Movie review: ‘Food Evolution’
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY KEVIN FOLTA LAST year a Pew Research poll gauged public sentiment toward genetic engineering of food crops (familiarly, ‘GMO’). The results showed that while the public is consumed with fear and suspicion, scientists view the technology as safe and effective. This divide may be due to the deep presence of non-scientific websites, books and […]
How GM crops can help us to feed a fast-growing world
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY STUART THOMPSON The United Nations forecasts global population to rise to more than nine billion people by 2050. Climate change may mean that the crops we depend on now may no longer be suited to the areas where they are currently cultivated and may increasingly be threatened by droughts, floods and the spread of plant […]
Bangladesh agriculture leaders keen to adopt biotech cotton
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBangladesh,the first country to plant biotech eggplant, is ready to adopt biotech cotton. This was expressed by the research and development leaders of the country during the seminar launch of ISAAA’s Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops for 2016, held on July 9, at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in Dhaka. Chief Guest Additional […]
Authorise and support GMOs, science and innovation, says advocacy group
Reading Time: 2 minutesBRUSSELS: It is time for the EU to authorise GMOs as well as support science & innovation, says the Brussels-based advocacy group, Europabio. The group is urging European decision-makers to play by the rules and endorse the evidence. This is in view of the expected vote on March 27, by EU member states on whether […]
Genetically engineered crops: Fake news disappointments
Reading Time: 6 minutesFake news plaguing the progress of genetically engineered (GE) crops is nothing new since their first commercial cultivation 21 years ago. One of the most recent examples of fake news reports was churned out by economist, Jomo Kwame Sundaram and his co-author Tan Zhai Gen, http://ipsnews.net/2017/05/genetically-engineered-disappointments. The article lacks all the criteria of a valid, […]
Non-browning apples set to hit the market
Reading Time: 2 minutesOkanagan Specialty Fruits, the company behind the non-browning Arctic Apple sets to commercial launch with US retailers this fall, following the completion of successful market testing. Arctic Golden apples, whose polyphenol oxidase (PPO) genes have been silenced through genetic modification was approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) […]
Philippines tops in Southeast Asia for GM corn production
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMedia practitioners, farmers, and government agency officers were briefed during a media conference on ISAAA’s latest report, Global Status of Commercialised Biotech/GM Crops: 2016 at the Acacia Hotel, Alabang, Muntinlupa City, Philippines on May 19. The 2016 report states that Philippine biotech corn adoption increased to 812,000 hectares in 2016, a remarkable 16% increase (110,000 […]
Brazil approves world’s first commercial GM sugarcane
Reading Time: 2 minutesBRAZIL has approved the commercialization of a genetically modified sugarcane, developed by the Brazilian sugarcane breeding and technology company, Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC). This is the first time such permission has been granted any-where in the world. The approval came from the National Technical Biosafety Com-mission (CTNBio). The GM sugarcane contains the gene Bt […]
Authorise and support GMOs, science and innovation, says advocacy group
Reading Time: 2 minutesBRUSSELS: It is time for the EU to authorise GMOs as well as support science & innovation, says the Brussels-based advocacy group, Europabio. The group is urging European decision-makers to play by the rules and endorse the evidence. This is in view of the expected vote on March 27, by EU member states on whether […]