Archive for December, 2007

Biotechnology driving U.S. farm growth

Source: South East Farm Press
Date: December 13, 2007
Though drought has robbed much of the profitability from farming in the Southeast, nationwide the agriculture industry is booming — much of that growth the result of new technology.
Nationwide farm equity has risen over $200 million per year for the past five years. The farm to debt ratio [...]

Both Sides Cite Science to Address Altered Corn

Source: New York Times
Author: ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Date: December 25, 2007
BRUSSELS — A proposal that Europe’s top environment official made last month, to ban the planting of a genetically modified corn strain, sets up a bitter war within the European Union, where politicians have done their best to dance around the issue.
Science advisers told the European official [...]

Academy endorses GM crops

Source: The Age
Author:  Jewel Topsfield
Date: December 17, 2007
GENETICALLY modified crops will play a critical role in alleviating malnutrition, combating climate change and removing allergens from food — and the technology must be embraced in Australia, according to Australia’s top scientists.
The prestigious Australian Academy of Science has released a statement strongly endorsing the controversial crops [...]

New study discounts GM crops gene flow theory

There has been an explosive debate on the effects of genetically modified (GM) crops on human health and the environment. Critics, especially the Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, have sought to cast GM crops as posing great threat to conventional farming methods. They contend that GM crops haven’t been tested enough and, therefore, threaten [...]

Food and fuel fight over crops

Source: The Nation
Date: December 16, 2007
Higher oil prices over the past few years have spurred the quest for alternative renewable sources of energy. One of the more attractive alternatives is ethanol, which can be produced from starch and sugar crops. The impact of this worldwide trend has led to growing competition between ethanol and [...]

Germany proposes GM approval overhaul

Source: Food Navigator
Date: December 16, 2007
The German agriculture minister has suggested that the EU make decisions to approve genetically-modified plants in Europe purely on the basis of science and do away with political voting on the matter.
GM approvals are incredibly slow in Europe, and at present are subjected to votes by the Council of [...]

Nature opens up its genome sequencing literature

Genetic Maize blog reports that the Nature Publishing Group(NPG), which publishes the Nature magazine and Nature journals, has “…opened up all paper reporting genome sequences to the public.”
In an editorial, NPG explains that under the ‘creative commons’ license, papers reporting full genome sequences will be freely available for non-commercial use. So, a nongovernmental organization working [...]

The Open Organism: Genetic Engineering in the Open Source Era

Source: Wired Science
Date: December 8, 2007
Author: Alexis Madrigal
Imagine being able to create a new drought-resistant plant as easily as you write a Facebook app.
The scenario is not as far-fetched as it might seem. The techniques of computer science and engineering are moving into biology, and their business/production models are coming with them. As we wrote [...]

Growing GM canola a smart move

Source: The Grapevine
Author: Dr. Adam Dimech
Date:  December 08, 2007
Last week, the State Government of Victoria announced that the four-year moratorium on the cultivation of genetically-modified (GM) canola would be lifted in early 2008. New South Wales has also announced that it will lift its ban. South Australia is expected to follow soon whilst Tasmania wants [...]