from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
More reports have emerged this week from India showing the shoddiness of GM crops. Yet another new disease seems to be ravaging Bt cotton (ASIA). And Monsanto and the Indian government stand accused of colluding in corporate manslaughter. (POD)
There are two important action alerts: the first is to help the people of Peru prevent their country becoming covered with GM crops (THE AMERICAS), and the second is to put pressure on the French Government not to contaminate France's unique foods with GM pharm crops (EUROPE).
And look out for the new row over the so-called "coexistence" of GM and non-GM crops that's broken out in the UK (EUROPE).
If anyone has sent me an email of late at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., it will not have reached me due to a technical glitch - so my apologies if you didn't receive a reply. I normally reply to all messages from subscribers. If you'd like to, you can readdress your note to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and Jonathan will forward it to me.
Claire
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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LATEST POD
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
GM CLOTHING
GM ICE CREAM
G8
RESEARCH
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POD - CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER IN INDIA
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On July 11 eight bombs hit Mumbai's commuter rail network during the rush hour, tragically killing at least 200 people and sending shock waves around the world. The Indian government has reacted by trying to stop those who incite such murder, even blocking websites and blogs.
In the latest GM Watch podcast we look at how the Indian government, by contrast, has actually colluded in what's little short of corporate manslaughter - with far more people dying in the state of Mahrashtra alone in the last year, as a result of growing Bt cotton, than were killed in the Mumbai bombings.
The tragedy in Mahrashtra was entirely predictable from the moment Monsanto launched its lavish PR campaign to incite poor farmers to buy expensive Bt cotton seeds with the promise of big profits. The government colluded in the Bt PR offensive, both locally and nationally, and now the resulting controversy has burst around the head of India's Prime Minister.
This podcast also looks at the launch of the latest pro-GM lobby group and at how its declared aims of exposing misinformation and hidden agendas is fatally undermined by its close connection to lobby groups who perfectly exemplify the use of black propaganda and undeclared backers.
Listen to the podcast on your PC via indymedia (eg using QuickTime*) http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/07/5193.shtml
Or on your computer or portable media player via iTunes http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=158600210
*not currently working with Windows Media Player
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THE AMERICAS
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+ URGENT ACTION ALERT
In solidarity with the people of Peru, accionecologica is asking for names of individuals and organisations to sign up to ask President Toledo of Peru not to pass the legislation promoting GMOs in Peru - Please send your name/name of your organisation to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
You may also want to send a letter to the President of Peru to respectfully ask him NOT to sign the law promoting biotech in Peru. Please send your letter to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Address him as Doctor Alejandro Toledo Manrique, Presidente Constitucional del Peru. You can also fax him: 00 51 1 311 43 07.
More information in English and Spanish at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6780
+ RESEARCHERS CONFIRM ANOTHER GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEED
University of Missouri researchers have confirmed that tall waterhemp is the sixth glyphosate-resistant weed in the US and the ninth such weed in the world. Tall waterhemp from a field near the Missouri River in Platte County was found to survive despite being treated with up to eight times the labeled rate of glyphosate.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. The fields where resistant waterhemp was found had been in continuous (GM) Roundup Ready soybean production since 1996.
While all resistant weeds are worrisome, Bradley says resistant tall waterhemp is especially troubling. "Waterhemp is one of Missouri's toughest weed problems," he says. "It has developed resistance to a number of other soybean herbicides." That resistance has been known to spread quickly.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6766
And another highly problematic weed - Roundup resistant pigweed - is spreading across Georgia due to GM cotton: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6766
+ KEY FIGURE IN DEVELOPMENT OF GM DENIES EVOLUTION
Dr John Sanford, who invented the gene gun which enables the production of GM crops, is giving a lecture series 17-20 July at Mississippi State University in which he will deny evolutionary theory and support Christian creationist theory. Sanford says he will show that if evolutionary theory were true, then humans would be degenerating, not evolving, as a species.
GM Watch comment: Dr Sandford has a perfect right to his own views. But, given the way in which pro-GM lobbyists so frequently seek to discredit members of the scientific community who raise concerns over GMOs by picking out individuals whose views in one arena or another might be considered radical or unusual, it is amusing that one of the key figures in the development of GM should hold views that are so unorthodox. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6760
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ASIA
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+ CHINA: LID STAYS ON MODIFIED RICE
China, the world's top rice producer and consumer, is unlikely to give the nod for commercial production of GM rice for another year at least with a government panel demanding more data to prove its safety.
Scientists in China said the biosafety committee fell short of supporting large-scale production of insect resistant Bt rice. Instead, the panel has recommended transgenic papaya, which could become the first GM crop in seven years to pass Beijing's scrutiny for commercialization.
"There has been no agreement on any commercialization of rice," said Lu Baorong of Shanghai's Fudan University who is a member of the committee. "The requirements are getting harder."
Beijing has hit the brakes following reports of illegal sales of GMO rice in China. The reports also sounded alarm bells in China's top trading partners. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6765
+ INDIA: DEVASTATION CAUSED BY BT COTTON IN VIDARBHA
Proponent of sustainable farming Kisan Mehta has recently returned from visiting the Vidarbha cotton-growing area to view the devastation wreaked by Bt cotton.
EXCERPT from report by Kisan Mehta:
In one single village of a 1000 population (about 200 households), 14 suicides is an unbelievable situation ...
The havoc that Bt seeds and cultivation has brought about is something that [one] needs to see to believe. Hectares after hectares have become barren covered with weeds... Possibly the only other place to see such devastation is Vietnam after the US invasion. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6758
+ FARMER SUICIDES CONTINUE
Farmers' group Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti reports that the farmer suicide toll in the Vidarbha cotton-growing region from June 2005 to 16 July is around 660. A majority of these farmers grew Bt cotton, which failed. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6758
+ DELHI NGO FLAYS PM ON VIDARBHA PACKAGE
The prime minister's Rs 3,750-crore package for Vidarbha farmers does not address the core causes of peasants' suicides, an NGO has stated. The causes are farmer indebtedness due to high-input farming methods and falling prices of agricultural products due to unfair trade practices, Vandana Shiva of Delhi-based organisation Navdanya said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6770
+ THE REAL SOLUTION TO INDIA'S FARM CRISIS
The only solution to India's farm crisis that is also in the farmers' control is organic farming, says an article in The Hindu.
EXCERPT:
Despite the massive failure of the Bt cotton crop last year (after which the government had to compensate farmers), most people still opt for the seeds this year... Though proven to be more effective, organic methods will never get the kind of hype that surrounds Bt cotton, simply because there is no money to be made from promoting self-reliance. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6756
+ ORGANIC FARMING THE SOLUTION TO FARMER SUICIDES
IPS News reports that as the phenomenon of mass suicides by farmers turns into a major issue, small cultivators in the sub-Himalayan state of Uttaranchal are demonstrating that the way forward to sustainable agriculture lies in traditional methods.
EXCERPT (shortened):
For villagers here, it has been important to retain confidence in their own seeds especially in the face of a campaign by the government's farm extension network which decried putting seeds by for the next crop as a symbol of backward farming. But the farmers benefited from a counter-campaign by NGOs such as the Save the Seeds Movement (SSM).
Vijay Jardhari, a key co-ordinator of SSM says, "About two decades back the government's scientists started propagating the idea that the 'twelve-grain' (barahanaja) traditional inter-cropping system grown on higher land is backward and should be given up in favour of soyabean."
Fortunately, better sense prevailed among the farmers and they refused to have anything to do with the government plan. "Inter-cropping is a remarkable, risk minimising system that makes available a rich diversity of millets and legumes which are high in nutrition. In hindsight it would have been suicidal for us to sacrifice this for soyabean monocrop," Jardhari said. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6769
+ INDIA: FUTURE OF BT COTTON
A study conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found that though American cotton varieties had higher initial productivity, their cultivation was not sustainable in India owing to lack of agro-climatic compatibility.
The study found that the Indian cotton varieties gave the same level of yield for 30 years whereas American varieties have led to frequent crop failures and brought in numerous diseases. American varieties required at least three times more water and other inputs and the yield plummeted after three years. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6770
+ NEW DISEASE SPREADS THROUGH BT COTTON IN INDIA
A new disease appears to be spreading through Bt cotton in the districts of Nalgonda and Rangareddy. Agriculture scientist Dr Qayum who toured these areas reports that "a peculiar symptom of middle order leaves exhibiting necrotic spots" is visible in Bt cotton that was planted early. Never before has this disease appeared in cotton.
This might turn out to be fatal for Bt cotton plants. Last year there were widespread complaints that Bt cotton had invited Tobacco Streak Virus, a disease which had never been seen on cotton plants in this region. Similarly there have been widespread reports that the soils on which Bt cotton has been planted have been showing symptoms of toxicity.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6771
+ INDIA: GM EGGPLANT CONTAINS BT TOXIN LINKED TO ALLERGY CASES AND SHEEP DEATHS
Dr Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins report that Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) contains the same Cry1Ac toxin from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis as the widely cultivated GM cotton that has been implicated recently in major health controversies in India. Hundreds of farm workers and cotton handlers developed allergic reactions and thousands of sheep died from toxic reactions after grazing on GM cotton fields.
These controversies on the health hazards of Bt crops corroborate findings dating back to the 1980s, which linked Bt bacteria and spores producing a mixture of Cry proteins to allergic reactions. Cry1Ac itself has been identified as a potent systemic and mucosal immunogen and adjuvant comparable to cholera toxin. Thus, not only can the Bt toxin provoke immune reactions to itself, it can also sensitize a person to develop allergies to other components in the diet. At least 12 dairy cows died in Germany after feeding on GM maize containing a gene coding for a protein similar to Cry1Ac.
Cry1Ac is not the only Bt transgenic protein linked to serious health problems. Dozens of villagers fell ill in the south of the Philippines when a Bt maize with Cry1Ab came into flower in 2003, and five have died since. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6755
+ DOCUMENTS ON BT BRINJAL
We've posted on our website documents forming part of the response sent by the Coalition for a GM-Free India, to India's GM regulatory body - the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) - on the biosafety data and the proposal by Monsanto Mahyco for field trials and seed production of Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine).
The Coalition's response was endorsed by more than 250 leading organisations and eminent experts from various fields including farmers' organisations, organic farmers, agricultural scientists, microbiologists, medical professionals, and social scientists.
The Coalition also told the GEAC that it strongly objected to the fact that the GEAC had stated in a press release that it WILL permit the trials, even while it was asking for feedback on the proposal to hold the trials! This, the Coalition said, was not just unacceptable but rendered the entire regulatory process farcical. The documents are at: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6772
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6773
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6774
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6775
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6776
For a letter to the prime minister of India from the food and trade policy analyst, Dr Devinder Sharma on the Bt brinjal plans, see: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6778
+ COURT NOTICE TO INDIAN GOVT ON GM BAN
India's Supreme Court has issued notice to the government of a lawsuit seeking a ban on introduction of GM crops in India, until a regulatory framework is put in place. The lawsuit was filed by Vandana Shiva. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6770
+ PHILIPPINES PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS ENDORSE GM-FREE ZONES
Participants of a national agriculture conference have endorsed the establishment of GM-free zones and sustainable agriculture as the only way to achieving real food security for the country.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which organized the July National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and GMO Free Zones at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, said representatives of several provincial agriculture offices were among the conference participants - mostly NGOs - that batted for sustainable agriculture. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6751
These would-be GM-free provincial government leaders may have reckoned without agriculture secretary Domingo Panagniban, who poses the question, "Has anybody died from vinegar that is a GMO product?" (Panganiban: Alternatives needed before RP can ban GMO produce) http://www.visayandailystar.com/2006/July/14/businessnews2.htm
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EUROPE
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+ GM COEXISTENCE PROPOSALS CONDEMNED
The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has issued long awaited proposals on the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops and economic liability. These have been condemned by a wide range of environmental, farming and consumer organisations because they would lead to GM contamination of every part of the food chain.
GM Freeze director, Pete Riley, said, "The Government have failed to listen to the concerns of people and slavishly followed the guidelines set down by the pro-GM European Commission. They are based on a false premise that pollen movement is predictable and human errors won't occur. DEFRA's suggestion that a 35 metres separation distances GM oilseed rape is adequate beggars belief. In addition key issues like volunteer control are left to voluntary agreements with industry. The people to benefit from these proposals will be the biotech corporations once again the Government prefers to listen to them rather than the people who buy and eat food".
DEFRA's consultation process begins 20th July and lasts until 20th October 2006. GM Freeze and Friends of the Earth will be publishing a guide on how to respond shortly.
The choices offered by DEFRA do not include a GM-free option and assume that allowing a routine GM-contamination of crops up to 0.9% will not harm health or the environment or damage the markets for organic and non-GM products which are strong across the whole of Europe. At present food and feed with any ingredients above 0.9% GM has to be labelled. Below this level, labeling can only be avoided if companies can prove the GM presence is "unavoidable". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6784
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6782
+ EUROPEAN COMMISSION WRONGLY CONCEALED GM DOCUMENTS, SAYS OMBUDSMAN
The European Commission has been ruled guilty of "maladministration" after hiding documents from Friends of the Earth Europe that reveal scientific concerns about the safety of GM foods. The Commission falsely used the premise that World Trade Organisation (WTO) disputes should involve the secrecy levels of court cases.
The documents concerned related to the European Communities dispute at the WTO, in which the US, Argentina and Canada claimed that Europe's precautionary approach on GM foods was a barrier to trade.
Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth Europe said, "What we now know is that whilst the European Commission has been telling us for years that biotech foods are safe, they were arguing behind closed doors that there are legitimate scientific concerns that warrant a more precautionary approach."
The European Commission initially refused to release papers to Friends of the Earth Europe in August 2004, citing that the dispute in the WTO had to be "assimilated" to court proceedings and that the publication of the papers would have damaged their case. The ombudsman rejected this argument as "not well founded, and hence amounted to an instance of maladministration."
The European Commission eventually released the documents in February 2005. The papers outlined scientific concerns about the long-term safety of GM foods and crops. Further papers, also released to Friends of the Earth Europe earlier this year, outlined these concerns in more detail, warning that cancer and allergies caused by eating GM foods cannot be ruled out and recommending that GM crops should not be grown until their long-term effects are known. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6768
+ ACTION ALERT ON FRENCH PHARMA CROPS
The French government has approved 17 new GM test sites - including maize and tobacco genetically engineered to produce pharmaceuticals. These would be grown outdoors at secret locations and could result in unidentified pharmaceuticals in food, feed and the produce of animals eating feed - that then gets sold throughout Europe.
Locations of GM test sites in France are kept secret meaning that neighbouring farmers are unable to prevent contamination by GM pollen. France exports maize products to the UK including seed and grain for animal feed.
International protests could stop these trials. Here's how ....
***threaten to boycott French cheese
***write to your supermarket telling them you will boycott French dairy products if the trials go ahead. Sample letter plus UK supermarket contact details are at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6777
+ GERMAN MINISTER FINGERS "CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY" IN GM CROP TRASHING
Federal minister Horst Seehofer has condemned destruction of experimental GM crop trials as involving a "criminal conspiracy". The trials were conducted by Germany's Federal Seed Variety Office.
Said Seehofer, "The destruction of open-air field trials interferes with research data we urgently need to clarify the future of green genetic engineering. We are dealing here with a criminal conspiracy, and the public prosecutor's office will now intervene."
Seehofer added, "There is no transparent, neutral alternative to field trials, since they cannot effectively be conducted under strict laboratory conditions."
GM WATCH COMMENT: The subtext here is open-air GM trials have to be held to see how much they contaminate non-GM crops, and once they've been held and contamination has happened, Seehofer and his like feel justified in saying contamination is 'natural', inevitable and can't be avoided. That's both criminal and a conspiracy against people's inalienable right to a GM free world. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6763
+ COEXISTENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE
Two letters in Farmers' Weekly point out that plans for "coexistence" of GM and non-GM crops, which are enthusiastically supported by the National Farmers' Union (NFU), are simply a way of legalizing contamination.
One of the correspondents, Stuart Pattison, writes, "It's bad enough having a prime minister as a stooge of American foreign policy blunders, without having British agriculture also subservient to the unwholesome greed and ugly ambition of US biotech and agrochem corporations. The government and the NFU should both get out of bed with the 'enemy' and try to remember where their backbone is supposed to be." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6753
+ UK: SAINSBURY QUIZZED IN DONOR PROBE
UK science minister Lord Sainsbury has been questioned by police as part of the "loans for peerages" inquiry. The supermarket millionaire and biotech entrepreneur is one of Labour's biggest donors and loaned the party GBP2m before the last election.
GM Watch comment: The authorities really ought to be looking into a far greater outrage - cash not just for peerages but for ministerial positions, and government support for vested interests.
Othe top three personal donors to Blair's Party, two - Paul Drayson and Lord David Sainsbury - are biotech entrepreneurs. Both have been made peers by Blair in controversial circumstances and both have been given jobs in government.
Lord Sainsbury gave Labour its biggest ever single donation in September 1997. On October 3 1997 he was made a life peer by Blair and a year later minister for science, despite his being a well-known biotech entrepreneur. The complaints about conflicts of interest have rumbled on ever since.
In addition, projects he set up to promote GM foods have been awarded more than GBP12m by his own government department. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6754
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AFRICA
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+ WAMBUGU'S GM SORGHUM PROJECT HALTED
There's been more coverage of ther suspension of the big bucks research project headed up by the Monsanto-trained Kenyan scientist, Florence Wambugu, to develop a GM sorghum.
Wambugu had secured funding to the tune of $415 million from the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation for the project. But the South African government refused Wambugu and the Africa Harvest Bio-Technology International permission to set up a research laboratory and greenhouses in the country. South Africa had expressed concern over the possible contamination of the sorghum varieties native to Africa by the introduction of a GM type.
Wambugu's previous effort, a GM virus-resistant sweet potato, was shown by 3 years of field trials not to actually be virus resistant and to yield less than the conventional sweet potato it was supposed to replace.
Wambugu and her backers also invented a fictitious "crisis narrative" stoking up fears that bananas were in serious decline and could only be saved by biotech. More on these stories: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6762
+ BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION CRITICISED
An article criticizing the misguided benevolence of the Gates Foundation in supporting corporate-linked but harmful-to-people projects, such as genetic engineering of staple crops in the third world, is at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6761
+ U.S. COTTON SUBSIDIES HURT AFRICANS, SAY U.S. FARMERS
A delegation of US cotton farmers visiting West Africa said Washington's multi-billion dollar subsidies to its cotton industry were worsening hardship in the world's poorest region. During a trip to Mali, West Africa's largest cotton producer, the farmers from California, Illinois, Vermont and Kansas witnessed conditions in one of the world' poorest countries.
The US is the world's biggest exporter of cotton and its producers received about $4.2 billion in government subsidies during 2004-05. West Africa's cotton producers say this depresses world prices and ruins their economies. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6770
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ GRAINS RESEARCH CORP FUNDS PRO-GM "MICKEY MOUSE" TOUR
A grower research tour of Canada which will focus on GM canola crops and biodiesel has been labelled a waste of valuable Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) funds by anti-GM campaigners. GRDC is funded by compulsory levies on farmers.
Bill Crabtree of Crabtree Agricultural Consulting (a known pro-GM zealot) will lead a study tour in July which will expose 30 Australian growers, including 19 from WA, to Canada's "progressive" farming systems.
The tour will visit the John Deere factory, Chicago Stock Exchange, Canadian Wheat Board, University of Manitoba, Canadian Canola Council (CCC) as well as Bayer Cropscience and Monsanto chemical factories.
Crabtree said the tour was necessary because Australia was being left behind in the GM gold rush and people needed to see first hand what was happening.
Julie Newman of Network of Concerned Farmers said if it was a balanced tour, she would not have a problem with it. "As a farmer forced to pay compulsory GRDC levies, I don't think this is an appropriate way for GRDC to spend our money," Ms Newman said. "This money would be better spent doing proper research on why GM-growing countries, except cotton producers, are either reliant on subsidies or on government support to prevent payment of royalties.
"You only need to look at the US Agriculture Department statistics for Canada when main adoption started 1997/98 and GM yield went down, to know that Mr Crabtree's promise of a 50pc yield improvement with GM is totally false." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6752
+ FARMERS PAY FOR GM PROPAGANDA
Julie Newman of Australia's Network of Concerned Farmers has commented as follows on how opposition to GM is crushed by threats and how farmers' money is used to push the technology:
EXCERPT:
Grains Council of Australia send submissions in response to possible regulatory changes, and insist on absolutely no risk management [of GM]. When I publicly questioned it, claiming it was against the policies of the organisations GCA represent, I was threatened to be sued...
... the extreme effort and misleading information used to sway the average farmers to want GM is appalling. Every conference is misleadingly pro-GM, the policy advisors of all major farm lobby groups are in constant contact with and receive biased information from Paula Fitzgerald of Agrifood Awareness who actually represents the GM industry via Avcare (prior to namechange). GRDC (Grains Research and Development Corporation) fund $100,000/yr to Paula too and that money is taken out of compulsory levies from farmers. (With the drought this year, the compulsory levies taken by GRDC could well exceed the net income of farmers.) http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6759
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GM CLOTHING
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+ GREENWASHING GM CLOTHING
At a fashion show at a recent Toronto biotech conference, designers showed dresses made from a new fibre called Ingeo, made largely from GM corn. The Biotechnology Industry Organization used the fashion statement to burnish its battered image as an environmental scourge. NB: As far as we know, there's no reason this fibre has to be made from GM rather than non-GM corn. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6767
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GM ICE CREAM
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+ BEN & JERRY'S BREAKS RANKS WITH UNILEVER OVER GM ICE CREAM
Ben & Jerry's, the ice cream manufacturer, has broken ranks with food giant Unilever amid controversy about GM ice cream. The breach follows reports of concerns from scientists over the risk to health from an "anti-freeze" protein, made using a GM process, which Unilever is trying to get approved in the UK.
A spokesperson for Ben & Jerry's said: "We would not dream of including anything like that in our products. One of the biggest problems is that we are affected by Unilever's actions even though they are nothing to do with the way that we behave. The fact that we are not using this GM ingredient shows that we are not following all of their decisions."
The company is owned by Unilever, as are Wall's and Birds Eye.
In a report to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), researchers from the Independent Science Panel warned: "Without long-term testing, we could be letting off an immunological time bomb." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6757
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G8
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+ GMOs AT THE G8
The recommendations of the civil society Forum (Civil G8) presented to the heads of G8 countries in St Petersburg in July 2006 include a demand for a moratorium on the release of GMOs into the environment and the food chain, as long as the safety questions hanging over GMOs are not resolved. The Civil G8 also asks for mandatory labeling of GM foods and for GM-producing companies to be made liable for damages. Civil G8 was made up of representatives from 17 countries. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6764
+ G8 PROTEST AT UC DAVIS
On the last day of the G8 nations conference (17th) protests took place in California against Monsanto and its influence over University of California Davis and the US Department of Agricuture. Protesters demanded an end to the biotech industry's easy access to academia and local and national government as well as GM monocrop monopolies.
http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2006/07/5205.shtml
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RESEARCH
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+ MORE ON GENE SWAP CLAIM USED TO PROMOTE GM FOOD
Recently we commented on the absurdity of claims made by Australian researcher Dr Richard Oliver that evidence from his research showing a single gene had moved in nature between one specific fungal disease and another, suggested not only that all genes had been naturally in flux between species but that all genes were safely transferable by humans between species. This, according to Oliver, provided a powerful new argument for GM food!
Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Center for Food Safety and a former EPA scientist, has written to us giving further points that show Oliver's extrapolations are unsupportable scientifically.
Doug points out that:
***Gene transfer between unrelated species has likely occurred occasionally over evolutionary time scales, but it appears to be a rare event - very different from the scale of transfer of GM
***In nature, different species often occupy different eco-systems with different selective evolutionary pressures, and thus don't have a chance to exchange genes. But this barrier is overridden in GM. So combinations that have been tried in the wild and failed could succeed in GM. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6779