NOTE: 2009's been such a busy year for GMWatch that this is the first chance we've had to review 2008. Here's the first instalment - also available here:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/56-BEST-OF-2008-PART-ONE.html

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BEST OF 2008 - PART ONE
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INTRODUCTION

2008 was another great year in the global resistance to the imposition of GM crops. But you might not have known it thanks to the atmosphere of crisis as food prices sky-rocketed and so did Monsanto's profits. The two were directly connected.

The World Bank's attributed as much as 70% of food price inflation to the disastrous policy of growing food for fuel. Some go further and see 'biofuels' as the critical catalyst for the entire crisis.

Monsanto had been at the heart of the lobby for 'biofuels', and with food riots breaking out as the poor were pushed increasingly to the wall, Monsanto got together with the likes of Dupont and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) to form the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy. The aim: to keep Bush's ethanol mandates firmly in place, regardless of the consequences.

The reason was that food price inflation not only enabled Monsanto to profit by massively hiking up its prices for seeds and Roundup, it also provided the launch pad for an aggressive new PR campaign. Its purpose was to use the atmosphere of crisis to try and over-rule grassroots resistance to GM by enlisting the support of pro-GM politicians, technocrats, industrialists and commentators in promoting GM crops as vital to solving the food crisis.

As Daniel Howden, Africa correspondent of The Independent succinctly put it, 'The climate crisis was used to boost biofuels, helping to create the food crisis; and now the food crisis is being used to revive the fortunes of the GM industry.'

Even some GM supporters showed signs of disquiet at this panic-mongering. Prof Denis Murphy, head of biotechnology at the University of Glamorgan in Wales admitted, 'The cynic in me thinks that they're just using the current food crisis and the fuel crisis as a springboard to push GM crops back on to the public agenda. I understand why they're doing it, but the danger is that if they're making these claims about GM crops solving the problem of drought or feeding the world, that's bullshit.'

But the waves of BS were also being driven by industry desperation. Despite repeated claims to the contrary, resistance to GM was far from crumbling amidst the panic, and to make matters worse a major report produced by 400 scientific experts and signed up to by nearly 60 governments was published in 2008, which made it clear that after more than 10 years of commercialisation, GM crops had done nothing to help with the eradication of hunger or poverty, nor reversal of environmental degradation caused by agriculture.

Just as damaging for the biotech industry, was the report's conclusion that the evidence showed that it was the agroecological alternatives, with their proven track record in boosting production for small farmers in developing countries, that needed special promotion at the cost of investments in industrial and GM-based agriculture.

After reading the 2500-page report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, it was easy to see that the diversion of political attention, scientific endeavour and funding away from these innovative low-cost approaches will have a long-term negative impact on both future food supplies and equity for the poor.

This is a message that the biotech industry and its supporters are desperate to keep out of the media and away from the political elite, but 2008 was the year the cat got out of the bag.

Nobody should any longer be in doubt - when it comes to resolving global problems and building a better world, GM crops are a dangerous irrelevance that will only push us further down the path to destruction.

Here are the first 6 months of GM resistance from 2008.

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JANUARY
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+ MEXICO: 'MEGA MARCHA' AGAINST DUMPING GM CORN IN MEXICO
Upto 200,000 protesters opposing the dumping of US GM corn, took part in a 'Mega Marcha' in Mexico City. They were also overwhelmingly opposed to GM corn being cultivated in Mexico itself.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8734

+ SPAIN: OVER 300 SCIENTISTS AND NGOs CALL FOR GM BAN
'This is a technology that is destroying biodiversity... It is lamentable that Spain is acting as a vector for introducing these cultures into Europe when it is a country rich in biodiversity,' said Eugenio Reyes, a researcher at the Botanical Garden of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, at the presentation of a petition calling on the government to ban the cultivation of GMOs throughout Spain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8696

+ AUSTRALIA: SUPERMARKET CHAIN GOES GM-FREE
Independent South Australian supermarket chain Foodland joined the Coles chain in ensuring that their own brand products were GM-free. Both supermarkets said they were responding to strong customer preferences.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8705

+ U.S.: PENNSYLVANIA BACKS OFF LABEL BAN
Pennsylvania agriculture officials had to back down from a planned ban on milk labels that identified milk that came from cows not treated with Monsanto's GM growth hormone. Governor Rendell ordered a review of the proposed ban after a consumer outcry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8688

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FEBRUARY
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+ FRENCH BAN ON GM CORN OFFICIAL
France officially imposed a ban on the growing of Monsanto's GM maize MON810, following a report by the country's Provisional High Authority on GM Organisms that said it had 'serious doubts' as to its safety. As MON810 is the only GM crop that has been grown commercially in France, the ban effectively brought to a halt all GM commercial planting.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8740

+ OPPOSITION TO GMOs HARDENING AMONG EU GOVERNMENTS
Despite massive pressure to introduce more GM products into the EU in order to normalize trade relations with the United States, experts said that if anything some EU countries were hardening their longstanding opposition to GM. Jacqueline Mailly, senior European regulatory affairs adviser at the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Brussels, commented, 'If you take the Austrians, for example, they now appear to be standing firmer than ever against biotechnology.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8777

+ BASF GM POTATO BLOCKED
Yet again in 2008, BASF failed to get final approval for cultivation of its GM 'Amflora' potato, which produces extra starch for making glossy paper products and for feeding animals. Patrice Courvalin, the head of the Antibacterial Agents Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris was among those who spoke out about the dangers of ever approving Amflora, 'The biotechnology industry threatens to set an extremely worrying example if it wins approval for this potato. We should keep trying to prevent dissemination of antibiotic resistance rather than to allow products into the food chain that could potentially make a bad situation even worse.' So far, Amflora has not been planted commercially anywhere in the world.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8781

+ U.S. GROCERIES START TAKING GMOs OFF THE SHELVES
In Oregon, some grocers started taking items containing GMOs off their shelves. The Ashland Food Co-op launched a program to get all such products off its shelves by the end of 2008 - and other area markets, including Shop N Kart and Food For Less, said they were steadily increasing offerings of GM-free food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8815

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MARCH
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+ FRANCE: 25,000 PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST GMOs
Demonstrations against GMOs were held across France prior to the opening of the debate in the French parliament on draft GM legislation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8947

+ BRAZILIAN DEMONSTRATORSRS DESTROY GM CROPS, PROTEST CORPORATE MURDER
Hundreds of Brazilian women raided a Monsanto research unit and destroyed GM corn. Meanwhile in Brasilia, a protest in front of the Swiss embassy by another 400 women from Via Campesina, protested the October 2007 incident in which guards working for the Swiss-based GM multinational Syngenta killed an anti-GM protester.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8853

+ MONSANTO MOVIE TRIUMPHS
The new must-see film 'The World According to Monsanto' was watched by several million viewers when first broadcast on the Franco-German TV channel ARTE, making it the biggest audience ever for an ARTE production. One sign of the massive interest in the film was the response on discussion panels, blogs etc., with more than 10,000 responses in the immediate aftermath of the broadcast.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8892
For a brilliant review of the film see:
http://www.bangmfood.org/films/22-films/4-film-review-the-world-according-to-mon santo
Watch a trailer for the film and find out how to purchase the DVD (available in English, French and German):
http://www.bangmfood.org/films/22-films/10-watch-the-world-according-to-monsanto

+ WALES SET TO BAN GM CROPS
Proposals by the Welsh Assembly government came as close as possible to banning GM crops from Wales. The new regulations set Wales apart from England by applying a strict 'polluter pays' principle that should put an end even to GM trial plantings.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8896
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8836

+ U.S.: WAL-MART GOES GM HORMONE-FREE
Canada's Globe and Mail reported that March 20 was 'the day the ground shifted'. Giant food retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that its store brand milk in the US will now come exclusively from cows not treated with Monsanto's GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH). The move, said the Globe and Mail, sends a powerful signal to food manufacturers about what consumers want. Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association in the US said, 'It's reached the tipping point. Even Wal-Mart's customers are demanding milk free from genetically engineered hormones.' http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8915
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8915

+ U.S. CAMPAIGN MOBILIZES HEALTH-CONSCIOUS SHOPPERS
Non-GMO Education Centers began appearing in natural food stores nationwide. These six-foot high blue towers featured books, DVDs, CDs, and handouts about the dangers of GMOs. View the Non-GMO Shopping Guide
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/documentFiles/144.pdf
View the GMO Health Risks Brochure
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/DocumentFiles/140.pdf
Purchase 50 of the Guides and/or Brochures at cost price
http://www.fsicart.com/seeds/

+ IS AFRICA REJECTING GM?
A publication by the African Centre for Biosafety pointed out the major setbacks and failures for GM showcase projects in Africa, and how African countries such as Sudan, Angola and Zambia have fiercely resisted receiving GM food aid, precipitating reforms in food aid policies internationally. The ACB also noted how, despite the GM lobby's heavily resourced battle for GMO-acceptance, the reaction of people in Africa has in many instances been extremely hostile with the media proving critical of GMOs in countries such as Kenya, Zambia and South Africa.
http://agricbiotech.blogspot.com/2008/03/is-africa-rejecting-genetic-engineering .html

+ SCHMEISER PLEASED WITH VICTORY OVER MONSANTO
Monsanto agreed to pay all the clean-up costs of the Roundup Ready canola that contaminated Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser's fields and not to bind him with their usual gagging-clause.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8906

+ U.S. COURT THROWS OUT GM GRASS APPEAL
A Federal Court of Appeals tossed out the appeal of Monsanto's partner Scotts Grass Company, ending a long-running dispute over the US Dept of Agriculture's (USDA) approval of the open-air field testing of GM Roundup Ready grasses without assessing any potential environmental impacts. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/bentgrassPR3_19_08.cfm
For more on this and other court victories:
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=548

+ MASS PROTESTS IN INDIA AGAINST GM CROPS
In India, farmers' unions, consumer organizations, environmental groups, development organizations and concerned scientists stepped up their protests against Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine), which is in its last year of trials before possible commercial approval. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/gmProtestsIndia.php

+ INDIA: FARMERS CONCLUDE 4000 KM MARCH AGAINST GM SEEDS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

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APRIL
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+ MAJOR INTERNATIONAL REPORT SAYS GM NO ANSWER FOR HUNGER
The biotech industry suffered a devastating blow when the biggest study of its kind ever conducted concluded that GM is not the answer to world hunger. The 2500-page report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was produced by 400 scientific experts and took four years to complete. It was initiated by the World Bank with the co-sponsorship of the United Nations. The lack of specific support for GM crops was based on a rigorous and peer-reviewed analysis of the empirical evidence. The report concluded: 'Assessment of the technology lags behind its development, information is anecdotal and contradictory, and uncertainty about possible benefits and damage is unavoidable.' It also noted that the yield gains in GM crops 'were highly variable' and in some cases, 'yields declined'. Asked at a press conference whether GM crops were the simple answer to hunger and poverty, IAASTD Director Professor Bob Watson (former director of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and as of 2008, chief scientist at Defra) replied, 'I would argue, no'. The UK Government approved the IAASTD report as did nearly 60 other governments.

Large sections of the IAASTD report favoured approaches to cultivation and pest control that recognise the value, particularly to the poor and hungry, of low-cost practices using locally available materials and technologies in an environmentally sensitive manner. The IAASTD report notes that these non-GM approaches can deliver effective crop protection and pesticide reduction and yield advantages, particularly in the developing world, thus increasing productivity for poor farmers while enhancing sustainability. This, the report notes, has significant policy implications for food security. The IAASTD report also notes that the community-wide economic, social, health and environmental benefits of these approaches have been widely documented.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8998
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8999
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9001
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9003
Key points in the report
http://sustainablefoodmonitor.org/content/iaastd-overhaul-agriculture-systems-ne eded-gm-crops-not-solution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/15/food.unitednations
The biotech industry pulled out of IAASTD in a fit of pique, when it became clear that the report would not endorse GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8684

+ GM LIVESTOCK FEED CON
Claims that livestock farmers in the EU were suffering high prices for livestock feed because of the EU's slow rate of GM approvals were blown out of the water when it emerged that U.S. livestock farmers, including those in Monsanto's home state of Missouri, were suffering exactly the same problems. Missouri farmers complained that a 10% ethanol target was triggering a 'livestock industry meltdown'. And they were not just having problems in Missouri, Tyson's Foods - the huge US broiler conglomerate - announced a loss blamed in part on high feed prices, while the USDA estimated that corn feed price increases added nearly 9 percent to the price of US beef last year. All of which showed, as British Green member of the European Parliament Caroline Lucas noted, that the attempt to establish a link between the rise in feed and EU rules on GMOs is 'completely false and disingenuous'.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/28/business/28tysons.php
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/042708/opinion_2008042700877.shtml
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/04/27/analysis/

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MAY
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+ GM CROPS BANNED IN SWITZERLAND UNTIL 2012
The Swiss government voted to extend the country's moratorium on GM plants for a further three years beyond the current expiry date of November 2010. According to the Swiss government, the moratorium has not caused any obvious problems, either for the farming industry, researchers, or international relations. In fact, it claimed, Swiss farmers had benefited from being able to market their produce on international markets as GM-free.
http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/id102-50901/gm_crops_banned_in_switzerland_unti l_2012.html

+ GREECE EXTENDS GM BAN
Greece renewed its ban on GM maize produced by Monsanto, expanding it to include 70 types of seed.
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/International_Content.asp?contentid=140529

+ SCOTLAND STANDS FIRM AGAINST GM
Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, said he was strongly opposed to introducing GM crops.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2350876.0.UK_must_think_again_o n_growing_GM_crops_says_cabinet_minister.php

+ GERMAN UNIVERSITIES BOW TO PUBLIC PRESSURE OVER GM CROPS
Two German universities pulled the plug on field trials of GM crops. Stefan Hormuth, president of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Hesse, said, they were no longer able to deal with 'the massive opposition from politicians and the general public. The university has a reputation in the region that we cannot risk losing.' Nuertigen-Geislingen University also had to stop GM field trials of GM maize because of massive protests from the public and local politicians. The journal Nature cited Heinz Saedler, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, as saying, 'The incidents reveal a new level of public hostility to plant genetic engineering in Germany.' The Max Planck Institute is also not cultivating GM crops this year. Numerous other GM maize plots were destroyed in Germany during 2008.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080514/full/453263a.html
http://www.gmo-safety.eu:80/en/news/643.docu.html

+ MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DON'T WANT TO BUY GM FOOD
According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of Americans say they won't buy GM food. But it's not labeled, so they have no choice. Nutritionist Marion Nestle, a former FDA advisor, said, "They [the industry] didn't want it labeled because they were terrified that if it were labeled, nobody would buy it."
http://cbs4.com/national/CBS.News.New.2.721469.html

+ HERSHEY'S IN BRAZIL GOES GM-FREE
Chocolate bar manufacturer Hershey's in Brazil announced that it would not source ingredients from Cargill, one of the world's largest food providers, because the company cannot guarantee that soy, lecithin, and oils are not GM. They also said they would avoid genetically modified sugar. But US consumers have had no such assurances from Hershey's.
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26014
And their contaminated products have even started turning up in the UK:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?id=357&iType=1083

+ NEWSNIGHT DEBUNKS GM ANIMAL FEED CLAIMS
In a special report on GM and the food crisis for Newsnight (BBC2, 19 June), Susan Watts, the Science Editor of the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, dismissed the claim that the EU speeding up GM approvals could reduce the cost of importing animal feed. Watts noted that in the 12 months from May 07 to May 08 prices rose as follows on the world market:
Feed barley (100% non-GM) - 43%
Maize gluten (about 25% GM) - 72%
Argentinian soya meal (100% GM) - 110%
Argentinian soya meal has full approval for import to the EU!
See also the analysis in the important new briefing from GM Freeze.
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/89D_yields_briefing%5B1%5D.pdf
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brown-pushes-eu-to-allow-more-mod ified-animal-feeds-851020.html
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/22/Europe_considers_new_rules_on_crops/UPI-5 2111214111442/

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JUNE
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+ SYNGENTA ADMITS GM WILL NOT SOLVE FOOD CRISIS
Martin Taylor, chairman of GM giant Syngenta, admitted GM will not solve the current food crisis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/27/gmcrops.food

+ OFFICIAL REVIEW ADMITS AGROFUELS' ROLE IN FOOD CRISIS
A UK government report found that the rush to develop 'biofuels' had played a 'significant' role in the dramatic rise in global food prices which left 100 million more people without enough to eat, and do little to combat climate change (Monsanto has been in the forefront of those lobbying for 'biofuels'.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/19/climatechange.biofuels

+ QUOTE OF THE MONTH
'While consumers struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table, Monsanto, Cargill, and Archer Daniels Midland rake in billions from taxpayer-subsidized biofuels. Monopolizing markets, polluting the environment with genetically modified organisms, and hoarding future reserves of crop seeds, wheat, rice, soy, corn, and other grains, the food and gene giants profit from global crisis and misery. Adding fuel to the fire, Wall Street speculators have shifted their greed from sub-prime mortgages to food and non-renewable resources... we have a Fast Food Nation, living in denial (at least until recently), gorging ourselves on the industrialized world's cheapest and most contaminated fare, allowing out-of-control politicians, corporations and technocrats to waste our tax money on corporate welfare, destroy the environment, starve the poor, wage a multi-trillion dollar war for oil, and destabilize the climate.' - Ronnie Cummins, 'The Food, Climate, and Energy Crisis: From Panic to Organic'
http://www.just-international.org/article.cfm?newsid=20002742