Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News from GMO pundit

Trade and innovation are crucial for future global food security

LetterIn our globalizing world, the geographical locations of food production and consumption are becoming increasingly disconnected, which increases reliance on external resources and their trade. We quantified to what extent water and land constraints limit countries' capacities, at present and by 2050, to produce on their own territory the crop products that they currently import from other cou...

Trends in Biotechnology - Transgene flow from Bt brinjal: a real Risk?

Forum: Science & SocietyTransgene flow from Bt brinjal: a real Risk?THE RISKS ARE REALTransgene flow from commercialised, genetically engineered ‘Bt brinjal’, to wild, weedy, and cultivated relatives is a major biosafety concern. Selective advantage conferred by the Bt transgene could produce aggressive weeds with the potential for disruption of ecological balance. Our biological knowledge...

Genetically modified purple tomato 'tastier than normal varieties'

The UK Telly carries a tastefully good storyA genetically modified purple tomato that is tastier than normal varieties and can last for more than a month before going off has been invented by scientists.Tests showed the shelf life of the tomatoes more than doubled from after genetic modification Photo: PABy Nick Collins, Science Correspondent

Why I’m Through with Organic Farming « Random Rationality

by Mike Bendzela of Dow Farm Enterprise“It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”- Jesus of NazarethFor twenty-five years I was a self-styled organic gardener. I say “self-styled” because I didn’t need certification as I wasn’t marketing produce. And by “organic” I mean “too lazy and cheap to buy fertilizers...

Debunking 'The Big Lie' About Genetically Engineered Crops

Plums that have been genetically engineered to be resistant to the plum pox virus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)By Henry I. Miller and Graham Brookes, 23 May 2013In spite of two decades of stunning scientific, humanitarian and financial successes and an admirable record of health and environmental safety, the

The Impact of Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology has recently been at the center of the world’s attention as a new scientific and engineering discipline. It allows us to design and construct finely controllable metabolic and regulatory pathways, circuits, and networks, as well as create new enzymes, pathways, and even whole cells. With this great power of synthetic biology, we can develop new organisms that can efficiently pr...

Coffee Leaf Rust: It's Coming for Your Morning Joe

Oh no! Good intentions don't mean good prospects for organic farming are a sure thing down on the farm.Progressive-minded café goers have long appreciated the value of an organic cup of coffee. Not only do conventional beans require synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, what's good for the bean--an organic approach--is also good for the grower. "When you think about organic coffee," a specialty f...

Natural GMOs Part 165. Novel double-stranded RNAs get served up in many conventional crops -- such as rice.

Some people have raised worries about whether novel double-stranded RNA molecules present in plant foods might be harmful to people. Naturally occurring plants often produce novel double-stranded RNA molecules, so we have long been exposed to this risk.One example has been characterised in detail by Japanese scientists. It is low protein variety of rice called  LGC-1 that is used as a diet t...

No silence about RNA silencing

FSANZ: Response to Heinemann et al on the regulation of GM crops and foods developed using gene silencing(May 2013)Key pointsA recent scientific article (Heinemann et al, 2013) claims that small double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) generated in GM plants as a result of using gene silencing techniques can create biosafety risks that are not being adequately assessed by regulators such as Food Standards Au...

Synthetic wheat breakthough in wheat breeding science offers greater yields

13/05/2013: NIAB NEWSUK wheat yields could be boosted by up to 30% with the introduction of a new wheat bred from a wild grass species.The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge has recreated the original rare cross between a

Why the Precautionary Principal is a Crock. Speed Matters when it comes to Synthetic Generation of Influenza Vaccine Viruses for Rapid Response to Pandemics

VACCINES Synthetic Generation of Influenza Vaccine Viruses for Rapid Response to Pandemics

New non-transgenic GE technology platform for genetic improvement of sunflower oilseed crop

May 13, 2013 — Scientists have developed techniques for the genetic improvement of sunflowers using a non-GMO based approach. The new technology platform can harness the plant's own genes to improve characteristics of sunflower, develop genetic traits, which will improve its role as an important oilseed crop.The work was led by Dr Manash Chatterjee, an Adjunct Faculty member of Botany and Plant...

Explainer: what are stem cells?

By Merlin CrossleyIn a paper published in Cell yesterday, scientists from the US and Thailand have, for the first time, successfully produced embryonic stem cells from human skin cells.That sounds interesting, but what are stem cells and where do they come from?If you take a limb from a rose tree, and put it in soil, it will grow into a thriving bush.But you might say: “Plants are special. This...

Natural GMOs Part 164, Carnivorous plant has deleted most of its junk DNA

Common bladdertwort-Creative Commons Wikipedia, 

A European Environment Agency report infiltrated by 'green' ideology

Dissection on an EEA report at Marcel Kuntz' website:The European Environment Agency (EEA) released on January 23, 2013 a report entitled “Late lessons from early warnings: science, precaution, innovation” which was supposed to illustrate “

Apple Activists vs Scientists « Biology Fortified, Inc.

By Karl Haro von MogelAt the 2013 Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Conference, I had the unique opportunity to meet and interview Neal Carter, President of Okanagan Specialty Fruits, makers of the Arctic® Apple, and also attend a protest of the same apple organized by the Organic Consumers Association. I interviewed Mike Durshmid who was leading the protest, and asked

Green Revolution research saved an estimated 18 to 27 million hectares from being brought into agricultural production

We estimate that the total crop area in 2004 would have been between 17.9 and 26.7 million hectares larger in a world that had not benefited from crop germplasm improvement since 1965. AbstractNew estimates of the impacts of germplasm improvement in the major staple crops between 1965 and 2004 on global land-cover change are presented, based on simulations carried out using a global economic...

Monsanto Wins Case on Genetically Altered Soybeans - NYTimes.com

The NYT are reporting that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that farmers could not use Monsanto’s patented genetically altered soybeans to create new seeds without

Natural GMOs Part 163. The Lurker: How A Virus Hid In Our Genome For Six Million Years

Carl Zimmer working skilfully at his craft of telling a compelling science story:...HIV belongs to a class of viruses called retroviruses. They all share three genes in common. One, called gag, gives rise to the inner shell where the virus’s genes are stored. Another, called env, makes knobs on the outer surface of the virus, that allow it to latch onto cells and invade them. And a thi...

Safflower that is genetically modified for increased levels of oleic acid - CSIRO

DIR 121 - Invitation to Comment on Genetically Modified Safflower Field Trial9 May 2013Australia’s gene technology regulatory system is designed to protect the health and safety of people and the environment by identifying risks posed by, or as a result of, gene technology and managing those risks.The Gene Technology Regulator is currently assessing Licence Application DIR 121 from the Commonwea...

Sickly mosquitoes stymie malaria’s spread

Nature News are reporting that engineered mosquitoes are being used to carry a bacterium that confers resistance to the malaria parasite — a long-sought advance that could eventually curb malaria cases in humans.They announce that a team led by Zhiyong Xi, a medical entomologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing, infected Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes withWolbachia bacteria to produc...

The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate

A rollicking indictment of the liberal elite's hypocrisy when it comes to food.Ban trans-fats? Outlaw Happy Meals? Tax Twinkies? What's next? Affirmative action for cows?  A catastrophe is looming. Farmers are raping the land and torturing animals. Food is riddled with deadly pesticides, hormones and foreign DNA. Corporate farms are wallowing in government subsidies. Meat packers and fast f...

Biotechnology for Enhanced Nutritional Quality in Plants

AbstractWith almost 870 million people estimated to suffer from chronic hunger worldwide, undernourishment represents a major problem that severely affects people in developing countries. In addition to undernourishment, micronutrient deficiency alone can be a cause of serious illness and death. Large portions of the world population rely on a single, starch-rich crop as their primary energy sourc...

Creation of Resveratrol-Enriched Rice for the Treatment of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Diseases

AbstractResveratrol has been clinically shown to possess a number of human health benefits. As a result, many attempts have been made to engineer resveratrol production in major cereal grains but have been largely unsuccessful. In this study, we report the creation of a transgenic rice plant that accumulates 1.9 µg resveratrol/g in its grain, surpassing the previously reported anti-metabolic synd...

GMO Wheat and shouting “fire” in a crowded theater « Biology Fortified, Inc.

Article by MaryM at Biofortified.A report from an activist group called Safe Food Foundation (SFF) came out last fall that caused a minor stir upon it’s first release. They claimed that they had unearthed an issue with GMO wheat being studied by the Australian CSIRO researchers. The wheat under investigation