Hello demidec-ga,
The spread of genetically modified foods (including papayas) in
Southeast Asia has been very controversial. Most of the research on
genetically engineered papayas was done in connection with the
Hawaiian papaya industry. Moving the technology to Southeast Asia
(especially Thailand, Malaysia and the Phillipines) has generated a
lot of controversy. As you requested, I collected a variety of recent
articles and I?ve grouped then according to their stance on
genetically modified foods. The controversy generates both scientific
and economic arguments.
I see you?ve asked several questions about growing papayas. I wish you
well with your project.
~ czh ~
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REPORTS IN FAVOR OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED PAPAYAS
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http://www.isaaa.org/Publications/briefs/briefs_11.htm
Papaya Biotechnology Network of Southeast Asia: Biosafety
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications
ISAAA Briefs
No. 11 - 1999
The Papaya Biotechnology Network of Southeast Asia: Biosafety
Considerations and Papaya Background Information
In preparation for the biosafety workshop, two scientists from the
region?one each from Thailand and Malaysia?undertook a two-week study
visit to the University of Hawaii and Monsanto, USA. The two most
advanced countries in the development of transgenic papayas, Thailand
and Malaysia, serve as regional hubs of the papaya network. They are
anticipated to conduct the first field trials of their own transgenic
papayas in the region. The internship was designed so that Thailand
and Malaysia would be able to make a comprehensive assessment of all
pertinent biosafety aspects for the development and commercialization
of transgenic papayas based on the US experience. Their work would
also make it possible for them to prepare an appropriate field trial
application for transgenic papayas following their respective country
guidelines and to assist other network member countries in preparing
their own field trial guidelines.
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http://www.isaaa.org/Projects/SEAsiapro.htm
ISAAA?s Current Asian Project Portfolio
The Papaya Biotechnology Regional Network for South East Asia: Papaya
is very important to poor farmers and consumers in Southeast Asia, but
two major constraints limit its production and availability: papaya
ringspot virus and significant post-harvest losses.
ISAAA established a Papaya Biotechnology Regional Network for
Southeast Asia to address these constraints through the partnerships
and collective efforts of five target countries-Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, The Philippines, and Vietnam-and two private sector
companies-Monsanto and Syngenta. ISAAA successfully brokered from
these companies the donation of biotechnology applications that confer
resistance to papaya ring spot virus and reduce post harvest losses.
The impact of the transfer of these proprietary technologies has been
greatly multiplied through the Network?s inter-country technology
transfer and training within Southeast Asia. Significant progress in
capacity building, product development, and evaluation has already
been accomplished.
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http://www.searca.org/~bic/resources/bulletin/BIC_Bulletin.htm
Thailand to resume field trials on papayas
Thailand has decided to go ahead with a field experiment on
genetically improved papayas which was put on hold in April after
demands by greens that all biotech field trials be scrapped in the
absence of a biosafety law. The government has now decided that field
trials being conducted by the Agriculture Department will continue at
field stations, before the product is tried out on farmers' fields.
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http://www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=4017
21 Oct 2002 -- China steps up biotech research
``On the contrary, China has joined the race to find sustainable
solutions to food-related problems using modern biotechnology; in
fact, it was the first country to commercialize a biotech crop ? a
plant virus-resistant tobacco,`` Borlongan said. China is now
conducting biotech research on more than 50 plant species, including
peanuts and papayas.
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http://202.190.32.5/pbcc/news1.htm
Have Tough New Gene, Will Travel
New Straits Times
01 April 2001
According to this story, Malaysian Eksotika papayas, although highly
rated, make it to Singapore and Hong Kong but don't always reach West
Asia and Europe in good time, thus inhibiting their potential as a
Made-in-Malaysia dessert fruit or a breakfast staple served with a
wedge of lime to jumpstart its delicate flavour.But, the story says,
plant molecular biologists Vilasini Pillai and Umi Kalsom Abu Bakar of
Mardi are upgrading the papaya's travel-worthiness by modifying the
genetic code to delay its ripening, and that in their Serdang labs,
Pillai and Umi Kalsom have young tissue- cultured plants bearing the
anti-sensed gene that will extend travel time for Malaysian
papayas.Pillai was quoted as saying, "What we've done is to reverse
the genetic code that launches the ripening process. By the end of
this year, these plants will bear fruit and our project will be put to
the test."With that kind of itinerary, papayas with delayed ripening
are likely to appear on the market in about five years.
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http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=137
October 2000
ISAAA in Asia
Promoting corporate profits in the name of the poor
The Papaya Biotechnology Network
***** See long discussion of genetically modified papaya projects in
Thailand, Malaysia and Hawaii.
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http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:NaStC5TxGZYJ:www.searca.org/~bic/Press%2520releases/Jun2002/17b.htm+GMO+papayas+asia&hl=en
Transgenic Papayas for Breakfast
Filipino scientists see that using biotechnology's new tools may yet
provide a viable option. Encouraged by the success of Hawaii which
earlier developed a resistant papaya to the ringspot virus but the
virus is of the Hawaiian strain, biotech scientists joined their
counterparts in Southeast Asia to adopt the technology for their own
papayas which shall be tested for resistance against local virus
strains.
Last year, a Filipino molecular biologist, Pierriden Perez spent a
year at Malaysia's MARDI Biotechnology Centre's lab to develop our own
special papayas that are resistant to the papaya ringspot virus.
Perez had to go to Malaysia because the Philippine biosafety laws
required a permit for each new type of research work. The National
Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines requires permit for each
kind of transformation (A transformation is a technical term that
describes the incorporation of a gene into a host organism). The
present permit was only for gene gun transformation while Perez' works
will use Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.
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REPORTS OPPOSED TO GENETICALLY MODIFIED PAPAYAS
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http://www.chinapost.com.tw/cp/health/20030926_1.asp
DOH seeks to protect public from genetically modified foods
2003/09/26
By William C. Pao / The China Post
By William C. Pao / The China Post
In the face of genetically modified foods (GMFs) increasingly found in
markets all over the world, the Department of Health (DOH), working in
conjunction with other government agencies and the private sector, has
drawn up a series of measures to protect Taiwan consumers? health
interests.
The DOH is considering adding four other genetically modified products
onto the list this year ? potatoes, canola, cotton and papayas. The
first three products are mostly imported, while genetically modified
papayas come from Taiwan?s National Chung Hsing University, which,
under Professor Yeh Shyi-dong, has developed a new papaya immune to
ring-spot disease.
National Chung Hsing University is just one of the academic
institutions doing research work on GMFs, which are also being
developed by Academia Sinica, the formerly U.N.-sponsored Asian
Vegetable Research and Development Center and other organizations,
Chen said.
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http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/multimedia/download/1/290394/0/papaya_unknown_plant.pdf
June 2003 -- Genetically Engineered (GE) Papaya ? Unknown Plant
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http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/features/details?item_id=290584
Thu 03 July 2003
THAILAND/Bangkok
Papaya is the latest target of the genetic engineering (GE) industry.
The Thai government is seeking to introduce the crop to Thailand
despite the fact that GE papaya has already been a failure in Hawaii,
the only place in the world where GE papaya is grown commercially.
Behind this push are the GE industry's big players, hoping to expand
corporate control of the food chain into Asia.
***** This is a long article discussing genetically altered papaya
production in Thailand.
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http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/press/release?item_id=290400&campaign_id=3943
Hawaiian farmers warn Thai farmers about genetically engineered
papaya: Don't do it!
Thu 03 July 2003, Bangkok, THAILAND
When GE papaya was introduced 5 years ago they claimed it was a
'solution' to the papaya ringspot virus problem. But instead it has
caused serious environmental and economic problems for farmers," said
Melanie Bondera, a sustainable agriculture farmer and member of the
Hawaii Genetic Engineering Action Network (HIGEAN) on Big Island,
Hawaii.
The rejection of GE papaya in overseas markets has been devastating
for Hawaiian farmers. The selling price of GE papaya has fallen to
30-40 percent below production costs, and the price that farmers get
for their GE papaya is 600 percent lower than the price for organic
papaya.
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http://www.ecologyasia.com/NewsArchives/Jul_2001/bangkokpost_110701_News20.htm
July 11, 2001 -- Groups rally against genetic engineering
Local activist groups are boycotting the conference. Demonstrators
yesterday dumped garbage bins full of GM papayas, tomatoes and corn on
the steps of the UN building where the conference was being held.
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NEUTRAL REPORTS ON GENETICALLY MODIFIED PAPAYAS
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http://www.searca.org/~bic/resources/bulletin/BIC_Bulletin_June01.htm
Biotechnology Information Center
Thailand
Efforts on agricultural biotechnology and genetic engineering in
Thailand are focused on three main areas: plant transformation, DNA
fingerprinting and molecular diagnosis of plant and animal diseases.
In crops, GE research are conducted on rice, cotton, papaya, tomato
and pepper. Research projects are ongoing to engineer Thai rice for
ragged stunt virus resistant and salt tolerance. Transformation of Bt
- Cry 1 a gene into cotton is the strategy to produce cotton resistant
to cotton boll worm. Papayas are engineered to contain the PRSV coat
protein gene for PRSV resistance and also the use of antisense
technology to prolong its shelf-life. Tomato yellow leaf curl virus
and chili vein banding mottle virus are the problems of tomato and
pepper, respectively. Engineering of CP gene of these viruses into its
host is ongoing.
Philippines
The Philippine Crop Biotechnology R&D Program particularly on genetic
engineering concentrates efforts on rice, coconut, corn, banana,
papaya, and mangoes. The Program aims to develop rice varieties with
resistance to stem borer tungro, blast and sheath blight; corn
varieties with resistance to Asiatic corn borer; bananas with
resistance to BBTV; papayas with resistance to PRSV; coconuts with
higher levels of medium chain fatty acids; and mangoes and papayas
with delay ripening traits. The research on GE is conducted mainly by
the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and the
Philippine Coconut Authority-Albay Research Center (PCA-ARC) as well
as the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB)-Institute of
Plant Breeding (IPB), Institute of Biological Sciences (IBS) and the
National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BIOTECH).
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http://www.gefoodalert.org/News/news.cfm?News_ID=1224
Asia's Place in the GM Debate
(Posted: 18-Nov-99)
THAILAND plans to introduce GM cotton, papayas, tomatoes, chillies and
vegetables and imports product such as U.S. soybeans, believed to be
genetically modified.
***** This article gives a country-by-country review of the laws that
apply to GM foods.
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http://www.dawn.com/2003/07/23/int16.htm
23 July 2003 -- GM crops spreading in southeast Asia
BANGKOK: The battle over introducing genetically modified (GM) crops
in Southeast Asia is being fought in the corn fields of the
Philippines and the papaya orchards of Thailand, among other places.
The struggle has mutated to become more ideological than scientific,
with proponents arguing that the new, genetically modified crops can
bring about an agricultural revolution to produce sturdier,
faster-growing or pest-resistant crops while boosting yields to feed
the world's hungry.
Opponents, meanwhile, accuse advocates of the new technology,
particularly the administration of US President George Bush and the
US-based Monsanto Corporation, of dragging the rest of the world into
a brave new world of dangerous, genetically manipulated "Frankenfood".
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genetically modified papayas asia
GMO papayas asia
genetically engineered papayas asia
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