Each week news articles are selected from the news that pertain to agriculture, food, biotechnology and related issues.

MAR 2, 2010 - Commission announces upcoming proposal on choice for Member States to cultivate or not GMO's and approves 5 decisions on GMO's - European Commission Press Release
Commission announces upcoming proposal on choice for Member States to cultivate or not GMO's and approves 5 decisions on GMO's. MORE

FEB 16, 2010 - Biotech firm launches new fuel enzyme - Yahoo News
A Danish biotechnology company on Tuesday launched a new enzyme which it said will make it possible to turn agricultural waste into biofuel at a competitive price. The breakthrough will allow the biofuel industry to produce cellulosic ethanol for less than two US dollars per gallon (around 37 euro cents per litre), Novozymes said in a statement. MORE

FEB 12, 2010 - Scientists slam key study behind Bt brinjal ban - Hindustan Times
A vital study cited by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to justify his decision to disallow the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in India is flawed, claim top European scientists. MORE

FEB 12, 2010 - Sweeping changes in agriculture needed as world warms and grows - One India
A group of prestigious scientists has warned that the looming threats of global climate change and population growth call for sweeping changes in agriculture. MORE

FEB 10, 2010 - CBS report on antibiotic use in animal agriculture not factual, says AZFB - AZ Rural Times
Yesterday, CBS News producers created a special report on the use of antibiotics in livestock production. The piece, reported by Evening News anchor Katie Couric, is not a factual representation of the scientific, safe and careful use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. MORE

FEB 9, 2010 - India puts on hold first GM food crop on safety grounds - BBC News
India has deferred the commercial cultivation of what would have been its first genetically modified (GM) vegetable crop due to safety concerns. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said more studies were needed to ensure genetically modified aubergines were safe for consumers and the environment. MORE

FEB 2, 2010 - Board votes to regulate commercial GE crops - Lake County Record Bee
The Lake County Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted the recommendation Tuesday to regulate commercial genetically engineered crops through a registration process. MORE

FEB 2, 2010 - Fighting HIV in developing countries -- with tobacco - The Guardian
Fighting HIV with tobacco doesn't sound like something a doctor would normally recommend. Condoms and/or abstinence are the two standardly recommended methods of avoiding infection, but both clearly have inherent drawbacks. MORE

FEB 1, 2010 - Beet Case Continues in Court - Nebraska Farmer
Sugar beet limbo is over for producers in the Nebraska Panhandle and across the country, at least for the 2010 crop. Producers will be able be able to plant Roundup Ready sugar beets this spring while legal maneuvering over the biotech seed winds its way through the courts. MORE

JAN 30, 2010 - Q&A with Roger Beachy - Nature Biotechnology
Plant scientist Roger Beachy has joined the Obama administration to lead the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the new research funding arm of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Beachy, whose research led to the first transgenic crop, was previously the long-time head of the not-for-profit Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis. Emily Waltz talks to Beachy about his plans for the new agency. MORE

JAN 29, 2010 - First Genetic Modification Case to Go Before Supreme Court - Epoch Times
Genetic modification food giant Monsanto and a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group are set to take the battle over genetically engineered foods to court. This week, the Supreme Court decided to hear a case over Monsanto's genetically-engineered alfalfa sprouts designed to be resistant to the Monsanto herbicide Roundup. MORE

JAN 22, 2010 - Feeding Future Populations with Nutritionally Complete Crops - ISB News Report
Imagine a world in which no one goes hungry and no one is malnourished. It sounds too much to hope for when we look around the real world and see that up to half the population lacks access to a balanced diet. MORE

JAN 21, 2010 - Bt brinjal divides science & health ministers - India Today
Minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi has opposed Bt brinjal. He, however, expressed his views as a Member of Parliament and not as a minister. "Bt brinjal needs lots of discussion and research," Trivedi said. He plans to take up the issue within his ministry. MORE

JAN 13, 2010 - Organic farmers must embrace GM crops if we are to feed the world, says scientist - Times Online (UK)
The organic movement should overcome its hostility to genetically modified crops and embrace the contribution that they can make to sustainable farming, one of the world’s leading agricultural scientists has told The Times. MORE

JAN 11, 2010 - Non-GMO label getting a local push by Lundberg Family Farms - Chico Enterprise Record
Over the past two years, Lundberg Family Farms, which produces organic rice products, and others in the organic industry have created a new labeling system and verification process to label foods as "non-GMO." MORE

JAN 11, 2010 - Safety of GM Sugar Beets Subject of Hearing - Food Safety News
Could a federal judge in San Francisco who has already found the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lacking when it comes to making sure genetically modified sugar beets are safe end up blocking planting of Roundup Ready sugar beets this spring? MORE

DEC 22, 2009 - UA researcher says crop pests abroad resistant to controls - Arizona Daily Star
A UA researcher says pests that destroy corn and cotton have developed resistance to the most effective and benign method to kill them. Bruce Tabashnik, University of Arizona research entomologist, said resistance does not pose an immediate threat to the vast acreages of Bt corn and cotton grown with genetically introduced Bt toxins, but argues for continued monitoring. MORE

DEC 18, 2009 - Flexible management better for coexistence of GM and non-GM crops - Checkbiotech.org
Flexible measures, such as pollen barriers, for regulating the cultivation of GM and non-GM crops in the same landscape are more likely to encourage the adoption of GM technology by farmers than rigid measures, such as isolation distances, according to a recent study. MORE

DEC 17, 2009 - Go green, go biotech, says university study - Western Producer (Canada)
Social activist groups and non-governmental organizations are expressing concern that climate negotiators in Copenhagen are embracing flawed technologies as solutions to the world’s climate woes. MORE

DEC 8, 2009 - Ag Groups File Supreme Court Brief in Biotech Alfalfa Case - Voice of Agriculture
Lower courts failed to adequately consider the mountains of evidence that prove biotech alfalfa is safe, and thus those courts abandoned a well-established legal principle when they banned the planting of the crop. That is just one of the points supporting a request for the United States Supreme Court to review a case related to biotech alfalfa, according to a brief filed by several groups. MORE

DEC 7, 2009 - Genetically modified rice leads to ruling against Bayer CropScience - Triangle Business Journal
A St. Louis jury on Friday found Research Triangle Park-based Bayer CropScience responsible for traces of genetically modified rice that was released into the U.S. rice supply in 2006. MORE

DEC 3, 2009 - Bugs engineered to make biofuels - Public Radio International
Genetically modified microbes engineered to make fuels, like ethanol and diesel, are creating a lot of buzz in biofuels. MORE

NOV 29, 2009 - Monsanto's dominance draws antitrust inquiry - Washington Post
The vast majority of the nation's two primary crops grow from seeds genetically altered according to Monsanto company patents. Ninety-three percent of soybeans. Eighty percent of corn. MORE

NOV 21, 2009 - Origin Agritech announces final approval of world's first genetically modified phytase corn - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
Origin Agritech Limited (NASDAQ GS: SEED) (“Origin”), a leading technology-focused supplier of crop seeds and agri-biotech research in China, today announced it has received the Bio-safety Certificate from the Ministry of Agriculture as a final approval for commercial approval of the world’s first genetically modified phytase corn. Origin’s phytase corn is the first transgenic corn to officially introduce the next generation of corn product approved and sold commercially into the domestic marketplace. MORE

NOV 19, 2009 - The Ethics of Selling Crop Seed - Checkbiotech.org
The four earliest commercial biotech crops commercialized in 1995/1996 were squash (virus resistant), corn (insect resistant), potatoes (insect resistant), and soybeans (herbicide tolerant). For the squash, corn and potatoes, commercialization was straight forward because it was already standard practice for farmers to buy new seed (tuber seed pieces in the case of potatoes) each year. MORE

NOV 19, 2009 - USDA scientists, colleagues sequence corn genome - USDA Press Release
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues have completed a four-year effort to sequence the genome of corn, an achievement expected to speed up development of corn varieties that will help feed the world and meet growing demands for using this important grain crop as a biofuel and animal feed. The results represent the largest and most complex plant genome sequenced to date, and are the cover story in the November 20 issue of the journal Science. MORE

NOV 12, 2009 - Organic GM alternative considered - Checkbiotech.org
Concern was raised over the organic agriculture industry’s ability to cope with the onslaught of climate change while spurning GM technologies, at a high-level debate in the capital last week. MORE

NOV 10, 2009 - Europe's genetic mutation - Business Spectator (Australia)
The European Union has just approved three genetically modified maize varieties for importation and processing, but not cultivation. As I have previously discussed, the EU has a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ of unapproved GM feed. The EU feed industry organisation FEFAC estimates that over 180,000 tonnes of US soya has been denied entry to the EU since June 2009 on the grounds that it contained traces of non-approved maize varieties. MORE

NOV 4, 2009 - Will Eggplant be the World's Next GM Crop? - Truth About Trade & Technology
The debate over genetically modified crops has flared up in India, where critics have stalled the commercial release of insect-resistant eggplant, despite recent approval from the country's biotechnology regulatory committee. India's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee announced in October, that the new crop is safe for human consumption and ready to be made available to farmers. But its release still awaits final clearance from India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, whose office has since been bombarded with faxes and emails from concerned scientists and activist organizations such as Greenpeace. MORE

NOV 2, 2009 - Plant biotechnology to receive more support - Checkbiotech.org
The coalition agreement presented by the new German government on Saturday advocates responsible use of plant biotechnology in Germany. Key aspects of the agreement between the CDU, CSU and FDP are an endorsement of the cultivation of genetically modified Amflora starch potatoes, flexible, regionally determined minimum distances between fields with genetically modified crops and fields with conventional crops, and positive ‘GM-free’ labelling at European level. As far as the German cultivation ban on MON810 maize is concerned, the coalition intends to await the outcome of the ongoing court case. MORE

OCT 30, 2009 - Monsanto asks Supreme Court to review alfalfa ban - St. Louis Today
Monsanto Co. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision to ban the planting of genetically modified alfalfa until an environmental review is complete. The petition by Creve Coeur-based Monsanto argues that taking biotech alfalfa off the market creates an unnecessary burden for alfalfa hay and seed growers. MORE

OCT 30, 2009 - Tests on treasured maize ignite fears in Mexico - The Age (Australia)
As scientists race the clock to increase food production worldwide, new trials to plant genetically-modified maize have stoked anger in Mexico, the cradle of corn. Many here are sensitive about meddling with maize, which dates back to pre-Hispanic times, when mythologies held that people were created from corn. MORE

OCT 23, 2009 - A Level Field - New York Times
Editorial: Many people think of agriculture as a tradition-bound occupation. It is far more like information technology, as high-tech companies genetically engineer seeds and a few powerful companies strive to dominate the market. Following a decade of unchecked consolidation, it is time for the Justice Department to take a hard look at potentially anticompetitive behavior. MORE

OCT 15, 2009 - Mariann Fischer Boel Member of the European Commission Responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development GMOs: letting the voice of science speak Policy Dialogue at "European Policy Centre" Brussels - European Commission News Release
Transcript of presentation available. MORE

OCT 15, 2009 - Bill Gates shifts focus to fighting hunger - Financial Times
Microsoft founder turned philanthropist, has put the focus of his multi-billion-dollar foundation firmly on agriculture, saying on Thursday that making poor farmers more productive will have a ìmassive impactî on hunger. MORE

OCT 8, 2009 - Vilsack Launches National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Announces Vision for Science and Research at USDA - USDA Press Release
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today launched the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) with a major speech regarding the role of science and research at USDA. At an event at the National Press Club with John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Vilsack outlined his vision for addressing the some of the world's major challenges over the coming decades. MORE

OCT 2, 2009 - Flax industry, CGC race to trace GMO source - Agbios
The Flax Council of Canada, flaxseed exporters and the Canadian Grain Commission have been working extremely hard to identify the source of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) found in a shipment of the commodity to Europe, according to a council official. The European Union has a zero-tolerance policy for GMOs. The discovery by European labs of the genetic marker in Germany in early September has led to the complete suspension of all Canadian flaxseed imports to Europe, said Barry Hall, president of the Winnipeg-based Flax Council of Canada. MORE

OCT 1, 2009 - Obama taps Beachy to lead new federal agency - Washington University Record
President Barack Obama has asked Roger Beachy, Ph.D., president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, to lead a new federal agency that will transform the way that plant science research is funded in the United States. Beachy is the founding president of the Danforth Plant Science Center, a private, nonprofit research institute in St. Louis County founded in 1999 by a partnership that includes Washington University. MORE

EARLIER ARTICLES CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE