GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 275
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Among a whole range of stories this week, Vidarbha in India is facing a crisis because of a drought with which Bt cotton is quite unable to cope (ASIA); the SmartStax approvals have been damned by leading scientists as not based on science; EU buyers have stopped U.S. soy imports (EUROPE); and U.S. farmers are experiencing horrendous problems with Roundup Ready pigweed! (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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COMPANY NEWS
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
ASIA
EUROPE
UK GOVT REPORT ON FUTURE OF FOOD
AGROFUELS

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ RESEARCH RESTRICTIONS
An article by the Financial Times science correspondent, Clive Cookson, supports Scientific American's criticism of Monsanto, Pioneer, Syngenta and the rest of the GM industry for imposing user agreements that forbid use of the seeds for independent research. Cookson writes, "The issue has so far received remarkably little public attention. Insect scientists are beginning to speak out against the restriction but many are afraid to do so because they rely on the companies to provide seeds for their research, SciAm says. Imagine pharmaceutical companies trying to prevent medical researchers comparing patented drugs or investigating their side-effects - it is unthinkable. Yet scientists cannot independently examine raw materials in the food supply or investigate plants that cover a lot of rural America."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11406:seedy-research-restriction--global-food-security
http://tiny.cc/ecRzv

+ MONSANTO TO CHARGE FARMERS AS MUCH AS 42% EXTRA
Monsanto, now the world's largest seed company, plans to charge as much as 42 percent more for new GM seeds next year, claiming they increase farmers' output. Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co., will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace. These increases follow on from prebious large price hikes for Monsanto GM seeds and for Roundup.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11412-monsanto-to-charge-farmers-42-extra-
http://tiny.cc/eUcz3

+ MONSANTO'S LEGAL BATTLES AGAINST FARMERS
An article for SourceWatch about Monsanto's lawsuits against farmers for "stealing" its GM genes has the following frightening snippet: "The odds are clearly stacked against the farmer: Monsanto has an annual budget of $10 million dollars and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting farmers. The largest recorded judgment made thus far in favor of Monsanto as a result of a farmer lawsuit is $3,052,800.00. Total recorded judgments granted to Monsanto for lawsuits amount to $15,253,602.82. Farmers have paid a mean of $412,259.54 for cases with recorded judgments". There's more:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11392:monsanto-vs-us-farmers
http://tiny.cc/7Olzi

+ ANTI-TRUST ENFORCERS VISITING FARM BELT
The Obama administration will take an extensive look at concentration in U.S. agriculture, a Justice Department official said Friday. Philip J. Weiser, who was recently named deputy assistant attorney general, told a farmer gathering here that federal antitrust regulators are "committed to examining" the level of competition in several agribusiness sectors, such as the marketing of genetically modified seed, dairy processing and meatpacking. While Mr. Weiser didn't single out any agricultural companies for criticism, his appearance came in the hometown of St. Louis crop-biotech titan Monsanto Co. The vast majority of the GM crops grown in the U.S. farm belt contain at least one gene from Monsanto.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/11412-monsanto-to-charge-farmers-42-extra-
http://tiny.cc/eUcz3

+ MONSANTO NAMED IN 50 CANCER LAWSUITS
Fifty recently filed lawsuits allege Monsanto and related companies are responsible for causing cancer. Each of the complaints say Monsanto and its successor companies caused cancer by exposing the plaintiffs to dioxins/furans contamination of the air and property in and around Nitro. The cases mention the "negligent and otherwise unlawful release of dioxin from defendants' waste disposal practices on properties located in and about Nitro, West Virginia."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11411:monsanto-named-in-50-cancer-lawsuits
http://tiny.cc/acJnk  

+ BIOTECH GIANTS BATTLE OVER CORN SEED
More on the legal disputes between Monsanto and DuPont.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11393:biotech-giants-battle-over-corn-seed
http://tiny.cc/4nxEs

+ BASF SEES $2 BILLION VALUE FROM MONSANTO SEED VENTURE
BASF is hoping GM crops developed jointly with Monsanto could rescue it from slumping orders for plastics, coatings and catalysts which have forced it and rivals such as Dow to cut jobs and curtail production. While group sales and profit at BASF are forecast to decline in 2009 year, the agriculture unit predicts an increase in earnings.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11374:dupont-front-group-basf-banking-on-ag
http://tiny.cc/V7UE4

+ MONSANTO WANTS TO OPEN NEW PHOSPHATE MINES DESPITE POLLUTION RECORD
As it races to replenish phosphate supplies for its weed-killing cash machine Roundup, Monsanto insists its history of polluting southeastern Idaho's high country shouldn't prevent it from digging fresh open pits here. Three of Monsanto's previous mines in this region of broad valleys and forested ridges are under federal Superfund authority; a fourth is now violating federal clean water laws. Superfund is the US government's program to investigate and clean up the worst uncontrolled and abandoned toxic waste sites.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11391:qperfect-weedq-refuses-to-be-rounded-up
http://tiny.cc/EzaBw

+ COMPANIES/U.S. KNEW OF DANGERS OF AGENT ORANGE
A review of the documents related to the use of Agent Orange ˆ a dioxin-laden herbicide ˆ in Vietnam, including decades-old declassified papers from the companies that manufactured it and the government and military that used it, provides compelling evidence that those in charge also concealed evidence of the devastating effects it could have on people. A now disclosed Dow document warns of one of the herbicide constituents of Agent Orange, "This material is exceptionally toxic; it has a tremendous potential for producing chloracne and systemic injury". This has particular significance given Dow's attempt to introduce GM soybeans resistant to this same herbicide - see:
Dow wants 'orange soya' in Brazil
GM-Free Brazil Campaign, 9 June 2009
http://www.aspta.org.br/por-um-brasil-livre-de-transgenicos/updates/update-june-2009/
Dow GM Soya: A Step Back Into the Dark Ages
GM Freeze, June 13 2009
http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?id=385&iType=
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11397:companies-us-knew-dangers-of-agent-orange
http://tiny.cc/mCtN6
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11397:companies-us-knew-dangers-of-agent-orange
http://tiny.cc/mCtN6

+ MONSANTO THINKS POLLINATION IS "MAGICAL"
Recently one of Monsanto's bloggers decided to pose a sarcastic hypothetical question: "Did you know that pollen from our genetically-modified crops will magically migrate into another farmer's field and contaminate his crop?" A blogger on North Coast Voices countered: "Apparently (if one is a Monsanto employee) the well-known natural processes known as pollen drift and cross fertilisation are not within the bounds of our world - for GM traits to be found in non-GM crops or GM plants to be discovered in non-GM fields then something otherworldly has to have occurred. This will come as a complete surprise to biologists and agronomists."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11374:dupont-front-group-basf-banking-on-ag
http://tiny.cc/V7UE4

+ DUPONT FRONT GROUP?
A report in the St Louis Post-Dispatch, Monsanto's home-town paper, says that the Organization for Competitive Markets, which is investigating Monsanto over its control of 90% of GM seed, receives funding from Monsanto's rival DuPont. The two companies are already engaged in lawsuits over alleged patent infringements.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11374:dupont-front-group-basf-banking-on-ag
http://tiny.cc/V7UE4

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THE AMERICAS
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+ CANADA: AGENCY'S DECISION ON SMARTSTAX LACKS SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT ˆ RESEARCHERS
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's  (CFIA) decision to relax a key safeguard for the new multi-trait GM corn Smartstax was not based on science, alleges a top researcher. That safeguard, known as a refuge area, is a portion of each GM crop, usually around 20 percent, that is planted with a non-GM variety of the plant in an attempt to reduce pest resistance to the GM pesticidal crop.

Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences, the two companies that shared technologies to create SmartStax, have successfully argued in the United States and Canada that the refuge area should be cut down to 5 percent of the crop. "I would go as far as to say it is not a science-based decision," said David Andow, a professor of insect ecology at the University of Minnesota and internationally recognized biotech expert and advisor to organizations like the U.N.'s FAO, World Bank, and WTO. Andow said some of the papers the CFIA cited were not even that relevant. While the CFIA apparently disagrees with that suggestion, the agency could not provide scientific research to support that position.

Bruce Tabishnik, head of entomology at the University of Arizona, said there has been no research to assure the CFIA that shrinking the refuge area will not accelerate resistance. He noted that shrinking the refuge could undo any added benefit of the stacked traits. "Resistance is expected no matter what toxin or combination of toxins is used to control insects," he said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11407:agencys-decision-lacks-scientific-support-allege-researchers
http://tiny.cc/4JFum

+ U.S.: "PERFECT WEED" REFUSES TO BE ROUNDED UP
In Arkansas alone, Roundup resistant pigweed, encouraged by GM Roundup Ready crops, has invaded some 750,000 acres of crops, including half the 250,000 acres of cotton. In Tennessee, nearly 500,000 acres have some degree of infestation, with the counties bordering the Mississippi River hardest hit. The infestation is cutting farmers' cotton yields by up to one-third and in some cases doubling or tripling their weed-control costs. This is hitting farmers hard financially. Ken Smith, weed scientist with the University of Arkansas' division of agriculture, said of the pigweed, "I think this threatens our way of farming more than anything I've seen in the 30-plus years I've worked in agriculture. "In fact, some officials draw parallels between the pigweed resistance problem and the effects of the boll weevil infestation of cotton fields in the early 20th century."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11391:qperfect-weedq-refuses-to-be-rounded-up
http://tiny.cc/EzaBw
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11404:rr-pigweed-hurting-farmers-financially
http://tiny.cc/1ukNx

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AFRICA
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+ UK FORCING GM CROPS ON AFRICA
The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has criticised plans by the UK government to spend about GBP100 million to support the growing of GM crops in Africa. ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Nnimmo Bassey said: "It is extremely ridiculous that the British government overlooked contentious issues such as under-investment in African solutions to hunger, lack of infrastructure and extension services in rural communities and only narrowed our hunger challenge to yields and so-called vitamins. It is shocking that the British government would believe the claims of biotech industry to GMOs yield better than organic or conventional varieties at a time when empirical evidence has shown that such claims are not true. Time and again we have said that the true test of the sincerity of the global North in addressing the food crisis in Africa is not the thrusting of GMO foods down African throats but to sincerely and without hidden motives listen to Africans and support
ecological solutions being developed on the continent. Any attempt to arm-twist African countries into accepting GMO in the guise of aid will not be accepted."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11408:uk-forcing-gm-crops-on-africa
http://tiny.cc/fRxe9

+ ROBERT PAARLBERG: HYPING GM FOR AFRICA
Nature has published a highly critical review by two development specialists of Robert Paarlberg's polemic "Starved for Science", a book which claims Northern NGOs are starving Africans of life-saving GM crops. Paarlberg is an Advisor to Monsanto's CEO.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11409:fricas-biotechnology-battle
http://tiny.cc/p5tU7

+ WATCHDOG LODGES COMPLAINT AGAINST SOUTH AFRICAN GOVT
The African Centre for Biosafety has lodged a complaint to the Compliance Committee of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on the grounds that the South African government has failed to comply with the Treaty's obligations with regard to open sharing of information and transparency in regard to GMO decision-making. "The South African government has granted more than 15000 GMO applications since the Protocol became binding on South Africa, yet it has refused to supply the barest minimum of the information required by the Protocol," said ACB's director Mariam Mayet.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11402:bio-secrecy-and-bio-piracy-in-africa
http://tiny.cc/nT6y1

+ SOUTH AFRICAN GM GRAPEVINES GO AHEAD
South African authorities have given the go-ahead for open-air field trials of grapevines genetically modified (GM) to resist fungal disease, despite the failure of GM fungal resistant grapevines in German trials several years ago. The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has warned that the risk of contamination of adjacent fields Is very high, posing a risk to South Africa's lucrative export market.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11402:bio-secrecy-and-bio-piracy-in-africa
http://tiny.cc/nT6y1

+ PIRATING AFRICA'S HERITAGE
The African Centre for Biosafety has released a report documenting 7 new cases of suspected biopiracy involving legally untenable patents/patent applications.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11402:bio-secrecy-and-bio-piracy-in-africa
http://tiny.cc/nT6y1

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: VIDARBHA FACES ANOTHER BT COTTON DISASTER
Vidarbha is facing the worst ever drought this year with an unprecedented shortfall in monsoon rain, a pest epidemic destroying the Bt cotton crop and a steep decline in ground water level as the four-month monsoon is the main source of water for irrigation in the country. Aruna Rodrigues, who led the public interest lawsuit against GM crops in India, comments that Vidarbha is a rainfed area. Bt is a cash crop requiring large amounts of water. If the rain does not arrive, the fate of these farmers will be terrible. So they should stop planting Bt.

Kishore Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti comments that in Maharashtra, thanks to state promotion, Bt cotton already covers 3.2 million hectares. Eighty percent of this area is rainfed and the condition of the crop can be seen in photos here:
http://vidarbhajanandolansamiti.blogspot.com/
Kishore says, "The days are not far away that once again the Maharashtra Govt. is likely to announce compensation for Bt. cotton failure as happened in December 2005. ∑ farmers should stop planting Bt cotton seed but it's a fact that there is no option left for cotton growers of the region [ie only Bt cotton is being promoted and made available]."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11403:vidarbha-risking-another-bt-cotton-disaster
http://tiny.cc/KayUx

+ PAKISTAN: STOP BT COTTON AND LAND GRABS
The government has been asked  to immediately stop all land deals being negotiated with foreign governments, investors, U.S. seed company Monsanto and other agro-chemical companies promoting genetically-modified crops, especially Bt cotton.  Executive Director of Roots for Equity, Dr Azra Talat Syed, said these were the two most critical issues now being faced by millions of small farmers in Pakistan are corporate land grabbing and onslaught of Bt cotton. She said the government last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Monsanto.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11403:vidarbha-risking-another-bt-cotton-disaster
http://tiny.cc/KayUx

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EUROPE
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+ EU BUYERS STOP U.S. SOY IMPORTS AFTER GM CORN FOUND
European Union buyers have moved to stop imports of US soy after shipments were found containing traces of prohibited GM corn varieties MON-88017 and MIR-604.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11372:eu-buyers-stop-us-soy-imports-after-gmo-corn-found
http://tiny.cc/Ep8a1

+ EU GM PHARMA REGS DRAWN UP BY PHARMA-PLANTA MAN
The European Food Standards Agency (EFSA) has published guidelines on the commercial development of GM plant-derived pharmaceuticals. The guidance describes how developers of GM plants grown for purposes other than human or animal consumption, such as producing pharmaceuticals or industrial enzymes, will need to assess the potential risks to humans, animals and the environment.
GMWatch comment: Julian Ma helped draw up these guidelines. Ma's a hardline GM supporter who has attacked the British Medical Association (BMA) for their cautious approach to the technology, has damned the precautionary principle as "the death of progress", and is an advisor to the controversial lobby group Sense About Science. He's also a leading light of the PharmaPlanta project, so has a direct interest in a lax regulatory environment. The notion of GM plant-derived drugs flies in the face of the obvious requirements for producing medicines: that they are only ingested by the people they're meant for; that the active ingredient is consistently produced; that the dose is controllable; and that unexpected contaminants are not present in the drug. For what can go wrong with pharma plants, see John Nichols' excellent piece in The Nation, "The Three Mile Island of Biotech?".
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20021230/nichols
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11390:europe-prepares-for-drugs-from-gm-plants
http://tiny.cc/tMJRP
COMMENT from Anurag Chaurasia  of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research: Guideline preparation for GM testing is OK but... [r]ules are made but not implemented fully in practice. Such a reluctant attitude will not work with a very serious matter like GMOs. As my experience in India says not even 5% of GMO testing rules have been implemented. Rigrous rules with full implementation is the need of the hour.
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090807/full/news.2009.630.html

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UK GOVT REPORT ON FUTURE OF FOOD... and responses
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+ UK GOVT REPORTS ON FUTURE OF FOOD SYSTEM
The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published
* Food 2030, an online discussion seeking views on the future of our food system
*"Food Matters: One Year On", an update on progress on the 2008 Cabinet Office report
*Draft indicators for the sustainability of the food system.
Environment secretary Hilary Benn used the publication of the reports as an opportunity to push GM crops. Benn said: "If GM can make a contribution then we have a choice as a society and as a world about whether to make use of that technology, and an increasing number of countries are growing GM products."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11401:benn-gm-and-a-farming-revolution-
http://tiny.cc/3QDvr
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11398:scotland-snubs-call-for-gm-crops
http://tiny.cc/9QycI
Comment by Dr Brian John:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11406:seedy-research-restriction--global-food-security
http://tiny.cc/HJaYq
Soil Association response to Defra review:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11396:can-organic-farming-feed-the-world
http://tiny.cc/C9qLk

+ SCOTLAND SNUBS CALL FOR GM CROPS
GM crops will not be grown in Scotland for the foreseeable future. A Scottish Government spokesman said it remained opposed to the cultivation of GM crops and was determined to protect "Scotland's clean and green image for food and drink production." He added: "As such no GM crops are currently being grown in Scotland and none are likely to be in the foreseeable future."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11398:scotland-snubs-call-for-gm-crops
http://tiny.cc/qeaYz

+ GMWATCH COMMENT ON BENN AND THE UK GOVT REPORT
Given that Wales, Northern Ireland, and the majority of the public in England are much closer to Scotland than the British government on the GM issue, it's hard to know who exactly Hilary Benn, the environment secretary in the highly unpopular Labour government, represents. It would also be interesting to know what role, if any, the Science Media Centre had in turning the launch of a food security report that didn't have a huge amount to say about GM into a "GM story".
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11398:scotland-snubs-call-for-gm-crops
http://tiny.cc/gNhf1

+ GM JAM TOMORROW NO BASIS FOR FOOD SECURITY
GM Freeze welcomed the Defra review of future food security in the UK, but warned that politicians should not rely on unproven GM technology to solve future problems and called instead for a big increase in funding for alternative approaches to build a world class agroecological research base in the UK. The group also warned that social, economic and political reforms were needed if future food crises were to be avoided.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11395:gm-jam-tomorrow-is-not-a-sound-foundation-for-food-security
http://tiny.cc/TQeWd
GMWATCH comment: When it comes to debates about solving hunger it's important to realise that the constant refrain that "GM is just one more tool in the toolbox" simply isn't true. The toolbox analogy gives the false impression that we can have it all, but the choice is between tried and tested and widely accepted techniques and costly, risky, unaccepted GM. On top of that, in the rare instances where GM does result in a usable end product, we've seen the contamination and corporate-control factors kick in, driving out the alternatives. So the best analogy for GM is not a tool in the toolbox, but a cuckoo in the nest. And when the nest is intended to produce food security you definitely don't want a ravenous cuckoo in there displacing the rest of the brood.

+ ORGANIC FOOD CAN BRING NEW LIFE
Small-scale farmers in Ecuador have stopped forking out for expensive chemicals in favour of traditional methods of growing that are bringing good incomes, says Progressio, an international organisation with Catholic roots working for sustainable development and the eradication of poverty.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11396:can-organic-farming-feed-the-world
http://tiny.cc/C9qLk

+ ORGANIC CAN FEED THE WORLD
Study after study show that organic techniques can provide much more food per acre in developing countries than conventional chemical-based agriculture, says a good article by Geoffrey Lean in the Daily Telegraph.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11396:can-organic-farming-feed-the-world
http://tiny.cc/C9qLk

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AGROFUELS
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+ AGROFUELS AND THE USE OF GM
GeneWatch UK has published a new report exploring the use of genetic technologies for the production of agrofuels (biofuels). The report questions whether the substantial investment being made in a new generation of agrofuels, often being developed using GM organisms and new GM crops, will solve the problems now acknowledged with the current generation. The concerns include:
*Over-reliance on claims that difficult technical problems will be overcome, particularly that new GM micro-organisms will be able to convert cellulose in woody plants to fuel
*Failure to consider the environmental impacts, including impacts on biodiversity and the creation of potentially hazardous waste streams of GM micro-organisms.  
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11399:agrofuels-and-the-use-of-gm
http://tiny.cc/IMcSk

+ ANOTHER FIRM HYPES GM TECH TO PRODUCE AGROFUELS
Joule Biotechnologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup, just launched the latest effort to use GMOs to crank out vast quantities of agrofuels. Keith Johnson of the Wall Street Journal comments: "Joule hopes to build a pilot plant next year, and a commercial-scale plant by 2012. That's the same kind of ambitious timeline that has marked an awful lot of next-generation biofuel projects in recent years - projects that almost uniformly have failed to live up to their hype."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11399:agrofuels-and-the-use-of-gm
http://tiny.cc/wOPaF