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| A blog to give Australian primary producers an direct insight into what technology could offer them and point them to authoritative sources of infomation from all over the world. Helping producers wanting to stay ahead of the global competition. Contact gmopundit -AT-gmail.com |
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Moved GMO Pundit to a new site with a Search function http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/ | ||
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Probing the European spread of a U.S. corn pest November 10, 2005 ARS News Service Agricultural Research Service, USDA View this report online, plus any included photos or other images, at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has helped shed new light on the spread in Europe of the western corn rootworm beetle, the most destructive pest of corn in the United States. It was thought that the European spread of this pest, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, could be traced exclusively to its accidental 1992 introduction from North America into the former Yugoslavia. But a new study, headed by researchers Thomas Guillemaud and Nicholas Miller at Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in Sophia Antipolis, France, has found that it's the result of at least three independent transatlantic introductions. This suggests that such incursions may be occurring more often than previously thought. The study, described in the current issue of Science, entailed analysis of genetic variation in European and American western corn rootworm populations, specifically at eight microsatellite loci within their DNA. Molecular biologist Kyung Seok Kim of ARS' Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research Unit in Ames, Iowa, developed the microsatellite DNA markers needed for the study. His work and ARS cooperation with INRA accelerated the research findings by about a year. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency. Western corn rootworms cost U.S. growers about $1 billion annually in yield losses and control measures. Young larvae feed on root hairs and small roots, while larger larvae feed on primary roots. Kim explained that the pests are usually most easily controlled by rotating crops between corn and soybean. Eggs laid in corn hatch during the soybean phase, depriving the pests of suitable food. He added that the findings also bear significance because of the emergence of a new variant of the western corn rootworm in the United States that lays its eggs in soybeans and whose offspring hatch in corn. This variant has not yet been detected in Europe. | ||
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via Agnet 5 November 2005 Thai Corp calls for GM field trials From Agnet November 11, 2005 CropBiotechNet The Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), Thailand's largest agricultural corporation, has called on the local government to allow field trials of three genetically modified (GM) crops: cassava, rubber, and corn for animal feed. "China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have already developed their own GM crops, including rice, corn and soybean," CP's managing director, Sumet Pinyosanit, said, "The global market is increasingly receptive to GM crops." He also asked the Thai government to consider allowing commercial cultivation of GM crops to help Thai farmers compete in the world markets of the future. CP began as a seed supplier in Thailand. It is now a global conglomerate, with investments, operations and trading in 20 countries around the world. It focuses on agri-business production and processing, as well as telecommunications, logistics, and retailing services. Read the complete article at: http://www.nationmultimedia.com | ||
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From Doug Powell at Agnet Nippon Paper Industries, University of Tsukuba jointly start salt tolerant eucalyptus outdoor cultivation experiment November 2, 2005JCN News Aki Tsukioka TOKYO - Nippon Paper Industries (NPI) has started an outdoor cultivation experiment with salt tolerant eucalyptus trees in collaboration with the University of Tsukuba. The partners are now growing salt-tolerant eucalyptus trees at the university's Gene Research Center. The relevant plant was genetically engineered with choline oxidase (COD), a[n enzyme from the bacterium]... Arthrobacter globiformis, using NPI's proprietary genetic technology MAT Vector System. The tree's salt tolerance has been confirmed in the previous greenhouse cultivation, in which the trees were supplied with saltwater of 30% salinity, the same salinity as seawater. The current experiment, the first one in Japan to grow a genetically-engineered plant outside, will last until the end of 2009. The partners plan to evaluate growing conditions, salt tolerance levels, impacts on the surroundings of the trees. The salt tolerant eucalyptus, which can be raised in dried and salt damaged soil, is expected to be effective in a fight against global warming as it can absorb carbon dioxide emissions. | ||
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Australian Biotechnology News has many in depth articles on the Agbiotech sector From the current Agbiotech segment at the magazine webpage: How a code of practice can help manage biotech's conundrum Michael Aldridge The new AusBiotech/ASX code of practice for reporting by life science companies, launched last week, is being hailed as an important milestone in the development of the Australian biotech sector. Here, Michael Aldridge, who was on the committee to review the code's first draft, explains why he believes the code is so important to the industry. Vale Jamie Callachor 08/11/2005 14:08:43 GM chickens may help to lessen bird flu threat 04/11/2005 11:13:04 Edible rice-based vaccine may combat hay fever 02/11/2005 10:22:48 | ||
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Issues magazine (Melbourne, September 2005) The Case for Gene Technology David Tribe, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne Modern gene technology delivers safer and more nutritious food and deserves a fair hearing. Lack of vitamin A promotes the death of about 6000 children per day, worldwide, from infectious disease. This is a tangible health hazard of vast scope that dwarfs any hypothetical hazard attributed to genetically modified (GM) foods. Recently an affluent Australian lawyer living in London told me that his social set shopped at the high class London chain Sainsbury’s for food but deliberately avoided buying GM food products because they are too “downmarket” as they are produced to meet the needs of desperately poor people in the developing world rather than for discerning people with high culinary standards. It was only later that I realised that this incident neatly encapsulates the vastly different context of food safety and choices available in the richer developed world compared with the poorer developing world. In the developed world consumers have the luxury of worrying about hypothetical fears while people suffer and die in the developing world from very real food hazards that are preventable by better technology. Satisfying the concerns of wealthy western Europeans about hypothetical food hazards can interfere with the provision of better nutrition for the rural poor in countries like India, Brazil and Bangladesh...Continues at Issues magazine. | ||
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Dr Charles Benbrook is to visit
Australia soon to comment on crop biotechnology. His approach to crop
statistics has frequently raised dissent from other scientists: Agbioview Fri, 2 Sep 2005 Benbrook on grain quality in Roundup Ready Wheat. In his latest offering: "Harvest at Risk: Impacts of Roundup Ready Wheat in the Northern Great Plains" (available from www.worc.org), Benbrook makes the claim that the quality of Roundup Ready wheat is not as high as conventional wheat. In his comments, Benbrook not only claims that the composition of grain from Roundup Ready wheat is not equivalent, but that the differences are significant enough to be of concern. There are two major problems with Benbrook's approach, both of which suggest a deliberate distortion of the evidence by Benbrook. While the numbers reported by Benbrook are correct, the method of display of the values has been deliberately organised to mislead the reader...Continues at Agbioview Dr. Christopher Preston Senior Lecturer, Weed Management University of Adelaide | ||
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From AgBioView www.agbioworld.org : November 10, 2005 Australia: Network of Concerned Farmers Ask Why GM Crops Perform Worse in Drought - Christopher Preston Senior Lecturer, Weed Management, University of Adelaide In my recent search for material on yields of GM canola following the comments of Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers that GM canola yields were 20% less than those of conventional canola, I came across a press release dating from 30th June 2005 (http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/news_details.asp?ID=2254). In this press release, the Network of Concerned Farmers are asking why GM crops perform worse in drought. This looks on the surface like a reasonable question. The problem with the question, and perhaps the intention, is that it makes the assumption that GM crops do perform worse in drought. However, is there any evidence to support such an assumption? Julie Newman thinks so and claims in the press release: "Farmers worldwide have complained that GM crops perform worse than non-GM crops during drought including GM cotton in India and Indonesia, GM soy in the United States and Brazil and GM canola in Canada ." Supporting information is provided along with the press release mostly pointing to other articles on the Network of Concerned Farmers website. ...SNIP... In conclusion, the examples given by the Network of Concerned Farmers do not stack up. They can all be sourced to groups that are implacably opposed to GM crops. Has Julie Newman and the Network of Concerned Farmers ever wondered why only anti-GM groups are able to find evidence for GM crops performing worse under drought? Of the seven examples given, only two indicate the possibility that drought might preferentially lower yields of GM crops. In both cases, it was the growing of less well-adapted cultivars that was the root of the problem. At this stage, there is simply no evidence to support a conclusion that GM causes crops to perform worse in drought. One of the other points of note from this survey was that on two occasions anti-GM activists simply added material to the story to make up for the lack of evidence and on a third occasion change the wording significantly to make a quote look more damaging. This should be adequate warning to Julie Newman, and others, that they should look for the original sources of the stories instead of simply believing and parroting what is written by these groups...Continues at Agbioview | ||
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Proceedings Natl. Acad. Sci USA | September 20, 2005 | vol. 102 | no. 38 | 13386-13391 The endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica reprograms barley to salt-stress tolerance, disease resistance, and higher yield Disease resistance strategies are powerful approaches to sustainable agriculture because they reduce chemical input into the environment. Recently, Piriformospora indica, a plant-root-colonizing basidiomycete fungus, has been discovered in the Indian Thar desert and was shown to provide strong growth-promoting activity during its symbiosis with a broad spectrum of plants [Verma, S. et al. (1998) Mycologia 90, 896-903]. Here, we report on the potential of P. indica to induce resistance to fungal diseases and tolerance to salt stress in the plant barley. The beneficial effect on the defense status is detected in distal leaves, demonstrating a systemic induction of resistance by a root-endophytic fungus. The systemically altered "defense readiness" is associated with an elevated antioxidative capacity and results in an overall increase in grain yield. Because P. indica can be easily propagated in the absence of a host plant, we conclude that the fungus could be exploited to increase disease resistance and yield in crop plants. | ||
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Via Plantstress webpage Grain Biotech Australia is testing two salt tolerant wheat lines in Western Australia. These rely on transgenic (GM) technology. | ||
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CAST -Council for Agricultural Science and Technology CAST
assembles, interprets, and communicates credible, science-based
information regionally, nationally, and internationally to legislators,
regulators, policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public. CAST
is a nonprofit organization composed of scientific societies and many
individual, student, company, nonprofit, and associate society members.
CAST's Board of Directors is composed of representatives of the
scientific societies and individual members, and an Executive
Committee. CAST was established in 1972 as a result of a 1970 meeting
sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Research
Council. | ||
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From Engormix Published 10/26/2005 Source: Novozymes EU - Novozymes, Chr Hansen alliance launches first new cheese enzyme A next-generation enzyme solution that increases mozzarella yields for dairy firms is the first major launch to emerge from ground-breaking collaboration between top ingredients firms Chr Hansen and Novozymes. The new solution, named YieldMax, will be launched this week and has been under development for around five years. The two firms, both inside Europe's top four enzyme producers, said YieldMax could increase mozzarella yields by around two per cent. Knud Vindfeldt, executive vice president for cultures and enzymes at Chr Hansen, told that YieldMax was part of a new breed of enzymes. He said its development could only have been brought about so quickly by the “never before seen” alliance between Chr Hansen and Novozymes, combining technical expertise with dairy market knowledge for the last three years. | ||
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PG Economics Limited
is a specialist provider of advisory and consultancy services to
agriculture and other natural resource-based industries. Their specific
areas of specialisation are plant biotechnology, agricultural production systems, agricultural markets and policy. The Company's two directors are Peter Barfoot and Graham Brookes who formed PG Economics in 1999. Both have worked at senior positions in agricultural consultancy and technology businesses. PG Economics has consistently produced high quality agronomic/economic reports that are generally available at their website | ||
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ISB is a great place to start. This is a top quality American site that has comprehensive Agbiotech links plus valuable monthly News Report services. Information Systems for Biotechnology (ISB) was established in 1988 as part of the National Biological Impact Assessment Program (NBIAP), a program administered by USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). ISB is funded on an annual basis through a grant to the Agricultural Experiment Station at Virginia Tech. Featured Items at ISB:
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Monthly Plant Stress