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Agnet April 28/04 -- III
Corn growers must follow EPA refuge guidelines
Media Advisory - Ontario government to make important announcement to help agriculture
GM trials scaled back
ISU institute aims to provide objective data on biotech crops
Panel for clipping GEAC wings
U.S. growers of biotech food stand to profit if ban is lifted
Green-tinged farm points the way
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Corn growers must follow EPA refuge guidelines
April 27, 2004
Delta Farm Press
http://deltafarmpress.com/news/bt-refuge-guidelines/
ST. LOUIS – According to the National Corn Growers’ Association, farmers who do not follow EPA’s refuge guidelines for corn containing the Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt gene in 2004 may not be allowed to plant those varieties in 2005.
Those include farmers in cotton growing areas of the South who may not plant more than 50 percent of their acreage in Bt varieties that are resistant to corn borers and other insects under EPA’s insect resistance management guidelines.
In a press release to its members, NCGA said that under the Compliance Assurance Program (CAP) growers who have been found not meeting IRM refuge requirements in two consecutive years can be denied access to Bt corn borer resistant corn in the third year.
Established in 1999, IRM refuge requirements were enacted to help prevent corn insect pests, such as the European corn borer, from developing resistance to Bt technology, enabling the technology to be used well into the future.
Under these requirements, growers are obligated to plant at least a 20 percent refuge, with Bt corn fields located within one-half mile (preferably one-quarter mile) of the refuge. In certain corn/cotton areas of the South, growers are required to plant at least a 50 percent corn refuge.
A 2003 IRM grower compliance survey indicates 92 percent of farmers met regulatory requirements for IRM refuge size, while 93 percent met refuge distance requirements - an increase from 87 and 82 percent reported in 2000 when the survey began.
To help support IRM awareness efforts, NCGA recently launched the industry’s first IRM online education center for growers - the Insect Resistance Management Learning Center.
The Center can be accessed free-of-charge at www.ncga.com
Media Advisory - Ontario government to make important announcement to help agriculture
April 28, 2004
Canada News-wire
TORONTO - Minister of Agriculture and Food Steve Peters will make an important announcement to help Ontario's farm families.
Location: Lunnvale Farms, 46698 Crossley-Hunter Line (911 address), RR 1 Belmont, Ontario
Date: Friday, April 30, 2004
Time: 10:00 a.m.
From Highway 401, take the exit for Highway 74 (Westchester Bourne). Head south toward the Village of Belmont. Turn left (or east) at the third road after village limits which is Crossley-Hunter Line; the Lunnvale farm is the first farm on the left (north). Please note: boots, or similar appropriate footwear, are recommended.
GM trials scaled back
April 28, 2004
ABC.net
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1096805.htm
According to this report, trials of genetically modified (GM) canola in New South Wales have been scaled back further, to a maximum of 95 hectares.
Bayer Crop Science and Monsanto originally wanted to plant trials of up to 5,000 hectares of GM canola, but the State Government only approved 420 hectares.
Tim Reeves, chair of the state's GM advisory council, says it now appears that even smaller trials will be run comparing the performance of GM canola with conventional varieties.
ISU institute aims to provide objective data on biotech crops
April 27, 2004
Iowa Farm Bueau
Tom Block
http://www.ifbf.org/publication/spokesman/story.asp?number=22585&type=News
Jim Bair, vice president of the North American Millers Association, is cited in this story as saying that consumer confidence is just as important as regulatory approval in determining the future direction of plant and animal biotechnology.
Iowa State University officials hope a new project—the Biosafety Institute for Genetically Modified Agricultural Products, or BIGMAP—will give both regulators and consumers the assurances they need. The institute is developing systems to assess the risks of biotech-based crops from laboratory to finished product.
BIGMAP Director Manjit Misra said the institute will provide objective research not available from industry groups supporting biotech crops or consumer groups opposing them.
A BIGMAP-sponsored symposium last week brought governmental regulators, researchers and industry representatives together to discuss issues facing the advancement of biotech products. While the biotech industry is focused on scientific advances and government approvals for new varieties that produce pharmaceuticals and industrial compounds from plants and animals, Bair said the technology will meet a dead end without consumer support.
“I think the value of BIGMAP is that it will quantify what the risks are and satisfy public fears,” Bair said. “A lot of education is needed.”
Symposium panelists said, the likelihood of growing plant-made pharmaceuticals in a food crop such corn in Iowa is remote from both a regulatory and consumer standpoint.
Neil Hoffman, director of regulatory programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is cited as saying that pollen flow and accidental commingling remain major challenges to segregating crops intended for food uses from those designated for pharmaceutical or industrial use, adding that regulators are also concerned about the potential theft of seeds.
“We don’t want to see the product grown in the Heartland, where most of the crops are grown,” said Hoffman. “Our policy is to never say never, but there needs to be even more restrictions if (plant-made pharmaceuticals) are grown in areas where there are mass quantities of the crop.”
Government regulators are continuing to study appropriate tolerance levels for non-approved proteins in food crops, Hoffman said.
“A big challenge is zero tolerance,” he admitted. “I think we all know that’s not a credible goal.”
Panel for clipping GEAC wings
April 28, 2004
Financial Express
Ashok B Sharma
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=57937
NEW DELHI - The MS Swaminathan panel on applications of biotechnology in agriculture has sought to reduce the powers of the existing regulatory authority, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).
It has suggested that pending the setting up of an autonomous Agricultural Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (ABRA), the release of transgenic crops for commercial cultivation should be done by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Union agriculture ministry. The panel has limited the powers of the GEAC to “only environmental clearance.”
Regarding selection of crops for developing transgenics, the panel report said, “the alternatives available for meeting the food and nutritional needs should be viewed comprehensively” before resorting to transgenics. Export market should be kept in view while selecting crops for developing transgenics.
The panel also suggested the labelling of genetically modified (GM) products, setting up of Codex norms in GM foods, protection of organic farming zones and agro-biodiversity sanctuaries from the effects of cross-pollination of GM crops, gathering of data on effects of transgenics on other crops on line of recent studies in UK.
It suggested special government-sponsored insurance scheme for GM crops, venture capital assistance for industries developing GM crops and private-public sector alliance for production and marketing of GM seeds. It also called for studying the effects of recombinant vaccines and GM feeds on milk, meat and eggs. With a view to hasten the process of clearance of GM crops, the panel report said, “once an extant/transgene has been declared bio-safe, its derivatives need not always be evaluated for bio-safety again.”
The panel report recommended until the ABRA is set up the GEAC should have two wings, one to deal with transgenic in agriculture and the other in pharma sector.
U.S. growers of biotech food stand to profit if ban is lifted
April 27, 2004
Lexington Herald Leader
Shelley Emling
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/business/8528349.htm
LONDON - After EU agriculture ministers deadlocked at a meeting yesterday over whether to approve the corn, it will now be up to the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to decide. As reported in this story, the commission has openly expressed its commitment to ending the ban.
This would mean that European supermarkets could stock the corn, called Bt-11, as long as it's labeled as gene-modified. Such a decision could also lead to the approval of dozens of other gene-modified imports. About 34 gene-modified products are waiting for regulatory approval.
The herbicide-resistant Bt-11 sweet corn, already available to American consumers in the form of canned corn or popcorn, is produced by the Swiss company Syngenta.
The corn's approval would be particularly good news for the United States, which dominates the biotechnology industry, growing about two-thirds of the world's gene-modified crops.
The global market for gene-modified crops is expected to total more than $5 billion in 2005, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. And farmers continue to expand biotech harvests at a double-digit pace, with the 2003 total up 15 percent to 167.2 million acres.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has estimated that the EU moratorium costs American companies more than $300 million in corn exports alone each year.
Green-tinged farm points the way
April 28, 2004
BBC News
Sue Broom
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3665851.stm
UK scientists at the Roslin Institute say they have dramatically improved the technique for introducing modifications to an animal's genetic make-up.
So far, the researchers have used the new method to introduce a jellyfish gene that makes their pigs and chickens fluoresce - to prove changes will work.
Now, the scientists expect to create animals that are resistant to disease or can be used to study disease.
The Edinburgh institute described its latest research to BBC Radio 4's One Man's Meat programme.
Conventional efforts to make transgenic animals have been expensive, hampered by inefficient methods of production, which see only about one in 70 embryos injected with genetic material resulting in a modified animal.
The improved technique borrows from procedures developed for gene therapy in humans.
In one of several recent trials at the Roslin Institute, the new approach resulted in 36 out of 40 pig embryos developing into transgenic pigs.
According to researchers Dr Bruce Whitelaw and Dr Helen Sang, such a success rate has the power to revolutionise the application of GM technology in farm animals.
The new technique uses viruses to carry chosen genes into fertilised eggs. Once altered, the eggs are then implanted in surrogate females.
Dr Sang, a poultry researcher is ready to test the technique with genes of research interest.
"At the moment, we're trying to produce hens with pharmaceutical proteins in their eggs.
"We're looking at a therapeutic protein for cancer treatment," she said, "but we've also now got funding to look at two poultry diseases: Marek's disease and Asian flu."
The technique is most likely to be used to create transgenic animals to study diseases but might also eventually be used to make farm animals that are resistant to specific diseases.
Agnet is produced by the Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph and is sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Plants Program at the University of Guelph, Agricultural Adaptation Council (CanAdapt Program), AGCare, Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors, ConAgra Foods Inc., Meat Livestock Australia, Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited (Canada), Monsanto Canada, National Pork Board, Syngenta Seeds, Inc. USA, JIFSAN, CropLife Canada, Canadian Animal Health Institute, National Cattlemen's Beef Association/Cattlemen's Beef Board, Burger King Corporation, Southern Crop Protection Association, Ag-West Biotech Inc., Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, Syngenta Crop Protection, Feedlot Health Management Services, Institute of Environmental Science Research Limited , National Food Processors Association, Tactix Government Consulting, Inc., CanAmera Foods, Global Public Affairs, and Agri Business Group, Inc.
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