News & Views

France Outlaws Planting of GM Crops

France is the latest European country to place a ban on planting genetically modified (GM) crops. An article from Reuters news agency describes a decision made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to suspend the planting of GM crops until more is understood about their potential harmful effects. France, the largest agricultural producer in the European Union, is set to initiate a study later this year by a newly-created authority to address the issues that cultivating GM crops may raise.
Sarkozy emphasized that the ban did not require research on GM foods to be stopped. "This suspension of commercial cultivation of pesticide GMOs does not mean—I want to be clear on this—that we must condemn all GMOs, notably future GMOs," the French president said.

The ban does not affect the farming of MON 810, a variety of genetically modified maize that represents 1.5% of France’s maize crop and that was produced by Monsanto to combat the European corn borer. Monsanto’s contract to sell this variety must be renegotiated with France in early 2008, by which time the new study should have results to report.

Austria and Hungary have already outlawed MON 810, and Germany required the institution of a monitoring plan that charts the crop’s effect on the environment in order for it to be sold in that country. The role of GM crops in the marketplace has been a hotly contested issue for European countries, while the Unites States, in sharp contrast, has more readily accepted the crops. Those who follow the topic are quick to point out that awareness of the issue is much greater in Europe, where EU countries are required to label foods bearing GM ingredients; the U.S. enjoys no such law.

Read the complete Reuters article here in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-30164820071025?pageNumber=1

2007 Farm Bill Holds Promise and Threat

As of this writing, the Senate is still debating the 2007 Farm Bill, with progress stalled as politicians argue over how the amendment process will work in debating the bill. Within the Senate there is a wide degree of flexibility regarding the rules governing floor debate of legislation and an agreement has not yet been reached on the nature of amendments that will be allowed to come up for debate.

In its current form, the Farm Bill will authorize new funding for farmers transitioning to organic agriculture, support for organic agriculture research, funding for improved data collection (to result in better crop and yield information for organic producers), and removes the 5% premium that organic producers have been charged by the USDA for crop insurance (despite the fact that lost crops have been compensated at rates for conventional crops, not their higher market value).

While much of the bill contains many provisions beneficial to organic farmers, it is far from perfect in the eyes of many critics. Organizations working towards equity for small farmers point to the need for a cap on the amount that individual farms can receive as subsidies. The overwhelming majority of subsidy funding is currently awarded to large farms, who many accuse of not needing the subsidies that critics say could be put to better use in funding small and medium sized farms. In a recent article Farm Aid President Willie Nelson urges concerned citizens to ask for “a farm bill that assists young people who want to start farming; one that restores fairness in the marketplace so family farmers can compete with giant food companies and factory farms; one that puts better food in our schools and rewards farmers who transition to sustainable methods.”

The current version of the farm bill would also mandate the implementation of the highly-contentious National Animal Identification System (NAIS). This system is aimed at identifying and tracking the movements of all food animals and livestock within the United States. The benefit of the program, according to the USDA’s NAIS website, is that it will “protect the health of U.S. livestock and poultry and the economic well-being of those industries” by allowing disease outbreaks to be quickly traced to their source. The law will require that all livestock animals, even a single horse or backyard flock of laying hens, be identified, typically with a visual tag with radio frequency identification technology, and that all premises that the animals live on be entered into a national registry. Critics, such as Family Farm Defenders, accuse this system of placing an unnecessary financial strain on small farmers and of introducing an Orwellian level of government scrutiny.

Early Findings of European Study
Show Organic Food is Better For You

In Newcastle, England a 725 acre farm is host to a study being conducted to systematically document the difference in nutritional content between conventional and organic food. Preliminary findings have revealed that organically produced foods have substantially higher levels of “beneficial compounds.” The compounds represent minerals such as iron, copper, and zinc, and vitamins and secondary metabolites (believed to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease).

The farm, associated with Newcastle University, is joined by 32 other academic institutions across Europe that have been studying the benefits of organic food over the past four years as part of the EU funded, Quality Low Input Food (QLIF) project. Although large variations exist in the nutritional differences between different crops, thus far the study has indicated that organic produce and milk are more likely to contain beneficial compounds. Professor Carlo Leifert , the head of the QLIF project, reports: “We have a general trend in the data that says there are more good things in organic food. We are now trying to identify the agricultural practices that are responsible for this.”

This study was originally reported on by The Sunday Times. Click here for the complete article www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article2753546.ece

Massive Plant Information Database
Made Available Free to Public

For over thirty years the University of Minnesota has been compiling data on plants and this effort has resulted in one of the world’s largest collections of horticultural and botanical information. The Plant Information Online database amasses that information in an easy-to-use resource that is now available to the public, free of charge.

Users looking to acquire a specific plant can find contact information for over 900 plant retailers and over 2000 seed and nursery businesses in North America. These sources represent access to over 100,000 varieties of plants.

Another section of the database offers links to expert-selected websites with region-specific information on growing plants within the United States and Canada. Through these links, growing advice can be found on over 8,000 plants.

Scholars and botanical experts will take note of the “Book and Magazine Citations to Plant Info and Images” section, which includes almost 350,000 bibliographic citations to over 130,000 plants around the world. The listings describe which sources contain images of specific plants, as well as what parts of the plant are pictured. Information about the plants often accompanies the images. Three centuries of botanical illustrations have been culled to produce the extensive index.

While the large size of the database may seem daunting, helpful search tips are offered to assist users in finding the information that they’re looking for.

Updated daily, the Plant Information Online website is sure to be of use to hobby gardeners, botany students, owners of curious minds, and more. plantinfo.umn.edu/arboretum/default.asp