Biotechnology, Genetically Designed Crops, etc.
Genetically engineered or altered seeds, trees, microbes, animals and crops,
"Biopharming" engineered pharmaceuticals, growth hormones and proteins,
Biomedicine (gene therapy, custom medicines),
and possibly human organs and embryos (stem cell)
The year 1999 through 2001
Chirac rips U.S. attack on beef ban
Japanese panic over safety of genetically modified food
Geneticists leap at chance to study lab frog species
Foes of genetically designed crops sue Monsanto

Study: Engineered rice could aid Third World, fight illness
New global treaty regulates genetically modified products
'Franken-fish' experiment canned
Report: Biotech crops safe but need scrutiny
U.S. boosts biotech spending to help fight foreign hunger

Regulations define 'organic'
Government agrees to buy tainted corn
Biotech miracles may grow from Louisville firms' latest research
Centuries-old genetic mutation found to protect against malaria
Protesters rally against biotechnology
Lott sees potential in stem cell research



• 6/20/1999 - Chirac rips U.S. attack on beef ban by The Associated Press.
      Cologne, Germany -- French President Jacques Chirac accused the United States and Canada of ignoring public health concerns by attempting to overturn a European Union ban on beef from cattle treated with growth hormones.    Speaking to a summit of the world's richest nations the G-7, including President Clinton and Russia, Chirac said the North Americans were acting "with a purely commercial mindset and were not taking into account public health."    The United States and Canada successfully challenged the ban on hormone-treated beef in the World Trade Organization, arguing the hormones present no health hazard.    They are awaiting authorization from the trade organization to impose $253 million a year in sanctions on EU goods if the ban is not lifted.    The EU claims at least one of the hormones used in North America may potentially cause cancer and wants more tests done.
• 11/5/1999 - Japanese panic over safety of genetically modified food by Michael Zielenziger, Knight Ridder News Service.
      Tokyo -- The latest threat to U.S. farmers and farm exports come from a housewife in Tokyo, who would not buy any tofu, a staple of the Japenese diet, made from genetically modified soybeans.    Apparently this has triggered consumer anxiety over genetically altered foods among Japanese food manufacturers.    These processors are demanding soybeans, corn, and wheat that is free of genetically altered ingredients.    The debate over the health risks shows a growing distrust by common citizens of government safety assurances, fueled by the recent accident at a nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant outside of Tokyo in which 69 workers were injured.    This could spark renewed trade friction later this month when a new round of World Trade Organization talks convenes in Seattle.    This immediately raised the price of corn, wheat and soybeans certified as free of genetically altered materials by 20 to 30 percent.
• 11/28/1999 - Geneticists leap at chance to study lab frog species - Gene-altered frog glows in dark - by Knight Ridder News Service.
      Washington -- Few can argue with the importance of the frog as a tool to study development: the miraculous unfolding of a ball of cells into a creature with eyes, a head and, sometimes a tail.    They produce see-through eggs that are large, easy to work with and not trapped inside a mother's body.    But the South African clawed frog -- the standard lab model -- has not been so useful to geneticists.    Because of an evolutionary quirk, the species has four copies of each gene, making its gentic workings nearly impossible to unravel or manipulate cleanly.
      Robert Grainger, a biologist at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, has tried to understand how a frog emerges from a tadpole, the Holy Grail or specific genes, one by one, which control the decision making process in the embryo.    A new frog -- a close relative of the stalwart lab frog -- a tropical African frog known as Xenopus tropicalis, has half as many genes, is half the size of the clawed frog and grows to adulthood more quickly has come to the forefront.    This allowed them to exchange genes between frogs to study the development, and also gave them a gene from jellyfish that expresses a glowing green protein.    These genetic techniques allowed them to observe organs as they grow within an embryo.
• 12/15/1999 - Foes of genetically designed crops sue Monsanto by The Associated Press.
      Washington - Jeremy Rifkin, an anti-biotech activist and six farmers opposed to genetically engineered crops filed a class-action suit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Monsanto Co. and other firms conspired to take over the seed trade and pushed biotech crops to market without adequate environmental and health testing.    Corn and soybeans genetically designed to kill pests or withstand herbicides have become widely popular in the United States, but have met consumer resistance in Europe and Asia.    Genetic engineering involves splicing a single gene from one organism to another.    Rifkin states the suit is to "refocus the global debate" over genetic engineering to "corporate abuse of power."    Biotech opponents have focused on persuading food manufacturers not to buy modified crops and getting governments to require labeling of altered foods.    The suit alleges that Monsanto, using biotechnology patents, coordinated with other companies to fix prices and force farmers to use genetically engineered seed.    The suit says there is "substantial uncertainty" as to whether the crops are safe.    Monsanto officials called the lawsuit a political stunt, and their attorney stated "This technology has been tested for many years and it's subject to intense regulation ... We would not put into commerce anything that we're not absolutely confident is safe and effective."
  
  
• 1/14/2000 - Study: Engineered rice could aid Third World, fight illness by The Associated Press.
      Washington - Scientist at a Swiss laboratory have gentetically engineered a type of rice that could end vitamin A deficiency in the developing world, a problem that is a common cause of blindness and other health problems in millions of children.    The new crop, dubbed "golden rice" because of its hue, has three genes spliced into it to make it rich in beta carotene, the source of Vitamin A.    The International Rice Research Institute is working on breeding the new trait into popular varieties.    The Rockefeller Foundation, the lead sponsor of the rice research, views biotechnology as a solution to world hunger, which are also resistant to drought, pests and soil toxins.    Scientists believe it eventually will be possible to put iron and other nutrients in plants once the genetic pathways are known.    Critics of biotech crops say not enough is known about their safety or effect on the environment.
• 1/30/2000 - New global treaty regulates genetically modified products by New York Times News Service.
      Montreal -- Delegates from more than 130 nations adopted the first global treaty regulating trade in genetically modified products, setting up an international framework for the increasingly contentious debate about foods made with biotechnology.    The biosafety treaty, often pitted the United States against almost everyone else, allows countries to bar imports of genetically altered seeds, microbes, animals and crops that they deem a threat to their environments.    All of the proposed provisions that Washington had feared would cripple world food trade and endanger billions of dollars a year in American farm exports were watered down or eliminated.    About half the soybeans and one-third of the corn grown in the United States last year contained foreign genes making the crops resistant to herbicides or insects.    European consumers are rejecting food made with those grains.    Biotechnology companies such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a huge seed company, are hoping the new treaty will counter a perception that biotechnology is not adequately regulated.
• 2/27/2000 - 'Franken-fish' experiment canned.
      Blenheim, New Zealand -- A controversy involving leaked secret documents, deformed fish heads and gargantuan salmon has ended with a New Zealand company, King Salmon Co. Ltd., chief executive Paul Steere agreed to kill all its genetically engineered fish.    They were accused of breeding mutant chinook salmon in the so-called "Franken-fish" experiment, and the company announced it would bury the remains of the specially grown fish and suspend its research of introducing an additional growth hormone gene into a chinook salmon, which passed the trait down three generations.    The company will retain frozen sperm from genetically engineered salmon in order to continue the program in the future.
• 4/6/2000 - Report: Biotech crops safe but need scrutiny - Protestors accuse panel of being on industry's side - by Marc Kaufman, The Washington Post.
      Washington - Genetically engineered crops appear to be safe but the government should better regulate them to make sure they don't pose a danger to the environment or human health, a National Academy of Sciences 260-page report concludes.
      The Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture should work more closely to make sure engineered crops are adequately tested and monitored, a panel appointed by the academy's National Research Council concluded.
      These engineered crops are popular among U.S farmers because they allow for fewer chemicals to be used.    Opponents fear that crops that produce their own pesticides might cause insects to become more resistant, creating the need for more or stronger chemicals.    One recent study also suggested such crops could kill Monarch butterflies.    Protestors are complaining of a conflict in interest, because one of the 12-member panel is a staff director who took a job with the Biotechnolgoy Industry Organization, who is praising the report.
• 11/26/2000 - U.S. boosts biotech spending to help fight foreign hunger by Libby Quaid, The Associated Press.
      Washington -- From a taco shell controversy to catepillar experiments, genetically altered crops are under fire.    President Clinton signed a bill for $30 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development thus increasing its spending on biotechnology -- not for food on U.S. grocery shelves or crops in U.S. fields, but for battling hunger in developing nations.    In August, Monsanto Co. announced it would grant free licenses to use its patented technology for its golden rice varieties.    Also in the works is another Monsanto-donated technology that will be used to add beta carotene to mustard oil, which is commonly used for cooking in Northern India and Bangladesh.    In widely publicized Cornell University experiments, Monarch butterfly catepillars died after eating milkweed, which grows in and around Midwestern cornfields, coated with genetically modified corn pollen.    THe EPA said there is probably little risk to butterflies.    Moe recently, discovery of unapproved biotech corn in the nation's food supply created furor that has shut down processors and blocked shipments of grain across the nation.    The EPA has promised a review.
  
  
• 1/21/2001 - Regulations define 'organic'.
      Washington -- New federal regulations for organic food aim to help the $7.8 billion industry, but farmers worry they could get hurt becasuse of the one-size-fits-all government standards.    The Department of Agriculture announced that foods grown and processed according to the standards, a decade in development, will bear a seal of "USDA Organic."     This standard to be implemented will ban pesticides, genetic engineering, growth hormones and irradiation and require dairy cattle to have access to pasture.
• 3/8/2001 - Government agrees to buy tainted corn.
      Washington -- The government agreed to buy as much as $20 million worth of corn seed that was contaminated with a variety of genetically engineered grain that prompted nationwide recalls of food products.    The Agriculture Department estimated that "less than 1 percent" of the 40 million bags of seed corn produced for planting this year contains some trace of the variety, known as StarLink.
• 6/12/2001 - Biotech miracles may grow from Louisville firms' latest research by Harold J. Adams, The Courier-Journal.
      They are among the most sought after goals in medicine: cures for cancer or blindness: a way to reverse heart disease without surgery; a system for pinpointing the individual genes involoved in each illness.    Four companies in downtown Louisville, each believe they are on track to solve one of those vexing medical puzzles, using biomedicine.
      ApoImmune Inc., based on gene therapy research of Haval Shirwan, who believes he has found away to turn specific bits of the human immune system on or off as needed to cure diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes.
      Advance Genetic Systems Inc., based on the research of Eugenia Wang, with a device that detects which genes are turned on or off in particular diseases and could lead to customized medicines based on each patient's genetic makeup.
• 6/22/2001 - Centuries-old genetic mutation found to protect against malaria by Paul Recer, The Associated Press.
      Washington - A gene mutation that arose thousands of years ago now protects hundreds of millions of people from severe malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that is the world's deadliest infection.    Researchers traced the evolution in Africa around 3,800 to 11,700 years ago, then Asia and then at 1,600 to 6,640 years ago in the Mediterranean area of the mutation that gives protection from malaria's most serious effects.    Malaria infects about 500 million people a year, and kills more than 2 million, making it globally a more deadly infection than the AIDS virus or tuberculosis.    Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Maryland, said the mutation of an X chromosome gene called G6PD evolved as a natural response to the parasite that causes malaria.    The development of agriculture about 10,000 years ago aided in the spread of malaria, as forest were cleared, crops grown, cities began.
• 6/25/2001 - Protesters rally against biotechnology - They oppose use of genetically engineered crops - by The Associated Press.
      San Diego - About 1,000 demonstrators, some dressed as ears of corn or genetically engineered tomatoes, staged a peaceful protest on the opening day of a biotechnology trade show for the Biotechnology Industry Organization.    Their concerns are that businesses are introducing genetically modified crops and seeds into the food supply without knowing the long-term consequences.   
• 6/25/2001 - Lott sees potential in stem cell research - Catholic Church says experiments on early life are unethical - by The Associated Press.
      Washington -- The Senate's top Republican, Trent Lott, said that he sees "great potential" for controversial research that uses stem cells from human embryos.    President Bush is now weighing whether to allow federal funding for the research, which scientists say holds tremendous promise but is contentious because the cells are derived from embyros left over from fertility treatments.    Some abortion opponents, including the Catholic Church, say the research amounts to unethical experimentation on an early life.    Others, including Republicans, say the benefits outweigh the harm, since the embryos are going to be destroyed anyway.
      Stem cells, the building blocks for all human tissue, are present in adults as well.    But the cells derived from embyros are the most versatile because they are the least developed.    Researchers claim they could lead to treatments for Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other ailments.    Federal law bans the use of tax dollars on any research that destroys embryos.    The Clinton administration got around the law by approving use of stem cells in federally funded research as long as private dollars paid for them to be extracted from the embryos.    Bush must decide whether to maintain that interpretation.
  
  

Last updated January 27, 2004.