Archived News

June 2010

Monsanto Company Launches Warrant Herbicide
30 June 2010 Monsanto
Monsanto Company announces the launch of a new encapsulated formulation of acetochlor designed for cotton and soybean acres in 2010 has proven successful. The new product was used as MON 63410 Herbicide by farmers this season and will be available widely for 2011 as Warrant™ Herbicide.

USDA Chief Scientist: How Biotechnology Will Help Us Feed the World
30 June 2010 Smart Planet
[In the scope of] maximizing food production and reducing the use of agrochemicals, biotechnology is a piece of the toolbox.

India’s Tryst with GM Crop: The Might of Agri Science
30 June 2010 Commodity Online
GM crops technology have become much more powerful with the advent of genomics and proteomics, where in all sorts of powerful combinations of biological tools will be available to improve crop productivity.

Monsanto Seeks U.S. EPA registration for Refuge-in-the-bag Option for Genuity® VT Double PRO™ Corn
29 June 2010 Monsanto
Responding to U.S. corn farmers' requests to simplify insect resistance management, Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) announced today that it has submitted for registration to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a 5 percent refuge-in-the-bag (RIB) option for Genuity® VT Double PRO™ corn.

Monsanto Announces Third Quarter Financial Results in Line with Expectations, Introduces 2011 Guidance Measures
29 June 2010 Monsanto
Monsanto Company today announced its third-quarter financial results and highlighted some of the actions in progress to generate expected annual earnings growth percentages in the mid-teens.

GM Canola a Useful Tool at Albury
29 June 2010 The Land
Roy Hamilton is a farmer who enjoys trying new technology and genetically modified canola is proving a useful tool on his 3200-hectare Albury farm.

RP the First in Asia to Commercialize GM Eggplant
28 June 2010 Manila Bulletin
The Philippines will become the first in Asia to commercialize the genetically modified (GM) fruit and shoot borer (FSB)-resistant eggplant by 2011.

Robb Fraley: Monsanto is a Champion of Healthy Eating
28 June 2010 New Scientist
Within the next couple of years our plants will have several traits with direct consumer benefits. We have introduced two genes that allow soybeans to produce about 20 per cent of their oil as an omega-3 fatty acid.

Team’s Work Uses a Virus to Convert Methane to Ethylene
28 June 2010 The New York Times
A team of molecular biologists and materials scientists said Monday they had genetically engineered a virus to convert methane to ethylene more efficiently and at a significantly lower temperature than previously possible.

RR Alfalfa Benefits Surprisingly Plentiful
28 June 2010 Western Farm Press
Tom Barcellos, Tipton, Calif., has reaped the benefits of being an early adopter of RR alfalfa technology and looks forward to planting a lot more now that the Supreme Court has apparently cleared the way for RR alfalfa seed sales to resume.

FG: Food Insecurity Threatens 2.5m Nigerians
25 June 2010 Daily Trust
Abubakar noted that biotechnology has the potential to improve food security in the country as it would help the country get out of being over dependent on food importation on a perennial basis.

Monsanto Company Sets Webcast and Analyst/Media Call for 2010 Third-Quarter Financial Results
23 June 2010 Monsanto
Monsanto Company announced it will issue the company's financial results for its 2010 third quarter on Wednesday, June 30, 2010, prior to market open.

Adoption of Biotechnology Vital for Major Crops
23 June 2010 Daily Times
Biotech cotton, maize, and corn, could lead the way in improving agricultural yields for farmers in Pakistan, biotechnology experts said on Tuesday.

Monsanto Beachell-Borlaug Program Announces 2010 Winners
21 June 2010 Monsanto
The Monsanto Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars Program today announced its second set of fellowship recipients, featuring seven women and seven men from around the world dedicated to improving rice and wheat breeding.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules 7-1 in Favor of Farmers, Ban on Roundup Ready Alfalfa 'Cannot Stand'
21 June 2010 Monsanto
In a 7-1 ruling today, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court's order that has prohibited farmers from planting Roundup Ready alfalfa for the past three years.

A Case for GM Crops
21 June 2010 About.com
GM food crops are not always about pesticides and disease resistance either. Much of the research being done is to increase tolerance to drought or extreme temperatures, and make fertilizer use more efficient.

Genetically Enhanced Trees May Save the American Chestnut
18 June 2010 The Observer
One of the genetic modifications currently undergoing testing incorporates a gene from wheat that may neutralize the acid produced by the blight.

Wild Potato Germplasm Holds Key to Disease Resistance
16 June 2010 USDA
Wild potato germplasm that offers resistance to some major potato diseases has been identified by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.

Matt Ridley, the Rational Optimist, Answers Your Questions
15 June 2010 The New York Times Blogs
If we continue to spread new agricultural varieties and practices—plus we make more crops insect-resistant using GMOs, irrigation less wasteful using drip hydroponics, and fertilization cheaper using nitrogen-use-efficient crops (all of these are now starting to happen)—then we can easily double average crop yields from each acre by 2050, as we have doubled them since 1960.

KSU, Monsanto Wheat Partnership “A Big Step”
14 June 2010 Brownfield Ag News
It’s being called “a big step forward” in bringing biotechnology into the wheat industry—the announcement of a new partnership between Kansas State University and Monsanto to share wheat germplasm and technology.

Sweet Genes Arm Banana Crops
14 June 2010 Sci Dev Net
Scientists in Uganda have developed GM bananas that show promising resistance to the deadly banana Xanthomonas wilt (BXW) disease.

Boosting Rice Yields Generates Optimism
11 June 2010 Southwest Farm Press
Hibberd’s work on the C4 Rice Project is searching for ways to genetically modify rice plants, which use C3 photosynthesis, to the more productive C4 form found in plants such as maize and sorghum.

GM Crops Could Reduce Climate Impact of Farming, Claims Scientist
11 June 2010 Energy Saving Trust
Genetically modified (GM) crops will play an important role in reducing farming's impact on the environment.

GM Trial to Reduce Agrochemicals
11 June 2010 The Sainsbury Laboratory
A field trial of GM potatoes is being planted this week to test whether genes from wild relatives can successfully protect commercial potato varieties from late blight – the disease that caused the Irish potato famine – without the need to spray fungicides.

Collagen Manufactured from Transgenic Tobacco Plants
10 June 2010 Physorg
A scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment has succeeded in producing a replica of human collagen from tobacco plants - an achievement with tremendous commercial implications for use in a variety of human medical procedures.

Monsanto, ARMtech Unveil Biotech Yield Assurance(SM) Program for Farmers
10 June 2010 Monsanto
The crop insurance program, developed by approved insurance provider ARMtech in cooperation with Monsanto, links an insurance policy to the yield benefits of Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans, Genuity SmartStax™ and SmartStax™ corn.

GMO Seed Could Help Boost Crop Output - COMESA
09 June 2010 The Botswana Gazette
Speaking at the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa (ACTESA) stakeholders meeting in Lusaka recently, Ngwenya said modifying seed as Malawi has done would help increase yields threefold and help ensure food security.

Blight-resistant GM Potatoes Field Trial Begins
08 June 2010 BBC News
A field trial of a genetically modified (GM) variety of potato resistant to "late blight" - a major threat to the crop - has begun in eastern England.

New Yeast Strain is Step Closer to Cellulosic Ethanol
08 June 2010 Tonic
As PhysOrg has reported, an agricultural and bioengineering research team at Purdue has successfully genetically engineered a strain of yeast that is capable of converting the sugars contained in woodier plant materials such as corn stalks and switchgrass.

Unexpected Support for Biotechnology
07 June 2010 Delta Farm Press
Rather than condemning biotech, the Times said, there is a need to recognize that “genetic engineering can be used not just to modify major commodity crops in the West, but also to improve a much wider range of crops that can be grown in difficult conditions throughout the world.”

Marc Gunther Talks with Dr. Prakash, Professor of Plant Molecular Genetics at Tuskegee University
06 June 2010 Produce More. Conserve More
We have been able to improve the nutritional quality of sweet potatoes, using genetic engineering, and if we can successfully transfer some of these traits to African varieties, down the road we may be able to improve the nutritional composition of sweet potatoes eaten in Africa.

Using Biology to Control Western Corn Rootworm and Reduce Pesticide Use
05 June 2010 GMO Pundit
Swiss and German plant researchers have restored a lost natural resistance mechanism in maize plants by means of genetic engineering.

Food Technology: 'What's in it for Me?'
04 June 2010 Food Safety News
For example, we found that more than three-quarters (77 percent) of consumers would be likely to purchase foods produced through biotechnology for their ability to reduce pesticide use.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman Backs GM Crops
04 June 2010 The Guardian
The wider growing and selling of genetically modified crops has received its strongest government backing to date from the new environment secretary, Caroline Spelman.

GM Expert Professor Maurice Moloney on Feeding the World
04 June 2010 ABC News
Professor Moloney argues that GM is all about feeding a hungry world and says serious scientific bodies have looked at GM technology again in recent years and concluded it would be a mistake to exclude the technology from the arsenal of tools needed to deal with both global food security and environmental protection challenges.

Sequenced Seaweed Genome Help Scientists Unlock Evolution Puzzle
04 June 2010 Cordis
The findings, published in the journal Nature, shed new light on the evolution of multicellularity and reveal how seaweeds have adapted to the rigours of life in the harsh tidal environment.

Survey Suggests Most Americans Would Accept 'Sustainable' GM Wheat
03 June 2010 Food Navigator
Many American consumers would be receptive to foods containing genetically modified wheat if it is produced sustainably, suggests a new survey examining attitudes to food technologies from the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

GMO's May Solve Hunger: Food Expert
03 June 2010 ABC News
My view is that [genetic engineering]is one of many scientific approaches that should be used where it is most appropriate.

Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences Reach New Licensing Agreement on Roundup Ready 2 Yield® Soybean Technology
02 June 2010 Monsanto
Today, the range of farmers' future seed choices broadened as Monsanto Company granted a new royalty-bearing, Roundup Ready 2 Yield® license to Dow AgroSciences.

Biotechnology for a Better Tomorrow
01 June 2010 United Soybean Board
In today’s farming, a specific type of technology called biotechnology helps the U.S. farmer grow even more efficiently.