Brazilian grain harvest to set another record this year (2/28/2003) EFE News Service via NewsEdge Corporation : Rio de Janeiro, Feb 27 (EFE).- This year's Brazilian grain harvest is expected to increase 10 percent and top 2001's record, government forecasts released Thursday revealed.
Up, down on bio-pharm (2/27/2003) Thursday, February 27, 2003 - MONTROSE - Plant-based pharmaceutical crops are a cost-effective way to put drugs on pharmacy shelves, supporters said Wednesday at a public meeting co-sponsored by the Colorado Department of Agriculture.
EU states opposing GM cite lack of crop mix rules (2/27/2003) BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A call by several EU states for tighter rules to prevent gene-modified seeds from contaminating other crops may be their next tactic to delay an end to the bloc's virtual ban on GM food, officials said on Thursday.
Canary in the corn field (2/23/2003)
I HAVE STUDIED the monarch butterfly since 1954, and it is not unusual for
me to receive inquiries about the biology and conservation of this
wonderful insect. None was more fateful than a phone call in September 1998
from Linda Rayor telling me of a discovery made by her and her Cornell
University colleagues, John Losey and Maureen Carterthat a genetically
engineered strain of corn, the so-called Bt corn, produced pollen that
could kill monarch caterpillars. Shortly afterwards Losey, Rayor, and I had
a discussion about the implications of their study; the forces behind
biotechnology are powerful ones, and it was obvious that the Cornell
findings had serious scientific, political, and economic implications. Yet
none of us could have predicted the firestorm that was about to descend.
Farm Payments: Decoupled Payments Increase Households' Well-Being, Not Production (2/22/2003) Nearly all industrial countries provide subsidies to their farmers, often for the purpose of maintaining income from farming or reducing income variability. Traditionally, subsidies in the U.S. and elsewhere have linked payments to current prices and production so as to compensate producers more when market prices for key commodities are low. Such subsidies distort, or alter, the signals sent by market prices alone because, depending on the eligibility rules of specific programs, producers can garner more payments or reduce their revenue risk simply by producing more of the supported commodity.
Kernels of truth in the case of corn (2/20/2003) John Krouse wrongly said that burning corn to heat homes is "agriculturally impossible, environmentally preposterous and morally scandalous" [letters, Feb. 7].
WTO plan shakes Canadian position (2/20/2003) The chair of agricultural negotiations at the World Trade Organization has published controversial proposals that Canadian critics say would lead to the destruction of supply management and the Canadian Wheat Board.
U.S. Official Cites Progress in Trade Ties With China (2/19/2003) HONG KONG, Feb. 19 — The top United States trade official gave a generally favorable assessment of China's first year in the World Trade Organization today, saying that progress had been made on many issues even as China's annual trade surplus with the United States approaches $100 billion.
Until Brazilian farmers have incentive to grow non-biotech soybeans, many continue to illegally plant Roundup Ready (RR) varieties, according to agronomists from that country.
Edmonds, Washington, Wednesday, February 12. The Edmonds Institute, a
public interest, non-profit known for its work on biosafety, today
warned about use of the Internet to find farmers in out-of-the-way
places willing to grow pharm crops. "With bioengineered piglets
going unapproved to market, with experimental crops contaminating 150
acres of corn and half a million bushels of soybeans, with an
engineered corn unapproved for human consumption turning up all over
the world, at a time when the environmental and human health
problems posed by the so-called pharm crops* desperately need the
clear scientific light of day, people are brokering contract pharming
deals on the web, " cautions Beth Burrows, Edmonds Institute
President and Director.
Burrows is referring to "biopharming", the genetic engineering of
organisms, such as crop plants, to enable them to produce substances
they don't ordinarily produce, such as pharmaceuticals and industrial
chemicals. Because of the contamination dangers to food and feed
supplies, "pharming" was the subject of a recent call for comment by
the US Food and Drug Administration.
"The web middlemen tells companies to 'contact us if you see anyone
(on our website list of growers) who might be in the right place to
safely contract grow your crop for you'," notes Burrows, "and then
they tempt farmers with the thought that, "(w)e would expect in order
to get exactly the right location and conditions, Pharmaceutical
Companies to lease land at up to 20 times 'commercial' rates for
normal food crops."
Burrows adds, "The web brokers are offering what seems to be a
perfect deal. Perfect, until you begin to wonder whether they're not
shifting the risk and liability burden from pharmaceutical and
manufacturing companies to those much less able to address and bear
the potential health, environmental, and legal burdens of pharm
crops."
Burrows points to Molecularfarming.com, a website that came to her
notice via Indusfarming, an electronic digest that originates in
India and focuses on the problems of agrarian peoples in the South
Asia and Indus basin region. Late January, an article in Indusfarming
heralded "Molecular farming. Contract growing opportunity".
The article announced a "global project, based in Europe," that aimed
to "enable the future SAFE production of Biopharmaceuticals,
Biodegradeable plastics, New Fibers and New Polymers in transgenic,
NON-FOOD USE, genetically engineered molecular crops ." The article
acknowledged that "there will be cross-contamination and
Environmental risks" but foresaw a "huge future industry" for
contract farmers able to grow "molecular crops" in greenhouses or in
"'isolated', 'non-native', 'away from related food crop'" places. The
article announced a "free to join Global Database of future potential
growers, with the idea of introducing Biopharmaceutical companies
with crops to grow to contract growers and farmers in safe locations."
Mentioning that they already "have a few Indian growers", the article
called attention to the project's website
and enjoined the reader to "explore
the potential for you."
Burrows points out that, "This is an inducement to exactly the kind
of 'pharming' that FDA and all the rest of us are concerned about,*
and doing it in out of the way places doesn't guarantee the safety of
anything. "
Devinder Sharma, award-winning journalist and food system analyst
based in New Delhi, saw the same article Burrows did, and commented:
"This is shocking indeed...This is part of the global design to
translocate the dirty industry to the Third World. First, it was the
translocation of toxic and hazardous waste recycling to developing
countries (mainly South Asia and Africa). . .Then came the
translocation of the flower industry, one of the dirtiest farming
systems...to India, Kenya and Colombia...Now, it is the turn of
bio-pharma crops. Even in the United States, there is tremendous
problems with bio-pharma crops. So what do you do? Translocate this
dirty industry to countries of South Asia."
According to the website - Molecularfarming.com - its "worldwide
molecular farming database" was started in February, 2002. Since
then, "potential growers" for "pharm" crops have been found in
Canada, Ireland, Australia, Argentina, a dozen states of the USA,
Scotland, England, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Korea,
Greece, Turkey, Panama, Romania, Nigeria, and South Africa. The
website owners also "have leads to a farmer's group in the Baltic Sea
Islands" and" a contact for 147,000 acres in Guinea (in West Africa)."
Not surprised by the website, Sharma notes, "I am sure we will have a
number of 'farmers' waiting on line to encash this opportunity."
Burrows admits that the website "offers an attractive package" but,
she notes, "If you read it carefully, you see many, many safety
problems. At best, they are talking about hoped-for solutions. They
talk 'protection' but it's mostly talk about protection from gene
flow in the field. That is not the only problem, not even the only
environmental problem, posed by pharm crops."
In its recent draft Guidance for Industry regarding Drugs, Biologicas
and Medical Devices Derived from Bioengineered Plants for Use in
Humans and Animals, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised
industry to "consider the potential environmental impact of all
aspects of the manufacturing process, including but not limited to
transport of seeds and plants, growing, harvesting, processing,
purifying, packaging, storage, and disposal."
Looking at the molecularfarming website, Burrows worries that, "Aside
from the risks that may be engendered by handling these crops, what
about the risks from transporting these crops or accidents while
processing these crops? Whose is the liability for the child in an
out of the way place that picks and eats one of these strange new
crops? And who is going to be sure that the farmer in out-of-the-way
places are told all they need to know about pharm crops and their
problems and how to handle them. Who is going to help those
out-of-the-way farmers obey whatever relevant laws may exist in their
own counties? I find it noteworthy that one of the key questions the
website asks farmers is, 'Has your property public liability
insurance?'"
Molecularfarming.com does offers its readers translations into
Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, and
Japanese but it admits that the translations are "not exact".
Burrows wants to know, "Exactly what things aren't exactly
well-explained, and what about the farmers who speak Hindi, or Parsi,
or Arabic or Swahili? Who will explain to them the implications of
the deal they are being offered? The unknowing farmers who find this
website may not be so much bridging the digital divide as walking a
digital plank. "
Devinder Sharma warns further, "It is time the civil society wakes up
to these ecological dangers. We cannot allow the West to clean up its
house and even its backyard and turn us into a rubbish bin."
Seeds of Domination (2/12/2003) Americans have been eating genetically engineered foods every day for several years, though many remain unaware of that basic fact. Consequently, the question of whether our food should be manipulated with genes from foreign species may already be moot.
Australia studying ways to segregate GMO crops (2/12/2003) AAP News via NewsEdge Corporation : CANBERRA, Feb 10 AAP - A system to segregate genetically modified crops from traditional grains will be studied, Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said today. Mr Truss said four case studies would look at the effectiveness of separating different varieties of GM crops and tracing them through the supply chain. Tasmanian Quality Assured will conduct four case studies covering the cotton, canola and poppy industries and the connection between GM pastures and the dairy industry.
As world soybean consumption quickens, US loses export market share (2/12/2003) Southeast Farm Press via NewsEdge Corporation : U.S. farmers are in the midst of a dynamic period in the soybean industry, a period of competition never seen before. That presents not only problems but also enormous opportunities, says John Baize, president of John Baize and Associates, an international agriculture policy and trade consulting firm.
Thai farm officials plan GM field experiments (2/11/2003) Bangkok Post via NewsEdge Corporation : The Agriculture Department plans to conduct field experiments on genetically modified crops this year after the Agriculture Ministry's biosafety committee agreed on Thursday to relax the ban on such trials.
GM food programme causing indigestion in Beijing (2/4/2003) EIU ViewsWire China via NewsEdge Corporation: Since China threatened to implement strict safety and labelling restrictions on some genetically modified (GM) agricultural imports in 2001, exporters to China have questioned the country's motives. While Chinese officials claim the requirements are aimed at protecting consumers, foreign traders denounce the measures as protectionist. Indeed, the move appears to counter government efforts -- begun by Deng Xiaoping in 1985 -- to develop a domestic biotech sector, including the engineering of GM crops.
October
