In
This Issue:
TAIWAN GEARS
TO BE TECHNOLOGY CENTER
The Taiwan
government is putting its chips on biotechnology. According to Fortune
magazine, Taiwan has just opened an extension of the Hsinchu industrial
park especially for biotechnology. Companies in the park will have
access to $850 million in government research and development funds
and $4 billion in state and private venture capital, plus a wide
range of support services, including marketing and global patent
applications.
Fortune
cites President Chen Shui-bian as saying that the government hopes
to incubate as many as 500 biotech companies, including at least
one global player, by 2010.
Reacting
to criticisms that Taiwan is focusing on product development rather
than on research and development, Johnsee Lee, executive vice president
of the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taipei, opines
that "Taiwanese companies will never aim to be the primary driver
of innovations. We want to be an indispensable partner in biotech
innovation and commercialization."
More details
of the report are in the November 2002, No. 20 issue of Fortune magazine.
APEC KEEN
FOR BIOTECH, SAYS GREENWOOD
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries are keen to exploit
biotechnology, according to Lawrence Greenwood, APEC coordinator for the U.S.
State Department.
"There's
strong interest in the region in developing agricultural biotechnology.
Economies like China, Japan, Australia and Thailand are especially
involved in terms of research and development investments," said
Greenwood. "There is a lot of support for biotechnology; there's
a lot of recognition that it can be the critical element to food
security. What we're trying to do is develop common approaches for
the safe and science-based introduction of bio-engineered foods in
the region."
Greenwood
said that APEC has an agricultural biotechnology policy which brought
together regulators to talk about the regulatory environment in their
economies, and to discuss how best to promote research and development
in the areas that are going to be the most beneficial to the people
of the region. "The idea is to make it possible for economies
to create the foods and technologies necessary to meet their needs
as soon as possible -- as well as ensuring safety", Greenwood
added.
Asked
if countries in the Asia-Pacific region shared European concerns
about GM products, Greenwood said "No. In fact, they share our
concerns about European policies. The problem is that those economies
that export grain (just as the United States does)- have to worry
about Europe's unscientific approach to agricultural biotechnology.
So this is definitely a concern, because it's a constraint on economies'
ability to invest in agricultural biotechnology. They don't want
to be cut off from European markets. There is no question that there
is a strong desire for a standardized, organized, global approach
to this in Asia. There are some areas, such as labeling, which are
tough and controversial issues. Some of the concerns you see in European
circles, you have elsewhere. But I think the Asian region is quite
different, so far, from European agribusiness in that these economies
are very strongly interested in developing their own biotechnology
industries."
EU STALEMATE
ON GM LABELING AND TRACEABILITY
European Union environment ministers failed to make progress in discussions
on proposals for GM labeling and traceability. As a consequence, this means
the long standing moratorium on approval of genetically modified crops will
remain in place at least for another year.
Some ministers
had argued that the enactment of new regulations on authorizing the
growing or importation of new GM crops should make lifting the moratorium
inevitable. Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Greece, Austria, Italy,
and Denmark continue to support the ban while the proposals remain
a source of disagreement.
The EU
said prior to the meeting that the proposals aim "to address
the concerns of Member States and to build consumer confidence in
the authorization of GM products. The revised Directive (2002/18)
and the adoption of the two proposals for Regulations are expected
to pave the way for a resumption of GM authorizations in the European
Union."
The EU
says the aims of the GM traceability proposals are to allow:
- control
and verification of labeling claims
- targeted
monitoring of potential effects on the environment, where appropriate
- withdrawal
of products that contain or consist of GMOs should an unforeseen
risk to human health or the environment be established. While the
current Directive 2001/18 includes general provisions on which
a traceability system for GMOs could be based, it doesn't define
traceability, nor does it include the objectives of traceability
or a complete approach for its implementation.
The proposals
were requested because of differences and overlaps between national
laws, regulations and administrative provisions concerning traceability
of GMOs and food and feed products produced from GMOs.
PROMISING GM
PAPAYA LINES IN SE ASIA
Genetically-enhanced
papaya lines are being developed in Southeast Asia and may soon be
deployed in the region to bring back farm productivity lost due to
disease and postharvest problems. Scientists from the Philippines,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam presented the status of
their respective research on the development of transgenic papaya
resistant to papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and papaya with delayed
ripening (DR) trait in a meeting of the Papaya Biotechnology Network
of Southeast Asia held in Malaysia early this month.
Scientists
from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute
(MARDI), the Institute of Plant Breeding (IPB) in the Philippines,
and the Institute of Biotechnology (IBT) of the National Centre for
Natural Science and Technology of Vietnam are into greenhouse evaluation
of PRSV-resistant transgenic papaya lines. The Plant Genetic Engineering
Unit (PGEU) of the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
(BIOTEC) and Kasetsart University, Thailand is already field testing
PRSV-resistant lines. Genetically-transformed papaya lines developed
by each national institution are being evaluated for PRSV resistance
using local isolates of the virus.
The first
contained field trial of transgenic Eksotika papaya with DR trait
is underway at MARDI. Transformed DR papaya lines are also undergoing
screenhouse evaluation at both PGEU, Thailand and IBT, Vietnam.
Papaya
is a major tropical fruit crop in the Asian region. The crop is an
essential part of the household diet and a significant source of
income for resource-poor farmers. However, production in many Asian
countries is set back by the prevalence of the PRSV disease as well
as postharvest losses. Conventional plant breeding involving intraspecific
hybridization has produced few PRSV-tolerant lines but has not been
successful in developing resistant genotypes.
CORNELL IMPLEMENTS
ABSP II
A consortium
of public and private sector institutions led by Cornell University
will implement the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II
(ABSP II). It focuses on the safe and effective development and commercialization
of genetically modified (GM) crops as a complement to traditional
and organic agricultural approaches in developing countries. The
project will help boost food security, economic growth, nutrition,
and environmental quality in East and West Africa and in Indonesia,
India, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
Funded
by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
the project will:
- Conduct
highly-participatory priority setting to ensure that product development
is focused on real needs
- Develop
'Product Commercialization Packages', for each GM crop by geographical
site, that integrate activities on technology development, policy
(including intellectual property), communication, outreach, and
commercialization
- Create
an enabling environment for regulatory and legal authorities
- Foster
public-private partnerships to boost mutual incentives and self-sustained,
long-term investments
- Promote
improved science-based public awareness of GM crops
- Monitor
and evaluate the impact of ABSPII activities
For more
information, visit http://www.absp2.cornell.edu
PLANT BIOTECH
WILL HELP WOMEN, SAYS MONSANTO
Plant biotechnology is an important tool to help empower women in both the
developed and the developing world, Monsanto's Senior Vice President of Public
Affairs Sarah Hull, told the US Business Women's Network Summit in Washington,
D.C.
"Women
are vital in nourishing the world. New agricultural technologies
like plant biotechnology are a tool to help increase the self-sufficiency
of female farmers and to help ensure more and better food for their
families and communities."
In the
developed world, Hull said women are playing a more prominent role
in agriculture as farmers, policy maker, and consumers. Many of these
women are learning more about the environmental and economic benefits
of crops enhanced through biotechnology, including increased yields,
improved farm productivity, and reduced pesticide use, she said.
Hull also
said biotech crops are particularly beneficial to women in the developing
world where women provide 60-80% of the food, according to the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
"Women
in the developing world are using the least efficient agricultural
tools and are among the world's most impoverished farmers," Hull
said. "Biotech crops can increase the productivity of farmers
in the developing world, providing them with enough food to feed
their families and communities, as well as a surplus to sell."
"Biotech
crops can help ensure a more stable and self-sufficient form of farming
in the developing world," she said.
Hull also
said because there is less spraying and weeding with biotech crops,
they significantly reduce the workload of farmers. As a result, women
in the developing world would have more time to tend to their children
and girls would have more time to attend school, she said.
"Biotech
crops are a cost-effective and convenient tool to ensure increased
yields of core crops in the developing world, and to provide access
to the nutrients people need to improve their health and quality
of life," said Hull.
"As
scientists around the world come to recognize women's role in agriculture,
more research is taking into account their concerns and knowledge
about agriculture and food products," she said. "In the
future, this research will yield tremendous benefits for women and
the world."
More information on Monsanto at http://www.monsanto.com
IRRI'S
RICE KNOWLEDGE BANK: DIGITAL EXTENSION SERVICE
The International
Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, Philippines has one of the
world's first digital extension services for assisting government
extension services, nongovernment organizations, and others who provide
information and support for farmers. The Rice Knowledge Bank, is
the very first dedicated and comprehensive digital rice-production
library.
According
to Dr. Albert Atkinson of the IRRI Knowledge Bank, the system supports
existing training programs by providing a dynamic Internet portal
that initially captures IRRI's 40 years of rice research in digital
form and aims over time to become the world's central rice training
and knowledge repository. It is also built to run on CD-ROM for areas
without Internet access. Large modules can be printed out and used
independently of computers.
The Bank
contains information that are classified into five categories: KnowledgeBytes,
e-Learning, Reference Guides, Decision Support Tools, and Biological
Databases and Geographical Information Systems.
For more
information about the Rice Knowledge Bank visit http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org
SPANISH WEBSITE
ON GM CROPS
Plant breeding and genetics researchers and professors at Colorado State University
have authored a website in Spanish offering information about transgenic crops.
The site, "Cultivos Transgenicos: Introduccion and Guia de Recursos",
is located at http://www.colostate.edu/programs/
lifesciences/CultivosTransgenicos
Content
on the site is similar to Colorado State's original English language
transgenic crops website, "Transgenic Crops: An Introduction
and Resource Guide," located at http://www.colostate.edu/
programs/lifesciences/TransgenicCrops
The website
describes how transgenic plants are made and includes animated demonstrations
of the process. It also includes an explanation of how genetically
modified crops are evaluated and regulated, describes crops that
are currently available or planned for the future, a discussion of
risks and concerns associated with these crops and links to both
pro and con websites. |
