Pesticide Registrations and Actions

• Early in 2009, Southern Gardens Citrus intends on planting red grapefruit trees developed at Texas A&M that have been shown to resist greening and bacterial canker.  (Palm Beach Post, 12/4/08). 

•  While genetically engineered peanut research is unlikely to result in the creation of completely allergen-free peanuts, it could produce a peanut that results in fewer reactions and complications.  For years, government scientists have been testing ordinary peanuts in the hope of finding one that cannot cause the deadly allergic reactions which kill more than 50 Americans every year.  Horticulture expert Peggy Ozias-Akins at the University of Georgia in Tifton is taking a different tack by using genetic engineering to grow hypoallergenic peanuts.  Most allergic reactions to peanuts are triggered by the same eleven molecules.  In theory, peanuts without the genes responsible for those molecules would be far less likely to trigger allergic reactions.  “Some proteins cause more severe allergic reactions than others,” said Ozias-Akins.  Tackling the worst offenders first, her team has made and tested peanuts that do not produce two proteins that are among the most intense allergens.  (Wired Science, 11/30/08). 

•  White corn, the variety that’s milled into chips, taco shells and tortillas, has for years been free of genetic engineering.  Millers and companies such as snack-food giant Frito-Lay bought only conventional, biotech-free varieties of the specialty corn from farmers.  But that's changing.  Farmers in Iowa, Nebraska and other states started growing a small amount of genetically modified white corn in 2008 after word came down from processors they would start accepting it.  “Our domestic millers have always been in favor of it,” said Todd Gerdes, specialty grains manager for Aurora Cooperative, which buys white corn at three of its locations in Nebraska.  The corn is sold to domestic mills and for export.  “What they've always wanted to do is to make sure that they didn't accept (biotech versions) and drive away their customers.  They've come to a comfort level where they can convince their customers it's OK.”  That change of heart has opened a new business for Pioneer Hi-Bred, which offered three white varieties of its Herculex corn for the first time this year and plans to bring out three more in 2009.  About 2 percent of Pioneer's white corn seed this year was genetically modified.  Virtually all of the corn grown in Iowa and nationwide is of yellow varieties and used for livestock feed, ethanol and for sweeteners and other food uses.  Some 80 percent of the yellow corn seed planted in 2008 was genetically engineered to make the plants toxic to insect pests or immune to a popular weed killer, or both.  Biotech varieties have been in the market for more than a decade, and there were even some versions in white corn in the 1990s.  But industry officials said millers got spooked by the controversies that initially surrounded biotech crops, including the StarLink® episode in 2000.  Foreign corn buyers also are playing a role in the acceptance of biotech corn, Gerdes said.  They already pay farmers a premium for white corn and feared that would go up unless they allowed farmers to grow genetically engineered versions, he said.  (Des Moines Register, 11/30/08). 

•  Cuba could soon authorize the planting of 124 acres of genetically-modified corn for the first time to help reduce its dependence on costly food imports.  Regulators are expected to approve this initial crop of biotech corn, which would provide enough seed to expand to 14,830 acres next year, said Carlos Borroto, deputy director of state-run Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.  “We expect over the next few days to get the license for those 50 hectares.  This is very important, because the alternative is to keep relying on imports.”  Cuba imports around 60 percent of its food, including large amounts of soy, wheat and corn.  The United States is the Communist-ruled island's largest food supplier under an amendment to its trade embargo on Cuba.  Cuban President Raul Castro recently called increased agricultural output a matter of ‘national security’ as soaring international food prices are expected to drain more than $2 billion from the government's coffers this year.  (Reuters, 12/2/08). 

•  The European Union’s highest court fined France 10 million euros ($12.9 million) for failing to update the country’s laws on genetically modified (GM) crops and foods.  In a statement, the European Court of Justice said the “unlawful conduct repeatedly engaged in by France in the GMOs sector is of such a nature as to require the adoption of a dissuasive measure, such as a lump sum payment.  Due to the circumstances of this case, the lump sum to be paid is set at 10 million euros,” the Luxembourg-based court said.  In June, one of the court's advocates-general said in an opinion on the case that Paris had failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that its statute book did not properly integrate an EU directive on releasing GM organisms into the environment.  The date for assessing whether France had complied with the 2004 ruling was February 2006, the ECJ said, adding: “It is obvious that, by that date, with the exception of a decree, France had not taken any steps to comply with the initial 2004 judgment establishing its failure to fulfill obligations.”  The court had a responsibility to ensure that its initial judgment, a ruling that France had broken EU law, was complied with as swiftly as possible and also to prevent similar infringements from recurring, it said.  (Reuters, 12/9/08). 

•  A new type of rice that can survive total submersion for more than two weeks has passed its field tests with “flying colors” say researchers, and is now close to official release.  Scientists hope that the rice can make a major difference in Bangladesh and India where up to four million tons of rice per year - enough to feed 30 million people - are lost because of flooding.  'Sub1' rice is identical to the high-yielding varieties popular with both farmers and consumers across Asia, except that it contains a single gene that gives it 'waterproof' qualities.  The enabling gene, 'sub1A', was discovered 13 years ago in a traditional Indian rice variety by David Mackill and Xu Kenong.  Scientists inserted the gene into other rice varieties and found that it became switched on when a plant was submerged.  It acts to make the plant dormant, allowing it to conserve energy until the floodwaters recede.  It also countermands the rice plant's normal strategy of extending its stem and leaves in an attempt to escape the water.  “The potential for impact is huge.  Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh’s annual rice shortfall and substantially reduce its import needs.”  (SciDev.Net, 12/5/08). 

•  Research at Michigan State University demonstrated that increasing the corn acreage can reduce the abundance of insect predators that control aphids, the most significant soybean pest in the United States.  An earlier study of fields in Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin showed that landscape diversity around a soybean field had a great impact on the abundance of beetles and other insects that help to control aphids.  With more nearby fields being turned over to corn, that diversity decreases.  (NY Times, 12/23/08).