If Americans ever eat genetically engineered fast-growing salmon, it might be because of a Soviet biologist turned oligarch turned government minister turned fish farming entrepreneur.

That man, Kakha Bendukidze, holds the key to either extinction or survival for AquaBounty Technologies, the American company that is hoping for federal approval of a type of salmon that would be the first genetically engineered animal in the human food supply.

A new biotech corn developed by Dow AgroSciences could answer the prayers of U.S. farmers plagued by a fierce epidemic of super-weeds. Or it could trigger a flood of dangerous chemicals that may make weeds even more resistant and damage other important U.S. crops.

Or, it could do both.

A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be sprayed over them.

India's first genetically engineered (GE) drought-resistant rice variety has been developed in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday said that the widely used herbicide 2,4-D would remain on the market, denying a petition from an environmental group that sought to revoke the chemical’s approval.

The E.P.A. said that the environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, had not adequately shown that 2,4-D would be harmful under the conditions in which it is used.

“At best, N.R.D.C. is asking E.P.A. to take a revised look at the toxicity of 2,4-D,” the E.P.A. said in its decision, which was posted on its Web site.

The Southern Action on Genetic Engineering (SAGE) has alleged that the ‘success story of Bt cotton' in the last 10 years is only a hype.

When Bt cotton spread to 85 per cent of the country's cotton area in 2009-10, the yield was 474 kg of lint a hectare.

“This is just 4 kg more than the yield in 2004-05 when Bt cotton's share was 5.70 per cent in the total cotton area. Besides 25 lakh acres of new area has been brought under cotton ever since significantly increasing production,” Mr P.V. Satheesh, National Convenor of SAGE, said.

Southern Action on Genetic Engineering has alleged that Bt cotton has done little to increase yield.

Net increase in yield, in fact, is dwindling in the last few years. "It has gone up by just 4 kg to 474 kg a hectare in 2009-10 from 470 kg in 2004-05," Mr P.V. Satheesh, Convener of SAGE, said.

Sage is an umbrella organisation of NGOs and intellectuals who oppose genetic engineering in agriculture.

This has reference to a series of articles published in DNA in March 2012 quoting certain NGOs who blamed Bt-cotton as being responsible for crop failures and farmer suicides! These are false and totally baseless allegations deliberately intensified to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Bt-cotton on March 26 in an effort to negate its remarkable success in revolutionising cotton cultivation in our country.

That they also organised anti-Bt-cotton agitations in several states on March 26 further explains their malafide intention.