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NEWSLETTERS
16 Aug 2007
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THE GE INFORMATION BULLETIN
An independent digest of widely-sourced information relevant
to the GE debate
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No. 54 July/August 2007 (short-form edition)
http://www.geinfo.org.nz/152006/bulletin54.html
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IN THIS ISSUE:
> Clean Up Costs Confirmed
> Study Shines New Light On Genome
> [Nz] Holds Off Approval Of GE Corn
> GM Potatoes Expelled From Andes
> Moscow To Mark GM-free Foods
> Genetically-modified Tropical Fish Seized
> Annan: [No] Gmos In War On Hunger
> Monsanto Loses Claims For Roundupready Genes
> Corn Yields Surprises
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CLEAN UP COSTS CONFIRMED
Northern Advocate, July 26, 2007 (New Zealand)
Northland's councils have had their worst fears over GE confirmed - they will be liable for any clean-up after GE field trial accidents, not the companies behind the trials. The confirmation was in a letter from Environment Minister David Benson-Pope, which said when or if contamination occurs it will be the person affected by the pollution not the polluter who will pay.
Full item: Full item on GEinfo website
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STUDY SHINES NEW LIGHT ON GENOME
The Guardian, June 14, 2007 (International)
Scientists have been forced to rethink how the human genome turns a single cell into a complex living being following the most intensive study of our genetic code ever undertaken. The research, published in Nature, reveals that genes make up only a tiny fraction of the role played by the 3bn letters that constitute the human genome.
Large swaths of the genome, previously dismissed as "junk DNA" because it was thought to serve no practical purpose, have been found to be highly active inside the cells in our bodies.
Manolis Dermitzakis, a scientist on the $42m, five-year ENCODE project said the findings highlighted how scientists had become so blinded by the importance of genes that the role of other parts of the genome had largely gone unappreciated.
Full item: Full item on GEinfo website
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[NZ] HOLDS OFF APPROVAL OF GE CORN
NZPA, August 2, 2007 (New Zealand)
The Government says it will not immediately buy into a decision [by] trans-Tasman food regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to declare a new form of corn genetically engineered for stockfeed to be safe for human consumption.
The corn - engineered to add weight to pigs and poultry - was approved for humans by FSANZ because Monsanto expects it to turn up in corn-based foods.
Full item: Full item on GEinfo website
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GM POTATOES EXPELLED FROM ANDES
Nature, doi:10.1038/news070716-5, July 18, 2007 (Peru)
This Thursday, the government of Cusco, a region in the Peruvian Andes, is scheduled to ban all GM varieties of potato, according to the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
Full item on GEinfo website
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MOSCOW TO MARK GM-FREE FOODS
Reuters, June 25, 2007 (Russia)
Moscow will introduce a citywide label to identify GM-free foods next week, a move environmentalists hail as ground-breaking but that foreign producers say is complex and costly.
A handful of individual food producers around the world already use labels certifying their food is free of GM elements - but this is the first large-scale political effort to introduce such a system, Greenpeace said, expecting it to be watched by others as a test-case.
Full item on GEinfo website
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GENETICALLY-MODIFIED TROPICAL FISH SEIZED
NZ Herald, July 19, 2007 (New Zealand)
Biosecurity New Zealand has seized and destroyed 300 genetically modified tropical fish. Concerned members of the public alerted authorities after seeing the zebra danio fish for sale on the internet.
The Ministry of Agriculture Quarantine Service had unwittingly allowed into the fish into New Zealand under the false impression they had been dyed.
Full item on GEinfo website
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ANNAN: [NO] GMOS IN WAR ON HUNGER
Business Daily, July 17, 2007 (Africa)
In what is bound to stir controversy in agriculture and scientific circles, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan has ruled out the use of GMOs in the battle against food insecurity and poverty in Africa. "We in the alliance will not incorporate GMOs in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds known to them... Millions of Africans are being fed through aid and this is not sustainable. We have the means to make Africa self sustainable," he said.
Full item on GEinfo website
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MONSANTO LOSES CLAIMS FOR ROUNDUPREADY GENES
Commercial Appeal, July 25, 2007 (USA)
For the second time in five months, the US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected patents key to Monsanto's dominance in bioengineered seed, casting suspicion on its science and weakening the argument that helped the company prevail in dozens of lawsuits against farmers.
The Public Patent Foundation said the US patent office sided with it in its case against Monsanto, saying at least four patents should not have been granted because the technology was either not new or so obvious it wouldn't require patenting.
Full item on GEinfo website
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CORN YIELDS SURPRISES
The News-Gazette, July 13, 2007 (USA)
University of Illinois entomologists Mike Gray and Kevin Steffey said they've discovered some surprising differences in their 25-acre test plots. [One] is that rootworms did significant early damage to transgenic varieties.
"You don't get the expression in the roots that you get in the leaves," Kevin Steffey said, adding that many companies don't emphasize that when selling their stacked hybrids to farmers.
Full item on GEinfo website
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The items in this Bulletin are excerpts from articles which remain the copyright of the original owners. The material is edited for brevity and published here for educational and public interest use only.
Subscribe to the Bulletin, download a PDF or Word version and read full stories at the GEinfo website.
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