Actualité
30.05.2007
ERMA New Zealand places strict controls on GM Brassica test
The Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA New Zealand) has approved an application by the New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research to field test genetically-modified brassicas in the Lincoln region. However, ERMA New Zealand has included strict controls to manage the risk of GM material escaping from the site.
- Environmental Risk Management Authority, New Zealand (28.05.2007): ERMA New Zealand places strict controls on GM Brassica test
- The Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, New Zealand (28.05.2007): GE brassica decision lacks justification
- The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, New Zealand (28.05.2007): Sad day for New Zealand
- Greenpeace New Zealand, New Zealand (29.05.2007): GM trial risky, costly and pointless
30.05.2007
Burkina Faso delays production of genetically modified cotton
Burkina Faso has postponed until 2009 the start of genetically modified cotton production, a controversial process that the country?s authorities say is necessary to compete. ?We cannot produce the cotton this year on a large-scale, but certainly by 2009, after we have increased the number of transgenic seeds sufficient in quality and quantity in 2007 and 2008,? said Georges Yameogo, an official with Sofitex, Burkina?s textile and fibre company.
30.05.2007
US still bullying EU to market GMOs
New documents obtained by Friends of the Earth reveal that the United States continues to pressure the EU to market new genetically modified (GM) crops and foods, despite the World Trade Organisation"s recent verdict that the EU has a right to protect itself against GMOs. In an email exchange, US officials even insisted that the EU should steer clear of the term "GMOs" in order to minimize public opposition to its policies.
29.05.2007
BT seeds to gain half of India?s cotton area - trade body
The total area under cotton in India, the world?s third largest producer, may see little change in 2007/08, but genetically modified varieties would account for half of it, a trade body official said on Tuesday. Kishorilal Jhunjhunwala, president of the East India Cotton Association, told Reuters the crop had covered 9.1 million hectares in 2006/07, with good yield and prices. Thus, farmers would have little incentive to shift to any other crop now. ?Any kind of change in area will not be more than 5 percent down,? he told Reuters over the telephone.
29.05.2007
There?s a new, exciting story on the cotton campus. It?s called apomictic hybrid
In what could be an important breakthrough in agro-technology, scientists at the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) have been able to apply apomixis—a technique to develop cotton hybrids that behave virtually as varieties—enabling the farmers to replicate the seeds themselves. It promises an end to the costly hybrid bargain for cotton farmers before every sowing season, and if everything goes well, farmers using other crops will also benefit.
29.05.2007
Supreme Court upholds importance of biosafety
In the orders passed after the May 8th hearing in the GMOs PIL filed by Aruna Rodrigues and three others, the Supreme Court of India clearly upheld once again the importance of biosafety when it comes to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The Union of India applied for a vacation of the Court?s orders in September 2006 which directed the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the apex regulatory authority in India) ?to withhold (any) approvals till further directions are issued?. [...] All in all, despite some misleading and gloating headlines and editorials in several newspapers, the biotech industry and the GM regulators have an uphill task ahead in the coming year, having the Supreme Court, the state governments and various political parties holding them accountable, unlike in the past.
29.05.2007
The story of the basmati rice patent battle
In its wisdom, the US Patent Office in September 1997 judged the result, named basmati 867, sufficiently novel to grant it patent #5,663,484, entitled ?Basmati Rice Lines and Grains?, giving RiceTec exclusive rights to any basmati hybrid grown anywhere in the western hemisphere. Besides the highly questionable ?novelty? of the invention (cross-breeding has been practised for centuries, including by Punjabi farmers, who produced a variety of basmati rice), what is striking is the inequity and asymmetry of the approach.
By including basmati name into the patent definition, RiceTec could claim wide-ranging rights over a traditional name, for which it did not acknowledge the origin or the originality, let alone the copyright. The practical impact of RiceTec?s patent would be to jeopardise the prospects of Indian basmati rice suppliers seeking to export to the US and other western countries.
28.05.2007
Genetically modified crops survive weed-whacking herbicide
By splicing in a gene that allows crops to resist this plant-killer, farmers can apply it with abandon, cutting costs and reducing the need for tilling. But this success has sown the seeds of its own destruction by speeding the evolution of weeds—such as giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida)—into varieties that also have inborn resistance to the herbicide. Now researchers at the University of Nebraska have successfully modified crops to resist yet another herbicide—dicamba—that would eradicate the ?pernicious weeds,? researchers report in Science.
28.05.2007
GMO products spread in SADC - Study
GENETICALLY Modified Organism products and seed are fast spreading into most Southern African countries which lack the technological capacity to screen and detect GMOs, a new study has revealed. A preliminary GMO Spread Survey report done by the Biotechnology Trust of Zimbabwe in collaboration with the Community Technology Development Trust, Tobacco Research Board and other research institutes in Zambia, Namibia and Swaziland even shows areas where GM crops are suspected to be grown.
28.05.2007
Ignorance reigns as GMOs take root in Tanzania
There is need to create awareness about genetically-modified organisms because biotechnology is rapidly developing with more GMOs being released into the environment and causing risks to animal and human health. The remarks were made yesterday by the Director of Environment in the Vice President?s Office, Erick Mugurusi. ?Information should be availed to the public on GMOs that have been received or denied authorization into the country,? he said.
28.05.2007
Argentina is the land of plenty for new soya king
At 28, Santos is well on his way to achieving those goals, making him a lord of the pampas, literally master of all he surveys, and one of Argentina?s most eligible bachelors. His company owns more than 100,000 hectares of farmland in Argentina and Uruguay, is expanding into Brazil and has plans for Ukraine. The empire, however, is controversial -- it is built on soya. Fast-expanding soya plantations are blamed for the destruction of forests across South America, posing an even graver threat than logging. The outcry has led to the tabling of a ?forestry emergency? bill in Argentina?s lower house of Congress. It would usher in a one-year moratorium on deforestation and oblige all 23 provinces to control and protect the region?s biggest and most diverse eco-system outside Brazil.
28.05.2007
Genetic Modification laws too risky
NEW EMERGENCY powers that allow Australian authorities to fast-track the release of genetically modified organisms could pose unacceptable risks, say critics. According to a bill passed by the Senate this month, the Health Minister could hypothetically order the rapid approval of a GM vaccine to fend off a bird-flu pandemic, or a GM bacterium to ?eat? an oil spill. But critics are concerned emergency powers in the Gene Technology Amendment Bill 2007 could lead to inadequately tested GM organisms being released.
28.05.2007
WHO to ban genetic engineering of smallpox virus
The World Health Assembly has decided to ban genetic engineering experiments on the smallpox virus but postponed a decision on the destruction of the virus until 2010, when a ?major review? of the research results on smallpox will be held. This review is to assist the WHA in 2011 to reach a consensus on the timing of the destruction of the smallpox virus stocks.
28.05.2007
University of Queensland (Australia) receives funds to overcome sugercane"s resistance to GE
The Australian Research Council has given almost $1 million to the University of Queensland (UQ) for further research into making sugarcane more productive by modifying its genes. [...] But UQ Professor Robert Birch says sugarcane has so many different genes it can mysteriously turn some off - meaning the introduced ones do not work.
25.05.2007
Swiss National Fund excludes prominent researcher from risk assessment program on GE plants
The National Fund is going to assess the benefits and risks of GE plants. A renown researcher of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, ETH) will be left out. [...] If the winners of the moratorium initiative are as well of the opinion that the program is "balanced" is right now questionable - at least.
25.05.2007
Pollen-mediated gene flow from GE sorghum expected to be extensive
In their recent ISB News Report article about transgenic sorghum, Visarada and Kishore (2007) provide incomplete information about the likelihood that transgenes would spread to wild relatives of the crop. [...] However, by citing only a single reference ... they give the impression that crop-to-wild gene flow will not occur ... Contrary to this citation, many other studies show that pollen- and seed-mediated gene flow to wild and weedy relatives of sorghum is expected to be extensive ...
25.05.2007
South African research group receives grant to work on GE pharma crops
The plant biotechnology research group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has secured a multimillion-rand research grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to extend research into transgenic plants as a platform for the production of pharmaceuticals.
25.05.2007
CTNBio (Brazil) approves GM corn by force
Last Wednesday (05/16) the CNTBio approved the commercial release of Bayer?s GMO corn, by 17 votes to 5. But without recent changes the government made to the law, the approval would not have been possible as the number of necessary votes for an approval would have been 18. Now a simple majority of 14 out of 27 is enough.
25.05.2007
MON810 Bt maize: ?The variations are within a biologically explainable range.?
The Bt concentration in insect-resistant maize is not the same in every plant. Greenpeace has carried out measurements to check this and found that the Bt levels varied considerably. Greenpeace claims that the legal basis for the EU approval has not been fulfilled. Johannes Jehle of the Dienstleistungszentrum ländlicher Raum (DLR) in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse does not agree with either the results or the conclusions of the study.
25.05.2007
New risks to the environment? Confusion surrounds BVL notification in Germany
The sale of seed of the genetically modified maize variety MON810 is prohibited in Germany with immediate effect until such time as the producer, Monsanto, submits an up-to-date monitoring plan. This does not however affect maize already planted in this year?s cropping period. The official explanation for this decision is causing confusion: It states that new findings indicate that the cultivation of MON810 maize could harm the environment. While anti-genetic engineering associations called on agriculture minister Seehofer to ban MON810 maize immediately, scientists were puzzled by the sudden U-turn in the safety assessment.
