Information about genetically modified crops, genetic engineering within the food industry, and community debates over the environmental and health concerns associated with genetic modification in agriculture.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan (Reuters) - Canadian farmers oppose the introduction of genetically modified wheat until market conditions change, a Canadian Wheat Board survey has found. In the CWB's annual survey of 1,300 Western Canadian farmers, only 9 percent said GMO wheat should be grown as soon as it's available, with the majority saying it shouldn't be grown until conditions are met such as proving benefits to farmers and demonstrating market demand. Nineteen percent said it should not be... Read Full Story
Wheat industry groups in the United States, Canada and Australia said May 14, 2009, they would work toward the objective of "synchronized commercialization of biotech traits in the wheat crop." This must be stopped. 1. Roundup Ready wheat will contaminate conventional and organic wheat and destroy the diversity and adaptability of locally-bred varieties critical to ensuring food supplies in regions across the globe. 2. The only genetic trait for which Monsanto has sought approval is... Read Full Story
Genetically-engineered crops and conventional crops would have to be grown in segregated areas to meet environmental concerns about transgenic farming in Europe, agricultural scientists said on Tuesday. The so-called Co-Extra report, a four-year research project funded by the European Commission, aims at giving expert guidance into the controversy over engineered crops in the European Union (EU). Given that fields in Europe are relatively small, and winds can spread pollen from transgenic... Read Full Story
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Monsanto Co <MON.N>, the world's biggest seed company, posted a 14 percent drop in quarterly earnings on Wednesday and said it planned a restructuring that would cut about 900 employees and separate its declining herbicide business. St. Louis-based Monsanto, a leader in development of genetically modified crops, said net income for the third quarter totaled $694 million, or $1.25 a share, falling from $811 million, or $1.45 a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average... Read Full Story
EPA approves complex engineered crop behind closed doors The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the most complex genetically engineered (GE) crop ever to enter the U.S. food supply, without notifying the public or inviting public comment. SmartStax, a variety of corn containing eight new genes—six for insect resistance and two for herbicide tolerance—is significantly different from the three-gene corn varieties that the agency previously approved. Monsanto and Dow Chemical... Read Full Story
Though the union government is still to give a go ahead to the introduction of genetically modified (GM) food crops, the scientists of Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) here are batting for them. Read Full Story
Not many chief executives show up on a YouTube video, squaring off with a feisty critic. Yet there you will find Monsanto MON CEO Hugh Grant, dishing out straight talk on global agriculture. On the video site, Grant tangles with agribusiness foe Michael Pollan at a Google-sponsored forum on world food production. When he's not debating on the Web, Grant is flying around the world to meet with government leaders and industry groups as well as farmers in developing countries. Whatever the... Read Full Story
US biotech giant Monsanto lost a court battle Tuesday against a move by Germany to outlaw a type of genetically modified maize manufactured by the firm seen as a danger to the environment. The administrative court in the central city of Brunswick denied the company an emergency injunction against the ban on MON 810 maize, which Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner introduced last month on environmental grounds. The court said the government had presented enough evidence that the maize... Read Full Story
On May 19th, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”[1] They called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling. AAEM’s position paper stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including... Read Full Story
It would be impossible to recall genetically modified mosquitoes or fish, or bee's once they're released into nature. They have created glow in the dark cats, and fish, where the damage of playing with DNA once done, and cannot be reversed when natural reproduction occurs. Much of the foods we eat have been genetically modified to withstand herbicides and pesticides, creating new organisms that never existed before. The GVT, and corporations which are allowing this to happen are changing... Read Full Story
