Monsanto, DuPont settle lawsuits, set new $1.75-billion deal

The companies have dropped their lawsuits against each other and agreed 
to work together delivering new technology to farmers

Reuters / Monsanto Co. and DuPont have settled a bitter legal battle over rights to technology for genetically modified seeds and will drop antitrust and patent claims against each other while forging a new collaboration, the companies said March 26. The deal tosses out a $1-billion jury verdict DuPont was ordered to pay Monsanto last August. Instead,

Like most American belts, the Corn Belt has expanded too

North Dakota corn acreage has doubled since 2006 and quadrupled since 2001 Reuters / A combination of a long-term warming trend, improved varieties and soaring profits has sparked a “corn boom” in the Northern Plains that might one day turn North and South Dakota into the new Iowa, analysts say. “All you need to do


Goss’s wilt continues to spread

Goss’s wilt can be tackled through good management practices, but it may take 
genetic resistance to subdue the disease

It’s been four years since Goss’s wilt made its first appearance in Manitoba corn crops, and the disease shows no signs of abating. “It seems to have spread to most of the grain corn-growing regions of Manitoba,” said Holly Derksen, who spoke about the problem at a recent Special Crops Symposium in Winnipeg. Derksen, a

Seed companies near deal on off-patent GMO technology

What happens when patents for genetically modified seeds expire? Monsanto has made billions off Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, canola, and other crops since launching a glyphosate-tolerant soybean in 1996. But the upcoming expiration of its patent for the herbicide-resistant trait in 2014 raises an array of concerns, including who bears the costs and responsibilities of


California’s GMO labelling proposal in tight race

Reuters / Heavy advertising spending by Monsanto Co. and others opposed to a California ballot proposal to require labels on grocery products containing genetically modified organisms is paying off, according to a new poll that shows the measure has slipped into a virtual tie. Forty-four per cent of California voters now support the measure, while

Regulatory approval

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont business, has received Canadian regulatory approval for cultivation, feed and food use of Optimum GLY brand canola, its proprietary glyphosate-tolerant canola. Pioneer expects to commercialize the product mid-decade, pending key regulatory approvals from export markets globally. Optimum GLY canola was developed, in part, through exclusive DNA shuffling technology to provide tolerance


New fungicide options available this year

There are a couple new fungicide combinations available to Manitoba farmers this year and perhaps a new one if final regulatory approval comes in time. BASF’s Twinline combines the active ingredients in the fungicides Headline (Group 11) and Caramba (Group 3) into one jug. The product controls a number of cereal diseases including leaf, stem

Syria needs to import more grain milan / reuters / Syria, hit by a civil unrest, needs to raise cereals import by about a third in the current marketing year after its local grain output 10 per cent dropped in 2011, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said March 14. “Continued civil unrest


Experts search for ways to cut food waste

Reuters — Cleaning your plate may not help feed starving children today, but the time-worn advice of mothers everywhere may help reduce food waste from the farm to the fork, help the environment and make it easier to feed the world’s growing population. Hard data is still being collected, but experts at the Reuters Food

Manitoba Seeing A Products Revolution

It takes a lot of energy to keep the largest greenhouse in Manitoba warm through a bone-chilling winter, and until five years ago, that energy source was natural gas at Vanderveens Greenhouses in Carman. With gas prices spiking and the cost of heating hundreds of thousands of square feet of greenhouse rising with it, the