The GE Information Bulletin
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THE GE INFORMATION BULLETIN
An independent digest of widely-sourced information relevant to the GE Debate
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No. 37 September 2005
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IN THIS ISSUE: http://www.geinfo.org.nz/092005/bulletin37.html
> Kenya Stops Research On GM Maize
> Bt Cotton Ineffective Against Bollworm
> 'Secret' GM Milk Sale Attacked
> US Needs To Pay Attention To Customers
> GM Crops Research Pipeline Going Dry
> WA Seeks National GM Liability Laws
> Scientists Warn Of GM Superweed Risk
> Toxic 2ndry Metabolite Production In GM Potatoes
> Focus On Horizontal Gene Transfer
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Subscribe to the Bulletin, or download a PDF version of this Bulletin at http://www.GEinfo.org.nz
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Editorial
The Kenyan government stopped their first ever crop trial due to a pesticide application that threw the results of the trial into question. The agriculture secretary also cautioned scientists against succumbing to outside pressures that might undermine Kenyan standards and safety. Research is showing Indian GE cotton seeds to have problems with pesticide production, making them susceptible to insect attack, confirming NGO and farmer complaints. The journal Nature Reviews Microbiology has a special issue titled Focus on Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT). It attempts to summarise existing knowledge from several disciplines and help build a "holistic picture" of HGT and its effects. And a soybean industry expert is saying that the US will lose footing in the food-grade soy market unless it starts listening to customers rather than forcing GE crops on them.
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KENYA
STOPS RESEARCH ON GM MAIZE
Sunday Nation, August 28,
2005
(Kenya) The Government has terminated the first
ever GM maize experiments recently launched by the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute and an American firm,
Sygenta, and ordered the crop destroyed. A technician
sprayed the trial maize crop with a restricted chemical,
Furadan, which meant it could no longer be possible to tell
if it was the Bt maize or the chemical that would influence
results being examined. At the same time, local
bio-technology researchers have been cautioned against
succumbing to pressure from international organisations at
the expense of standards and safety. "We don't have an
enabling legal framework to fall back on should anything
nasty happen. [That] should be reason enough to be extra
vigilant in biosafety. Unfortunately, there's an emerging
tendency by our scientists yielding to pressure from
international collaborators pushing to secure approvals for
their projects faster, sidestepping procedures," Agriculture
secretary, Dr Wilson Songa said. Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/01.html
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BT
COTTON INEFFECTIVE AGAINST BOLLWORM
Financial Express,
August 1, 2005
(India) Research findings on Bt cotton
published in Current Science have placed the country's
regulatory authority, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
in the dock. A team of scientists from the Central Institute
of Cotton Research recently found that the resistant power
in cotton plant remains only for 110 days, after which the
crop can be exposed to bollworm attacks. The Cry1Ac level
declines as the plant grows and is found to drop below its
"lethal level" within 110 days after sowing. The study
further said that toxin expression [was] lowest in the ovary
of flowers and rinds of green bolls - the most favoured
sites of bollworm attack. "[It] means that the farmer has to
apply more chemical pesticides to save his crop. Already,
the cost of Bt cotton seeds are high and this incurs
additional costs on pesticides. Eventually, he lands up in
heavy debts," a researcher said. In the past three years of
commercial cultivation of Bt cotton, several other NGOs
conducted studies and came out with similar results. These
NGOs and farmers' organisations had cautioned GEAC to
withdraw approval to Bt cotton. Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/02.html
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'SECRET'
GM MILK SALE ATTACKED
Western Mail, August 27, 2005
(UK) Shoppers have sounded an emphatic "No" to GM milk,
which campaigners claim is "secretly" sold by major
supermarket stores. Greenpeace claims thousands of tonnes of
GM animal feed comes into UK ports each year to be used as
feed for dairy herds that supply all the major supermarkets.
"Given the choice, 97% of the thousands we have polled in
South Wales said they don't want it, which seems to be
pretty conclusive," Ben Ayliffe, a Greenpeace campaigner,
said. "GM in milk is something the supermarkets are quite
tight-lipped about... once we tell people, they are
genuinely shocked. Especially given all the reassurances
from supermarkets about GM food, they assume the same goes
for milk." The Welsh Consumer Council found almost 3/4 of
consumers said all food with GM ingredients should be
labelled as such even if they contain only a tiny amount.
Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/03.html
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US
NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO CUSTOMERS
Agri News, August
30, 2005 (USA) The United States needs to start listening
to its customers if it wants to remain a player in the
soybean export market, a soyfoods industry expert said.
Peter Golbitz, president of Soyatech, said the United
States' share of that market is decreasing because US
farmers aren't growing what the world's consumers want. He
said soybeans [are] the world's largest protein and oil
crop. If the US soybean industry wants to be a player, it
needs to invest in food-grade soybeans and adjust its
attitude. The US can no longer be the bully that tells other
nations what they have to buy. "There's really no excuse in
today's market not to give the consumer what he wants." The
crop changed dramatically in 1996 when US farmers began
planting Roundup Ready beans. Now, 86 percent of US soybeans
are genetically modified. Eight to 9 percent are food-grade
soybeans and 5 percent to 6 percent are feed and seed. If
any more GMO soybeans are grown, the United States will be
out of the food-grade market, Golbitz said, and may have to
import to meet US consumer demand. Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/04.html
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GM
CROPS RESEARCH PIPELINE GOING DRY
The Hindu Business
Line, August 21, 2005
(India) The bio-technology
industry says it has turned its focus on drought- resistant
and health providing GM crops. But world-wide data shows
that the pipeline of GM crops research is drying up. In the
US not a single petition has been filed for field trials
this year. According to the US Department of Agriculture,
there has been a slide since 1995 when 15 petitions were
filed. The lowest number of applications - five - were filed
in 2002 and things improved marginally during 2003 and 2004.
In Canada, confined research field trials of GM crops have
declined from 178 in 2000 to 64 in 2004. In the EU,
environmental release of GM crops has slid from 264 in 1997
to 68 in 2004. One reason for the loss of interest in
carrying out research in GM crops could be the length of
time taken to review the petitions by the authorities,
especially in the US. During 1995-99, the FDA took six
months to review a petition but between 2000 and 2004 [it]
was 13-14 months. Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/05.html
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WA
SEEKS NATIONAL GM LIABILITY LAWS ABC,
August 9, 2005
(Australia) Western Australia's Minister for Agriculture
Kim Chance says he would like to see national legislation
governing liability for GM contamination. The call comes
after preliminary test results in WA identified a small
amount of GM canola in non-GM canola. "The question of
liability laws is one that the pro-GM groups ought to
support as well. Properly constructed, it would give a
degree of legal certainly to both sides," he said. The issue
is set to widen, with th[is] discovery coming just weeks
after a similar incident in Victoria. Authorities believe
the source of the contamination could be from lines of
commercial seed sold to farmers all over Australia. Full
item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/06.html
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SCIENTISTS
WARN OF GM SUPERWEED RISK
The Guardian, August 18, 2005
(UK) Scientists have identified 15 weed species that are
resistant to a herbicide widely used on GM crops and are
warning farmers they may become a serious problem on "a
global scale," unless a strategy for dealing with them is
developed. Some of the most common weed species either have
some strains with a natural resistance to the widely used GM
herbicide glyphosate or have developed one. Writing in the
journal Outlooks on Pest Management, four scientists argue
there is a danger that by ignoring the threat these weeds
pose, farmers maybe giving them a huge advantage over other
plants which are killed by glyphosate. The paper says that
glyphosate has been used by farmers to kill off weeds for 30
years but since the 1990s, when GM crops were modified to
resist glyphosate, worldwide use has increased from 5,000
tonnes a year to more than 30,000 tonnes in 2002. "The
problem of glyphosate-resistant weeds is real, and farmers
have to realise that the continuous use of glyphosate
without alternative strategies will likely result in the
evolution of more glyphosate-resistant weeds." Full item:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/07.html
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TOXIC
2NDRY METABOLITE PRODUCTION IN GM POTATOES
J. Agric.
Food Chem., September 2, 2005
Potatoes produce a number
of toxic secondary metabolites. The development of GM potato
varieties has made it prudent to ascertain whether there may
be changes in the amounts or types of these secondary
metabolites either as a direct effect of the transgene or
due to its interactions with environmental variables.
Transgenic potato lines were exposed, along with
nontransgenic lines, to a range of biotic and abiotic
stresses and a range of environmental conditions in the
field and store. Significant differences were observed...
Research News:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/08.html
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FOCUS
ON HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER
Nature Reviews Microbiology
3, Vol 3 No 9; September 2005
Foreword: Barth F. Smets
& Tamar Barkay
The evidence indicates that HGT is a
central process in microbial activities that control our
health and the environment, and that it holds promise as a
tool for their improvement. Several scientific disciplines
are addressing HGT, each providing their unique perspective
and each using different approaches and methodologies -
evolutionary biology, molecular ecology and molecular
biology. With such distinct perspectives, conflicts are
bound to arise, but opportunities for synthesis are certain
to emerge. The ability to control harmful effects and to
enhance desired attributes of HGT depends on the integrated
understanding of HGT as a continuum and its integration
within an ecological framework. The goal of this Focus issue
is to present HGT from the perspective of these different
disciplines and to provide a path towards the construction
of a holistic picture of HGT and its effects on extant
microbial communities. Research News:
http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/092005/09.html
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