From Bio Journal - October 2002
GM soy detected in organic food
The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on August 28 that a survey carried out by the Standards and Labelling Division of the General Food Policy Bureau from mid-June to the end of July concerning 54 soy food items that had received Organic JAS (Japan Agricultural Standards) approval and 22 natto (fermented soy beans) and tofu food items labeled "uses organic soy" had found that 14 of the former items and 11 of the latter items (25 items in all, 32.9%) contained genes from GM crops.
Organic JAS Approved Items |
| | Number of Items | GM material not detected | GM material detected | Unanalyzable |
| Tofu | 29 | 20 | 9 | 0 |
| Natto | 25 | 15 | 5 | 5 |
Items highlighted as using organic soy |
| | Number of Items | GM material not detected | GM material detected | Unanalyzable |
| Tofu | 18 | 7 | 11 | 0 |
| Natto | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
GM crop material was detected in roughly a third of the food items, which should contain absolutely no GM material in order to receive organic JAS approval.
MAFF has carried out inspection of the manufacturers' factories on suspicion of infringement of the JAS laws and descriptive labeling regulations.
NIAS develops a new GM rice variety
A research group comprising of researchers from NIAS (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences), Nagoya University, Tokyo University, and The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research have developed a new GM dwarf variety of rice using the gibberellin gene. Dwarf varieties of rice are considered to be useful as they tend to lodge (be blown flat by winds) less than taller varieties. The new variety is said to have solved the problems of flower formation and so on so far associated with dwarfing.
Development of a GM apple
The National Institute of Fruit Tree Science has developed an apple for which the time taken from grafting to flowering has been drastically shortened. In the research, carried out on the "Ohrin" variety, when a shoot tip from the new GM variety was grafted onto a stock tree it was found to flower in about eight months and produced fruit from which seeds were obtained. A non-GM apple grafted under similar conditions has not flowered after six years. The research is to be followed up with experiments on the "Fuji" and other apple varieties, with experiments on other fruits to follow later.
Additional medical facility to participate in human ES cell program
The 11th meeting of the specialist committee on research into embryos and human ES cells (a consultative body of MEXT) took place on September 11, and the addition of Keio University Hospital to the Kyoto University human ES cell production program as a donor of fertilized ova was approved. Kyoto University's ES cell production program was approved in March this year, but at that time only Toyohashi Civic Hospital was approved as a donating medical institute. However, since no donors had come forward, the plan had run into difficulties, leading to the addition of donating medical facility.
On the same day, the committee once again postponed approval of the Shinshu University human ES cell utilization program, citing insufficient intramural discussion at the university as the reason. As the Shinshu University program, it's application for implementation, and the examination of these documents is not being publicly disclosed, a claim against the university and MEXT has been made for public release of the information.
 (English Index)
|
