Actualité
01.01.1970
U.S. government subsidies for corn-based ethanol questioned
Congress finally is starting to recognize the high cost of filling up gas tanks with ethanol, the motor fuel made from corn. Billions of dollars in federal subsidies are on the chopping block. It?s about time. With the national debt soaring, the government needs to wean the biofuel industry from its dependence on federal subsidies. Biofuels have always sounded better during the Iowa caucuses than they have performed in reality.
01.01.1970
The race to make fuel out of algae poses risks as well as benefits
Before genetically modified strains are ready to debut in such ponds, however, regulators and researchers must answer a litany of questions about their potential environmental risks, said Al Darzins, a molecular biologist and principal group manager in bioenergy at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. ?I?m absolutely convinced that if you?re going to be using genetically modified algae in the future -- growing out in an open pond -- that before that happens on a very large scale there has to be some sort of risk assessment on what?s going to happen to the potential ecology,? he said.
01.01.1970
Exploring GE algae as fuel
The goal is nothing less than to create superalgae, highly efficient at converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into lipids and oils that can be sent to a refinery and made into diesel or jet fuel. ?We?ve probably engineered over 4,000 strains,? said Mike Mendez, a co-founder and vice president for technology at Sapphire Energy, the owner of the laboratory. ?My whole goal here at Sapphire is to domesticate algae, to make it a crop.? [...] Genetically engineered algae, whether in open ponds or enclosed bioreactors, are likely to be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency, which now regulates genetically engineered microbes under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
01.01.1970
U.S. GAO investigators say personalized DNA tests give bogus results
A government investigator told members of Congress on Thursday that personalized DNA tests claiming to predict certain inheritable diseases are misleading and offer little or no useful information. An undercover investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that four genetic testing companies delivered contradictory predictions based on the same person?s DNA. Investigators also found that test results often contradicted patients? actual medical histories.
- BusinessWeek, USA (22.07.2010): GAO investigators say DNA tests give bogus results
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, USA (22.07.2010): Direct-to-consumer genetic tests: Misleading test results are further complicated by deceptive marketing and other questionable practices
- U.S. Government Accountability Office, USA (22.07.2010): Undercover contact with direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies
01.01.1970
GM in the dock: US courts step in where safety regulators fail
Today GM Freeze published GM in the Dock, a series of three briefings examining a number of US court cases covering the legality of the authorisation of GM crops, the failure to protect farmers from contamination and the consolidation of corporate control in agricultural markets, as well as exposing how far the industry will go to protect itself against the public interest.
01.01.1970
A world without mosquitoes - so what?
Yet in many cases, scientists acknowledge that the ecological scar left by a missing mosquito would heal quickly as the niche was filled by other organisms. Life would continue as before - or even better. When it comes to the major disease vectors, ?it?s difficult to see what the downside would be to removal, except for collateral damage?, says insect ecologist Steven Juliano, of Illinois State University in Normal. A world without mosquitoes would be ?more secure for us?, says medical entomologist Carlos Brisola Marcondes from the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil.
01.01.1970
Bt brinjal needs much further testing in India
The details available in the public domain so far do not make for a thriller or the agro-apocalypse scenario that is getting people worked up from the Lok Sabha to the gram sabha level in India. So what is it about Bt brinjal that bothers the farmers, scientists, policy makers and the Bt crop producers alike? The one-word answer to that question is ?impact?. The impact of introducing a genetically modified food crop in the agro-ecosystem has neither been independently quantified nor calibrated.
01.01.1970
Indian cotton farmers opt for double-gene Bt technology
The widespread acceptability of Bt technology among India?s cotton farmers is a recognised reality today. This year, out of the total projected cotton area of 260-265 lakh acres, about 225 lakh acres would be sown under Bt hybrids/varieties. Considering that the latter figure stood at a mere 72,000 acres in 2002, it represents perhaps the most rapid rate of diffusion for any technology after the mobile phone.
01.01.1970
Alarming decline in farmland - ?High yielding, GM crops best answer? for Bangladesh
Agriculturists and economists yesterday suggested that Bangladesh makes the best use of recent scientific developments to boost productivity keeping in mind the adverse ecological impacts of technology. Expressing concern over the ever-increasing population and alarming decline rate of farmland, high yielding and genetically modified crops seemed to hold the best answer, they said.
01.01.1970
Unauthorised release of GM event NK603 in Irish conventional maize seed
On 3rd June 2010, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) informed the EPA of the unauthorised release of GM (genetically modified) event NK603 in conventional maize variety PR39T83. This release was subsequently confirmed by DAFF on 19th July 2010. The maize variety was supplied by Pioneer Hi-Bred Northern Europe and was in the process of being evaluated for cultivation and use under Irish farming conditions in DAFF small scale field trials.
01.01.1970
Province of Hubei (China) disputes claims on GE contamination of rice
HUBEI Province?s agricultural department yesterday denied an accusation by Greenpeace that its grain contained genetically modified products. The department said it had found no transgenic rice for sale nor seen it planted in Hubei. ?We think the accusation by Greenpeace is misinformed for news speculation,? the department said.
01.01.1970
Drought-tolerance: a learning challenge for poor farmers
Few aims have attracted as much attention and investment from private, public, academic and philanthropic sectors in recent years as drought tolerance (DT) in agriculture. In the past decade, more than US$1 billion has been spent on DT research and investment shows no signs of letting up. [...] All these prospective DT benefits not only hinge on transferring lab results to farmers? fields, but also on farmers being able to see these benefits for themselves - which may be particularly tricky for smallholder farmers.
01.01.1970
Syngenta abandons goal for 2010 earnings growth as inventories hurt prices
Syngenta AG, the world?s biggest maker of agriculture chemicals, said first-half profit declined 11 percent as burgeoning inventories of pesticides and crop-care products in North America hurt pricing. Net income fell to $1.25 billion, or $13.39 a share, from $1.4 billion, or $14.96 a share, a year earlier, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
01.01.1970
Ceres salt-tolerant trait could unlock millions more acres of marginal cropland
Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. announced today that it has developed a plant trait that could bring new life to millions of acres of abandoned or marginal cropland damaged by salts. Results in several crops, including switchgrass, have shown levels of salt tolerance not seen before. Ceres reported that its researchers tested the effects of very high salt concentrations and also seawater from the Pacific Ocean, which contains mixtures of salts in high-concentration, on improved energy grass varieties growing in its California greenhouses.
01.01.1970
Refuge-in-the-Bag field trials for Genuity SmartStax and Genuity VT Double PRO corn underway
Farmers across the United States are getting a first-hand look at Monsanto Company?s pipeline of corn, soybean and cotton technologies to help them increase yields, improve efficiencies and conserve resources at this summer?s Technology Showcase Tours sponsored by Genuity®. Among the research and development innovations drawing interest at the Midwestern showcases are Monsanto?s 5 percent refuge-in-the-bag (RIB) product concepts for Genuity® SmartStax? corn and Genuity® VT Double PRO? corn.
01.01.1970
Field audits for Bt corn growers in Ontario and Quebec
CropLife Canada, the organization representing Canada?s crop protection and biotech seed companies, is taking steps to ensure farmers are following recommendations for planting a ?refuge? of non-insect-resistant corn varieties. [...] a recent study that revealed only 61 per cent of farmers growing Bt corn are planting the recommended 20 per cent refuge area.
01.01.1970
Chile Transparency Council orders transgenic seeds? information be made public
The debate is finally over: early this month Chile?s Transparency Council unanimously ruled that the Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) has 15 days to publicize the names and locations of transgenic seed growers in Chile. Current law prevents the cultivation and exportation of transgenic crops from Chile, but not the cultivation and export of transgenic seeds.
01.01.1970
Icelandic GE barley company starts to work on organ construction
ORF Genetics is a growing Icelandic company [... growing] genetically-modified barley to produce medicine and cosmetics and is now also working on organ construction. ?We can become a big business by Icelandic standards before long,? managing director of ORF Genetics Björn Lárus Örvar told Fréttabladid. ?We are entering the medicine development market. We are in talks with Indian investors on launching an extensive project with us.?
01.01.1970
GE goats in Russia producing human milk substitute
Russian dairy goats can produce milk containing human protein. Several cubs with a human genome in their DNA were born at a farm in the Moscow region?s Shakhovsky district as part of a joint Russian-Belarus research project. Five years have passed since scientists from Russia and Belarus started experiments to obtain goat milk containing lactoferrin. This human breast milk element protects a baby from viruses and bacteria while its own immune system develops.
01.01.1970
Auckland University (New Zealand) aims to develop GE ?bio-pesticide?
The university?s in-house biological safety committee has approved the development of genetically engineered forms of the bacteria for research into how they kill insects, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) said today. The unusual insecticidal bacteria - known scientifically as Yersinia entomophaga - was discovered in a dead grass grub 14 years ago, and has since been shown to be able to kill butterflies and beetles two or three days after they have been infected.
