GM crop News
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Prince of Wales in tune with public and independent scientific opinion on GM
The Prince of Wales’s views not only reflect the views of 85% of the British public who opposed the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK, but also of an increasing body of independent scientists who question GM company PR claims that GM crops are the answer to world hunger. [1] Robin Maynard, Soil Association Campaigns Director said: “As so often, The Prince of Wales’s views are in tune with ...
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Monsanto to cease marketing of new GM crops in EU
US biotech and chemical company Monsanto has confirmed that it will withdraw all current applications for genetically modified (GM) crops in the EU, citing their commercial unviability and public resistance. While welcoming the announcement, Greenpeace notes that the company will seek to continue sales of its controversial MON810 maize, the last remaining GM crop grown in Europe. The EU-wide ...
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Africa lays foundations for commercial GM crops
African nations should support proposed regional policy guidelines on GM technology, says an editorial in Nature. Under the new proposal from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a trade bloc of 19 African nations, the bloc would carry out science-based risk assessments on growing commercial GM crops in any of the bloc's countries. If COMESA finds the crop safe for the ...
By SciDev.Net
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Flexible management better for coexistence of GM and non-GM crops
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. The EU has recommended guidelines1 for developing national strategies by all Member States for the coexistence of genetically ...
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Indian science academies rebuked in Bt brinjal debate
An attempt by India's science academies to contribute to the heated debate on genetically modified (GM) crops appears to have backfired after the country's environment minister rejected their controversial report. The inter-academy report, published last week (24 September), has been swiftly followed by a note of apology from the country's leading science academy for copying portions of the text ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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Mexican trial of GM maize stirs debate
Mexico has authorised a field trial of genetically modified (GM) maize that could lead directly to commercialisation of the crop, sparking debate about the effects on the country's unique maize biodiversity. Although Mexico already commercially grows some GM crops, such as cotton, GM maize is controversial because the country is home to thousands of the world's maize varieties that originated ...
By SciDev.Net
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Sloppy seed-sorting main culprit in GM crop escapes
Careless handling of seeds may be the key reason for the unintended spread of genetically modified (GM) crops, a study has found. The discovery challenges the widespread belief that the main source of GM contamination is the transfer of pollen by bees from GM crops to non-GM counterparts in neighbouring fields. Human error during seed production and handling is the more likely culprit, say the ...
By SciDev.Net
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The bigger picture: GM contamination across the landscape
Ensuring the purity of conventional crops grown in the vicinity of genetically modified (GM) crops depends on understanding both short and long distance pollen flows. New research shows that current guidelines on the safe isolation distances for GM maize may not adequately prevent cross pollination of conventional crops. Contamination of conventional crops can occur where GM pollen ...
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GM eggplant trials suspended in Philippines
Field trials of genetically modified (GM) eggplant have been suspended following a dispute at one of the trial sites that led local officials to uproot 3,000 plants. Two of seven field trials of the plant — also known as Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) brinjal — were halted last month (29 December), two weeks after local authorities in Davao City uprooted plants because researchers had ...
By SciDev.Net
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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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What`s wrong with GM?
SciDev.Net is hosting a live text debate on genetically modified (GM) organisms on this page on Wednesday 11 June. For details on how to get involved, please see below. The arguments about GM continue to rage in farming, research and development communities across the world. Some declare the technology to be an environmental hazard and a threat to smallholder farmers. Others say it can feed ...
By SciDev.Net
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Pakistan debates GM cotton’s success
Pakistan is beset by conflicting claims over the success of genetically modified (GM) cotton, now grown in over 90 per cent of the 2.5 million hectares under cotton. The GM cotton variety — also called Bt cotton because it contains a gene taken from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that resists the bollworm pest — was originally developed and patented by the US agricultural ...
By SciDev.Net
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GM rice `spreading illegally in China`
Illegal genetically modified (GM) rice seeds have been found in several Chinese provinces by a government investigation, according to an environment ministry official. A joint investigation by four government departments discovered the seeds, attributing their presence to "weak management", according to the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). China has allowed GM crops such as cotton, ...
By SciDev.Net
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GM crops could reduce need for herbicides
Analysis of large-scale European field trial data reveals that lower quantities of herbicides are applied to crops genetically modified for herbicide-resistance compared with conventionally grown crops. However, the data also suggest that biodiversity may be reduced if genetically modified (GM) crops are grown widely. Transgenic crops are currently grown in 22 countries across the world, ...
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