Latest Transgenic plant Stories

Scientists from CSIRO and the University of Melbourne in Australia, and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, are on the brink of a discovery which will facilitate the development of new, safe, more sustainable ways of controlling the world's worst agricultural insect pest "“ the moth, Helicoverpa armigera.The Australian Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon Kim Carr, said "“ at the BIO 2008 International Convention in San Diego, California...

Global use of biotech crops increased again in 2007, with global biotech crop acreage reaching a historic 282 million acres in 23 countries, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). Global biotech crop acreage increased nearly 12 percent from 2006, when 252 million acres of biotech crops were grown in 22 countries. "The reason for such impressive worldwide adoption rates is simple -- agricultural biotechnology delivers significant...

HONOLULU -- Despite cultural and environmental concerns, researchers at the University of Hawaii are performing genetically modified crop research to develop disease-resistant plants. The university's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources is conducting transgenic crop research on pineapple, orchids, anthuriums, bananas, tomatoes, petunias and lettuce. The university is also trying to develop sugar cane that is genetically modified to produce a vaccine to protect against...

By Mark WeinraubCHICAGO -- U.S. food and seed companies plan to educate farmers and other customers about the benefits of genetically modified crops and animals, as part of their strategy to win marketplace acceptance for new products developed through biotechnology.Many countries have banned food that is developed with biotechnology amid worries of possible dangers for human health and the environment. This has limited the market for the disease-resistant crops.Demonstrating that the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Genetically modified crops could become marginalized due to consumer rejection and technical difficulties in developing new products, environmental group Friends of the Earth said on Tuesday. "The biotech industry seems to be running out of new ideas, with the decline in the number of GM crop field trials and a return to conventional breeding for some of its most promising new crops," the report said. The report noted the possibility that "transgenic plant...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Genetically modified crops containing two insecticidal proteins in a single plant efficiently kill insects. But when crops engineered with just one of those toxins grow nearby, insects may more rapidly develop resistance to all the insect-killing plants, report Cornell University researchers.A soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), whose genes are inserted into crop plants, such as maize and cotton, creates these toxins that are deadly to insects but harmless to...