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Agricultural Biotechnologies
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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 [email protected] indicating which e-mail addresses are to be subscribed and in which language they wish to receive the newsletter.
07/07/2002
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has just released the first "Africa Environment Outlook" report. It provides a comprehensive and integrated analysis of Africa`s environment, including i) an overview of developments in Africa, particularly over the three decades up to 2002; ii) a description of the current state of the environment in Africa (outlining its physical attributes in terms of the atmosphere; land; biodiversity; forests; freshwater, marine and coastal areas; and the urban environment) and iii) a set of scenarios for Africa`s future over the next 30 years. The report concludes in Chapter 5 with a list of 31 recommendations for specific actions by policy makers. This list includes "Urge developed countries to remove agricultural subsidies and apply the precautionary principle to genetically modified organisms" and "Assist African countries in their efforts to gain access to new technologies, particularly information and communication technologies and create conditions for the development of indigenous technologies to enhance economic development". See http://www.grida.no/aeo or http://www.unep.org/aeo or contact [email protected] for more information.
07/07/2002
The `World Food Summit: five years later` took place 10-13 June 2002 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy and was attended by delegations from more than 180 countries. Heads of State and Government unanimously adopted the "Declaration of the World Food Summit: five years later" on 10 June. Regarding biotechnology, the Declaration states "We call on the FAO, in conjunction with the CGIAR and other international research institutes, to advance agricultural research and research into new technologies, including biotechnology. The introduction of tried and tested new technologies including biotechnology should be accomplished in a safe manner and adapted to local conditions to help improve agricultural productivity in developing countries. We are committed to study, share and facilitate the responsible use of biotechnology in addressing development needs". The Declaration is available (in Arabic, Chinese, English French, Italian and Spanish) at http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/english/documents.htm or contact [email protected] for more information.
06/07/2002
The report of the 3rd meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (ICCP), held on 22-26 April 2002, The Hague, Netherlands, is now available. It is document number 18 at http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?wg=ICCP-03 (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). For further information, contact [email protected].
05/07/2002
A new version of the Decision Support System for Safety Assessment of Genetically Modified Crop Plants (DTREE) has been released by the Biosafety Information Network and Advisory Service (BINAS) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). See http://binas.unido.org/dtree or contact [email protected] for further information.
03/07/2002
The second newsletter of the UNEP-GEF Global Project on the Development of National Biosafety Frameworks is now available. The 4-page newsletter includes a progress report on the global project, regional updates on countries participating in the project and a summary of the first series of regional workshops. See http://www.unep.ch/biosafety/newsletterbsf2.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information.
02/07/2002
ISNAR (International Service for National Agricultural Research) Country Report 63, entitled "Analysis of a National Biosafety System: Regulatory Policies and Procedures in Argentina" and co-authored by M. Burachik and P.L. Traynor, has just been published. The study focuses on the human and organisational aspects of the Argentine biosafety system. See ftp://ftp.cgiar.org/isnar/Publicat/cr63.pdf (size 439 KB) or contact [email protected] for more information.
01/07/2002
A report on the activities, including information dissemination, capacity building and international co-operation, carried out by the ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology) Biosafety Unit in the year 2001 is now available on the web. See http://www.icgeb.org/biosafety/bsfbroch.htm or contact [email protected] for more information.
15/06/2002
The 20th Session of the International Rice Commission (whose Secretariat is hosted by FAO) is to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, 23-26 July 2002. Two papers concerning biotechnology have been commissioned by FAO for presentation at the meeting and are now available on the web. They are Biotechnology for rice breeding: Progress and potential impact by G. S. Khush and D.S. Brar ( http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/MEETING/004/AC347E/AC347E00.HTM ) and Nutritional contribution of rice: Impact of biotechnology and biodiversity in rice-consuming countries by G. Kennedy, B. Burlingame and V. N. Nguyen ( http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/MEETING/004/Y6618E/Y6618E00.HTM). For more information, contact [email protected] .
14/06/2002
The background document for the FAO e-mail conference on GMOs and gene flow is now available ( http://www.fao.org/biotech/C7doc.htm). The conference runs from 31 May to 5 July 2002 and is entitled "Gene flow from GM to non-GM populations in the crop, forestry, animal and fishery sectors". It is the seventh conference of the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture (see http://www.fao.org/biotech/forum.asp).
13/06/2002
The 30th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling took place in Halifax, Canada, 6-10 May 2002. The Joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission is an intergovernmental body set up to establish international standards on foods. In 1995, the Commission agreed to examine the implications of biotechnology for food labelling. One of the agenda items at the 30th Session is Draft Recommendations for the Labelling of Foods obtained through Certain Techniques of Genetic Modification /Genetic Engineering. See the Meeting Report at http://www.codexalimentarius.net/reports.asp or contact [email protected] for further information.
12/06/2002
An advance copy (subject to clearance) is now available of the decisions adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at its 6th meeting in The Hague, Netherlands, 7-19 April 2002. See http://www.biodiv.org/doc/decisions/cop-06-dec-en.pdf or contact [email protected]. The 279-page document covers some topics relevant to applications of biotechnology in food and agriculture, such as the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol. The COP calls upon countries to ratify the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, the International Plant Protection Convention and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which was adopted by the FAO Conference on 3 November 2001. Another decision invites FAO to study the potential impacts of the applications of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) in the framework of the ITPGRFA, and to consider GURTs in the further development of the Code of Conduct on Biotechnology as it relates to Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which will be discussed in the 9th Regular Session of FAO`s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, in October 2002.
19/05/2002
An expert consultation and workshop on Protein Sources for the Animal Feed Industry took place in Bangkok, Thailand, 29 April 3 May 2002 and was organised by FAO in association with the International Feed Industry Federation. Some of the papers presented covered topics such as the production of synthetic amino acids for feed (Y. Toride), breeding cereals for improved protein quality (S.K. Vasal) and the use of Quality Protein Maize (G. Qi) or GM crops (D.L. Hard) for animal feed. The papers are available at http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/workshop/feed/programme.htm or contact [email protected] for more information.
17/05/2002
The second module of a toolkit aiming to provide a practical guide for countries to assist them in developing their national biosafety frameworks, under the UNEP-GEF Project on Development of National Biosafety Frameworks, has just been published. The module addresses the instigation of surveys and the preparation of inventories in the different sectors pertaining to biosafety and biotechnology within a country. See http://www.unep.ch/biosafety/ToolkitBSF1.pdf or contact [email protected] for more information.
17/05/2002
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has just published Global Environment Outlook 3 (GEO-3): Past, Present and Future Perspectives. This comprehensive 410-page report examines the policies and environmental developments over the past 30 years regarding eight environmental themes - land, forests, biodiversity, freshwater, coastal and marine areas, atmosphere, urban areas and disasters. It then outlines four policy approaches for the next three decades and compares and contrasts their likely impacts on people and the natural world. The final section of the report includes eight fields of suggested action, one of which is to harness technology for the environment and manage the associated risks to maximise the potential of new technologies to deliver substantial environmental and social gains. See http://www.unep.org/geo/ or contact [email protected] for more information.
16/05/2002
Louise Fresco, Assistant-Director General, FAO Agriculture Department gave a presentation on The future of agriculture: Challenges for environment, health and safety regulation of pesticides to the OECD Working Group on Pesticides on 4 February 2002, Paris. Highlights of the presentation, which also covered the role of modern technology, especially GMOs, are available at http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/oecd.pdf (4 pages) or contact FAO to request a copy.
16/05/2002
In connection with the The World Food Summit: five years later to be held in Rome, 10-13 June 2002, FAO has prepared a series of fact sheets on specific issues and topics ( http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/fsheets.htm ). One of them is a 2-page pamphlet on biotechnology and food security (in Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish). Contact [email protected] for more information.
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