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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012
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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:53:02 +0100
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Dear Colleagues,

You previously subscribed to the FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline" which took place from 5 November to 2 December 2012. It was the 18th e-mail conference to be hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum since its launch in 2000 (http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/).

Earlier today, I sent out an announcement to the members of the FAO Biotechnology Forum that the 19th e-mail conference will take place from 4 to 24 March 2013 and that its provisional title is "Current and future impacts of genomics for the crop, forestry, livestock, fishery and agro-industry sectors in developing countries". I again

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:50:08 +0100
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Dear Colleagues,

Here below is the Summary Document for the FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries" that took place from 5 November to 2 December 2012. Once again, we would like to give a very special thanks to all the people who posted messages during the conference.

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 5 Dec 2012 17:06:35 +0100
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Dear Participants,

We have now put all of the messages from this FAO e-mail conference on 'GMOs in the pipeline' into a single PDF and made it available on the web.

The file contains in chronological order
- the first 2 messages I sent before the conference began (one of which contained the Background Document),
- the 109 messages from participants posted during the 4-week conference
- the final message I posted on 3 December closing the conference, providing also a brief summary about participation.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:58:24 +0100
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Dear Colleagues,

The last messages (numbers 91 to 109) have now been posted so Conference 18 of the FAO Biotechnology Forum, entitled "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries", is now officially closed.

FAO established this Biotechnology Forum in order to provide quality balanced information on agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries and to make a neutral platform available for people to exchange views and experiences on this subject. We hope that you found this conference interesting, constructive and beneficial.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:55:21 +0100
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My name is Diane Wray-Cahen. I am a science advisor for animal biotechnologies at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I am an animal scientist and for my PhD research, I studied the metabolic effects of growth hormone (somatotropin) in pigs. I have been following this conference with interest as an observer.

This is in response to Tim Schwab's Message nr. 88. The focus of my comment is on the biology of growth hormone, rather than transgenic fish. Some of Tim Schwab's comments seem to imply that the effects of growth hormone are uncertain and there has been insufficient research to determine its effects. This is definitely

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:54:33 +0100
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This is from José Falck-Zepeda, again. This note is in response to the question of what are the likely impacts of the technologies in the pipeline.

As we have seen in some of the messages, there will likely be an increase in second and third generation GM technologies. These are GM traits focused on addressing nutritional and/or agronomic constraints such as salt and drought tolerance and other addressing climate change and climate risk mitigation. We may also see more of these traits in those crops of interest to developing countries. Although, there have been some literature debating the institutional constraints

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:54:06 +0100
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My name is Elisa Erazo, I am Research Associate in the Pinon (Jatropha curcas) Research Program, Juan Jose Castello Foundation, in Guayaquil - Ecuador.

I would ask José Falck Zepada (Message 49), if there is information such as that issued to Africa, but for Latin America. The information that he provides was complete and will give a broad perspective of the future in developing countries like Ecuador.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:53:15 +0100
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I am Maria Jose Amstalden Sampaio, from the Brazilian Agriculture Research Corporation (Embrapa), Brazil and as a member of Embrapa's International Relations Secretariat would like to submit a short summary with some information about GM-plants being developed by Embrapa as a contribution to the conference.

At Embrapa, in Brazil, in partnership with Japanese institutions, genetic engineering strategies for drought and heat tolerance are being tested in soybean, cotton, sugarcane, maize and common beans. These strategies involve mainly the over-expression of transcription factors with different promoters. Soybean experiments started earlier and some of the constructs that demonstrated promising results under controlled conditions (greenhouse and growth chambers) are being

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:52:53 +0100
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This is John Samuels (Message 84).

This is a supplementary point to follow on from Messages 60 and 84. The document entitled: "Cultivation of genetically modified food crops - Prospects and effects" (37th Report of the Committee on Agriculture [2011-2012], referred to by S.K.T. Nasar, Message 37) states that the contents of several reports containing information on environmental risk assessment studies on Bt brinjal are under examination as a post-Moratorium follow-up. Some of these reports (e.g. Andow, 2010) reflect on the content of some of the biosafety information found in documents located at http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/csurv/geac/bt_brinjal.html (website kindly pointed out by Dr.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:52:23 +0100
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I am Dr Fernand Lambein, faculty member of the Institute for Plant Biotechnology Outreach (IPBO) in Ghent University (Belgium). The general goal of IPBO is to promote plant biotechnology in developing countries and emerging economies.

As coordinator of the worldwide Cassava Cyanide Disease and Neurolathyrism Network (CCDNN), my specific goal is to prevent the irreversible crippling diseases Konzo (from overconsumption of insufficiently processed cassava, occurring mostly among the poor in Africa) and Neurolathyrism (from overconsumption of grass pea seeds, occurring among the poor in Ethiopia and the Indian Subcontinent) by biotechnological improvement and nutritional enhancement of both cassava (Manihot esculenta)

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:51:35 +0100
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This is Henry Clifford again, and I would like to respond to some of the questions and comments posted in Messages 89 and 90.

In Message 89, Professor Baba asked: "I am interested in the postings of Henry Clifford with respect to AquAdvantage Salmon and its production in cold freshwater. How can the production of this genetically modified salmon be exported and facilitated under controlled conditions in tropical environments? Are there GM freshwater fish in the pipeline?"
 
AquAdvantage Salmon was intended to be grown entirely in fresh water, from egg to harvest. (Most species of salmon will grow and

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:50:54 +0100
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Wayne Parrott here, still catching up on the messages. I want to thank John Samuels (Message 84) for the opportunity to to bring up a couple more points.

1) To repeat my earlier message (nr. 95): the ability to cross is necessary, but not enough by itself, for gene flow to take place. Thus crossability by itself is not enough to make an environmental risk analysis (ERA) determination. We need to assess the type of damage that is likely (as opposed to possibly) to happen if the gene introgressed into another population. Such effects have to be both biologically possible

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:50:23 +0100
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This is Wayne Parrott again.

Tim Schwab brought up the prospect of conventionally bred fish that grow as fast as transgenics in message 80. This brings up an interesting question, regardless of whether such fish exist. The claim is that GM salmon could have adverse impacts on other populations due to their fast growth; yet it is implied that fast-growing but non-GM salmon can be used safely. Why the difference? If both share the same phenotype, then either neither is safe, or both are safe. Hazards come from phenotype, not the way the phenotype was obtained.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:49:33 +0100
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This is Wayne Parrott again, responding to Message 78 by Aruna Rodrigues.

There is lots of food for thought in this message ! The need for refugia and resistance management is critical, and so is expression level, as asserted. There are, however, some other issues that need further elaboration:

1) Potential negative effects. A lot of things can potentially happen. But, possible and probable are very different things. More properly, during an environmental risk analysis (ERA) we identify the hazards (the things that potentially happen) and then try to estimate whether they are probable or not (risk). So, it is

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:48:59 +0100
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This is Aruna Rodrigues again and I am rushing to meet the deadline before this consultation closes in order to reply to Dr Manjunath (ref. his post 87 with regard to the health safety testing of Bt brinjal Event EE-1.).

I reply to 3 points in his post. First the historical claim for safety (50 years?) and that Bt has "has an impeccable global safety record". He then proceeds to draw conclusions from natural Bt sprays and the engineered Bt toxin as though they are no different; second, evidence that "responsible scientists" have examined Bt toxins and Bt brinjal and

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:48:24 +0100
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This is Tim Schwab again, from Food & Water Watch. I want to comment on Carlos Scotto's Message (nr. 90), specifically about sterility (posting 90).
 
AquaBounty, the company producing GE salmon, openly acknowledges in its regulatory applications that its triploidy sterilization process does not achieve 100 percent sterility. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is regulating GE salmon in the U.S. notes GE salmon's average sterilization of something like 99.7% but concluded that: "We have confidence that the method will provide triploid rates greater than 98% for most inductions." 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:47:44 +0100
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Here is Wayne Parrott again. I forwarded Message 76 by Mairson Santana on crops in Brazil to a colleague on CTNBio, and here is his response to the many points Mr. Santana is bringing up:

Santana is bringing to the discussion some interesting points, but it is important to discuss each one of them separately, in order to achieve the necessary understanding.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:47:18 +0100
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This is Wayne Parrott again. For the past few years, we have been looking at some of the issues that Aruna Rodrigues brought up in message 65, as they deserve answers. The latest result should be in the December issue of Plant Physiology, and it addresses the issues of changes in proteins or DNA alterations. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:46:52 +0100
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Hi, I am Wayne Parrott. I have degrees in Agronomy followed by Plant Breeding and Genetics. I have 25 years of working on transgenics at the University of Georgia. The past few years I have been spending ever greater food/feed safety assessment and environmental risk analysis (ERA), most recently having finished an ERA guide tailored for Latin America. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:46:15 +0100
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This is Bhagirath Choudhary again.

As expected, there has not been much contribution except Bt brinjal/GM salmon to the questions set forth for the FAO e-mail conference. Therefore, it becomes necessary for FAO to take a more pragmatic approach and must directly consult its partners in developing countries on the questions posed on biotechnology that undoubtedly remains the key tool for breeding improved crops.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:44:55 +0100
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This is from Dominique Planchenault. I am currently working for the French Ministry of Agriculture and we made last year a study on new plant varieties that could be in the pipeline, considering a perspective of 20 years. This report could be useful for participants.

The 60-page report, published this year by the Conseil général de l'alimentation, de l'agriculture et des espaces ruraux (CGAAER) of the Ministry, is in French and entitled "Les biotechnologies et les nouvelles varieties végétales". It is available at http://agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/CGAAER_10157_2012_Rapport_cle015844.pdf (460 KB) or contact me directly (e-mail address below) to request an electronic copy.

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:44:16 +0100
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This is Jonathan Shoham for the third time.

As this excellent conference closes, one aspect which has perhaps not been covered in detail is the economic and environmental implications of the new traits - the original questions in the FAO Background Document were the following:

"4.2 What are the likely implications of these new GMOs for developing countries?

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 3 Dec 2012 18:42:59 +0100
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This is E.M. Muralidharan from India, again.

There has not been much mention in the conference about GM trees. Not very surprising if you consider that interest in a long-term crop is fraught with difficulties of field testing, besides the fact that most tree crops are relatively recent in domestication and are rather recalcitrant to molecular and in vitro culture procedures. In the field too, trees are different in the way they interact with the ecosystem. Long-term crops are therefore not very attractive for GM. The fast growing eucalypts, poplars and pines are exceptions. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 2 Dec 2012 07:54:13 +0100
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This is Carlos Scotto again. I would like to address some of the statements made in Messages 41, 43, 69, 74, 80 and 85 regarding the genetically modified salmon.

The biotechnology has therefore developed GM fish for nearly 30 years, but so far we have not seen any GM fish commercialized in market. Why not yet? And if not sold in the countries that were developed. Why would that be in developing countries in the future? It has been mentioned that the GM salmon is:
A. Are all sterile (triploid) and female, the gonadal atrophication triploidy causes in females with

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 2 Dec 2012 07:30:29 +0100
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I am Saka Saheed Baba, a Professor of Virology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and a former Director/Coordinator of Chevron Biotechnology Centre, Federal University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria.

I am interested in the postings of Henry Clifford with respect to AquAdvantage Salmon and its production in cold freshwater. How can the production of of this genetically modified salmon be exported and facilitated under controlled conditions in tropical environments? Are there GM freshwater fish in the pipeline?

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 2 Dec 2012 07:30:11 +0100
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This is Tim Schwab again, from Food & Water Watch, responding to some of Henry Clifford's concerns (message 85) regarding the benefit claims of GE salmon, namely its purported fast growth rate.

Henry Clifford acknowledges that commercial (non-GE) salmon growers have impressive growth rates. Are they faster than GE salmon? He says we don't know and we can't know because we can't do the studies because of zoosanitary rules. From both a scientific and risk-assessment point of view, this is unacceptable: if we are going to take the unprecedented regulatory action of approving the first-ever food animal in the world,

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 2 Dec 2012 07:11:17 +0100
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[Thanks to T.M. Manjunath for the message below. Also on the subject of Bt brinjal, Aruna Rodrigues writes to me and says "I wish to issue a corrigendum with regard to my reference to Dr Keshav Kranthi (ref my post 65). Dr. Kranthi’s position is as follows: While Dr Kranthi has referred to the available Cry 1 Ac toxin events of cotton not being high dose events for the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera, he has made no statement whatsoever on Bt brinjal Event EE-1. The confusion and error is greatly regretted"...Moderator] 

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 2 Dec 2012 06:53:14 +0100
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This is Behzad Ghareyazie again.

I wish to respond to the question raised by Dr. Didier Breyer in Message 2. "My question relates to the selection strategies that will be (or have been) used to develop new GMOs that are likely to be commercialized in developing countries within the next five years”. And “I would be interested to know whether the presence of ARMGs in GM plants to be commercialized in developing countries has been considered an issue and whether alternative strategies have been envisaged and/or implemented".

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Biotech-Mod2
Sat, 1 Dec 2012 06:35:48 +0100
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This is Henry Clifford again. I would like to respond to the more egregious claims made by Tim Schwab in Message 80 regarding AquAdvantage salmon.

First of all, the growth performance data of AquAdvantage Salmon that has been widely publicized compares genetically modified triploid Atlantic salmon to diploid and triploid commercial lines (from Atlantic Canada) of domesticated non-transgenic Atlantic salmon, not "wild type" Atlantic salmon, as Tim Schwab disingenuously insinuated.

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:18:40 +0100
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This is John Samuels (Message 60) again. The first part below relates to Messages 67 and 78 from A. Kumar and Aruna Rodrigues, respectively. The second section expands further upon A. Kumar's comments.

1. Cross-fertilisation between brinjal and its wild relatives cannot be ruled out.

I would like to strongly agree with the first part of Message 67 which says that: "...cross-fertilization between cultivated brinjal and its wild relatives cannot be ruled out." In fact, this phenomenon was proven to be a reality by some of the biosafety risk assessments performed on Bt brinjal in India. Of these, the following

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:52:30 +0100
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I am Dr. Mike May, Vice President of Public Affairs at FuturaGene (www.futuragene.com), a company with laboratories and field operations in Brazil, China and Israel that undertakes plant genetic research and development for the global forestry, biopower and biofuel markets. Our research and development is focused on three main technology platforms: yield enhancement, biomass processability enhancement and yield protection. FuturaGene's key crops are eucalyptus in subtropical regions and poplar in more temperate zones and its most advanced technologies are for yield improvement in sustainable industrial forestry. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:52:41 +0100
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This is Paulo Ramos from Brazil again. As mentioned in my previous Message (nr. 31), I am a member of the National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio) and cordinator of the Work group on transgenic and agrotoxic at the Brazilian Agroecology Association.

GMOs at pipeline now in Brazil are related to herbicide tolerant and insect resistant Bt traits. As a result of the increasing herbicide resistance most of the new traits tend to be stacked being them in soybean, maize, or cotton. This new trend combine tolerance to one or more herbicides together. Resistance to glyphosate (GLYP) and gluphosinate (GLUF) and to 2,4D or

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:44:43 +0100
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This is Tom Nickson again from Monsanto providing some thoughts based on Dominic Glover's Message 71.

I think there is every reason to be optimistic as long as we can address the challenges, which again, are not scientific. Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA, links provided below) is a very good example of a public-private partnership aimed at developing products that are suitable for growing conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Through conventional and molecular breeding programs and the combination of germplasm from the public and private sectors, we anticipate that WEMA will create new more drought tolerant hybrids, developed for SSA countries. Transgenic

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:29:20 +0100
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I am Tim Schwab, a researcher at the non-profit consumer organization Food & Water Watch in Washington DC.

I have been following the genetically engineered (GE) salmon issue closely and noticed the comments on this issue, and I wanted to make a contribution regarding the purportedly fast growth rates of the fish, which relates to environmental impacts, food security implications and potential economic growth that this pipeline product can offer. This subject may also add valuable context for framing questions around the risks the fish poses, including the less-than-100 percent sterility rate.

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:38:53 +0100
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My name is Behzad Ghareyazie. I am a senior scientist at the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), a public research institute, and currently serving as the President of the Biosafety Society of Iran (a non-governmental academic society). I have been working on the development and release of transgenic rice during the last 20 years. I am attending in this conference on my capacity as the President of Biosafety Society of Iran and am not representing the government of Iran. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:03:59 +0100
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Dear Participants,

This is just to remind you all that we are in the very last days of this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries". The conference has addressed two main topics: What new GMOs are likely to be commercialized in developing countries within the next five years (i.e. before the end of 2017) in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors and, second, what are the likely implications of these new GMOs for developing countries?

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:45:08 +0100
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This is Aruna Rodrigues again in my third message on this subject, bringing various aspects of the independent assessment of the Mahyco-Monsanto dossier to the notice of this FAO email conference. These assessments which contributed to the moratorium on Bt brinjal will affect every GMO in the pipeline unless fully addressed in a transparent way to the satisfaction of civil society and the independent scientific community. I acknowledge the important contribution of Dr John Samuels (Message 60). Thank you indeed for your abundant clarification on the factual position regarding India's diversity in brinjal and its certain contamination if Bt brinjal 

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:44:33 +0100
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This is Adrian Dubock again.

In message 58 concerning the Bt Brinjal debate occurs the following sentence: "it is best to adopt the precautionary principle as stated in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which is the international standard to regulate GMOs."

I disagree. In his essay "The Real GM Food Scandal" Lord Dick Taverne wrote (Prospect Magazine, November 2007, p 24-27): "The [precautionary] principle has long been a major impediment to good sense in public policy. It is either so obvious as to be otiose ("if there is cause for concern, be careful"), or so vague as to be meaningless. But in its

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:38:57 +0100
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This is from Mairson Santana. I'm a commercial manager in a seed company called Girassol Sementes that multiplies varieties of soybeans from Monsanto and TMG (Tropical Melhoramento Genético), a local company in Brazil that breeds soybeans for Cerrado. With the discussion that I had read in this conference, I have a lot to learn about and a little to contribute for the level of this conference. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:12:14 +0100
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This is Jonathan Shoham again.

In answer to Dominic Glover's request for more information on GM traits being developed by the private sector for subsistence crops (Message 71) it is not 'black and white'. [Dominic asked whether there were "examples from the commercial sector involving the development of subsistence crops with transgenic traits that make them suitable for poor soils, low-input conditions, with a low risk profile, that can be made available at low cost and that are likely to be commercialised in the next 5 years"...Moderator].

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:42:04 +0100
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This is Henry Clifford again. I would like to address some of the statements made by Joe Cummins in Message 69 regarding the genetically modified (AquAdvantage) salmon.

A. "There has not been reported monitoring of the [Prince Edward Island] PEI facility to ensure that the fertilized eggs were safely contained and have not resulted in feral populations of the transgenic salmon."

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:22:27 +0100
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I am Md. Shahjahan, a newly PhD fellow at the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China in the field of animal genetics, breeding and reproduction. I did my B.Sc (2008) and M.Sc (2010) from Bangladesh Agricultural University.
 
From my little knowledge, no satisfactory GMO research is yet developed in Bangladesh for livestock and aquaculture. But the research of GM crops is ongoing for rice, potato, brinjal and papaya. However, Bangladesh will be the most affected country for climate change where drought and salinity resistance are likely to be more important issues for further development of GM

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 29 Nov 2012 09:16:34 +0100
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My name is Patricia Gadaleta. I am a biologist working as Senior Scientific Officer for the Biotechnology Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries from Argentina. I am involved mainly in the scientific evaluation of biosafety dossiers of genetically modified plants, animals and microorganisms. Other members of the Biotechnology Directorate are also participating in this conference. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:40:24 +0100
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This is the third message from Dominic Glover of Wageningen University.

I'd like to thank participants who have provided information about transgenic crops in the pipeline in various developing countries (e.g. messages 21, 34, 38, 49, 62, 63, 68). I don't know if any of these messages were responses to my appeal for more discussion of transgenic subsistence crop technologies relevant to the needs of poor and marginal farmers (message 22), but I note that (only) a few of the examples mentioned fit the kinds of criteria I mentioned in my message.

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:53:37 +0100
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This is the second message from Dominic Glover of Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

The moratorium on Bt brinjal in India has stimulated a lot of discussion in this conference, but I would also like to learn more about the reasons behind the continued non-commercialisation of Bt rice in China.

I have not followed this topic very closely and I am not an expert on China's biotechnology politics, so I would be interested to hear from others taking part in this conference who may have more insights to share.

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 28 Nov 2012 09:28:06 +0100
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[Thanks to Joe Cummins for the message below. A reminder that we are now in the last week of this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries" and that the last day for receiving messages is Sunday 2 December 2012. The final messages will be posted on Monday 3 December and the conference is then closed. I also remind you that all of the messages posted in the conference are available at the searchable website https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=Biotech-Room2-L. To see the messages from 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:29:04 +0100
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I am T. M. Manjunath, a Ph.D. in agricultural entomology with over four decades of research and executive experience, both in public and private sectors. My areas of interest include biological pest control, insect resistant transgenic crops and integrated pest management. I was a key member of the Monsanto-Mahyco team that was responsible for introducing the Bt-cotton technology into India, right from the early stage till its regulatory approval in March 2002 and thereafter. I am presently an independent technical consultant and also serving in several expert committees of Govt of India and others.
I have prepared the following note

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:28:15 +0100
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I am P. Ananda Kumar again.

As a continuation of my message (46) and in light of the comments made by Dr Samuels (60), I would like to reiterate that cross-fertilization between cultivated brinjal and its wild relatives cannot be ruled out. The chances of such events happening naturally are extremely negligible and the chances of propagation of fertile progeny are further remote. Plant breeders have spent decades to transfer desirable traits (including pest resistance) from wild relatives of crops to cultivated species (including brinjal) by various approaches such as inter-specific hybridization, inter-generic hybridization, protoplast fusions etc and the successful

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:27:20 +0100
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This is Denis Murphy, Professor of Biotechnology at University of Glamorgan, UK. I recently worked with FAO on the report entitled 'Current Status and Options for Crop Biotechnologies in Developing Countries', in Biotechnologies for Agricultural Development (http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2300e/i2300e00.htm). This formed part of the background material for the FAO international technical conference dedicated to Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10) that took place in Guadalajara, Mexico on 1-4 March 2010. I am currently working on the role of crop improvement in addressing global food security and have just returned from several high level meetings addressing this topic in China and Abu Dhabi. 


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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:26:30 +0100
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This is Aruna Rodrigues again. As a new-comer to this conference and with just days to go for the deadline to post replies on this subject, I am responding collectively to all those who have posted their responses on Bt brinjal – I will be posting a couple more on different aspects of the independent scientific appraisal of the Mahyco-Monsanto bio-safety dossier. The importance of the appraisal of Bt brinjal is that with the government-imposed moratorium on it, the regulators were morally bound in the public interest, to stop open release of GMOs in field trials until they had satisfactorily addressed safety issues and 

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Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:20:22 +0100
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This is from Aruna Rodrigues. I am the lead Petitioner in the Supreme Court of India for a moratorium on GM crops in the absence of proper regulation and rigour in the oversight of GM crops, (on-going since 2005). I am submitting the following facts based on affidavits to the Supreme Court. There have been several comments on the case of Bt brinjal in India (message nos: 14, 16, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59). This is a reply 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:25:32 +0100
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I am Dr Yusuf Zafar, Director General Agriculture & Biotechnology of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), Islamabad, Pakistan. I served 32 years in agri-biotech sector of the country and presently have an official assignment in Vienna, Austria. I was part of the team which developed and released Biotech cotton (Bt cotton) in the country which now cover nearly 3.0 million hectare and readily accepted by farmers. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 10:22:22 +0100
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This is from Anup Karwa. I am a bio-entrepreneur and one of the founders of Krishidhan Seeds Group India, a three decade old plant breeding and agribiotech group of companies. I am also founder of KRFPL (Krishidhan Research Foundation Private Limited) which focuses on basic and applied plant biotechnology research. KRFPL was established with an aim to develop indigenous technologies and undertake technology business incubation. KRFPL is engaged in engineering durable insect & herbicide resistance and abiotic stress tolerance in key crops. Our vision is to incubate indigenous technologies and transform research leads into commercial products. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Sun, 25 Nov 2012 07:14:53 +0100
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Jim Murray here again to respond to Patrick Monk (Message 32).

All of the species I mentioned are transgenic, although I am not sure that matters given that the regulatory paradigm used in the US considers a genetic construct containing only sequences from the intended target (i.e. all cow sequences in a gene construct for use in a cow) as a transgene. I am not sure what you mean by the term intra-genic though and how that relates to breeding using an inter-generic cross, say American bison crossed with European cattle to create beefalo (meat from which is available today),

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Biotech-Mod2
Sat, 24 Nov 2012 06:39:04 +0100
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This is John Samuels joining the conference. Appologies for being a late arrival! I am a plant taxonomist, based in the United Kingdom, working independently on the Solanaceae family. I have a PhD in Plant Taxonomy (Solanaceae-brinjal wild relatives) and have worked in this field since the 1980s. I would like to contribute to the Bt brinjal discussion, focusing here on the potential for transgene transfer between Bt brinjal and other solanaceous species. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:28:38 +0100
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Neha Saigal again with my response to Dr Rao (Message 51)

One of the first issue, I would like to emphasise, based on Dr. John Samuels' report [referenced in Neha's message nr. 29...Moderator], is that the probability of crop-to-wild gene flow depends on the geographic distribution of crops and their wild relatives (Jenczewski et al, 2003). In this context there is a caution being raised on Bt Brinjal in India as it is at least a centre of diversity, if not a centre of origin for brinjal. Brinjal eggplant is 'an often cross-pollinated crop' (Singh, 2009) with up to 70% cross-fertilization

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Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:27:55 +0100
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I am Devi and I have worked on sustainable agriculture and safe food issues in the US, Europe and India and am currently associated with Thanal (Kerala), an advocacy and research group, and Urban Leaves (Mumbai), a volunteer group, in India.

I was (like someone said before in this conference) planning to be a silent participant, just to understand different viewpoints, however feel compelled to speak up due to the bias I feel in the discussion. The fact of the matter is that peer reviewed papers can parse the truth any which you frame the research question and they do

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:26:23 +0100
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My name is Jonathan Shoham. Until about 18 months ago I worked for Syngenta, where I founded and headed the Business Intelligence function. In this capacity I monitored all external trends likely to have an impact on the business, including biotechnology. I am currently working as an independent consultant based in Haslemere, Surrey, UK. In this capacity I am managing a database of public-private partnership (PPPs) which I set up for the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and also act as agricultural adviser for the business intelligence company Prognoz. My comments all relate to crops. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:25:08 +0100
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I am Sylvia Uzochukwu from the Department of Food Science and Technology of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. I am a Biosafety Specialist in the area of GMOs.

I salute the great Scientists that have contributed to this conference so far. With reference to Message 53, I am also waiting eagerly to be educated by Neha Saigal's response to message 53.
 
Prof. Sylvia Uzochukwu
Professor of Food Microbiology and Biotechnology
Biosafety Specialist
Department of Food Science and Technology
University of Agriculture
Abeokuta, Nigeria
Phone:  +234 803 3531178  
e-mail: suzochi (at) yahoo.com

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:50:35 +0100
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Dear Participants,

Firstly, a big thanks to all of you who have sat down and submitted messages to this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries".

The conference began on Monday 5 November and lasts 4 weeks, so we are now more than halfway through the e-mail conference. The last day for receiving messages is Sunday 2 December 2012. These final messages will be posted on Monday 3 December and the conference is then closed.

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:58:24 +0100
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This is Philipp Aerni again, responding to Adrian Dubock (Message 54).

Thanks for the interest. Schumpeter himself discussed the role of technological change in his seminal book 'Socialism, Capitalism and Democracy' (http://books.google.it/books/about/Capitalism_Socialism_and_Democracy.html?id=6eM6YrMj46sC&redir_esc=y). There are also my own publications where I link his argument to the current debate on sustainable development:

Aerni, P. Agricultural biotechnology and its contribution to the knowledge economy. Adv. Biochem. Engin./Biotechnol. 107: 69-96 (2007)

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:34:47 +0100
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Hello, Adrian Dubock again.

I am very encouraged by the exchange of views in the conference about the Bt Brinjal case. I understand that such clarity of exchange from the scientists was not practical in the noisy atmosphere of the 'public consultation' meetings organized by the Minister of Environment in India.

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:18:20 +0100
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This is Prof. Balasubramanian again in response to Message 44 posted by Ms. Neha Saigal and Message 51 posted by Prof. K. Rao.

While thanking Dr Rao for having answered Ms. Neha's query on my behalf, I have a question to Ms Neha again. Can Ms. Neha get me a peer-reviewed evidence for the claim made by her (that Bt Brinjal will destroy the medicinal properties of brinjal due to loss of synergy, differences in the alkaloids and changes in other active principles) on behalf of the doctors of Indian systems of medicine including ayurveda, siddha, homeopathy and unani? She

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Thu, 22 Nov 2012 09:11:33 +0100
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My name is Philipp Aerni. I currently work at FAO on a project on payments for environmental services in agriculture. I wish to respond to Message 43.

In 2004, I published a paper on the regulation of transgenic salmon in 2004 ('Risk, regulation and innovation: the case of aquaculture and transgenic fish' in the Journal 'Aquatic Sciences'). In this paper, I argue that the development of transgenic salmon needs to be understood in the historical context. It represents one of the business responses to the challenge of dealing with risk (overfishing), regulation (discouraging unsustainable fish harvesting practices) and innovation (moving

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:51:51 +0100
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This is from C Kameswara Rao again, responding to Message 44 from Neha Saigal with a request for references on sexual incompatibility among varieties of brinjal. Besides published literature, my familiarity with pollination and reproductive behavior of species of Solanum comes from three of my co-researchers who worked on inter-specific hybridization in the genus at the Andhra University a long time ago. 

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Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:51:18 +0100
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I am E.M. Muralidharan from India. I work for a publically funded forestry research organization and am involved in different aspects of research in  biotechnology of forestry species. 

I thought it would be relevant to the ongoing discussion on GM crops in India, particularly on Bt Brinjal, to point out that a mass petition was recently submitted to the Supreme Court of India, signed by at least 100 scientists, urging that the recommendations of the court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) be implemented. The TEC had earlier advocated a moratorium or ban on open field trials of different categories of GM crops until certain

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:02:57 +0100
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[Thanks to Jose Falck-Zepeda for the very informative message below about GM crops in the pipeline in Africa. As you will have noticed, I normally send the e-mail messages out to the conference in the simplest format possible, plain text. In this particular case, to avoid all the information getting messed around, I will post it in HTML format...Moderator]. 

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:08:27 +0100
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My name is Camilla Beech and I am the regulatory manager for an SME company called Oxitec Ltd, based in the UK.   

I would like to make the conference aware of some very different applications of genetically engineered (GE) animals, namely those of GE insects for the control of pest insects in both agriculture and human health. These were not listed in the conference background document but are very much tools that will be available within the 5 year timeframe under discussion. [Insects that are genetically modified for agricultural purposes were not specifically mentioned in the Background Document, but are

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:20:49 +0100
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This is P. Ananda Kumar again. I pioneered the development and field testing of Bt brinjal in 1996.

Bt brinjal is absolutely essential to protect the health of human beings, other mammals, non-target organisms, soil, water, biodiversity and environment in general. Bt genes may escape from GM brinjal to normal brinjal in a natural way but it will not adversely affect the brinjal. The chances of gene transfer by natural inter-specific crossing are extremely negligible and are not a matter of great concern. "Contamination" refers to something that is harmful. Since Bt gene and its protein products are innocuous the

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:20:16 +0100
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This is from Professor C Kameswara Rao, Executive Secretary, Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE), Bangalore, India.
 
The questions raised against Bt brinjal have all been answered repeatedly. I draw the attention of the Moderator and the participants to the following articles. If anyone wants, I can send pdf files of all of them.

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:19:44 +0100
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This is Neha Saigal again!

This is in response to Prof. Balasubramaniam (Message 33) and I would like to emphasise here that the opinion that Bt Brinjal will destroy the medicinal properties of brinjal due to loss of synergy, differences in the alkaloids and changes in other active principles is not mine alone but that of doctors of the Indian Systems of Medicine including ayurveda, siddha, homeopathy and unani. Please refer to page 13 of http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/minister_REPORT.pdf (800 KB).

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:19:03 +0100
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I am Henry Clifford, senior executive with AquaBounty Technologies, the US company which has developed the GM salmon, commonly known as AquAdvantage Salmon (AAS), referred to earlier by Dr. Murray (Message 12). I am a 30+ year veteran of the global aquaculture industry, with 20+ years working with genetic improvement programs in aquaculture.  

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:18:37 +0100
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This is from Bhagirath Choudhary. I am an agricultural researcher working as a national coordinator of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)- a not for profit organization with biotech information nodes (BICs) in around 25 developing countries including the one in India. Ever since the Bt brinjal project was declared safe and recommended for commercial release by India's Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in October 2009, there has been a much hue and cry about every aspect of this indigenous project undertaken in the true spirit of the public private partnership in India, Bangladesh and the 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:17:52 +0100
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[Thanks to Professor Li Kangmin for the message below. Note, in Message 38, "200 years" should be '20 years". Also, I remind you that all of the messages posted are available on the searchable website
https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=Biotech-Room2-L (note, you do not need to log in to read them). To see the messages sorted by date (latest on top), see
https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1211&L=Biotech-Room2-L&O=D&H=0&D=1&T=1 ...Moderator].

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:17:08 +0100
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I am Mertxe de Renobales again.

I thank all contributors for the information provided in this conference regarding Bt Brinjal in India. After reading it carefully, it is my conclusion that the commercialization of this interesting crop was not realized because of non-scientific reasons. I understand that these reasons are beyond the scope of Section 4 of the Background document, so I will not mention them again.

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Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:45:03 +0100
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I am Pushpendra Gupta again (message 3) and I agree with Prof. Balasubramanian (Message 33). I don't think there is any science involved in the argument that Bt Brinjal will contaminate and will thus affect biodiversity. In genetic terms, contamination does not mean anything. Related species do keep crossing in nature, and genes are introgressed, But in the case of Bt-brinjal, even this possibility is ruled out. We know, that pollen flow does occur, but the consequences of this pollen flow is not at all alarming, since the progeny may not survive, and even if it survives, the progeny will not 

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Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:47:24 +0100
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I am Abdulmojeed Yakubu, a senior lecturer of animal breeding and genetics at Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Shabu-Lafia Campus, Lafia, Nigeria.

Please I will like someone to share the experience of the latest GMOs in livestock in China.
 
Abdulmojeed Yakubu,
Senior Lecturer (Animal Breeding and Genetics),
Department of Animal Science,
Faculty of Agriculture,
Nasarawa State University,
Keffi, Shabu-Lafia Campus,
Lafia, 950101,
Nigeria.
e-mail: abdul_mojeedy (at) yahoo.com
 
[Yes, insights from participants regarding GM livestock in the pipeline in China are warmly welcome. In the conference Background Document, we wrote "In livestock, Vàzquez-Salat and Houdebine (2012) reported that a small

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Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:46:28 +0100
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This is from Farhad Mirzaei. I completed a Ph.D. from the Dept. of Livestock production & Management, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, India (http://www.ndri.res.in) and am working at the national animal science research institute of Iran. I have 200 years experience as senior researcher. Currently, I have some projects on production management with reference to greenhouse plans.
 
The world's leading producers of GM crops are the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and China. In 2005, Iran and the Czech Republic were added to the list of countries commercially growing transgenic crops. There are some research work on rice

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Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:45:58 +0100
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This is SKT Nasar from Kolkata, India joining in late on second thoughts. As a first reaction, I found the mandates in the conference Background Document, reiterated by the Moderator on 8 November 2012, somewhat restrictive. My resolve to skip this conference melted when I found messages relating to Bt brinjal in the Indian context virtually clogging the conference. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:44:35 +0100
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I am Rachel Predeepa, and am currently working as Assistant Manager, Garphi Biosciences Private Limited, India. To be frank I am no way closely working with GMO products, but do have an earnest opinion on the status of GMOs in India as this is of common interest, which I would like to share. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:44:01 +0100
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This is from Dr Suman Sahai, geneticist and currently chair of the Indian research and advocacy organisation Gene Campaign (www.genecampaign.org).

Apart from all the discussions on the problems with biosafety testing of Bt brinjal, there are other regulatory problems associated with its release.

Bt brinjal was being promoted in India but there is no system in place for food labelling. A law and a system for the labelling of GE food must precede the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) foods. India's position in the Codex Alimentarius is in support of mandatory labelling. Labeling of GE food has to be informative

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:43:28 +0100
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This is Dr P. Ananda Kumar. I am a Principal Scientist working at National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India. I pioneered the development and and field testing of Bt brinjal in 1996. I have constructed and patented codon-modified Bt genes which are deployed in Pod bore resistant chickpea and pigeonpea. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:42:38 +0100
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This is Prof. Balasubramanian again and my message is in response to Ms. Neha (Message 29).

In my opinion, Ms. Neha is trying in vain to project Bt brinjal as a scientific pariah (untouchable). Speaking in ayurvedic terminologies, the very popular name of brinjal in Hindi (baingan= bina gun) implies that it is not anything good. It is widely accepted that wild relatives of brinjal (the so called ayurvedic brinjals) inherently are sexually incompatible with cultivated brinjal varieties. Hence, there is no question of transgene flow from Bt brinjal and subsequent weediness and invasiveness culminating a reduction in biodiversity. I

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:41:29 +0100
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My name is Patrick Monk, registered nurse (RN). Hospice nurse. A co-founder of Noe Valley Farmers Market, San Francisco, United States. 40 years ago cultivated 4 acre organic garden on Orcas Island, SanJuan Islands, Wa, USA. Lifelong interest in organic foods. Organiser for California's Proposition 37 requiring labeling of GM foods sold to public. I'm not a scientist, I'm a layperson here to learn, my questions will be simple please remember that in any responses. Thank you. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:59:18 +0100
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I am arriving at this conference and would like to present my gratitude for all organizers and participants for being here exchanging knowledge and friendship. My name is Paulo Cezar Mendes Ramos. I am Environment analyst at the Federal Biodiversity Conservation Chico Mendes Institute in Brazil; Cordinator of the Working Group about Transgenic and Agrotoxic of the Brazilian Agroecology Association (ABA) and a Member of the National Biosafety Technical Comission (CTNBio). I have Master in Ecology, master in Agroecology and PhD in Ecology. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:41:54 +0100
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This is from Prof. P. Balasubramanian. I am an agricultural scientist working on GM crops meant for resource-poor farmers of India.

This is in response to Neha Saigal (Message 23). Neha states that "David Andow, scientist from the United States, has done a detailed product (sic) on how Bt Brinjal was a bad product." Here are my arguments against those of Dr. Andow's (which are in quotation markers). [The reference/link to this document by David Andow was provided in Message 23...Moderator].

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:11:59 +0100
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This is Neha Saigal again, in response to Godelieve Gheysen (Message 28):

As I mentioned earlier (Message 27), India is the centre of origin and the centre of diversity for Brinjal and we have many wild and cultivated varieties. The vast wealth of plant genetic resource of brinjal have very important medicinal use in ayurveda (a traditional system of medicine in India). One of the major concerns when Bt Brinjal came up for commercialisation was the transgene flow from Bt Brinjal to wild and cultivated varieties thus contaminating the genome. The pest resistance transgene that is carried by Bt Brinjal

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Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:44:23 +0100
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My name is Godelieve Gheysen and I am Professor of Molecular Genetics at Ghent University, Belgium. I am a biologist with a PhD in Plant Biotechnology.

I have a question to Neha Saigal (Message 27). Can you explain to me what exactly you mean with your statement on diversity?: "There is a high risk of contamination from Bt Brinjal to the other varieties thus putting at risk the diversity,..". How can a gene that gives insect resistance to a plant by "contamination" decrease the diversity of the crop? Do you mean farmers will prefer the GM cultivars because they are

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:21:15 +0100
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This is Neha Saigal again. This is in response to Tom Nickson's response (Message 25).

I think you are right about the case of Bt Brinjal being put on an indefinite moratorium in India being very important. And I think this is for 2 reasons 1) Whether developing countries have the capacity to regulate GM crops 2) Whether there is a need for GM crops in developing countries in relation to food security.

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Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:10:43 +0100
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Tassawar Malik here. I am a cotton geneticist and have been engaged in official testing and release of Bt cotton in Pakistan since 2008. Also developed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for testing and release of GM crops in Pakistan. Now working as Consultant in the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)'s Pak-US Cotton Productivity Enhancement Programme (2010-15) at Islamabad, Pakistan.
 
I will like to discuss Bt brinjal case. Can anybody from India guide what's the position of the government /regulating authorities in putting moratorium on Bt brinjal. Were they not satisfied with the biosafety results

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:44:49 +0100
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[Thanks to Tom Nickson for the message below. Note, in Message 21 by Pascal Tillie, one of the references provided was Abhary et al. (2011), about GM cassava with increased protein content. A participant has kindly pointed out that this paper was recently retracted by the authors (http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/gm-crops/news/gm-cassava-study-retracted-over-missing-data.html). Pascal indicates that it is not clear whether the work on this particular kind of GM cassava is still ongoing or has been terminated...Moderater]. 

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Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:10:33 +0100
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This is Tom Nickson. I work for Monsanto Company based in St. Louis, Missouri. I have worked in this company for over 30 years and have over 20 years of experience in regulatory for biotech crops. My principle expertise are in environmental risk assessment and policy having worked on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Convention on Biological Diversity and most recently the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and agriculture.  

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:48:15 +0100
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I am Neha Saigal from Greenpeace India working in the capacity of a sustainable agriculture campaigner.

This is in response to Pushpendra Gupta (Message 19). The moratorium on Bt Brinjal was a decision taken on science and public opinion, it is one of the best examples of democratising science and technology. There is a detailed report done by the Ministry of Environment and Forests at the time which gives scientific evidence as to why that particular product was not safe for human/animal consumption. David Andow, scientist from the United States, has done a detailed product on how Bt Brinjal was

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Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:46:53 +0100
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I am Dominic Glover, a researcher on technological change in smallholder agriculture, based at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. I'm one of the few people in the world who have read almost all of the peer-reviewed literature on the performance and impacts of Bt cotton in the 'global South' and I am sceptical about the uncritically laudatory ways in which that technology has been celebrated as a 'pro-poor' success. Bt cotton technology 'works' in a technical sense, but it is not without problems and it is not a miracle cure for poverty (Glover, 2010). 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:45:07 +0100
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[Thanks to Pascal Tillie for the very interesting and relevant message below. I remind participants that all messages from the conference are available on the web, at https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1211&L=Biotech-Room2-L&O=D&H=0&D=1&T=1 . Also, all messages are numbered chronologically. If during the conference you notice that you are missing any messages and wish to receive them, just contact me at [log in to unmask] ...Moderator]. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 11:26:30 +0100
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My name is Carlos Scotto from Lima, Peru. I am a Professor at the Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal (UNFV) and Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. I am an Animal Genetic with a Masters Degree in Animal Production and a PhD in Science Biology. I also am an expert in my country in the field of biosafety hydrobiological, and CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) with objective of implementing the biosafety with transgenic fish. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:31:52 +0100
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I am Pushpendra Gupta again (message 3).

Responding to Mertxe de Renobales (Message 16): Bt-brinjal in India is under a moratorium since February 2010 and nobody knows when the moratorium will be lifted. In my opinion, the decision was not based on science, but on public opinion. I have discussed the issue in a recent article (Gupta. P.K. 2012. Regulating the dual-use and dual-impact life science research: influenza virus versus biotech crops. Current Science (India) 103, No. 9, 10 November 2012).

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Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:18:57 +0100
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My name is Sahar Al-Bayatti. I hold a PhD in Genetic Engineering from Baghdad University and work at the Ministry of Agriculture in Iraq. I am also a member of the national Biosafety committee in the Ministry of Environment which works on putting a legislation for safety use of the biotechnology.

Respond to David Edwards in Message 13 and the comment from Gabriel Mutis Namur in Message 15:

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:18:18 +0100
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This is Juan Chávez, again.

Related to Message 15 of Gabriel Mutis Namur, I think the misinformation relates also to the positive potentiality of transgenesis. In my country (Peru) the main concern is about the free cultivation of genetically modified plants, because of the risk of negative effects on our biodiversity. But there are more possibilities for production of pharmaceuticals using animals as bioreactors (better if they are raised under confinement). Today we are under a moratorium law that prohibits for 10 years the free cultivation/raising of modified plants and animals, but allows research work and production under confinement, including

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:17:35 +0100
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This is Mertxe de Renobales again.

I would like to ask Dr. Onkar Tiwari (Message 14) about Bt brinjal (or insect-resistant eggplant) in India. To the best of my knowledge, together with Golden Rice (about which there has been a discussion in this conference), these are the two crops in the pipeline which are closest to commercialization, but still waiting. Bt brinjal was almost released for commercial distribution a couple of years ago (I am not sure about this datum) but the permit was suddenly withdrawn. Was it due to new scientific, technological or nutritional problems which justified the delay?

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 9 Nov 2012 17:23:34 +0100
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My name is Gabriel Mutis Namur and I am a Risk analyst of agricultural and GMO products from the Colombian Institute of Agriculture (ICA). I want to comment on the issue Dave Edwards was referring to in his message (nr. 13).

In the case of Colombia and I guess a lot of developing countries, in terms of using animals as bioreactors I don’t see it happening in less than 5 or maybe 10 years, not because it is not important, but due to the issue of misinformation in the general public.

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 9 Nov 2012 11:48:18 +0100
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My name is Onkar Tiwari and I am working as Scientific Officer in the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India. I am looking after the Environmental Biotechnology and Crop Biotechnology programmes in DBT.
 
In India, the only commercialized GM crop is Bt cotton. India is an agricultural economy. If we have to grow our food production we have to adopt newer technologies. From the starting of the transgenic technology development there have been different views expressed by different stakeholders in India and in other parts of the world. In recent times, two important

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 9 Nov 2012 09:50:14 +0100
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My name is Dave Edwards and I am the Director for Animal Biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington, DC. BIO is an industry trade organization for biotechnology including human health, food and agriculture, and industrial/biofuels application. I am an animal geneticist by training with a PhD from Michigan State University in swine genetics, and I work on developing and advocating policies that support biotechnology and research in public policy and funding. BIO holds a Livestock Biotech Summit every other year in which we discuss regulation, policies, and funding for animal biotechnology in food, animal health, and human health applications. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 8 Nov 2012 14:54:53 +0100
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Jim Murray here to respond to Professor Chávez (message 7), in which he asked two questions.

In Message 1, I listed four potential genetically engineered (GE) animals that are currently available and might be useful in developing countries and he wanted to know what are the productive/reproductive differences between the GE animals I listed related to the conventional ones. The AquaAdvantage salmon grow faster, reaching market weight in about 50% of the time needed for conventional salmon. They are more feed efficient. Reproduction would be controlled by the company. The EnviroPig can utilize phosphate from the plant material in the

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Biotech-Mod2
Thu, 8 Nov 2012 14:51:14 +0100
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Dear Participants,

This is the 18th e-mail conference hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum since it was launched in 2000. Each of these conferences takes a specific subject related to agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries and opens it for discussion for a limited time period (usually 4-5 weeks).

These topics have included biotechnologies in the crop sector (conference 1), in forestry (conference 2), livestock (conference 3) and the fishery sector (conference 4); their implications for hunger and food security (conference 5); the impact of intellectual property rights (conference 6); gene flow from genetically modified (GM) to non-GM populations (conference 7);

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:59:36 +0100
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Adrian Dubock again. Oops! I hoped to make a quick comment and exit, but need to respond to both Henry Lutaaya (Message 6) and Didier Breyer (Message 5).

Didier first. I was sloppy in my response. In making my comment (Message 4) I wanted to make it clear that it had nothing to do with defending a position. I meant to make clear that Golden Rice doesn't contain any antibiotic selectable marker gene, which was clearly the subject of your commentary in Message 2. You are correct Didier, the selected transformation event of Golden Rice does contain a selectable market

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:48:12 +0100
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I am Mertxe de Renobales, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of the Basque Country/EHU in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain). For the last 13 years, I have been teaching a course on "Transgenic Foods" in 2 undergraduate degree programs (Food Science and Technology, and Dietetics and Human Nutrition), and currently in 2 Masters programs (Food Quality and Safety, and Nutrition and Health), covering issues related to the current social debate. My interest in this conference is related to my teaching duties because students often raise questions regarding GM plants in developing countries. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:46:43 +0100
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Jim Murray here again.

Responding to Henry Lutaaya (Message 6), I do not think the comment about public opinion was in reference to acceptability in the market place, but rather was to the role, if any, public opinion should have in the regulatory process. I happen to agree that the regulatory assessment and decision should be made based on scientific data and not on public opinion. If something is safe then it should be allowed to go to market. If the public doesn't like the taste, then it will not succeed in the market place.

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 16:45:43 +0100
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My name is Michael Farrelly. I work in Tanzania with small scale farmers - male and female - aiming to improve livelihoods and increase food security through improved agricultural production and access to markets, and to support farmers to develop effective and sustainable responses to climate change. Here's a link to one of our projects http://chololoecovillage.wordpress.com/. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Wed, 7 Nov 2012 11:42:57 +0100
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My name is Juan Chávez from Lima, Peru. I am a Professor at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. I am an Animal Scientist with a Masters Degree in Animal Production and a PhD in Biology (Animal Genetics) from Montana State University at Bozeman, United States. I also coordinate a biosafety project financed by UNEP/GEF (United Nations Environment Programme-Global Environment Facility) with the objective of implementing the Biosafety Framework in my country. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 17:35:18 +0100
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My name is Henry Lutaaya. I am a journalist from Uganda.

Though I respect the need for evidence-based decision making, I take exception to Adrian Dubock's view (Message 4) on disregarding public opinion. Although Uganda is yet to produce transgenic crops, banana and cassava being in the pipeline, our scientists say that many products have been rejected, as in not being adopted, because they don't suit people's taste - whichever way you define taste. In Uganda's case, biotech varieties that taste differently from ordinary varieties were not adopted by farmers. So public opinion is important.

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 16:26:10 +0100
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This is from Didier Breyer, again.

I am happy to see that my contribution (Message 2) on selection strategies used to develop new GMOs has generated some discussion. Let me elaborate a little bit on this topic.

From a personal point of view, I tend to agree with the conclusion that there is no scientific evidence to date suggesting that antibiotic resistance marker genes (ARMGs) currently used in GM plants have been harmful for human or animal health, or have significantly contributed to the problem of clinical antibiotic resistance.

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 13:05:17 +0100
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I am Adrian Dubock, project manager for Golden Rice (GR). (see www.goldenrice.org ). (GR does not include a selectable marker gene.)

I write to applaud Professor Pushpendra K Gupta's comment (Message 3) on the issue: very clearly stated and correct, from my understanding.

I think the question posed from Belgium (Message 2), and the response from India (Message 3) also illustrates well an important issue: it is long overdue to start basing decisions on scientific evidence: NOT on 'public opinion'. (Who are 'the public'? We all are.) Science and policy must be prepared to stand up to correct false information.

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 11:33:25 +0100
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My name is Pushpendra K Gupta, and I work as an Emeritus Professor at CCS University, Meerut, India. I am a geneticist and crop biotechnologist by training and mainly work in the area of marker-assisted selection (MAS) in crop improvement. But I have been interested in biotech (GM) crops for many years. I have also recently published an article on regulation of biotech crops (Current Science, India; November 10, 2012). For the last 4 years, I have been a member of "Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation" (RCGM), which is a regulatory body that examines the science behind the GM crops 

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 6 Nov 2012 10:33:57 +0100
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My name is Didier Breyer. I have a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Liège (Belgium). Since 1995 I have been working as senior scientist in the Biosafety and Biotechnology Unit (SBB) of the Scientific Institute of Public Health (Brussels, Belgium). I am involved mainly in the scientific evaluation and administrative follow-up of biosafety dossiers, providing scientific support to the Belgian Biosafety Advisory Council and the Belgian Competent Authorities in particular regarding the environmental release of GMOs and the placing on the market of GMOs and derived products. I am also national focal point for the Biosafety Clearing-House of 

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Biotech-Mod2
Mon, 5 Nov 2012 17:50:23 +0100
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[[Thanks to Jim Murray from the United States for sending in the first message of this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries". All messages will be numbered chronologically. If during the conference you notice that you are missing any messages, just contact me at [log in to unmask] ...Moderator]. 

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Biotech-Mod2
Fri, 2 Nov 2012 14:15:11 +0100
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Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries" !! Thank you for joining.

You can send messages now (send them to [log in to unmask]). Messages will be posted from Monday 5 November onwards while the last day for receiving messages will be Sunday 2 December 2012.

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Biotech-Mod2
Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:55:18 +0100
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Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for subscribing to this FAO e-mail conference on "GMOs in the pipeline: Looking to the next five years in the crop, forestry, livestock, aquaculture and agro-industry sectors in developing countries".

I am now sending you the Background Document to the conference.

It aims to provide information that you, as participants, will find useful for the e-mail conference. The first Section of this 9-page document provides some background to the hosting of this conference. Section 2 of the document provides an overview of GM crops, trees, livestock, fish and micro-organisms that are currently commercialized. Section 3, on

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