Everything you wanted to know about GM food but were afraid to ask

Prince Charles caused a stir this week with his strongest comments yet on GM food. But why? Farming editor STEVE DUBE investigates.

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No a la papa transgénica en Sudáfrica

En Sud África está a punto de aprobarse la papa genéticamente modificada. Si se llegara a aprobar, Sudáfrica sería el primer país en el mundo donde se comercialice papa transgénica, después de haber sido rechazada en muchos países.

La presencia de esa papa transgénica en nuestro sistema alimentaria va a ir en detrimento de la salud de los consumidores sudaficanos, y lo que es más grave, va a servir de precedente para que su comercialización se generalice a otros países del Tercer Mundo.

Con estos antecedentes, le pedimos que lean la declaración y se adhieran a la campaña que viene haciendo Haidee Swanby.

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El uso y consumo de productos transgénicos es debatido en Perú

Autorizar o no la entrada de semillas transgénicas que pueden poner en peligro los vastos recursos agrícolas de Perú ha desatado un agrio debate, incluso en el seno del Gobierno. La creación de un reglamento sobre el uso de biotecnología que regule la entrada de cultivos modificados genéticamente al país, enfrenta a sus partidarios -encabezados por el Ministerio de Agricultura-, que señalan que ayudará a aumentar la productividad agraria, y a los que creen que dañarán el acervo natural peruano, liderados por el Ministerio de Ambiente.

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Sabotaje a la patata transgénica

Los adversarios de los cultivos transgénicos no tiran la toalla: en Gran Bretaña se vienen dedicando a destruir los campos experimentales de nuevas variedades de vegetales genéticamente modificados. Mediante los sabotajes los activistas pretenden paralizar el proceso legal de aprobación, que exige la realización previa de estudios sobre sus riesgos y beneficios en condiciones controladas. Por lo pronto, han conseguido detener indefinidamente los ensayos con un tipo de patata transgénica.

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Scientists demand protection from anti-GM protestors to assess benefits in crop trials

Field trials of GM crops in the UK need better protection to allow researchers to assess the benefits of genetic modification technology, scientists said today.

Professor Howard Atkinson of the University of Leeds suggested the location and details of small-scale trials could be kept from the public, as they are in Canada, to prevent them being vandalised by anti-GM protesters.

Other options could include a national, secure field testing site for GM crops or that universities conducting trials should not have to bear the costs of security measures such as fences or guards, researchers said.

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Germany's BASF takes GM potato case to EU court

BASF has taken legal action against the European Commission for failure to act on its genetically modified Amflora potato, the German chemicals company said on Thursday.

BASF said in a statement it filed the action with the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg because the Commission unjustifiably delayed the approval of Amflora after a 12-year process.

"EU commissioners have postponed Amflora's approval despite repeated positive safety assessments by EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority," said Stefan Marcinowski, a member of BASF's executive board.

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SA's GM spud awaits commercial approval

Africa's first locally developed genetically modified crop has finished its field trials and is now before an interdepartmental committee that will decide whether it can go on South African markets.

The GM potato, developed by SA scientists using an American "design", has been adapted to fend off the potato tuber moth, which costs the food industry up to R40-million annually.

The potato was developed for local conditions by an Agricultural Research Council team led by Dr Kobie de Ronde. The findings of six years of field trials will be presented to the media in Irene, Pretoria, on Friday.

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Nuevos estudios ponen en jaque a los transgénicos

El Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ha analizado la situación en Cataluña y Aragón, donde hay cultivo comercial de transgénicos desde 1998 y concluye que su coexistencia es prácticamente imposible. Analizamos la situación del Estado español y, en concreto, de Aragón.

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South Africa develops new GM potato variety

South Africa's Agricultural Research Council (ARC) has developed a new potato variety resistant to the potato tuber moth, a major pests causing millions worth of harvest loss in major solanaceous crops.

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The Scientific Solution

This season, hundreds of potato growers are tentatively watching their crops for signs of one of the most virulent strains of blight to have so far evolved in the UK - genotype 13.

Its presence has prompted the Potato Council to step up its Fight Against Blight (FAB) and Blightwatch alerting services and is a reminder of the increasing threat that diseases and pests pose to UK horticulture and agriculture.

Given these circumstances, a genetically modified (GM), blight- resistant crop could be a saviour to many potato growers - as could other kinds of GM crops to a number of growers.

But controversy still surrounds this technology - despite the fact that countries such as Canada and the US have been using it for years.

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Scientists reopen debate over GM food

Scientists have genetically engineered fruit and vegetables capable of providing most of a day’s nutrients in a single meal.

Heading towards the market are potatoes with 33% more protein content, modified tomatoes that could be capable of protecting against cancer and peanuts without the chemicals that cause deadly nut allergies.

Cassava has been packed with new genes that help the plant accumulate extra iron and zinc from the soil, and synthesise vitamins E and A.

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Activists destroy Leeds University potato trial

A TRIAL to develop a genetically modified potato that could save the UK potato industry £50million a year and benefit farmers worldwide has been destroyed by activists after just three weeks.

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UK: Government takes fresh look at GM crops

Genetically modified crops could be grown in Britain on a wider scale as a means of dealing with the global food crisis, it was revealed today.

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UK: Genetically-modified crop field destroyed by eco-warriors

Eco-warriors have destroyed an entire crop of genetically modified potatoes - wiping out vital research to help end famine worldwide.

No one has claimed responsibility for the destruction of thousands of the spuds in a field near Tadcaster, North Yorks.

But Environment Minister Phil Woolas, who had sanctioned the trial by scientists at Leeds University, last night launched a furious attack on the "gutless" group behind the incident.

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Benn Gives Go-Ahead for New GM Potato Trial

Ministers have given permission for thousands of GM potatoes to be grown in Britain, a decision that is bound to provoke a new confrontation with environmentalists.

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for the Environment , has agreed to let scientists at Leeds University cultivate the potato, which has been engineered to resist eelworm, in a trial over the next three years in a test field near Tadcaster, North Yorkshire. The GM Freeze protest group is considering taking legal action.

The move follows repeated clashes over a different experimental GM potato, modified against blight, in Britain last year. Trials had to be abandoned following protests by environmentalists and local farmers.

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Genetically-Modified Foods: How Safe Are They To Eat?

Since 1994, when grocers began selling the Flavr Savr, a genetically-engineered tomato bred to stay firm after harvest, many people have worried about the potential risks of consuming bioengineered food.

Few trends in food and nutrition elicit greater interest. Every week, it seems, some new study or research finding is released adding to a controversy that shows few signs of going anywhere. Since much of the under-developed world of the Southern Hemisphere is, literally, starving, the future of public policy regarding genetically modified foods has yet to be decided in most cases.

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Heritage vegetables aren't necessarily the best

It is interesting to leaf through seed catalogues from the early 19th and 20th centuries. They often include pictures of white-coated scientists in their laboratories, surrounded by test tubes. The fact that science lay behind these new products was a big selling point.

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GM food: Monster or saviour?

I have to confess, until now the whole debate about genetically-modified (GM) food has pretty much passed me by. Most of my career has been spent as a foreign correspondent. But last summer I returned to the UK to start a new job with the BBC. I now glory in the title Rural Affairs Correspondent.

A big part of my new brief is to report on farming. It is my (sometimes painful) duty to attend agriculture conferences and seminars. I also meet many farmers on their farms. And over the months, time and time again the issue of GM has been raised.

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La CE discutirá esta semana si debe cambiar su política sobre los transgénicos

La Comisión Europea (CE) debatirá el miércoles sobre si debe cambiar o no su política para la aprobación de transgénicos, en un momento en que hay crisis de abastecimiento de alimentos y altos precios.

EFE El Ejecutivo comunitario celebrará un debate interno sobre "el camino a seguir" respecto a la aprobación de Organismos Genéticamente Modificados (OGM), que ahora es muy lenta, porque dentro de los países comunitarios no existe una postura unificada y algunos estados votan en contra.

La discusión, prevista dentro de la reunión semanal del Colegio de Comisarios, ha sido impulsada por el presidente de la CE, José Manuel Durao Barroso y también incluye decisiones sobre expedientes concretos de transgénicos, según han informado hoy fuentes comunitarias.

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Africa: How Media is Pushing GM Crops

Unwitting African countries are being coaxed and coerced to cultivate and consume genetically modified crops in a campaign bankrolled by giant biotech multinationals and executed by cash-rich "scientific" organisations who extol technology as the panacea for the continent's hunger and low agricultural productivity.

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