Replies to post #28072 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

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(COMTEX) B: Developing Countries Left Behind, Warns Diogo
( Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique/All Africa Global Media )

Jakarta, Apr 23, 2005 (Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique/All Africa Global
Media via COMTEX) -- Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo on Saturday warned
that most developing countries are being left on the sidelines, with the
advances in information and communications technologies still benefitting only
the developed world.

Speaking in Jakarta, at the Asia-Africa Summit, attended by about 50 heads of
state and government, Diogo said "current reality has shown that the dividends
from globalisation are only being reaped by the developed countries". Most other
countries were pushed to the margins of the world economy. Diogo lamented that
hopes raised by the end of the cold war had been dashed. The end of the old
east-west conflict, and advent of a new era of globalisation and created
expectations of a promising future for the peoples of Asia and Africa. However,
the reality had been far from encouraging.

Diogo noted that the people of Africa and Asia are still those most affected by
under-development, poverty, infectious diseases, conflicts and instability, as
well as constant pressure and interference in their internal affairs by more
powerful nations.

She called on the leaders of the two continents to make use of the opportunities
opened by this summit to reflect jointly on the role this form can play for the
good of African and Asian peoples.

Diogo argued that the countries of the South should continue their efforts to
participate actively in globalisation, by stepping up "South-South cooperation",
and developing mutually advantageous partnerships.

"I think this summit will open a new stage in the relationship between the two
continents", she said, just as 50 years ago, at the 1955 Bandung conference "our
predecessors defined as their central goal the liberation of all countries from
the colonial yoke and from apartheid"

Copyright Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. Distributed by All Africa Global
Media(AllAfrica.com)

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GM industry puts human gene into rice

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

24 April 2005

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights.

Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles, have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by creating unnatural combinations of living things.

Environmentalists say that no one will want to eat the partially human-derived food because it will smack of cannibalism.

But supporters say that the controversial new departure presents no ethical problems and could bring environmental benefits.

In the first modification of its kind, Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The gene makes an enzyme, code-named CPY2B6, which is particularly good at breaking down harmful chemicals in the body.

Present GM crops are modified with genes from bacteria to make them tolerate herbicides, so that they are not harmed when fields are sprayed to kill weeds. But most of them are only able to deal with a single herbicide, which means that it has to be used over and over again, allowing weeds to build up resistance to it.

But the researchers at the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, have found that adding the human touch gave the rice immunity to 13 different herbicides. This would mean that weeds could be kept down by constantly changing the chemicals used.

Supporting scientists say that the gene could also help to beat pollution.

Professor Richard Meilan of Purdue University in Indiana, who has worked with a similar gene from rabbits, says that plants modified with it could "clean up toxins" from contaminated land. They might even destroy them so effectively that crops grown on the polluted soil could be fit to eat.

But he and other scientists caution that if the gene were to escape to wild relatives of the rice [F6 comment -- as of course it will if this rice is ever grown commercially] it could [F6 comment -- most certainly would] create particularly vicious superweeds that were resistant to a wide range of herbicides.

He adds: "I do not have any ethical issue with using human genes to engineer plants", dismissing talk of "Frankenstein foods" as "rubbish". He believes that that European opposition to GM crops and food is fuelled by agricultural protectionism.

But Sue Mayer, director of GeneWatch UK, said yesterday: "I don't think that anyone will want to buy this rice. People have already expressed disgust about using human genes, and already feel that their concerns are being ignored by the biotech industry. This will just undermine their confidence even more."

Pete Riley, director of the anti-GM pressure group Five Year Freeze, said: "I am not surprised by this.

"The industry is capable of anything and this development certainly smacks of Frankenstein."

©2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd. (emphasis added)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=632444

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(COMTEX) B: Don't rush GMO use in Tanzania, says organic body
( East African Weekly )

Apr 25, 2005 (East African Weekly via COMTEX) -- By C. AKITANDA Special
Correspondent As parliament is scheduled to debate and approve the use of
genetically modified organisms (GMO) mid this year, the secretariat of the
committee for the establishment of the Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement
(TOAM), called it "an unnecessary rush." Jordan Gama, the secretary to the
committee, said last week that there was an unnecessary rush on the part of some
government officials and local scientists, especially the Arusha-based Tropical
Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI), to introduce GMOs in the country even
before the biosafety law is in place. "We should stop the rush to introduce GMOs
in Tanzania until proved safe and conducive to smallholder farmers, our health
and to our environment, Mr Gama stated. He said there should be a national
public debate on GMOs, and all Tanzanians should be given a chance to know what
are GMOs and who is pushing for their use in the country, what is the economic
impact on small-scale farmers and Tanzania's exports, especially to the European
Union, and the possible health and environmental risks. According to Gama,
before the introduction of GMOs, Tanzanian small farmers should have a say,
"Since genetic engineering isn't a normal technology, and once introduced, field
trials could eventually have massive negative impacts on people's livelihood and
environment that could be irreversible." "The majority of the investment in the
production of GM crops is in the hands of large transnational corporations that
are profit-driven, and GM crops are patented by these companies, which will
force the smallscale farmers in Africa to depend on them forever, said Mr Gama.
"We therefore say the country needs a 10-year moratorium on GMOs while
consulting stakeholders on the technology and building capacity to handle the
risks, he added. Early this year, the Director of Research at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Jeremiah Haki, was quoted as saying a Cabinet
paper on GMO policy has already been prepared and parliament is scheduled to
debate and approve the approach GMO technologies mid this year. Dr Haki further
said, "Tanzania, which largely depends on agriculture, cannot afford to ignore
technologies that increase crop yields and profits and reduce farm costs.
Earlier, Wilfred Ngirwa, the permanent secretary in the ministry had issued a
statement saying the ministry has, "proactively participated in the development
of a national policy for biotechnology that will soon be tabled in the
parliament." This policy will give overall guidance on all issues related to
biotechnology including priority areas for research and development, regulatory
framework, sustainable use of biodiversity and resource requirements. Mr Ngirwa
said that, in the interim, the ministry has established the Agricultural
Biotechnology Scientific Advisory Committee (ABSAC) to advise the minister on
issues related to GMO including their importation, safe handling and testing.
South Africa is the only African country that is already commercially producing
GM crops. Tanzania is among the countries that ratified the Cartagena Protocol
on biosafety, an international law negotiated under the Convention on Biological
Diversity that has basic requirements for member countries to comply with when
pursuing GMO technology. Tanzania will later in the year start confined field
trials of cotton in the south of the country in a government move to halt the
spread of the redball worm disease that had hit the cotton crop.

URL: http://www.securities.com

Copyright 2005 Internet Securities, Inc., all rights reserved. A Euromoney
Institutional Investor Company.

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(COMTEX) B: National Assembly Passes Law On Seeds

Luanda, Jun 15, 2005 (Angola Press Agency/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX)
-- The National Assembly Wednesday approved here with 111 votes in favour, none
against and one obstention, the a bill which aims to regulate, in updated ways,
the acquisition, growth and distribution of seeds.

The session proceeds this afternoon with the examination of a convention for
tobacco control, having already passed an authorization to the Goverment to
legislate on the juridical regime of public works granting.

Angola's Agriculture and Rural Development Deputy Minister, Zacarias Sambeny,
justified the approval of the diploma with the perspectives in the sector, at
the light of peace enviroment facing the country for over two years.

In its article 15, the bill sets up mechanisms of fiscalization of production
quality and seed trade, providing a stimulus for the private investment.

The document also establishes mechanisms of guarantee for local seeds supply to
farmers, the incentive to facilitation to small and medium firm of exploration
of seeds and the control of elements noxious to its perservation.

The Parliamentarians are also to analyse the projects which approve the Stockolm
convention on persisting organic polluters, the convention which created the
African institute of Readaptation and other related to the cooperation between
the Governments of Angola and the United States of America for the handing over
of people to international courts.

The agenda also includes the analyse of a resquest to the Government to
legislate on the subsidies for the Angolan Armed Forced and Home Minister
special career.

Copyright Angola Press Agency. Distributed by All Africa Global
Media( http://AllAfrica.com )

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