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A group of biotech seed companies on Monday launched an online forum to combat mounting opposition to genetically modified foods among consumer groups and activists. The website, www.GMOAnswers.com, is designed as a "central online resource" for information on genetically modified organisms and their use in agriculture and food production, the Biotechnology Industry Organization said.

Long-awaited rules aimed at improving the safety of foods imported to the United States were proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The first-ever draft rules for safety oversight of imported food are part of a larger mandated food safety regulatory overhaul underway at the FDA, and part of a series of rules FDA is proposing that cover everything from vegetables and other produce to dog food.

Monsanto Co's unapproved, experimental genetically engineered wheat, which is feared to have potentially contaminated U.S. wheat supplies after it was found growing in an Oregon field this spring, was kept in a U.S. government storage facility until at least late 2011, according to documents obtained by Reuters. The revelation that the seed for the controversial genetically engineered wheat was kept viable in a Colorado storage facility as recently as a year and a half ago comes as the U.S. government is investigating how the strain of experimental wheat wound up growing in an Oregon field this spring.

Monsanto Co's unapproved, experimental genetically engineered wheat, which is feared to have potentially contaminated U.S. wheat supplies after it was found growing in an Oregon field this spring, was kept in a U.S. government storage facility until at least late 2011, according to documents obtained by Reuters. The revelation that the seed for the controversial genetically engineered wheat was kept viable in a Colorado storage facility as recently as a year and a half ago comes as the U.S. government is investigating how the strain of experimental wheat wound up growing in an Oregon field this spring.

Monsanto Co, the world's largest seed company, reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as sales remained on an upswing and pricing improved for the company's herbicide business. The leading developer of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and other crops said it still expected more than 20 percent growth in fiscal-year ongoing earnings, which exclude certain after-tax items.

Monsanto officials said Friday that continued extensive testing of U.S. soft white wheat supplies shows that the presence of the company's unapproved, experimental genetically altered wheat in an Oregon wheat field is highly suspicious and was an isolated incident that could not have happened through normal farming practices. Company officials said more investigation is needed to determine how the genetically engineered wheat, which Monsanto said it stopped field testing in 2005, was growing in April in the Oregon farm field.

The U.S. Agriculture Department, probing how a genetically engineered trait entered an Oregon wheat field and the extent of the contamination, has tested a dozen wheat samples and is looking at a national seed storage facility in an effort to resolve the mystery and calm a troubled market for U.S. wheat exports, a spokesman said on Thursday. None of the more than 100 tests of the 12 grain samples have turned up positive for the experimental genetically engineered trait that was found contaminating the Oregon wheat field this spring, said Ed Curlett, a spokesman for the USDA.

Pigs fed a diet of only genetically modified grain showed markedly higher stomach inflammation than pigs who dined on conventional feed, according to a new study by a team of Australian scientists and U.S. researchers. The study adds to an intensifying public debate over the impact of genetically modified crops, which are widely used by U.S. and Latin American farmers and in many other countries around the world.

The refusal of some foreign buyers to purchase U.S. wheat after an unapproved genetically modified strain was discovered growing in a farm field in Oregon is the latest demonstration that the issue of biotech food safety is far from settled. Japan and South Korea canceled purchases of U.S. wheat after the discovery of the experimental wheat developed by Monsanto Co. The furor erupted just days after a May 25 protest in cities around the world targeting Monsanto, the leading developer of crops with transgenic DNA.

Monsanto Co. on Monday won another round in a legal battle with U.S. organic growers as an appeals court threw out the growers' efforts to stop the company from suing farmers if traces of its patented biotech genes are found in crops. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a previous ruling that found organic growers had no reason to try to block Monsanto from suing them as the company had pledged it would not take them to court if biotech crops accidentally mix in with organics.