from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
The most extraordinary story this week is how the theft of a UC Berkeley geneticist's laptop has put the corporate sell-out of the public university on grisly display (THE AMERICAS). Don't miss the scary video footage (available online) of the biotech boffin bullying his students with dire threats of corporate vengeance.
Please also read the shocking tale of the Lancaster six, a group of British students who were convicted of criminal trespass at the behest of their university for staging a 3-minute peaceful protest when arms manufacturers, GM, oil and other corporates met on their campus to discuss commercial links with academe. (PROTEST IS A CRIME).
All of which leads onto a great QUOTE OF THE WEEK from an interview with John Le Carre, marking the opening of the film of his novel 'The Constant Gardener'.
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
ASIA
EUROPE
RESEARCH
COMPANY NEWS
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
PROTEST IS A CRIME
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ MONSANTO'S THIRD-PARTY PR
Monsanto and the industry are now pursuing a consistent public relations strategy, as can be seen in the battle in Sonoma County, California, over the ballot measure placing a moratorium on genetically engineered crops.
With the California ballots, we have seen the move from Croplife America stomping into the locality unsuccessfully waving fistfuls of dollars, to *local* farm bureaus being at the heart of the fight without a Monsanto dollar in sight.
This neatly transforms the ballots from a punch-up between locals and giant multinationals into "environmentalists and organic food interests against traditional farmers", as a recent US press report on the California ballots put it. (GMO fight may hit record spending)
At the same time, we've got a series of Monsanto takeovers of farmer-friendly regionally based American seed companies that will now be used to punt Monsanto's seeds. It is emphasised that the company's local branding will be maintained, with Monsanto staying in the background. Local farmers will deal with the same folks they've always dealt with, who'll just happen to be controlled by Monsanto.
Then there's the upcoming TV series on farming - 'America's Heartland', courtesy of Monsanto and the Farm Bureau, and broadcast via the US's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
It's all of a piece - "We are not the big bad multinational of the Future of Food (the film now on national release in the USA) but the unobtrusive partner of your local farmer". This neatly removes the image problems of a corrupt(ing) multinational putting its corporate padlock on the food chain.
In case anyone's in any doubt about the strategy, Prakash's AgBioWorld - the surest indicator of the industry's current PR approach - recently posted a carefully crafted defence of GMOs by... a California farmer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5803
+ SMITH REPLIES TO AVERY
Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, has replied in South Africa's Business Day newspaper to Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute, who recently proclaimed the safety of GMOs in the same newspaper.
EXCERPTS from Smith's letter:
A genetically modified food supplement killed about 100 Americans and caused sickness or disability in 5,000-10,000 others.
The people of SA may be the population most at risk. SA is the only nation to genetically engineer a staple food, and those already fighting HIV/AIDS may be particularly at risk from the dangers of genetically modified foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5797
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THE AMERICAS
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+ GLYPHOSATE RESISTANCE SPREADS WITH USE OF ROUNDUP READY CROPS
Glyphosate-resistant weeds continue to spread across America as Roundup Ready crops scatter their genes, according to several press reports.
EXCERPT:
"The [glyphosate] resistant type [of horseweed] was first discovered in Delaware in 2000. In 2001, it was found in western Tennessee. In 2002, it was found in Missouri and Arkansas. What's scary is exactly a year after discovery it was already widespread in Delaware. The same pattern was seen in Tennessee. The first time I started seeing it while driving around Missouri was in 2003. The last couple of years, phone calls to me on this weed have been heavy."
- Andy Kendig, Missouri extension weed specialist
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5795
+ PROF RINE'S STOLEN LAPTOP
Earlier this year, UC Berkeley geneticist Prof Jasper Rine's laptop was stolen. According to Rine, it was taken by a student who was after exam data. Rine's threat to his class at Berkeley is captured here on video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6219688484727192143
It makes for interesting viewing. The transcript is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5789
What's so striking is how Rine uses the importance of his industrial-consulting connections, his "pre-public" company etc., to intimidate. Here's how Rine explains to the hypothetical student-thief what a world of trouble he is in:
"You are in possession of data from a hundred million dollar trial... This involves some of the largest companies on the planet... You are in possession of trade secrets from a Fortune 1000 biotech company, the largest one in the country, which I consult for... You are in possession of proprietary data..."
Almost entirely absent from Rine's diatribe is any reference to public research or education - the reasons, one might have supposed, for his employment in a public university and for his presence in a Berkeley classroom.
GM Watch readers may remember concern about the role of Rine in the denial of tenure to Dr Ignacio Chapela. Rine sat on the 9-man Budget Committee that denied tenure, despite the overwhelming support Chapela had received from his own department and from external assessors. Eventually, following an international outcry and a further review, their decision was overturned.
One aspect of the furore over the Chapela tenure case was the close ties Rine reportedly had to Novartis and the biotech industry. David Noble of York University in Toronto accused him of "a conflict of interest as naked as it gets." According to Noble, Rine co-founded a biotech company called Acacia Biosciences, which licensed one of Rine's patented biotech inventions to the crop protection division of Novartis.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5789
+ COMMENT ON RINE'S STOLEN LAPTOP
Among the comments we've received about the extraordinary video footage of Prof Rine addressing his class about his stolen laptop was the following:
"Rine... has declared under oath that he cannot be in conflict of interest with his profit motive, because he has converted his academic lab to align with the precise priorities of his commercial biotech company (he is said to be "worth" c. 50 million dollars). A certain crass and refreshing honesty here, it might seem, were it not for his blindness to the fact that he is paid a salary to have an interest in public research and education. For anthropologists and psychopathologists, this brief video may be valuable in capturing the style and affect - part macho grandiosity, part hysterical self-importance - of an early 21st century academic entrepreneur-scientist."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5805
+ OK EXPECTED FOR BEEF FROM CLONED COWS AND OFFSPRING
The US government is nearing a decision to allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned cows and their offspring. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to permit the sales soon, subject to 60 days of public comment and additional review.
Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America said, "A train wreck is coming."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5792
+ INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CRITICIZE LULA'S SURRENDER TO MONSANTO
An article in the Brazilian press highlights the concerns of organisations from outside Brazil which supported Brazilian opposition to President Lula's policies on GMOs.
EXCERPT: International organisations criticize Lula's submission to Monsanto... For [Carlos Vicente, from Accion por la Biodiversidad, an Argentinean NGO], Brazil is following the same path [as Argentina], with the Brazilian government showing complete subservience to Monsanto and its politics.
Vicente reckons agricultural policies in both countries have stopped being decided by the public authorities and people of the country, and are now being dictated by corporations with the complicity of large farmers in the search for immediate profit.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5788
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AFRICA
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+ DECLARATION OF GM-FREE AFRICA
Read an inspiring declaration of resolve from organisations from 22 African countries at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5787
+ HOW USAID PUSHES GM CROPS IN AFRICA
Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety, South Africa has written an excellent article exposing the machinations of USAID and other agencies to push GM crops under the guise of biosafety capacity building.
EXCERPT:
USAID has started a three year project (2005-8) and will spend $2 million through its Office of Economic and Science Policy (ESP) to provide biosafety regulatory assistance to several West African countries that are part of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS); in particular, Burkina Faso, Mali, Benin and Chad. This project will provide much more "targeted assistance" by focussing on Bt cotton field trials and GM food aid.
USAID does not miss any opportunity to weaken biosafety laws in Africa. In March 2004, USAID submitted comments to the government of Zambia brazenly proposing the insertion of a clause on the principle of substantial equivalence into the draft biosafety law. Additionally, USAID proposed procedures to enable approvals for several GM events in a single application, in order to expedite the influx of GM food, thereby severely undermining Zambia's precautionary approach to GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5799
+ SOUTH AFRICA: GM SEED PRODUCERS FACE SEVERE LOSSES
Willie van der Merwe, Maize Crop Field Manager for Monsanto, has announced that contracts for the production of GM seed for sale to South African farmers will NOT be renewed for the coming season.
Some farmers in the north have been awarded contracts to produce GM seed for export. Local seed producers whose contracts have not been renewed are complaining that they cannot switch easily to other crops since seed production is capital intensive.
Van der Merwe made the excuse that unsold stocks and low demand by local farmers for GM seed was to blame. Some of the forsaken seed producers have turned to forage and pasture crops under expensive irrigation. All agree that livestock production will not pay the high debts they incurred for the irrigation infrastructure they required to produce Monsanto's GM seed.
Monsanto have refused to compensate the farmers for the loss they have suffered because of the failure to renew their seed production contracts.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5798
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ASIA
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+ INDIA: FAKE BT AND LEGAL BT EQUALLY RISKY
An article from India Together says that legal Bt cotton is just as risky as the illegal varieties proliferating in India.
EXCERPT: "Maybe 90,000 packets of legal Bt cotton have sold in Yavatmal this season," says [ag input dealer K.K. Milmile]. But here's the catch. "About 2.5 lakh packets of 'illegal' Bt seed have also been sold. What damage will these do? It's scary."
No less scary, though, is the 'legal' Bt cotton seed itself. In Andhra Pradesh approval for three varieties of Bt cotton seeds has been withdrawn following disasters there. Here, bloated claims of performance have sold many packets but ground realities are grim.
"Here," says Suresh Bolenwar in Hiwrabarsa, gifting us a bollworm from a plant in his field right in front of us. "This is 'legal' Bt for you. It needs spraying for pests other than the bollworm - and now for the bollworm itself." Major newspapers in Vidharbha have begun reporting more bollworm attacks on Bt cotton in the region.
... Bolenwar says some farmers have done better with 'illegal' Bt cotton . In Wardha, kisan leader and farm activist Vijay Jawandia scoffs at the term 'illegal.' He calls it "non-royalty Bt." "All it means is that Monsanto and other companies won't get Rs.1,250 in royalty on each packet. That is how much they extort from the farmer. Both types of Bt are equally risky, anyway."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5790
+ RICE IN A PRIVATE GRIP
Devinder Sharma's latest on Syngenta's attempts to tighten its monopoly control over rice is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5790
Seeking global patents over thousands of genes in rice, the multinational, based in a country that produces no rice itself, is set to own the world's most important staple food crop.
SEE ALSO: SAARC PEOPLE'S FORUM - in FOOD SOVEREIGNTY below.
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EUROPE
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+ EUROPEAN COURT OVERRULES BAN ON GM CROPS
Friends of the Earth Europe has called for a new European law that will allow regions to ban GM crops. The call follows a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) against the region of Upper Austria who had introduced a law effectively banning the growing of GMOs. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5801
+ NEW REPORT ON EFSA
Greenpeace has issued a new report into the failings of the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) scientific work on GM foods. The report shows that no serious investigation was conducted on the toxicity of Bt11 maize or its impact on the environment. Furthermore, already published scientific results on possible negative environmental consequences were widely ignored by EFSA. The report can be downloaded at: http://eu.greenpeace.org/downloads/gmo/Bt11reportOct05.pdf
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5804
+ EFSA CHALLENGED
Consumer, environmental and health groups have challenged the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to put public and environmental safety before commercial interests. The call comes as the EFSA begins a new Stakeholder Platform in Parma, Italy.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5804
+ MANDELSON ACCUSED OF "TAKING ORDERS FROM AMERICANS" ON GMO APPROVALS
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has been accused of "taking orders from the Americans" in pushing through two approvals for the import of GM products in the face of massive opposition from European consumers.
The accusation has come from GM Free Cymru, which has been trying for years to uncover the truth about the GM authorisation process in Europe. It had to resort to Freedom of Information legislation to obtain the release of key GMO information, and played a key role in forcing publication of Monsanto's full 90-day rat feeding study on MON863.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5806
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RESEARCH
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+ GM OILSEED SURVIVES LONGER IN SOIL - NEW BLOW TO EU COEXISTENCE PLANS
New research has found that GM oilseed rape could contaminate non-GM crops 15 years after it was grown - longer than previously thought. This represent a major set back to plans to commercialise the crop and EU plans to introduce coexistence rules for growing GM and non-GM crops.
The research looked at how long oilseed rape seeds can survive in the soil and then germinate after they were spilt at harvest. Previously it was thought that GM oilseed seed would persist in the soil for ten years. However, the new research on 5 sites across England and Scotland predicts that one in twenty spilt seeds could survive in the soil for 9 years and 1% could still germinate fifteen years after the GM crop was harvested. The researchers found that some crops dropped 10,000 seeds per square metre (3575 per square metre average) compared with a normal sowing rate for oilseed rape of just 100 seeds per square metre.
The researchers concluded: "Even at 95% loss of the mean 3575 seeds per square metre shed at harvest, would still leave nearly 200 seeds per square metre. Such numbers would be highly likely to result in the presence of more than two volunteer plants per square metre in a rape crop sown 9 years after the HT crop. This density would exceed the European Union threshold of 0.9% adventitious presence of GM seeds in a non-GM crop, if the subsequent crop was 'conventional'".
- Lutman PJW et al , 2005. Persistence of seeds from crops of conventional and herbicide tolerant oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Proc.R.Soc B (2005) 272, 1909-1915 22nd September 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5785
QUOTE: "'Co-existence' might be a convenient thing to have politically or commercially but biologically it is an impossibility."
- Dr Ignacio Chapela
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5786
+ ROUNDUP READY SUDDEN DEATH
An excellent and comprehensive report by Dr Mae-Wan Ho and Prof Joe Cummins on the numerous problems with Roundup Ready GM crops is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5794
The problems include Roundup Ready Sudden Death (EXCERPT):
Fusarium fungus causing sudden death syndrome in soya and wheat was first reported in an article from the New Scientist magazine several years ago describing an unpublished study by Myriam Fernandez and co-workers from Agriculture Canada, which has been completed and published recently. Glyphosate application in combination with no till (crop seeds drilled into fields prepared by herbicide treatment alone) had significantly increased Fusarium head blight in spring wheat. The Fusarium infection not only affected wheat production but also increased the risk of mycotoxins harmful to humans and farm animals.
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ JOB AT MONSANTO - HUMAN RIGHTS MANAGER!
Monsanto is advertising for a "human rights manager" to "implement, monitor and report on the policy for the advancement of human rights within Monsanto's sphere of influence".
For the advert and Monsanto's human rights record in Indonesia, where it:
*CORRUPTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
*USED THE MILITARY TO BRING IN ITS SEEDS
*AND RUINED LOCAL FARMERS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5796
EXCERPT:
[Bt cotton] did not produce the yields Monsanto had boasted about. The poor yields trapped farmers in a debt cycle; some 70% of the 4438 farmers growing Bt cotton were unable to repay their credit after the first year of planting. One of the Indonesian farmers who grew Monsanto's GM cotton commented, "The company didn't give the farmer any choice, they never intended to improve our well being, they just put us in a debt circle, took away our independence and made us their slave forever."
+ MONSANTO'S YEAR-END HIDES POTENTIAL EARNINGS PROBLEMS
When Terry Crews releases Monsanto's year-end results October 12, the CEO will likely announce the company has hit its fiscal 2005 earnings' predictions. What he won't talk about are factors that for years have drained those revenues and pose a threat to future earnings and shareholder value.
Research by the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, Canada, reveals that since 2002 Monsanto has lost $545 million in international royalty payments with no significant relief in sight. The company is also trailing its major competitor, Pioneer, in US Dept of Agriculture GM crop field trials in the US. This means it is testing fewer new products for its agribusiness pipeline.
As well, with a patent challenge to its insect-resistant Bt transgenic traits from Dow Agrobusiness, the company's intellectual property rights are by no means secure.
"Investors should be wary of a company betting its earnings on GE technology," says Polaris analyst David Macdonald.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5807
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FOOD SOVEREIGNTY
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+ NEW REPORT
A new report on food sovereignty, "Food Sovereignty: towards democracy in localized food systems" provides a comprehensive history, overview and analysis of the Food Sovereignty Policy Framework and links to many key statements and documents. It's at
http://www.ukabc.org/foodsovpaper.htm
+ SAARC PEOPLE'S FORUM DENOUNCES GMOs
The People's Forum for SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, has produced a paper denouncing GMOs. SAARC represents people in countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. An excerpt from the paper is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5802
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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*From John Le Carre interview, The Guardian, October 6, 2005:
"Mussolini's definition of fascism was that when you can't distinguish corporate power from governmental power, you are on the way to a fascist state. If you throw in God power and media power, that's where we are now." Is he saying Britain is a fascist state? "Does it strike you as democratic?"
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1585789,00.html
*From interview with former editor of the Daily Mirror (Britain's second biggest selling newspaper), Piers Morgan, Radio Times, October 8-14, 2005:
Radio Times: Who is really running the country, by the way?
Morgan: Rupert Murdoch runs the country. Tony Blair is his tool. The media can bring down the PM, but the PM can't bring down Rupert Murdoch.
Radio Times: Does that worry you?
Morgan: No. I feel much happier with Rupert Murdoch in charge.
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PROTEST IS A CRIME
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+ THE CRIMINALISATION OF PROTEST: LANCASTER SIX CONVICTED
On Friday, six students and graduates of Lancaster University were convicted of aggravated trespass. Their crime was to have entered a lecture theatre and handed out leaflets to the audience. Staff at the university were meeting people from BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Shell, the Carlyle Group, GlaxoSmithKline, DuPont, Unilever and Diageo, to learn how to "commercialise university research".
The students were hoping to persuade the researchers not to sell their work. They were in the theatre for three minutes. As the judge conceded, they tried neither to intimidate anyone nor to stop the conference from proceeding. They were prosecuted under the 1994 Criminal Justice Act...
- From an article by George Monbiot, "Protest is criminalised: The police abuse terror and harassment laws to penalise dissent while we insist civil liberties are our gift to the world", The Guardian, 4 Oct 2005. This article is well worth reading in full!
***
A press release from the six commented: "Free speech is now more of an issue than when the six were charged. We have been shocked by how many academics and management at the university are too frightened to speak out, or to stand as witnesses. The university has been taking down Freedom of Speech related posters at the university, letters to the staff newsletter haven't been published, there's been a smear campaign against the six, and they actively supported the prosecution to the end - to the extent of the University Secretary advising the prosecution during the trial."
***
Paul Wellings, Lancaster's vice-chancellor, is desperately trying to shore up the university's crumbling reputation as a centre for independent thought and debate. He says: "Historically, we have a strong commitment to peaceful protest . . . The Crown Prosecution Service decided there was a case to answer, and from then on it was out of the university's hands."
- From John Vidal's Eco Soundings, The Guardian, 5 Oct 2005
GM WATCH comment:
The claim by Lancaster University's Vice Chancellor (above) that this prosecution "was out of the university's hands" is totally false. A criminal trespass case can only be brought with the agreement of the landowner, i.e. the university had to want its students dragged into court. And as the six point out, the University Secretary was actually *advising the prosecution* during their trial!
More info: http://www.free-webspace.biz/GeorgeFox/
Sign the Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/gfox6/
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5791
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5800