GM Crops: Science and Political Decisions. GM crops are being developed around the world based on our increased knowledge of the genetic structure of crop plants and ways in which their yield or nutritional qualities can be improved. Professor Nigel Brown, Chair of the TGAC Board of Trustees, explains his concerns about the recent Scottish Government announcement about GM crops. Agriculture is one of the largest industries in Scotland Recently the Scottish Government announced that it would not allow GM crops to be grown in Scotland in order to protect the reputation of its food and drink industry.
This drew praise from a number of NGOs that were opposed on policy grounds to genetically-modified organisms, but criticism from scientists who were concerned that, even if scientific advice had been sought, it had been ignored in favour of a policy decision. The majority party in Scottish Government has had a long-standing policy of opposition to the growth of GM crops. GM in Scotland GM crops and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) The Crime Against Humanity. In 2002 the Rome Statute established the International Criminal Court which hears cases in three areas: genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The Rome Protocol has been ratified by 122 countries including Canada, all the Latin American countries, the European Union, many African countries and a number of Asian countries including Japan and Thailand.
The relevant sections dealing with crimes against humanity are: We are calling on the countries that are Party to the Rome Protocol to investigate this situation with an eye to taking Greenpeace before the International Criminal Court to answer for their crime against humanity. How anti-GM organizations demonize Golden Rice There are several falsehoods used to create fear of Golden Rice. Claim: Farmers in the Phillipines recently tore up a Golden Rice research crop because they regard the rice as threatening their way of life. Claim: Golden Rice is poisonous, leading to allergies and disease (bulatlat.com) Footnotes 1. Fitness and health expert: 10 science-based reasons why I’m thankful for GMOs. Genetically modified organism. GloFish, the first genetically modified animal to be sold as a pet A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques.
GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods and are also widely used in scientific research and to produce goods other than food. The term GMO is very close to the technical legal term, 'living modified organism', defined in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which regulates international trade in living GMOs (specifically, "any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology"). This article focuses on what organisms have been genetically engineered, and for what purposes.
The article on genetic engineering focuses on the history and methods of genetic engineering, and on applications of genetic engineering and of GMOs. Production[edit] Genetic modification involves the mutation, insertion, or deletion of genes. Should we embrace GM food? - five-minute video debate. C & M Seeds We Know Wheat. Erfðabreyttar lífverur í íslenskri búfjárrækt. For GM food and vaccinations, the panic virus is a deadly disease.
Most readers are aware of the benefits of using vaccines to boost the immune system and prevent infectious disease. Many readers will not be aware of a very different disease prevention tool: supplementing vitamins in crops through genetic modification (GM). Anti-science opposition to both is rife; to save lives, that opposition has to stop. The disease-prevention benefits of supplemental vitamin A were accidentally discovered in 1986 by public health scientists. They were working to improve nutrition in the villages of Aceh, Indonesia, where families are heavily dependent on rice as their main source of nutrition. These scientists discovered that simple supplementation of infant diets with capsules containing beta-carotene (a natural source of vitamin A) reduced childhood death rates by 24%.
White rice is a very poor source of vitamin A, so the people of Aceh (like millions of poorer people in large regions of the world) suffered from vitamin A deficiency. Click to enlarge. Plant pathology. Pathogen life cycle Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors).[1] Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, viroids, virus-like organisms, phytoplasmas, protozoa, nematodes and parasitic plants. Not included are ectoparasites like insects, mites, vertebrate, or other pests that affect plant health by consumption of plant tissues. Plant pathology also involves the study of pathogen identification, disease etiology, disease cycles, economic impact, plant disease epidemiology, plant disease resistance, how plant diseases affect humans and animals, pathosystem genetics, and management of plant diseases.
Overview[edit] Control of plant diseases is crucial to the reliable production of food, and it provides significant reductions in agricultural use of land, water, fuel and other inputs. Plant pathogens[edit] Fungi[edit] Rice farmers in China use less fertilizer, increase yield. Guangdong, China- “Rice farmers can decrease their nitrogen fertilizer and pesticide use by around 20%, and increase their yield by 10% by using the ‘three controls technology’ (3CT),” says Dr. Xuhua Zhong, crop physiologist at the Rice Research Institute of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDRRI). The meaning of “three controls” is controlling the amount of fertilizer, unproductive tillers, and diseases and insects. “This technology is now being used by around 40% of farmers in Guangdong Province in China,” says Zhong.
In 3CT, Zhong recommends the “4-2-3-1 principle,” an easier way for farmers to remember the proportion of nitrogen fertilizer to be applied at different growth stages of the plant. It means 40% of nitrogen fertilizer is applied during the basal stage, 20% at midtillering stage, 30% at panicle initiation, and 10% at heading.
Moreover, the 10%-increase in yield is significant as it is equivalent to an average of 0.6 tons per hectare. FAQ. Common Questions About GloFish® Fluorescent Fish GloFish® fluorescent fish are wonderful fish that add brilliant color and excitement to any home, office, or classroom aquarium. GloFish are similar to other fish, except they have a much brighter disposition. GloFish are available in six stunning colors: Starfire Red®, Electric Green®, Sunburst Orange®, Cosmic Blue®, Galactic Purple®, and Moonrise Pink™. Today’s GloFish fluorescent fish are bred from the offspring of fluorescent fish that were originally developed several years ago.
Each new GloFish inherits its unique color directly from its parents, maintains the color throughout its life, and passes the color along to its offspring. If you have a question relating to a GloFish branded kit, light, filter, plant, or ornament, please contact Tetra, which manufacturers these products under a trademark license from our company. Want to know more about GloFish? The Science of GloFish Where do GloFish fluorescent fish come from? Back to Top ↑ Analyzing the risks and benefits. The one that got away : Article : Nature Biotechnology. News - Crop diversity decline 'threatens food security' 3 March 2014Last updated at 17:24 ET By Mark Kinver Environment reporter, BBC News A growing reliance on crops such as wheat helps feed a growing population - but at what cost? Fewer crop species are feeding the world than 50 years ago - raising concerns about the resilience of the global food system, a study has shown. The authors warned a loss of diversity meant more people were dependent on key crops, leaving them more exposed to harvest failures.
Higher consumption of energy-dense crops could also contribute to a global rise in heart disease and diabetes, they added. The study appears in the journal PNAS. "Over the past 50 years, we are seeing that diets around the world are changing and they are becoming more similar - what we call the 'globalised diet'," co-author Colin Khoury, a scientist from the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture, said. Other crops provide the supplementary nutrients to diets that the major staple foods cannot deliver Crop failure fears. How Designer Microbes and the Organism Industry Will Reshape Our World (AMRS, SZYM, XON) By the end of the decade, products created from microorganisms will be in 90% of American households. Source: Amyris. What would a computer be without transistors? Well, not much. A similar question can be asked of next-generation industrial biotech platforms enabled by synthetic biology: What would Solazyme (NASDAQ: SZYM ) , Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS ) , or any other industrial biotech company be without organisms?
And again, a similar conclusion is reached. It may not be obvious from the early days of synthetic biology, but several loose, general terms and businesses used to describe the development of highly optimized custom microorganisms will eventually be combined into one well-defined industry: the organism industry. It may seem farfetched or too good to be true, but I'm sure you can see the power of such infrastructure. The robots at Tesla Motors are different than liquid handling robots utilized by the organism industry, but they are both on the same level of awesome. Allow Golden Rice Now. GMO rice up for mass market in 2 years. The first genetically-modified rice to be commercially available could be approved for production in the Philippines in two to three years, researchers said Tuesday, despite strong opposition from environmental groups.
Officers of both the International Rice Research Institute and the Philippine government’s agriculture department said the newly-developed “golden rice” had completed field trials, despite vandalism at one test field. Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said he was open to testing “because if if we don’t do this, it’s like saying that we are not allowing our country to advance.” Studies on GMO rice are ongoing, he said. “We should make sure that it is safe to eat. One of the most popular and advanced example GM rice that researchers are working on is the Golden Rice.
“Golden rice is coming. “At the moment, there is no GM (genetically-modified) rice officially released in any country,” he stressed. GM golden rice advocate named new Rothamsted Research boss - 20/02/2014. A scientist who has spoken out in favour of GM “golden rice” has been named as the new director of Rothamsted Research. Achim Dobermann will take up his post at the oldest agricultural centre in the world on 1 June 2014.
He will be joining Rothamsted from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, where he is the deputy director general for research. Prof Dobermann is an ardent supporter of golden rice, a crop genetically modified to produce vitamin A, which has undergone two years of field trials at the IRRI in the Philippines, despite vandalism at one test site. See also: More news on GM crops Proponents of the rice, which include former Greenpeace leader and Canadian ecologist Patrick Moore, claim that vitamin-enriched rice could prevent blindness and prevent more than 2m childhood deaths in the world’s poorest countries. Achim Dobermann Last October, DEFRA secretary Owen Paterson, an advocate of GM technology, branded opponents of golden rice as “wicked”.
Infanticide Advocate Pushes GMO Golden Rice: More to the Story. (NaturalSociety) An advocate of infanticide for disabled babies is the latest addition to those claiming the moral high ground over golden rice for poor, vitamin-A deficient children. Prior to pointing out the idiocy of a known infanticide advocate pushing GMO Golden Rice, you should know its origins. The promotion of this single grain may seem like a small thing, but it is steeped in a dark history that many would be surprised to learn of. There is no moral high ground here for those who ‘play God’.
They have one agenda and one agenda only, and it isn’t to save the world’s dying babies. The Rockefeller’s Fund Golden Rice In the 1990s, the Rockefeller Foundation approached one Swiss Doctor, Ingo Potrykus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who specialized in plant engineering, specifically of GMO rice. With supposed added Vitamin A accessed through the genetic alteration with daffodil genes, this rice would also help with declining nutrition in third world countries.
The Golden Rice Project. Golden Rice, Golden Opportunity. You people in the developed world are certainly free to debate the merits of genetically modified foods, but can we please eat first?” - Dr. Florence Wambugu The blind girl lurched toward me across the parking lot at Tirta Empul temple, mewling. I guessed she was ten to thirteen years of age, and shorter than she should have been. A whitish haze coated her eyes, each looking upward in a different direction.
She moved herky-jerky due to poorly formed bones. I gave her what I had in my pocket: a 5000 Rupiah note, about 42 cents. She would buy rice with the little money I gave her. Her condition is common for the poorest children in Asia; it is caused by a lack of Retinol (vitamin A). Prevalence of vitamin A deficiency from WHO data. Half of the afflicted will die within one year. I encountered the girl in November, 2013, when my wife and I had arrived in Bali, Indonesia for my son’s wedding. The poorest of the poor can afford only rice to eat. I saw rice fields everywhere I went. New guidelines to enhance GMO testing across the European Union - JRC Science Hub. A new report provides guidelines for a correct sample preparation during GMO analysis on food, feed, seed, plants and propagating material samples. Sample preparation, a key step between sampling and analysis, has so far suffered from a lack of guidance and harmonisation. The new guidelines provide details and practical hints which will contribute to foster harmonised test results in the official controls conducted by National Reference Laboratories (NRLs).
The guidelines cover the major steps of sample preparation, i.e. the size of laboratory samples, the mass reduction techniques including techniques for comminution and mixing; considerations about the test portion are covered and some performance tests to be applied at different steps of the process are provided. The report is the result of collaboration between the European Network of GMO Laboratories (ENGL) and the European Union Reference Laboratory for GM Food and Feed (EURL GMFF). Greinin sem átti að enda kuklumræðuna í eitt skipti fyrir öll « Eyjan. Miðvikudagur 04.03.2015 - 14:02 - Ummæli () Eiríkur segir ádeiluna hafa átt að binda enda á kuklumræðuna í eitt skipti fyrir öll.
„Punkturinn var sá að þegar kemur að því að hafa fólk að féþúfu þá er fólki ekkert heilagt eins og sást í þessari umfjöllun Kastljóss í gær. Það er skelfilegt að þetta skuli ganga svona fyrir sig,“ segir Eiríkur Stephensen, doktor í líffræði, um eftirminnilega háðsádeilu sem hann skrifaði í Fréttablaðið í nóvember 2005. Á þessum tíma, rétt eins og í dag, var hávær umræða í samfélaginu um heilun. Þá var svokölluð DNA-heilun nýjasta fyrirbrigðið og birtist meðal annars frægt viðtal í Kastljósi við konu sem talaði við sínar eigin stofnfrumur. Þá hafði nokkrum dögum áður en Eiríkur skrifaði sína grein birst fréttaskýring í Fréttablaðinu um DNA-heilun.
Eiríkur segir í samtali við Eyjuna að þetta hafi verið kveikjan að skrifunum. Mér blöskraði umræðan á þessum tíma. En hver voru viðbrögðin við greininn á sínum tíma? Hún þurfti að hæfa tilefninu. Greinin sem átti að enda kuklumræðuna í eitt skipti fyrir öll « Eyjan. IRRI News: Rice farmers in China use less fertilizer, increase yield.
The Golden Rice Project. European Conference on GMO-free Regions, biodiversity & rural development. 28/09/2012 Commission “may” authorise GM maize MIR162. 26/09/2012 EFSA on GMO study. Dow Corn, Resistant to a Weed Killer, Runs Into Opposition. In India, GM Crops Come at a High Price. Prop 37 and the Right to Know Nothing. GMO - Genetically Modified Organism. Biosafety Manual - Biosafety Levels and Risk Assessment. California genetic food vote is no victory for science - opinion - 15 November 2012. Genetically Modified Food: 'The Controversy Is Really Curious To Scientists' Little evidence of health benefits from organic foods, Stanford study finds.
Welcome, Dining Services, UC Davis. Non-GMO Shoppers’ Guide. iPhone App Shopping Guide. Must Have Mobile App: Be GMO in The Know. Summary of the dossier - ROD - Eionet. Prop. 37: Requires labeling of food products made from genetically modified organisms. | Voter's Edge. A Song Tries to Go Beyond the 'OMG' Reaction to GMOs. Þskj. 903 # frumskjal umhvrh., 138. lþ. 516. mál: #A erfðabreyttar lífverur # (EES-reglur, upplýsingagjöf til almennings) frv. Samningar | Alþjóðlegt samstarf | Verkefni | Umhverfisráðuneyti | Samningar | Alþjóðlegt samstarf | Verkefni | Umhverfis- og auðlindaráðuneytið.
Genetic modifcation. Live Tweeting Golden Rice · franknfoode. Sustainable farming is the only way to feed the planet going forward. Organic yields lag behind industrial farming, but that's not the whole story. Key Wheat Lines Hit by New Strain of Rust. The Impact of Activists on Pest Management and Crop Science. Environmental Sciences Europe | Full text | A controversy re-visited: Is the coccinellid Adalia bipunctata adversely affected by Bt toxins? Gujarat decides against distributing Monsanto maize seeds to farmers. Respect the need to experiment with GM crops - opinion - 02 May 2012. Ucbiotech.org - Science-Based Information and Resources on Agriculture, Food and Technology.
Golden rice. Golden Rice Cambodia - Cambodia's Leading Rice Producer and Supplier. French Science Academies Slam Seralini Study Finding GMO Cancer Threat.