Actualité
21.02.2007
Californian Valley rice farmers take a hard line
A splinter group of more than 200 Sacramento Valley rice farmers is claiming that even experimental plantings of genetically modified rice jeopardize key export markets. The group, Rice Producers of California, plans to release today a market study that documents the powerful opposition to such technology in several key export destinations: Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Turkey. While the study generally reinforces conventional wisdom about these markets, the fact that the group saw fit to commission a study at all illustrates the anxiety that many export-dependent farmers continue to feel about genetically modified crops.
21.02.2007
New Zealand’s Food Safety Minister seeks a Ministerial Council review of GM corn approval
A number of groups have raised concerns with Food Safety Minister Annette King about the proposed approval of genetically modified high lysine corn LY038, and as a result she has requested that the Ministerial Council seek a review of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) proposal to approve the corn.
20.02.2007
Cardinal Rosales urges Philippine President to ban ’Uncle Sam Rice’
Church leaders in Manila have asked the Philippine president’s intervention in sales of genetically engineered rice reportedly unsafe for consumption. In separate letters on Feb. 9 and 13, respectively, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila and Father Benito Tuazon, head of Manila archdiocese’s ecology desk, urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ban Uncle Sam Texas Long-Grain Rice, variety 9LLRice 601, from supermarkets.
20.02.2007
Tax payers’ money for ineffective Pharma peas: Genetic engineering scandal in Eastern Germany
The German Federal Ministry of Research and the State of Saxonia-Anhalt promote the development of ineffective pharma peas by the Eastern German biotech company Novoplant with a more than 1 million euro tax payers’ money. This is the outcome of the investigations of the Munich Environmental Institute. The genetically manipulated plants are to be cultivated this year in Gatersleben (Saxonia-Anhalt).
20.02.2007
Poland pledges to defend ban on genetically modified crops
Poland’s government will defend its ban on genetically modified foods against any European Union demands to allow the planting of biotech crops, Environment Minister Jan Szyszko said. ”Poland is to be free of food produced on the basis of genetically modified organisms,” Szyszko said at a news conference today, adding that a bill the government sent to parliament this week will maintain the current ban.
20.02.2007
Auckland Regional Council (New Zealand) adopts anti-GMO policy position
The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) today voted to oppose the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in field and food in the Auckland region. The Council does not, however, oppose creating GMOs in laboratories for medical purposes. ARC Regional Strategy and Planning Chair Paul Walbran says the Council adopted the policy in principle as a precautionary approach because there are significant uncertainties about GMOs, and issues that are yet to be understood and resolved.
20.02.2007
Coexistence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops in the Nordic countries
This report describes the status of adoption or preparation of regulation of coexistence between genetically modified (GM), conventional and organic crops in the Nordic countries by the end of 2006.
- Norden, Denmark (01.02.2007): Coexistence of genetically modified, conventional and organic crops in the Nordic countries
- Greenpeace International, Amsterdam (19.02.2007): New report shows 2006 was worst year ever for contamination of crops by rogue genetically engineered variants
- Daily Democrat, USA (19.02.2007): UC system on engineered crops
20.02.2007
Asia seen as next focus of agricultural biotech production
The next decade of research in crops improved by biotechnology will include a major role for the rapidly increasing number of projects in Asia, according to the head of a leading agricultural research institute. Countries in Asia increasingly are investing in agricultural biotechnology research aimed at helping them meet their growing needs for food, feed, fiber and fuel, said Clive James, chairman of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
19.02.2007
Montana State University (USA) wheat breeder discusses GE wheat
The idea for biotech, or genetically engineered, wheat was to develop a variety of wheat that is herbicide resistant. An international agriculture company developed such wheat and other commodity crops by infusing bacteria with genes that produces proteins resistant to Roundup, which kills essential plant proteins, said Talbert. [...] Unfortunately for this international company, the wheat customers didn’t buy the concept of using DNA to alter or modify wheat varieties. There is a bill in the Montana Legislature that makes it difficult for Montana producers to grow genetically engineered crops and making sure the company selling the wheat is liable for contaminant damages, said Talbert.
19.02.2007
Uruguay stops approval procedure for transgenic plants
Uruguay temporarily suspended the processing of new requests of authorization to introduce genetically modified plants. The measurement was established by means of a decree signed by president Tabaré Vázquez Monday 29 of January. According to the document, Uruguay is carrying out a process of revision and strengthening of its guidelines and policies on biotechnology.
19.02.2007
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (New Zealand) claim over GE cron
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) has tried to invoice a US seed supply company for the costs of a genetically engineered (GE) sweetcorn importation blunder, despite admitting its border procedures were not up to scratch.
19.02.2007
Americans enjoy GM food, why can’t Kuwaitis?, asks US official; USDA director co
”Americans are consuming GM foods which constitute a major part of their daily staple and are enjoying it and I see no reason why Kuwaitis should not be able to eat and enjoy them too,” says a visiting official of the US Department of Agriculture. Food derived from genetically modified (GM) plants is as safe as those produced from conventional sources, according to the Abu Dhabi-based Regional Director of the Agricultural Trade Office of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), David J. Williams Tuesday during a round table discussion with the press at the US Embassy in Bayan.
19.02.2007
Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha: study
A new study on the introduction of Bt cotton in Vidarbha reveals that it has failed in the region. Suman Sahai, Director of Gene Campaign, told journalists on Wednesday that despite specific knowledge that Bt cotton would not work in rainfed areas, the government had introduced it in Vidarbha. The result was that in an area with a history of indebtedness, the high input costs of Bt cotton had increased indebtedness. The study had shown that 70 per cent of small farmers had already lost their landholdings as collateral for loans that they could never repay.
19.02.2007
Secret Monsanto GM potato study suppressed for 8 years
A secret feeding study of Monsanto GM potatoes, conducted in 1998 by the Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and suppressed for 8 years, showed that the potatoes did considerable damage to the organs of the rats in the study (1) (2). In comparison the rats in the ”control groups” which were fed on normal potatoes or on a non-potato diet were healthier, and had much less organ and tissue damage. This research, fully supported by Monsanto through the provision of the GM potatoes, was conducted at approximately the same time as Arpad Pusztai’s research in the Rowett Institute.
16.02.2007
Philippine Cardinal Rosales joins calls vs GMO rice
Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has added his voice to the growing criticism of the government for allowing the sale of a genetically engineered US rice product in major supermarkets. In a letter dated February 9 that was released Wednesday, Rosales asked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to recall from the market Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice, which is being distributed by Purefeeds Inc. ”We believe that we should strongly oppose any experiment or attempt to use genetically engineered food that is not safe or good to the environment,” Rosales said.
16.02.2007
Agriculture Ministry is anesthezied – GE maize is threatening Romania
Today, 10 Greenpeace volunteers from Romania, Austria, Hungary and Poland have demonstrated in the yard of Ministy of Agriculture to show Minister Motreanu that Romania doesn’t need Monsanto’s GE maize MON810. Two banners with the »Save our maize from genetic pollution” and ”Domnule Motreanu - Slavati porumbul de contaminarea genetica” texts were showed by the volunteers in front of Minister’s balcony. The activists from Austria, Hungary, and Poland, countries where the GE maize MON810 maize has already been banned together with the ones from Romania have offered ten bags fully loaded with a local maize variety that is very efficient against the cornborer. The Minister’s representatives have also received an open letter from Greenpeace demanding to ban this maize also in Romania to protect environment, human health and to eliminate the risk of contamination with GE maize.
16.02.2007
MINFAL seeks approval for bio-tech cotton in Pakistan
The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MINFAL) has intensified its efforts to get approval for two varieties of the locally developed bio-tech (Bt) cotton from the Ministry of Environment as the country is expected to officially introduce Bt crops in the country this year, a senior government official told Daily Times. Independent agricultural experts, however, said that the concerned government authorities were proceeding slowly in introducing the new technology in farming as the regional countries including China and India were going well ahead of Pakistan.
16.02.2007
U.S. Congress proposes generic biotech drugs
U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday introduced bills that would clear the way for generic competition in biotech drugs — a health care shift that would save Missouri employers and patients $1.5 billion over 10 years, said one study. In Illinois, that savings would be nearly $3 billion over 10 years, according to the report set for release today by Express Scripts Inc., a Maryland Heights-based pharmacy-benefits manager. The national benefit over 10 years would be $71 billion. ”The dollars to be saved are really big — and probably even bigger than what we’ve put into this study,” which used conservative assumptions, said Steve Miller, Express Scripts’ chief medical officer.
16.02.2007
U.S. House panel approves ban on genetic tests for jobs, insurance
A House committee approved legislation to prevent discrimination by employers and insurers against people on the basis of genetic information. ”There is a clear need for us to pass a law to protect genetic information from discriminatory uses,” Representative George Miller, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said before today"s unanimous voice vote by the panel.
16.02.2007
Is growing Bt. cotton in India merely a fad?
or all the hype over the rapid adoption of Bt cottonseed in Warangal, a key cotton growing district of Andhra Pradesh known for suicides by farmers, a new study by a scholar of Washington University has found that the acceptability was nothing more than a fad. In his study published in the February issue of Current Anthropology, Glenn Davis Stone explores how the arrival of genetically modified crops has affected farmers in developing countries, taking Warangal, as an example.
