Latest Genetic engineering Stories

BELLINGHAM, Wash., Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This October, nearly 1,000 natural food stores across the U.S. and Canada are taking part in Non-GMO Month, celebrating the public's right to choose food and products that do not contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Organized by the non-profit Non-GMO Project, Non-GMO Month provides a platform for citizens and organizations to stand up for the right to know what's in their food, and to choose non-GMO. Dozens of Non-GMO...

NEW YORK and DENVER, Oct. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of nearly 400 businesses and organizations dedicated to food safety and consumer rights today called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods, to give consumers the right to know what is in our food. The Just Label It - We Have a Right to Know (www.justlabelit.org) campaign submitted a petition on behalf of millions of consumers to the FDA calling for the mandatory...

How GM crops benefit farmers and the developing world The biotech industry boosted farming across the globe to the tune of almost $65 billion during the period 1996 to 2009, according to the latest analysis published in the International Journal of Biotechnology. $65 billion is the increase in net farm income, the farm level benefit after paying for the seed and its biotech traits. The study's authors estimate that almost half of that was derived by farmers in the developing world....

Coalition Demands a "Reset" by Obama Administration on GMO Labeling NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In two weeks a diverse coalition of organizations, businesses and individuals will begin to march from the Historic Flatbush Food Co-op in Brooklyn, NY to the gates of the White House to ask the Obama Administration to support labeling of genetically engineered foods, also termed "Genetically Modified Organisms" or "GMOs". The GMO Right2Know March will feature daily events...

  Consumers are eager to get their hands on, and teeth into, foods that are genetically modified (GM) to increase health benefits - and even pay more for the opportunity. A study by Iowa State University researcher Wallace Huffman shows that when consumers are presented with produce enhanced with consumer traits through intragenic means, they will pay significantly more than for plain produce. The research is published in the current issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Resource...

Scientists involved in DNA vaccine research are currently focused on two major issues: the creation of effective delivery systems and the development of more efficient biomanufacturing strategies, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). Top investigators in the field recently discussed these and other topics at a conference in San Diego entitled "DNA Vaccines: Building on Clinical Progress and Exploring New Targets," which was sponsored by the International Society of DNA...

Genetically engineered spider silk could help overcome a major barrier to the use of gene therapy in everyday medicine, according to a new study that reported development and successful initial laboratory tests of such a material. It appears in ACS' journal Bioconjugate Chemistry.David Kaplan and colleagues note that gene therapy "” the use of beneficial genes to prevent or treat disease "” requires safe and efficient carriers or "vectors." Those carriers are the counterparts to...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A Purdue University scientist is urging federal officials to decide whether genetically engineered salmon would be allowed for U.S. consumption and arguing that not doing so may set back scientific efforts to increase food production. William Muir, a professor of animal sciences, said that based on data made available by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AquAdvantage (AA) salmon poses little real risk to the environment or...

DAVIS, Calif., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The federal review process for genetically engineered food animals, now being applied to fast-growing salmon, is tortuously drawn out, scientifically unjustified, and likely to rob society of both environmental and economic benefits, argue researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Purdue University. In a commentary piece published Aug. 5 in the online version of Nature Biotechnology, animal scientists Alison L. Van...

A Purdue University scientist is urging federal officials to decide whether genetically engineered salmon would be allowed for U.S. consumption and arguing that not doing so may set back scientific efforts to increase food production.William Muir, a professor of animal sciences, said that based on data made available by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AquAdvantage (AA) salmon poses little real risk to the environment or human health. AA salmon were given a gene from Chinook salmon that...