1.US plan for biotech outreach (via Wikileaks)
2.List of US target countries for GM development
3.New WikiLeaks Cables Show US Diplomats Promote GM Crops Worldwide
4.Wikileaks: US Pushing GMOs Around the World
NOTE: See also this useful wiki resource on U.S. State Department Promotion of Agricultural Biotechnology and this example of an individual country page for U.S. State Department activity in South Africa.
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1.US plan for biotech outreach (via Wikileaks)
Jill Richardson
Check this one out: http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=08STATE129940
It was written by Condi Rice just before she left office. No reason to assume the policies are much different under Hillary Clinton – they've had the same guy in there (Jack Bobo) working on this stuff since 2002. He got a promotion this year.
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2.List of US target countries for GM development
Extract from cable 08STATE129940
http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=08STATE129940
(U) Although our biotech strategy is global, we plan to pay particular attention to advancing this strategy through active engagement with key countries, with the medium-term goal of establishing models of ag-biotech trade and development success that can be a powerful demonstration to others.
These key countries in FY 2009 include:
Brazil
Burkina Faso
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Egypt
Germany
Ghana
India
Indonesia
Kenya
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Peru
Philippines
Romania
Russia
South Africa
Thailand
Ukraine
Vatican
Vietnam
[Link to more information on target countries here.]
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3.New WikiLeaks Cables Show US Diplomats Promote Genetically Engineered Crops Worldwide
Mike Ludwig
Truthout, 25 August 2011
http://www.truth-out.org/new-wikileaks-cables-show-us-diplomats-promote-genetically-engineered-crops-worldwide/1314303978
Dozens of United States diplomatic cables released in the latest WikiLeaks dump on Wednesday reveal new details of the US effort to push foreign governments to approve genetically engineered (GE) crops and promote the worldwide interests of agribusiness giants like Monsanto and DuPont.
The cables further confirm previous Truthout reports on the diplomatic pressure the US has put on Spain and France, two countries with powerful anti-GE crop movements, to speed up their biotech approval process and quell anti-GE sentiment within the European Union (EU).
Several cables describe "biotechnology outreach programs" in countries across the globe, including African, Asian and South American countries where Western biotech agriculture had yet to gain a foothold. In some cables (such as this 2010 cable from Morocco) US diplomats ask the State Department for funds to send US biotech experts and trade industry representatives to target countries for discussions with high-profile politicians and agricultural officials.
Truthout recently reported on front groups supported by the US government, philanthropic foundations and companies like Monsanto that are working to introduce pro-biotechnology policy initiatives and GE crops in developing African countries, and several cables released this week confirm that American diplomats have promoted biotech agriculture to countries like Tunisia, South Africa and Mozambique.
Cables detail US efforts to influence the biotech policies of developed countries such as Egypt and Turkey, but France continues to stand out as a high-profile target.
In a 2007 cable, the US embassy in Paris reported on a meeting among US diplomats and representatives from Monsanto, DuPont and Dow-Agro-sciences. The companies were concerned about a movement of French farmers, who were vandalizing GE crop farms at the time, and suggested diplomatic angles for speeding up EU approvals of GE Crops.
In 2008 cable describing a "rancorous" debate within the French Parliament over proposed biotech legislation, Craig Stapleton, the former US ambassador to France under the Bush administration, included an update on MON-810, a Monsanto corn variety banned in France.
Stapleton wrote that French officials "expect retaliation via the World Trade Organization" for upholding the ban on MON-810 and stalling the French GE crop approval process. "There is nothing to be gained in France from delaying retaliation," Stapleton wrote.
Tough regulations and bans on GE crops can deal hefty blows to US exports. About 94 percent of soybeans, 72 percent of corn and 73 percent of the cotton grown in the US now use GE-tolerate herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup, according to the US Agriculture Department.
A 2007 cable, for example, reports that the French ban on MON-810 could cost the US $30 million to $50 million in exports.
In a 2007 cable obtained by Truthout in January, Stapleton threatened "moving to retaliate" against France for banning MON-810. Several other European countries, including Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, have also placed bans on MON-810 in recent years. MON-810 is engineered to excrete the Bt toxin, which kills some insect pests.
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4.Wikileaks: US Pushing GMOs Around the World
Jill Richardson
La Vida Locavore, September 3 2011
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/4875/beyond-wikileaks-us-pushing-gmos-around-the-world
About a week ago, Truthout published an article titled, "New WikiLeaks Cables Show US Diplomats Promote Genetically Engineered Crops Worldwide." I've been waiting for something like this to come out.
One of the first cables I clicked on (from Morocco) mentioned something called Biotech Outreach Funds. Huh? More information please!
It didn't take long to Google a State Department presentation on the topic. It was presented by Jack A. Bobo, who was then the Deputy Chief Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He is now the Chief of the Biotechnology and Textile Trade Policy Division, a job he was given in March of this year. He's been working on biotech for the State Department since 2002, under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Bobo's presentation outlines which countries around the world allow and grow genetically engineered crops. He also shows a map of countries that fall into each of the following stages of GMO legalization: "Granting Production & Import Approvals, Conducting Pre-Commercial Field Trials, Granting Import Approvals, and Commercialization Delayed."
The State Department's role, he says, "Covers all trade issues related to biotechnology" and "Covers food aid/development issues involving biotechnology." State coordinates with the USDA, FDA, EPA, President, USAID, and Dept of Commerce on these issues. (USAID, by the way, is an agency within the State Dept.) Their goals are to: "Promote science-based regulatory systems, Maintain flow of trade while ensuring health and environmental safety of products, [and] Reduce hunger and poverty and increase incomes in developing world."
And, yes, the State Department had, at the time of this presentation (it has no date, but is from some time after 2004), $500,000 in "Biotech Outreach Funds" to spend on speakers, workshops, translation, and the U.S. website.
Another document I found, a job description for state department interns, says the following:
The Agriculture and Biotech Trade Affairs (ABT) division of the Office of Multilateral Trade and Agriculture Affairs (MTAA) seeks to open markets to U.S. agricultural products and to eliminate barriers to such trade. ABT works to advance the State Department's critical global food security goals and policies that alleviate the problems associated with rising global food prices. The ABT team contributes to the development of effective food aid policies, and promotes rural development and increasing agricultural productivity through the application of appropriate technologies, including biotechnology. ABT oversees the distribution of the Department's biotech outreach funds to promote international acceptance of biotechnology.
Interesting, huh? In one leaked memo from Romania, "DOS Senior Advisor for Biotechnology Jack Bobo visited Romania to meet with new Romanian government officials to advocate for the benefits of agricultural biotechnology."
During this trip:
Mr. Bobo also met with industry representatives from Monsanto and Syngenta (he had met with a Pioneer representative during his prior stop in Hungary). The industry officials noted that anti-biotech EU member states, particularly France, are lobbying the GOR [Govt of Romania] to change its position on biotechnology. The representatives agreed that organizing a group of pro-biotech supporters would be beneficial and could help support Romania and other newer EU member states to exchange experiences with more developed countries such as Spain, thereby banding their voices together in dealings with the Commission.
Another cable from Thailand describes the U.S. embassy in Thailand's request for $20,000 in Biotech Outreach Funds in 2010 to "support a workshop on the intersection of biotechnology, food security, rice production and the four lower Mekong countries [Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam]." The memo goes on to say:
As insecticide use in rice fields is extensive in some lower Mekong areas, such as the Mekong delta, the environmental benefits of GMOs could bring important allies from environment officials. With rice and other crop production a key element for the four nations, and the great promise that GMOs hold for rice production in the face of climate change, an outreach event that draws together these four countries, food security, rice and the environment in the context of science and biotechnology is a natural fit.
The $20,000 in outreach funds would go for the following proposed two-day conference:
Embassy Bangkok, in collaboration with FAS, USAID/RDMA, Embassies Vientiane, Phnom Phen and Hanoi would hold a conference on "Agricultural Production, Climate Change and Biotechnology" for two days in the spring of 2010. The conference would review climate change predictions for rice and other crop production in the various aspects of rice farming – dry and wet season, rice paddy and dry land. Another presentation would relate rice and other crop production to food security for Asia. Another would review how manmade water management – irrigation diversions, canals, dykes and hydropower dams, will affect rice production. The conference would then move into the state of biotechnology for rice production in the U.S. and China, what biotech could offer for rice producers, and what the actual state of play is for rice biotech exports to, for example, Europe under WTO rules. Targeted participants would be a mix of scientists and government officials, the latter a mix of environment, water management, trade and agriculture officials.
This is not the only example of U.S. funds working to promote biotech. Another cable, from Mozambique, notes the use of "USDA Emerging Markets Program funding" to send "three Mozambicans in an agricultural biotechnology informational tour of the United States in November 2009." Yet another cable from Mozambique discusses a proposal for Biotech Outreach Funds "to bring two experts in the subject matter to South Africa to meet with regulators, academia, consumers, and legislators on currently relevant topics such as regulation of stacked genes, low level presence and labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMO) on foods, and liability and redress."
Another cable requesting Biotech Outreach Funds comes from Tunisia, proposing a workshop to address the following:
With growing population pressure and limited farm lands, Tunisia's food security is increasingly threatened by irregularity of rainfall. The proposed workshop would address the advantages of agricultural biotechnology in arid and semi-arid regions, including positive effects on crops yields, biotechnology's impact on biodiversity and the environment, and direct socio-economic benefits to Tunisian farmers from the use of biotechnology in agriculture.