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THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 53
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all
Welcome to WW53 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.
The big news this week has been the release of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' final version of its report on GM and the developing world (see HIGHLIGHTS). We are less than surprised that the Council has reiterated its 1999 report's claim that developing GM crops for developing countries is a "moral imperative".
Possible reasons for the authors' enthusiasm are contained in our new directory, "THE BIOTECH BRIGADE: Who's who in the fight to force-feed us GMOs" at http://www.gmwatch.org. The individual profile of the Nuffield Council, at http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=98 , details the corporate affiliations of some of the scientists who drove both Nuffield reports.
Meanwhile, in the US, a genetic engineer has had to give up his GM experiments because the ordinary tomato seeds he wanted to tinker with turned out to be GM already - this in spite of the fact that the seed repository he'd got the seed from believed it had no GM seeds (see SETBACKS).
While we welcome the cessation of experiments involving the release of GMOs, we're concerned that GM contamination is becoming so widespread that natural seeds are increasingly hard to find. This, of course, is the situation desired by biotech companies - and not just because they intend to patent and own every commercial seed on the planet. An added bonus of universal GM contamination for industry is that non-GM control groups of seeds, crops, livestock and human consumers will no longer be available. And if there is no control group, there can be no studies designed to find out if there is a problem with GM foods or crops.
On the positive side, a British MP has introduced a Bill into Parliament mandating larger separation distances between GM and conventional or organic crops than are currently in force, and deciding liability for contamination.
We wish all our readers a happy and peaceful New Year.
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ngin.org.uk
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CONTENTS
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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ON THE NUFFIELD COUNCIL'S CLAIM IN 1999 THAT DEVELOPING GM CROPS FOR 3RD WORLD IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE
"Perhaps you believe that India needs genetically engineered seeds, or there will be famine? I am from north-west India. India has a surplus of food, and we have a problem of storage, not of shortage. What we need are facilities and political will for the distribution of this food. Even without genetically engineered seeds, we have surplus. So you can imagine our astonishment to hear from your report that we need genetically engineered food to feed ourselves."
- Manjit Kadran, Indian farmers' union representative, addressing Anthony Tomei, director of the Nuffield Foundation in London, in 1999. Kadran was one of 30 farmers who had travelled to London to challenge the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' report claiming that the development of GM crops was a "moral imperative". They were infuriated that Nuffield had consulted no farmers from the developing world.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1903
ON HOW POLITICS AND COMMERCE TRUMP HUMANITARIAN CONCERN
"At the height of the 1974 famine in the newly born Bangladesh, the US withheld 2.2 million tonnes of food aid to 'ensure that it abandoned plans to try Pakistani war criminals'. And a year later, when Bangladesh was faced with severe monsoons and imminent floods, the then US Ambassador to Bangladesh made it abundantly clear that the US probably could not commit food aid because of Bangladesh's policy of exporting jute to Cuba. And by the time Bangladesh succumbed to the American pressure, and stopped jute exports to Cuba, the food aid in transit was 'too late for famine victims'."
- Devinder Sharma in the preface to his new book, GM Food and Hunger: A View from the South. To obtain a copy, please contact the author:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1911
ON CORPORATE WELFARE
"Ironically, fiscal deficit (which is the reason for reducing support to India's small farmers) has never been the consideration when the government doles out massive funds for the telecom industry, the IT industry or the new sunrise industry - biotechnology."
- Devinder Sharma in his book, GM Food and Hunger: A View from the South.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1910
ON THE WISDOM OF ANIMALS
"I gotta tell you, you can be Chef Boyardee and mice are still not going to like them."
- Scientist Roger Salquist on lab mice's reluctance to eat GM Flavr Savr tomatoes during feeding trials (mice are usually happy to eat tomatoes). The mice were eventually force fed the tomato through gastric tubes and stomach washes. Several developed stomach lesions; seven of forty died within two weeks. The tomato was approved without further tests. [from ' SEEDS OF DECEPTION: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating' by Jeffrey M Smith (ISBN 0-9729665-8-7).]
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1904
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
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+ UK: BALLOT WINNER BACKS GM CONTAMINATION AND LIABILITY BILL
Strict new laws on growing GM crops will be proposed by Tory MP Gregory Barker. Mr Barker will propose minimum separation distances between GM and conventional crops and set out liability where contamination occurs. Mr Barker was among backbench MPs who won the right to have their chosen topic debated in the Commons in the annual ballot. He announced he would propose green group Friends of the Earth's GM Contamination and Liability Bill.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1907
The question of who is liable for GM contamination will affect the livelihoods of farmers everywhere the crops are grown. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser was successfully sued by Monsanto for patent infringement when his soy crop was contaminated by the company's GM varieties. The courts ruled that Schmeiser was liable no matter how the contamination occurred, i.e. whether it was a deliberate act on the farmer's part or whether it occurred by accident (cross-pollination or seed spillages).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1907
+ EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTES FOR GM-FREE SEEDS AND EU-WIDE COEXISTENCE AND LIABILITY RULES; CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON GMO APPROVALS
The EP adopted