Archive for November, 2007

Misleading and inacurate claims by Jeffrey Smith about GM crops exposed in The Weekly Times

Source: GMO Pundit
Date: November 29, 2007
A high profile book warning against GM crops is short on scientific credibility, says Peter Hunt.
Anti-GM campaigners rolled out “acclaimed” author Jeffrey Smith this month to fire some last-gasp shots at the Victorian and other state governments as they prepared to lift their bans on GM food crops.
Mr Smith’s book [...]

Some mischaracterizations of biotech sugar beets

Wired Science blog has published an article on biotech sugar beets, developed by biotech giant Monsanto( The article is a reaction to another one that recently appeared in the New York Times.) Its author, Brandon Keim, argues that the fact that resistance to genetically engineered sugar beets seems to have mellowed down in [...]

Next up for U.S. farmers: Genetically modified sugar beets

Source: International Herald Tribune
Author: Andrew Pollack
Date: November 28, 2007
LOS ANGELES: Each growing season, like many other sugar beet farmers bedeviled by weeds, Robert Green repeatedly and painstakingly applies herbicides in a process he compares to treating cancer with chemotherapy.
“You give small doses of products that might harm the crop, but it harms the weeds [...]

GM Bill introduced into Upper House

Source: ABC News
Date: November 28, 2007
The New South Wales Government has introduced a Bill into the Upper House to overturn the ban on the growing of genetically-modified (GM) crops.
Farmers have welcomed the legislation but green groups oppose it, saying the safety and contamination aspects of GM crops have not been properly explored. More….

Sphere: Related [...]

Onward to a new GM world order?

Source: Times of India
Author: Rashmee Roshan Lall
Date: November 28, 2007
LONDON: Britain’s chief scientific adviser has controversially called for the mass planting of genetically-modified crops in order to feed the world’s fastest-growing countries, India and China.
Sir David King, who steps down from his post after seven years, made a valedictory call to GM arms, stressing [...]

Round 2 for Biotech Beets

Source: New York Times
Date: November 26, 2007
Each growing season, like many other sugar beet farmers bedeviled by weeds, Robert Green repeatedly and painstakingly applies herbicides in a process he compares to treating cancer with chemotherapy.
Robert Green will plant the modified sugar beets on his farm in North Dakota next spring.
In his right hand, Duane Grant [...]

A flawed argument against GM crops

This week I revisit the relevance of GM crops to Africa’s agriculture. Two anti-biotech activists from South Africa prompt me to do so.
Andrew Taynton of South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE) and Dulcie Krige, a social scientist, claim GM crops aren’t the solution to food insecurity that bedevils Africa today. Writing in the [...]

‘Diesel’ tree pulls in investors

Date: November 22, 2007
Source: Daily Nation
Author: Isiah Esipisu
With the promise of a Sh1.3 billion investment in a commercial biodiesel development operation, Kenya could be on the way to reducing dependence on fossil fuels, writes ISAIAH ESIPISU
Jatropha — the much talked about shrub in the last two years, is just about to make [...]

India releases new biotechnology strategy

Date: November 22, 2007
Author: T.V. Padma
Source: SciDev.net
ndia has launched a national biotechnology development strategy focusing on biotechnology’s potential to provide long-term benefits for agriculture, health and the environment.
The strategy, issued by science minister Kapil Sibal this week (13 November), includes a target for the biotechnology industry to generate US$7 billion by 2012, and the revamping [...]

Row erupts in Italy over GM study results

Source: Food Navigator
Author: Laura Crowley
Date: November 16, 2007
Accusations have flown in Italy this week over the government’s alleged suppression of field trial results suggesting the benefits of two Monsanto Bt maize varieties.
Field trials were conducted on land owned by the University of Milan to determine the benefits of GM crops and the possible dangers they [...]