Genetic engineering Archive

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  38 Genetically engineered ingredients in our food - by Sue Kedgley

  
  
  
  Over the past decade four large multinational corporations -Monsanto, Aventis, Syngenta, Dow Agro Sciences, have been quietly applying for approval to add more and more genetically engineered ingredients into our food. read more
  December 10, 2009 10:09 am - 6 Comments
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  100% Pure ‘Clean Green’ GE llamas? Um, no. - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Just over a week ago, the High Court ruled that ERMA breached the law in accepting applications from AgResearch to import and experiment on a range of genetically modified animals. I described the application at the time it was lodged as: A huge application to genetically engineer a wide range of animals, plus human and [...] read more
  June 17, 2009 9:21 am - 4 Comments
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  Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops - by frog

  
  
  
  As usual, the title says it all: GE crops are no where near to delivering on their promises: Failure to Yield is the first report to closely evaluate the overall effect genetic engineering has had on crop yields in relation to other agricultural technologies. For years the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed [...] read more
  April 18, 2009 8:21 am - 8 Comments
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  Virus battery could power cars, electronic devices - by frog

  
  
  
  Scientists at MIT have built a lithium-ion battery using a genetically modified virus to assemble both the anode and the cathode of a battery. Three years ago, an MIT team led by Belcher reported that it had engineered viruses that could build an anode by coating themselves with cobalt oxide and gold and self-assembling to [...] read more
  April 6, 2009 11:59 am - 26 Comments
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  Trustworthy food - by frog

  
  
  
  You can normally tell a substance has become less food and more controversy when it acquires a name such as MON863.  That’s the moniker of one of Monsanto’s genetically modified varieties of maize. It struck controversy last year when an independent French study showed that, despite it being approved for human consumption in 2006, it [...] read more
  October 10, 2008 11:34 am - No Comments
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  Trading away Pharmac and GE free to the USA - by frog

  
  
  
  Following on from No Right Turn’s analysis of what we stand to lose from a trade deal with the USA, Russel asked a couple of questions of the Acting Minister of Trade in Parliament today: Dr Russel Norman: Will the Minister publicly guarantee that he will not sign any trade deal with the United States [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 7:58 pm - 4 Comments
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  Giving preferential trading rights to the USA - by frog

  
  
  
  I see a looming preferential trade deal with the United States is enough for Matthew Hooten to declare Phil Goff New Zealander of the year.  High praise indeed.  Although US trade deals don’t seem to have worked out quite so well for the much bigger economy of Australia (bigger than New Zealand that is, not [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 12:39 pm - 14 Comments
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  Genetic engineering myths - by frog

  
  
  
  Food Democracy has a quiz about genetic engineering myths that begins: Many pro-GM commentators hail the technology as the solution to the current food crisis because of its ability to reduce fertilizer use and help farmers cope with problems like drought, salinity or flooding. After 20 years of GM research, how many GM drought tolerant, [...] read more
  September 15, 2008 4:58 pm - 6 Comments
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  Up go the hoardings - by frog

  
  
  
  With an election date announced it suddenly becomes legal to erect hoardings all over the country. And, it seems this game is not just reserved for political parties.  For instance, just near Havelock North, a locality that knows better than most the importance of horticulture to our social and economic wellbeing, these signs have started [...] read more
  September 12, 2008 4:38 pm - 36 Comments
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  A good debate on genetic engineering - by frog

  
  
  
  George Darroch has started a good, and considered debate among frogblog commenters on the scientific risks of genetic engineering: There have been plenty of reasons to oppose genetic engineering that I can agree with; control of the food chain by large scale agribusiness, overstated benefits, chemical use, commercialisation of life, monocropping, loss of seed stock [...] read more
  September 9, 2008 2:34 pm - 14 Comments
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  GM chinese food - by frog

  
  
  
  I always figured when I bought food that might contain US ingredients I needed to be especially careful checking what the ingredients were and where they came from if I wanted to avoid GE food.  Not that I can check of course because there is no requirement for anyone to tell me what they are [...] read more
  September 8, 2008 4:37 pm - 25 Comments
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  Genetically bred prince opposes GE - by frog

  
  
  
  I don’t really like the idea of royals, especially when they use their unelected power and profile to comment on democratic political issues, but that shouldn’t prevent me quoting them approvingly when they say something I like eh? So Prince Charles has got the genetic engineering world in a bit of an uproar. Some British [...] read more
  August 14, 2008 11:12 am - 17 Comments
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  AgResearch applies for GE sheep, cows and pigs - by frog

  
  
  
  Genetic Engineering is back, with AgResearch making a massive application to genetically engineer a wide range of animals, plus human and monkey cells. I really thought this story would have been all over the media by now and was going to link to articles letting news agencies tell the story.  But it hasn’t yet (Except [...] read more
  August 8, 2008 3:56 pm - 37 Comments
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  NZ cows eat … palm oil? - by frog

  
  
  
  For those of you who have followed the farming practices in the USA, and in particular the stories about cattle that are made to eat feed supplements rather than their genetic preference for grass, may have taken some comfort that New Zealand cows are renowned for being grass fed. Except, as it turns out, they [...] read more
  April 30, 2008 10:51 am - 6 Comments
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  Mike Moore on biofuels - by frog

  
  
  
  Mike Moore manages to evade lucidity again this morning with a Pro GE, pro WTO, pro big business solution to rising food prices. He also joins many others on the right by attacking biofuels: Filling a Range Rover with subsidised ethanol takes as much “grain” as would feed an African family for a year. Rich [...] read more
  April 28, 2008 12:10 pm - 20 Comments
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  Government doesn’t care about GE Royal Commission recommendations - by frog

  
  
  
  Research organisation Sustainable Future, has just released a new report showing the Government has implemented only 20 of the 49 recommendations of the 2001 Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. The report concludes: These findings show that the New Zealand Government is not currently pursuing the strategic option of ‘preserving opportunities’ as proposed by the Commissioners [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 10:32 am - 10 Comments
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  A saga about bees, biosecurity and GE - by frog

  
  
  
  There was an article in the Gisborne Herald over the weekend where Gisborne beekeepers argued that the Government is sacrificing New Zealand’s environment and biosecurity in order to promote free trade. Beekeepers were protesting about the Biosecurity and Hazardous Substances Legislation Amendment Bill, which passed last week despite opposition from the Greens and the Maori [...] read more
  April 10, 2008 4:18 pm - 5 Comments
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  The world according to Monsanto - by frog

  
  
  
  Two weeks ago I mentioned a French documentary that examined genetic engineering company Monsanto. Here’s the entire documentary for those of you you want to see it. As with most information about Monsanto, it is scary viewing: Hat tip: Celsias read more
  April 10, 2008 7:55 am - No Comments
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  Monsanto is $660 poorer - by frog

  
  
  
  I alluded, in an earlier post, to the legal battle between small Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, who was being sued by Monsanto for having round-up ready canola on his land without having paid for them. It seems that Schmeiser did win a law case after all. It wasn’t the 1998 case for which he became [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 8:37 am - 1 Comment
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  A bad year for food, a good year for GE - by frog

  
  
  
  Celsias reports that the world’s non-genetically engineered food crops are rapidly being contaminated as seeds from GE crops blow around on the wind and snuggle up into plantations where they were never welcome. As a result of genetically contamination of non-GMO crops in Europe, the U.S., Mexico, Australia and South America, the biotech food industry [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 7:41 am - 1 Comment