Is Monsanto Going to Seed?

Many people like to consider Monsanto (NYSE: MON) part of the brave new world of biotech. However, the company has long been shrouded in controversy, and there could be more in store.

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GMOs unfit for consumption

The work of press agents consists of not just getting the media to carry news favorable to their clients, but also to suppress information inimical to their business. Jargon in the traditional newsroom has an aptly descriptive phrase for it: “Kill story!”

One story that has suffered down play—as of this writing—comes from a scientific study, which found that genetically modified (GM) corn approved by Philippine authorities shows signs of toxicity to mammals. The giant agribusiness multinational Monsanto markets the GM corn in several countries, including ours, for animal feeds, food processing and human consumption.

That the issue has a direct bearing on public health should be apparent. Yet many major news organizations failed to give it the prominence it obviously deserves—if they ran the story at all.

The study, written by a panel of three scientists in France, showed that laboratory rats fed with GMO corn Monsanto (MON) 863 YieldGard Root­wom displayed kidney and liver toxicity.

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GM starch potato: still no cultivation in 2007

The Amflora potato, developed by BASF Plant Science with an altered starch composition, apparently may not yet be cultivated this year in the EU. As reported by the magazine Agrar Europe, the European Commission has requested an opinion from the European Medicines Agency, EMEA, as prerequisite to an approval decision.

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Mixed reaction to DEFRA GM potato trials announcement

DEFRA has published details of a proposed site for a genetically modified potato trial in Yorkshire.

The site, which will test the effectiveness of the GM potato's resistance against UK strains of late potato blight, has been proposed by agrochemical company BASF. It is needed, the company says, to replace a site in Derbyshire that pulled out in December 2006.

It will now have to undergo an approval procedure with DEFRA. This has begun with the department calling for any interested parties to make representations about "the risk of environmental damage posed by the GM trial".

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Growers fight plan to hold GM potato crop trial in region

CAMPAIGNERS have vowed to fight attempts to hold a genetically modified potato trial in East Yorkshire. Crop development business BASF Plant Science wants to carry out a five-year trial of a potato modified to resist the devastating fungal disease late blight at a farm in the Hedon/Preston area, after a Derbyshire farm pulled out.

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Defra invites views on proposed new site for GM potato trials

Defra gave approval in December for the company BASF to undertake research trials of a GM potato at two sites in England, one in Cambridgeshire and the other in Derbyshire.

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New GM food fears

A British newspaper is reporting clinical links between genetically modified (GM) foods and cancer.

A weekend article in the Independent cites a Russian study affirming the work of Árpád Pusztai. Pusztai is a Hungarian-born protein scientist who in 1998 published an article in The Lancet medical journal raising questions about GM food safety. He detailed genetic damage observed in the digestive tracts of rats fed a diet of genetically modified potatoes. It concluded that the abnormalities were "mainly due to the expression of the GNA transgene in the potato."

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