Taking a stand against the environmental destruction caused by genetically engineered foods, Bon Appetit Management Company has signed on to the Genetic Engineering Policy Alliance (www.gepolicyalliance.org), a network of organizations and individuals promoting precautionary policies on genetically engineered food and agriculture. Bon Appetit sees the unmediated proliferation of GE crops as potentially devastating to the environment and to non-GE farms, especially as little is known about the long-term effects of genetic engineering. In signing on to the Alliance, Bon Appetit pledges its support to the principles outlined in the Policy Platform and adds to its list of socially responsible business initiatives.

GMOs in Vermont, a two part series of interviews, made by students from the Gailer School and Montpelier High School are the first products of our Youth Media for Sustainable Agriculture program. These videos are airing on Vermont Public Access stations around the state this summer and fall. Our objective in showing the videos is to strengthen local communities’ awareness and activism around issues of food safety and biotechnology.

The rice seed industry has voted against USA Rice Federation’s plan to test certified rice seed for the presence of LL601 and LL62. While seedsmen pledged to work with the industry to help get commercial seed stocks of Cheniere out of the system, they voted against “running any tests on commercial seed stocks to provide any documents that are not required by law. The retail invoice for certified seed shall be the only documentation delivered to purchasers at the time of sale.” The seedsmen approved the position at a meeting of the industry’s Certified Rice Seed Channel on Dec. 15 in Memphis. A statement said the Federation’s proposal “will require substantial additional costs to the industry for no useful purpose, creating the risk that legal seed stocks could be eliminated from the marketplace.”

In a major setback for the nations efforts to counter bioterrorism, federal officials Tuesday canceled their $877.5 million contract with Brisbane-based VaxGen for an improved anthrax vaccine, because the company was behind schedule developing it. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent VaxGen a letter terminating the contract, awarded in March 2004, citing the company’s failure to meet a deadline Monday for beginning a key test of the vaccine in people. The contract had been the largest issued under President Bush’s Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion program to counter bioterrorism over 10 years. Under the contract, VaxGen was to have provided 75 million doses of the vaccine, which were to be stockpiled for civilian use in case of an anthrax attack on the country.

Scientists at the University of Idaho have produced a genetically modified potato variety of Ranger Russet with enhanced French fry aroma, and reduced amounts of processing-induced acrylamide. And since the genetic modification was accomplished without inserting any foreign genetic material into the potato's genome, the researchers hope to calm any consumer concerns about the new spud variety. [...] Sensory evaluations, by a panel of eight professionally trained experts, also showed that, somewhat unexpectedly, the sensory attributes were enhanced in the 'intragenic' spuds. "Our results demonstrate that a multigene silencing construct enhanced the performance of Ranger Russet in seven different ways: black spot bruise resistance, reduced cold-induced sweetening, reduced stress-induced sugar ends, enhanced fry aroma, reduced amounts of processing-induced acrylamide, reduced starch phosphate content, and increased starch," wrote the researchers.

The cotton industry is concerned about the discovery of a herbicide-resistant weed that spreads easily, can grow an inch a day even during droughts and could force farmers to return to older growing methods that were harsher on the environment. "It is potentially the worse threat since the boll weevil," said Alan York, weed scientist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, referring to the voracious beetle that devastated Southern cotton crops in the early 1900s and forced farmers to switch to alternatives such as peanuts. The boll weevil was eradicated in some states in the late 1970s and early 1980s, paving the way for the return of cotton as one of the nation's major crops, worth $4.7 billion. It is grown in 16 states from coast to coast.

The National Organization for African Americans in Housing (NOAAH), a non-profit advocate for low-income citizens, has called on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to stop dairy processors from deceptively marketing ”no rBST” milk, which is identical to other milk but costs more. In a letter to the FDA, NOAAH Board Secretary Kevin Marchman said the milk processors making these claims are presenting low-income consumers with a horrible choice: spend limited food money on higher-priced milk that is identical to less expensive products, or serve their families milk which they believe to be lower in quality and less safe than what others can afford.

The Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology ("Fraunhofer CMB") announced today the receipt of a $3.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development of transmission-blocking vaccines against malaria. To achieve the goals of this project, Fraunhofer CMB will employ its proprietary platform technology to produce lifesaving vaccines in non-genetically modified plants. [...] This is the third grant that Fraunhofer CMB has received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support development of vaccines using its plant- based platform. A $2.7 million award for development of novel subunit vaccines against influenza was announced last week. Fraunhofer CMB was also the recipient of a $1.2 million Gates Foundation grant in 2005 for pre-clinical studies towards the development of a vaccine against African trypanosomiasis.

Josef Stalin, who would have known, is said to have told Winston Churchill at Potsdam in 1945, "A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic." [...] Most African nations are leery of genetically modified plants, even those that could save millions of their people from famine. [...] From an American point of view, this is maddening. As Mr. Hand notes, Americans believe in taking great risks to achieve great rewards. Europeans, and in this case Africans, culturally are more cautious; they prefer to wait on a sure thing. They also prefer to protect their own products from foreign competitors. Still there is hope in the cassava project, and inspiration. That American genius and generosity, nurtured in St. Louis, one day might help save millions of lives is no small thing. But there is frustration, too, in that politicians and bureaucrats in Europe and Africa would act out of fear rather than hope, would rather see hunger as a statistic, not a tragedy.

Even though the European Union still isn't buying U.S. rice, USDA says U.S. rice exports are climbing. Although the European Union still won't buy U.S. rice due to concerns about unapproved biotech rice in shipments, USDA raised its forecast for U.S. rice exports in its December supply and demand report.