GM crop News
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Committee advises halt to Indian Bt crop trials
A technical expert committee, appointed by the Supreme Court of India to advise upon open field trials for genetically modified (GM) crops, has recommended a ten-year moratorium on all Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) food crop trials. Bt crops are GM plants that kill insects using a toxic protein from the Bt soil bacterium. Currently there is a moratorium in India on Bt brinjal (eggplant) — ...
By SciDev.Net
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Overcoming obstacles to GM crop adoption
This policy brief, published by the UK's Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), examines the potential benefits and challenges of using genetically modified (GM) crops for agricultural development in the developing world, and highlights policy approaches that could support a positive contribution to food security. With the majority of the workforce in developing countries ...
By SciDev.Net
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Steady increase in incidents of low levels of GM crops in traded food and feed
The increased production of genetically modified crops around the globe has led to a higher number of incidents of low levels of GMOs being detected in traded food and feed, FAO said today. The incidents have led to trade disruptions between countries with shipments of grain, cereal and other crops being blocked by importing countries and destroyed or returned to the country of origin. The ...
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Soil Association responds to David King`s attack on organic farming
Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director, responds to David King's attack on organic farming in his inaugural speech as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 'To blame the Soil Association or UK consumers of organic food for the decades of hunger and starvation in Africa, including the current terrible suffering of people in a country like Zimbabwe, as Sir ...
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Genetically modified benefits
Despite the proclamations of the so-called “organic” movement and the anti-industry activists, small farmers in developing countries are benefiting significantly from genetically modified crops, according to a large review of the peer-reviewed research literature by US consultants. Writing in the International Journal of Biotechnology, Janet Carpenter of JE Carpenter Consulting LLC in ...
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Europe rejects GM crops as new report highlights 20 years of failures
All 19 government requests for bans of GM crop cultivation have gone unchallenged by biotech companies, pathing the way for two thirds of the EU’s farmland and population to remain GM-free [1]. The growing opposition to GM crops coincides with a new Greenpeace report reviewing evidence of GM environmental risks, market failures, and increased pesticide use [2]. Greenpeace EU food policy ...
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British GMO protests highlight global divide
British opposition to genetically modified crops is on the rise, prompting security concerns at research laboratories across the country. Nearly all 54 U.K. pesticide-resistant crop trials attempted in the past eight years have been attacked, according to media reports. Protesters are destroying the experimental crops to prevent biotechnology companies from spreading genetically modified ...
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Crossbreeding GM crops may increase fitness of wild relatives
A new study has investigated the effects of interbreeding a genetically modified squash crop with its wild relative. The findings demonstrate that it could cause wild or weedy relatives to become more resistant to disease. Genetic Modification (GM) can be used to develop crops that are resistant to specific pests. However, there are concerns that if a GM crop interbreeds with its wild or weedy ...
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Can GM crops feed the hungry?
Golden Rice burst into the public imagination a decade ago, in the form of a cover article in Time magazine that claimed the genetically modified (GM) rice could 'save a million kids a year'. The rice gets its golden hue from an excess of beta carotene, a precursor to vitamin A that could help half a million children who go blind each year from an often-fatal vitamin A deficiency. But ten ...
By SciDev.Net
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GM crops can thrive as climate warms
Genetically engineering photosynthesis in plants could take advantage of rising global temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide, US scientists say. They believe this could achieve much higher yields on the same amount of land and help to stave off the prospect of widespread hunger as human populations increase. Researchers at the University of Illinois report in the journal ...
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Uganda starts `historic` trials on GM staple crops
Ugandan researchers will carry out a series of field trials on some of the major food crops that have been genetically modified (GM), following several recent approvals by the Uganda National Biosafety Committee, despite a lack of clear legislation on commercialising any such products within the country. They will seek to develop both transgenic and conventional maize varieties tolerant to ...
By SciDev.Net
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Cement develops an appetite for C02
Three new studies illuminate the sheer complexity of the aspect of climate science known as the carbon cycle − how carbon dioxide gets into the atmosphere and out again. Sometimes, human agency is at work, but nature takes care of it anyway – as one of the studies reveals in the case of cement, the world’s most widely-used building material. Zhu Liu, postdoctoral scholar at ...
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Big bucks from carbon sequestration - fact or fiction?
With carbon credits in the news and Australia developing policies to meet its Kyoto targets, many farmers are intrigued by soil carbon’s potential to not only boost soil productivity but put money in the bank by selling carbon credits. But just how realistic is that goal? Dr Jeff Baldock of CSIRO Land and Water, SA, will address this and other aspects of soil carbon in the Grains Research and ...
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Keeping tabs on the next generation of transgenic crops
A team of government and university crop scientists from across Canada has developed a scientific framework for monitoring the release of second-generation genetically modified crops. The framework is designed to assess the risks of novel genes entering wild populations. First-generation genetically modified (GM)/transgenic crops with novel traits have been grown in a number of countries since ...
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GMO crops could expect a brighter future
One of the touchier areas of scientific research – in much of Europe, at least – is the genetic manipulation of food plants, seaweed and algae to try to produce more food or provide better rates of conversion into biofuels. But across the Atlantic genetically-modified crops (GMOs) are increasingly a different story. They are a deeply controversial subject because early versions of GM ...
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