EXCERPTS: Environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe attacked ISAAA's report as "pure propaganda" for the biotech industry.
"In 10 years of biotech farming, they have done nothing for consumers, nothing to protect the environment and nothing to alleviate poverty and hunger" (ITEM 1)
Greenpeace, an environmental group also opposed to biotech crops, issued its own report on Wednesday, saying that the commercialization of biotech crops in 1996 has led to "a dramatic increase in toxic herbicide use of 122 million pounds," in the United States, wildlife has suffered, and Argentina is seeing "massive deforestation."
(ITEM 2)
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Biotech Farming Grew At Lowest Rate In 10 Years - Study
By Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck
Dow Jones Newswires, January 11, 2006
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/DJStory.aspx?DJStoryID=20060111DN010407
BRUSSELS - (Dow Jones) - The annual rise of biotech cultivation grew last year at its slowest pace since 1996, when U.S. farmers sowed their first crop of genetically modified soybeans for sale on the open market, according to a report published Wednesday.
Last year 22 million acres were added to the global pool of fields under biotech cultivation, raising the total to 222 million acres tended by 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries, said a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, a nonprofit biotech foundation.
Experts attributed the slowdown to some countries nearing saturation point in their use of herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant seeds, as other countries hesitate to use the seeds over health and environmental concerns.
About 90% of Australian cotton, at least 80% of U.S. soybeans and 90% of soybeans in Argentina are genetically modified. Europe is one of the most resistant regions, limiting commercial biotech cultivation to about 100,000 hectares across five countries.
Biotech rice, the great hope for feeding the world's poor and bumping biotech crop growth, has yet to reach world markets amid concerns about the safety of the modified staple. So far, only Iran - which joined the world's commercial biotech crop growers in 2005 - grows commercial biotech rice. China delayed licensing biotech rice twice in recent months.
Emerging economies such as China, Brazil, Argentina and India are likely to be the greatest growth regions for the use of biotech foods, ISAAA founder and chairman Clive James told journalists during a conference call. While Brazil posted the largest rise of biotech fields in 2005, China looks set to be a vast growth region, thanks to Beijing's massive investments in research.
"If we look at the investment in China in biotech crops, it is very significant," James said. More than 2,000 scientists there are working in publicly funded laboratories at China's Academy of Science to develop pest-resistant maize, soy, cotton and other seeds.
CropLife International, a lobby group representing the interests of biotech giants such as U.S.-based Monsanto Co. (MON), Switzerland's Syngenta AG (SYT) and Germany's BASF AG (BF), played down the risk of Chinese-made biotech seeds cutting into the sales growth of brand-name seeds.
"We hope we'll always be one step ahead," said Michael Leader, manager of international regulatory policy at CropLife. "There are always new crops out there and vegetables to be developed."
CropLife and other biotech lobbies say improved biotech strains will continue to attract world demand. Researchers are focusing now on crops that are resistant to environmental conditions such as drought and salt, and those that boost the healthiness of a crop.
In addition to Iran, France, Portugal and the Czech Republic began growing biotech crops last year.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth Europe attacked ISAAA's report as "pure propaganda" for the biotech industry.
"In 10 years of biotech farming, they have done nothing for consumers, nothing to protect the environment and nothing to alleviate poverty and hunger," said Adrian Beeb, a spokesman for the group.
Biotech firms have taken some knocks recently. An Indian cotton-growing region has banned Monsanto seeds and is taking the company to court after the company's cotton seeds delivered low cotton yields.
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World biotech plantings expand but at slower rate
By Carey Gillam
Reuters, Jan 11, 2006
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-01-11T191358Z_01_WRI169245_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-FOOD-BIOTECH-DC.XML
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Global planting of genetically modified crops continued to expand in 2005, though the growth rate slowed slightly amid persistent debate about the safety and efficacy of the specialized crops, an international biotech crop group said on Wednesday.
Biotech cotton, corn, soybeans and other crops were planted on 222 million acres, or 90 million hectares, in 21 countries last year, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a not-for-profit organization that works to get biotech crops adopted in developing countries.
The United States remained the dominant user of biotech crops, which are genetically altered to have such attributes as resisting destructive insects and tolerance of weed-killing sprays. But farmers in China, India, Brazil, South Africa and other countries were increasingly finding benefits from the technology, according to ISAAA Chairman Clive James.
Also, four countries -- Portugal, France, Iran and the Czech Republic -- grew biotech crops for the first time in 2005, according to ISAAA.
James said biotech crops have increased the income of 7.7 million farmers in developing countries, helping to reduce poverty.
"It is an extremely important technology," James said.
One advancement was the planting of biotech rice in Iran. Rice is a key food crop for more than 1 billion of the world's poorest people and could be a significant factor in reducing world hunger, James said.
But Friends of the Earth, a nonprofit group that believes genetically modified crops can be harmful to human health and the environment, said the ISAAA report failed to note that a growing number of countries were actually banning GM products.
Indeed, ISAAA acknowledged that the year-over-year acreage growth of 11 percent shown in its report was markedly slower than the 20 percent growth seen in 2004 and the 15 percent growth seen in 2003, as farmers, food companies and consumers continue to evaluate the costs and benefits of the technology.
Friends of the Earth said there are 165 regions in Europe declaring themselves "GM-free" zones, including approval by the Swiss in November of a five-year ban on such crops.
The group said biotech crop plantings are pushed on farmers by Monsanto Co., the world's leading developer of GM crops, and a financial contributor to ISAAA.
"In Paraguay and Brazil Monsanto's GM products were grown even though they were forbidden, and in Indonesia the company was reduced to bribing government officials," Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth Europe's corporate campaigner, said in a statement issued to respond to the ISAAA report.
"Governments should stop serving the interests of big companies such as Monsanto and put the interests of their citizens and the environment first," de Clerck said.
Monsanto had no immediate comment. The St. Louis company last year agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties to settle U.S. criminal and civil charges of bribing an Indonesian government official.
Greenpeace, an environmental group also opposed to biotech crops, issued its own report on Wednesday, saying that the commercialization of biotech crops in 1996 has led to "a dramatic increase in toxic herbicide use of 122 million pounds," in the United States, wildlife has suffered, and Argentina is seeing "massive deforestation."
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