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ARCADIA BIOSCIENCES, CANADIAN FIRM INK DEVELOPMENT DEAL

DAVIS - Arcadia Biosciences Inc has partnered with Alberta, Canada-based SemBioSys Genetics Inc. to co-develop value-added specialty oil products with potential nutraceutical applications. 

Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, SemBioSys will use its safflower biotechnology capabilities to develop safflower oils rich with the omega 6 fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA) for Arcadia and will receive research payments, milestone payments and royalties on new product sales. 

This is the fifth funded development agreement announced by SemBioSys in the last six months. In December, SemBioSys announced that it had executed a development agreement with Martek Biosciences Corporation to co-develop value-added specialty oil products - DHA containing safflower oil - with potential nutraceutical applications. 

Arcadia Biosciences is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on the development of a wide range of agricultural. 

DOA RESCINDS CHANGES TO ORGANIC FOOD STANDARDS

WASHINGTON, DC - Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman has rescinded the changes her department made last month to federal organic food standards.

Last month the department's Agricultural Marketing Services issued what it called clarifications of the standards, allowing antibiotics in dairy cows, certain chemicals in pesticides and livestock feed containing non-organic fish meal.

When the changes were announced they created a firestorm in the organic community.

Critics of the changes said officials had not consulted with the National Organic Standards Board, an advisory panel of experts, as the law requires. Ms. Veneman said those officials would now work with the board to decide how to deal with the issues.
 
She said, though, that the marketing services had acted in "good faith."
 
The new directives would have permitted organic dairy animals to be treated for disease with any drug, including antibiotics and growth hormones, and remain on an organic farm, as long as the producer waited 12 months to sell milk from those animals.

They would also have allowed the use of fish meal as a feed supplement for organic livestock even though fishmeal can contain synthetic preservatives and contaminants like mercury and PCB's.

And they would have permitted the use of certain pesticides even if the inert ingredients of those pesticides are prohibited.

In explaining the directives, department officials had said they were not creating new rules but establishing the limits of existing regulations.

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