Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:30:29 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/ PostNuke Powered Site en-us http://www.nwrage.com/images/logo.gif http://www.nwrage.com/ frankie4260@hotmail.com http://www.nwrage.com/Article2589.html KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Scientists said Friday they have confirmed expanding weed resistance to a key ingredient in Monsanto'swidely used Roundup herbicide, a troubling development for farmers and fresh fodder for Monsanto critics. Kansas State University said scientists had found five kochia weed populations in western Kansas that have been confirmed to have become resistant to glyphosate. Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:30:29 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2588.html The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch. As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.” Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:22:39 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2587.html Germany's Bayer (BAYGn.DE) was ordered by a jury in the United States to pay $1.5 million in damages to three farmers for losses they incurred because of contaminations of Bayer's genetically modified rice, the second in about 500 similar cases pending. The jury's ruling in a St. Louis court against Bayer's CropScience division follows a related case in December, in which Bayer was ordered to pay $2 million, the chemicals- and drugmaker said on Friday after the close of trading in Germany. "The company will assess this ruling thoroughly and consider its options," a Bayer spokesman in Germany said. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:46:40 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2586.html The U.S. Department of Agriculture re-released their draft environmental assessment [1] regarding a request by ArborGen, a subsidiary of timber giants International Paper and MeadWestvaco, to plant over a quarter of a million genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in so-called "test plots" across seven southern U.S. states. [2] "If these invasive GE eucalyptus are planted across the South on this large of a scale, it is highly likely that fertile seeds will escape into surrounding forests," said Dr. Neil Carman, a plant scientist with the Sierra Club. "This is a major problem since eucalyptus is already known for its invasiveness. Once they escape into the forests, there is no way to call them back. It would be an ecological nightmare for southern forests." Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:42:10 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2585.html In 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its illegal approval of Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa. The federal courts sided with CFS and banned GE alfalfa until the USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the plant on the environment, farmers, and the public in a rigorous analysis known as an environmental impact statement (or EIS). USDA released its draft EIS on December 14, 2009. A 60-day comment period is now open until March 3, 2010. This is the first time the USDA has done this type of analysis for any GE crop. Therefore, the final decision will have broad implications for all GE crops. Take Action Here Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:14:38 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2584.html A group of activists that includes organic seed farmers in Oregon's Willamette Valley asked a federal judge Wednesday to bar planting of genetically engineered sugarbeets and sugarbeet seeds this spring, saying the plants could contaminate organic crops. Oregon doesn't grow many sugarbeets, which supply half of the nation's sugar. But the Willamette Valley is nearly the sole supplier of U.S. sugarbeet seeds, and the Monsanto seeds are the first genetically engineered crop to be widely planted in the valley. Organic seed farmers worry that wind-borne pollen from the sugarbeet plants, modified to resist Monsanto's popular herbicide Roundup, will spread and contaminate organic seed crops. Organic certification doesn't allow genetic modifications. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:29:51 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2583.html The Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO) has today revoked a patent granted to Dr. Willmar Schwabe (Schwabe) in its entirety. The patent was opposed by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) from South Africa acting on behalf of a rural community in Alice, in the Eastern Cape, in collaboration with the Swiss anti-biopiracy watchdog, the Berne Declaration. The patent was in respect of a method for producing extracts of Pelargonium sidoides and Pelargonium reniforme to make Schwabe’s blockbuster cough and colds syrup, Umckaloabo. It was revoked because the Opposition Division found that the patent did not satisfy the requirements of the European Patent Convention dealing with inventiveness. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:26:36 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2582.html U.S. wheat prices could fall by 40 percent or more if industry efforts to develop a biotech wheat succeed, according to an industry report issued on Wednesday. The report, issued by the Western Organization of Resource Councils, a farmer and rancher group, cited persistent opposition to genetically modified wheat in Europe, Japan, and other Asian countries. It said buyers in those countries probably would shift purchases away from the United States, if a biotech wheat was commercialized here. The price of U.S. hard red spring wheat would fall 40 percent, the report predicted, and the price of durum wheat would drop 57 percent. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:24:08 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2581.html With the cost of food recently skyrocketing – hitting not just shoppers but the poor and hungry in the developing world – genetically modified (GM) foods are once again being promoted as the way to feed the world. But this is little short of a confidence trick. Far from needing more GM foods, there are urgent reasons why we need to ban them altogether. 1. GM foods won’t solve the food crisis A 2008 World Bank report concluded that increased biofuel production is the major cause of the increase in food prices.[1] GM giant Monsanto has been at the heart of the lobbying for biofuels (crops grown for fuel rather than food) — while profiting enormously from the resulting food crisis and using it as a PR opportunity to promote GM foods! Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:21:11 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2580.html 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. The companies' push into genetically modified trees, led by their joint biotech venture, ArborGen LLC, looks to overcome several hurdles for the first time. Most prominently, they are banking on a controversial gene splice that restricts trees' ability to reproduce, meant to allay fears of bioengineered eucalyptus turning invasive and overtaking native forests. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:19:05 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2579.html Store brands comprise almost 40% of items making health and wellness claims related to preservative; one in four organic product sales; and nearly one in five items making natural and fat claims in food, drug and mass channels, according to the Nielsen Co. It found that GMO-free claims are the fastest growing among store brands. Sales of these items increased 67% in 2009 to $60.2 million, followed in popularity by gluten free (62%), absence of specific fat (53%) and lowers cholesterol (45%) store brands. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:16:12 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2578.html The debate on genetically modified (GM) brinjal [aubergine] 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. Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:13:22 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2577.html The USDA has reopened the comment period for their Environmental Assessment of ArborGen's proposal to plant 260,000 genetically engineered eucalyptus trees across the Southern U.S. Comments needed by 18 February to oppose this dangerous and destructive plan. They plan to use these trees for bioenergy schemes under the false claim that they will help stop global warming. Sign on to the public comment letter Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:27:01 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2576.html If an age-old challenge in agriculture -- producing more on fewer acres -- finds a solution in biotechnology, a Tennessee company stands to profit. Some 40 years from now, farmers will need to feed one-third more people worldwide than they do now, according to the World Bank. The farmland that will support those food crops will have more than one tenant, as biofuel feed stocks such as corn gobble up acreage, too. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:55:49 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2575.html Beginning in 2006, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) took legal action against the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) illegal approval of Monsanto's genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa. The federal courts agreed and banned GE alfalfa until the USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the plant on the environment, farmers, and the public in an environmental impacts statement (EIS). USDA released its draft EIS on December 14, 2009. A 60-day comment period is now open until February 16, 2010. CFS has begun analyzing the EIS and it is clear that the USDA has not taken the concerns of non-GE alfalfa farmers, or organic dairy farmers seriously, for example, having dismissed the fact that contamination will threaten export markets and domestic organic markets. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:47:40 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2574.html Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found. With Monsanto's patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts. Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential commercial licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts, as long as 30 pages, include basic terms for the selling of engineered crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with shorter supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other contract amendments. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:29:46 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2573.html Three Waterville wheat growers have formed a committee and launched a petition drive against genetically modified wheat. They are concerned that if GMO wheat gets started in the region it could torpedo sales to Japan, the largest consumer of north-central Washington wheat. They are also concerned about potential health risks of GMO wheat. Japan is opposed to GMO wheat but has accepted some GMO canola, said Tom Mick, chief executive officer of the Washington Wheat Commission and the Washington Grain Alliance in Spokane. Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:20:34 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2572.html The American Public Health Association has officially come out in opposition to rBGH (rBST). The APHA is the world’s oldest professional public health organization, with a membership of over 50,000. The policy statement also opposes the use of non-therapeutic hormones in beef cattle, citing “clear evidence that hormones originating outside the body can interfere with our own hormone function.” Guided by the common sense of the Precautionary Principle, the policy statement “strongly recommends,” in addition to further research: 1. “The FDA should act with public health precaution to ban the use of hormone growth promoters on the basis of certain exposure and possibility of human health risks, pending long-term epidemiological data demonstrating such exposures to be without harm to workers or the population as a whole.” 2. “Hospitals, schools, and other institutions, especially those serving children, should preferentially purchase food products from beef and dairy cattle produced without such hormones.” 3. “Companies producing and retailers offering products produced without rBGH or other hormones should retain the right to label such products in an easily readable and understandable fashion so that consumers in the free marketplace can be equipped to make an informed choice about which brands they buy.” Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:34:22 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2571.html GMOBetter living through biotechnology? Pity executives at genetically modified seed giant Monsanto. Not only are they having to knock heads with Department of Justice lawyers over the company’s business practices, but some of their most-cherished PR talking points are being obliterated by researchers. In the past few months, we’ve learned that its much-vaunted technologies don’t really increase yields after all; and aren’t really all that promising for adapting to climate change. We’re also getting a trickle of information that calls into serious question the PR talking point on which the entire GMO seed industry hangs: that GMO products are safe to eat. This is a widely held assumption; but as Don Lotter showed in a recent paper in the International Journal of the Sociology of Food and Agriculture, there has actually been shockingly little research done on the long-term effects of eating GMO foods—and most of what has been was conducted by the industry itself. Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:42:40 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2570.html rage Genetics International, Monsanto and two alfalfa growers have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of Roundup Ready alfalfa. They believe “the lower courts were wrong to ban planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa while the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is conducting additional environmental reviews.” Roundup Ready alfalfa long ago completed review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and was approved by the USDA. It went on the market in 2005. However, RR alfalfa has been tied up in the federal court system for more than four years. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:35:34 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2569.html An attorney in a lawsuit challenging federal approval of genetically modified sugar beet seeds says plaintiffs will try to stop growers from planting the seeds next year. In September, federal Judge Jeffery White ordered USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to produce an environmental impact statement to support its deregulation of seed developer Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds. The decision came in a suit filed in January 2008 by the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, Sierra Club and High Mowing Organic Seeds. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:32:14 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2568.html Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.'s business practices reveal how the world's biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found. With Monsanto's patented genes being inserted into roughly 95 percent of all soybeans and 80 percent of all corn grown in the U.S., the company also is using its wide reach to control the ability of new biotech firms to get wide distribution for their products, according to a review of several Monsanto licensing agreements and dozens of interviews with seed industry participants, agriculture and legal experts. Monsanto's methods are spelled out in a series of confidential commercial licensing agreements obtained by the AP. The contracts, as long as 30 pages, include basic terms for the selling of engineered crops resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, along with shorter supplementary agreements that address new Monsanto traits or other contract amendments. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:27:40 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2567.html Canada has not shipped any of its new flax crop to its top market, the European Union, because of concerns about genetically modified (GMO) material, the Flax Council of Canada said on Wednesday. And the window of opportunity is closing as the crop’s most important port nears closure for the winter. The European Union, which traditionally buys 70 percent of Canada’s flax, first detected GMO material in a Canadian flax shipment in July. There is no GMO flax approved in the EU, where consumers are wary of long-term GMO effects. Although the EU has not banned all flax imports from Canada, exporters deem shipments to the EU risky even with Canada and the EU agreeing on testing protocols. Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:45:38 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2566.html The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is pleased to announce the release of No Sure Fix: Prospects for Reducing Nitrogen Fertilizer Pollution through Genetic Engineering ( http://www.ucsusa.org/NoSureFix ). This new report found that the biotechnology industry has yet to produce any commercial crops engineered to reduce nitrogen fertilizer pollution—among the world’s worst environmental problems—while other technologies such as traditional crop breeding have made progress in reducing nitrogen pollution. The report also found that neglected ecological approaches such as the use of cover crops and precision farming will be needed to reduce nitrogen pollution to safe levels in the face of growing population and climate change. Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:01:03 -0800 http://www.nwrage.com/Article2565.html This is a victory for consumers, parents and kids across the country, schools can now source better milk. Great news! We just won our campaign (Food and Water Watch) to make sure schools can source organic milk or rBGH-Free milk! We've been working over the last year to pressure Congress and the USDA to make it clear that schools can purchase better milk for their students. The USDA got the message and has made it clear schools have the choice. Help us spread the word so all schools know they can serve better milk! Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:53:50 -0800