There have been 14 new articles posted in the GMO News Updates forum in the past week.
Wal-Mart move 'tipping point' for non-hormone milk
Organic food proponents will remember Thursday as the day the ground shifted.
Giant food retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that its store brand milk in the United States will now come exclusively from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones.
The move sends a powerful signal to food manufacturers about the growing mainstream demand for health food products. With Wal-Mart already the largest retailer of organic milk in the U.S., it has been clear that consumers interested in greener food products are no longer the narrow group of back-to-the-earth types and wealthy urban yuppies.
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Hundreds Testify on Genetically Engineered Taro Bill
Hundreds of people testified at the state Capitol Wednesday, talking about food and science. The House agriculture committee is considering a bill that would put a ten-year moratorium on growing genetically engineered taro.
Scientists say we must do something before our entire taro industry falls victim to invasive species, but some native Hawaiians say changing taro is disrespecting Hawaiian culture.
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Hawaii Lawmakers Tackle Taro Issue
State lawmakers considering a 10-year moratorium on genetically engineering taro heard arguments from both sides of the emotionally charged issue Wednesday.
Supporters of the moratorium say the taro plant, which is used to make the starchy food poi, is a vital part of Hawaiian culture and should be kept pure, not genetically altered.
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Mexico approves rules to begin planting GM corn
Mexico, widely thought to be the birthplace of corn, said on Wednesday it will begin allowing experimental planting of genetically modified crops, despite resistance from some farmers who question their safety.
The regulations published in the official gazette are the last step needed to implement a law passed by Mexico's Congress in December 2004 that authorizes controlled GMO plantings.
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French Court Upholds Ban on Gene-Altered Corn Seed
Opponents of gene-altered crops won a victory in France on Wednesday when the top court upheld, at least for the time being, a ban on a corn variety produced by the American seed company Monsanto.
Growers had argued that the economic harm they faced was serious enough for the month-old ban to be lifted immediately, before the start of the spring planting season. Proponents also said that allowing plantings of the gene-altered seed, called MON810, could benefit consumers at a time of rising food prices.
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EU set to approve Syngenta GM maize on March 28
EU regulators will approve imports of a genetically modified (GM) maize type next week that should help Spain's livestock farmers secure extra supply of raw material to feed their animals, a document said on Wednesday.
The maize, known by its codename GA21, is marketed by Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta and intended for use in food and animal feed, not for growing in Europe's fields.
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FDA report revealed consumers are not behind clones
An internal report by the US FDA suggested that there was little or no support among Americans for food from cloned animals, a protest group has claimed.
The FDA issued its final risk assessment on produce from cloned animals and their offspring on January 15 in which it said the evidence showed there was no risk to human health. Such food products will not need to be labeled as originating from cloned animals.
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Heads Monsanto Wins, Tails We Lose; The Genetically Modified Food Gamble
There have been few experiments as reckless, overhyped and with as little potential upside as the rapid rollout of genetically modified crops.
Last month, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a pro-biotech nonprofit, released a report highlighting the proliferation of genetically modified crops. According to ISAAA, biotech crop area grew 12 percent, or 12.3 million hectares, to reach 114.3 million hectares in 2007, the second highest area increase in the past five years.
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Field-trial decision under fire (New Zealand)
Crop and Food Research is being accused of arrogance for planting genetically engineered (GE) brassicas despite a legal challenge.
The decision of the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) approving a 10-year field trial, near Lincoln, of GE cabbages, forage kale, broccoli and cauliflower modified for resistance to caterpillar pests, is being appealed in the Wellington High Court on March 31 and April 1.
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U.S. farmers up the ante on Japan's struggle against modified corn
Japan, the last major importer in Asia still holding out against genetically modified corn for human food use, could soon be forced into a corner by record corn prices in the United States.
The world's largest corn importer has long had animal feed that uses genetically modified organisms, or GMO, but buys only a small amount of such corn for human food use.
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Bid made to shift GE onion field (New Zealand)
Crop and Food Research wants to move its Lincoln field trial of genetically engineered (GE) onions further away from residents.
The Crown research institute has applied to the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) for approval to move its GE onion patch from one secret location to another.
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NGO protest against impact of genetically engineered brinjals (eggplant)
In order to raise awareness about the impact of genetically engineered Brinjal (eggplant), which the government is about to commercialise, an NGO exhibited them in differnt parts of the city today depicting how they were being destroyed in Mumbai.
"The whole idea is to draw consumer attention to food safety issues as the government is about to commercialise BT brinjal, the first genetically engineered crop in India," said Campaign Manager Greenpeace Rajesh Krishnan.
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Your Burger on Biotech
If the biotech industry has its way, ordering a hamburger might soon sound something like this: “one charbroiled cloned-beef patty, with genetically modified cheese, lab-grown bacon and vitamin-C-fortified lettuce, on a protein-spiked bun.” The burger of the future is delicious, nutritious and contains more engineering than a stealth bomber.
With the Food and Drug Administration ruling in January that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs, goats and their offspring is safe to eat, the only thing keeping the superburger off your dinner plate is time. It will be a few years yet before cloned meat hits store shelves. Cloning the perfect (and tastiest) cow can cost upward of $15,000, which makes clones themselves too expensive to eat, so we’ll have to wait until they spawn enough offspring (the old-fashioned way) to feed the masses. Meanwhile, researchers are busy formulating all the fixings. Take a look at what science is doing for the burger, from bun to beef and everything in between.
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Brazil Wrestles With Decision On GM Corn, Seed Patenting
After 10 years of debate, Brazil approved in February the commercialisation of two varieties of genetically modified corn, a highly contentious decision in the country that has become linked to concerns about seed patenting by multinational companies. Now, sale of GM corn in the country may be further delayed.
The Brazilian National Biosafety Council approved Bayer´s “Liberty Link” variety, which is resistant to the glufosinate ammonium herbicide and a Monsanto corn called “Mon 810,” which is resistant to insects.
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