Russia Permits Low Level Presence of GMOs in Animal Feed
Russia has said that all animal feed can now contain a low level GMO presence of up to 0.9% and still be considered biotech free.
The country’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (VPSS) has declared feed is biotech-free if 0.5 percent or less of each component contains non-registered biotech products and if 0.9 percent or less of each component contains registered biotech products.
Both ‘registered’ and ‘non-registered’ refer to the status of GMOs in Russia.
Russian authorities have made the decision after conceding low level presence of biotech substances is unavoidable. The move is sure to increase the pressure on the European Commission which has been charged with finding a ‘technical solution’ to the region’s zero tolerance approach to the presence of unapproved GMOs in feed.
The hope is that by clarifying the levels at which feed may be declared ‘GMO-free’, VPSS will harmonise interpretations at customs.
One US expert said: “Such clarification is necessary, since VPSS has many laboratories that are capable of determining slight traces of biotech components. Given that most feeds on the world market have or may have biotech components, VPSS’s new definition may encourage feed importers to register more feed as biotech.”
Aussie Drought-Tolerant Wheat Show Increased Yields Of 20 Percent
Drought-tolerant wheat developed in Victoria, Australia is returning yields up to 20 per cent higher than non-GM control crops, the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, announced at the BIO International Convention.
Mr. Brumby said large wheat-producing countries affected by drought, such as Australia, the USA, Argentina, China and India, were having to embrace new technologies to continue to meet the demands of the global wheat market.
"These initial results are very promising and suggest that these genetically modified wheat lines may be part of the solution to help farmers maintain and improve their crop yields in a changing global environment," Mr. Brumby said.
"Drought significantly reduced Victoria's wheat crops in 2006-07. With average yields worth approximately $300 million, a 20 percent boost could provide as much as $80 million to our wheat industry.
"Around the world, 35-50 per cent of wheat-growing areas are under drought risk. The number of drought-affected wheat growing areas is likely to increase with the effects of climate change."
Mr. Brumby said Victoria's $230 million Biosciences Research Centre - a joint venture between the Victorian Government and La Trobe University in Bundoora - would boost Victoria's capacity to make important discoveries.
Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Research Division Executive Director Professor German Spangenberg, who has been leading trials near Horsham and Mildura, said analysis of the crop, grown last year and harvested early this year, confirmed increased crop yields and maintenance of grain size.
"Twenty-four lines of GM wheat were tested and, of those, seven were identified as providing higher yields under drought stress," Professor Spangenberg said.
"Two lines exceeded the yield of the control experimental variety by 20 per cent."
EU urged to review zero tolerance approach to GM products
Public Ledger -- The EU livestock sector faces huge problems – potentially even a collapse in output – if the EU does not urgently review its policy of zero tolerance for imports of non-authorised genetically modified (GM) products.
This was the warning issued today by Chantal Fauth, Secretary-General of the EU grain traders' association Coceral, at today's International Grains Council conference in London.
Ms Fauth claimed that the EU's intransigent attitude not only to the cultivation of GM crops, but also to commercialisation of any GM product which has yet to be approved at EU level, was running the risk of massive damage to traders and their customers alike. "There will be serious consequences for the livestock sector if EU policy is not radically changed," Ms Fauth warned.
She noted that the EU continued to have a big deficit in protein crops, importing around 16m tonnes of soyabeans and 24m tonnes of soyameal each year, together with significant quantities of maize by-products such as corn gluten feed (CGF) and distillers' dried grains (DDG).
But while the EU remained reluctant to embrace GM crops, biotechnology had taken off in a big way in major grain and oilseed supplier countries like the US, Canada and Argentina.
Ms Fauth pointed out that in 2007, 73% of the US maize crop was GM , as was 70% of the Argentinian crop. In the case of soya, the proportions were 91% in the US, 98% in Argentina and 57% in Brazil.
However, there was a large and growing problem with "asynchronous approvals" of new transgenic varieties, Ms Fauth commented. She noted that it typically took twice as long to approve new biotech strains in the EU than in the US.
This meant that products which were being widely grown in North and South America were unavailable to EU importers because they had not completed the authorisation process in the EU, and because of the high costs of ensuring strict segregation of authorised and non-authorised strains.
A problem of this type with the GM maize variety Herculex had led to a collapse in EU imports of CGF and DDG in 2007, contributing to a massive increase in feed costs for livestock producers.
Ms Fauth said it was vital that the EU rapidly implemented a code of practice being drawn by the Codex Alimentarius, which would set out rules for authorising the low-level importation of GM products which had already been safety-assessed in another country.
