Slashdot Mirror
BASF Moves GM Plant Research From Europe To US
ananyo writes "The German chemical giant BASF is moving its transgenic plant operations from Europe to the U.S., it says, because of widespread opposition to the technology. The company on 16 January announced that it would move its plant science headquarters from Limburgerhof, Germany to Raleigh, North Carolina and no longer develop plants solely for cultivation in Europe. The division employs 157 people in Limburgerhof, plus another 63 at facilities elsewhere in Europe. BASF said it would relocate 123 of those jobs to the North Carolina facility. In statement, Stefan Marcinowski, a member of BASF's Board of Executive Directors, cited 'a lack of acceptance for this technology in many parts of Europe – from the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians.' The company instead plans to focus on plant biotechnology markets in the Americas and Asia."
dude, if you aren't eating organic, you're already eating GMO. At least in the US.
You have to admit, you weren't expecting to read that headline.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
What, exactly, do you think people will eat on our journey out to colonize the galaxy??
Transgenic plants. No complaint from me, it will be needed. Also, closed in a spaceship it cannot do much harm.
I just am a bit more hesitant about releasing GM plants into all the biosphere we have.
Humans have been growing GMO for milenia, and even have GM themselves ... if you're an adult and can metabolize milk, you're it.
Someone's trotting out this nonsense again?
There's a world of difference between selective breeding and playing mix-n-match genomes hands-on via gene-splicing.
P.S. It's "millennia".
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Please stop with that bullshit just stop. When you use a gene gun and blast dna from a bacterium randomly into the genome of a plant species so as that crop can be doused with Round-UP(tm) you are not doing the same thing that farmers have been doing for millennia. sorry to bust your bubble.
This is nothing new, for years business has been shifting manufacturing to impoverished countries to take advantage of cheap labour. They are just thinking ahead!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
If the UPC starts with 9, it's organic.
If it starts with 8, it's GM.
If there's another number, it's conventionally farmed.
For once, lazy programming helps slashdotters.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
And they are against GM food, because it's patent creep - doodle around in a little corner of the genome and patent the whole plant afterwards, thus gaining power over all people doing business with similar plants and destroying traditonal seed circulation.
Wow!
BASF still exists? To me BASF is this, and I haven't heard them since. :)
BASF is the largest chemical company in the world - more than twice the size of DuPont. 2010 revenues were almost 64 billion €.
And that fear is an irrational fear of the science behind it. Many of the crops have been in use for several decades and proven not only safe but in the case of corn, highly effective at reducing pesticide use yet they are still banned in Europe. Not because there is any evidence showing that they are bad, but because the public at large fears them. In fact there has been lots of studies showing a complete lack of harm and not a single study showing harm yet they are still banned.
They were erring on the safe side in the first 5 years this stuff was used, 20 years down the road they aren't on the safe side anymore, they are on irrational side. And yes it is most certainly anti-science (anti crop science), it's just a different variety than the kind in the US.
In Europe the market gets to decide if they want GMO food. That happens because they have labeling and menu laws that require the disclosure. It's capitalism at work. BASF is free to grow all the GMO it wants. But they have to sell GMO to the consumers. Here in the US you can pretty much put what you want into foods without nearly as much disclosure.
Is it so irrational? Look at Japan. People there believed in progress, in technology, with an almost religious fervour. Until a disaster laid bare not flaws in the science, mind you, but flaws in the humans profiting off it. The same goes for our European anti-GM sentiments: Do you in all seriousness trust the likes of Monsanto or BASF not to put cash over lives? No matter how sound the science behind GM is, there already are enough reasons to be very mindful of what food I buy. And all of them are down to some greedy fucks trying to skim off just a little bit more. I do not need another layer of adverse interests thrown into the mix.
Rudolf Hess edited Mein Kampf. He was the very first grammar nazi.
In 1992, the FDA declared that biotech foods were the same as conventional foods – because the biotech companies said so. The number 8 was then instituted since the produce industry thought consumers would prefer genetically modified food moreso than conventionally grown food. It did not take long for them to find out differently. Although the number 8 designation can still be found, it is rare. The biotech industry is also fighting any sort of labeling for their inventions – now that they know consumers really do not want them. As it stands now, Hawaiian papaya is about the only food you will find that has the number 8 in front of it.
there is no "Genetic Engineering" yet, only genetic tinkering and selecting
While it is true that people have been altering crops for thousands of years (in fact, some crops, like corn, wheat, broccoli, Brussels sprouts strawberries, and tangerines were pretty much created by humans), and unless you are eating nothing but foraged foods and non-cultivated species everything you eat has had massive genetic alterations made to it via human selection, however it is not true that there are no genetically engineered crops out there right now.
There are, right now (as far as I can remember anyway), a grand total of 15 genetically engineered species with 9 types of traits that have been commercially released worldwide. Genetically engineered corn, soy, canola, cotton, sugar beet, and alfalfa are allowed to be grown in the US (some of these are deregulated in other places like Canada, Argentina, Brazil, and China too). These crops have either resistance to Lepidoptera insects (the Bt traits) or tolerance to an herbicide (the epsps gene for glyphosate or the bar gene for glufosinate), or both, depending on the crop. Also, drought tolerant corn was recently approved in the US, and a soybean called Vistive Gold that has an altered oil content. Those are your major GE crops.
Then there's two minor (relatively) crops, the Rainbow papaya (the first but hopefully not last university produced GE crop to make ti to market) and summer squash, which have genes from virus coat proteins to resist the papaya ringspot virus or cucumber mosaic virus. Another virus resistant crop was recently approved in Brazil, a bean resistant to golden mosaic virus (although it will be two years IIRC before it goes into production). There used two other horticultural crops that were GE, tomatoes and potatoes. The Flavr Savr tomato had delayed ripening traits and NewLeaf potato had the Bt trait, however, while they are still approved for sale, were taken foff the market. There is, however, the Amflora potato being grown in the Netherlands. It has altered starch content and is grown for industrial starch.
The rest are even more minor and aren't actually food crops.. The Applause rose is a GE 'blue' rose (looks more purple to me, but whatever). Once, Iran grew Bt rice, but from what I can tell (and I don't have much info on this one) they stopped growing it. In China they released Bt poplars into the wild to repopulate some deforested areas. The last one is the GloFish, which is sold as a pet.
Also, there's stuff that comes from GE microbes, for example, the rennet used in cheese making often comes from Ge bacteria.
So, that's what is currently (or was at one point) genetically engineered. There are plenty of GE crops in development or awaiting approval though, from Golden Rice to BioCassava to Arctic apples to Enviropig to 2,4-D resistant corn, and there's lots of promising research into other traits like fungus resistance and delayed ripening (food spoilage is a major problem in developing countries), so it isn't just limited to these plants and these traits. Unfortunately, overly strict regulations and general opposition & ignorance prevent the technology from being further utilized.
USDA & FDA labeling requirements state: "...consumers buying organic products, whether produced in the United States or imported, can be assured that the foods are produced without antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, irradiation or bioengineering.
So, yes, you can bet on "organic" being non-GMO.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false