|
Agricultural Biotechnologies
|
|
|
| |
The News items relate to applications of biotechnologies in food and agriculture in developing countries and their major focus is on the activities of FAO, other UN agencies/bodies and the 15 CGIAR research centres. The News items cover all food and agricultural sectors (crops, forestry, fisheries/aquaculture, livestock, agro-industry) and a wide range of biotechnologies (e.g. use of molecular markers, artificial insemination, triploidisation, biofertilisers, micropropagation, genomics, genetic modification etc.). New documents are included as News if they are freely available on the web and, for people who can't download them or who wish further information, an e-mail contact is also provided. The News service was launched in January 2002 and all News items posted since then (there were 800 in the first 9 years) are available here. The news and event items on this website are also disseminated through an e-mail newsletter called FAO-BiotechNews that is published in six different versions, one per language i.e. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. To subscribe, send a message to FAO-Biotech-News@fao.org indicating which e-mail addresses are to be subscribed and in which language they wish to receive the newsletter.
06/02/2002
The Intergovernmental Group on Bananas and on Tropical Fruits, which is part of FAO`s Committee on Commodity Problems, held its 2nd session in San José, Costa Rica, 4-8 December 2001. The Sub-Group on Bananas evaluated the emerging role of biotechnology in bananas. A report entitled "Biotechnology and Banana Production" was prepared for the meeting and is available at http://www.fao.org/unfao/bodies/ccp/ba-tf/2001/default.htm or a copy can be requested from Daniela.Piergentili@fao.org. In their recommendations and conclusions from the meeting, the sub-group "cautioned against excluding small farmers from the benefits accruing from the application of biotechnology to this sector".
04/02/2002
The European Community (EC) has recently published a review of EC-supported research into the safety of GMOs, spanning the period from 1985 to 2000. The research areas included genetically modified plants and fish, biocontrol, food safety, bioremediation, plant microbes, vaccines produced using GM technology and tools/techniques to track GMOs. See http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/quality-of-life/gmo/index.html. Copies of the publication can be requested from nathalie.feyaerts@cec.eu.int
03/02/2002
The November edition of OECD Biotechnology Update is available (it is sent roughly every 6 months). The aim of the Update is to provide information on the diverse activities at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development related to biotechnology. The new edition includes, among others, items on regulatory, trade and legal aspects of biotechnology and gives weblinks and e-mail addresses for accessing additional information and publications. See the Update at http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00008000/M00008255.pdf or contact icgb@oecd.org
01/02/2002
Louise Fresco, Assistant-Director General, FAO Agriculture Department gave the keynote address to a conference on Crop and Forest Biotechnology for the Future, Falkenberg, Sweden, 16-18 September 2001. The talk was entitled Genetically modified organisms in food and agriculture: Where are we? Where are we going?. See full document at http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/GMOs.pdf (38 K); an abbreviated version at http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0111sp.htm or contact rita.walsh@fao.org to request a copy.
|
|
|
