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Genetic Engineering

 

 

 

 

 

GE plants promoted as 'cisgenic'
A new bid to win the hearts and minds of consumers? [delve]
On The Risks Associated With Genetic Modification
An Annotated Bibliography of Scientific Publications, May 2003. [delve]
Public Face Of GE Targeted By Baking Consortium
Wellington, October 14 This morning the public face of the Pro GE lobby group New Zealand Life Sciences Network (LSN), William Rolleston, was on the receiving end of a hand-to-face pie. The meticulously planned operation left Rolleston licking his lips just minutes before the AGM of the LSN at the Westpac Trust Stadium. [delve]
GE Free Rally II
Just over a year after the huge GE Free Rally where 15,000 people marched up Queen Street in Auckland there is to be another rally [delve]
GM potatoes deter one pest but attract another
[delve]
NZers - Want to stop GE releases in 2003. Send this letter
[delve]
GE safety claims defy new overseas reports
Green Safe Food spokesperson Sue Kedgley said today she was astounded that two new GE foods were being recommended for use here when overseas authorities are saying that more testing of GE foods is needed before they are released commercially. [delve]
Horizontal Gene Transfer
Why A Field Trial Is A Release [delve]
Unnecessary Gene - Tampering
There have been 3 attempts to date in New Zealand to produce human proteins in animals' milk by genetic engineering, including the work by AgResearch® at Ruakura. [delve]
Unraveling the DNA Myth
The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering - by Barry Commoner [delve]
Report challenges the fundamentals of genetic engineering
A study released today reveals a critical, long-overlooked flaw in the science behind the multi-billion dollar genetic engineering industry, raising serious questions about the safety of genetically engineered foods. [delve]
Groundswell Canturbury Press Release
The application by AgResearch to ERMA to genetically engineer sheep, deer, and human genes into cattle makes a mockery of the whole Royal Commission process, Groundswell spokesperson Tremane Barr said today. [delve]
Smogasbord of GE cows
A new application by Agresearch to genetically engineer cows would allow them to create almost any type of transgenic cow that takes their fancy. [delve]
Crop-busters go to ground
NZ Herald - The man on the other end of the phone does not give his name. So when you say, "Who am I speaking to?" he says, "Who am I speaking to?" [delve]
Organic Farmers Sue GMO Giants
A group of organic farmers in Saskatchewan is suing two multinational companies that make genetically modified products: Monsanto and Aventis. [delve]
Greens don't support the latest GE potatoe action
The Green Party wishes to make it perfectly clear that it neither supports nor endorses in any shape or form last week's raid on experimental GM potato crops at Lincoln, Greens Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said today. [delve]
Genetically engineered crops sabotaged
Thousands of genetically modified potatoes were destroyed in yesterday's early morning attack at Crop and Food Research, Lincoln. Saboteurs forced entry to contained glasshouse facilities, cutting their way through a wall then systematically hacking off plant tops and emptying potted plants into rubbish sacks. [delve]
DNA Contamination Shock In Mexico
Scientists have been astounded to find that DNA from genetically modified crops has contaminated wild maize growing on remote mountains in Mexico. [delve]
3,000 NEW ZEALANDERS PLEDGE TO REMOVE GE FIELD TRIALS
GE civil disobedience campaign launched today. [delve]
Govt announce weak GE Policy
The government have announced that they will allow GE to continue in NZ. Greenpeace Response [delve]
Dow Agrosciences have applied to amend NZ food standards
Submissions needed on Dow Agroscience's application to amend the Food Standards Code (in NZ and Australia) to approve food derived from a corn line 1507 genetically engineered to produce a Bt protein (CRYlF) that confers protection against attack by certain lepidopteran insect pests, and a PAT protein for tolerance to glufosinate-ammonium herbicide (I.E. Roundup Ready and Bt producing) [delve]
Group ready for GM sabotage
A saboteur group set up in Palmerston North has more than 80 members ready to rip out genetically modified crops if field trials get the go-ahead, says one of its leaders. [delve]
Pending Government GE Decision Looming
Two weeks before the Government's October 31 deadline to work through the recommendations of a royal commission on GE the politics are hotting up... [delve]
Chemical clean-up for GE trial site
Land used to grow a genetically engineered crop will be decontaminated for the first time in New Zealand despite warnings it could harm the public's perception of GE. [delve]
Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics...
PRESS RELEASE GENETIC PROGENY Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Genetics (PSRG) acknowledge a new six-year study by scientists at Ohio State University that confirms the persistence of genetic traits through several generations. [delve]
COMMISSION FAILS ITS MISSION
Steven M. Druker on How The Report of the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification Presents a False and Unjustifiably Favorable Picture of Bioengineered Foods [delve]
The Politics of Genetic Engineering
The following research and analysis is lengthy, yet contains potent arguments, particularly for responding to the specious reasoning of William Rolleston's piece in this morning's Business Herald 2 October 2001 (p.2) [delve]
ANZFA - new GE corn application
An application has been received from Dow AgroSciences Pty Ltd to amend the Food Standards Code to approve food derived from a corn line 1507 genetically modified to produce a Bt protein (CRY1F) that confers protection against attack by certain lepidopteran insect pests, and a PAT protein for tolerance to glufosinate-ammonium herbicide. [delve]
More evidence of genetic contamination
Organisms and Biosecurity, has announced that there is scientific research that shows contamination of corn landraces (indigenous varieties) from the Mexican State of Oaxaca (world center of origin and diversity of corn), with Transgenic varieties imported from the United States. [delve]
Dolly scientists target biomedical research
The Roslin Institute says public hostility towards GM food in the UK has
forced it to reassess its research goals. [delve]

Fonterra to market cancer-scare milk under US brand-name
Fonterra to protect New Zealand 'image' by separate marketing of cancer-scare milk under US brand-name

NZ dairy giant Fonterra says it will market milk produced in the US using a genetically engineered hormone but will ensure New Zealand milk is marketed separately to avoid damaging New Zealand 's "clean - green" brand image. [delve]

GE Moratorium looks likely but will it include field trials?
The NZ Government is looking into a 2-5 year moratorium on *some* releases of genetically engineered (GE) crops and animals into the environment. The GE Free Coalition however are saying that this is not enough. "Field trials must also be included in the moratorium. [delve]
Register your property as a GE Free zone
The register is run by volunteers and has been kept free to allow as many people as possible to register, so please support them by buying a "Proud to be GE Free" sign and making a donation, after you register [delve]
Fonterra Backs Genetic Engineering

Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd believes the responsible use of genetic modification must be allowed in New Zealand, CEO Craig Norgate said today. This does not mean that we wish to use genetically modified ingredients in our products..

[delve]

Health Ministry Betrays Lankan Citizens on GMF Regulations
The regulations on Genetically Modified (GM) food which were supposed to come to in operation on 1st September 2001 were postponed indefinitely by the Minister of Health on 30th August 2001. [delve]
NZ Prime Minister looks set to blunt genetics push
The Government looks likely to dash scientists' hopes when it responds to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. [delve]
Beware Corporate Takeover of Organics
ISIS Report - 29 August -
While science thugs and Oxford dons are busy attacking organics in the public arena, the corporate paymasters may be engineering a takeover. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho reports on her visit to Inverness, Scotland, in August, where eleven have subsequently been arrested, and six charged, for placing themselves in the path of the tractor planting GM seeds. The fields have been planted, but a 24h vigil continues. [delve]

Tegel Chicken NZ goes GE Free
New Zealand chicken producer Tegel is going G-E free. It has announced that it will feed its chickens soy-bean meal that has not been genetically modified. The soy-bean meal will be sourced from a G-E free supplier in the United States of all places. [delve]
Trade Expert's GE Food Warning
New Zealand has been warned by a trade expert that it could lose export markets if food producers don't meet overseas demands for foods free of genetically engineered ingredients. [delve]
Voluntary GM moratorium extended

The voluntary moratorium on applications for release and field testing of genetically modified organisms will be extended to October 31, Environment Minister, Marian Hobbs and Science Minister, Pete Hodgson, announced today.

[delve]

Market enforcers

Biotech firms found persuasion didn't work, so they are using a new tactic: coercion - George Monbiot - I've always been a little uncomfortable about the term 'Frankenstein food'

[delve]

Open Letter to New Zealand Royal Commission on GE
From: Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, Director, Institute of Science in Society
As one of the many scientists presenting evidence to the Royal Commission on Genetic Engineering, I had high hopes that New Zealand would assume moral and intellectual leadership in rejecting this dangerous technology bolstered by degenerate science, so obviously serving the corporate agenda instead of the public good. It is still not too late for New Zealand to take on this role. [delve]

Malice in Blunderland
GE decision follows the same old blueprint
Twenty years of the "New Zealand Experiment" have taught the NZ Royal Commission on Genetic Modification nothing. They wasted $6.5 million of taxpayer money producing a report written by the gene jockey industry which just gave New Zealand some more empty slogans - "Bio-tech Revolution" & "Knowledge Economy" - and lost that country probably its only chance this century to make a real difference. Chris Wheeler surveys 20 years of Kiwi blundering in the dark. [delve]

U.N. Dead Wrong About Engineered Crops
Anuradha Mittal
Comments about genetically engineered (GE) crops expressed in the just-released "Human Development Report 2001," the flagship publication of the United Nation Development Program (UNDP), and in accompanying press statements, reveal a shocking degree of Northern arrogance in tone and content. [delve]

Royal Commission on GE Report Released

The Royal Commission on Genetic Modification has backed the limited use of genetic engineering technology in its report released by the government at a press conference in the Beehive this afternoon.

[delve]

Free Trade" Plans Heighten Dangers of GE Trees
NATIVE FOREST NETWORK PRESS RELEASE

'Free Trade' Plans Heighten Dangers of Genetically Engineered Trees and GE Trees Educational Teach-In and Protest Planned This Weekend in OR and WA

Burlington, VT--The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other "free trade" plans pose a threat to native forests and indigenous peoples throughout the hemisphere claims the Native Forest Network in a report released this week. The report describes plans that are underway to convert native forests and other land to industrial forestry plantations which in the near future, it is speculated, will be comprised of genetically engineered trees. [delve]

Tasmania inquiry recommends continuing GMO moratorium

The Tasmanian state parliament's Joint Select Committee on Gene Technology recommended Wednesday that the state's one year moratorium on planting GMOs be extended, with a review to be carried out in another two years. The committee also recommended amendments to Australia's national rules that would allow states to opt out of growing GE crops on environmental as well as marketing grounds.

[delve]

Agbiotech Aggression
Agbiotech Aggression By: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association July 2001 [delve]
Activist Gather to Protest Biotech and Celebrate Life
"The idea that life is merely a manufacture...and hence tenable hasn't sunk into the human consciousness, it's still in the draft and propaganda of the corporations...it's not in our minds." Vandana Shiva, June 22, 2001

Hundreds were in attendance this weekend for Beyond Biodevastation, a teach-in discussing biowarfare, human genetic engineering, biopiracy, and farm and food issues. Beyond Biodevastation is the fifth in a series of international grassroots gatherings against the biotechnology industry. [delve]

GE Salmon Eggs May Have Escaped Into New Zealand Wild
The Green Party said today the evidence shows it is highly likely that eggs from genetically engineered salmon escaped into the wild during the NZ King Salmon experiment at Kaituna. [delve]
New Zealand Dairy Foods go GE Free
The Greenpeace True Food campaign is working.  One of the biggest NZ food manufacturers has bowed to the pressure and is going GE Free. [delve]
GE Cow experiment an abortion
Almost all of the genetically engineered foetuses, in an AgResearch experiment in Hamilton, New Zealand, designed to insert a human myelin gene into milk-producing cows, have aborted. Only three calves, of the sixty promised, are believed to have survived, and one was removed from the mother-cow by caesarian. [delve]
GM Cow Decision changed again
Experiments on genetically modified cows at AgResearch's Ruakura facility are to continue, the Environmental Risk Management Authority has decided.  [delve]
Bovine Reprieve
 The High Court has granted a stay of execution to the herd of cows at the centre of a controversial genetic engineering experiment  ERMA's response - [delve]
Gene Therapy Oversold by Scientists Who Disregard Risks
Last year in the US, gene therapy clinical trials ground to a halt amid scandalous reports of deaths and conflicts of interest [delve]
The NZ Royal Commission of Inquiry into Genetic Modification
An in depth look by Sean Weaver
[delve]

The Political Science of GM Food
Arpad Pusztai was in New Zealand earlier this year to give evidence to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. Arpad is a scientist who has become a world figure in the debate concerning GM foods. He conducted research into the effects of GM potatoes on laboratory rats at the Rowett Institute in Scotland. His experiments gave unexpected results and he published them. What followed was the kind of witch hunt that is beginning to characterise the GE debate, and is helping science to lose its credibility with the public. [delve]
Genetic Engineering is not the same as conventional breeding
[delve]
A GE future is ours for the picking!
A coalition of NZ groups has launched a GE Free NZ 'postcard campaign' to 5 of the key governmental decision-makers. 50, 000 postcards have been made for each Minister, and will be distributed around the country for the public to sign and send back to the Ministers. The postcards can be viewed at  http://nzgefree.nelson.co.nz. - You can order or download postcards for free. [delve]
ALTERED GENES II: THE FUTURE?
The first edition of Altered Genes (1998) sold out within a year. This revised edition offers an up-to-date account of the ethical, social, and ecological issues arising from biotechnology and genetic engineering.
[delve]

More on the GE Cows - Kill The Cows - Don't Kill The Cows
Coverage from Scoop.co.nz
 -  Researchers in the US have discovered bacteria in soil and groundwater beneath farms are acquiring genes from bacteria originating in pigs' guts, they fear this could provide a route for potentially dangerous bugs to reach people and the wider environment. See GE Free NZ's comment on the GE Cows controversy.... Cow With Human Genes Trial Should Be Terminated , and SAFE's AgResearch MS Scam Tip Of The Iceberg and the pro GE  New Zealand Life Sciences Network say that 'ERMA is to be congratulated for its very pragmatic approach to the issue of complying with the High Court's requirement to reconsider its decision on the application by AgResearch for field trials of transgenic cows'. [delve]

GE cows research slammed
An expert in the field who confirmed that the medical claims being made by New Zealand's AgResearch were largely a nonsense [delve]
ERMA to reconsider in secret
There will be no call for new or additional submissions, and no public hearing. [delve]
14 Southern Pacific States to consider GMO import ban
[delve]
... more on the Illegal GE Calves
The pro GE spin on the decision to stop the GE Cow experiment is that the decision is a tragedy for the MS sufferers who may have benefited form the research but a professor of Biological Sciences at Waikato University rejects that claim as "Embarrassing Nonsense"  Robert Mann that the 'apparently illegal GE-calves in utero are the result of a project which has defective scientific leadership'. [delve]
The Illegal GE Calves
In a landmark decision the NZ high court overturned the ERMA decision to allow the genetic engineering of cows. According to GE Free NZ this highlights the inadequacies of ERMA, the National Party call it a tragedy for science, the Life Sciences Network claim it is just a small set back for GE. [delve]
First Genetically Engineered Babies Born in US
Scientists in the United States have confirmed that the first genetically modified humans have been born. [delve]
Australia to bypass NZ Royal Commission
The Australian government has moved to unilaterally bypass consumer preferences for clear labelling of genetically modified food in New Zealand by calling, along with South Africa, for severe curbs on GM-Free and non-GM labels at the current meeting of the World Trade Organisation's CODEX Committee on 1st-4th May.
If passed, these proposals will effectively prevent manufacturers from informing the public that specific products are free from GM ingredients and also prejudice the future recommendations of the New Zealand Royal Commission on Genetic Modification which is due to report in June. [delve]

Workers unwittingly spread seeds from GE Canola trial
Genetically modified canola seeds have been accidently spread around Mount Gambier in South Australia. The seeds were accidentally carried off a secret Aventis Cropscience trial plot by workers last month. [delve]
Begging the Question: Biosecurity in our time? - SCOOP
Begging The Question: http://www.footinmouth.govt.nz - So the advertising campaigns have begun. The ramparts are being raised. We have x-rays! Maybe it was the old scifi movie on at the weekend (It Came From Outer Space) or just a remnant of cold war paranoia but having kept a roving eye on biosecurity of late it's hard not to wonder at the vagaries of the handling of this greatest-of-all risks. [delve]
UK's FOOT AND MOUTH CULL RAISES TOXIC DILEMMA
LONDON, United Kingdom, April 19, 2001 (ENS) - The foot and mouth outbreak is under control, according to the United Kingdom government's chief scientist, but the logistical challenge of quickly disposing of more than a million slaughtered animals is raising new fears over dioxins and groundwater contamination. [delve]
Public and parliamentary scrutiny needed over response to BS
Green Party co-leader Sue Kedgley today said scrutiny from both parliament and the public was needed to assess the effectiveness of the New Zealand response to BSE, now that it is likely to become a global epidemic. [delve]
Decisive Action Imperative as GE Crop Trial Crisis Deepens
In light of the deepening GE crop trial crisis in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Greens are calling on Minister Llewellyn to immediately assert control and to institute wide ranging and comprehensive identification and clean-up measures across all previous GE crop trial sites and surrounding areas. [more] and [delve]
Police mum on 'GE' attack
12 April 2001- Waikato Times

Police will not comment on a molotov cocktail attack at the Ruakura Research Centre apparently carried out by anti-genetic modification activists. [delve]

Manipulating the facts in the GM debate
by George Monbiot- On the evening of March 27, six anti-genetics protesters knocked at the door of a farmer called Jeremy Courtney. They had come to plead with him not to allow his fields in East Hoathly, East Sussex, to be used for a government trial of genetically modified rape.

The following day, Jeremy Courtney contacted the local newspaper, the Crowborough Courier, to announce that he was withdrawing from the trial, as he was worried that the scientists conducting it might bring foot and mouth on to his property. [delve]

Nelson to be a GE Free Zone?
Nelson's mayor may tonight make Nelson the first combined GE Free and
Nuclear Free City in NZ, possibly on earth.

Nelson GE Awareness group's campaign over the past 4 years, to see the city GE Free, will be raised by Nelson's mayor Paul Matheson at tonight's full council meeting . Identifying the positive reasons for declaring the City a
GE Free zone,  he will be citing the benefits to tourism, the organic and
agricultural industries, and to the preservation of the health of present
and future generations of Nelsonians.
[delve]

Canadian Farmer Loses Biotech Seed Case to Monsanto
By Jane Akre SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, April 3, 2001 (ENS) - A farmer from western Saskatchewan, Canada plans to continue fighting the giant biotechnology company Monsanto for the right of farmers worldwide to save seed for next year's crops. [delve]
THE UK FOOT AND MOUTH "CRISIS" THE UNTOLD STORY
March 25, 2001 - Steven Ransom reveals the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) 'epidemic' is a manufactured crisis . [delve]
Canadian Federal Court on Percy Schmeiser vs Monsanto
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today said a US court decision on the contamination of crops from neighbouring genetically engineered plants had massive implications for farmers in New Zealand as well as the genetic diversity of crops all around the world. See... US Court Decision Damns Genetic Diversity Of Crops

The Canadian Federal Court has issued a Reasons for Judgement, which sets out why the Judge in the case believes Percy Schmeiser has breached Monsanto’s patent rights.  Life Sciences press release [delve]

GE & Conventional Crops Can't Co-exist Side By Side
- Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today said a US court decision on the contamination of crops from neighbouring genetically engineered plants had massive implications for farmers in New Zealand as well as the genetic diversity of crops all around the world. [delve]
GREENPEACE CALLS FOR GE-FREE SEAS
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FISH THREATEN WORLD’S OCEANS Boston/London/Ottawa, 27th March, 2001 – Greenpeace activists today sealed off a research facility containing genetically engineered (GE) salmon, owned by A/F Protein, in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The international environmental organisation demanded a global rejection of the world’s first application to commercially produce GE fish, and a global ban on all releases of genetically engineered organisms into the oceans. [delve]
China's interest in missile controls
China's interest in missile controls [delve]
Article: Genetically Engineered Trees
Anyone attempting to grow trees like this should seek medical help [delve]
GE Trees
A rapidly increasing number of genetically modified (GM) trees are being planted [delve]
AIDS triple therapy for less than $1 per day:
MSF challenges pharmaceutical industry to match generic prices [delve]
Ingredients from BSE used in vaccines
5 drug companies, using ingredients from BSE at risk countries to make 9 widely used vaccines. [delve]
AIDS and Mad Cow Disease:
Two Epidemics That Are Alike [delve]
Canadian Royal Society advocates moratorium
Canadian Royal Society, Expert Panel on GMOs confirms need for immediate moratorium [delve]
Monsanto Beanfest
Monsanto beanfeast as BSE crisis bites [delve]
Life could be destroyed
All life on Earth could be destroyed by genetically modified bacteria [delve]
NZers concerned about GMO's in food chain
69% of New Zealanders are concerned about the GMOs in food [delve]
Glowing rabbits
A transgenic rabbit that glows green when you expose it to blue light [delve]
SCOPE on the controversies of science
SCOPE is establishing on-line, intellectual communities focused on current controversies in science that concern leading research scientists and also connect to the interests of the [delve]
Meat for McDonald's
At a slaughterhouse that supplies meat to McDonald's restaurants in Italy and elsewhere in Europe [delve]
Alarm growing in US
Alarm is growing in the United States that the efforts to guard against the import of mad cow disease may not have been successful [delve]
Monsanto's GE wheat
Monsanto's GE wheat could be the next best thing for sliced bread. [delve]
Feeding the World in the Global Economy
GE - Remedy or Ruin? Vandana Shiva, Beatrix Tappeser, Arpad Pusztai & Edward Goldsmith. All speaking in Wellington, early February [delve]
Food diversification best for sustainability
For long term sustainability, food diversification is the best approach because its management is in the hands of the community, a vision from India [delve]
Super-marketplace of ideas
The spread of eco-labeling may turn the grocery store into a super-marketplace of ideas. [delve]
Prince Charles on organics
Charles thinks simple farming methods are the answer to the world's starving [delve]

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This page was last updated on: Sunday, June 29, 2003 at 12:55:27 PM

 

 

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