FOCUS ON ASIA
http://www.gmwatch.org/asia.asp

Remember the Thai Prime Minister warning that Thailand must jump aboard the biotech train before it was too late?

The article below, reporting a speech by Bangladesh's Agriculture Minister, MK Anwar, provides another beautiful example of the bad-idea virus in operation. Not only does Anwar apparently believe GM crops can do almost anything:

"Agriculture Minister MK Anwar today said biotechnology is an important and prospective device to help improve sustainable agricultural productivity to match with additional food and nutrition demands and protect ever-decreasing land and water resources."

but he also seems to think Bangladesh is lagging way behind the rest of Asia:

"Besides its genetically modified (GM) cotton, MK Anwar said China has started production of GM rice. Other Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Indonesia are making huge investments on biotechnology research."

The gap here between supposed government intent and the reality on the ground could not be greater:

Commercial production of GM rice has not started in China. Thailand still has its moratorium. In the case of India, in the words of pro-GM lobbyist Shantu Shantharam, "all we have is one stupid Bt cotton to talk about". GM cotton is also the only GM crop to have been commercialised in Indonesia, where it proved such a disaster that it had to be withdrawn, leaving a massive bribery scandal in its wake. Japanese consumers have been so hostile to GM that they helped trigger Monsanto's global abandonment of GM wheat.

That leaves the Philippines where GM corn is being grown commercially but amidst great controversy and allegations that it is being distributed without proper labels and that farmers are seldom informed that the seeds they are getting are genetically-engineered. Often it is the government which buys the seeds from Monsanto or its agents, and these are then distributed for free or at subsidized prices to unsuspecting farmers. In other words, GM crops have been pushed by stealth, deception, subsidy and the complicity of officials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4795

For more on the fever that sweeps through political leaders leaving them believing they must succour the money-losing biotech industry or suffer a competitive disadvantage, see item 2.

1.Biotechnology for improving farm output...
2.GM Watch's letter to the Thai PM
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1.Biotechnology for improving farm output, protect resources stressed
Bangladesh Journal, 14 Feb 2005
http://www.bangladeshjournal.com/index.php?ID=3349

Dhaka, Feb 14: Agriculture Minister MK Anwar today said biotechnology is an important and prospective device to help improve sustainable agricultural productivity to match with additional food and nutrition demands and protect ever-decreasing land and water resources.

The minister said this while inaugurating a six-day workshop on "The improvement of grain legumes for tropical agriculture through gene transfer: New approaches and bio-safety aspects" at a city hotel.

Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof SMA Faiz, Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council Dr Nurul Alam, professor of Hanover University of Germany Hans Jorg Jacobsen and professor of Agbios Dr D J MacKenzie of Canada addressed the inaugural function.

A large number of agriculturists, botanists and experts from home and abroad are attending the workshop, a press release said.

MK Anwar said Bangladesh has made excellent progress in agriculture production by almost tripling the foodgrain production and halving the intensity of hunger and poverty.

But the food demand of the country is expected to increase significantly in the next 20 to 25 years due to a rise in population and economic development, he said, adding that this increased demand could be meet only by adopting modern technology.

Stressing the need for grain legumes to check malnutrition, he said pulses like lentil, chickpea, mungbean, grass pea, black gram, field bean and cowpea are being cultivated in the country. But these varieties have low yield potentials and prone to pest attack and diseases, he added.

"Genetic engineering would be effective in producing fungus and salinity resistant crop varieties," the agriculture minister said, adding that an effective transformation protocol should be established to transfer genes of desirable traits successfully.

Besides its genetically modified (GM) cotton, MK Anwar said China has started production of GM rice. Other Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Indonesia are making huge investments on biotechnology research.

Other Asian countries should also produce GM rice to meet the growing demand, he observed.

He emphasized coordinated efforts for developing regulatory framework and policies related to biotechnology and human resources development in this field.
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2.Advice on GMOs for the prime minister
POSTBAG
Bangkok Post, 28 August 2004
http://www.biothai.org/cgi-bin/content/news/show.pl?0285

We are writing to express our dismay at the news that you intend to give the green light to GM crops in Thailand. Your doing so risks grave harm both to Thailand's standing in the world and to the marketability of Thai agricultural produce.

We strongly support your exporters, farmers, consumers and civil society groups who are warning you that this is not in the interests of Thailand.

You have talked about the need for Thailand to jump aboard the biotech train before it's too late. This makes us wonder what you have been led to believe about where that train is heading? Were you told, for instance, of a recent report from one of the world's leading business advisory firms, Ernst & Young, showing that publicly traded biotechnology companies in the US are estimated to have suffered cumulative losses of more than $41 billion in the last decade or so?

Were you told that the economist and biotech-industry specialist, Joseph Cortright has described as a "bad-idea virus" the fever that sweeps through political leaders leaving them believing they must succour the money-losing biotech industry or suffer a competitive disadvantage?

Cortright's research on the biotech industry leads him to conclude: "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable."

Outside the developing world, GM crops are in serious retreat, as witnessed by Monsanto's recent announcements that it will: Stop all further efforts to introduce GM wheat globally; stop its GM canola breeding programmes in Australia; withdraw its cereal programmes from Europe. Other GM firms, like Bayer and Syngenta, have suffered similar setbacks.

You have said that Europe has opened its doors to GMOs but that is certainly not the view of countries like the US, who are trying to export GM crops to Europe. That is why the US is pressing ahead with its WTO action against the EU.

In fact, the EU has just brought in the world's most stringent rules on GMOs. Many European food companies and supermarkets also have policies of not allowing GMOs in their products.

This is the reason why the biotech industry, with the unprecedented backing of the US government, is trying to push its dubious wares in countries in Asia. Countries like Thailand have become the principal targets of a desperate industry.

GM crop supporters have doubtless told you that you are in danger of falling behind in Asia's "biotech race".

But look more closely and you'll see that that is nonsense. Monsanto has already pulled out of GM in Indonesia, where it is under investigation for corruption.

China's political leaders appear at best ambivalent about going further down the GM route because of increasing evidence of consumer hostility while experts like Prof Dayuan Xue warn that GM crops have brought no "significant benefits" to China's many small farmers.

One particularly intractable problem for your farmers and exporters is that GM contamination is difficult to contain or avoid, and the costs of trying to do so can be prohibitive. In addition, no studies have been conducted on the long-term effects of GM crops on the environment or on human health.

We therefore ask you not to base your decision solely on the advice of biotech advocates and the demands of Washington and corporations eager to export seeds and products to Thailand that are unwelcome elsewhere in the world. We ask you not to ignore the rights of your farmers and consumers just because of the hype and pressure that is coming from the US and the biotech corporations and their local supporters.

We ask you not to put at risk Thailand's excellent name for quality agricultural produce. And, most of all, we ask you to consult your farmers and consumers about whether they want GM crops.

JONATHAN MATTHEWS
Director, GM Watch
www.gmwatch.org