- NYT reports on the US Justice Dept’s probe of seed prices. CAS-IP submitted evidence.
- University of Guam funded to study noni (Morinda citrifolia)
- Mostly-foliage-fed vs mostly-seed-fed: the debate continues.
- Edible Blue Honeysuckle berry news. Who knew? (Link removed as spam.)
- The Scientist Gardener tackles grapes. Cheers.
Hot potato in Europe
From André Heitz.
Approval of genetically modified varieties in Europe is governed by a strange rule: a qualified majority of member States in Council is required for either approving or rejecting a GMV, and if a qualified majority does not obtain, the decision is entrusted to the European Commission. For the last twelve years — a period of time in which GMVs rose from some 30 to some 134 million hectares worldwide — member States have always managed to create the stalemate that threw the hot potato onto a shy Commission preoccupied by its standing rather than effectiveness.
Things may have changed on 2 March 2010, when the Commission — ending a process that started in January 2003 — approved BASF’s Amflora potato for cultivation for industrial use (it is a starch potato composed almost exclusively of amylopectin) and authorised the use of its by-products as feed. At the same time, it authorised the placing on the market of three GM maize products (MON863xMON810, MON863xNK603, MON863xMON810xNK603) for food and feed uses, but not for cultivation.
Not unexpectedly, these decisions provoked the ire of “environmental groups” and some member States. In the Amflora case, the controversy centres on the presence of an antibiotic resistance marker gene.
Whether those decisions are a positive signal for GMVs in Europe is quite uncertain, however.
Firstly, the cultivation authorisation for Amflora is subject to restrictions to prevent the mixing of the GM potato with conventional or organic potatoes. Sounds reasonable, but the measures are nothing but good crop husbandry and industrial practices, moreover in the context of a crop that will be grown exclusively under contract with a limited number of processors. The upshot is that this potato is still treated like a delinquent requiring close scrutiny. Ironically, if we exclude the ARM nptII gene (now present elsewhere on millions of hectares) and the changed proportion of amylopectin and amylose, Amflora is no different from conventional starch potatoes.
Secondly, it is understood that member States will be free to refuse the cultivation of Amflora (at present, member States can only derogate to the principle of a single market under strict conditions). The Commission will also produce a “proposal by the summer setting out how a Community authorisation system, based on science, can be combined with freedom for Member States to decide whether or not they wish to cultivate GM crops on their territory”.
Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner, John Dalli stated: “Responsible innovation will be my guiding principle when dealing with innovative technologies. After an extensive and thorough review of the five pending GM files, it became clear to me that there were no new scientific issues that merited further assessment. All scientific issues, particularly those concerning safety, had been fully addressed. Any delay would have simply been unjustified. By taking these decisions, the European Commission fulfils its role in a responsible manner.” There is every reason to expect that national governments — and why not also regional and local authorities — will not decide on the same basis when confronted with irrational arguments and electoral pressure.
For more, both with further links:
The ins and outs of accessing bugs
“We didn’t get the permit” to export the wasp, said Fabian Haas, head of the Biosystematics Support Unit at the Kenya-based International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology.
He was trying to bring the wasps from Sri Lanka to Kenya to fight the fruit flies which made the same journey accidentally in 2003 and are now ravaging mangoes in Africa. Seems unfair. Maybe the CBD’s meeting in Japan in October will sort it all out. Or maybe not.
Nibbles: Climate, Shitstorm, Fish, Food, Biotech, Talk, Drought, Bananas
- Community-based adaptation to climate change. A book from IIED.
- This really is outrageous. Manure is now a pollutant in the world’s most wasteful economy. h/t Ethicurean.
- Where have all the fishes gone, gone to flowers every one.
- Dept. of Uh-huh: Innovation in traditional foodstuffs could harm their image.
- Dept. of Uh-huh Pt 2: An over-dependence on genetically modified organisms to boost agricultural production eclipses other biotechnologies and their potential to benefit poor farmers in developing countries.
- Adam Forbes is giving a talk about his seed-searching travels, March 22, Princeton, NJ. Go! Report!
- Malawi’s miracle laid low by drought?
- IITA leads seven African nations against banana diseases.
BBC Radio investigates the seed trade
BBC Radio 4 dedicated The Food Programme earlier in February to an investigation of seed exchanges and plant breeding. Here’s what the programme has to say:
Since the earliest times humans have selected particular seeds to resow next season, noticing mutations that they liked and in so doing have shaped the nature of food. This shaping has never been greater than today, when technology makes our ability to shape our future food enormous, but who is to control what qualities we want in our peas or tomatoes?
Sheila Dillon traces the history of plant breeding from neolithic times to today’s GM era with Noel Kingsbury, author of Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding. Early examples of tasteless strawberries well suited to the railroad, and fights between farmers and millers over which wheat variety to grow, inform today’s battles for control.
Much of it will be familiar to readers here, and experts will doubtless find nits to pick, but overall well worth spending 25 minutes to listen.