News
27.11.2008
Claims of GM canola contamination in Victoria (Australia)
Anti genetically modified food group, GM Cropwatch, claims to have found evidence of GM contamination from crops in Horsham, Victoria. GM Cropwatch’s Jessica Harrison says she has found GM canola plants heaped up on the roadside near Horsham, and that galahs were also seen feasting on GM canola last week. She says windrowed GM canola plants also blew off a farmers’ property and were strewn 75 metres across the road.
27.11.2008
Researchers win approval for GE onions in New Zealand
Crop and Food Research’s application to grow GE onions, spring onions, leeks and garlic at a 2.5ha secret site near Lincoln has been approved by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma). But the Crown research institute will be allowed to let only a small number of GE onions flower and produce seed, and those plants will have to be contained in double-layered cages to ensure pollinating insects and pollen cannot escape.
- Stuff, New Zealand (28.11.2008): Researchers win approval for GE crops
- Stuff, New Zealand (27.11.2008): GE onion trial gets green light
- TVNZ, New Zealand (27.11.2008): Scientists get go ahead for GE veges
- Environmental Risk Management Authority, New Zealand (27.11.2008): ERMA approves GM onion trial
- Scoop, New Zealand (14.11.2008): GE onions will end in tears
27.11.2008
Obama, like Bush, may be ag biotech ally
The agricultural biotechnology business could hardly have had a better friend than George W. Bush. [...] But there are clues President-elect Barack Obama could be an ally of the industry, too, especially in the effort to put biotech crops into widespread use in Africa. These hints come from both statements of policy and the type of people from whom he’s taking advice.
26.11.2008
Obama, like Bush, may be ag biotech ally
The agricultural biotechnology business could hardly have had a better friend than George W. Bush. But there are clues President-elect Barack Obama could be an ally of the industry, too, especially in the effort to put biotech crops into widespread use in Africa. These hints come from both statements of policy and the type of people from whom he's taking advice.
26.11.2008
From genes to farmers’ fields: Waterproof non-GE rice set to make waves in South Asia
”Waterproof’ versions of popular varieties of rice, which can withstand 2 weeks of complete submergence, have passed tests in farmers’ fields with flying colors. Several of these varieties are now close to official release by national and state seed certification agencies in Bangladesh and India, where farmers suffer major crop losses because of flooding of up to 4 million tons of rice per year. This is enough rice to feed 30 million people.
- International Rice Research Institute, Philippines (21.11.2008): From genes to farmers’ fields: Waterproof rice set to make waves in South Asia
- University of California - Davis, USA (20.11.2008): ’Waterproof’ rice varieties pass field tests in Bangladesh and India
- University of Alberta, Canada (20.11.2008): Rice research could bring famine relief
26.11.2008
Agricultural biotech a critical link to sustainability around the globe
”Biotechnology has saved the fruit and vegetable industry from destruction,” said Bomer-Lauritsen. [...] In U.S. agriculture, biotechnology is utilized in 86 percent of cotton, 92 percent of soybeans, and 80 percent of corn, Bomer-Lauritsen says. Corn yields have increased by 30 percent and soybean yields have climbed 17 percent over the last decade due to biotech and practices incorporated by farmers.
26.11.2008
Why GM is needed to fight world food crisis
It is still with us and not hard to find, from food prices in supermarkets worldwide to hunger in the Pacific, Asia and Africa. There were food riots in Africa and South-East Asia this year, and the crisis was linked to the fall of the Haitian government. Unless its causes are dealt with, it will worsen in the years to come. [...] When India switched to GM cotton, it increased productivity by 75pc in four years. It went from a net importer of cotton to the world’s second-largest exporter. None of us know if such gains will come from other crops, but ignoring the potential of genetic modification puts superstition ahead of science.
26.11.2008
Koreans breed purple non-GE anti-cancer corn
A research team at the Kangwon National University headed by Prof. Rhee Hae-ik on Sunday said they developed a purple strain of corn that is 10 times richer in anthocyanins, a natural pigment well known for its ability to prevent cancer, than ordinary varieties. [...] But Rhee said while the purple tomatoes were genetically modified -- genes of a different type of plant were inserted -- the newly developed corn was bred the traditional way.
26.11.2008
Gene identified as key to sorghum’s survival in toxic soils
Though many of the world’s acidic soils have aluminum levels that are toxic to food plants, subsistence farmers often depend on these soils to survive. ARS plant physiologist Leon Kochian has been a part of a multinational effort to find a gene in sorghum - a key food crop in Africa - to protect it against aluminum toxicity in acidic soils.
26.11.2008
FAO and EU launch non-GE virusfree cassava at 330,000 African smallholders
After years of massive crop losses caused by a devastating virus, farmers are harvesting healthy cassava - one of Africa’s principal foodstuffs - throughout the Great Lakes region, FAO announced today, hailing the achievement as a milestone in its ever stronger partnership with the European Union. By the last planting season, virus-free cassava planting material had been distributed to some 330 000 smallholders in countries struck by the virus - Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The improved crop now benefits a total of some 1.65 million people.
25.11.2008
Independent scientists determine Austrian GE maize study conclusions are flawed
On November 11, 2008, the Austrian Ministry of Health, Family and Youth released a report on three studies designed to assess the impact of GM corn on reproduction. [...] Doctors Lamb and DeSesso have both concluded that there are significant flaws in the study reporting and analysis which bring serious question to the validity of the findings. They agreed with Dr. Zentek that the results were inconsistent but concluded that there was no evidence of any adverse effects of the GM crop.
25.11.2008
Organs transplants from GE pigs could be a reality in less than a decade, claims Lord Winston
Lord Winston, the fertility expert at Imperial College London, is developing a genetically modified strain of pig that he believes could solve the shortage of organs for transplant patients. [...] Lord Winston said: ”We think we can produce transplantable organs within two or three years but then will need to carry out extensive tests. ”Within 10 years we think they could be available for hospitals.”
25.11.2008
Monsanto predicts GM crops coming to UK soon - when genuine benefits are can be shown
Monsanto’s head of external affairs, Colin Merritt, insists the biotech industry has learned its lessons from the past and is developing and marketing the next generation of GM products with the consumer very much in mind. [...] ”When there’s nothing obvious to show consumers as a benefit they don’t buy into it,” he admitted. But he believes that when ’genuine benefits’ are demonstrated consumers will ’buy into’ GM food, easing the path for new products.
25.11.2008
GMO’s in Europe - Greenpeace urges the EU to keep our food safe
On 4 December 2008, EU Environment ministers will take crucial decisions about the future of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). At the heart of the discussion are the measures that will be taken to reform the EU’s authorisation system for GMOs.
25.11.2008
3000 hectares of illegal GM corn in Poland
Despite a national ban, Polish farmers have bought and sown GM maize seed maize. According to the Polish maize producers’ organization, 320 hectares of GM maize were grown in 2007 and 3000 acres this year, a 10-fold increase in illegal plantings.
25.11.2008
Austrian ministry links GM corn to infertility
Consumption of genetically modified corn may lead to infertility, according to a new study commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, and carried out by Veterinary University Vienna. Results from a long-term feeding study with mice were interpreted as showing that consumption of a genetically modified corn developed by Monsanto (NK603 x MON810) led to lower fertility and body weight.
24.11.2008
Attorneys’ statements in U.S. tainted rice suit not unethical
A Lonoke County circuit judge said Monday he would not sanction attorneys for statements they made to the media in connection with a lawsuit over genetically modified rice. Lawyers for Stuttgart-based Riceland Foods Inc. asked Judge Phillip Whiteaker for a contempt finding against attorneys for a group of rice farmers who allege in a lawsuit that Riceland, the world’s largest miller and marketer of rice, contaminated the 2006 U.S. long-grain rice supply with unapproved, genetically modified rice.
24.11.2008
New True Food Guide launched in Australia
The Canola Edition of the True Food Guide for GE free shopping was launched today at Alex Herbert’s restaurant, Bird Cow Fish in Sydney. We were joined by Australian cooking icon Margaret Fulton and Carolyn Creswell of Carman’s Fine Food. Margaret Fulton, who had launched the first ever True Food Guide in 2002, heartily congratulated the ”green” companies – for first time, a majority of Australian food companies have committed to be GE-free, responding to growing consumer concern over the safety of eating GE food.
- Truefood Network, Australia (24.11.2008): New True Food Guide launched
- Weekly Times, Australia (24.11.2008): Farmers say GM scaremongering is irresponsible
- Stock Journal, Australia (24.11.2008): Farmers fight back at anti-GM campaign
- Farm Weekly, Australia (24.11.2008): True Food Guide misleading on GM: PGA
- The Australian, Australia (24.11.2008): Food guru Margaret Fulton likens genetically-modified food push to Adolf Hitler
24.11.2008
Overwhelming opposition to GE papaya in the USA
Organizations came together with scientists, businesses, organic farmers, bee keepers and others to oppose a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to allow the commercialization of genetically engineered papaya trees in Florida. Over 12,000 people opposed the commercialization while only 17 people submitted statements supporting the commercialization of GE papaya. The STOP GE Trees Campaign, which initiated the call for opposition, includes 137 organizations across the world that have united in the demand for a global ban on GE trees of all types.
24.11.2008
Critics gear up to challenge GEAC’s approval of GM crops in Indian Supreme Court
The critics of the transgenic technology in agriculture are gearing up to challenge the regulator’s decision in the Supreme Court for allowing limited field trial of several genetically modified (GM) food crops, including Monsanto India’s Hishell and 900M Gold corn hybrids.
