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Archive for the ‘GMO Africa Blog’ Category

My vision of biotech debate in 2008

Blogger Brandon Keim has made a very interesting post on the Wired Science blog. Entitled, “A New Year’s Resolution: Use Less Plastic,” the post lists wishes Brandon would like fulfilled in 2008. I must confess that as we leapt from 2007 to 2008 on Monday night, I never thought of cataloguing my wishes for the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Is there nothing good in GMOs?

Some anti-biotech activists, led by the environmental lobby group Greenpeace are urging France to execute a total ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Yes, a TOTAL BAN, which prompts me to ask, “You mean nothing good comes out of GMOs? This is a question I normally pose to GMOs critics. I regard as mischievous [...]

Indian scientists discover new biotech rice

I have just bumped onto this article about a new genetically modified rice whose water consumption is 20% less than that of conventional varieties. The rice has been developed by scientists from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, India.
The two researchers Aarati and Nataraja Karaba – I gather they’re a couple – inserted [...]

Developing countries’ interest in agri-biotech research encouraging

Two weeks ago in this blog, I applauded a group of scientists from South Africa for discovering a maize (corn) variety genetically modified to resist Maize Streak Virus (MSV). Their discovery was first reported by the ScienceDaily.com.
MSV is, perhaps, the second gravest threat facing maize farmers in Africa and elsewhere after the stem [...]

Studies don’t implicate GM crops in honeybees disappearance

Around April this year, a rumor mill somewhere churned out a charge that genetically modified (GM) crops were responsible for mass disappearances of honeybees. Code-named colony collapse disorder, the puzzle-story fast gained traction in the blogsphere and mainly web sites of anti-biotech groups such as the Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Organic Consumer Association [...]

Biotechnology giants in Oslo for food security conference

Agricultural experts from across the world have congregated in Oslo, Norway, to discuss the future of Africa’s agriculture, including agricultural biotechnology. They are strategizing on how to kick-start the African Green Revolution. Being envisaged is an agricultural renaissance in Africa along the lines of Norman Borlaug’s 1950s Green Revolution, which transformed dozens of Asian and [...]