1. AGRICULTURE-MEXICO: PEASANTS CALL FOR "FOOD SOVEREIGNTY"
2. Children blinded by Greenpeace!
3. NASA PLANS TO PLANT GM WEEDS ON MARS
4. MSP TACKLES FINNIE OVER GM COMMENT
5. WARTIME OPPORTUNISTS: Modified bananas could deliver anthrax vaccine
6. Organic Farming Faces Biotech Corn Threat
7. EPA FINDS "BT CORN" SAFE, BUT CRITICS OBJECT
---
1. AGRICULTURE-MEXICO: PEASANTS CALL FOR "FOOD SOVEREIGNTY"
By Diego Cevallos
Inter Press Service October 16, 2001
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 16 BODY: Organizations of peasant farmers in Mexico urged the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today to replace the concept of food security with that of "food sovereignty" -- the right of countries to make decisions about all aspects of food production. The request was set forth on World Food Day, commemorated this year by FAO under the theme "Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty."
The event spurred debates in several Latin American countries on poverty and its consequences. For example, hunger has worsened over the past year in Guatemala and other parts of Central America. As part of today's events, 24 peasant associations and social groups in Mexico discussed the impact of transgenic corn, which is being introduced surreptitiously into the country, and called for controls to protect native varieties of corn and measures to bolster their production and distribution. In Bolivia, a national food fair was organized to mark the occasion, while a fund-raising lottery was held in Ecuador. On World Food Day this year, "we advocate food sovereignty, in contrast to food security, because it is not just a question of having enough food, but of the right of peasant farmers to feed" the population, said the Mexican groups.
In its documents, FAO speaks of food security, a term that addresses the need to guarantee a basic diet for everyone and to promote efforts against malnutrition. In its report "The State of Food and Agriculture 2001," FAO says food and livestock production in Latin America grew 5.4 and 5.7 percent, respectively, in 1999, up from 1998 growth rates of just 1.8 and 0.7 percent. But last year, agricultural yields in the region increased around 2 percent, while production of grains, in particular, grew less than 1 percent, the annual report added.
Meanwhile, livestock production rose around 3 percent in 2000, and non-food crops 4 percent. The report also underlined that although Latin America had posted relatively poor performance in agriculture, hunger was not at dramatic levels in the region. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said today that it was important to recognize that hunger deserves at least the same attention as poverty, when it comes to global development priorities. The U.N. agency underscored that there were 815 million hungry people in the world, 200 million of whom are under 10. Alberto Gmez, with the National Union of Autonomous Regional Peasant Organizations, said in Mexico that "there is no lack of food in the world. What there is, is poor distribution and attempts by transnationals" to impose their food products. The Mexican groups complained that with the complicity of government officials, transnational corporations were introducing genetically modified corn into Mexico, which they said was a violation of "the country's food sovereignty."
The government of Vicente Fox has acknowledged that transgenic corn has been detected in several states, but it does not see that as a threat. Mexico, the birthplace of corn, imports six million tons of the crop every year. An unknown quantity of those imports contain transgenic elements. "Peasant farmers are capable of producing all of the corn that the population needs, and without the dangers posed by transgenics," said Vctor Surez with the National Association of Marketing Companies. Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Aventis and Dow, leaders in the production of genetically engineered seeds and crops, which also have a strong presence in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical markets, say their scientific contributions in the area of transgenics provide answers to hunger in the world. The transnationals impose themselves on poor farmers worldwide with products whose impact on the ecosystem and human health is still unclear, but could be catastrophic, protested the Mexican groups, which are opposed to such technology. Argentina, Canada and the United States grow 98 percent of the transgenic crops sold throughout the world.
But the seed giants are pushing to expand the cultivation of genetically modified crops in other countries, especially in the developing South. World Food Day presents an opportunity to defend "food sovereignty" and urge developing countries not to allow themselves to become the "booty" of a handful of companies, said the Mexican groups.
---
2. Children blinded by Greenpeace!: Co-founder ready to organize protest against Greenpeace
Editorial PAGE: Patrick Moore [shortened - for more on Moore and his industry connections see: http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/moore.htm]
National Post Saturday, October 20, 2001
...In response to Greenpeace's scandalous attacks on the promising development of Golden Rice, one of its inventors, Ingo Potrykus, accused Greenpeace of "crimes against humanity." I agree with him.
But how can we fight back without resorting to crimes of our own? What if 100 research scientists walked into a Greenpeace International meeting, chained themselves to the place, then called the media and stated their demands? Among those demands would be a promise not to prevent people from free assembly and free speech. What if those same scientists were to hang huge banners reading Greenpeace is Wrong about Biotechnology; Fight Anthrax, Not Corn; Millions of Children Condemned to Blindness by Greenpeace; etc. I would be happy to help organize such an event.
---
3. NASA PLANS TO PLANT GM WEEDS ON MARS
The Ukrainian Times October 23, 2001
Plans are in hand to plant genetically modified (GM) weeds on Mars. According to the NASA, the plants could be sent to the planet during a space flight in the year 2007. Their genetic structure will be modified by means of the transplantation of genes of a jellyfish that would allow the weeds to survive under unfavorable conditions such as the drought, low temperature and toxic substances on the ground. Small hothouses will be built on Mars, and a robot gardener will fertilize the soil. A camera set up on a landing vehicle will survey growth of the plants. On Mars a temperature ranges from seven degrees centigrade above zero at day to 110 degrees below zero at night.
---
4. MSP TACKLES FINNIE OVER GM COMMENT
The Scotsman October 19, 2001
THE controversy over protests against genetically-modified crop trials took a new turn last night when an MSP claimed Ross Finnie, the rural affairs minister, might have breached the ministerial code of conduct after he criticised protesters who had been arrested. Brian Adam, a North East Scotland SNP list MSP, tabled a parliamentary question following Mr Finnie's comments last week that protesters arrested while attempting to disrupt the planting of GM crops at Munlochy, near Inverness, had harassed the farmer. Eleven people were arrested and six charged with aggravated trespass after they tried to block a tractor. They are to appear in court next month. Mr Adam has asked the Scottish executive whether it is against the code of conduct for ministers "to comment on the conduct of those charged with offences whose cases have not been dealt with by the courts".
---
5. Modified bananas could deliver anthrax vaccine
[WAR TIME OPPORTUNISTS]
RTw 10/20 0114
SHANGHAI, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Genetically modified fruit and other food could be used in future to deliver medicine, including a vaccine against anthrax, an Australian bio-technology fund manager said on Saturday.
"The distinction between food and drugs will gradually disappear," said Peter Carre, chairman of Xcelerator Life Sciences Funds Group. "Medicine will be in milk, it'll be in stuff we ingest every day. Food will be the most widely used form to distribute medicine," Carre said at a business conference on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Carre said bananas were already being genetically modified in research laboratories for all types of medicinal purposes, including immunisation against four strains of anthrax. "Why bananas? They grow quickly, people like them and they took early. You could have done it in a tomato if you wanted," Carre told reporters after a speech to the conference. Carre said Cornell University in upstate New York was leading development work on genetically modifying food to deliver medicines to people.
Governments around the world have become increasing fearful that anthrax smeared on letters is being used as a biological weapon. An eighth case of anthrax infection was confirmed on Friday in the United States, further unnerving a country still recovering from hijacked plane attacks on September 11 that killed some 5,400 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. One man has died. Argentine health authorities confirmed on Friday that a letter sent from Miami to a woman in Buenos Aires was laced with anthrax spores but they believed she was not at risk of becoming infected.
---
6. Organic Farming Faces Biotech Corn Threat
Los Angeles Times October 21, 2001
"EPA Allows Planting Of Biotech Corn" [Oct. 17] fails to address the threat to the fastest-growing segment of agriculture in this country: organic farming. It ignores the crisis that organic corn farmers face every summer as they wonder whether genetically engineered corn pollen will drift into their fields and contaminate their crops. It leaves out the fact that foreign markets are increasingly rejecting U.S. corn harvests due to the presence of biotech corn, and many countries are adopting stringent standards to detect contamination. Furthermore, the article fails to note that farmers in the Midwest are actually spraying as much pesticide as they did before they began planting biotech corn. Scientists from Iowa and Cornell universities concluded in published studies this June that "the use of transgenic corn will not significantly reduce insecticide use in most of the corn growing areas of the Midwest."
The only threat that has been diminished by the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to re-register biotech corn has been the threat to Monsanto's corporate profits. Kimberly Wilson o7 Genetic Engineering Specialist Greenpeace San Francisco
---
7. EPA FINDS "BT CORN" SAFE, BUT CRITICS OBJECT
By Danielle Knight
Inter Press Service October 16, 2001, T
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 BODY: U.S. regulators today renewed the registration of genetically engineered corn containing Bt toxin, despite what critics call a lack of clarity over possible threats to health and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted five different corn crops containing a gene from the natural soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which is toxic to weeds and other plants, a seven-year registration. "Bt corn has been evaluated thoroughly by EPA, and we are confident that it does not pose risks to human health or to the environment," said Stephen L.
Johnson, assistant administrator of the agency's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances. While declaring that the corn products are safe, the agency said it was requesting additional environmental studies and requiring that companies comply with several new provisions designed to strengthen insect resistance management. The decision brings to an end an almost two-year-long process during which the agency reassessed the risks and benefits of controversial Bt corn crops, produced by several biotechnology companies. The companies holding registrations for Bt corn are Monsanto, Syngenta, Pioneer/DuPont and Mycogen/Dow. Biotech watchdogs immediately denounced the decision. "Once again, the EPA has taken the interests of a few corporations over public health and the environment," Matt Rand, manager of the biotech campaign at the Washington-based National Environmental Trust (NET), told IPS. Public concern worldwide over Bt corn grew after scientists at Cornell University found in May 1999 that Bt corn pollen killed monarch butterfly larvae. Half of the monarchs -- cherished by nature lovers for their unique bird-like migration in North America -- migrate along the U.S. corn belt. The discovery that genetically altered corn pollen will kill non-target species like monarch butterflies alarmed many scientists and made front-page headlines around the globe. A scientific assessment of more recent research studies, which was carried out by U.S. and Canadian researchers including the Department of Agriculture, suggested that monarch butterfly caterpillars face "negligible" risk from Bt corn pollen. "Their comprehensive, peer-reviewed studies in actual field conditions show that earlier, widely publicized laboratory experiments were not representative of conditions in a natural environment," said Linda Thrane, executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information, an industry organization. Several scientists remain unconvinced. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which asked regulators not to renew the registrations, conducted its own analysis of the risks and benefits of Bt corn, including the new studies on monarchs. "The studies leave open the possibility that exposure to Bt corn may have long-term harmful effects on the butterflies," said Jane Rissler, a senior UCS staff scientist. Several authors of the more recent studies have urged the EPA to consider the possibility that the insects might not only consume corn pollen, but corn tissue as well. "If they do, the dose of toxin received by the monarchs could be much higher than that considered," said Rissler.
Karen Oberhauser, one of the authors of the recent monarch studies, told IPS that assessing increased mortality rates of monarchs is difficult because the larvae have such a high natural mortality rate, ranging from 90 to 95 percent. A significant statistical change would only show up if large field tests were conducted across the country, unlike what researchers have done so far, said Oberhauser, who is a professor at the department of ecology, evolution and behavior at the University of Minnesota. "In my mind there are still questions," she said. A coalition of consumer and environmental groups, known as the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, said government regulators also failed to conduct studies on the impact that ingestion of the corn could have on human health.
Advocacy groups said hundreds of reports of possible allergic reactions to the engineered corn had not been investigated. While the EPA's own scientific advisors recommended in July that allergy tests be conducted, regulatory officials said no tests were planned before the re-registering of Bt corn. "The agency has had the ability for several years to design and conduct allergy testing, yet they have refused," said NET's Rand. In the absence of such allergy tests, advocacy groups they will send samples of Bt corn varieties to allergists, who can then test their patients through controlled "skin prick" tests. The groups would then make the test results public. More than 200 people have reported unexplained allergies to corn but no government investigation has examined all of the cases, said Larry Bohlen, director of health and environment programs for Friends of the Earth. Last year, the coalition was first to alert the public that a genetically modified corn variety, known as StarLink and not approved for human consumption, had been found in taco shells and other food products. The announcement triggered hundreds of food recalls in the United States. In September, the Taco Bell restaurant franchise and several other food companies filed a class-action lawsuit against Aventis CropScience and other seed corporations that helped develop, market and distribute StarLink. The introduction of the unapproved altered seed has resulted in "major disruptions of the food supply," the suit alleged.
Bohlen said the EPA's approval of Bt corn without testing for allergies would again leave companies vulnerable to the same liability issues they faced with Starlink.