Salvage prospect for 'junk' DNA
BBC News, April 26, 2006 (UK)

The term junk DNA refers to portions of the genome which appear to have no specific purpose. But a team from IBM has identified patterns, or "motifs", that were found both in the junk areas of the genome and those which coded for proteins. The presence of the motifs in junk DNA suggests [it] may have an important functional role.
Dr Rigoutsos said his team's work suggested, "a connection between a vast area of the genome we didn't think was functional with the part of the genome we knew was functional... If indeed one of them corresponds to an active element that is involved in some kind of process, then the extent of cell process regulation that actually takes place is way beyond anything we have seen in the last decade."
Dr Andrew McCallion from the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine commented: "Up until not so long ago, we were under the impression that the vast majority of information in the genome was encoded in those stretches of DNA that encoded proteins... We now understand there is much more complexity involved."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/01.html

Watchdog fails on GM food: Chance
West Australian, April 10, 2006 (Australia)

Agriculture Minister Kim Chance [is] claiming the national food safety watchdog (Food Standards Australia New Zealand), does not adequately assess health impacts of GM crops. "[It] is not rigorous. They review information sent to them by GM companies, the review is fairly superficial and they don't look at the raw data," Mr Chance said.
Mr Chance opened fire in defence of the Governments move to fund one of only a few trials to be held worldwide into the effect of feeding animals GM crops. The plan attracted criticism from pro-GM scientists and FSANZ because the work will be conducted by a research group which is openly opposed to GM products.
The trial, due to start mid-year, will see laboratory rats or mice fed GM and non-GM crops over a six month period. Their blood and organs will then be analysed to see if there is any significant difference between those fed different crops.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/02.html

EC approved GM crops despite fears
The Daily Telegraph, April 18, 2006 (EU)

The European Commission approved a range of GM foods and crops despite having serious doubts over their health and environmental impacts, according to green charities. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth said the documents revealed scientific arguments put forward behind closed doors in the EC's recent GM trade dispute.
In the documents, the Commission argues that there were "large areas of uncertainty about the health risks posed by GM produce," and that "some issues have not yet been studied at all." The papers also say "there simply is no way of ascertaining whether the introduction of GM products has had any other effect on human health," and "no unique, absolute, scientific cut off threshold available to decide whether a GM product is safe or not." The documents [also] suggested there were huge disagreements between the Commission and the European Food Safety Authority, the agency that is responsible for GM risk assessments.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/03.html

GM food - is it safe or not?
The Star, April 15, 2006 (South Africa)

Ground-breaking new trials using both animals and human cells to test the safety of GM food products will begin soon at the country's only GM testing facility in the Free State.
Many agree that while tests have so far failed to show conclusively that GMOs are bad for your health, no long-term tests have ever been attempted.
The project by the GMO testing facility at the University of the Free State has been described as the first "generational study", and will see scientists feeding a diet of GMO maize and soya beans to families of rats, mice and lambs over several years. The head of the facility, Professor Chris Viljoen, said this would be the first study of its kind in the world, but results would not be forthcoming for at least three years.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/04.html

Safety checks on GMOs flawed: EU enviro chief
Reuters, April 5, 2006 (EU)

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas attacked the EU's top food safety agency on Wednesday for flawed risk assessments of GM crops and foods, saying it relied too much on data given by the biotech industry. In a strong hint he was unwilling to process new requests for approval of GMOs for growing until their long-term impact was known, [He] also warned against using such data as a sole information source.
"There are questions like whether scientific opinions rendered by EFSA have relied exclusively on information provided by companies that look at short-term effects," he said. "EFSA cannot give sound scientific opinion on long-term effects of GMOs. There are also questions on whether GMO companies are providing the right information to the Commission."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/05.html

Biosci. Co.s formalizing ethical decision-making
University of Toronto Joint Center for Bioethics, April 3, 2006 (USA)

Pharmaceutical, biotech and bio-agricultural companies, grappling with an array of complex ethical issues, are gradually formalizing systematic approaches to ethical decision-making [and], faced with growing concerns, are recognizing and acting on public pressure to demonstrate business methods that are not just legal but ethical too, according to a two-year study by leading international ethics and bioscience researchers.
"Because they operate near the cutting edge of scientific research and development, with processes and products that are often controversial, the ethical commitment of bioscience companies is regularly called into question," says Jocelyn Mackie, who led the JCB investigation.
Says Peter A. Singer, MD, JCB Director and a report co-author: "For bioscience companies, the choice is clear: Pay serious attention to ethics now and lead the way, or be pushed along the path later. Either way the final result will be similar." He notes that bioscience industries are at a stage similar to that of [the] medical profession in the 1970s "when public pressure about patients' rights precipitated the formal consideration of ethics in decision-making processes, ideas now long assimilated in medical schools and hospitals.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/06.html

US Interior Dept. sued over GMO plantings
Reuters, April 5, 2006 (USA)

A coalition concerned about the cultivation of GM crops in wildlife refuge areas filed suit against the US Interior Department, saying government workers illegally approved the planting. The plaintiffs said they discovered "a top Bush administration political appointee" overruled the wildlife refuge manager in allowing the genetically altered crops to be planted on land designated as a national wildlife refuge in violation of department policy.
"Refuges are supposed to be for wildlife, not chemical companies or agribusiness," Gene Hocutt, a spokesman for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said. "Plowing up native grasses for mutated row crops constitutes a betrayal of the purposes of the National Wildlife Refuge System."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/07.html

Mali: not on my farm
Le Monde Diplomatique, April 2006 (Mali)

For five days 43 small farmers met for an extraordinary exercise in participatory democracy. The provincial parliament invited cotton growers to form a citizens' jury to evaluate the potential advantages and dangers of introducing GM into Malian agriculture. The Sikasso forum was a response to the strong pressure being exerted upon African countries, led by US company Monsanto and the Swiss Syngenta Foundation.
The citizens' jury members listened to molecular biologists, agricultural engineers, members of NGOs and representatives of farmers' movements. There was much discussion of the crucial problem of intellectual property rights and the patenting of living organisms. Syngenta and Monsanto refused to put their case to the jury.
After deliberating for a day, they returned their verdict: no. The Sikasso farmers unanimously rejected the introduction of GMOs to Mali, their primary concern being to prevent dependence upon multinationals by preserving local varieties and traditional know-how. As Brahim Sidebe, put it: "We want to be the masters of our own fields, not slaves."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/08.html

GM trees are being grown secretly in UK
The Independent, April 30, 2006 (UK)

The Government was forced to admit for the first time that GM poplar, apple and eucalyptus trees have been cultivated outdoors. All the plantations have either been destroyed by protesters or cut down at the end of experiments. Britain's only GM trees are now elms, resistant to Dutch elm disease being grown in "a controlled environment" somewhere in Dundee.
The admission came after warnings about such trees from over 100 countries at a UN conference in Brazil. Ministers were concerned that genes from the modified trees could spread great distances on the wind and across national boundaries. Tree pollen can travel up to 2,000 km. And, because trees can live for centuries, modified examples pose a long-term threat to the world's forests. Contamination by genes conferring fast growth, for example, could make some forest trees crowd out other species.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/052006/09.html