In This
Issue:
GROWER PLANTING INTENTIONS UP IN U.S. The US Department
of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics
Survey (NASS) has released its report of grower prospective plantings
of major crops. It says that corn acreage (which now stands at 79
million acres) is estimated to increase fractionally from 2003 with
farmers from the Corn Belt taking advantage of higher corn prices
in the market. However, farmers in the Southeast and Southern Great
Plains are expected to plant less of the crop as they shift to soybean
and cotton which are expected to command better prices. Biotech corn
accounts for 46 percent of all corn planted in the US, up by 9.7
percent.
Soybean acreage is expected to increase by three percent which will
result in 75.4 million acres planted to the crop. Current price of
soybean is attracting more farmers to increase acreage. All cotton
plantings for 2004 are expected to total 14.4 million acres or about
seven percent higher than last year. Biotech soybean and cotton accounts
for 86 and 76 percent, respectively, of all areas planted to the
crop. All wheat acreage, however, is expected to go down by four percent
in 2004, pegging total acreage to 59.5 million acres.
See
the full report at http://www.usda.gov/nass/PUBS/TODAYRPT/pspl0304.pdf.
CHINESE AND AFRICAN SCIENTISTS WIN WORLD FOOD PRIZE
The World Food Prize Foundation has awarded the top prize to Chinese
and African plant breeders for their work on developing innovative
rice technologies. Professor Yuan Longping of China, Director-General
of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center
in Changsha, Hunan, China; and Dr. Monty Jones of Sierra Leone, former
senior rice breeder at the West Africa Rice Development Center (WARDA),
presently Executive Secretary, Forum for Agricultural Research in
Africa (FARA), in Accra, Ghana, were given their joint awards during
a U.S. State Department ceremony.
Yuan was noted
for his achievement in the early 1970s in developing the genetic
tools necessary for hybrid rice breeding, known as a “three-line
system”. According to the World Food Prize Foundation, his
achievement led to the world’s first successful and widely
grown high-yielding hybrid rice varieties with yields 20 percent
above conventional varieties.
On the other
hand, Jones was cited for developing in the 1990s the “New
Rice for Africa” (NERICA), uniquely adapted to the growing
conditions of West Africa, by successfully crossing the Asian Oryza
sativa with the African O. glaberrima strains to produce drought
and pest resistant, high yielding new rice varieties. This feat,
according to the Foundation, has not been achieved before in the
history of rice breeding.
For the full report, visit http://www.worldfoodprize.org/04laureates/prelease.htm
SURVEY REPORTS GM COTTON BENEFITS INDIAN FARMERS
ACNielsen ORG-MARG Pvt Limited, an international marketing and information
group commissioned to survey Bt cotton, particularly Bollgard cotton,
in India, confirms the benefits of the crop for Indian farmers. These
benefits include increased yields, reduced pesticide sprays against
bollworms, and higher profits.
The survey covered five of the six Bollgard cotton-growing states:
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat.
It estimates that there has been approximately 30% or 1.7 quintals
per acre yield increase in Bt cotton fields, when compared with conventional
cotton fields. The net profit to farmers from Bt cotton cultivation
has increased significantly by nearly 80% or Rs.3126 per acre.
Another significant finding was the reduction in bollworm pesticide
sprays, which resulted in an average savings of Rs.1294 per acre
(reduction of 2-3 sprays per acre) for farmers. In the survey, more
than 90% of users and 42% of non-users express their intention to
purchase Bollgard in 2004.
For more information on the survey, contact Ranjit Panda of ACNielsen
ORG-MARG
at his email address: ranjit.panda@orgcsr.org.
UNLEARNED LESSONS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY
Herbicide tolerant
and insect resistant crops are now common in several countries.
However, when agricultural biotechnology is compared
with pharmaceutical biotechnology, in terms of public perception
and reception to the technologies, the differences are apparent.
Pharmaceutical products are accepted globally, while resistance to
agricultural biotechnology is still an issue. This was the observation
of Lawrence Busch of the Michigan State University, USA in his article
entitled “Lessons Unlearned: How Biotechnology is Changing
Society.”
States Busch, “agricultural
biotechnologies have the potential to be quite beneficial. (However),
despite a few successes here and
there, (agri-biotech) has thus far been a failure. Its proponents
have failed to enroll citizens and consumers, and even the food processing
and retailing industries around the world. Indeed, it is fair to
say that probably no group of technologies has produced the rancor,
the protests, (and) the opposition, that agricultural biotechnologies
have.”
The author notes some unlearned lessons that could have somehow
lessened the opposition to the technology, and might as well have
turned the industry around. Some of the insights that Busch shared
are as follows:
- Enroll
all actors in the supply chain. Ideally, new technology should
be beneficial to all the stakeholders.
- Compete
and cooperate, and gain by sharing. Despite the competition,
cooperation among the stakeholders has a major role in organizing
both the economy and society.
- Regulate
through the entire supply chain. The current regulatory system
is
clearly a piecemeal affair. An effective regulatory system must take
the entire supply chain into account.
- Holding
innumerable debates about the pros and cons of agricultural
biotechnology will not resolve the issues raised, as long as the
problem is framed as a lack of knowledge.
The full article of Lawrence Busch is downloadable at http://www.cals.cornell.edu/extension/nabc/pubs/nabc_15/chapters/Keynote_Address-Busch.pdf.
RISK ASSESSMENT PROCEDURE FOR GM CROPS
One of the concerns when adopting insect resistant crops is its
effect on non-target organisms such as parasitoids and predators
(entomophagous arthropods), which have an important function in regulating
pests. Despite the fact that regulatory bodies require information
regarding the potential risk of releasing transgenic plants in the
environment, at present, no specific protocols have been designed
for assessing the risks of insect resistant transgenic crops on beneficial
insects.
In their study,
Anna Dutton, Jörg Romeis and Franz Bigler of
the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture
(FAL) proposed a framework for the risk assessment and evaluation
of the effects of insect resistant plants on entomophagous arthropods.
Using Bt maize which carries the code for the Cry1Ab toxin, the researchers
illustrated the procedure necessary for assessing the risks. The
suggested procedure is summarized as follows:
Step 1. Determine which entomophagous arthropods play a major role
in regulating maize pests, and which may be at risk.
Step 2. Since
the risk which transgenic plants pose to entomophagous arthropods
depend on the insects’ exposure, and their sensitivity
to the insecticidal protein, it is essential to determine if and
at what level the organisms are exposed to the transgene compound.
Step 3. Sensitivity tests should be performed to assess toxicity.
This applies to those organisms which could potentially be exposed
to the insecticidal protein.
The green lacewing Chrysoperla carnea was also used as an example
to illustrate how the procedure will be undertaken, and to give evidence
that Bt-maize poses no risk to this particular predator.
For more information
about this research entitled “Assessing
the risks of insect resistant transgenic plants on entomophagous
arthropods: Bt-maize expressing Cry1Ab as a case study,” email
Franz Bigler at franz.bigler@fal.admin.ch.
NEW REGULATIONS REPORT FROM PEW
The Pew Initiative
on Food and Biotechnology recently released a new report entitled “Issues in Regulation of Genetically Engineered
Plants and Animals.” This report reviews the existing regulatory
system for biotechnology, discusses a number of issues and concerns
relating to the adequacy of the system for future biotechnology products,
and suggests policy options and perspectives for addressing particular
issues.
The Pew report
also focused on the analysis of whether the existing regulatory
system is “good enough” to protect public
health and the environment and to maintain public trust. Based on
the analysis, “a range of options exists to enhance the regulatory
review process to address new challenges future products of agricultural
biotechnology are likely to present, although opinions vary about
the need for change.”
It was also noted that current agricultural biotechnology products
have been widely adopted without evidence of food safety or environmental
problems, but the potential complexity of future products may challenge
the ability of the existing Coordinated Framework for Regulation
of Biotechnology, which is jointly administered by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The report also examined the extent to which agency regulatory practices
are transparent, clear, and open to public participation. These include
all procedural elements that can help build confidence in the integrity
of the regulatory system.
Read the full report at http://pewagbiotech.org/.
EUROPABIO WELCOMES DECLARATION FOR BIOTECH
EuropaBio welcomes
the recent declaration made by the Heads of State in Europe to
ensure that public sector investment in research and
development (R&D) would attract private funding and improve the
general conditions for R&D investment to further encourage greater
investment by the business sector.
This declaration
was made in order to create better conditions for research based
companies, including those engaged in biotechnology,
for them to be able to flourish in Europe. "But what is needed
now is action," says Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General
of EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries. According
to Vanhemelrijck, four years has passed since the leaders made their
pledge in the Lisbon Summit, and yet little has been done so far.
"
Today's summit conclusions will be really valuable if the Competitiveness
Council in May takes them up and leads the way forward on biotechnology
when Ministers will discuss the Commission's progress report, " says
Feike Sijbesma, Chairman of EuropaBio. EuropaBio also hopes that
the Competitiveness Ministers will show political leadership both
at the EU level and in the Member States to support an industry
that matches economic growth, improves quality of life and a high
level of environmental protection all at the same time.
More information about EuropaBio at http://www.europabio.org.
VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPERS FEATURE BIOTECH NEWS
Fourteen various
publications in Vietnam featured articles on biotechnology in 2002
and 2003. Of these publications, three newspapers – Vietnam
News, Saigon Times Daily and Han Dan – published over half
of the articles for the study period. This is a major finding of
the media monitoring study conducted by the Global Knowledge Center
on Crop Biotechnology of the International Service for the Acquisition
of Agri-biotech Applications in collaboration with a network contact
in Vietnam. The network contact scanned national papers and sent
monthly summaries of all news stories that were featured from January
2002 to May 2003.
Articles were generally generic in nature, hence there was no clear
pattern of reporting as stories were mere highlights of certain events
or activities. Topics covered such areas as government investments
for agriculture, establishment of certain infrastructure, research
projects and activities. The level of coverage was basically on the
awareness stage while topics tended to be positive and economic in
orientation.
Since newspapers are owned by the government, articles tended to
reflect the prevailing government policy or program. Since economic
development is a main focus of the government and biotechnology is
a priority program to attain it, then it is expected that news center
on these areas of concern.
For more information on this study, email m.navarro@isaaa.org.
BULGARIA AND RUSSIA SET UP BIOTECH INFO CENTERS
Bulgaria and Russia have set up their respective Biotechnology Information
Centers (BICs) to increase awareness of biotechnology initiatives
and foster a science-based debate on the technology. The BICs recently
joined the network of the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology
of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech
Applications (ISAAA) upon the initiative of their respective governments.
The Bulgaria BIC is hosted by the AgroBioInstitute at Sofia, Bulgaria
while the Russian BIC is at the IACC GE in Moscow.
The two new BICS recently participated in the ISAAA and BIC Network
Meeting in Manila, Philippines where they had an opportunity to share
experiences on communicating biotechnology information with colleagues
in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
For more on the BIC network, visit http://www.isaaa.org/kc or email
knowledge.center@isaaa.org. Contact Denitsa Marinova of the Bulgaria
BIO at denistsa@abi.org or Irina Iakovleva at iacgea@biengi.ac.ru.
HERBICIDE- AND ANTIBIOTIC-FREE SELECTION OF GM PLANTS
Researchers at the Plant Science Centre in Umeå, Sweden have
developed a unique marker system for identifying transgenic plants
that does not rely on antibiotic or herbicide resistance. The use
of such markers has often been a significant public concern and a
reason for opposition against the technology.
Torgny Näsholm
and his colleagues developed a method which relies on transforming
plants with a gene called dao1 which encodes
D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO). DAAO catalyses the oxidative deamination
of a range of D-amino acids, and the selection strategy is based
on the toxicity of different D-amino acids and their metabolites
to plants.
Although the
current research reported in the April issue of Nature Biotechnology
describes work carried out in Arabidopsis, Näsholm
is optimistic that this selection method will prove feasible for
use in agriculturally important species.
Visit the website
of the Plant Science Research in Sweden at http://www.upsc.nu.
For more information about the research, contact Torgny Näsholm
at: torgny.nasholm@genfys.slu.se
ANNOUNCEMENT:
FAO E-mail Conference The FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture
is devoting its next e-mail conference to the theme of biotechnology
in food processing in developing countries. The conference is open
to everyone, is free and will be moderated. It runs from 14 June
to 9 July 2004. All messages posted during the conference will be
placed on the Forum website (http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp).
To join the Forum (and also register for the conference), send an
e-mail to mailserv@mailserv.fao.org leaving the subject blank and
entering the following text on two lines: subscribe BIOTECH-L subscribe
biotech-room3. For more information, contact biotech-mod3@fao.org. |
