NOFA/Massachusetts Social Action Center
Genetic Engineering News
November, 2008
compiled by Jack Kittredge
NOFA/Mass Social Action Coordinator
Another California County Poised To Become GE-Free
By a 3-2 vote the Board of Supervisors of Lake County, California gave initial approval to an ordinance to ban the use of genetically engineered (GE) crops in Lake County. The ordinance has been advanced to a final reading next month. The board's decision followed three and a half hours of public input and board discussion, which revealed a deep divide in opinion. Local agricultural leaders and business people said the kind of scientific tools used for genetic engineering are crucial to giving them a competitive advantage. On the other side of the issue, those against the use of the GE crops said they wanted agriculture to thrive but didn't believe that state and federal governments have done enough to vet the safety of genetically modified organisms.
The ordinance prohibits use of GE crops unless they produce medical products, and also includes a provision where the board can exempt any crop if they make specific findings that the crop is beneficial, such as if it is resistant to disease. Supervisor Ed Robey pulled out a box of energy bars purchased at Costco and made in China, which states on its package that it's free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which he said is an economic advantage. The issue of economic benefit proved to be a major one throughout the meeting. Winemaker Jim Fetzer foir instance, who has become prominent nationally for his efforts in biodynamic winemaking, said he supported the non-GMO approach because it provides the community with an opportunity to market itself. Local winegrape growers have taken that chance to position the county's grapes on the market. "We've got the cleanest air in the county, why not the cleanest food?" Fetzer asked. Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Chuck March said the group is remaining consistent in its opposition to such an ordinance, reaffirming that stance in a 14-2 vote of its board of directors in May.
Supervisors read from a letter from California Certified Organic Growers, which supported the measure for a variety of reasons, including impacts of GE crops on insects, development of herbicide-resistant pests, genetic pollution, trading partners' rejection of GE crops, and inadequate testing and research of the effects on human health. If Lake County gives final approval to the ordinance next month, it would be one of only a handful of counties and cities around the state to adopt definitive, anti-GE legislation.
source: Lake County News, Tuesday, 21 October 2008
USDA Rules Could Allow Drugs in Food
Proposed new USDA (United States Dept of Agriculture) rules will not protect the US food supply from potential contamination by drugs from "pharma" crops, and could allow drugs that it deems "safe" to enter the food supply, said the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The USDA ignored recommendations for a ban on the outdoor production of pharma food crops from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, major food companies, UCS, and more than 100 environmental, agricultural, health, and consumer organizations.
According to Jane Rissler, UCS's Food and Environment Program deputy director, "In its rush to enact the proposed rules into law before the end of the Bush administration, the USDA has given short shrift to public participation. The department is allowing only 45 days for the public to analyze and comment on this major proposal, which will determine the government's approach to regulating genetically engineered organisms for years to come. If these proposals are enacted into law, American consumers must accept the possibility of drugs in their breakfast cereal or other common foods. The USDA proposal, unlike the ban we recommended, offers no incentives to drug companies to pursue already existing, safer methods for producing drugs."
source: http://www.ucsusa.org/news/commentary/usda-biotech-regulations-0148.html
U.S. Begins To Turn Its Back on GM Crops, Report Claims
There is evidence that the U.S. is turning its back on the controversial GM crops and food it created. A report, Land of the GM-Free? - "How the American public are starting to turn against GM food" -- is co-authored by long-term GM opponent Lord Melchett, of the Soil Association. It reports research showing that 87 per cent of Americans believe their food should carry a label showing whether it contains GM ingredients. At the same time, 53 per cent say they would not choose to eat GM food. The new report points out how a GM hormone, developed by Monsanto, which is injected into dairy cows to increase milk yields is effectively being killed off by consumer opposition. Separately, farmers have rejected new GM crops, such as wheat, rice, sweet corn and alfalfa with the result these are not being grown commercially in the USA.
Even GM soya, which is widely grown in the USA, has been shown to be inferior in terms of its yields when compared to new varieties created from conventional cross breeding. Recently, biotech companies, aided by the governments in the USA and Britain, have been touting GM crops as the solution to Third World hunger. It has been suggested these crops will deliver higher yields or will allow plants to be cultivated in areas of drought or high salt soils. However, none of these crops exist on a commercial basis despite promises from the biotech industry to deliver them dating back more than ten years.
source:http://www.organicproducermag.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_id=286
Non-GM Soy Makes a Comeback in US
Lower seed and weed-control costs and high yields have renewed interest in non-GM varieties of soybeans, said Grover Shannon, an agronomist at the University of Missouri Delta Research Center. Overseas demand for non-GM soybeans and the tripling of costs for glyphosate herbicide have made conventional varieties more appealing to many growers, he said. ? The price of Roundup weed killer has steadily climbed from $15 a gallon to $40 or even $50 per gallon. Add to this the growing annual cost of purchasing RR soybean seeds ($40 to $50 per 50-lb. bag, which covers roughly 2 acres), and GM soybeans are no longer economically viable for farmers.
source: http://agebb.missouri.edu/news/ext/showall.asp?story_num=4547&iln=49
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/10/14/113813/15
Researchers Find Evidence for Horizontal Gene Transfer in Mammals, Reptiles
New research suggests that some mammal and reptile genomes have been shaped, in part, by horizontal gene transfer. While horizontal gene transfer is typically associated with prokaryotic (cells which lack a nucleus, such as bacteria) genomes, researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington have found evidence that it has occurred during eukaryotic evolution as well. The work, scheduled to appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, indicates that a flurry of horizontal gene transfer events occurred 15 million to 46 million years ago, plopping mobile genetic elements called transposons into at least seven tetrapod (evolved from creatures with four legs) lineages.
Lateral or horizontal gene transfer occurs when stretches of DNA from one organism become incorporated into the genome of another, unrelated organism. For instance, viral phages or bacterial plasmids can hop from one organism to another, carting bits of DNA between genomes. But horizontal gene transfer is less well characterized in eukaryotes, though there are some examples. For instance, there is evidence of horizontal gene transfer in some insects. And mammals may also acquire sequence from retroviruses, senior author Cédric Feschotte, a biologist at the University of Texas at Arlington, told GenomeWeb Daily News. When these retroviruses infect germ line cells, they can be passed along to the next generation, he explained.
But Feschotte and his team uncovered a new type of horizontal gene transfer in mammals and other higher eukaryotes when they started comparing sequences from the genome of the bushbaby, a primate species, with those from other animals. But, evolutionarily, the sequences showed a strange pattern, popping up here and there on vastly different branches of the tetrapod tree. And despite the fact that it is usually non-coding, the sequence appeared to remain nearly identical - though duplicated to varying degrees - across a broad range of species. Based on this patchy taxonomic distribution and high level of conservation, the team concluded that the sequences could not have been acquired vertically, especially since the sequences appear to be under neutral evolutionary pressure.
"The only way to explain this sequence similarity is that they arrived [in the genome] more recently," Feschotte said, noting that the species represented span more than 350 million years of evolution whereas the sequences they found appear to have been evolving over a much, much shorter time frame. Because the sequence seems to have appeared out of nowhere, the researchers dubbed them "Space Invaders" or SPIN elements. Overall, the team found 96 percent sequence identity between SPIN elements in any two of the species in which they were detected.
source: GenomeWeb News, October 21, 2008
RAFI-USA Releases Pocket-size Farmers' Guide to GM Contracts
The Rural Advancement Foundational International (RAFI-USA) has released the "Farmers' Guide to GMO Contracts", a pocket-size complement to the Farmers' Guide to GMOs, a joint publication of RAFI and the Farmers' Legal Action Group. Grassroots organizations are invited to distribute the brochure to their own constituencies and can add their contact information to a blank space on the back panel.
source: find the brochure online at http://www.rafiusa.org/docs/gmobrochure.pdf
Food Crisis Means Monsanto Profits
The recent dramatic increase in food prices has meant booming profits for some big multinationals linked to agriculture. The biggest winner of all might be Monsanto: its profits for the first quarter amounted to $3.6 billion, a 26% spike over last year. The World Bank is among many who have identified the key catalyst for global food price inflation as the push to use food for fuel -- ethanol now eats up nearly one-quarter of the US corn crop -- a policy that Monsanto has lobbied for almost harder than anybody.
source: ?http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-adm-monsanto-jul25,0,4202606.story http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=18696
Monsanto Hurting Iowa Farmers
Iowa farmers are paying higher seed prices with less choice in the marketplace because Monsanto controls more than 90 percent of the market for many farm crops. "The company has raised prices drastically every year with no competition, taking money from farmers' pockets and rural Iowa's economy," writes Chris Petersen, Iowa Farmers Union president. Petersen's article appears in the Des Moines Register, a newspaper that rarely prints material that is critical of Monsanto. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller has been investigating Monsanto's market practices to determine whether it violates antitrust laws.
source: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081017/OPINION04/810170347/-1/NEWS04
Bayer Faces 1,200 Rice Lawsuits
Bayer's defeat of a bid by US rice farmers to sue the company as a group for contamination by its unapproved GM rice doesn't end the matter. The company still faces 1,200 individual claims of crop contamination. Don Downing, lawyer for the growers, said damages might exceed $1 billion.
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=auu3BOBRYwaE&refer=home
EU Approves New GM Corn Varieties
The European Union's food safety agency has approved two genetically modified corns, putting renewed pressure on EU countries to drop their objections to the use of biotech crops. Scientists at the Parma, Italy-based European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA gave clearance to a Bt-11 corn seed made by Switzerland's Syngenta AG and the 1507 corn made by the U.S.-based Pioneer Hi-Bred and Dow Agrosciences. Both varieties offer resistance to insects, including corn borers and certain butterflies. They were already deemed safe by the agency in 2005, but were resubmitted for testing by the EU Commission in May amid fresh claims by environmental groups that they were a threat to the environment and human health. The EU agency also said a French ban on another GM corn product, produced by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto Co., was unjustified. The EU granted approval to sell the seeds in the bloc in 2004.
The panel's decisions sparked a strong reaction from environmental group Greenpeace, which called on the EU to suspend the agency's power to issue safety checks until a full review of how the EU approves GM crops is done. Greenpeace claims more research is needed to assess the long-term impact of altered crops on the environment and human health and alleges the scientist panel ignored evidence that the two crops could have a bad effect on biodiversity and the environment. EU countries are currently debating whether to change the way the bloc decides on granting user licenses to GM crops and seeds. Many member states, including Greece, Austria, Poland and France are hesitant to adopt new crops fearing environmental consequences. Under EU rules member states have to approve new licenses unanimously. If they can't, the EU's executive commission makes the decision on behalf of all countries.
source: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/528509
Europe's Secret Plan To Boost GM Crop Production
Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an ?unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and ?throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by the British newspaper "The ?Independent" reveal. The documents - minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives ?of 27 governments - disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.?And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and ?"industry" - presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto - ?to ?be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists. News of the secret plans is bound to create a storm of protest at a time ?when popular concern about GM technology is increasing, even in ?countries ?that have so far accepted it. Public opposition has prevented any modified crops from being grown in Britain. France, one of only three countries in Europe to have grown ?them in ?any amounts, has suspended their cultivation, and resistance to them is ?rising rapidly in the other two, Spain and Portugal. The embattled biotech industry has been conducting a public relations ?campaign based round the highly contested assertion that genetic ?modification is needed to feed the world.
The secret meetings were convened by Jose Manuel Barroso, the pro-GM ?President of the Commission, and chaired by his head of cabinet, Joao?Vale de Almeida.The prime ministers of each of the EU's 27 member states ?were ?asked to nominate a special representative. Neither the membership of the group, nor its objectives, nor the ?outcomes of ?its meetings have been made public. But The Independent obtained ?confidential documents, including an attendance list and the conclusions of the two ?meetings held so far - on 17 July and on 10 October - ?written by the chairman. The list shows that President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany sent close aides. Britain was represented by ?Sonia ?Phippard, director for food and farming at the Department of ?Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The conclusions reveal the discussions were mainly preoccupied with how?to?speed up the introduction of GM crops and food and how to persuade the public to accept them. The modified products have to be approved by the EU before they can be sown ?or sold anywhere in Europe. But though the Commission officials are?generally strongly in favor, European governments are split, causing ?the ?Council of Ministers, on which they are represented, to be deadlocked. In that event the bureaucrats on the Commission wave them through ?anyway. They are legally allowed to do this, but overruled governments and ?environmental groups are unhappy.
source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/europes-secret-plan-to ?-boost-gm-crop-production-973834.html
Organic Farming "Could Feed Africa" -- Study
Organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition it has been locked in for decades, according to a major study from the United Nations. The study found that traditional practices increased yield by 128 per cent in east Africa. The head of the UN's Environment Program, Achim Steiner, said the report "indicates that the potential contribution of organic farming to feeding the world may be far higher than many had supposed".
source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/organic-farming-could-feed-africa-968641.html
Drought-Resistant GM Crops "Ready In Four Years"?
GM crops that are drought resistant will be grown by farmers within four to five years, according to Dr David Dennis, the chief executive of Performance Plants Inc. in Kingston, Ontario. But Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth commented, "We would take any claims that these crops are just around the corner with a large pinch of salt because we have heard it all before." ?Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former biotech specialist at the EPA comments: "The gene targeted by this company has been reported by them in the science literature to provide significant drought tolerance. But genes and proteins often have multiple functions ... In this case, a recent study ... has determined that the same gene as is used by this company to confer drought tolerance also makes plants more susceptible to a variety of important plant disease organisms. It may confer some drought tolerance -- but at the expense of making the crop substantially more susceptible to diseases, which could result in crop loss and higher pesticide use."
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/07/gmcrops.food
Bt Cotton Damages Soil Quality
Bt cotton inhibits the activity of friendly microbes in the soil, says a study from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute. The study also found Bt cotton soil has lower mineral nitrogen than in non-Bt cotton soil. Reduced microbial activity could have also affected nitrogen availability in soil as the microbes make nitrogen available to plants.
source: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20081031&filename=sci&sec_id=12&sid=1
India: Killer Bt Cotton Fails Again In Vidharba
Bt cotton has once again failed in the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra, India. Sixty per cent of the standing crop which was earlier affected by the mealy bug has now been destroyed by a fungal disease. Farmers vexed with the government's lack of action are threatening to go on a "fast unto death" agitation.
source: http://www.merinews.com/shareArticle.do?detail=Print&articleID=145093#
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