Archived News

1999

European Patents Office Allows Patents On Genetically Modified Plants
21 December 1999 AFX News
The European Patents Office said it will allow patents for for genetically modified plants to be lodged and enable holders of patents on genetically modified plants to charge fees for their use.

Monsanto Shifts Focus To Consumer Benefits
20 December 1999 Chemistry & Industry
Monsanto has developed its first genetically modified crop with direct benefits to the consumer - a new variety of oilseed rape that cures vitamin A deficiency.

Why Our GM Policy Is The Only Safe One
17 December 1999 The Express
GM food may have benefits for the environment, by using less pesticide, and there may be benefits for the consumer in terms of choice and better products. In medicine we are already seeing GM products used to produce insulin for diabetics, to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to improve blood products for haemophiliacs.

Biotechnology 'Can't Be Ignored'
08 December 1999 Irish Independent
Starvation or else ploughing up public parks and the Amazon Basin are the alternative scenarios to ignoring the benefits of applying technology to agriculture, an agri-food conference was told yesterday. Addressing the controversial issue of GM foods, Dr Martina McGloughlin, a Galway-born scientist told the Teagasc Agri-Food Millennium Conference in Dublin that: "Biotechnology is the low risk alternative to current practices."

Are We Really Destined To Destroy This Eden?
08 December 1999 The Express
Genetic engineering is as big a development for our future as modern medicine has been for our past. It raises rather the same balances - ethical and technical - of benefit and risk. The same sort of voices are raised in protest at the onset of the New World as were raised during the Enlightenment: science and technology were to be distrusted then as now.

Response to a poster titled "Tolerance of Transgenic Soybean to Heat Stress", presented by J. M. Gertz, Jr., W. K. Vencill, and N. S. Hill at the 1999 Brighton Conference
24 November 1999 Monsanto Company
In this paper, the authors suggest that their laboratory research shows Roundup Ready® soybeans may be more susceptible to heat stress than conventional varieties. On millions of acres of Roundup Ready soybeans grown in North and South America over a four-year period, as well as in a variety of research trials, we and others have seen no significant differences in performance of Roundup Ready soybean varieties compared with conventional varieties under a wide range of climatic conditions.

Reports Of Monarch's Death Greatly Exaggerated
22 November 1999 The Irish Times
Two things rocked the sometimes hysterical debate on GM foods during 1999 and sent reverberations throughout the worlds of food and science. The first was the persistence of the claims by Dr Arpad Pusztai that GM foods could damage the immune system in mammals. The second was a report by scientists at Cornell University that the monarch, the most distinctive of American butterflies, could be killed by Bt corn. The first research was all but discredited by most scientific opinion. But the monarch study was different. It was published in Nature, one of the world's most reputable scientific journals, and triggered a PR crisis for the biotechnology industry in a country which had been almost totally accepting of gene technology.

Genetics Can Provide Food To The Starving Millions
12 November 1999 University College London
There are those in green and anti-GM movements who think that there is no real food shortage in the world, and that famine and hunger are due to grossly unfair distribution of food, and to war. But the best estimates are that the world's population will increase from 6 billion to 9 billion in the next 25 years, which will require food production almost to double. Arabidopsis could be a very helpful model for modifying plants to increase output, if such techniques are in fact permitted to be used.

Genetic Engineering A Risky Act Of Faith
06 November 1999 The London Free Press
For me, as a Christian, there is an overriding reason for continuing with the trials. Every year, millions of people die because carefully nurtured crops have been wiped out by disease, drought or pests. Crops that can better resist these enemies have the potential to transform the lives of whole countries.

A Soya Subject
06 November 1999 The Grocer
Phil Kerr, director of biotechnology research and business development at DuPont's Protein Technologies International, predicts a "very concerted effort" from DuPont and other companies to communicate the benefits of products to consumers in the US and Europe.

Scientific Symposium To Show No Harm To Monarch Butterfly
02 November 1999 Biotechnology Industry Organisation
Genetically improved corn poses negligible harm to the Monarch butterfly population, a panel of scientists is expected to conclude at a day-long symposium on new field-conducted research that dispels doubts raised last spring about the safety of the Monarch population.

The Royal Society And GMOs
01 November 1999 Royal Society
The Society is concerned to make sure so far as possible that, where relevant, public policy is informed by the best available scientific information. As the premier independent scientific body in the UK, it has a responsibility to undertake this role.

Biotechnology Will Profit The Poor More Than Anyone
27 October 1999 International Food Policy Research Institute
The Sept. 17 Post editorial "Genetically Modified Confusion" accurately pointed out the misguided nature of much of the debate over agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified foods. A big part of the equation was mentioned only in passing, however: the effect of new agricultural technologies on the world's poor and hungry. Most of these people live in developing countries, and they stand to benefit more than anyone from biotech.

Monsanto Statement Regarding The Oct. 26, 1999, Proposal On BST By The European Commission
27 October 1999 Monsanto
Despite the decision by the European Commission, Monsanto remains committed to providing new options and choices for farmers around the world, Barton said. The advantages of BST to dairy producers have been proven time and time again. The safety of BST has been reaffirmed in every country where it is currently sold and by international scientific review.

Biotech Can Help The Poor
25 October 1999 Development News
A two-day conference on biotechnology wrapped up Friday in Washington with a strong sense of the enormous potential the new and fast moving field holds for alleviating global poverty. The conference, entitled Can Biotechnology Help?, was convened by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the US National Academy of Sciences.

'Super Rice' Set To Break Yield Barrier
25 October 1999 Hindu Business Line
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is on the verge of developing a 'super rice', embodying a 25 percent genetic potential yield gain over the existing high-yielding varieties (HYV). The 'new plant type' of rice is being touted as the foundation breeding material for the next Green Revolution in developing countries.

Altered-Food Debate Cools Down In Britain
18 October 1999 The Journal of Commerce
While the genetically modified crops issue has held the attention of the British public like a well-scripted soap opera for most of 1999, its popularity may be on the wane. It has had a superficially plausible and popular plot, several topical sub-themes, colorful characters, almost daily episodes and even cameo celebrity appearances. Both Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney have featured. Entertaining though it has often been, the controversy has unfortunately tended to create more heat than light.

Lettuces 'Dressed With Illegal Level Of Pesticides'
18 October 1999 The Evening Standard
Every time you eat a "healthy" green salad you could be ingesting a coktail of chemicals, according to a new report today. Researchers claim that more pesticides are applied to the humble lettuce than any other vegetable crop, with an average 11.7 applications in a year. London-based environmental consumer group Sustain found that the UK came bottom of a European league table with the worst record per capita of any country for the testing of pesticide residues.

Biotech Seeds Can Be Good For The World
13 October 1999 The Rockefeller Foundation
Biotechnology is surely the most powerful tool ever put in the hands of agricultural research, or medical research, for that matter. But where scientists and development organizations see better health and nutrition for hundreds of millions, others see danger. There are some genuine concerns about corporate ethics and potential impacts on health and the environment. But many of the fears are imaginary or misplaced.

Pontificial Academy For Life Pronounces On Biotechnology
12 October 1999 Zenit
Bishop Elio Sgreccia, vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and director of the Institute of Bioethics of the Sacred Heart University of Rome, explained that the research in the biotechnological field could resolve enormous problems as, for example, the adaptation of agriculture to arid land, thus conquering hunger.

Royal Society Rejects Latest Claims On GM Potatoes
11 October 1999 The Royal Society
A paper apparently due to be published by Dr Pusztai and Professor Ewen in the Lancet examines the possible toxicity of genetically modified (GM) potatoes by measuring gut responses in rats fed with GM potatoes. The paper is based on experiments flawed in design and implementation and no conclusions can be drawn from it. The comments the Society published in May about alleged experimental evidence of toxic effects remain valid.

Monsanto Vows To Open Dialogue On Biotech Issues
07 October 1999 Associated Press
The head of the U.S. Monsanto Co., Robert Shapiro, who earlier this week touched off a storm by pledging not to commercially develop so-called "terminator seeds" that leave plants sterile, pledged Wednesday to seek dialogue with environmentalists.

Open Letter From Monsanto CEO Robert B. Shapiro To Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway and Others
04 October 1999 Monsanto
I am writing to let you know that we are making a public commitment not to commercialize sterile seed technologies, such as the one dubbed "Terminator."

Advantages Of GM Crops
29 September 1999 University of Bristol
The protein (commonly called the Bt protein) present in GM insect-resistant maize comes from a common soil bacterium. It is toxic to some insects, mainly caterpillars, and the bacteria themselves have been used as an insecticide by organic farmers for decades. It does not affect bees or many other benign insects and has no toxicity to mammals, birds or fish.

Biodegradable Plastic Grown From Plants
27 September 1999 Agence France Presse
Genetic engineers in the United States have grown plants which produce an environmentally-friendly plastic that holds out great commercial promise, the monthly journal Nature Biotechnology reports. The plastic, they hope, could be harnessed for packaging and containers and rot quickly after it is thrown away -- unlike many plastics today, which are derived from petroleum and sometimes take decades to biodegrade.

GM Food Can Help Economy Says Scientist
20 September 1999 The Scotsman
A leading Scottish-based plant breeder and geneticist has hit back at the critics of genetically modified food, arguing that the development of the technology will bring benefits for both farmers and consumers - as well as the national economy.

Monarchs Bearing Grenades
20 September 1999 University of Nebraska
The emerging trend toward publicizing little laboratory studies is going to cause big problems for scientific credibility if it is not reined in quickly. For example, a Cornell University study resulted in public declarations that the Monarch butterfly could be wiped out by genetically modified corn. But the study didn't give a complete picture of what would be expected in a natural setting. The result has been a disservice to science, unnecessary concern among the public, a discrediting of a valuable technology and a lot of work for conscientious scientists who have to mop up the mess.

Friendly Fire; Have Stray Bullets From The 'Frankenfood' Affair Killed Off A Force For Good?
18 September 1999 New Scientist
One small British company, Axis Genetics, began earlier this year clinical trials of the world's first oral vaccine against hepatitis B at two biomedical institutes in New York state. But now the company has gone under after trying to raise the 10 million it needed to fund the next phase of development. Investors were apparently frightened of any corporate portfolio that had both "genetic engineering" and "food" in it.

Deadly Salad Dressing
17 September 1999 The Express
With the advent of genetically modified crops there has been an outcry over the perceived dangers of tinkering with biology. But few people stopped to think about the risks, if any, inherent in the conventional production methods for fruit and vegetables sold in this country.

Genetically Modified Organisms: A Briefing Paper
15 September 1999 Church of England's General Synod Board for Social Responsibility
The public has expressed enormous concern at the prospect of genetically modified organisms, and this needs to be taken seriously. Much of this concern, more or less well articulated, arises from a sense that genetically modified foods are radically unnatural. This paper attempts to clarify the scientific facts and the theological and ethical issues arising from them in order to assist clear thinking in this area.

Junk Journalism Unfairly Taints Biotech Food
11 September 1999 The London Free Press
Virtually nothing we eat is truly "natural." From cattle to corn, apples to artichokes, today's food is the result of cross-breeding experiments dating to the dawn of history. Many plant varieties we consume didn't exist a century ago. With biotechnology, you isolate a specific gene or genes with the desired features and splice them into the organism you want to improve. It's faster, surer and safer than the old technique of cross-breeding.

Genetic Engineered Crop Studies Questioned
10 September 1999 Cornell University News Service
Two prominent entomologists, one from Cornell University, warn that three recent studies on the effects of genetically engineered crops have distorted the debate about engineered crops and that this could have "profound consequences" for science and public policy.

If We Fear Technology, We Really Fear Ourselves
06 September 1999 The Irish Times
Technology should not be feared, as it is no more unnatural than music, philosophy or any other product of the human intellect. Just as with these other activities, you can have good and bad technologies, and the process needs to be monitored. We have learned in recent decades that we are part of the natural environment and must also accept that technology is a natural product of human activity and a natural extension of the human capacity.

Allegations Made By The Independent On Sunday Are Untrue, Monsanto Says
05 September 1999 Monsanto
A story in the Sunday, Sept. 5, edition of the London-based Independent on Sunday inaccurately states that Monsanto is intending to abandon its business in the United Kingdom. This report, and the gossip cited from an unnamed source, are untrue, as the Independent was told.

Scientists Hope Rice Will Give Taste Of GM Crops' Lifesaving Potential
05 September 1999 Scotland on Sunday
Scientists have developed a yellow rice that can help prevent blindness. The EU-funded project, known as Carotene Plus, has modified rice grains to naturally produce beta-carotene, a substance the body instantly converts into vitamin A. This is a vital dietary component that prevents fatal childhood diseases including xeropthalmia, a crippling condition which is the main cause of childhood blindness and a significant health problem in the developing world.

Wealth Warning On Health Foods
05 September 1999 The Sun Herald
Health food retailers are getting rich off the backs of public fear about consuming genetically modified foods and chemical overload. Prices tags on organic food are routinely marked up at least 100 per cent and a bag of groceries costs nearly three times as much as non-organic equivalents.

GM Crops Without Antibiotic Resistance?
01 September 1999 The Rockefeller University
A new way of selecting foreign genes in plants could eliminate a potential risk of genetically modified (GM) crops-the transfer of antibiotic-resistance genes into the environment. Antibiotic-resistance genes are used by genetic engineers to track recombinant genes in plants, allowing transgenic seedlings to be differentiated from seedlings that have failed to take up recombinant DNA.

Medicine Makers: Biotechnology Crops To Produce Low-cost Medicines
30 August 1999 The London Free Press
Molecular farming - a little-known part of the biotechnology boom - uses crops to produce low-cost medicines and proteins to treat disease. It is the subject of an international conference in London this week.

Who Voted For Consumer Activists?
24 August 1999 University of Kent at Canterbury
The important question here is not whether consumer activists are right or wrong about a particular subject. Rather, what we ought to be asking ourselves is whether democracy should be permitted to be eaten away by the oligarchic networking of increasingly powerful lobbyists and whether Britain's advocacy groups deserve to be hailed as the solution to a problem - the degradation of British politics - of which they are merely a glaring symptom.

Anger As Sites For GM Trials Are Revealed
20 August 1999 Farmers Weekly
Farmers and proponents of genetically modified crops criticised the government's decision to publish the precise locations of forthcoming GM oilseed rape sites. The details appeared on Department of Environment Transport and the Regions' internet site this week and included farm addresses and grid references of the fields where trials will be conducted.

An Irishman's Diary On Ecoterrorism
19 August 1999 The Irish Times
Ignorance and magic are the ecoterrorists' shield and armour, which is fair enough: the right to be invincibly stupid is inalienable. But invincible stupidity does not confer the right to damage other people's property, to wreck scientific inquiry by midnight vandalism, to oppose the rule of democratically created law by organised criminality.

Scientists Call On Organic Farmers To Bury Biotech Hatchet
16 August 1999 The Scotsman
A leading Scottish scientist has called on organic farmers and biotechnologists to bury the hatchet and realise the mutual benefits of genetic modification. But, says Professor Michael Wilson, this will require more scientists to come out of their laboratories to explain to people what is going on.

Monsanto Doesn't Sell So-called Terminator Seeds
15 August 1999 Monsanto
Monsanto doesn't sell so-called Terminator seeds. This is because they don't exist. In fact, "Terminator technology" is no more than a concept. The patent on this concept is owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a company called Delta and Pine Land, not Monsanto.

Greenpeace Vandalism In England, Direct Action Against Knowledge
12 August 1999 AgrEvo Company
Greenpeace, just as any other social organisation, can have its own ideology, disseminate it and defend it with its own arguments. But, in no case, is there justification for the use of violence, the invasion of private property or the destruction of others' work and possessions.

Monsanto's Response To ASA Ruling
11 August 1999 Monsanto Company
Monsanto would like to thank the Council of the Advertising Standards Authority for its ruling. With our advertising campaign last year we intended to inform the public of our opinion - and enthusiasm - on the subject of plant biotechnology. We perhaps did not take sufficiently into account the difference in culture between the UK and the USA in the way some of this information was presented.

Let's Deal In Facts, Not Scare Stories
11 August 1999 Western Morning News (Plymouth)
It's always a shame when facts spoil a good story, but the letters about GM crops in your issue of July 14 make me glad to be a scientist concerned with facts rather than someone hag-ridden by myths and misrepresentations. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, we used to be told, but even a little knowledge is better than having one's mind filled with scare stories.

Anarchists 'Hijacking' GM Food Protest Groups
11 August 1999 The Evening Standard
Professional agitators have infiltrated groups protesting at genetically modified crops, police say. They have identified links between organisers of the GM food protests and those responsible for the 18 June action that ended in a riot in the City of London.

Ripe For Picking
07 August 1999 The Economist
Britain's nearly 20-year-old biotech industry already has the "clusters" of companies that industrial theory recommends. America may have five times as many biotech firms as Britain, and scores of real products to show for its efforts (only one British firm, Chiroscience, actually has a drug on the market), but Britain has its own powerhouses around Oxford and Cambridge, and in Surrey and central Scotland, to compare with American clusters around Boston and San Francisco.

Insect Resistant Crops Are Beneficial For Both Agriculture And The Environment
05 August 1999 EuropaBio
EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, commented on research reported in the August 5th, 1999 issue of ‘Nature’ magazine which described delayed development of a laboratory selected resistant strain of pink bollworm in genetically enhanced (GE) insect resistant cotton and the possible effect on insect resistance management.

Funding Boost For Biotechnology Innovation
05 August 1999 Department of Trade and Industry (UK)
A £ 6.45 million Government programme to help ensure that the UK keeps top spot in Europe in biotechnology was announced today. The Biotechnology Exploitation Platform Challenge (BEP Challenge) encourages more effective collaboration between academic institutes to make the best use of the knowledge generated by their research in the biosciences.

Nation Must Protect GM Crops Say Biotech Giants
04 August 1999 The Express
The wealthy biotech industry appealed to the Government to help protect farm-scale trials of genetically modified crops next year. In fact, despite the recent public upheaval, leading researcher Professor Ingo Potrykus claimed that a new strain of genetically modified rice could save 400 million people from malnutrition.

National Cotton Council Reaffirms That Bt Cotton Resistance Management For Pink Bollworm Is Sound
04 August 1999 National Cotton Council
The National Cotton Council (NCC) today said it remains convinced that current resistance management strategies for pink bollworm -- including the use of refugia -- are appropriate and reaffirmed its commitment to preserving the effectiveness of Bt cotton.

GM Squad In Wrong Field Boob
02 August 1999 The Mirror
More than 40 GM food protesters destroyed a dozen acres of a crop - then found they had targeted the wrong fields.

Greens Row Over GM Crop Attacks
01 August 1999 The Express
Britain's leading green campaigners are embroiled in a row over whether GM crop trials should be targeted for attack by Greenpeace. But what clearly emerges from this debate is the condemnation of Greenpeace's stance by the majority of the environmentalists as "dangerously anti-science".

Is Organic Food Really Safe?
30 July 1999 Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh
In the welter of adverse publicity concerning BSE, E coli poisoning and genetically modified (GM) food, organic produce has acquired the mantle of purity and healthiness. In fact organic food has never been more popular. People assume that it is natural, non-industrialised and therefore problem-free. But just how safe is organic farming?

Don't Make Farmers Pay For GM Chaos
28 July 1999 The Express
Andrew Marr, The Express political columnist, thinks that although there are good arguments for going slow on commercial GM planting in Britain, the technology is potentially good. And in his view, testing the plants first is a fair way to proceed, while the recent anti-GM crusade is not.

Better Inside
28 July 1999 The Evening Standard
Many people will sympathise with the magistrates who remanded in custody the director of Greenpeace, Lord Melchett, rather than allow him to leave on holiday for Tanzania after he led a group systematically destroying GM test crops in Norfolk.

Give GM Technology A Chance
26 July 1999 The John Innes Centre
This letter by Prof Mike Gale and 85 other scientists of The John Innes Centre in Norwich exhorts the British public and media to stop the current campaign of vilification of genetic modification as a technology and encourages a commitment to looking at what it objectively offers.

Like It Or Not, GM Food Is Already Here
23 July 1999 Farmer's Guardian
The whole GM debate has rapidly sunk into a morass of myth, lies and exaggeration from both sides. Two facts, however, are already established. Firstly, genetic manipulation is here to stay and our industry must take a scientific look at it's role to play in our future production. The other established fact is that some 40 per cent of our imported soya is derived from GM plants so it is already in our diets, like it or not.

Impacts Of Adopting Genetically Engineered Crops In The U.S. -- Preliminary Results
20 July 1999 Economic Research Service/USDA
Genetic engineering is a technique used to alter or move genetic material of living cells. U.S. acreage using genetically engineered crops has increased from about 8 million acres in 1996 to more than 50 million acres in 1998, in major states where data have been collected. Has adoption of this technology benefited farmers and the environment?

Crop-Wrecking Protesters Won't Stop The GM Trials
19 July 1999 The Evening Standard
The Government said today that genetically modified crop trials will continue, despite the destruction at the weekend of GM oilseed rape. An Environment Department spokesman said damage was still being assessed, but in no way would the protest interfere with the Government's determination to see GM trials through to the end.

Defender Of GM Faith Takes On The 'Luddites'
18 July 1999 The Scotsman
Astrazeneca's boss gets angry as eco-vandals stand in the way of progress, finds David Robertson.

GM Shortcut To Help Starving Third World
16 July 1999 The Express
British scientists have claimed that a breakthrough in plant genetics could help tackle Third-World hunger. In fact, the new shorter plants resulting from genetic manipulation are better able to withstand storms and could be crucial in increasing local food production.

First-Ever Study Shows Biotechnology Delivering Benefits To Agriculture
12 July 1999 Biotechnology Industry Organization
Biotechnology is delivering on promises to make farming more efficient. Those are the findings of the first-ever analysis aimed at assessing whether crops genetically modified to resist pests actually yield benefits.

Genetically Modified Crops Already Diminishing Undernutrition
12 July 1999 University of Sussex
Dr Alok Bhargava alleged that my "argument that genetically modified foods will reduce undernutrition is... premature". But GM staple foods are doing so already. The Nuffield report on GM crops documents varieties that have improved yield and stability.

GM Crops: Higher Yields And Important Pesticide Reduction Confirmed By Researchers
09 July 1999 EuropaBio
As independent scientists and agronomists know from their research and their experience in the field, genetically modified (GM) crops allow the farmer to considerably increase productivity and lower the use of herbicides and insecticides. A report dated June 25th 1999 from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture now provides relevant data supporting this view.

Commission Moves Against Luxembourg And France
07 July 1999 Commisssion of the European Communities
The European Commission has decided to notify two Reasoned Opinions to France for non-respect of one of the principal European Union (EU) Directives dealing with genetically modified organisms, and a Reasoned Opinion to Luxembourg for failure to comply with a previous judgement of the European Court of Justice.

GM Foods Can Benefit The Developing Countries
02 July 1999 The Rockefeller Foundation
The use of GM crops could benefit the developing countries significantly. Biotechnology is going to be an essential partner, if yield ceilings are to be raised, if crops are to be grown without excessive reliance on pesticides, and if farmers on less favoured lands are to be provided with crops that are resistant to drought and salinity, and that can make more efficient use of nitrogen and other nutrients.

Monsanto May Or May Not Be Greedy, But Its Managers Won't Destroy Its Own Business By Poisoning Its Customers
01 July 1999 New College, Oxford
GM crops have replaced paedophilia as the focus for public panic. The incapacity of most discussants to stick to one issue at a time has been impressive, but gloom-inducing. Friends of the Earth's, the Consumers' Association's and Greenpeace's style has moved from "it might damage your health" via "it might kill ladybirds" through "Monsanto is a nasty monopoly" to "we need to know what we're eating" and then back again.

GMO's, The Debate Goes On
01 July 1999 Grower
Investigating the environmental effects of GM crops is of the utmost importance in helping us to understand how this technology can be safely used to the benefit of agriculture.

European Bioindustries Call For A Transparent Approval System For Genetically Modified Products
25 June 1999 EuropaBio
EuropaBio calls for the creation of a European centralised system for the approval of biotechnology products, similar to the European authority which gives approvals for pharmaceutical products, and which European consumers can refer to.

Bioscience Is Our Future
24 June 1999 The Journal (Newcastle, UK)
With progress at an unprecedented rate, we are at the beginning of a revolution so profound that all of our lives will be touched forever. So what is biotechnology? Well surprisingly, it is arguably the oldest profession [or one of them] since it concerns man utilising living organisms for its own benefit.

L'ASA confirme la variabilité naturelle des isoflavones dans le soja
23 June 1999 Association américaine du soja
L'ASA estime que l'étude Lappe confirme ce que les experts du soja savent déjà -- que les composants d'isoflavones dans le soja sont grandement variables et bien caractérisés dans la littérature scientifique. Cette variabilité naturelle est similaire à la variabilité des micronutriments dans toute récolte et est grandement fonction des facteurs environnementaux.

Residues In Roundup Ready Soya Lower Than Conventional Soya
22 June 1999 Monsanto Company
Recent allegations of large increases in the use of weed killers on GM crops are wrong and distort the facts. Conventional soya uses a cocktail of different weed killers and independent research confirms that the total amount of weed killer required for Roundup Ready soya is between 10% and 40% less than the amount of weed killers used in conventional soya.

A Factsheet: Health And Nutrition Benefits Of Soybeans, And The Role Of Isoflavones/Phytoestrogens
22 June 1999 Monsanto Company
Like protein found in animal products, soybean protein is "complete" - meaning that it contains all eight essential amino acids needed for human health. Roundup Ready soybeans have been shown to be the same as conventional soybeans in over 400 seed and processed fraction composition qualities, and confirmed as safe and nutritious in a series of animal feeding studies.

Bt Corn: Environmental Safety And The Monarch Butterfly
22 June 1999 Monsanto
The May 20 issue of the journal Nature reports on a laboratory study that asserts a negative impact of milkweed dusted with pollen from Bt corn on the growth the Monarch butterfly. But the principal author of this laboratory study has cautioned against drawing conclusions until more research and data have been collected and studied.

Who's Afraid?
19 June 1999 The Economist
The consumer furore over genetically modified foods threatens to undermine both this new technology and the credibility of the agencies that regulate it.

Food For Thought
19 June 1999 The Economist
Public hostility to the genetic modification of crop risks slowing down the development of a potentially important technology-which is why more must be done to reassure consumers.

Farmer Offers Land For GM Trials
14 June 1999 Thriplow Farms Ltd.
Unless trials are carried out, we shall never know what effects GM crops will have on the environment. That is why I am today inviting any bona fide plant breeder to use my farm to carry out properly organised trials on GM crops. Only by doing this will I - and every other farmer - ever hope to know the answers.

Prof Burke Answers Prince Charles' 10 Questions
14 June 1999 Feedback Magazine
Prof Derek Burke, a leading voice in the debate on genetically-modified foods, has challenged the Prince of Wales' views on GM crops. Burke, a former chairman of the Government's Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, did so because he felt "there had been an avalanche of emotion and no real debate." Below are his responses to the 10 questions which were posed by the Prince of Wales.

Monsanto Statement re Appeal Against Mr Justice Klevan's Decision
09 June 1999 Monsanto
GenetiX Snowball's defence of their unlawful damage to Monsanto's property is based upon an argument that their acts of destruction are justified in the public interest. However, this is not about the commercialisation of GM crops. The issue is simply whether protest groups should be allowed to destroy other people's property in the name of their particular cause.

Green Genes
08 June 1999 The Christian Science Monitor
Having saluted Prince Charles in the past for his championing of unfairly threatened vegetable varieties, we feel it only fair to question his attack against agricultural genetics.

SCIMAC Statement Regarding Lushill Farm's Decision To Terminate GM Crop Trial
07 June 1999 SCIMAC
SCIMAC regrets the personal decision taken by the Trustees of Lushill Farm, Hannington, Wiltshire, to discontinue the farm's involvement in the Government's programme of farm-scale evaluations of GM and non-GM crops.

Why We Can't Leave The Last Word On GMOs To Prince Charles
07 June 1999 The Scotsman
Why anyone should believe that Prince Charles is a voice to listen to baffles me given his track record of being out of touch with reality , but let's go through his ten points, not to refute them, but to look at his concerns.

Moratorium On GM food Would Perpetuate World Hunger
05 June 1999 British Medical Journal
There is a compelling moral imperative to make genetically modified crops available to developing countries who want to use them to alleviate hunger and poverty, according to a report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

Monsanto's Position On Gene Protection (Terminator) Technology
01 June 1999 Biotechnology Global Update
Monsanto supports and has called for a thorough, independent and comprehensive consideration and public discussion about gene protection technologies. Until such an examination has been conducted, Monsanto will not attempt to comercialise such gene protection technologies.

Letter To The Financial Times Regarding The Significance Of GM Crops For The Developing Countries
29 May 1999 University of Sussex
As a co-author of the Nuffield Bioethics Council's report, Professor Michael Lipton responds to the statement by Alan Simms of Christian Aid that GM foods are unnecessary because 'there is more than enough food to feed everybody in the world'.

Health Implications Of Genetically Modified Foods
28 May 1999 Department of Health (UK)
We have considered the processes used in genetic modification in relation to events occurring in nature and in conventional plant breeding and we conclude that there is no current evidence to suggest that the process of genetic modification is inherently harmful. Nevertheless, nothing can be absolutely certain in a field of rapid scientific and technological development.

Think Tank Urges Use Of Altered Crops
27 May 1999 United Press International
The influential British think-tank Nuffield Council on Bioethics reports a moral obligation exists for the world's scientific community to develop genetically modified crops. The Nuffield Council argues the new technology is likely to bring benefits to developing nations by helping to feed growing rapidly populations and ease the pressure on land.

Moral Imperative For Making GM Crops Available To Countries That Want Them Is Compelling, But Additional Safeguards Are Needed
27 May 1999 Nuffield Council on Bioethics
There is a compelling moral imperative to make genetically modified crops readily available to developing countries who want them, to help combat world hunger and poverty. However, new measures are needed to minimise risks and to realise benefits that GM crops may offer, a report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics says today.

BMA Calls for Halt on GM Crops
22 May 1999 British Medical Journal
The BMA has called for a moratorium on the commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) crops. This should continue until there is a scientific consensus about the potential long term environmental effects.

BIO Responds To Nature Report On Bt Threat To Monarch Butterflies
19 May 1999 Biotechnology Industry Organization
BIO Vice President of Food & Agriculture L. Val Giddings, Ph.D. released the following statement in response to scientific correspondence published in the journal Nature (20 May 1999). The letter to Nature asserts that pollen from Bt corn can negatively affect growth and survival of the larvae of the Monarch butterfly. BIO offers the following statement...

The Advisory Committee On Novel Foods And Processes Reviews Dr Pusztai's Potato Findings
17 May 1999 Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (UK)
Having carefully examined Dr Pusztai's findings the ACNFP concluded that no meaningful conclusions could be drawn from the data made available to the ACNFP on the effect of feeding rats GM potatoes expressing the snowdrop lectin.

Genetically Altered Mushroom Solves Laundry Problem
13 April 1999 Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Scientists may have solved the problem of rogue red socks turning white washing pink - with a genetically altered mushroom. Researchers at the American company Novo Nordisk Biotech in Davis, California, have turned the inkcap mushroom into an environmentally friendly laundry aid, they report in the April issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Your Right To Information
04 March 1999 The Express
I write to complain about the inaccurate Opinion column about the labelling of genetically modified food ("Hard to swallow", Express, March 3). You say that "Although the Government is to introduce new regulations later this week, they will apply only to food sold in restaurants and fast-food shops". This is untrue.

The Risky Nature Of Organics
03 March 1999 Investor's Business Daily
Once sold mostly in health food stores, most cities have at least one upscale supermarket that features natural and organic foods. Established grocery chains are also making room on their shelves for produce labeled organic.

Seriously Silly
27 February 1999 New Scientist
As every fan of Monty Python knows, sketches can become too absurd for their own good. That's what seemed to be happening to Britain's great genetically modified food saga earlier this week when it emerged that scientists at the nation's biggest biotech company may have been breaking the letter of the law when they merrily tucked into tomatoes that had been genetically modified.

Frying Tonight In The Lab, A Chip That Never Goes Soggy
05 February 1999 Daily Mail
Scientists experimenting with GM foods claim they are on the verge of creating the perfect chip which will not become soggy and bent. The theory is that by increasing the amount of starch in certain types of potato the resulting chips will not absorb as much fat or vinegar and therefore keep their shape much better and remain straight.

A Web Of Deceit
02 February 1999 TIME Online
Heard the one about the common shampoo ingredient that causes cancer? Or how about the epidemic of blindness among toddlers who accidentally get waterproof sunscreen in their eyes? These absurd fictions used to be the stock-in-trade of ninth-graders bent on frightening the younger kids. But now such tall tales are appearing on the Internet, and many adults are taking them seriously.

Food Debate: Let’s Hear All The Facts
01 February 1999 The Evening Standard
The House of Lords select report on genetic modification of crops, published last week, did not claim "untold benefits" and adopted a more cautious approach to the technology than your report (Experts call for a total ban on Frankenstein food, 26 January) suggested. While recognising that the technology held the promise of substantial benefits, the committee, which I chaired, also considered that there were potential dangers, particularly for the environment, and for that reason proposed a strengthening of the existing regulatory system.

Frankenstein Food: A Boon For Mankind Or A Time-Bomb?
01 February 1999 Western Daily Press
It first appeared as tomato puree in 1996. But since then, genetically modified food has founds its way into chocolate, biscuits, beer, pies, flour and ready meals. In fact, it is now estimated that up to 60 per cent of products on supermarket shelves contain some genetically modified (GM) ingredients.

Big Debate Planned On Future For GM Crops
30 January 1999 Eastern Daily Press
An important farming conference in East Anglia, the main testing ground in the country, for genetically modified crops, is set to fuel the debate about the benefits and risks of bio-engineered plants. The East Anglia region of Farming and Wildlife Advisory Groups has organised a Conference to inform farmers about the benefits and risks of genetically modified crops, so that farmers can make their own decisions as to the practical difficulties, the environmental impacts and the regulations of the new technology.

Peer Pressure
28 January 1999 Daily Mail
The claim that the recent House of Lords report on the regulation of genetic modification in agriculture was prompted by a desire ‘to get the Government off a nasty public relations hook’ (Mail) is untrue.

GM Crops? We All Love ’Em!
22 January 1999 Farmers Weekly
The fur may be flying over genetically modified crops in Europe, but in western Canada ex-UK farmer Nick Parsons is delighted with his GM rape. He moved from Gloucestershire to British Columbia in 1991 and now has a 1250-acre arable farm.

Monsanto Welcomes Select Committee Report On Genetically Modified Food
21 January 1999 Monsanto
Monsanto welcomed the House of Lords Select Committee Report on Genetic Modification in Agriculture.

Australia To Be Left Behind On Genetic Research: Scientists
20 January 1999 AAP Information Services
The Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS) was cited as calling on Prime Minister John Howard to invest as much as other governments into biotechnology research, warning that Australia risked becoming irrelevant in the coming century unless it matched the massive amounts being spent by other countries on research into genetic modification.

'Food Debate Must Stick To The Facts'
14 January 1999 The Evening Standard
Campaigners against so-called "Frankenstein foods" weretoday accused of having closed minds as supporters ofboth sides of the controversial issue prepared for a majorLondon debate.

Sierra Club Executive Endorses High-Yield Agriculture, Biotech Crop
14 January 1999 Hudson Institute
Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, has endorsed high-yield agriculture, including bio-engineered crops, because high farm yields will help save wildlife habitat and wild species. Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues has researched and advocated this agricultural production technique to help preserve the world's environment.

Biotechnology 'To Be Key Player In Economy'
13 January 1999 Newcastle Upon Tyne Journal
The fast-developing science of biotechnology will be a key part of the region's economy in the coming century, an expert claimed yesterday. The prediction came from Colin Self, professor of clinical biochemistry at Newscastle University and organiser of the first conference at the city's landmark Millennium project International Centre for Life.

Monsanto Responds to Molly Ivins' Article "Let's Try Making Green Bluebonnets Instead" (Forth Worth Star-Telegram, 05/01/99)
11 January 1999 Monsanto
By parroting the propaganda of a small but vocal number of biotechnology critics, Molly Ivins (Let's Try Making Green Bluebonnets Instead, 1/5/99) actually contributes to stifling greater public understanding of biotechnology that she so ardently calls for in her column. A reasoned and informed dialogue on these issues has been underway for more than 20 years among physicians, nutritionists, biologists, agronomists, regulators and educators to name a few. Ms. Ivins conveniently ignores the facts, the science and the logic at the heart of that debate.

Food -- It's All In The Genes
02 January 1999 Nottingham Evening Post
Genetic engineering. Is it a science too far? Critics fear irreversible consequences to our health and environment. But scientists in the field argue genetically-modified crops are simply the latest development in the battle to provide food for the world's growing population. Environment Correspondent Helen Ward speaks to Professor Don Grierson, one of the pioneers in the genetics revolution.

The Science Of Selling
02 January 1999 The Economist
Car makers have long used sex to peddle their wares. Recently, however, a new twist to this old idea has developed. Or, rather, two twiststhe double helix of DNA. For both BMW and Renault have based their latest European marketing campaigns around this icon of modern biology. Their advertising agents, it seems, have decided that genetics is metaphorically, as well as literally, sexy.

A Super-Banana A Day Will Keep The Doctor Away
01 January 1999 Daily Post (Liverpool)
Painful childhood injections could soon become a thing of the past following the discovery of "vaccinating bananas." Pioneering sicentist in the North West have discovered bananas can be genetically modified and converted into a puree for children to take as an alternative to having an injection.