In
This Issue:
Argentina
Approves First GMO Seed in 3 Years
According
to the News Agency Reuters, Argentina approved a genetically modified
cotton seed this week. This will reopen the door to biotechnology-based
products after the government has refused to authorize their use
in the country for nearly three years. Argentina stopped approving
the use of GM products in July 1998, as a result of the rejection
of the products by European consumers.
Europe
is the principal consumer of Argentine corn. The de facto suspension
was extended to all crops, including cotton.
The Agriculture
Department resolution, published on April 30, 2001, will allow US-based
Monsanto to sell a herbicide-tolerant cotton seed. "This shows
a different attitude on the part of the Agriculture Deparment," Oscar
Domingo, president of the Argentine Association of Seed Companies
(ASA), told Reuters.
The approval
of the GM cotton brings the total number of GM products authorized
for use in Argentina to six. Three other Monsanto seeds are approved
in Argentina, including insect-resistant corn, cotton, and soybeans.
Aventis sells a herbicide-tolerant corn seed locally and Swiss company
Novartis (now Syngenta) sells an insect-resistant corn seed.
ASA estimated
that farmers used GM seeds for 90% of the record 10.4 million hectares
planted to soybean in the 2000/01 campaign, more than 20% of the
area planted to corn and about 8% of that sown with cotton.
EU
Soymeal Imports are Up
Soymeal
imports into the European Union rose to 3.56 million tons in the
first quarter of 2001 from 3.27 million tons in Q1 of 2000. According
to the Hamburg-based newsletter, Oil World, this increase is due
to the EU ban on meat and bone meal (MBM), which has increased the
dependence on soy meal. The EU placed a six-month ban on MBM from
the first of January in an attempt to stop the spread of mad cow
disease. Oil World figures showed that in March alone, the EU imported
1.14 million tons of soymeal as compared to 983,000 tons in March
2000. Increased demand, mainly from the EU and North Africa, led
to a rise in combined exports from the four top producers (US, Argentina,
Brazil, and India) to 7.29 million tons in the first quarter from
6.84 million tons a year earlier.
No
Difference Found in Animals Fed GM Corn and Soybeans
According
to recent research, GM corn and soybeans do nothing significant to
the animals that eat them. Jimmy Clark, a professor of ruminant nutrition
in Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
reviewed the results from 23 research experiments conducted over
the past 4 years at universities throughout the USA, Germany, and
France. In each study, separate groups of chickens, dairy cows, beef
cattle and sheep were fed either GM corn or soybeans or their traditional
counterparts as a portion of their diet.
No difference
was found in the animals' ability to digest the genetically modified
crops and there was no significant difference in the weight gain,
milk production, milk composition, and overall health of the animals
when compared to animals fed with traditional crops. Clark concluded "Based
on safety analyses required for each crop, human consumption of milk,
meat and eggs, produced from animals fed GM crops should be as safe
as products derived from animals fed conventional crops."
UN
Body Meets in Ottawa to Negotiate International Food Labeling
Standards
The Food
Labelling Committee (CCFL) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (a
joint commission of the UN World Health Organization and the Food
and Agricultural Organization) will meet in Ottawa April 28- May
4. It is anticipated that more than 200 delgates from 40 countries
will develop food labeling standards related to health claims, organic
food, nutritional composition, genetically modified food, and percent
declaration of ingredients. The committee's standards are used by
the World Trade Organization (WTO) to settle trade dispute.
New
Starlink Corn Data Submitted by Aventis Cropsciences
Aventis
Cropsciences, the registrant of Starlink corn, conducted a new study
to provide additional information for the US Environmental Protection
Agency's risk assessment of the potential allergenicity of Starlink
corn protein in finished food products. In the study, Aventis examined
how 2 types of corn processing affected the amount of Starlink protein
in processed foods. Aventis reports that the wet-milling process,
which renders corn into corn oil, corn syrup, alcohol, and corn starch,
reduces the residues of the corn protein in finished food products
to a level that is below the limit of detection for its analytical
method. On the other hand, dry milling, which renders corn into corn
grits, corn flour, and masa, appears to denature, but not completely
eliminate, the presence of Starlink corn protein in the finished
food products. Aventis reports that its new data indicate lower exposure
estimates than what the Agency had estimated in its assessment last
Fall. The EPA is now reviewing this study, and will solicit scientific
peer reviews from independent scientists that are expert in this
field.
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/otherdocs/stlink/stlinkdata.htm
Swaminathan
Proposed 'Third Way' on GM Crops
M.S. Swaminathan,
one of the architects of the 'green revolution' in India in the late
1960s, and World Food Prize Laureate has argued for a new green revolution
with both GM and organic foods.
During
the conference "Global Agriculture 20/20: Which way forward?" held
on April 18-20 at the John Innes Center in Norwich, UK, Swaminathan
told the audience that the growing world population will only be
fed adequately if governments adopt "people friendly" farming
methods which include GM technology. He also called for governments
and scientists to back sensitive farming methods which would keep
people on the land and avoid social or ecological harm. GM crops
can be used with organic farming systems, he said: continuing "Farming
cannot be left to the control of a few multi-national companies.
The poor, who are most of the world's population, need fair and free
trade. There must be ethics and equity in farming.
"If
you want an inclusive society you must go to the poorest person and
ask if they will gain anything from technological development." He
also urged governments to provide more public funding for gene technology
and called for community participation in science.
GM
Soybeans Approved for Consumption in Thailand
Thailand's
government has approved Roundup Ready soybeans for human consumption,
the first GM crop to get such approval. Thailand's Biosafety Center's
sub-committee on food safety said it has concluded that GM soybeans
are safe for humans. A researcher at the National Centre for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC) and member of the sub-committee
on biosafety, was cited as saying that GM soybeans are safe to consume,
and that an eight-month risk assessment study found "substantial
equivalence" between Round-up Ready soybeans, and native, non-GM
products.
A "Cold
Winter" for GM Commercialization in China
During
a meeting in Beijing on China's Challenges in Crop Protection, Biotechnology
and Food Safety, Professor Chen Zhang-Liang, vice president of Beijing
University and Directory of the National Laboratory of Protein Engineering
and Plant Genetic Engineering, described the current situation for
commercialization of GM crops in China as a "cold winter."
He was
cited as saying that any commercialization of GM food crops (including
rice, wheat, corn, and soybean) is unlikely in the near future. The
reasons for the slow down were the heated debates on environmental
and food safety issues of GM crops, and the problems that China has
had with exports, e.g. the rejected soy sauce exports to Europe.
Other speakers at the two-day conference held on April 23-24 indicated
that the crop most likely to be commercialized next would be poplar,
which is grown in agroforestry, and grown to assist in the project
to reduce soil erosion. The slow down in commercialization, however,
has not diminished the commitment to R&D in GM crops and agri-biotechnology.
Research funds from the government are pouring in to support public
research institutions at levels in excess of funds granted for the
last 10 years. |
