Using Agrobiodiversity Through Biotechnology: Crops - Cassava a virulent disease of the crop; QTL mapping of the cassava genome loci Freezing in liquid nitrogen More than 10 years ago, the Biotechnology http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/biotechnology/crops_cassava.htm
Extractions: Description Highlights Our Team ... Using Agrobiodiversity through Biotechnology Highlights of our project activities This technology can significantly improve the efficiency of cassava varietal development programs and reduce time and costs by as much as 50%, thus effectively doubling the capacity of existing research programs. Achievements made in developing and deploying SSR markers include:
Monsanto Comments To USTR On US-Thailand FTA In 2003, approximately 167 million acres of biotech crops were grown by 7 million transparent and sciencebased process to evaluate biotechnology crops, http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=93
Dale, October 2001 The potential to produce novel biotechnology crops has led to the development ofmorecomprehensive testing of environmental impact than for conventionally http://www.asas.org/jas/JAS0901.htm
Extractions: John Innes Centre, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom ABSTRACT Implications There have been significant improvements in crop productivity during the past 80 yr through plant breeding and changes in agronomic practice. There is a continuous desire in plant breeding to widen the choice of genes for important agricultural characteristics, including pest resistance, disease resistance, and crop quality. The potential to produce novel biotechnology crops has led to the development of more-comprehensive testing of environmental impact than for conventionally bred crops. There are several significant regulatory challenges associated with establishing a baseline of acceptability of environmental impact because food production will inevitably impact the wider environment. Biotechnology is innately neither good nor bad. It has the potential to alleviate or aggravate the impact of agriculture on the environment. The challenge for all of us is to develop, supply, and manage biotechnology for the benefit of humankind and the environment. Key Words: Biotechnology, Environmental impact, Gene Transfer, Genetic Transformation, Herbicide Resistance, Regulations
Genetically Engineered Crops Genetically Engineered Crops Can Feed the World! insect control programs andhave even benefitted farmers who have not yet adopted biotechnology crops. http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/biotech.html
Extractions: Biotechnology is one of the best hopes for solving the food needs of the poor today, when we have 6 billion people in the world, and certainly in the next 30 to 50 years, when there will be 9 billion on the globe. Products from biotechnology are no less safe than traditionally bred crops. In fact, they may be even safer, because they represent small, precise alterations with the introduction of genes whose biology is well understood. Often these genes are derived from other food crops. Further, genetically improved products are subjected to intensive testing, while conventional varieties have never been subjected to any such regulation for food safety or environmental impact. Traditional methods of developing crops involve wild crosses with weedy relatives of crop plants, and many characteristics, such as resistance to disease and pests, have been routinely introduced into crop plants from their weedy and distant relatives over hundreds of years. Hundreds of unknown genes, of whose traits we have little knowledge, are also introduced into these food crops through these conventional plant breeding methods. This cross-breeding has posed no serious threat to the environment in terms of crop invasiveness, gene flow to weeds, or biodiversity. Yet, these fears are invoked for genetically improved crops, which possess similar traits but which are developed through rapid genetic-modification processes.
Rethinking US Leadership In Food Biotechnology - Nature Biotechnology Many US citizens say they would rather avoid GM foods, and most GM crops are (where government standards prohibit biotechnology crops) and in actions of http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v21/n8/full/nbt0803-852.html
Extractions: @import "/nbt/style.css"; nature.com homepage Login Search This journal All of nature.com Advanced search Journal home Archive Table of Contents ... For librarians NPG Resources Bioentrepreneur The Nature Biotechnology Directory Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Nature ... Browse all publications Commentary Nature Biotechnology doi:10.1038/nbt0803-852 Michael R. Taylor Michael R. Taylor is a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, 1616 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20036, USA. taylor@rff.org The Bush Administration in the United States announced in May it would challenge the European de facto moratorium on approval of genetically modified (GM) food crops in the World Trade Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). This follows several years of campaigning by the US government and industry to gain acceptance in Europe of GM crops and foods that US citizens consider, with good reason, to be safe. But the United States cannot successfully litigate its way to public acceptance of biotechnology. The stakes in this debate are high. Biotechnology is helping US farmers grow corn, cotton and soybeans more efficiently and, in some cases, with less use of toxic insecticides, but the worldwide pattern of controversy, resistance and polarization surrounding biotechnology threatens its future adoption for food purposes, in the United States and elsewhere. Wheat growers and processors alike are cautioning Monsanto not to proceed with a GM version of this staple crop until global public acceptance improves.
Articles Farmers The figures on adoption of biotechnology crops reflect two underlying trends More farmers are choosing to plant biotechnology crops http://infobiotechnologie.qc.ca/index.asp?id=1809
Anti-Trust Case Against Monsanto & Gene Giants Moves Forward a pioneer in the development of biotechnology crops, was at the center of a crop losses when some export markets began to shun biotechnology crops. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/monsanto_antitrust.cfm
Extractions: GE SEED CORPORATIONS MAY PROCEED DAVID BARBOZA, NEW YORKTIMES: A federal judge on [September 19] let proceed an antitrust case that accused the Monsanto Company and other big agricultural seed giants of conspiring to control the world's market in genetically modified crops. In a 13-page decision, Rodney W. Sippel, a federal district judge in St. Louis, dismissed part of a class-action lawsuit that was filed in 1999 by a group of farmers who said they had suffered huge losses because of global opposition to genetically modified crops. But Judge Sippel allowed the antitrust portion of the case to proceed, possibly setting the stage for a court battle over whether the world's biggest producers of agricultural seeds got together in the late 1990's to fix prices and control the market for those valuable biotechnology seeds, which are now planted on more than 100 million acres worldwide. Judge Sippel denied an effort by the big seed companies to dismiss the antitrust claims and end the possibility of a trial.
Farm Management - AgEBB What is the Impact of Adopting biotechnology cropsSummary? The Impact of Adoptionof Herbicide-Tolerant and Insect-Resistant Field Crops http://agebb.missouri.edu/mgt/gmoqa/gmo23.htm
Extractions: (Southeast) Change in yields small increase increase increase Change in profits O increase increase Change in pesticide use Herbicide Acetamide herbicides O Triazine herbicides O Other synthetic herbicides decrease O Glyophosate increase O Insecticides Organophospate insecticides O Pyrethoid insecticides O Other insecticides decrease Based on Fernandez-Cornejo, Klotz-Ingram, and Jans (1999). "Farm-Level Effects of Adopting Cenetically Engineered Crops in the U.S.A." Selected Paper presented at the International Conference "Transitions in Ag Biotech: Economics of Stratecy and Policy." NE-165, Washington, DC, June 24-25, 1999.
Italy Should Lead In The Field Of Biotechnology, July 24, 2003 In the United States, where biotechnology crops are planted, This is becausethe introduction of biotechnology crops has reduced the use of pesticides http://www.usembassy.it/file2003_07/alia/A3072511en.htm
Extractions: U.S. Ambassador to Italy The following op-ed appeared in "Il Sole 24 Ore" on July 24, 2003 This May, more than 300 of the worlds top agricultural scientists, including a Nobel Prize Winner and two recipients of the World Food Prize, declared at the University of Bologna that modern biotechnology was an important means to sustain the next green revolution, and to feed more than 8 billion people by mid-century. In late June, the Codex Alimentarius Committee of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, the worlds preeminent body on food safety, met and adopted an international standard for assessing the safety of GMO foods. And on July 2, the European Parliament passed final versions of the new law regulating biotechnology products in the EU, and final rules for food and feeds, and traceability and labeling. Yet in the great region of Piedmont from July 10-17, almost 400 hectares of corn fields were destroyed at great economic loss to Italian farmers, because the non-GMO seeds used to sow these fields were determined to contain very small accidental traces of GM plants. Its important to note that these fields did not contain GM corn, but traditional hybrids of longstanding reputation and proven performance among Italian farmers. No one is claiming a risk to the health of people or animals from these accidental traces, which were probably the inevitable consequence of modern handling of seed lots. Yet farmers were ordered to destroy their fields or face criminal charges.
International Food Biotechnology Committee to the development and harmonization of the food safety assessment ofbiotechnology crops, Other crops (including biotech crops) will follow. http://www.ilsi.org/index.cfm?pubentityid=285
Embassy Of The US London Current Issues Biotechnology If imports like these biotechnology crops are regulated unnecessarily, the reallosers will be the developing nations. Their countries could suffer greatly http://www.usembassy.org.uk/agri171.html
Extractions: Agricultural biotechnology holds enormous promise for improving the productivity and environmental sustainability of food and fiber production. In order to secure that bright future, the Clinton Administration is taking steps today to further our long-standing goal of sound science regulation and improved access to information. These steps are intended to build consumer confidence, ensure that regulations keep pace with the latest scientific and market developments and provide that voluntary product claims, such as labels, relating to biotechnology are truthful and not misleading. The Federal Government Has a Strong Regulatory System for Agricultural Biotechnology, a Sector That Holds Enormous Economic and Environmental Promise. The U.S. regulatory approach to agricultural biotechnology applies principles of sound science to ensure that there are no unacceptable human health and environmental risks associated with the use of these crops and that they are safe to enter into commerce. This system, encompassing the food safety and environmental regulations of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Environmental Protection Agency, has resulted in rigorous scientific review of products, while providing a predictable regulatory environment that fosters scientific advancement and product innovation.
US Leaders Push Europe To Allow Biotech Crops set up to really ensure the safety of biotechnology crops, Jaffe said.The disparity between the US enthusiasm for GM crops compared to the criticism http://foodhaccp.com/msgboard.mv?parm_func=showmsg parm_msgnum=1007710
Africa Urged To Drop Resistance To GM Crops : Mail & Guardian Online But this may never be known if publicly developed biotechnology crops do notreach the farmers, he told reporters at a news conference in Nairobi. http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&
Oxford University Press: Agricultural Biotechnology: Allan S. Felsot William P. Ridley, Ravinder S. Sidhu, James D. Astwood, and Roy L. Fuchs.12 biotechnology crops as Feeds for Livestock. JH Clark and IR Ipharraguerre http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Chemistry/AgricultureandPesticides
Extractions: Resources If you have a relevant resource (books, papers, bulletins, etc.) you would like to see announced in this section, please forward a copy or review by the BRIDGES staff to THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY: INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION AND RESEARCH IN 2004 . By C. Ford Runge (Council on Biotechnology Information, 8 December 2004). This report laments the attention given by the international press to opposition to biotechnology and instead points out the increasing adoption and diffusion of biotechnology crops globally. It predicts continued expansion of commercial and scientific possibilities for plant biotechnology in the next decade and beyond. The value of biotechnology crops was approximately $44 billion in 2003-2004 in the five countries the US, Argentina, China, Canada and Brazil that account for almost 98 percent of all biotechnology crop hectares and values. Soybeans, cotton, maize and canola continue to account for virtually all of planted biotechnology products. A CAPABILITIES APPROACH TO TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: USING SEN'S CONCEPTION OF DEVELOPMENT TO RE-EXAMINE THE DEBATES . By Aaron Cosbey, International Institute for Sustainable Development, November 2004. This paper takes the thinking of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and uses it to fashion a comprehensive new definition of sustainable development. It then asks how trade and trade liberalization might contribute to sustainable development so defined, surveying a complex web of potential impacts. It draws important lessons for civil society, developing countries and the WTO negotiations from the analysis.
Extractions: EU CONSIDERS TIMBER CERTIFICATION SCHEME At the 22 December Council of agriculture ministers, EU members debated a European Commission draft regulation that would create a voluntary certification scheme for timber imports into the EU. Proposed under the Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) adopted by the European Commission in May 2003 (see BRIDGES Weekly , 23 May 2003) and augmented by a set of measures adopted in July 2004 (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes , 23 July 2004), the plan would allow countries to sign up for voluntary partnerships with the EU through which its legal imports into the EU would be accompanied by paperwork showing the timber comes from approved forests. After the bilateral agreement has been signed, the EU would refuse timber imports from that state unless they had been certified as legal. The plan which the EU notes would be WTO-compliant because the partnerships are voluntary would seek to stop illegal logging and associated trade in illegal timber which the EU says are associated with environmental damage, corruption, bad governance and losses in government revenue in developing countries.
Institute For National Measurement Standards - National Research More than onefifth of the global crop area of soybeans, corn, cotton, and canolaacres is planted with biotechnology crops, according to a report by the http://inms-ienm.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/emergingtechnologies_e.html
Biotechnology Learning Center Are biotechnology crops and the foods produced from them safe for human consumption? Mary Lee Chin, a registered dietitian in Denver answers in the http://www.childrensmuseum.org/biotech/faqs.htm
Extractions: The following answers to these Frequently Asked Questions have been compiled from a variety of source materials, from the Internet to biotechnology books and magazines. In order to present a reasonable answer to very difficult questions, the responses have been formatted so that families may learn and understand together. Most people have actually been eating Genetically Modified foods for several years, without knowing the difference between "regular food" and GM food. And people can't tell the difference between "regular" and GM food because there is not much of a difference. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not treat GM food any differently than ordinary, non-modified food. As for the lurking fear of growing two heads after nibbling on a GM carrot, examining the science behind biotechnology can dismiss this worry. As The Children's Museum will help convey, foods produced through biotechnology do not present any health concerns and, in fact, may be able to alleviate food allergies. Soybean allergies, the number one children's allergy, followed by the ever-present peanut allergy, may be eliminated by genetically modifying soybeans and peanuts to stop production of the allergic ingredient in these foods.