Paris,
20 December 2010
EFITA newsletter / 492 - European Federation for Information Technology in
Agriculture, Food and the Environment
To read this newsletter on the efita.net web site...
See: http://www.efita.net?d=6816
New "All Blacks"
Monday, 20th of December, my family and I will leave for a
sabbatical to New Zealand. We plan to be back at the 17th of June
2011. As you probably know, it is summer now in NZ (:-)) so we will first
take some holidays at the South Island. From February on, our children will
go to school and I will go to Massey University in Palmerston North as a fellow
researcher. From my field of expertise, information management and ICT in
the agri-food sector, my plan is to see how they are doing over there and
perhaps they want to know how we in Europe are doing. Here you can read more
details about this plan: https://www.box.net/shared/dn5arclm92.
If you have some interesting information on e.g. ICT adoption, or contacts,
please let me know (and yes I’ve already contacted Ehud ;- )). And perhaps
we can meet at the IFMA congress in Christchurch.
A presentation of our total plan can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/SjaakWolfert/familie-wolfert-goes-down-under
And if you want to follow us during our adventure, read our blogspot at: http://wolfertdownunder.blogspot.com/,
although this will be mostly in Dutch.
Let me already wish you a very good Christmas and happy new year and hope
to meet you again in the European summer! Cheers,
Contact: Sjaak WOLFERT
E-mail: sjaak.wolfert(a)wur.nl
New e-Agricuture Platform launched today! New look, same mission!
We are happy to announce that the e-Agriculture Community is launching a totally
new online platform today, 16 December 2010. The launch is in conjunction
with the ICTD2010 conference, where a special half day session on enhancing
the impact of ICT in rural development has been organized by FAO and other
partners in the e-Agriculture Community.
After three years of exciting growth, collaboration and knowledge sharing
around ICT for rural development, this new platform has been developed to
keep pace with the needs of your e-Agriculture Community in the coming years.
This totally new platform is the result of your Community's suggestions and
input, the combined effort of many individuals, and takes advantage of appropriate
new tools including Drupal and social media applications. The result is not
only a new website, but a new way for your Community of more than 7,000 members
from150 countries to interact, collaborate, share experiences, and expand
our collective understanding of key issues in the ICT4D field.
e-Agriculture Community members have a common interest that brings us together:
improving policies and processes around the use of ICT in support of agriculture
and rural development, in order to have a positive impact on rural livelihoods.
Your participation in this Community is greatly appreciated and is vital to
its continued success.
We also take this opportunity to ask you to update your profile. You can do
so after logging in at http://www.e-agriculture.org/user/login
. If you have any problems, please contact us at info@e-agriculture.org.
To learn more about the ICTD2010 conference and the special e-Agriculture
session on Thursday 16 December 2010,
See: http://www.e-agriculture.org/news/e-agriculture-perspectives-ictd-2010-london-month>.
Finally, please write us at info@e-agriculture.org and tell us what you think
of the new platform, and let us know about any online activities or topics
that you would like to see featured in 2011.
See: http://www.e-agriculture.org/
A decade of EU-funded GMO Research
See: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1688.
>>> Some of the main points:
- 25 years of research
- 500 independent research groups
- €300 million of research
- "...biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky
than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies."
In order to help inform debate on genetically modified organisms, the European
Commission is publishing today a compendium entitled "A decade of EU-funded
GMO research". The book summarizes the results of 50 research projects
addressing primarily the safety of GMOs for the environment and for animal
and human health. Launched between 2001 and 2010, these projects received
funding of €200 million from the EU and form part of a 25-year long research
effort on GMOs.
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
said "The aim of this book is to contribute to a fully transparent debate
on GMOs, based on balanced, science–based information. According to the findings
of these projects GMOs potentially provide opportunities to reduce malnutrition,
especially in lesser developed countries, as well as to increase yields and
assist towards the adaptation of agriculture to climate change. But we clearly
need strong safeguards to control any potential risks. "
> A publication for scientists, policy-makers and other stakeholders
This new publication aims to contribute to the debate on GMOs by disseminating
the outcomes of research projects to scientists, regulatory bodies and to
the public. It follows up previous publications on EU-funded research on GMO
safety. Over the last 25 years, more than 500 independent research groups
have been involved in such research.
According to the projects' results, there is, as of today, no scientific evidence
associating GMOs with higher risks for the environment or for food and feed
safety than conventional plants and organisms.
> A wide range of projects to know more about the safety of GMOs
Many of the research projects described in the book were launched to address
scientific questions in areas of known public concern about the potential
environmental impact of GMOs, about food safety, and about the co-existence
of GM and non-GM crops.
The book includes results from research projects working on:
- developing analytical tools and methods for detecting GMOs in food and feed
(GMOCHIPS, QPCRGMO) - supporting EU policies on labelling and traceability
of GM food and feed;
- developing new safety assessment approaches on the potential health effect
of GM food (ENTRANSFOOD, GMOCARE, SAFOTEST, NOFORISK, GMOBILITY, GMSAFOOD);
- crop improvement by genetic modification, such as resistance to pathogens
– from fungi (EURICE) and viruses (TRANSVIR) to nematodes (NONEMA);
- improving the sustainability of agriculture by enhancing the nitrogen use
efficiency of crops (SUSTAIN);
- managing gene flow, gene transfer and coexistence of GMO and non-GMO (ANGEL,
TRANSBAC, SIGMEA, CO-EXTRA, TRANSCONTAINER);
- assessing effects of GMO on biodiversity (BT-BIONOTA, ECOGEN, POTATOCONTROL).
> Background
Since 1982, the European Commission has invested over €300 million on research
on the bio safety of GMOs
> A decade of EU-funded GMO research (2001-2010):
See: http://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/library/brochures_reports_en.htm
> EC-sponsored research on Safety of Genetically Modified Organisms (1985-2000)
See: http://ec.europa.eu/research/quality-of-life/gmo/
Joys of men v. women: Creation
A man said to his wife one day, 'I don't know how you can be so stupid and
so beautiful all at the same time.
'The wife responded, 'Allow me to explain…
God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me;
God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!
About the EFITA mailing list
You can use the efita moderated list (>4400 subscribers) to announce
any event / product / web site / joke (!) related to IT in agriculture, environment,
food industry and rural areas.
If you do not wish to receive our messages, please see: http://www.efita.net to remove your E-mail address
from our mail list.