May headlines

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Action sought against NGO for supplying GM foods

May 11
Times of India

NEW DELHI - A Delhi-based NGO has demanded "punitive action" against an international NGO, Care India, claiming it supplied Genetically Modified (GM) food for the integrated child development services.

"If firm action is not taken against against them (Care India), it would open up the door for every fly-by-night operator to smuggle in whatever they want, as the law would cease to be taken seriously," Dr Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign said.

India is officially a GM-free country as it does not grow genetically modified crops and does not allow the import of GM food in any form, Sahai said, urging the government to take "firm action" against Care India.

"Care India's mixing of the banned GM food in its food aid program is not the result of careless contamination, but a willful and knowing decision in direct contravention of Indian law," Sahai claimed in a release.

Consumers in Europe and US have boycotted GM foods out of fear that it might have an adverse effect on the environment and on human health, the release said.

Washington says Lankan ban on GM food unnecessary

May 11
Times of India

COLOMBO - A US official said on Thursday that Sri Lanka's ban on genetically modified food imports is unnecessary since no health risk is involved.

"We believe it is totally unwarranted," said Weyland Beeghly, the agricultural counselor in the US embassy in New Delhi, who is visiting the island nation.

The United States asked Sri Lanka to provide scientific evidence to support its position, he said.

Sri Lanka barred genetically modified food imports as of May 1, citing health risks.

The ban affects 4 percent of US agricultural exports to Sri Lanka.

Products affected by the ban include potatoes, orange juice, fruits, chocolates and soups.

Grocery stores demand more testing on altered foods

May 10
CBC

WASHINGTON - Grocery companies in the United States are demanding more rigorous tests on foods that are genetically modified.

The Grocery Manufacturers of America say the U.S. government should not let new altered foods go to market until there's a process in place to do proper testing.

Biotechnology companies claim they will have testing methods made available to the government soon.

Grocery manufacturers say they need specific information because overseas markets don't want biologically engineered food.

The GMA is concerned about the issue after traces of the StarLink variety of corn were found in taco shells. Starlink is produced by Aventis. It was only approved for animal feed.

Critics of GM foods are afraid the products will go to market before the full extent of their effects on humans are known.

Critics of gene-altered foods say they want new biotech crops to go through the same lengthy process as food additives.

StarLink issue fuels Japan opposition to GM wheat

May 11
Reuters

TOKYO - Controversy over StarLink biotech corn in Japan has not only dampened the nation's appetite for U.S. corn but has helped stoke opposition against genetically modified (GM) wheat, industry sources said yesterday.

"Japanese consumers will not accept GM wheat because they are highly suspicious of its safety to human health and environment," said a senior official with the Japan Flour Millers Association.

The Japanese industry is also skeptical about the identity preserved handling system for GM crops after StarLink turned up in food products in the United States and Japan, he said.

With the introduction last month of stricter rules to guard against imports of unapproved biotech products, Japan may shift to other supply sources for non-GM wheat if the United States cannot ensure that it will not send GM-free wheat, he said.

STRICTER RULES

The new rules set zero tolerance for imports containing unapproved gene-altered products and require mandatory labeling for approved GM products.

Monsanto Co. , a leading U.S. agricultural biotech firm, plans to introduce the world's first genetically modified wheat between 2003 and 2005 in the form of a "Roundup Ready" spring wheat. The GM wheat will be herbicide tolerant.

The Missouri-based firm has said it would release the variety in the United States when it receives government approval.

But U.S. wheat producers are worried that they might lose market share when the GM wheat is introduced because Japan, the European Union, and other key markets have expressed their reluctance to buy GM wheat.

Japan imports about six million tons of wheat each year, of which the United States supplies 50 percent, with the remaining supplied by Canada and Australia. Japan produces only 600,000 tons of wheat a year.

CLOUD OVER U.S. CORN SALES

The discovery of StarLink in U.S. corn has led to a jump in Chinese and South African corn sales to Japan, traders said.

U.S. corn sales will likely fall further as Argentina and Brazil began shipping their maize from April to Japan, the single biggest buyer of U.S. corn, they said.

Japan's corn imports totaled 6,532,296 tons for the November to March period, down 6.9 percent from 7,017,059 tons in the same period a year ago, government data showed.

One trader attributed the decline to domestic foodmakers' efforts to find alternatives to corn.

Japan's corn imports from the United States fell 11.6 percent to 6,144,809 tons in the period, the data showed.

Meanwhile, imports from China jumped to 140,454 tons from 49,021 tons and those from South Africa soared to 238,159 tons from 1,546 tons.

FAO chief says GM crops not answer to hunger now

May 11
Reuters

PARIS - Genetically modified crops (GMOs) are not the answer to hunger in the world now but they could be as the global population soars, the head of the United Nations' world food body was quoted as saying yesterday.

The amount of arable land was also shrinking.

"To feed the 800 million people in the world who are hungry today, there is no need for GMOs. But to feed nine billion, what must be done?" Diouf was quoted as saying.

"I repeat that we do not need GMOs for the moment. But they are a possible option, so long as precautions exist regarding their impact on public health and the environment," he said.

The FAO chief described genetically altered crops as a "double-edged sword" that could be used to feed those most in need but could also be subject to manipulation.

Genetically modified food worries waning

May 10
AAP (Australia)

Public acceptance of genetically-modified (GM) foods was growing worldwide, according to the Australian body responsible for monitoring biotechnology issues.

The report by Biotechnology Australia which drew upon several recent surveys conducted in Australia and overseas, was released at a food technology conference at Lorne, in Victoria's south-west today.

Consumers were more worried by pesticides, packaging or tampering than genetic engineering, Biotechnology Australia spokesman Craig Cormick said in releasing the report.

An Australian survey conducted by Quantum Market Research last year showed consumers' greatest worry was food poisoning (72 per cent), pesticide use (68 per cent), human tampering during manufacturing (65 per cent) followed by GM food (58 per cent).

The information was based on giving people surveyed a range of choices on their specific food worries, with participants able to list several concerns.

He said a food-buying study of 1,000 consumers conducted in the United States in January revealed that their biggest worries were packaging (27 per cent), then food handling (23 per cent), followed by contamination or diseases (16 per cent) and pesticides (10 per cent).

Two per cent of those questioned in the US study were worried about GM food.

A study by the British Food Standards Agency also conducted in January, found United Kingdom buyers' greatest concern was food poisoning (63 per cent), ahead of 'mad cow disease' (61 per cent), growth hormones or growth promoters (47 per cent), pesticides (46 per cent) and then GM foods (43 per cent).

Mr Cormick said that between last year and this year the percentage of UK consumers prepared to eat GM food had risen from 46 per cent to 48 per cent.

In NZ the figure had risen from 28 per cent in 1999 to 35 per cent this year, he said.

Biotechnology Australia compared surveys conducted in the United Kingdom, the US, France, Australia and New Zealand for the report.

Mr Cormick said survey findings varied and depending on which survey was quoted, the percentage of Australian consumers happy to eat GM food was either 32 per cent, 51 per cent or 28 per cent.

"This does not mean consumers are not concerned, but as with many other new technologies, initial high concern often tends to settle as more is learned," he said.

Moratorium on alteration of salmon

May 9
New York Times

More than 60 environmental and fishermen's groups will ask the Food and Drug Administration today for a moratorium on the approval of any genetically modified fish, arguing that the environmental and health risks have not been adequately studied.

The food and drug agency is considering a company's petition for approval of a salmon with a gene that allows the fish to reach full size and maturity much more quickly than a natural salmon. If approved, the salmon, being developed by Aqua Bounty Farms of Waltham, Mass., would be the first genetically modified animal to reach American dinner plates.

"This is a precedent-setting regulatory action by the F.D.A.," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, the Washington group that is leading the action.

Elliot Entis, president of Aqua Bounty, said the food and drug agency had already promised to do a thorough review of all the health and environmental aspects of the fish. "What we really have here is an attempt to grab a headline," Mr. Entis said of the environmental petition.

The groups are filing a legal petition, which requires a response from the food and drug agency in 180 days, arguing that the current regulations are inadequate to deal with genetically modified fish.

"There's no law governing these particular fish," said Matt Rand, biotechnology campaign manager for the National Environmental Trust.

The Food and Drug Administration is regulating the fish because it considers the added gene to be an animal drug. But the agency does not have deep experience in assessing environmental consequences.

The groups argue that the fish could damage the environment. Farmed fish, they say, inevitably escape into the wild. Computer simulations have suggested that these fast- growing genetically engineered salmon might out-compete natural salmon for food and for mates.

Mr. Entis said the salmon his company was developing were not larger than other salmon at sexual maturity, they just grew faster. In addition, he said, the females will be sterile to prevent reproduction.

Australian firm says clones country's first pig

May 9
Reuters

ADELAIDE - Australia has cloned its first pig, using new technology which could help prevent animal diseases and aid human organ transplants, a biotechnology company said on Wednesday.

BresaGen Ltd, working with St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, said it cloned a pig from cells which had been frozen in liquid nitrogen for more than two years.

``Australia's first cloned pig is now five weeks old, has been weaned and is healthy and growing normally,'' it said.

``It is anticipated that the new cloning technology will have a major impact in guarding against the outbreak of animal disease and in the area of xeno-transplantation -- the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans,'' it said in a statement.

Scottish biotechnology firm PPL Therapeutics Plc created Dolly the sheep, the world's first cloned mammal, in 1996.

Last month it announced it had produced the world's first transgenic cloned piglets, saying it hoped to produce pigs whose kidneys, hearts and other organs would be suitable for human use.

BresaGen said the technology the company used to clone Australia's pig was different from that used for Dolly.

``Basically what works in sheep doesn't work in pigs so we had to start from scratch,'' said chief executive John Smeaton.

The company said its pig cloning technology was potentially life-saving, with thousands of people around the world dying each year while they waited for organ transplantation.

Pigs were a potential organ source but they needed to be genetically modified so their organs were not rejected by the human immune system, said Professor Tony d'Apice from St. Vincent's.

``This cloning technology will provide a method whereby the function of one of the genes thought to be important in the rejection of these organs can be eliminated...,'' he said.

``It will be possible to produce pigs without this gene and provide donor organs more compatible for human transplantion.''

BresaGen, whose shares closed up four cents or 3.3 percent at A$1.27 in a flat market, said cloning could also help to guard against the outbreak of diseases such as food and mouth.

The Adelaide-based company said its xeno-transplantation research program had been funded by a research and development syndicate and a unit of Baxter Healthcare Corp, the principal U.S operating subsidiary of Baxter International Inc .

``Commercialization of this technology will lead to significant royalty streams flowing to BresaGen,'' it said.

Italy says mutant spaghetti story a slur

May 9
Reuters

Rome - Italy rallied to defend its most celebrated national dish Wednesday after a German newspaper said wheat used to make spaghetti came from strains that had been mutated by radiation.

Agriculture Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, a member of the Greens and a fierce critic of genetically modified foods, said: ``This is the umpteenth attack by the Germans...against sectors in which we are Europe's main producers.''

He told reporters waiting outside Wednesday's cabinet meeting in Rome that he would ask Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini to protest to the German government.

``I have asked Dini to contact the German government because we do not accept attacks on leading Italian fare at a time when we are exporting a great deal of high-quality produce,'' he said.

The article in Tuesday's Frankfurter Allgemeine said people who were worried about genetically modified foods had no idea that much of today's crops were genetic mutations developed in rich countries in the 1960s with the help of radioactivity.

It was sourced mainly to the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which keeps a record -- based on voluntary information from seed growers -- of all plants exposed to radiation to induce mutations.

IAEA spokesman David Kyd was quoted as saying IAEA records showed that at the end of last year, 2,252 types of plant were being grown around the world which stemmed from such treatment.

``Whether Texan grapefruit, American or Asian rice, Italian hard wheat or jute for a (shopping) bag that has 'No nuclear power' printed on it, most of these plants have been exposed to radioactivity in nuclear plants or in the fields,'' the article said.

Front Page News

Italy's reaction was that the article was a baseless affront to national pride.

``Hands off our spaghetti,'' ran the banner headline of Communist newspaper Liberazione, featuring a photograph of comic actor Alberto Sordi tucking into a huge plate of spaghetti in the movie ``An American in Rome.''

``Achtung! Dangerous spaghetti,'' was the front-page headline of Turin daily La Stampa, which said: ``This news, in the context of uncertainty over genetically modified foods, creates further confusion and unfounded fears.''

Italy's National Institute for Foreign Trade said in a statement: ``The denigratory campaign from afar which tries to show that the ingredients of the Mediterranean diet are harmful to health...cannot be accepted.''

A southern Italian pasta manufacturer, Francesco Divella, told Repubblica newspaper: ``We will take whatever measures are necessary to avoid the defamation of our product.''

Italy's biggest farmers' group, Coldiretti, said Italian spaghetti posed no danger. Confagricoltura, an association of big agricultural producers, warned against alarm over pasta.

Moratorium sought on engineered fish

May 9
AP

A group opposed to biotech foods said Wednesday it is petitioning the government to place a moratorium on genetically engineered fish.

The move was announced by the Center for Food Safety, which said it was leading a coalition of consumer and environmental groups in the effort.

``FDA is not considering the food safety and environmental risks that these animals may pose,'' said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the center.

The Food and Drug Administration declined immediate comment on the petition, saying it had not yet been received.

The FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine regulates animal biotechnology products. To date, no transgenic animals have been approved for use as human food.

While no transgenic fish have been approved, at least one application, for a variety of salmon, is under review. Various transgenic species of salmon, tilapia, channel catfish and others are being investigated worldwide.

Biotech varieties of corn and soybeans are already in use.

Last fall, the biotech industry was embarrassed when a type of genetically engineered corn that wasn't approved for human consumption was found in taco shells.

And, in April the state of Maryland banned the raising of genetically modified fish unless they are in ponds or lakes that do not connect to other state waterways.

Genetic engineering in agriculture involves splicing a gene from one organism into a different plant or animal to confer certain traits, such as cold tolerance in fish that traditionally live in warm waters.

Trials of GM maize threaten unique organic seed cache

May 6
Independent (UK)

GM maize is to be grown in an officially sanctioned trial close to Europe's largest research center for organic crops, threatening the future of organic farming in this country.

The trial, which is due to begin this week in Warwickshire, is bound to spark the biggest row yet in the controversy over GM crops in Britain.

Environmentalists yesterday said that the effects could be "truly catastrophic" for organic agriculture, and an MP said that he would support direct action to stop it.

The experiment, part of the Government's official "farm-scale trials" of GM crops, is to take place within two miles of Europe's largest research center for organic crops at Ryton, near Coventry. The center ­ run by the Henry Doubleday Research Association ­ carries out trials on organic crops for the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and is home to one of the world's foremost organic seed banks.

The threat is so serious that Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, is this weekend making an unprecedented last-minute bid to stop the trial, which he says is seen as "highly provocative", even though his own department announced it a month ago. Neither he, nor the government committee that authorized the trial, was aware that it was close to the research station when it was given the go-ahead.

The Soil Association warns that the GM maize ­ being tested by the food firm Aventis at New Farm near Wolston, Warwickshire ­ could cross-pollinate with three crops of organic sweetcorn grown at Ryton, and in turn contaminate the seed bank. Any trace of GM in the association's fields would lead to it losing its license to grow organic crops, and pollution of the seed bank would strike a devastating blow to the world's attempts to save rare varieties of foodstuffs.

"It is hard to overstress how serious this is," Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil Association, said yesterday. "The effects of this trial could be truly catastrophic both for the research station and for organic farming as a whole. This is the worst example so far of a program of insidious pollution of the world's food crops by the GM industry."

Mr Meacher told The Independent on Sunday last week: "Clearly there has not been proper consideration of the impact of the choice on a highly prestigious organic research center of this kind."

He said he was writing to Aventis, SCIMAC (the industry body overseeing the trials) and the official Scientific Steering Committee that authorized the use of the site to ask them to reconsider. In a separate but related move, he is also asking for the sowing of two sites at Mathry, Pembrokeshire, to be delayed so that there can be more consultation with the public.

But late last week Aventis said that all three sites would be sown this week. The firm added that the farmer at the Warwickshire site had rung to ask what he should do, and had been told to go ahead.

Mr Meacher is credited with having given the Government's GM policies credibility and a degree of public acceptability after its initially strong pro-industry approach ran into opposition. But he is being increasingly marginalized in Whitehall, and repeatedly out-voted on the cabinet committee in charge of GM policy.

Environmentalists alleged that GM firms had "pulled a fast one" on Mr Meacher in an attempt to discredit him before a post-election reshuffle. The industry denies this, though it privately makes no secret of its desire to have him sacked.

Although Mr Meacher's department announces the sites to be used for the trials, he has no part in choosing them.

Dr David Gibbons, a member of the committee, told The Independent on Sunday late last week that it had not been told of the sites' proximity to the Ryton research station. Roger Turner, SCIMAC's chairman, said yesterday that there had been no attempt to deceive the committee. He added: "If there is a reaction to this site, the industry needs to sit down and think about whether it should go ahead."

But Aventis said that "politics was now getting involved" with a site chosen by an independent scientific committee.

Last night Alan Simpson MP said he would support direct action to stop the trial. He said: "This shows the contempt in which the industry and advisers within government now hold democratically elected views. It shows that the only way in which something can be achieved is by taking direct action, and highlights what the 1 May protesters were saying."