 |
Science in the risk assessment
|
Risk is attached to any human activity. There
is no zero risk in biotechnology neither of any new crop. As zero risk does
not exist only relative risk can be estimated. This is possible only by
comparing data of at least two comparable situations with and without the
object under study...
Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
Risk assessment of new crops
|
| Any new crop introduced in the environment
represents certain risk. The task of science consists in assessing the risk
of a new crop before it is introduced in the praxis. Long term observations
then tune the assessment. In order to compare new crops from the point of
risk they bring to the environment and to human and animal health identical
testing is indispensable....
Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
Non-Food Agriculture
|
|
 Biofuels
.doc
Biomass-Heat
.pdf
Non-Food
Research .pdf
Non-Food
UK .pdf
|
|
|
|
Press Release
|
| Biotechnology and agriculture in Czech Republic
were the topics of a workshop at November 22nd. The aim of the meeting that
was organised by the Technology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic, Czech Liaison Office for the R&D in Brussels and Czech Biotechnology
Association Biotrin at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic
to the EU was the exposure of general level and public atmosphere in these
modern technologies and the potential Czech contribution to EU targets...
Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
OECD ACTIVITY AND DOCUMENTS
|
PESTICIDES
The Pesticide Programme aims to harmonise the testing and assessment of
agricultural pesticides, to promote work sharing and risk reduction. It
achieves this by helping OECD countries to co-operate in the review of both
chemical and biological pesticides used in Agriculture...
Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
Advances in Yeast Biotechnology
|
| The international symposium will be held from
17 to 19 May 2005 at the UAS Wädenswil, Switzerland. The further potential
of Pichia pastoris processes is, of course, the burning issue of this event,
in which several participants (mainly from the Swiss and Czech biotechnological
industries) have already agreed to take part [e.g. Berna, Fluka, Lonza,
Roche, DSM, Polymun (A)]. Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
DEAR FRIENDS
|
| All of you who are involved in the research
in biotechnology are often disappointed that the information and perception
of this field in public is far from being adequate. Unfortunately, legal
regulations of biotechnology are in certain cases based on scientifically
not quite credible grounds. Thus, we are convinced that you will find
two initiatives interesting. Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
Excellent source of informationation
|
|
BIOSAFETY SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS RELEASED
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
Information on Workshop „How to Present Science in Media“
|
| Association Biotrin organised jointly with
the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR) a workshop "How to
Present Science in Media. The workshop took place in the main building
of AS CR on December 7, 2004 and gathered 16 representatives of media (press,
radio), 15 scientists and 12 other participants interested in communication
of science (representatives of ministries, NGO´s and companies).
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
How To Present Science In Media
|
| Findings and Conclusions from the Workshop
on 7 December, 2004 Controversial issues of sciences were discussed at
a meeting of scientists and journalists. Entire
Article ...
|
|
|
|
On future of GM wheat
|
| Monsanto discontinued development of transgenic
wheat. Pseudo-religious opponents of GMO rejoice that their religion has
succeeded. But it seems they do so too early. In economy and ecology, there
is a rule that free space is soon occupied. Syngenta enters the scene. It
became famous when it broke through seven-year European moratorium on GMO
with cans of sweet corn. Syngenta is a European company located in Basel.
It is a merger of agrarian parts of companies Novartis and Zeneca.
Entire Article ... |
|
|
|
Coexistence
|
| In the Czech Republic (and probably not only
here) the pressure groups like Greenpeace are fighting against Bt corn using
the flag of organic farmers. They are telling the story that one grain of
pollen transferred by wind many miles may bring disaster to organic farmer.
As usually with the pseudo-religious dogmas of these groups the reality
is different.
Let us read the facts collected in Spain:.
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
INDIA IS DEVELOPING ITS OWN GM-CROPS
|
| Richard Black, BBC, Jan. 5, 2004,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3369263.stm
The Indian Government has announced details of a six-year plan to develop
new genetically engineered crops which will provide better nutrition. Government
scientists say this kind of research is urgently needed to improve the health
of the developing world. Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
Farm Scale Evaluation
|
| Purpose
Phil.Trans.R.Soc.Lond.B (2003) 358, 1775-1776 1775 ?2003
The Royal Society, DOI 10.1098/rstb.2003.1412 (From Introduction)
By October 1998, four genetically modified crops had cleared most of
the regulatory hurdles before commercial growing could be allowed in the
UK. While these crops had been assessed as safe in terms of human health
and direct impacts upon the environment, there had been insufficient research
to determine whether there might be any significant effects on farmland
wildlife resulting from the way that the crops would be managed (Advisory
Committee on Releases to the Environment - ACRE -2000). The Farm Scale Evaluations
(FSEs) of these genetically modified herbicide-tolerant (GMHT) crops were
established to bridge this important gap in our knowledge, so illuminating
the debate about their possible commercialization in the UK.
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
|
Crop Biotech Update Special Edition January
16, 2003
2002 GLOBAL GM CROP AREA CONTINUES TO GROW FOR THE SIXTH
CONSECUTIVE YEAR AT A SUSTAINED RATE OF MORE THAN 10%
|
|
The Annual Global Review of Commercialised Transgenic (GM) Crops, conducted
by Dr Clive James, Chairman of the ISAAA Board of Directors, features comprehensive
information on transgenic crops grown globally in 2002; the following are
the highlights: Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
The position of the EU parliament to biotechnology
|
|
Certain pressure groups in the Czech Republic pushes Czech administration
to follow the "moratorium on GMO" recently applied in EU. From the text
bellow it follows that they - for their particular struggle of influence
-drive Czech administration against the recent move in EU.
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Friends,
Going through the media, we read or listen again and again about the
"health risk" of food derived from genetically modified organisms. Pressure
groups forced EU institutions and national governments to construct a machine
for pumping millions of euros out of taxpayers pockets for monitoring micrograms
of "foreign modified proteins" in food products. Media are fuelling this
machine demanding to make it more efficient and more costly under the flag
"consumer has the right to know".
In reality consumer knows nothing else than slogans, but pays more and
more for useless analysis of "GMO presence" when important analyses such
as herbicides in organic food or beef proteins in chickens are detected
too late.
Commission of EU cares about consumer - and David Byrne is the
Commissioner responsible for health and consumer protection. Maybe those
who like to talk or write about "health risk" from food derived from genetically
modified organisms might be interested in his view:
Entire Article ...
|
|
|
|
|
Czech and Swiss Biotechnology
Societies,
Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague,
Czech and Swiss industrial partners
and Institutes of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
cordially invite you to attend the
|
2nd Czech-Swiss Symposium
on
Advanced Biotechnology
Prague, Czech Republic
November 7- 9, 2002
Entire Article
...
|
|
|
|
European Commission reinforces its
support of training workshops to help scientists launch biotech start-ups.
Brussels, 21 December 2001
Draft Press Release
|
Growth in new sectors, such as biotechnology,
is driven essentially through the creation and development of new companies.
As researchers are seldom acquainted with management and finance, the European
Commission is once again supporting the Biobiz™ initiative to help entrepreneurs
launch their start-ups by preparing viable business plans. Based on the
success of previous series, the EC has reinforced its support this year
with a new round of 15 workshops across Europe. This additional support
will allow even scientists with limited revenue to participate.
Entire Article ...
also as a document in
RTF readable
in many popular text processors |
|
|
China, People’s Republic of Food and
Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards Ag GMO Implementation Measures
2002
|
|
This is an UNOFFICIAL translation of the People’s Republic
of China Ag GMO Implementation Measures and should be used as a guide only.
Exporters should carefully discuss regulations and their application with
Chinese importers to ensure that their interpretation of the regulation
is accurate. (Refer to CH1056 for the GMO Administration Regulation).
Entire Article ... in PDF
it is a local copy from
http://www.fas.usda.gov/techasst.html
You can download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
from http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/
 for
reading of that file
|
|
|
Royal Society issued an important document
this February. It is called
Genetically modified plants for food use and human health
- an update
and can be found at
www.royalsoc.ac.uk
|
| We are presenting here the SUMMARY formulated
in 9 points. Entire Article ... |
|
|
Annual Report of the Association BIOTRIN
(BIOTREND)
on main activities in 2001
On behalf of the executive board of the Association Biotrin
Helena Stepankova
|
| The name Association BIOTREND
proved unsuitable for the name BIOTREND was already reserved by another
legal body here in the Czech Republic, and also abroad. Therefore, the association
decided to use a different name when its web site was established - the
name BIOTRIN. In March 2001, the Board of the
Association BIOTREND decided to change also the name of the legal body,
and since May 2001 the Association BIOTRIN exists
as the succession organisation. It means it adopted all the tasks of the
Association BIOTREND consequent to its articles.
In accordance with the articles, the activities of BIOTRIN went on in
2001. The main ones are listed below: Entire
Article ...
|
|
|
OECD Biotechnology Update
Overview of some topics from the issue No. 10, November 2001
|
A Brief Guide to OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has
30 Member countries. Its principal aim is to promote policies for sustainable
economic growth and employment, a rising standard of living, and trade liberalisation.
By sustainable economic growth the OECD means growth that balances economic,
social and environmental considerations.
The OECD is an institution that enables its Member countries to discuss
and develop both domestic and international policies. It analyses issues,
recommends actions, and provides a forum in which countries can compare
their experiences, seek answers to common problems, and work to co-ordinate
policies. Entire Article ...
|
|
|
EU passes laws to set up new food safety
body
|
| European Union farm ministers officially passed
laws setting up a new European Food Safety Authority, designed
to boost public confidence in the wake of alerts such as mad cow disease
and dioxin poisoning.
Under a deal brokered at a summit of EU leaders in December last year,
the new authority will be temporarily located in Brussels, and the Commission
said the search was now on for a management board and executive director.
The main tasks of the body, which will employ up to 250 people with budget
of 40 million euros, will be to provide scientific advice to policy makers
and give the public information on potential risks in the food chain.It
will also operate the rapid alert system, collecting information on possible
food risks from national authorities.
The system will be extended from food to cover animal feed . A permanent
seat for the new agency has yet to be decided. Finland, Italy, Spain and
France have all offered to host the EFSA but EU leaders have so far failed
to resolve the issue, which has become politically very sensitive.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Database Biotrack Online is produced by OECD Directorate
for Environment, Working Group on Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight
in Biotechnology. Their task is outreach and information dissemination.
On the Web page we can find information related to major legislative developments
in OECD Member countries, incl. relevant regulatory authorities, field trials
of transgenic organisms, products approved by regulatory agencies and commercialized,
etc. Due to the higher interest in safety of food information on genetically
modified food and feed will be included.
Address:
http://www.oecd.org/ehs/service.htm
|
|
|
|
|
|
OECD Biotechnology Update is a newsletter that comes out
approximately every six months. Its purpose is to provide an update on OECD´s
biotechnology events, activities (incl. dates and venues of meetings) and
new publications.
These newsletters are products of activities of the Internal Co-operation
Group for Biotechnology (ICGB).
Thornvald Moe (SGE)
OECD Deputy Secretary-General
Chairman of the ICGB
Peter Kearns
Secretary to the ICGB
|
|
|
OECD Forum on Biotechnology and Food
Safety
|
|
The OECD Forum on Biotechnology and Food Safety is an
electronic venue for knowledge-sharing among users from the scientific community
and civil society. It offers the opportunity both to keep us abreast of
information and expertise, and to share this information with others.
OECD welcomes contributions, which could be sent to them
by e-mail and join the ongoing discussion between the visitors to this site.
There are guidelines and rules for contributions to the
Forum.
|
|
|
|
|
| The failure of the
WTO summit in Seattle was many times discussed in connection with
GMO in all media. Unfortunately very often such reports and comments showed
poor understanding of their authors to problems that caused the conflicts
of participants and to the powers that were behind the ”public” protests.
They reflected rather a personal view of authors. Nevertheless, such understanding
is necessary for all who are interested in biotechnology as these problems
and powers will play important role in the future of the field.
Entire article ... |
|
