Lee Sanders, senior vice president for the American Bakers Association, said she found out only a month ago that the U.S. sugar beet industry was set to begin planting Roundup Ready sugar beets. The lack of attention paid to the industry"s action is in stark contrast to what has occurred with wheat, despite the fact both commodities are used as ingredients in making bread. Sanders was speaking at the Joint Biotech Committee of U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Association of Wheat Growers, where she went over a survey indicating higher-income males from the South were least resistant to genetically modified wheat while lower-income females from the West were most concerned. As for sugar, there was no usage information.

Not surprisingly, the Food and Drug Administration"s determination that meat and dairy products from cloned animals are safe to eat has sparked no small controversy. Critics were quick to level a number of charges against the practice, including claims that animals involved in the process are harmed. In its 678-page draft risk assessment, the FDA sought to allay concerns about the welfare of cloned animals, stating: "(Somatic cell nuclear transfer) can pose an increased frequency of health risks to animals involved in the cloning process, but these do not differ qualitatively from those observed in other (assisted reproductive technologies) or natural breeding."

A pair of biotech agribusinesses wants to go head to head with Monsanto Co. in creating a better cotton seed, but they may never get there. At issue is Monsanto"s proposed $1.5 billion purchase of Delta & Pine Land Co. Swiss firm Syngenta AG and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., a DuPont company, had planned to partner with Delta, combining their genetic traits with D&PL"s seed. The Monsanto deal is pending an antitrust review by the Justice Department. If it goes through, Syngenta and Pioneer will have to turn to rival Monsanto as their cotton seed partner.

In a decision broadly affecting field trials of genetically engineered crops a federal district judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. Citing potential threats to the environment, Judge Harold Kennedy found in favor of the Center for Food Safety that USDA"s past approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant, genetically engineered bentgrass were illegal.

With royal fanfare, British Petroleum just donated $500 million in research funds for UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and the University of Illinois to develop new sources of energy—primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops. This comes on the anniversary of Berkeley’s hapless research deal with seed giant Novartis ten years ago. However, at half a billion dollars, the BP grant dwarfs Novartis’ investment by a factor of 10. The graphics of the announcement were unmistakable: BP’s corporate logo is perfectly aligned with the flags of the Nation, the State, and the University. [...] The potential consequences for the environment and society of BP’s funding are deeply disturbing. In the wake of the report of the external review of the UCB-Novartis agreement that recommended that the university not enter into such agreements in the future, how could such a major deal be announced without wide consultation of the UC faculty? The university has been recruited into a corporate partnership that may irreversibly transform the plant’s food and fuel systems and concentrating tremendous power in the hands of a few corporate partners.

South Dakota legislators rejected a bill Tuesday that would have made it illegal to raise or sell Roundup Ready Alfalfa in the state. Those who want to prohibit the genetically altered, herbicide-resistant crop from being grown throughout South Dakota said it threatens to cross pollinate and ruin the purity of common strains of alfalfa.

In a decision broadly affecting field trials of genetically engineered crops a federal district judge ruled yesterday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. Citing potential threats to the environment, Judge Harold Kennedy found in favor of the Center for Food Safety that USDA"s past approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant, genetically engineered bentgrass were illegal.

Sinton Dairy Foods, responding to consumer demand, today launches its new product line, which uses milk only from cows not treated with synthetic hormones. It’s an across-the-board makeover, with the 127-year-old Colorado Springs dairy making sure every milk product, culture product and ice cream mix it sells — all 1,700 items — is naturally produced, free of rBST, recombinant Bovine Somatotropin.

State lawmakers this week advanced a bill that would ban testing and growing of genetically modified taro for a period of 10 years. Senate Bill 958 was passed Monday by the Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee by a 3-1 vote. State lawmakers debated similar legislation last year but failed to pass any law banning such research.

There’s nothing like a tender steak from a free-range, grass-fed, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, organic and -- oh, yes -- cloned cow. Or is there? [...] In the opinion of some in the biotechnology arena, the federal definition of organic food would allow them to label food from clones as organic, as long as those clones were raised organically.