Planet Diversity World Congress on the Future of Food and Agriculture

Actualité

01.01.1970

Stunned U.S. government to appeal stem-cell ruling barring federal research funding

Stunned and disappointed Obama administration officials said on Tuesday they would appeal a federal court ruling that temporarily barred federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. [...] "This ruling should be appealed and I fully believe that it will be overturned. Embryonic stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans who are suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases, and it must be allowed to proceed," [Democratic Senator Tom] Harkin said in a statement.

01.01.1970

Judge's ruling ties up U.S. governmental funding for stem-cell research

A federal judge's decision temporarily blocking the Obama administration's rules on funding embryonic-stem-cell research marks the latest twist in a long-running battle over stem-cell policy. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction Monday, concluding that new federal guidelines violate a law barring federal money from projects that destroy human embryos and that a lawsuit filed by researchers challenging the rules is likely to succeed as it moves through the courts.

01.01.1970

President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences tells China to develop its own GM food

The Chinese consume millions of tons of genetically modified soybean oil every year without fuss despite the fact that attitudes toward GM food remain as divergent in the nation as they are in the rest of the world. China needs to step up agricultural innovation, including development of its own GM varieties, in response to climate change and to reduce reliance on foreign technologies, top agricultural experts and scientists told China Business Weekly last week.

01.01.1970

Post release monitoring protocol developed to keep tabs on the next generation of GE crops

With novel traits from first-generation transgenic crops now being discovered in the wild, notably in wild canola in Canada and the U.S., accurately estimating the environmental impact of these new crops is becoming increasingly important. The team of scientists - Hugh Beckie, Linda Hall, Marie-Josée Simard, Julia Leeson, and Christian Willenborg ? used drought tolerant canola as a model crop to develop their post release monitoring protocol.

01.01.1970

DuPont gains on 'Too Big For Britches' Monsanto as U.S. farmers switch seeds

Iowa farmer Tom Oswald says he used to prefer Monsanto Co.?s premium corn seeds because they ?yield like crazy.? That was before they became too expensive. [...] ?The aggressive prices drive your desire to see if someone else has got something, because you want to send a message,? Oswald said in an interview. Monsanto, the world?s largest seed maker, ?got a little too big for their britches,? he said.

01.01.1970

The Gates Foundation buys shares of Goldman Sachs and Monsanto

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took advantage of sagging stock prices in the second quarter to add Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the most storied names in finance, to its portfolio [...] The foundation, known for concentrating on vaccines and AIDS in its charitable work, also added Ecolab Inc. and Monsanto Co. to its portfolio.

01.01.1970

ECOWAS plans common regional biosafety regulation, Nigeria adopted Biosafety Bill

THE Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission is currently developing a common biosafety regulation in line with the national biosafety laws and regulations for the sub-region. [...] The Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Prof. Bamidele Solomon [...] also disclosed that the national biotechnology bill has been passed at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 to give legal backing to the agency and its operations.

01.01.1970

Very different approaches to food security

?Of the approximately 200 indigenous species of plants that were used by Kenyans as vegetables in the past, most were either collected in the wild, semi-cultivated or cultivated. Now many are either unknown or extinct,? Mary Abukutsa-Onyango said. In Kenya, a devastating cycle of drought and flood reflects the worst that climate change has to offer. These and other more insiduous impacts of warming temperatures threaten the health and survival of the nation's poorest and most at-risk inhabitants, namely women and children.

01.01.1970

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan shines the spotlight on what's caused an estimated 150,000 farmer suicides in India

An interview with Khan's about his new film, "Peepli Live," which explores the deadly consequences of India's shift to a neo-liberal economic model. [...] The vast majority of the world's second most populated country still farms for a living, but are caught between deep debt and the erratic nature of seasonal change. Lured by the promise of greater production, farmers are pressured into mortgaging their farms to purchase genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer from American companies like Monsanto.

01.01.1970

India doesn't need a Biotech Regulatory Authority but a Biosafety Protection Authority

Reacting to reports on the Cabinet clearance given to the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, members of the Coalition for a GM-Free India strongly reiterated that this Bill should be stopped in its tracks. Repeating that this Bill has a pro-industry, anti-people mandate to set up a clearing house for approving GMOs in our food and farming, they said that they would step up pressure on the Government of India to discard this 'wrong bill by the wrong people for the wrong reasons'.

01.01.1970

'Don't release new strain of Aedes mosquitoes' in Malaysia

A plan to release about 3,000 genetically modified Aedes mosquitoes into the environment may be just the weapon needed to curb the spread of the deadly dengue fever. The National Biosafety Board is studying the plan in view of the alarming number of lives lost in the country to the infectious disease. But the Third World Network, an independent non-profit international body involved in issues relating to development, has sounded a warning: don't jump the gun.

01.01.1970

Another (GMO) fish tale from Aqua Bounty

Aqua Bounty has been seeking FDA approval since 1996, and has repeatedly claimed approval was just around the corner. [...] Aqua Bounty has a history of over-promising and underperforming: projected sales of its shrimp feed additive were slated to be $370 million by 2010; in fact, total sales for all of the company?s products peaked at less than $800,000 in 2005. [...] the company?s future depends on FDA approval this year.

01.01.1970

Cloned meat may already have invaded our food supply, posing alarming health risks

And when AlterNet asked the USDA this week if cloned products are already in the food supply, a spokesman said the department was "not aware of an instance where product from an animal clone has entered the food supply" thanks to a "voluntary moratorium"-- but that offspring of clones, at the heart of the Europe scandal," are not clones and are therefore not included" in the voluntary moratorium.

01.01.1970

Genetically modified world: Part III - Beefed-up fish and drug-lactating livestock

With the advent of genetic modification (GM), we have become able to mold animals much more quickly and directly than ever before. While this technology has already proven to be quite useful and promises to be even more advantageous, it must be used with much caution and prudence. Since their creation over three decades ago, genetically modified animals have quickly found their way into many different fields. From their inception in research laboratories, where they continue to be used to this day to help solve basic biology questions, the farm industry seized hold of GM animals and by the early 1990s many fast-growing, disease-resistant livestock animals had already been created.

01.01.1970

U.S. groups oppose genetically engineered eucalyptus trees

Environmentalists are challenging the plans of a S.C.-based biotechnology firm to grow genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in the South, saying the fast-growing Australian species could spread uncontrollably. ArborGen LLC won federal permits in May to plant 330 acres of a eucalyptus hybrid in South Carolina and six other states. The test sites include Marlboro County, S.C., about 75 miles southeast of Charlotte.

01.01.1970

For food security, GM crops not the only route says Indian Environment Minister

For the first time since suspending Bt brinjal, a decision that pitted him against the biotech industry, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh shared a platform with the industry?s leaders who are seeking to reconnect with him. Ramesh, however, set the record straight: ?For food security, genetically modified crops are not the only route but they are an important component. The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill is a huge step forward for the integrity of environmental assessment process, safety, efficacy and public interest.?

01.01.1970

GM crops: The EC allows politics to trump science

The recent decision by the European commission to give its member states the power to ban genetically modified crops on a state-by-state and crop-by-crop basis means that the EC has failed science and failed itself. The EC plan announced in July is to give individual member states the freedom to "allow, restrict, or ban" the commercial cultivation of GM crops in their jurisdictions.

01.01.1970

Glyphosate resistant super weeds put U.S. Department of Agriculture on hotseat

?Farmers who expanded farm size are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to manage the larger operations now that additional time is required for weed management.? The U.S. Congress got an earful from farmers, university researchers and pro-food groups during the first round of hearings into the increase in super weeds, deemed so because some are becoming resistant to multiple modes of actions and families of chemistries used in popular herbicides.

01.01.1970

Canadian authorities investigate anonymous claim of imported cattle clones

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is investigating an anonymous claim that embryos from a cow bred from a cloned animal in Britain have been sold to breeders in Canada. [...] Officials from CFIA are investigating the claim to ensure that Canadian regulations are properly enforced. The investigation was triggered because no food products derived from genetically modified (GM) animals are approved for sale in Canada, including cloned animals.

01.01.1970

U.S. beet growers: USDA must act and prevent sugar supply issue

Duane Grant, chairman of the board at the Boise, Idaho-based Snake River Sugar Co., said if a solution can't be worked out to use the genetically modified seed, his company and its growers fear there isn't enough conventional seed to plant next year. The company produces about 20 percent of the nation's beet sugar. "There has been no incentive, no market, no demand for conventional seed since 2008 and we believe there is not enough conventional seed available for our growers to plant a full crop in 2011," he said.

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