Visit the new GeneWatch UK online database at http://www.genewatch.org In a desperate effort to reverse its failing fortunes, the biotechnology industry and its supporters are putting their faith in the ‘second generation’ of genetically modified (GM) crops. It is claimed that many of these will bring consumer benefits by offering foods with enhanced nutritional value (so-called ‘functional foo...

Why is Europe so critical of GMO crops? As long as it is cheaper to import food than to produce it locally, Western European countries have no need for GMO crops. Where it does matter is Africa. In my scientific opinion, GMO food is safe to eat, GMO crops can increase yield and, when used wisely, are good for the environment. Unfortunately, scientists are helpless in the emotional and political...

Since the beginning of the 90s lots of cationic plant, cysteine-rich antimicrobial peptides (AMP) have been studied. However, Broekaert et al. (1995) only coined the term "plant defensin," after comparison of a new class of plant antifungal peptides with known insect defensins. From there, many plant defensins have been reported and studies on this class of peptides encompass its activity towar...

Can public policies and research institutions in African countries provide safe and useful genetically modified (GM) food crops? This is an urgent question, recognizing that advancing GM food crops can be difficult, affected by global debate, and various regulatory protocols. Reaching farmers has been achieved in several countries only for GM cotton for insect resistant while approvals for food...

It has been estimated that one-third of the world's population lack sufficient Zn for adequate nutrition. This can be alleviated by increasing dietary Zn intakes through Zn biofortification of edible crops. Biofortification strategies include the application of Zn-fertilizers and the development of crop genotypes that acquire more Zn from the soil and accumulate it in edible portions. Zinc conc...

An article in the Botany section of The Scientific Ravi 2012 entitled Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Crops perpetuates a number of common myths that there are different environmental and health risks associated with genetically modified crops, including dangers of eating foreign DNA. Such viewpoints are promulgated by fringe studies and web sites that are rejected by the overwhelming m...

The rapid adoption of genetically engineered (GE) plants that express insecticidal Cry proteins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has raised concerns about their potential impact on non-target organisms. This includes the possibility that non-target herbivores develop into pests. Although studies have now reported increased populations of non-target herbivores in Bt cotton, the underlyin...

To improve local food systems in the U.S. it is important to understand what is happening in the dominant mainstream food system, because that system poses formidable constraints to how much success local food systems can achieve. Major changes occurred in the food-system-centred part of the American landscape. The principal trends in the changes of the food system are that farmers get less of ...

Genetically engineered transgenic crop varieties (TGVs) have spread rapidly in the last 10 years, increasingly to traditionally-based agricultural systems (TBAS) of the Third World both as seed and food. Proponents claim they are key to reducing hunger and negative environmental impacts of agriculture. Opponents claim they will have the opposite effect. The risk management process (RMP) is the ...

The development and marketing of 'novel' genetically modified (GM) crops in which composition has been deliberately altered poses a challenge to the European Union (EU)'s risk assessment processes, which are based on the concept of substantial equivalence with a non-GM comparator. This article gives some examples of these novel GM crops and summarizes the conclusions of a report that was commis...