13 of them, with a level of contamination between 3 and 10 per cent. A few months later Ignacio Chapela and David Quist became a focus of attention, probably because of the reputation of Nature, which published their article in late November. When they?d submitted the article to the journal eight months earlier, the two scientists had received compliments on the quality of their study, and the article was sent to four reviewers, who approved it. But as a local paper, the East Bay Express, pointed out in May 2002: ?No one could have predicted the magnitude of the controversy to come.? The result was a veritable media lynching, largely organised from St Louis.

01.01.1970

Indian parliamentary panel studies pros and cons of GM food

Even as the fate of Bt brinjal hangs in balance, the parliamentary standing committee attached to the agriculture ministry has started examining the pros and cons of introducing genetically-modified food in India, with a panel of experts coming out in favour of setting up a regulatory mechanism to monitor their implications. [...] While stressing on the need to have a regulatory mechanism, the experts welcomed the new law seeking the setting up of the National Biotechnology Authority.

01.01.1970

Indian regulator rejects GM groundnut application

A transgenic groundnut?designed to tolerate dry weather and salinity, and being developed by University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad, Karnataka?hasn?t passed muster with the country?s genetic engineering approval committee. [...] The GM groundnut contained an unnecessary piece of DNA called gusA and ought not to be released into the environment, according to a statement on GEAC?s website.

01.01.1970

Monsanto believes GM foods will be accepted in India

Despite criticism and protests from different quarters in the country, global agricultural products company Monsanto is confident that GM (genetically modified) food will be accepted in the Indian market in the coming years. ?Yes, we know that some sections of the society are against GM food but we still support it. We are confident that GM foods will be widely accepted by the Indian society in the coming years and people will themselves go for them after realising their value,? Jyotsna Bhatnagar, sustainability director of Monsanto India, told IANS here Wednesday.

01.01.1970

GE crops make gains among U.S. farmers in 2010

American farmers continued planting more genetically engineered crops this year, surprising some industry experts who expected farmers to back away from some biotech crops amid complaints of high seed prices and reports of growing weed resistance. This spring the percentage of genetically engineered soy, corn and cotton rose, helping push total planting of all three crops up over last year and lifting soy to record-breaking levels and corn to near-record breaking levels.

01.01.1970

Glyphosate-resistant pigweed threatens Georgia (USA) cotton industry

?We?re talking survival, at least economically speaking, in some areas, because some growers aren?t going to survive this.? Several years ago, pigweed found the weakness and breached the defense that Georgia cotton growers used to control it. It now threatens to knock them out, or at least the ones who want to make money, says a University of Georgia weed expert.

01.01.1970

GE canola statement of shadow Agriculture Minister (Western Australia) sparks war of words

SHADOW Agriculture Minister Mick Murray has sparked another war of words over the price of Genetically Modified (GM) crops but probably returned from the battle wearing more scars than the targets he was firing bullets at. Mr Murray issued a media statement last week saying grain marketers had been forced to discount GM canola crops this year in an attempt to encourage buyers, despite prior warnings from the Labor Party.

01.01.1970

University of Arizona (USA) researchers engineer malaria-proof GE mosquito

Researchers at the University of Arizona have genetically engineered the first ?supermosquito? that is immune to malaria contracted by humans, a finding that could eventually help wipe out the deadly disease. Previous experiments by other scientists resulted in mosquitoes that were nearly immune to the parasite that causes human malaria. But to stop the spread of disease, scientists need insects that are 100 percent immune, said Michael Riehle, a UA professor who led the research.

01.01.1970

Protest action at the European Patent Office in Munich on patents for food

The coalition ?No-patents-on-seeds? is protesting today against the patenting of seeds, plants, animals and food at the European Patent Office in Munich. The occasion is the first hearing with regard to a fundamental decision on the nature of European patents. On the basis of patents granted on broccoli and tomatoes, and the food products made from them, the Patent Office will decide whether natural resources can continue to be claimed as ?inventions?.

01.01.1970

Phillipines will be the first in Asia to commercialize GE eggplant

The Philippines will become the first in Asia to commercialize the genetically modified fruit and shoot borer-resistant eggplant by 2011. This developed after the harvest of Bacillus thuringiensis eggplant, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, in a trial site in Pangasinan. [...] the Indian government has halted its commercial release due to lobbying from environmental groups. Bt eggplant will be the first GM vegetable to be released in the country.

01.01.1970

UK scientist leading GM crop test defends links to US biotech giant Monsanto

But as the scientist overseeing the first UK trials of a GM potato, Jones has found himself at the centre of a storm after anti-GM campaigners used social networking sites such as Twitter to highlight the close links between a company he founded, Mendel Biotechnology, and Monsanto. Mendel?s website states: ?Mendel?s most important customer and collaborator for our technology business is Monsanto, the leading agricultural biotechnology company in the world.?

01.01.1970

Kenyan varsities urged to do GMO research

Learning and research institutions have been challenged to take the lead and develop genetically modified seeds for commercial production of plants in the country. Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service Director for Plant Quarantine Station Abed Kagundu argued that such organisations enjoy public trust and they should therefore take up the challenge and come up with varieties that can enable the country to be food secure.

01.01.1970

Nigeria?s Minister of Science and Technology advocates biotechnology in agriculture

Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Muhammed Ka?oje Abubakar, has advocated the use of biotechnology in the agricultural sector to enhance scientific techniques in food production in the country. [...] He noted that biotechnology has the prospect of providing remedy for the intractable problem of food shortage through improved crop productivity.

01.01.1970

Africa?s Green Revolution ?needs indigenous tech approach?

?There has been a tendency to focus on applying international models of agricultural development without questioning their applicability to local circumstances,? says the ?Technology and Innovation Report 2010: Enhancing Food Security in Africa through Science, Technology and Innovation? released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

01.01.1970

Condemnation for COMESA?s draconian free trade policy on GMOs

The African Centre for Biosafety has been handed a document of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) titled ?Draft Policy Statements and Guidelines for commercial plantings of GMOs, Trade in GMOs and Emergency Food aid with GMO content.? The Policy intends to undermine and displace more than a decade?s worth of international, regional and national biosafety policies and legislation by usurping the policy space of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Biosafety Protocol), regional policies on food aid and the sovereign rights of COMESA member states.

01.01.1970

Syngenta and Bayer CropScience sign global cotton technology licensing agreement

Syngenta and Bayer CropScience have entered into a long-term business agreement relating to a key plant biotechnology trait. Under the agreement, Syngenta has granted Bayer CropScience a worldwide, non-exclusive license for use of VIPCOT TM insect control technology in cotton. The VIPCOT technology expresses two insecticidal proteins that are highly effective against a number of important cotton pests, including cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa zea) and tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens).

01.01.1970

Cash key for Pharming as it seeks to milk key drug from GE rabbits

Dutch biotech Pharming needs to tell investors quickly how it is going to fund the roll-out of its lead drug as its stock takes a battering despite a regulatory boost. Pharming?s risk profile improved sharply last week when its drug Ruconest, an angioedema drug derived from rabbit milk, was recommended for approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and shares jumped. But the stock has since fallen about 35 percent on worries about a possible share issue and convertible debt of 10.9 million euros which carries an early redemption option on Oct. 31.

Go to page: ← 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 →

NewsActualitéNachrichtenActualidad

Comité Local d'Organisation