International News
2021-09-04 | permalink
Gene Drive Organisms: A new dimension of genetic engineering Applications, risks and regulation
Enabled by new genetic engineering techniques such as CRISPR/Cas9, so-called gene drives have been developed in recent years that enable humans to spread new genes throughout the genome of wild animal populations. Gene drives force the inheritance of newly introduced genes to be inherited by all offspring, even if this lowers the survival chances of the affected species. In the most extreme case, gene drive technology could drive an entire species to extinction or replace wild populations with genetically modified organisms.
Stop GeneDrives: Gene Drive Organisms: A new dimension of genetic engineering2021-09-01 | permalink
What Walter Isaacson’s Book Gets Wrong About Gene Editing
REVIEW OF
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
The Code Breaker contains 481 pages of Oscar-level cinematic prose, providing a whistle-stop tour of how Jennifer Doudna, a biochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, and a large supporting cast discovered and developed the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR—an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats. These repeating DNA features were found to be part of the defense system that bacteria have evolved over their billions of years of warfare with viruses. Enzymes associated with CRISPR sequences cut up attacking viral DNA and insert a section of it into the bacteria’s own genome in order to recognize it in the future. Doudna and her colleagues’ innovation was to configure and use this viral “mugshot” system to target and insert specific genetic sequences, creating a flexible DNA cut-and-paste tool.
issues.org: What Walter Isaacson’s Book Gets Wrong About Gene Editing2021-07-26 | permalink
Next-Gen Herbicide Combinations
The next generation of herbicide formulations sold widely throughout the Heartland will include multiple active ingredients and will be paired with specially-bred GMO crops. Glyphosate-based herbicides are used on nearly all conventional GMO corn, soybean, and cotton seeds, in various combinations with the following herbicides:
Glufosinate herbicides (Bayer’s Liberty)
Dicamba herbicides (Monsanto/Bayer’s Xtendimax, BASF’s Engenia, DuPoint’s FeXapan)
2,4-D herbicides such as Dow AgroSciences Enlist Duo and Corteva’s Frontline
2021-07-24 | permalink
Join Us - Good Food Good Farming
Join us for the #GoodFoodGoodFarming action days from 1 to 31 October 2021! For the past three years, we have mobilised hundreds of events taking place in villages, towns and cities. Let’s pressure our national and regional governments with many decentral actions across the continent to make future-friendly food and agricultural reforms. Get together offline for a demonstration, a protest picnic, a flash mob, or organise online events or workshops. Any format that will draw attention to our shared cause is welcome.
2021-07-24 | permalink
GMO - Golden Rice commercialization to further drag down Filipino farmers amid climate, COVID struggles
24 July, 2021 Manila—Greenpeace Philippines strongly denounced the approval of genetically modified “Golden Rice” (GR) for commercial propagation, and called on Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar to reverse the decision and represent the interests of Filipino farmers and consumers.
The group said the DA should prioritize strategies to diversify food production which ensure Filipinos’ access to nutritious, healthy, balanced diets that also address problems such as malnutrition and Vitamin A deficiency.
2021-07-23 | permalink
Defend Our Rice! Farmer-scientist group condemns Golden Rice commercial propagation, calls on farmers and consumers to protest
Farmer-scientist organization Magsasaka at Siyentipiko Para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) vehemently condemns the railroaded decision by the Department of Agriculture to commercially propagate Golden Rice and calls on small farmers and consumers across the country to mount protest against the said decision.
Not less than a year from the 60-day public comment period launched by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to collate necessary feedback from the public, Department of Agriculture- Bureau of Plant Industry Director George Culaste hastily approved the permit for Golden Rice’ commercial propagation last July 21, 2021. With its magnitude and relevance to public interest, networks such as the Stop Golden Rice! Network Philippines (SGRN) highlighted the lack of independent, comprehensive, and substantial risk and impact assessments of the approval process and also the overall lack of transparency of GR’s proponents regarding its findings and reports.
2021-07-07 | permalink
800 international organisations, NGOs and food experts unite to warn against ‘greenwashing’ at UN Food Systems Summit, call for true sustainability in agriculture
Experts call for agroecology, organic and regenerative agriculture to take centre stage at UN Food Systems Summit in New York.
WWF, Oxfam, IUCN and ECOWAS among 230 organisations to sign ambitious manifesto; 580 individual experts also sign on.
7 JULY, BRUSSELS – Over 800 international organisations, farming groups and food experts want agroecology, organic and regenerative agriculture to top the agenda at this year’s UN Food Systems Summit. The voices from six continents are calling on governments and businesses to take action once and for all on the “damaging” status quo in global farming.
2021-06-16 | permalink
What is a ‘conventional GMO’?
EU Commission embraces new industry-led terminology
16 June 2021 / Testbiotech is today publishing a backgrounder showing how the EU Commission is trying to establish new official terminology which is set to cause ‘fundamental confusion’ in regulation. Experts with close affiliations to the biotech industry were the first to introduce the new term ‘conventional GMO’ to imply that the methods used in genetic engineering would have no inherent generic risks. This term was then embraced in an EU Commission report without any explanation or justification. A possible consequence could be wide ranging deregulation of genetically engineered organisms ‘through the backdoor’.
The new ‘industry-friendly’ term is used in a Commission report on new genomic techniques (New GE), published in April 2021. The term ‘conventional GMO’ appears throughout the text as well as in the glossary, and is used to mean ‘transgenic’. This gives the impression that genetic engineering is as safe as conventional breeding.
This new terminology is in clear contradiction to a European Court of Justice ruling and EU GMO regulation: the well-established legal meaning of ‘conventional’ lies in the application of traditional breeding methods based on the usage of genetic diversity and natural biological mechanisms. The resulting characteristics can also occur naturally and are considered to be safe. Conversely, genetic engineering techniques are associated with specific inherent risks and can result in genetic changes unlikely to occur in nature.
2021-06-09 | permalink
European Parliament calls for ban on gene drive technology
Precaution prevails in its report on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030
9.06.2021, Berlin - The European Parliament yesterday confirmedi it‘s precautionary stance towards the use of a new genetic engineering technology called gene drive. In its report on the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, adopted at the European Parliament’s plenary on 08.06.2021, Parliamentarians demand that „no releases of genetically engineered gene drive organisms should be allowed, including for nature conservation purposes, in line with the precautionary principle.“
2021-06-09 | permalink
CRISPR/Cas Explainer Video 3: Risks (Part 1)
Genome editing applications (especially CRISPR/Cas) in crops are complex and controversially discussed topics. The videos from the „Project Genetic Engineering and the Environment” explain the basics of the technology, the possibilities and the risks associated with CRISPR/Cas gene scissors.
The content of the videos is intended to provide the basis for an informed debate.
We look forward to receiving your feedback and questions about the content of our videos! Just send an email to: info(at)fachstelle-gentechnik-umwelt.de
The risks associated with CRISPR/Cas are explained in two different videos. This video explains the first part of the risks of CRISPR/Cas considering unintended effects on the metabolism of plants and their interactions with ecosystems.
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