--Dan Worley in Sunny Puerto Rico--
>Errors-To: <rwolfson@concentric.net>
>X-Sender: rwolfson@pop3.concentric.net
>Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 11:43:48 -0500
>To: info@natural-law.ca
>From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
>Subject: European GE News
>X-UIDL: de34d48c0ac53b53fea7ca9fd2f4258c
>
>Agri-Industry Europe February 27, 1998 No. 16
>
>LECLERC SUPERMARKET CHAIN DEMANDS LABELLING OF TRANSGENIC FOOD
>
>The French retail chain Leclerc will shortly be requiring its suppliers to
>provide information on the presence of genetically -modified organisms (
>GMOs) in their products. Michel-Edouard Leclerc, co-Director of the group
>alongside his father, Edouard, indicated on February 13 that Leclerc
>hypermarkets will boycott manufacturers who fail to respect this request.
>The group will grant suppliers a "technical deadline" beyond which they
>will be required to indicate whether or not tinned products, frozen foods,
>milk, yoghurt and other soya- based products, etc. contain GMOs, and to
>provide complete information to consumers through adequate labelling.
>
>Mr Leclerc is adamant that consumers have a right to be informed should be
>able to chose whether they wish to buy transgenic products. At present, 90%
>of food processors claim not to be in a position to categorically state
>whether the raw materials they import and/or use contain GMOs. Beyond the
>technical deadline granted for the introduction of this information,
>Leclerc outlets will be obliged to stop using suppliers unable to provide
>such information and guarantees: "Our aim is not to prevent the sale of
>transgenic products, but to ensure that consumers are able to exercise a
>choice", Mr Leclerc insisted.
>
> ======#======
>The Irish Times February 27, 1998
> Delay urged in ' genetic' planting
>
>Companies involved in genetic engineering of plants should agree a
>five-year moratorium on the planting-out of any modified species, a UK
>geneticist has said. "Scientists like myself are extremely concerned that
>the biotech industry has been allowed to go too far too fast before a
>scientific basis for a safe technology and proper risk assessment has been
>established," said Dr MacWan Ilo, of the Open University of the UK.
>
>======#======
>AP February 27, 1998
> JENIFER CHAO
>Netherlands-Cloned Calves
> POLSBROEK, Netherlands BODY: The Dutch government said Friday it would
>outlaw a technique that produced two cloned calves, announcing the ban just
>as scientists were showing off the newborn animals.
>
> The identical female calves, Holly and Belle, lay languidly in their shed
>Friday while a throng of news photographers jostled to get a better
>glimpse. They were born Tuesday, apparently healthy, on a farm in the
>northern Netherlands.
>
>The calves, cream-colored with black patches, were produced in a joint
>experiment by Pharming, the country's leading biotechnology company, and
>researchers from University of Luik in Belgium.
>
>Although U.S. scientists have successfully cloned calves using the same
>nuclear transfer technique, Holly and Belle were still front-page news
>here amid growing discussions on the controversial subject.
>
>Parming said the cloning of its calves remained significant because the
>embryos were frozen before and after the cloning to allow more time
>flexibility in their experiment.
>
>But before Pharming could fully savor its success, the Dutch Agriculture
>Ministry said Friday that it will ban the nuclear transfer technique.
>
>''The method has not been proved necessary, there is no scientific
>purpose,'' said ministry spokesman Paul van der Brug.
>
>The ban hasn't deterred Pharming, which said it will continue its research
>through joint ventures with companies in the United States and Belgium.
>
>''The knowledge we've gained doesn't go away,'' said Frank Pieper,
>Pharming's vice-president of research and technology. ''We can still
>collaborate with other countries.''
>
>To create Holly and Belle, scientists first harvested fertilized and
>unfertilized egg cells from cows at a slaughterhouse.
>
>To clone the fertilized egg, which was six days old, researchers injected
>its nucleus into the unfertilized egg. They then applied an electric shock
>to the newly fertilized egg, which cause it to multiple copies of itself.
>
>The copied cells, which contain identical genetic material of the
>fertilized egg, were then implanted into two surrogate mothers for Holly
>and Belle, who were later delivered by caesarean section.
>
>They have been transported to a laboratory farm in the western Dutch
>village of Polsbroek where they will be raised.
>
> Pharming produces therapeutic human proteins that are extracted from the
>milk of genetically engineered animals.
>
>The company says cloning will be a faster way to produce genetically
>modified livestock than its currently method of micro-injecting embryos.
>
>
>
>
>
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