Biodiversity

"Japan, the biggest importer of soft white wheat grown in Oregon and Washington, postponed a 25,000-ton order from a Portland grain shipper Thursday, the first market fallout after the discovery of genetically engineered wheat plants growing in an eastern Oregon field where they shouldn't have been."

"Unapproved genetically engineered wheat has been found growing on a farm in Oregon, federal officials said Wednesday, a development that could disrupt American exports of the grain."

"In the news business, an evergreen is a story that doesn't have to run on a particular day, but can stay fresh for a long time."

"Drivers who end up behind John Cooley this week will quickly lose their patience. Cruising around the eastern United States with his car window open, he slows down or stops every few hundred metres, cocks an ear and taps on a data-logger strapped into the passenger seat."

"A decline in the diversity of farmed plants and livestock breeds is gathering pace, threatening future food supplies for the world's growing population, the head of a new United Nations panel on biodiversity said on Monday."

"Organizers say 'March against Monsanto' protests held in 52 nations and 436 cities. Anti-Monsanto rallies sparked by a Facebook page in February."

"In the 1980s, manufactures began making cockroach baits that combined sweet glucose with deadly insecticides. By 1993, many cockroach populations somehow developed an aversion to the bait. Now, 20 years later, scientists finally understand how the roaches beat these traps."

"Frogs, toads and salamanders continue to vanish from the American landscape at an alarming pace, with seven species — including Colorado’s boreal toad and Nevada’s yellow-legged frog — facing 50 percent drops in their numbers within seven years if the current rate of decline continues, according to new government research."