In This
Issue:
UK GM SCIENCE REVIEW
PANEL RELEASES RESULTS
The
GM Science Review Panel recently published the results of its review
of current scientific knowledge on GM crops and foods. Review results
show that no scientific evidence was found to rule out all GM crops
and their products. However, the scientists, who composed the Review
Panel, are still not issuing blanket assurances on the safety of
GM crops and food.
The
experts stated that GM is not a single homogeneous technology,
thus its applications should be treated on a case-to-case basis.
The importance of GM regulation keeping pace with new developments
was also clearly emphasized.
Using
Farm Scale Evaluations, the current generation of GM crops was
evaluated based on their potential effect on farmland and wildlife.
Field experiments showed that the current generation of GM crops
is very unlikely to invade the countryside and become problematic
plants. They are also unlikely to become toxic to wildlife.
Allergenicity,
soil ecology, farmland biodiversity and consequences of gene flow
were the areas identified as needing more scientific research.
The scientists also stated that knowledge gaps and uncertainties
are likely to become more complex as the range of plant traits
introduced increases.
Lastly,
the Panel concludes “the risks to human health from GM crops
currently on the market are very low. But depending on the crops
developed, GM may present greater challenges in risk management
in the future. It is important to continue to develop safety assessment
technologies, effective surveillance, monitoring and labeling systems.”
The
full report is available at http://www.gmsciencedebate.org.uk
EC PUBLISHES CROP
CO-EXISTENCE GUIDELINES
The
European Commission (EC) has released the guidelines for developing
strategies and best practices to ensure the co-existence of genetically
modified (GM) crops with conventional and organic farming.
Franz
Fischler, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries
says “We want to ensure that farmers are able to cultivate
the types of agricultural crops they choose be it GM crops, conventional
or organic crops. This is why we need measures to ensure their
co-existence. The recommendations are based on the latest available
research results, and provide a sound basis on which Member States
should build their approaches.”
Co-existence
refers to the ability of farmers to provide consumers with a choice
between conventional, organic and GM products that comply with
European labeling and purity standards. It is concerned with the
potential economic loss through the admixture of GM and non-GM
crops which could lower their value.
The
non-exhaustive list included in the guidelines indicates measures
that Member States could adapt or use in various combinations.
They could include:
- on-farm
measures (such as isolation distances, buffer zones, pollen barriers
such as hedgerows),
- cooperation
between neighboring farms (such as information about sowing plans,
use of crop varieties with differing flowering time),
- monitoring
and notification schemes,
- exchange
of information, and
For
more information visit http://www.europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt
=gt&doc=IP/03/1096|0|RAPID&lg=EN
EU COUNCIL OKS
FRAMEWORK FOR GMOS
The
Council of Ministers adopted two European Commission proposals
on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which establish a clear
EU system to trace and label GMOs, and to regulate the placing
on the market and labeling of food and feed products derived from
GMOs.
Traceability
provides the means to track the movement of GM products through
the production and distribution chains. It will also facilitate
monitoring of any effects on the environment, accurate labeling
and the control of labeling claims.
Products
to be labeled will include all foods produced from GMOs, irrespective
of whether there is DNA or protein of GM origin in the final product,
and all genetically modified feed.
Health
and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne says that the
European legislative framework for GMOs is complete. “European
consumers can now have confidence that any GM food or feed marketed
in Europe has been subject to the most rigorous pre-marketing assessment
in the world”. He added that Europe will now have a “comprehensive
and transparent system of authorization and labeling that can only
enhance business and consumer confidence.”
The
legislation will enter into force 20 days after publication in
the Official Journal of the European Union. Operators have to comply
with the new provisions on labeling within six months after the
date of publication.
Details
on the legislative framework are available at http://europa.eu.int
AUSTRALIA APPROVES
GM CANOLA
The
Australian Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has approved
InVigor® canola for commercial release, the first commercial
release of a GM food crop in the country.
Bayer
CropScience Pty Ltd (formerly Aventis CropScience Pty Ltd) applied
to the Gene Technology Regulator in July 2002 for approval to commercially
release seven similar types of genetically modified canola. All
of the lines were previously subjected to field trials under limited
and controlled conditions in Australia and are approved for commercial
release and food use in Canada and the USA, and for food use in
Australia.
However,
in Australia, Bayer only intends to commercialize two of the seven
GM canola types as InVigor® hybrid canola seed.
Complete
and summary versions of the finalized risk assessment and risk
management plan, and the license conditions can be obtained from
the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator. Visit the Gene Technology
Regulator website at http://www.ogtr.gov.au.
FSA MONITORS
NOVEL FOOD DATABASES
The
Food Standards Agency together with the Imperial College in London,
United Kingdom published a feasibility study that looks into the
buying and eating of novel foods, with includes genetically modified
(GM). The study was based on two commercially available databases
from Taylor Nelson Sofres (TSN), and the Information Resources,
Inc. (IRI).
The
researchers evaluated the said databases on their potential for
long-term monitoring of foods and food ingredients. Data on general
food consumption, food purchasing patterns, and the buying and
eating of selected marker products were analyzed.
Results
showed that the two databases indeed have potential in terms of
post-market monitoring of easily identifiable whole food products.
However, individual ingredients that are incorporated into food
(ex. soya flour) were perceived as rather difficult to monitor.
The
researchers were also unable to assess the individual consumption
patterns of foods, and the available health data. The relationship
of food consumption patterns and health outcomes is an area suggested
by the researchers for future studies.
The
executive summary of the research is available at http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/
multimedia/webpage/feasibility.
GM ‘VERY
LOW RISK’ TO HUMAN HEALTH, UK PANEL SAYS
A multi-sectoral
panel led by David King, the British government’s chief scientific
adviser, notes that there are no human-health grounds for stopping
the planting of transgenic crops in Britain.
Composed
of representatives from the biotechnology industry and conservation
organizations as well as university scientists, the panel was tasked
to assess transgenic crops. Its findings are expected to influence
government decision on whether to permit the commercial planting
of some transgenic crops later this year. The panel said available
research shows risks to human health to be "very low".
However, they opined that the crops could have adverse environmental
impacts, and should only be grown after case-by-case assessments
of the risks.
The panel declined to discuss environmental risks of transgenic crops, saying
that a large-scale study of the impact of herbicide-tolerant transgenic crops
on biodiversity conducted by a team of UK-based scientists is currently undergoing
peer review. It intends to update its report once the biodiversity study is
published.
See
the full article in Nature 424, 358 (24 July 2003); or visit http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v424/n6947/full/424358a_fs.html
BERTINI IS WORLD
FOOD PRIZE AWARDEE
Catherine
Bertini, former Executive Director of the United Nations World
Food Programme (WFP), is the 2003 World Food Prize Laureate. Ambassador
Kenneth M. Quinn, President of the World Food Prize Foundation,
said that Bertini was chosen "for defeating large-scale famine
in our time." The World Food Prize, considered as the “Nobel
Prize for Food and Agriculture", is awarded annually for achievements
that improve the world food supply.
Before
her current post as Under Secretary General of the United Nations,
Bertini served for 10 years as WFP Executive Director. She is said
to have been responsible for transforming the WFP "into the
largest and most responsive humanitarian relief organization in
the world, delivering life-sustaining food aid to over 700 million
people in more than 100 countries during her term."
Read
more on the award at http://www.worldfoodprize.org/03laureate/release.htm
PAPAYA RESEARCHER
GETS ASPB AWARD
The
American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) will present its 2003
Leadership in Science Public Service Award to Dennis Gonsalves
for his work in plant pathology. He is known for his contribution
to the development and commercialization of transgenic papaya that
is resistant to the papaya ringspot virus.
Gonsalves
and his colleagues developed two virus resistant varieties of papaya,
'Rainbow' and 'Sunup'. The team used both traditional breeding
techniques and biotechnology to engineer the tropical fruit to
resist attack by ringspot virus. The
new varieties are now widely planted and have shown resistance to the virus
that once threatened Hawaii's papaya production.
Gonsalves
works for the USDA Agricultural Research Service and is currently
director of the US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Centre in
Hilo, Hawaii.
Visit
the USDA Agricultural Research Service at http://www.ars.usda.gov and
the US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Centre at http://pbarc.ars.usda.gov/index.shtml
MITCHELL ON DEVELOPING
BIOTECH INFRASTRUCTURES
“Extensive
work experience in both developing and developed countries shows
that there is a strong correlation between the infrastructure that
surrounds the technology, and the amount of benefit derived from
that technology,” says Brad Mitchell, Director of the Division
of Regulatory Services of the Massachusetts Department of Food
and Agriculture in the United States.
According
to Mitchell, technologies should be introduced with the proper
infrastructure to support its use. He suggests a possible correlation
which is “the better developed the infrastructure (education,
regulations, oversight), the greater the benefits and the lower
the negative impacts. On the other hand, the less developed the
infrastructure, the lower the benefits and the greater the negative
impacts.”
Inadequate
infrastructures are often caused by the low funding allotted to
extension education and regulations that often accompany the introduction
of new agricultural technologies. As a result, the technology is
often blamed for the problems rather than the possibility that
it was introduced to a market that was not prepared for its use
in the first place.
To illustrate
his point, Mitchell cited the Green Revolution as an example. Read
his article in full at http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidbiotech/comments/comments111.htm.
DECLARATION ON
SECURING GLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION
A statement
on securing global food production was signed by delegates of the
Congress “In the Wake of the Double Helix: From the Green
Revolution to the Gene Revolution” held in Bologna, Italy
from May 28 to 31, 2003. Among the signatories were Norman Borlaug,
1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; and World Food Prize Laureates
Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan and Gurdev Khush.
The
delegates from the science community said they “support a
multidisciplinary approach to achieve the needed advancement in
food production by sustainable and environmentally sound practices
that include, but are not limited to:
- Accelerated
and publicly funded research programs to improve knowledge of
the genomics of crop plants, accompanied by policies to ensure
fair access to genetic resources for humanitarian purposes;
- Better
recognition that genes found in domesticated crops, other plants
and other living entities are the source for improvement and
protection of crops in sustainable and environmentally sound
ways;
- Support
for appropriate and internationally coordinated research in the
public and private sectors, both in the developed and developing
nations, in the recognition that public research provides knowledge
and balance to the private sector;
- Support
with capacity-building in biotechnology and in modern crop improvement
methods in developing countries and establishment of an appropriate
regulatory oversight for evaluation of new traits in crop varieties;
- Reviewing
and streamlining the regulatory processes now being enacted in
Europe and elsewhere in order to affirm everyone's right to benefit
from scientific advancement and to prevent unnecessary delays
in the introduction of crop plants with valuable traits that
can save lives and alleviate devastating human diseases;
- Re-examination
of the purposes and uses of intellectual property rights policies,
in particular those that impact on biotechnologies, in order
to ensure that the public good and international humanitarian
purposes are well served.
For
more information on the Congress statement, email Tuberosa Roberto
at tuberosa@agrsci.unibo.it
GM COTTONWOOD
REDUCES MERCURY IN SOILS
Researchers
from the University of Georgia have been able to transform cottonwood
plants with mercuric ion reductase to help reduce the presence
of ionic mercury in contaminated soils and wasteland.
Scott
Merkle and colleagues noted that mercury contamination is widespread
both in the US and around the world. It is evident in river basins
that are contaminated with mercury from mine wastes as well as
lakes and marshlands. It is also a problem in production sites,
particularly in energy and defense-related activities.
Cottonwood
is relatively flexible and can be grown on a wide variety of contaminated
sites. Merkle adds that the first field test on a few GM trees
have been done and “depending on how this test and others
go, the trees might be used commercially within a few years.”
The
research team report their findings in an article entitled “Expression
of Mercuric Ion Reductase in Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoids)
Confers Mercuric Ion Reduction and Resistance” published
in the Plant Biotechnology Journal 1 (4).
For
more details, email Scott Merkle at smerkle@uga.edu.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
INTERNATIONAL
BIOTECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
The
Biotech Consortium India Limited in New Delhi, India will hold
an International Biotechnology Conference on September 24-27, 2003.
The conference will focus on issues affecting the players of the
biopharmaceutical industries, and other topics relevant to the
healthcare and agricultural biotechnology industries. The conference
information and contact details are posted at http://www.biotech.co.in/templates/biotec.pdf.
NEW BOOK ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS
The
World Scientific Publishing of the Imperial College Press in London
has published the book entitled “Genetically Modified Crops” by
Nigel G. Halford. The book describes the history and development
of the science of biotechnology. It also features the GM crops
that are grown commercially around the world, and the new varieties
that are currently being developed. More information about the
book can be found at: http://www.wspc.com.sg/books/lifesci/p284.html
CORRECT LINK
Gregory
Conko’s article on “The Benefits of Biotech” published
in Regulation, Spring 2003; 21 can be downloaded at http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv26n1/v26n1-4.pdf | 
