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Mothers for Natural LawInternational News on Genetic Engineering in AgricultureBiweekly News 98/09/01Thanks to Cliff Kinzel and Richard Wolfson for these items.
Some of the articles have been shortened. ---------------- Date: 12 Aug 1998 15:14:20 -0500
PRESS RELEASE Weds. 12th August 1998 Research Highlights Risk of using Viral Promoter Genes in New Foods Fragments of artificial genes inserted into foods were detected in the brain cells of baby mice in research conducted Dr. Walter Doefler of the Institute of Genetics, University of Cologne. (Ref: Journal of molecular genetics and genetics Vol 242: 495-504, 1994.) Conventional wisdom had previously assumed that genetic material was destroyed in the process of digestion. The research emerged on the UTV World in Action programme last Monday. "This has huge implications for the use of genetically engineered foods" said Quentin Gargan of Genetic Concern. "Industry would have us believe that genetic engineering is a simple technology in which a single naturally occurring gene is taken from one plant and inserted into another, but nothing could be further from the truth". We may have a gene which gives us blue eyes, and this gene exists in every cell in our body - part of this gene is a promoter region which ensures that it is only switched on in cells in our eyes - otherwise, every part of our body would be blue from our hair to our toenails. When artificial genes are inserted into a plant, they are accompanied by a promoter region from a virus. This promoter ensures that the gene is switched on at all times and in all parts of the plant. Viruses such as the cauliflower mosaic virus and a figwort virus have promoter regions which are highly active, and these are included in genes which were inserted into the sugar beet currently being tested in field trials by Monsanto around the country. "The idea that fragments of DNA from viral promoters could find their way into cells of new born babies is a frightening prospect", said Quentin Gargan of Genetic Concern "yet Monsanto admitted in the World in Action programme that they do not conduct long term testing of these genetically engineered foods".... "Once again, we hear regulatory authorities assuring us that there is no scientific evidence that genetically modified foods are unsafe - this was exactly the situation with BSE, DDT, Thalidomide and many other calamities" said Mr Gargan "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and with something irreversible such as genetic engineering, we must learn from past mistakes and take a very cautious approach" ---------------- RAFI Rural Advancement Foundation International www.rafi.ca mailto:rafi@rafi.org
FIRST THE TERMINATOR, AND NOW, THE "VERMINATOR"!
Europe's answer to the American Home "Monster" Terminator Technology is the Verminator, a new chemically activated seed killer. The Verminator kills seeds - in one of the invention's claims - by switching on rodent fat genes that have been bioengineered into crops. Zeneca BioSciences (UK) is vying with the "Monster" (Monsanto) to become Top Cat in the global seed industry even if it means playing cat and mouse with farmers and destroying their age-old practice of saving and breeding crop varieties. Zeneca, the life industry spin-off of the old ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries), says it will apply for patents in 58 countries for its invention that renders it impossible for farmers to save "protected" seed from growing season to growing season (WO 94/03619). The technology, which activates a "killer" gene (or prevents the expression of genes crucial to normal plant development), weighs in whenever a chemical "trigger" is applied to seed at a desired point during plant maturation. For example, genetically engineered seed could be produced that would not germinate unless exposed to Zeneca's private chemical trigger. Or, plants growing in the field could be genetically programmed to become stunted, not properly reproduce, or not resist disease(s) unless sprayed with Zeneca's chemical formula... The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, Rome) estimate that 1.4 billion poor people depend on farm-saved seed for their food security. The farmers involved often grow their food under unfavourable conditions of little commercial interest to global seed companies. Thus, the farmers adapt or breed their own varieties that meet their own conditions and needs. Verminator and Terminator can make it impossible for these farmers not only to save seed but to create the varieties they need to feed people... For background on the Trend and on the activities of the global seed trade, please visit RAFI's homepage at www.rafi.ca. ---------------- Retrieved Aug 22/98 NOVARTIS MAKES MAJOR MOVE IN AGBIOTECH Not to be left out of the recent flurry of agbiotech corporate activity, Novartis announced the planned investment of $600 million over the next ten years to fund one of the largest initiatives in plant genomics. The first step will be the creation of the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute (NADI), which will be one of the largest single research endeavors dedicated to agricultural genomics research and development. Located in San Diego, California, the main campus of NADI will have a team of about 180 researchers in 50 laboratories... For more information: 1. Novartis announces $600 million investment in agricultural genomics. Novartis home page (www.novartis.com), July 1998. 2. Welch, M., Novartis Earmarks $600 million for agricultural genomics. BioWorld Today, Vol. 9, No. 140, July 23, 1998, pp. 1,6. William O. Bullock Institute for Biotechnology Information, LLC Research Triangle Park, NC www.biotechinfo.com ---------------- High School Student's Winning Study: Research Shows Artificial Sweetener Hurts Performance PR Newswire - August 12, 1998 16:58 SUN VALLEY, Idaho, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- High school student Susie Morris of Price, Utah, wowed an audience of sugar and corn sweetener growers, processors and refiners today when she reported on a three-year research study she conducted that demonstrated that a popular artificial sweetener hurt learning performance in elderly rats -- and sugar helped. She said the study, which won first prize in its category in the National Science Fair, clearly demonstrated that when fed amounts of aspartame, the diet "destroyed the elderly rats' ability to learn." The rats were tested in a maze. Rats on a diet that was identical but did not contain aspartame mastered the maze successfully. The aspartame-fed rats never learned the maze, she said. The rats were 27 months old, which she said is the equivalent of a 79-year-old human... Morris said that when tested, "The elderly control group mastered the maze by the 34th trial. The experimental group, however, never mastered the maze and showed no sign of learning whatsoever." Instead, she said the group fed the aspartame engaged in "repetition of a meaningless behavior." SOURCE American Sugar Alliance /CONTACT: Joseph Terrell of the American Sugar Alliance, Sun Valley, 208-622-2086, or Washington, 202-457-1438/ CO: American Sugar Alliance ST: District of Columbia IN: MTC AGR SU: ---------------- Copyright 1998 Times Newspapers Limited The Times August 25, 1998, Tuesday Modified crop 'helps man and wildlife' Michael Hornsby, Agriculture Correspondent GENETICALLY engineered crops can save farmers money, reduce chemical spraying and create a better habitat for birds and insects, scientists claimed yesterday. Trials of sugar-beet modified to contain a gene resistant to a broad-spectrum herbicide have shown much higher numbers of weeds and insects than are found in equivalent conventional crops. The trials have shown, the scientists say, that the weeds attract aphids that would otherwise attack the sugar-beet, as well as drawing in such insects as ladybirds, which feed on the aphids. The findings run counter to the claims of environmental groups that claim gene modification will leave fields barren of wildlife and promote the growth of "superweeds" immune to treatment. Alan Dewar, an entomologist at the Institute of Arable Crops Research, said: "The thing that struck me was that, with the new technology, it was possible to allow a degree of weed growth that farmers would not tolerate in a conventional crop. I have never seen so many insects in a sugar-beet crop before." The benefits for the farmer appear even more clear-cut, with the cost of insecticide and herbicide spraying reduced to Pounds 24 an acre, compared with up to Pounds 140 an acre in fields growing ordinary sugar-beet. If weeds are left completely untreated, crop yields per acre can be reduced by at least 80 per cent. The claims were made during a briefing at a trial plot in Cambridgeshire of sugar-beet developed by Monsanto, a biotechnology company that has been the target of recent attacks by environmental campaigners. The crop could be approved for commercial planting by 2001. It is immune to a herbicide also manufactured by the company. The trials suggest that the modified sugar-beet needs to be sprayed twice, rather than up to seven times. ---------------- In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is compiled for educational use only. |
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