GM cotton fails to improve biodiversity
Scientific American, May 2, 2006 (USA)

A study of randomly chosen cotton fields reveals that although GM cotton did reduce pesticide use, it did not reduce use of herbicides nor did it improve biodiversity when compared to unmodified strains.
Ecologist Yves Carriere of the University of Arizona and his colleagues randomly selected 81 cotton fields - split between unmodified and transgenic cotton breeds. The scientists gathered data on pesticide use, herbicide use and all the ants and beetles they could find in pitfall traps placed in the fields.
The data confirmed that farmers applied pesticides less often to transgenic fields - and used more precisely targeted chemicals when they did. But use of such targeted pesticides on modified cotton did rise in the fields selected during the second year of the study, perhaps due to the need to control pests unaffected by the engineered toxin, the authors speculate. And herbicide use remained the same no matter whether the cotton in question was unmodified, toxin-producing, or toxin-producing and herbicide resistant.
Nor did genetic modification seem to have an effect on ant and beetle biodiversity; no matter which type of cotton was grown, ant populations declined and beetles boomed in farmed fields compared to adjacent unfarmed fields, according to the paper in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
"You cannot simply assume that you will get across-the-board benefits," Carriere notes. "One thing I was a bit surprised to find is that if you control some pests with [transgenic] cotton, others become more of a problem."
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/01.html

Scientists: Bt cotton drives insect boom
IndiaeNews, July 27, 2006 (India/China)

Bt cotton, said to provide extra security against bollworms, has actually led to a larger menace from other insects on Chinese farms, according to a study that advises farmers in India to guard against GM seeds.
The results of the study were presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting, reports the science journal Nature. The study covered nearly 500 cotton farmers who planted Bt cottonseeds seven years ago.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, worked with Chinese agricultural researchers to interview cotton farmers about their finances and insecticide use in 2004.
'The researchers found that populations of other cotton pests, particularly ones called mirids, have blossomed. These were once killed by the same broad-spectrum pesticides used to control the bollworm. 'Now farmers are spending almost as much on pesticides to control these secondary pests as those farmers growing regular cotton,' the report said. 'The study raises fears that explosions of secondary pests will also gradually erode the benefits of Bt cotton in other countries where it has been adopted, such as India and South Africa,' said the report. China was the second country after the US to adopt Bt cotton in 1997.
After two to three years of use, studies had shown a dramatic rise in yield and 70 percent reduction in the use of insecticides. The current picture, however, is dismal. The researchers found the Bt cotton farmers have a net average income that is eight percent lower than farmers growing conventional cotton.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/02.html

Sh32b sorghum project halted
The Nation (Nairobi), July 16, 2006 (Kenya)

A project by Prof Florence Wambugu and a biotechnology organisation was expected to come up with a new variety of sorgum to help alleviate hunger in the sub-Saharan Africa. The super sorghum was to contain proteins and vitamins. The traditional variety [has] little protein or mineral nutrients.
Prof Wambugu had secured funding to the tune of Sh32 billion ($415 million) from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation for her new project. But her dreams of another scientific breakthrough now have to wait after the South African government refused Prof Wambugu and the Africa Harvest Bio-Technology International permission to set up a research laboratory and greenhouses in the country. South Africa had expressed concern over the possible contamination of the sorghum varieties native to Africa by the introduction of a GM type.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/03.html

Lid stays on modified rice in China
The Standard Newspaper, July 19, 2006 (China)

China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, is unlikely to give its nod for commercial production of GM rice at least until next year with a government panel demanding more data to prove its safety.
Early last year China looked set to approve commercial production of a disease-resistant GMO rice, paving the way for the world's first large scale planting of a GMO crop for direct human consumption. But Beijing hit the brakes following reports of illegal sales of GMO rice in China. The reports also sounded alarm bells in China's top trading partners.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/04.html

Food regulator criticised over new GM corn
ABC Science Online, August 4, 2006 (New Zealand)

Australia and New Zealand's food regulator FSANZ is failing to apply its own safety standards, or those of international guidelines, in assessing a new-generation GM corn for human consumption, critics say.
The Centre for Integrated Research on Biosafety at the University of Canterbury has twice formally notified FSANZ of its concerns about the GM corn LY038, which has been engineered to contain a bacterial gene that allows the accumulation of high levels of lysine. In March FSANZ recommended LY038 be approved as safe for human consumption in a report to its board.
"[LY038] has the potential to produce 100 times more advanced glycoxidation endproducts (AGEs) than normal corn," says centre director Associate Professor Jack Heinemann, a geneticist and former US National Institutes of Health scientist.
But the necessary tests to prove the corn is safe for humans have not been done. Heinemann says FSANZ only considered safety tests that looked at raw and not cooked corn. But the international standards-setting body Codex Alimentarius recommends heating, cooking and processing conditions be applied to GM material in an assessment of their safety for human food.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/05.html

Food-crop biofuels given thumbs down
Nature, July 11, 2006 (USA)

Producing biofuels such as ethanol from food crops isn't worth the effort is the conclusion of a new and painstaking study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers should instead concentrate either on producing ethanol from indigestible plant material such as cellulose, or on synthetic hydrocarbon fuels.
The comprehensive study finds that if all the corn (maize) produced in the United States last year were removed from food supplies and turned into ethanol, just 12% of US gasoline demand would be offset. Turning soybeans into diesel would account for only 6% of US diesel demand.
Contrary to some recent studies, this review finds that corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel do supply more energy than is needed to produce them. But neither biofuel could replace much petroleum without a serious impact on food supplies.
Alex Farrell, an energy expert at the University of California agrees. "Corn ethanol comes at the price of soil erosion and nutrient runoff," he adds. "Producing ethanol from cellulose is a much more environmentally preferable option."
A US Department of Energy report said that biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol could displace 30% of the fuel consumed in US transportation by 2030, although it would take significant technological advances.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/06.html

Biotech playing role in clothing industry
Associated Press, July 17, 2006 (USA)

The Biotechnology Industry Organization used [a] fashion statement last week to burnish its battered image as an environmental scourge. The scene is a Toronto biotechnology conference and the dresses are made from a new fiber called Ingeo, made largely from GE corn.
Biotechnology is quietly playing a growing role in an apparel industry. But the trend is raising concerns among some environmental purists who oppose GE crops of any kind.
"Ingeo still supports GE crops and we really view it as a slippery slope," said Jill Dumain of Patagonia Inc., which pays a premium to use only organic cotton in its clothes.
Biotech's largely unseen hand in creating natural fibers has set off a debate among apparel makers who consider themselves environmentally sensitive. Many critics of agricultural biotechnology - from organic farmers to the Sierra Club - fear the engineered crops will co-mingle with conventionally grown plants.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/07.html

EU guilty of withholding GM food data
Dow Jones News Service, July 19, 2006 (EU)

The European Commission has been found guilty of withholding information on GM food. The Ombudsman charged the commission with "maladministration" after it refused to disclose documents to environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth. The documents revealed scientific concerns about the long-term health safety of genetically-modified foods.
Full item: http://www.GEinfo.org.nz/082006/08.html