GM food is answer to poverty and hunger

PEOPLE ARE being urged by Scotland's new chief scientific adviser to embrace genetically modified (GM) food as an answer to poverty, hunger and toxic pollution.

Professor Anne Glover, herself a genetic engineer, is urging consumers to ignore labels like "Frankenstein foods" because they are misleading and damaging. The potential benefits of GM crops are "huge", she says, and the risks "extremely small".

But her enthusiasm for GM food has infuriated environmentalists, who fear she could exert an important influence on Scottish ministers. They argue GM crops are "potentially dangerous" and point out that they have been widely rejected by the public and supermarkets.

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GM potato trials will go ahead despite location withdrawal

On-farm trials of genetically modified potatoes will go ahead in 2007 despite the withdrawal of the proposed site near Borrowash in Derbyshire.

The farm owner had agreed to host the trial of chemical company BASF’s late blight resistant potatoes but he pulled out saying that he feared for his personal security.

A spokesman for Derbyshire Police said the force was aware that the intense publicity surrounding the GM trial had made the farmer concerned about his family’s safety.

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A Defeat for Freedom and Reason

I am increasingly convinced that an epic struggle is underway between the forces of reason and those of ignorance, between progress and fear. That’s a pretty bold claim, and includes language usually reserved for Channel 4 adverts for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the fact remains that science and progress are under threat from a vocal and sometimes criminal minority.

Yesterday a Derbyshire farmer withdrew from a trial of genetically modified potatoes due to take place next year on the grounds that he fears for his personal safety. He claims to have received threatening phone calls. This reminds me of the incident in 2001 when protesters (including environmentalist and journalist George Monbiot) destroyed GM crop-trial in Flintshire, only two of whom were tried and given what were cursory fines. It is also linked to other anti-scientific movements.

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Cultivarán papas transgénicas

En 2007 se plantará el primer cultivo de papas Amflora, que fueron genéticamente modificadas para servir como materia prima para la producción de papeles y adhesivos y no para el consumo humano, pues a diferencia de estas últimas, sólo contienen amilopectina (un sacárido) y carecen de amilosa (un polisacárido).

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Bad Food Britain

Genetically-engineered cows and frozen meat from Brazil. And you thought the future of Bad Food Britain was a Big Mac... Award-winning food expert Joanna Blythman considers the bleak realities.

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Parlamento Andino declara a la región libre de papa transgénica

En el seno de la Comisión Segunda del Parlamento, se aceptó por unanimidad un proyecto de decisión para declarar a la región andina libre de papa transgénica. La decisión se tomó por ser esta región el centro de origen de la papa.

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Farmer quits GM potato experiment

Plans to grow genetically modified potatoes in Derbyshire have been abandoned because a farmer fears for his own safety.

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What Does GM Potatoes Mean for Future Blight Control?

If you asked consumers whether they would like to buy potatoes which hadn't been sprayed eight to 10 times for potato blight, one would assume most would be in favour. Of course, ask them if they wanted to eat genetically-modified spuds and the answer might be very different.

Commercially that's what BASF will have to work hard to overcome in the next eight to 10 years - it is going to be that long before its blight-resistant GM potatoes are likely to be launched.

Proving the technical performance looks like it should be much more straightforward. Initial trials conducted in Sweden in the past two years, and in Germany and Holland last year, have shown a very high level of blight resistance, according to Andy Beadle, BASF project manager. "In the trials I've seen we haven't needed to spray the potatoes for blight after we've inoculated with the disease."

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Listas primeras plantas de papa modificadas genéticamente para resistir la polilla del cultivo

En los laboratorios de la Corporación para Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB) crecen como cultivo in vitro, en frascos, las primeras plántulas que se producen en Colombia. A dichas plántulas, utilizando el sistema llamado 'Agrobacterium', se les introdujo un gen que las hace resistentes al ataque de la polilla guatemalteca (Tecia solanivora), una de las plagas que desde 1985 ha ocasionado la destrucción de hasta el 80 por ciento de los tubérculos de una cosecha.

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Continúan las votaciones políticas sobre los OMG en la UE

En la reunión del pasado lunes del Comité Regulador de la Directiva 2001/18/EC, compuesto por representantes de los Estados Miembros, no se alcanzó mayoría calificada para aprobar o rechazar el cultivo y comercialización de la patata transgénica EH92-527-1, modificada para un mayor contenido de amilopectina en su fécula.

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BASF spud trials resuscitate GM crop debate

DEFRA has given the green light to trials of genetically modified potatoes, reigniting the debate on GM food.

The NFU gave the most positive reaction, saying that it recognised that many consumers and farmers have misgivings about GM technology, but felt biotechnology offered potential benefits to agriculture so it was committed to encouraging necessary research.

However, the British Potato Council said it could not support the trials because of consumer concern about the technology.

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El Consell de Mallorca declara la isla “libre de transgénicos”

"Amigos de la Tierra" felicita al Consell de Mallorca (España) por la aprobación ayer de una moción que declara Mallorca libre de transgénicos. El pleno del Consell añade así la Isla de Mallorca a las regiones españolas ya declaradas libres de transgénicos, en particular la Isla de Menorca, y a las 172 regiones europeas que, de una forma u otra, prohíben o restringen la presencia de transgénicos en su territorio.

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Transgénicos y energéticos en la balanza

Son muchos los cambios que se están produciendo y que se van a producir en el sector agrario europeo en este siglo XXI. Gran parte de ellos se centrarán en modificaciones de las políticas de mercados, tanto desde un punto de vista presupuestario como en los sistemas de gestión. Pero otros van a ir dirigidos a la implantación de modernos avances tecnológicos. Este es el caso de los cultivos transgénicos u organismos genéticamente modificados (OGMs) y los cultivos energéticos.

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What does GM potatoes mean for future blight control?

If you asked consumers whether they would like to buy potatoes which hadn't been sprayed eight to 10 times for potato blight, one would assume most would be in favour.

Of course, ask them if they wanted to eat genetically-modified spuds and the answer might be very different.

Commercially that's what BASF will have to work hard to overcome in the next eight to 10 years - it is going to be that long before its blight-resistant GM potatoes are likely to be launched.

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European Commission fails to unite behind genetically optimised potato

On December 04, 2006, the European Commission published the result of the vote in the Regulatory Committee on the approval of the genetically optimized starch potato Amflora. 134 votes supported an approval, 109 opposed it and 78 abstained.

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GM starch potato approval goes Council of Ministers

The decision on approving the GM starch potato Amflora for cultivation has been transferred to the Council of Ministers.

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Los Veinticinco indecisos ante la aprobación o no de una nueva variedad de patata transgénica

La variedad contiene una mayor cantidad de almidón pero según ha confirmado el Comité Científico de la Comisión Europea es "tan sana como la patata convencional". España se abstuvo en la votación de su aprobación.

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BASF says its GM potato not given immediate approval for EU

BASF said that the European Commission has not granted immediate approval to cultivate its GM potato in the EU.

It added that the decision making responsibility now lies with the Council of Ministers, which will reach a conclusion within the next three months.

If it does not achieve a qualified majority decision the matter will then be passed back to the European Commission for final consideration, said BASF.

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GM potatoes could 'strengthen competitiveness'

Amflora, the GM starch potato at the centre of recent controversy, could help strengthen the competitiveness of the potato starch industry, according to EuropaBio.

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Las patatas OMG ricas en amilopectina podrían ser el próximo cultivo de plantas transgénicas autorizado en la UE

Una patata transgénica de BASF podría ser el próximo cultivo de OMG permitido en la UE, tras varios años en los que no ha existido de hecho ninguna aprobación para el cultivo en la UE de nuevas variedades obtenidas por ingeniería genética.

Se trata de las patadas denominadas comercialmente Amflora, que están modioficadas para que su fécula contenga prácticamente un 100% de amilopectina, mientras que las patatas convencionales contienen aproximadamente un 80% de amilopectina y un 20% de amilasa.

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DEFRA approves BASF's application to plant genetically modified potatoes

Genetically modified potatoes resistant to late potato blight will be planted on two sites in England in 2007.

DEFRA has approved an application by agchem giant BASF to undertake the trials, which will test the effectiveness of the potato's resistance against UK strains of the disease.

Similar trials are already underway in three other European countries.

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Scientist in GM potato warning

A scientist whose controversial study first ignited fears over genetically modified food has warned the decision to approve trials of blight-resistant potatoes in the UK meant preventing cross-contamination was "almost impossible".

Dr Arpad Pusztai caused an academic uproar when he claimed in 1998 that rats fed on GM potatoes suffered organ damage.

The Hungarian-born nutritionist said he was opposed to the approved GM trials in Derbyshire and Cambridgeshire, which he described as an "extremely stupid move".

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EU to debate approving first "live" GMO in 8 years

The European Union will venture into the sensitive area of "live" genetically modified (GMO) crops next month, for the first time in eight years, when EU experts debate whether to let farmers grow biotech potatoes.

EU countries have been divided for years over GMO policy and even the idea of how biotech crops should be separated from traditional and organic varieties has proved controversial. So to approve another "live" GMO will be difficult, diplomats say.

The EU's last approval of a GMO product for cultivation was in 1998. Shortly after, the bloc started its de facto moratorium on new biotech authorisations that ended in 2004. Still, no more "live" GMOs have gained EU approval since that time.

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