GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 265
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Is the food industry in the UK beginning to sing the GM industry's tune? (see CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK) The French Government is standing firm on its GM ban despite efforts calculated to undermine it (EUROPE). Meanwhile in the homeland of GM, the United States, the first GM product to be marketed, Monsanto's GM bovine growth hormone rBGH, is showing signs of being on its last legs (see THE AMERICAS).

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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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
LOBBYWATCH
NEW RESEARCH AND REPORTS
THE AMERICAS
FOOD SAFETY
EUROPE
AUSTRALASIA
ASIA
NON-GM SUCCESSES
FILMS
FOOD CRISIS
GOLDEN RICE

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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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+ INTERNATIONAL: TELL WWF TO GET OUT OF BED WITH MONSANTO
http://www.meetup.com/portlandpermaculture/boards/thread/6283930/

+ UK: TESCO BOSS PREPARES FOR U-TURN ON GM?
We've been warning for months now of an industry campaign to open up Europe further to GMOs. Now Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy is reported as saying of GM, "It may have been a failure of us all to stand by the science." But the science says that GM food is dangerous! See http://www.bangmfood.org/publications
TAKE ACTION - tell Leahy to stand by the real science: http://www.bangmfood.org/take-action
AND:
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Write: Tesco Customer Services
Freepost SCO2298
Dundee DD1 9NF
Tel: +44 (0) 800 505555
All other enquiries
Tesco PLC
New Tesco House
Delamare Road
Cheshunt
Hertfordshire
England EN8 9SL
Switchboard telephone: (0)1992 632222

+ GM CHOCOLATE IN TESCO
Email Tesco today. A chocolate bar containing at least three GM ingredients has been spotted on sale in Tesco stores across Britain. They are also stocking GM cooking oil. Although the Hershey's Nutrageous chocolate bars are labelled in small leters as containing GM, we want to make sure that Tesco know that their customers don't want to see GM on their shelves.
Please email Tesco at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., telling them that they should be strengthening their stance on GM, rather than putting more GM products on sale. Things to cover in your email could include:
- a reminder that their customers do not want them to relax their stance on GM.
- ask for a list of all products Tesco sells which contain GM or are fed a GM diet so shoppers can avoid them.
- point out that if Tesco are increasing their use of GM, shoppers may well take their business to supermarkets with more progressive and responsive practices.

+ GM SOY DRIVING DEFORESTATION
Deforestation has accelerated since the introduction of Monsanto's RoundupReady soy in Argentina 1996. A new wave of destruction is now being unleashed by international agribusiness threatening indigenous communities, who have presented their demand to immediately halt deforestation to the Supreme Court of Argentina.
TEKE ACTION: Please write to the Court in their support here.
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=362
 
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ SENSE ABOUT SCIENCE CONCEALS VESTED INTERESTS
The lobby group Sense About Science's new publication "Making Sense of GM: What is the genetic modification of plants and why are scientists doing it?", launched 9 February 2009, reads like a Who's Who of undeclared vested interests and affiliations with GM firms.

The publication fails to declare the huge vested interests in GM of the people and groups involved in the "working group" that produced it. Instead, individuals are misleadingly described in terms of their academic positions in universities or seemingly publicly-funded research bodies.

GMWatch has stepped into the knowledge gap by providing the media and the public with a list of the corporate affiliations and vested interests in GM of the individuals involved in "Making Sense of GM".

To take just two examples, Prof Chris Lamb is presented simply as the director of the John Innes Centre (JIC) without any indication of the huge vested interests the JIC has in the uptake of GM food and crops, including multi-million pound funding deals with the major biotech corporations. In fact, Lamb is himself the co-founder of a private biotech company which in turn funds the JIC.

Prof Vivian Moses is presented simply as emeritus professor of microbiology at Queen Mary & Westfield College without any mention of his also heading the biotech industry-funded lobby group CropGen which exists "to provide a voice for crop biotechnology".
http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk:80/index.php/site/project/16/
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1234375483.html

+ MONSANTO COSIES UP WITH WWF IN LOBBY GROUP
Monsanto India Ltd has joined Field to Market of the Keystone Alliance, which claims to promote sustainable agriculture. Field to Market members include: American Soybean Association, Bayer, Bunge, Cargill, ConAgra, DuPont, Grocery Manufacturers Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, National Corn Growers Association, Syngenta, The Fertilizer Institute, Kellogg Company, The Nature Conservancy, United Soybean Board; and World Wildlife Fund.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Monsanto-India-joins-Field-to-Market-allian ce/413718/

+ WELSH GM FARMER A FAKE?
Recently The Guardian published a piece by Jonathan Harrington entitled, "Why I planted genetically modified maize on my Welsh farm". But if comments on the Guardian website are to be believed, it is doubtful that Harrington is a farmer. He is said to be a paid consultant for the biotech industry. And he is known to be part of the biotech-industry funded lobby group CropGen.
Comments at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/28/gm-wales-jonathon-harrington?showallcomments=true&commentpage=3&commentposted=1
http://blogs.walesonline.co.uk/upcountry/2009/02/farmer-or-faker.html

+ MONSANTO PUTS NON-GM SEEDS OUT OF REACH
Monsanto is making it increasingly difficult for farmers to choose non-GM seeds.
http://tinyurl.com/db7fnf

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NEW RESEARCH AND REPORTS
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+ THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF ROUNDUP
Natural News has a good article (with scientific references) on the dangers of Roundup. Included is the recent French research, which showed that Roundup is toxic to human cells and causes cellular death "at lower concentration levels than would be normally found in plants and in animal feed". Amazingly, Monsanto continues to advertise Roundup as "safe" and "biodegradable" in some countries.
http://www.naturalnews.com/025534.html
The recent French research: http://www.criigen.org/images/stories/nosdossiers/roundup/pressrelease_rup_0109.pdf
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx800218n

+ WHO OWNS NATURE: WORLD'S TOP 10 SEED AND PESTICIDE COMPANIES
ETC Group recently released a 48-page report, "Who Owns Nature?" on corporate concentration in commercial food, farming, health, and the strategic push to commodify the planet's remaining natural resources.
According to the report, the world's six largest agrochemical manufacturers, who control nearly 75% of the global pesticide market, are also seed industry giants. They include GM firms Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta and DuPont.

QUOTE: "The lack of competition and innovation in the marketplace has reduced farmers' choices and enabled Monsanto to raise prices unencumbered." - Keith Mudd, Organization for Competitive Markets, following Monsanto's decision to raise some GM maize seed prices by 35%.
For the full report:
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=707

+ THE CORPORATE SHAPING OF GM CROPS AS A TECHNOLOGY FOR THE POOR
Interesting report from Dominic Glover which suggests that despite all the high flown rhetoric used to sell Monsanto's transformation from old-style chemical corporation into gene giant, Monsanto developed GM crops NOT because they were a good idea or a solution to any problem that the world might have but as a solution to their own problem of how to keep their cash cow producing after the patent for their best-selling herbicide Roundup expired in 2000.
http://www.steps-centre.org/PDFs/GM%20Crops%20web%20final_small.pdf

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THE AMERICAS
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+ U.S.: MORE rBGH VICTORIES
Great news on the GM bovine growth hormone rBGH Yoplait, the 19th largest dairy processor in the US, is going rBGH-free in response to customer demand. And the New England dairy industry will be rBGH-free by the end of summer 2009. Customers for rBGH farm milk in New York have decreased sharply, with only a handful of manufacturing plants left willing to receive product from producers employing the GM hormone.
http://lancasterfarming.com/node/1700

+ MONSANTO IN LINE FOR TAX CREDITS
Monsanto is in line to receive millions of dollars in tax credits this year. Is it a coincidence that their former attorney, Linda Martinez, was appointed to the agency that doles out these same tax credits?
http://www.news-leader.com/article/20090208/BLOGS09/90208017
http://mopns.com/2009/01/26/monsanto-company-kicks-off-nixons-high-street-project/#more-2251

+ MONSANTO LAUNCHES NEW AD CAMPAIGN ON "SUSTAINABLE" CLAIMS
Monsanto has launched a new ad campaign in publications like The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker. Mark Halton, global corporate marketing lead for Monsanto, said the ad campaign is an outgrowth of Monsanto's "sustainable yield initiative," a program the company introduced last year to help farmers increase food production by creating more efficiencies from the three primary tools of agriculture: soil, fertilizer and water. Halton said the New Yorker placement is an effort to reach readers who might be influenced by writers such as Michael Pollan, who criticizes the agriculture industry's reliance on corn and soy, which Pollan argues limits natural diversity.
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/green-marketing/e3ie7ae6a91eebf611f83773ce1e1543254

+ US GOVT WANTS TO BLOCK GM IMPORTS
The US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) wants to block imports of GMOs into the US -- after a decade of exporting its own GM crops all over the world. It gives three reasons: the foreign GMOs would threaten agriculture in the US; they may affect the health of US citizens; and they may affect the environment. Interestingly, these are similar to some of the objections raised against the US's GM crops and products.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ GM COTTON - HUNGRY INSECTS, RESISTANT WEEDS AND SHRINKING ACREAGE
Gus Lorenz, University of Arkansas entomologist, noted that GM cotton producers are learning to deal with "extremely high numbers of pests" and Roundup resistant weeds: "The spread of resistance was almost overnight". Lorenz said, "Resistant Palmer pigweed is part of the driving force for our cotton acres decreasing in my part of the Mid-South."
http://deltafarmpress.com/cotton/beltwide-insects-0202/

+ CATHOLIC HOSPITAL REJECTS FOOD FROM GMOs AND CLONING
Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), which includes 41 hospitals and medical centers in California, Arizona and Nevada, announced that its food purchasing dollars will be focused on promoting sustainable food production practices, in part by seeking alternatives to foods produced with GM sugar, as well as meat and dairy produced with animal clones.
http://tiny.cc/xQTF4

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ INTERVIEW WITH JUDY CARMAN
Quotes from interview with Dr Judy Carman, director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research, Inc., who is doing research on the safety of GM food:

Carman: The studies done by biotechnology companies tend to show no health problems associated with eating GM food. The independent studies are finding adverse effects”¦
Interviewer: If your research finds negative health impacts caused by GM foods, Dr Carman, are you prepared to deal with a negative onslaught from biotech companies?
Carman: Yes, I understand that will happen. I've been attacked many times. GM food advocates want to make people who do this type of work frightened of losing their jobs to make them stop working on the issue. They can't get me fired now. I work within my own organization”¦ The behaviour of GM food advocates makes me ask, "What are they frightened of?" If they believe GM foods are safe, they would be confident that I would not find any problems. Instead they are paranoid. What do they know that I don't know? What are they trying to hide? It makes me more curious and determined to find out.
Interview: http://blogs.walesonline.co.uk/upcountry/2009/02/farmer-or-faker.html

+ INTERVIEW WITH GILES-ERIC SERALINI
Quotes from Prof Giles-Eric Seralini, professor of chemistry and molecular biology at Caen University:

I believe GM seed will make hunger in the world. They will make people starve. Poor people will not have enough money to buy the seed.

I think GMOs are dangerous because of the results that have been produced in the laboratory, because of Roundup residue and probably because of Bt residue. Maybe they have some other dangers that have not been seen because of genetic engineering itself. It's possible in some cases and not in others.

I think GM technology is out of control. It is abnormal at the beginning of the 21st century to give these seeds no more than three months trial, and this is a dishonest way of functioning for genetic engineering control.
Interview: http://blogs.walesonline.co.uk/upcountry/2009/02/farmer-or-faker.html

+ HEALTH RISKS OF GM FOODS REVIEW
An article in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition reviews the results of toxicity studies on GM foods and discusses the significance of these findings on human and animal health as well as the limitations of the procedures adopted in the evaluation of the safety of the GMOs.

The results of most studies with GM foods indicate that they may cause some common toxic effects such as hepatic, pancreatic, renal, or reproductive effects and may alter the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters. As such, the authors suggest that further long-term studies should be conducted in order to understand deeper the mechanisms at work and the possible consequences on health.
Artemis Dona, Ioannis S. Arvanitoyannis, Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, Volume 49, Issue 2 February 2009, pages 164-175, DOI: 10.1080/10408390701855993

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EUROPE
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+ FRANCE TO MAINTAIN GM BAN
France's food watchdog Afssa said it had concluded that GM corn MON810 does not pose a health risk. French premier Sarkozy banned the Monsanto corn in February last year after a panel of experts expressed "serious doubts" about it in a report. However, France's environment ministry says it will not lift the ban as it was imposed on the basis of environmental risks.
http://www.france24.com/en/20090212-corn-genetically-modified-france-food-safety
http://tiny.cc/tPJ2t
http://tiny.cc/833Uc
For French speakers, the response of Greenpeace France can be found here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/france/news/l-afssa-hors-sujet-et-instrume

+ UK: PARLIAMENTARY EVIDENCE SHOWS INDUSTRY STRANGLEHOLD OVER SCIENCE
Testimony given by Bill Clark of Rothamsted Research shows how what's going on in the scientific institutes in the UK can be heavily, and in some cases solely, dependent on industry:

Clark: ...if BSF [BASF? - GMW] comes to us and says, "We have this wonderful new thing," whether it is a variety or a chemical, whatever, and they want us to work on it, we are essentially working for them. We are not working for UK growers, we are working for that company. They may ask us to work on GM beet. It is of no interest to British farmers. It might be very good for that company in the States. So it keeps the research going and it keeps people like me, who are translational people, who are interested in knowledge transfer and doing the research and putting it into practical use. So it maintains a pool of people, but that pool of people is dwindling because there is no Government funding, and even the levy funding is going down. So there is a danger that we are living on almost the crumbs from industry ”¦
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmenvfru/uc213-ii/uc2 1302.htm

+ BIOTECH INDUSTRY FAKES GROWTH OF GM CROPS IN EUROPE
On the eve of the release of annual industry-sponsored (ISAAA) figures, a new report by Friends of the Earth International revealed the failure of GM crops around the world, and how statistics showing their increase in Europe have been manipulated. The new 'Who Benefits from GM Crops?' 2009 report exposes inconsistencies in how the European biotech lobby group EuropaBio has reported the total area planted to GM crops. The group inflated the figures by almost a quarter in 2008 to mask an actual decline.

The misleading numbers are used by companies to make GM farming appear more widespread than it really is. In reality public opposition and safety-conscious European governments mean that planting of GM crops in Europe has decreased every year since 2005 with an overall drop of 35 per cent.
Full report:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Who_Benefits/full_report_2009.pdf
Executive Summary:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Who_Benefits/Exec_summary_2009.pdf
EU briefing:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Who_Benefits/EU_briefing_2009.pdf
US version of the report:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_11_09.cfm.
See also the GM Freeze Briefing: "International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) Global Status Reports on GM Crops"
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/ISAAA_Q&A_2009.pdf
Reuters report on the story: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE51A2US20090211

+ HUNGARY DEFIES COMMISSION TO KEEP BAN ON GMOs
Hungary has announced that it will keep its ban on GM maize imports and the planting of GM seeds. The European Commission recently called on Hungary to lift its GM ban.
http://tiny.cc/0oAC7

+ AUSTRIA UNDER PRESSURE TO LIFT GM BAN
The European Commission is pressuring Austria to lift its ban on two different types of GM maize. However, the Commission might struggle to muster the political support needed to overturn Austria's ban. A previous attempt by the Commission in November 2007 was rejected by environment ministers.
http://tiny.cc/3dgEH

+ ITALY: NO QUALITY BRAND FOR GMOs
A bill recently filed in the Italian Senate's Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agro-Food Production meand no quality brand can be put on products employing GMOs. This is in order to protect the country's genetic resources and agriculture and husbandry from the risk of the spread of GMOs.
http://tiny.cc/nZiVk

+ EU COMMISSION ADVISORY GROUPS BIASED TOWARDS BUSINESS
Groups set up to advise the European Commission on controversial issues are unbalanced, undemocratic and geared towards the interests of business, says a new report from Friends of the Earth. Read Friends of the Earth Europe's report 'Whose views count?' online at
http://www.foeeurope.org/corporates/pdf/whose_views_count.pdf

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ NZ: GM BRASSICA TRIALS ABANDONED AFTER SAFETY BREACH
Soil & Health and GE Free NZ are celebrating the commitment by Crown Research Institute (CRI) Plant & Food Research to discontinue the GM brassica field trial at Lincoln in Canterbury less than 2 years into its 10 year consent, but say the CRI's GM alliums (onion family) field trial approval must also be revoked.
The move comes after activists discovered a biosecurity breach in the trials, in which brassicas were allowed to flower against the terms of the permit. Initially the government denied the breach, but was forced to admit it when the activists showed photographic evidence.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0902/S00019.htm

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ASIA
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+ SAY NO TO GM FOOD IN INDIA
Shiv Chopra, the former Health Canada scientist who was sacked for voicing doubts about the safety of Monsanto's rBGH dairy hormone, has been in India talking about the need for pure and GM-free food: "We should keep away hormones, antibiotics, slaughterhouse waste and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Pesticides should not be allowed to enter any food."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ahmedabad/Say_no_to_GM_food_in_India/articleshow/4067140.cms

+ INDIA: GOVT DELAYS MARKETING OF BT BRINJAL
With new scientific studies now finding GM foods not safe for human consumption, the government has put a "temporary halt" on the commercialisation of Bt brinjal, a move prompted by the Supreme Court's special representative at the Centre's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, Dr Pushpa Bhargava. Dr Bhargava said, "I have fears that there are vested interests. Any study that does not suit them [is] just dismissed."
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-halts-marketing-of-genetically-modified-food-crop/84083-11.html

+ INDIA: REGULATOR DOESN’T REVIEW COMPANIES’ GM FOOD TESTING
A seminar in Delhi where Jeffrey M Smith, author of 'Seeds of Deception' and 'Genetic Roulette', was the keynote speaker, looked at the health risks of GM foods. Over thirty top health professionals and advisors to the Government of India attended. Dr Pushpa M Bhargava said that he had submitted to the Government of India, at least twenty years ago, a list of thirty tests that must be done before releasing GMOs. Instead of exercising due diligence and oversight, the GEAC has been approving food and fibre seeds on the assurance of firms like Monsanto that their Bt seeds are safe "without even reading and reviewing" the evidence.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/02/07/genetically-engineered -foods-health-risk

+ INDIA: DOCTORS CAUTION AGAINST GM FOOD
At a time when Bt brinjal may soon be introduced into the market, doctors initiated a consumer awareness campaign against GM foods, citing health problems.
The doctors called for an immediate moratorium on all GM foods and vowed to intensify the campaign in the coming months so that the government sets up a safety assessment protocol to look into the safety of such food items.

The campaign, "I am no lab rat", was launched in Chandigarh on January 30. Dr Inderjeet Kaur of All India Pingalwara Charitable Society said: "Indian regulators have compromised their objectivity by basing their approval on data submitted by the applicant company itself."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/doctors-caution-against-genetically-modi.../420408/

+ I AM NO LAB RAT WEBSITE
Lots of campaigning images, a video of India's Health Minister declaring his opposition to GM, an amusing animated top menu, and a petition to the PM.
http://www.iamnolabrat.com/

+ INDIA: SCIENTISTS INSPECT (ANOTHER) FAILED BT COTTON CROP
A team of scientists from Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) and Central Research Institute of Cotton (ICAR) visited Gobi and Perundurai areas to inspect the damaged Bt cotton crop. The visit was made after a complaint by the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association that the Bt cotton crop withered in many areas across the district. “The crop grow[s] abnormally, and the leaves turn red and wither leading to great loss. As against 16 quintals from an acre, we get only six quintals,” Nichampalayam farmers told the team.
http://tinyurl.com/bxhar3

+ LARGEST WAVE OF SUICIDES IN HISTORY
In India, the number of farmers who have committed suicide in India between 1997 and 2007 now stands at a staggering 182,936, says an article by renowned development journalist P. Sainath. Farmer suicides between 2002-07 were worse than for the years 1997-2001. Bt cotton was introduced in 2002. Water stress has been a common feature, and gets worse with the use of technologies such as Bt seed that demand huge amounts of water. High external inputs and input costs are also common and Monsanto has driven up cotton seed prices enormously. Also, those who killed themselves were overwhelmingly cash crop farmers - casting into question the "development" policies led by Western agencies that move farmers away from growing food crops and into cash crops for export.
http://www.counterpunch.org/sainath02122009.html

+ INDIA: FILM MAKER ATTACKS MULTINATIONALS
Renowned filmmaker and social activist Mahesh Bhatt, in a new film, “Poison on the Platter”, attacks biotech multinational companies and their nexus with regulatory bodies. He has accused them of unleashing “bio-terrorism” in the country. Bhatt said: "In their mad rush to capture the multi-billion dollar Indian agricultural and food industry, the biotech MNCs are bulldozing warnings by scientists about the adverse impact of GM foods on health and environment, and hurtling mankind towards a disaster, which will be far more destructive than anything the world has seen so far, simply because it will affect every single person living on this planet."
http://www.indiantelevision.com/aac/y2k9/aac72.php

+ INDIA PLANS TO DEVELOP 12 GM CROPS
In a determined attempt to throw good money after bad, India is planning to develop 12 GM crops to improve their resistance to diseases and pests, biotic stresses and extend shelf life. The proposed research project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will cover maize, pigeonpea, chickpea, soybean, cotton, brassica, tomato, brinjal, banana, papaya, potato and cassava.
http://tiny.cc/5iHsc

+ SOUTH KOREA WON'T IMPORT GM CORN
Corn processors in South Korea will not import genetically modified corn for food use this year after grain prices fell and as consumers shun GM foods. Civic groups are renewing calls for tougher rules on the notification of products containing GMOs following the discovery of the use of powdered GM beans in products of a leading food maker.
http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/south_korea_not_use_gm_corn
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/02/117_38830.html

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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ NEW NON-GM FLOOD TOLERANT RICE
A new flood-tolerant rice developed at the University of California-Davis is being touted on pro-GM websites and listservs as a triumph for GM. In a pattern that's becoming all too familiar, the rice actually was not developed through GM - depsite efforts to do so - but through marker assisted breeding.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/29/waterproof.rice/index.html?eref=i b_topstories
'Non-GM biotechnology is the future' quotes from scientists:
http://www.bangmfood.org/quotes/24-quotes/32-non-gm-biotechnology-is-the-future

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FILMS
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+ FIVE FILMS THAT DESERVED AN OSCAR NOMINATION
Among the films that flew under the Academy's radar but deserved an Oscar nomination is Marie-Monique Robin's expose, The World According to Monsanto.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/5-food-films-deserved-oscar-nomination.php

+ INTERVIEW WITH MONSANTO FILM DIRECTOR
Quote from Marie-Monique Robin in an interview: "What Monsanto wants to do is control the food chain with patented transgenic seeds. It's a totalitarian project because to control food is to control the world, it's to control people. [Monsanto] is a multinational that has been using dirty practices for almost a century."
http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5792

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FOOD CRISIS
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+ GM CROPS "MAY GIVE LOWER YIELDS" - BBC
US researchers have criticised claims that genetically modified (GM) crops can help feed a hungry world, reports a BBC story. Among these scientists is Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who said GM crops have been a "spectacular under-performer" in terms of yields.
http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/1/hi/business/7866687.stm

+ WE DON'T NEED GM TO SOLVE HUNGER
Prof Robert Watson, Defra Chief Scientist, said: "We don't need GM to solve the hunger problem of today... David King [former UK Chief Scientist] was absolutely wrong. Farmers in Africa can't afford the better seeds, they have no access to fertilisers and sprays and they have severe constraints over irrigation - you don't need GM to solve that." Watson also says that GM won't solve the problem of food waste, and while there may be a role for GM in the future, it is "an oversold technology".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2009/jan/23/gm-crops-genetically-modified-food-crisis

+ GLOBAL HUNGER A "CRISIS IN DEMOCRACY"
Food scarcity is not the problem, said Frances Moore Lappe of the Small Planet Institute in Cambridge, Mass.: "We are still making hunger out of plenty." In 1971, Lappe pointed out that the world's grain crop, rather than feeding people, was increasingly being fed to cattle for meat for richer countries. Since then the trend to feed protein to animals has become much worse. In addition to a third of the world's grain, most soya meal goes to cattle; one-third of the ocean's fish stock is now animal feed; and a quarter of US corn goes into feed for automobiles. Recently, she noted, another worrisome trend has emerged -- multinational corporations buying up large swaths of land in poorer countries in order to control crop production.
http://www2.canada.com/global+hunger+crisis+democracy/1241470/story.html?id=1241470

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GOLDEN RICE
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+ CRITICAL LOOK AT GOLDEN RICE AFTER 10 YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT
While the first generation of Golden Rice was developed 10 years ago, even trivial technical data on how much carotenoid remains in the rice after it has been stored and cooked have not been published, writes Christoph Then in a report for Foodwatch. No information has been published on risk assessments of consuming the rice. Yet the project managers are now planning to test the rice on schoolchildren in developing countries.
http://www.foodwatch.de/english/golden_rice/index_ger.html

+ GOLDEN RICE FEEDING TRIALS BREACH MEDICAL ETHICS
Material recently released on the US Clinical Trials web site confirms that Chinese children suffering from varying degrees of Vitamin A deficiency have been used in feeding trials conducted by Tufts University, contrary to the Nuremberg Code which underpins modern medical ethics. GM Free Cymru says, "First, children under the age of ten do not have the legal capacity to give informed consent prior to being used in these experiments. Second, it has in no case been demonstrated by Tufts University or the other participants that the results desired could not be obtained by other means of study. And third, the studies were not preceded by animal experiments which might have shown up hazards for the trial subjects." A formal letter of protest relating to a severe breach of medical ethics has been sent by 22 senior scientists to the Tufts University School of Medicine, together with a call for these GM feeding experiments to be terminated immediately.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php