STRASBOURG (AFP) – Green members of the European parliament stood en masse and held up placards Tuesday in protest against the EU Commission approval of the cultivation of genetically modified potatoes. Read Article
WASHINGTON TIMES -A team of researchers from universities across the nation are urgently trying to develop a strain of “super” honeybees to ward off a mysterious malady that has been decimating U.S. colonies for the past three years.Scientists continue to search for the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a malady that has greatly reduced the U.S. bee population. “Over the past three years on average, our surveys have said that we’ve lost about 30 percent of the (2.4 million) colonies nationwide,” said Jeffery Pettis, a lead bee researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Of that figure, the government suspects 13 percent is because of CCD. Read Article
The Independent – The introduction of a genetically modified potato in Europe risks the development of human diseases that fail to respond to antibiotics, it was claimed last night. German chemical giant BASF this week won approval from the European Commission for commercial growing of a starchy potato with a gene that could resist antibiotics – useful in the fight against illnesses such as tuberculosis. Farms in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic may plant the potato for industrial use, with part of the tuber fed to cattle, according to BASF, which fought a 13-year battle to win approval for Amflora. But other EU member states, including Italy and Austria and anti-GM campaigners angrily attacked the move, claiming it could result in a health disaster. Read Article
Ed – Slowly but surely the global food supply falls under corporate patent. Irrespective of the possible health affects of GM crops, there are considerable civil liberties and moral implications of mankind’s most basic need being controlled by corporate psychology.
EurekAlert – If you aren’t getting a good, consistent and regular night’s sleep, a new study suggests it could reduce your ability to handle oxidative stress, cause impacts to your health, increase motor and neurological deterioration, speed aging and ultimately cut short your life. That is, if your “biological clock” genes work the same way as those of a fruit fly. And they probably do. Read article
BBC – Scientists are breeding a genetically altered strain of mosquito in an effort to curb the spread of dengue fever. The dengue virus is spread by the bite of infected female mosquitoes and there is no vaccine or treatment. Scientists hope their genetically altered males will mate with females to create female offspring that will inherit a gene limiting wing growth. Read article
Ed. – Unlike many GMO’s, this is a gene within the same insect. Logically, this should be safer than going across genera (Genus)and indeed phyla(phylum) and Kingdoms (Animal, Plant,bacteria etc.).
UPI – A Canadian government department is poised to approve genetically modified pigs for the food supply, the Canwest News Service reported Friday. Sources told the agency Environment Canada will announce approval of the strain known as “enviropigs” Saturday. The strain would then need approval from Health Canada before the pigs enter the food market. Read Article
Ed – Aside from the science and whether or not there are health risks, have you considered the ethical and civil liberties implications of having your food supply owned under patent by corporations?
ScienceDaily — A novel — and rapid — anti-cancer drug development strategy has resulted in a new drug that stops kidney and pancreatic tumors from growing in mice. Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have found a drug that binds to a molecular “switch” found in cancer cells and cancer-associated blood vessels to keep it in the “off” position. Read article
India Today – The debate on genetically modified (GM) brinjal variety continues to generate heat. Former managing director of Monsanto India, Tiruvadi Jagadisan, is the latest to join the critics of Bt brinjal, perhaps the first industry insider to do so. Jagadisan, who worked with Monsanto for nearly two decades, including eight years as the managing director of India operations, spoke against the new variety during the public consultation held in Bangalore on Saturday. On Monday, he elaborated by saying the company “used to fake scientific data” submitted to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approvals for its products in India. Read Article
Reuters – BASF, the world’s largest chemicals group, won approval for the cultivation of a genetically modified (GM) soy variety in Brazil, its debut in the GM-seed market. A top executive told Reuters on Friday that the German company, which has annual sales of about 3.6 billion euros ($5 billion) from crop products, aims to win 10 to 20 percent of the soy acreage in Brazil, the second-largest soy producer after the United States. BASF, a smaller player in the global pesticides and seeds market, is branching out into a market that is dominated by the No.1 GM-seed maker Monsanto. Brazil, which is expecting a record 65 million tonnes annual soy harvest this year, gets about 60 percent of its soy from genetically modified seeds sold mainly by Monsanto and DuPont’s Pioneer. Read Article
Ed – Two important points. First, the crops may now be resistant to herbicides, however human beings are not, and yet we will receive large quantities through the crop spraying and through residue on the retailed crops. Second there are very significant human rights and moral issues that need to be recognised should a handful of corporations own the patent to world’s food supply.
ABC – India has decided to stop the release of its first genetically modified (GM) food crop because of health concerns. One of India’s largest seed companies, Maiko, had developed a GM eggplant which it said was modified to be pest-resistant.But after weeks of heated debate on whether the GM eggplants should be grown on farms for commercial use, the Indian government says it wants more time to study the issue.The GM vegetable has undergone field trials since 2008 and received approval from government scientists last October.But state governments across India, as well as politicians, environmentalists and farmers, have opposed its production, saying there are serious health and safety issues associated with it. Read Article
Huffington Post – When Forbes magazine declared Monsanto as the Company of the Year for 2009, millions of surprised people were forced to reevaluate their opinions about a major corporation. Now they no longer trust Forbes. Monsanto is one of the most despised corporations on earth. This is the first in a series of articles that expose their not-so-hidden dark side and how, if unrestrained, Monsanto could unleash a cataclysm. Indeed, it has already started… Read Article
Deutsche Welle – 10,000 Germans commit suicide every year and 1 million people commit suicide annually worldwide. German researchers suggest that certain gene mutations may influence the ability to control suicidal impulses in patients. Read Article
Scientific American – International Paper and MeadWestvaco are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern U.S. by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus. Genetic engineering is coming to the forests. While the practice of splicing foreign DNA into food crops has become common in corn and soy, few companies or researchers have dared to apply genetic engineering to plants that provide an essential strut of the U.S. economy, trees. But that will soon change. Two industry giants, International Paper Co. and MeadWestvaco Corp., are planning to transform plantation forests of the southeastern United States by replacing native pine with genetically engineered eucalyptus, a rapidly growing Australian tree that in its conventional strains now dominates the tropical timber industry. Read Article
Wall Street Journal – The FBI disproved its main theory about how the spores were weaponized. The investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks ended as far as the public knew on July 29, 2008, with the death of Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Md. The cause of death was an overdose of the painkiller Tylenol. No autopsy was performed, and there was no suicide note. Read article
Ed – (un)remarkably similar to the ’suicide’ of UK weapons inspector David Kelly, supposedly from an overdose of an analgesic and cutting his wrists with a knife whilst leaving no fingerprints.
Daily Mail – Fresh fears were raised over GM crops yesterday after a study showed they can cause liver and kidney damage. According to the research, animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by the U.S. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just three months. Read article
Ed. – Related articles: 1. Monsanto GMO/organ failure. 2. The independent study:GM corn/Mammalian Health Note that while one GMO is resistant to ‘Round-up’, people and other living organisms are NOT resistant – rather a large fact for Monsanto to overlook. ‘Round-up’ residues in the harvested crop are toxic. Bio-insecticides (produced by the two Bt* GMO’s), like any other insecticide, simply react chemically and indiscriminately on the chewing insects it kills i.e. corn-borers AND caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly. *Definition: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) (It is the first entry under ‘B’.)
NY Times — New York has become the latest of a handful of jurisdictions to permit a controversial use of DNA evidence that gives law enforcement authorities a sophisticated means to track down criminals. Under a state rule approved in December, DNA found at a crime scene that does not exactly match that of someone in the state’s DNA database can still be used to pursue suspects if the DNA closely resembles that of someone on file. Since family members share genetic traits, a partial DNA match allows investigators to narrow searches to relatives of people whose DNA is already in the state database, forensic experts say. Read article
BBC – Researchers have developed a technique for precisely tracking the spread of the superbug MRSA in hospitals. The team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge looked at the genomes of MRSA strains from across the globe and at one hospital in Thailand. They were able to spot small changes that allowed them to track the strain back to an individual patient. Read article
Ed. – ‘Tracking’ global changes in the genome is a more accurate statement, than “‘tracking’ the spread of the superbug MRSA in hospitals.” This DOES end up enabling the spread of the bug to be tracked from place to place.
BBC – The decline of honeybees seen in many countries may be caused by reduced plant diversity, research suggests. Bees fed pollen from a range of plants showed signs of having a healthier immune system than those eating pollen from a single type, scientists found. Read article
Ed. – Yes, reduced plant diversity sounds likely to affect the immune sytem. What about a mutated bioinsecticide contributing to the deaths? Gene’s used in bioinseciticides are taken from fungi, various other parasites and other organisms.
BBC – Global supply of a key, plant-based, anti-malaria drug is set to be boosted by a genetic study, scientists say. Researchers have mapped the genes of Artemisia annua to allow selection of high-yield varieties. The study, published in the journal Science, aims to make growing the plant more profitable for farmers. Read Article
Ed. – It is pleasing that they have not leapt into inserting genes into it, but seem to be actually breeding them, using the genetic information to select which varieties to use. This is much safer than inserting animal genes etc.
Int. Journal of Biol. Sci. – We present for the first time a comparative analysis of blood and organ system data from trials with rats fed three main commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize (NK 603, MON 810, MON 863), which are present in food and feed in the world. NK 603 has been modified to be tolerant to the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup and thus contains residues of this formulation. MON 810 and MON 863 are engineered to synthesize two different Bt toxins used as insecticides. Read article
Huffington Post – Comments 1,187 In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats. According to the study, which was summarized by Adam Shake at Twilight Earth, “Three varieties of Monsanto’s GM corn – Mon 863, insecticide-producing Mon 810, and Roundup® herbicide-absorbing NK 603 – were approved for consumption by US, European and several other national food safety authorities.” Read Article
Ed. – For your convenience the next article is the written-up study.
The Guardian – Hi-tech vision of food production advocated by the UK government’s chief scientific adviser is unnecessary and potentially damaging, says conference of farmers, academics and environmental groups Read Article
Ed - Is that the democracy the British people are still under the illusion they live in, that the British Government is a PR marketing tool for the benefit of Monsantos shareholders?
The Guardian – The organic movement should overcome its hostility to genetically modified crops and embrace the contribution that they can make to sustainable farming, one of the world’s leading agricultural scientists has told The Times. Although organic farmers are among the most implacable opponents of genetic engineering, it should be accepted as legitimate, according to Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development at Imperial College London and a former government adviser. Read Article
Ed – Professor Conway just happens to be the President of The Rockerfeller Foundation. They are one of the main forces behind the “Global Seed Bank” on the island of Spitsbergen (along with the Bill Gates Foundation & Monstanto) , and long time vocal advocates of the GMO sector. Whther or not they are also partly funded by Monsanto & friends is shrouded in secrecy.
Forbes – On December 31, 2009, Forbes Magazine named Monsanto its Company of the Year for 2009. The magazine praised Monsanto’s economic success and innovative new products. Robert Langreth and Matthew Herper refered to the company as an economic winner in the Forbes article, “The Planet Versus Monsanto.” “It has created many billions of dollars of value for the world with seeds genetically engineered to ward off insects or make a crop immune to herbicides: Witness the vast numbers of farmers who prefer its seeds to competing products, and the resulting $44 billion market value of the company.” Read Article
Ed – To become Company of the Year you must crush all independent competitors through whatever legal or commercial means possible, force customers to buy your products, inflict your products onto non-consumers (through cross-pollinisation) and make them buy it too, and destroy the natural alternatives to your products (again through cross pollinisation). You couldn’t make this stuff up.
New Scientist – HIDDEN detail in the natural world could hold the key to future sources of clean energy. So say materials scientists who have created an artificial leaf that can harness light to split water and generate hydrogen. Plant leaves have evolved over millions of years to catch the energy in the sun’s rays very efficiently. They use the energy to produce food, and the central step in the process involves splitting water molecules and creating hydrogen ions. By mimicking the machinery plants use to do this, it is possible to create a miniature hydrogen factory, says Tongxiang Fan of The State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. “Using sunlight to split water molecules and form hydrogen fuel is one of the most promising tactics for kicking our carbon habit,” he says. Read Article
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