1.Reporting agri-biotechnology with ISAAA
2.PUNJABI JOURNALISTS BRIEFED ON AGRIC BIOTECH
The following 2 items represent an absolute disgrace. They demonstarte how an industry funded and directed lobby group, ISAAA, is being allowed to utilise public bodies to help it train journalists and shape the reporting of "agri-biotechnology" in developing coubtries.
What adds to the Orwellian nature of this exercise is the fact that not only is the ISAAA an industry backed vehicle for promoting GM crops, but that it has a long record of misleading and manipulating the media to that end - see:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=66&page=I
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1.Reporting agri-biotechnology
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) have just published "Genes are gems: Reporting agri-biotechnology", by R.L Navarro, S.G. Warrier and C.C Maslog. The 139-page book has been prepared for science communicators who want to report on agricultural biotechnology. It synthesises the presentations, discussions and outputs from a series of seminar-workshops on agri-biotechnology for the mass media organised by ICRISAT in Asia and West Africa between 2004 and 2006, in cooperation with ISAAA and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). See http://www.icrisat.org/Publications/Genes_Gems.htm or contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
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2.PUNJABI JOURNALISTS BRIEFED ON AGRIC BIOTECH
Crop Biotech Update, 15 June 2007 http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/2007/06/15.html#thebics
The Chandigarh Press Club, the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, Ministry of Environment and Forest and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) jointly organized a Media Workshop on Agricultural Biotechnology in Punjabi and English in Chandigarh on 7th June 2007.
The event, the second of a series of media workshops in local languages, was entirely supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forest of India under the GEF-World Bank biosafety capacity building project. More than 75 journalists and reporters from print and electronic media attended the program. Resource persons included Dr SR Rao form Department of Biotechnology, Dr BS Dhillon and Dr R G Saini from the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Dr Guriender Randhawa from the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), Dr. N S Tiwana and Dr J K Arora from the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology, Dr. Gurdial Singh and Dr. Palwinder Singh Aulukh from the Dept of Agriculture, Govt of Punjab, Mr. Balwant Takshak from the Chandigarh Press Club, and Bhagirath Choudhary from ISAAA.
For more information contact Dr JK Arora at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Read more about this event at http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=240061 and http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070608/main7.htm