EU consumers: GM food is risk to society
Reuters News Service, June 23, 2006 (Belgium)

Most Europeans believe that GM foods should not be encouraged and see biotech crops as posing a risk to society, a survey, conducted by a group of academics [for] the European Commission's polling arm Eurobarometer, showed.
While there was general support for medical and industrial biotechnology, 25,000 EU citizens polled in nearly all the bloc's 25 countries remained sceptical about biotech used in agriculture. Average support among EU citizens for GMO foods ranked at 27 percent - against more than 50 percent for nanotechnology, pharmacogenetics and gene therapy. "Overall, Europeans think that GM food should not be encouraged. GM food is widely seen as not being useful, as morally unacceptable and as a risk for society," [the survey] said.
"New regulations on GM crop commercialisation and labelling of GM food appears to have done little to allay the public's anxieties about food biotechnology," it said.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/01.html

Australians still wary about GM food
ABC Science Online, June 30, 2006 (Australia)

Australians are becoming more comfortable with new technologies like stem cell research but still have strong reservations about GM foods, a survey, conducted by the Australian Centre for Emerging Technologies and Society, shows.
On the subject of stem cell research, Australians seem to be more comfortable compared to 2004, the survey shows. But when the respondents were asked about GM crops or animals, their reaction was decidedly more negative. Only 30% said they were comfortable with GM plants for food. "That was the stand-out from our point of view," Professor Michael Gilding, Centre director says. "Overall, people are still very uncomfortable with those technologies."
The survey also found that just 18% of people were comfortable with genetically modifying animals for food.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/02.html

Activists tear up 3 patents for taro
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 21, 2006 (Hawaii)

Chants honoring the Hawaiian people's kinship with kalo, or taro, began a ceremony that culminated in Hawaiians tearing up copies of patents on the plant.
Since January, Hawaiians have been pushing the University of Hawaii to give up patents it had obtained in 2002 on three varieties of disease-resistant taro it developed. "UH did not invent taro, and they had no right to own it or license it to farmers," Kaua'i taro farmer Christine Kobayashi said.
After a leaf blight wiped out 90 percent of the taro in Samoa in the 1990s, University of Hawaii scientists used traditional breeding techniques to cross Palauan and Hawaiian taro to produce three strains resistant to the disease.
"The Hawaiian people have been modifying and growing taro for 1,000 years, and probably 5,000 years before that in Polynesia," said Gary Ostrander, vice chancellor for research at UH said. "What seems counterintuitive now is that a faculty member can make an improvement now and patent it."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/03.html

Santa Cruz County outlaws GE plants
San Fransisco Chronicle, June 24, 2006 (USA)

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a moratorium Tuesday on GE crops, citing the failure of regulatory agencies to address possible health risks. "The fact there is no labeling - when we are as a nation really concerned about consumer rights - is shocking," said Supervisor Ellen Pirie. The subcommittee found that "the biotechnology industry is conducting case studies, research or field tests on 27 of our 39 commercial crops."
Another portent of the pending proliferation of GE fruit and vegetable crops is Monsanto's purchase of Seminis, the world's largest developer, grower, and marketer of vegetable seeds. [It] is likely the first move to extend Monsanto's GE technology into commercially grown fruits and vegetables.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/04.html

Ecological studies on herbicide resistance
Trends in Plant Science, oi:10.1016, June 16, 2006 (Online)

Recent publications demonstrate two ecological effects of transgenic crop plants that were not anticipated: the widespread emergence of glyphosate-resistant weeds and the formation of a metabolic herbicidal residue. Both appear to be due to the increased use of glyphosate rather than the modification.
Opinions collected from the literature point towards a certain degree of resistance mismanagement and an inadequate testing of the ecological effects of extensive glyphosate use.
Research News: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/05.html

Brazil GMO crackdown: $30m cotton losses
Dow Jones News Service, June 23, 2006 (Brazil)

The discovery of illegal Monsanto transgenic cotton plants on 18,000 ha. of Brazilian cotton farms caused a quarantine of those fields by federal authorities this week and will likely amount to $30 million in losses, according to Brazil's Cotton Producers Association, or Abrapa. "Farmers are more than a bit worried. Some say that they didn't know the plants were GMO," said Abrapa President Joao Carlos Jacobsen. Farmers would not be permitted to plant cotton on those fields in the 2006-07 crop.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/06.html

No consensus on global GM labelling
FoodNavigator.com, June 28, 2006 (Online)

The current move towards harmonising global regulations on GM food is a good thing, though agreement on labelling remains as far away as ever, an IFT conference heard this week.
"US soybean exports to the EU for example have decreased from $2.5 billion in 1996 to $874 m in 2004."
It is difficult to see how this will be resolved. However a recent USDA report describes 3 scenarios for GM food in 2015.
The rosy view is that biotechnology is embraced globally. A second view sees GM food products being traded universally within continents, but without any real global harmonisation.
The third view is that 'biotech goes niche' [i.e.], the barriers that currently inhibit the global trade of GM food products, regulatory or consumer-based, are never overcome.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/07.html

Consumer group sues FDA over biotech foods
Reuters, June 7, 2006 (USA)

A lawsuit filed [by] the Center for Food Safety seeks to force the US government to conduct mandatory reviews of GE foods and require labeling of such foods once approved.
The suit against the Food and Drug Administration comes after years of lobbying by environmental and consumer groups for more stringent regulation and labeling of biotech crops.
The US requires no independent testing of these crops or the food products they are used in, does not mandate what data companies must submit for review, and does not require that foods that contain biotech crops be labeled, CFS said.
Last year scientists found that bean genes engineered into pea plants created a potentially dangerous allergen. CFS said the tests that exposed that potential hazard have not been conducted on any of the GM foods currently marketed in the US.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/08.html

GM-free intentions defended
The Mercury, June 29, 2006 (Australia)

Tasmania must maintain its freedom from GM technology or risk valuable agricultural exports, the Primary Industry Minister has told a Budget estimates hearing.
Mr Llewellyn said he could not support coexistence between GM and traditional crops as it had major ramifications for Tasmania. "We are positioning Tasmania as GM-free and we don't want to fall in with those who would target less-than discerning buyers," Mr Llewellyn said this week.
Mr Llewellyn said the managing director of a major Japanese importer of Tasmanian products said if the state moved down the GM line, it would cut its ties with the state.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/09.html

Biotech food tears rifts in Europe
The New York Times, June 5, 2006 (Greece)

In this famously fractious country, there is one thing on which almost all Greeks agree: They do not want GM crops grown, sold or eaten here. "All political parties are opposed," said Theodore Koliopanos, a former deputy environment minister, "which is odd because we disagree on everything else."
"The environment minister who gives in and allows GMO's into this country will never be minister again," said Nikos Lappas, head of Greece's largest farmers' union. "For farmers, forcing GMO's would be economic suicide, since our market doesn't want them... This is a cutthroat global market, and if all we do is cultivate mass-produced GM corn, we're finished, since other nations will be able to provide that cheaper."
But producers of GM products are aggressively pursuing their case at the WTO and with individual governments, spurred by an untapped European market. "The first visit any new minister in Greece gets is from the US ambassador saying, 'You need to have GMO's,' " said Mr. Koliopanos. "The pressure is incredible."
"I started with an open mind on this but now I think the answers are clear," said Mr. Lappas. "If our market doesn't buy it, and insurers won't insure us, how can we grow it?"
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/072006/10.html