Articles

Even with biotech crops, farmers still need to make use of age-old practices such as crop rotation to fight insect pests. That’s the lesson to be drawn from the latest discovery of resistance to the pest-fighting toxins added to maize — also known as corn.

The battle over genetically modified foods continues, but the number of companies publicly taking a stand against them is growing.

Not to be left behind and not dependent on any other state action (Connecticut and Maine notwithstanding), a bill has been introduced (SB 1381) on February 21, 2014 that requires any food, with certain exceptions (more on that later), offered for retail sale in California to be labeled “Produced with Genetic Engineering” or “Partially Produced with Genetic Engineering” in the California State Senate. The Bill currently has the moniker: The California Right To Know Genetically Engineered Food Act.

Mustard oil production in India is expected increase considerably in the coming years. According to estimates the country will produce 34 lakh tonnes (LT) of mustard oil by 2020, which in turn will reduce India’s reliance on imports of kanola oil (derived from rapeseeds) from Canada.

Africa is expected to be the next target of GM food companies, as European scientists and policymakers travel to Ethiopia to boost the prospect of growing more of the controversial crops on the continent.

Fast food chain KFC is suspected of using genetically modified soybeans in its soy milk sold in China, said a Chinese inspection and testing institute and a product-review website, reports Shanghai's China Business News.

Two neighbouring farmers, a field of canola and a gust of wind are at the centre of a landmark court case in Australia that could have consequences for the controversial growing of genetically modified crops in the country.

A fourth biotech seed company has joined a lawsuit aimed at blocking the County of Kauai’s implementation of Ordinance 960 related to pesticides and genetically modified crops. BASF is now on board with the complaint, filed Jan. 10 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu by Syngenta, DuPont Pioneer and Agrigenetics, a company affiliated with Dow AgroSciences.

Sniff the air around Norman Lewis' experimental poplars, and you won't pick up the scent of roses. But inside the saplings' leaves and stems, cells are hard at work producing the chemical called 2-phenylethanol — which by any other name would smell as sweet.

France has launched a move to restore a ban on genetically modified (GMO) maize annulled by its top court to prevent sowings this spring that could raise public outcry in a country strongly opposed to GMO crops. French anti-globalisation crusader Jose Bove raids against genetically-modified (GM) maize crops