GMWatch News Review archive

WEEKLY WATCH number 282
Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

Dear all:
 
'Regulators' like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the UK's FSA must no longer try to pull the wool over consumers' eyes by claiming that GM-fed animals are no different from non-GM fed animals. A definitive review of the scientific literature from Prof Jack Heinemann (GM ANIMAL FEED) concludes there are differences.

And if you want to understand how support for GM is achieved in the face of all the concerns and all the evidence that GM crops have little to offer our global agricultural needs, then make sure to check out the REVOLVING DOOR.

Recent examples include:
*the former head of the GMO-panel at the EFSA moving directly to GM giant Syngenta, from where she will be lobbying EFSA's GMO-panel for market approvals for Syngenta;
*a former Union Carbide and Monsanto man being made director of Agricultural Development for the Gates Foundation;
*and a former Monsanto man being put in charge of the UK's biggest agricultural research body.
And these are just a few of the current crop. Don't forget how the Obama Admistration is moving a whole series of GM promoters and former industry men into key positions in the States.

Check out THE AMERICAS for the latest devastating developments in the home of GM crops. Problems include the Canadian flax industry potentially having to shut down for three to five years in order to rid itself of GM contamination; and the GM cotton crop acreage in the US shrinking as yield-sapping weeds evolve resistance and secondary pests flourish.

Another must-read item is a scientist's account of worrying findings on Roundup that the US Department of Agriculture doesn't want us to see (RESEARCH).

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org
http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/GM_Watch:_Portal
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CONTENTS
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GM ANIMAL FEED
REVOLVING DOOR
LOBBYWATCH
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
RESEARCH
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
NANOTECH, COPENHAGEN & FOOD FUTURES
ORGANICS

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GM ANIMAL FEED
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+ GM-FED ANIMALS ARE DIFFERENT
In a landmark ruling, the NZ Commerce Commission has accepted evidence from Prof Jack Heinemann, from an exhaustive review of the literature, that animals fed on GM components ARE different from those reared using non-GM feed. This is a direct challenge to EFSA and the UK's FSA, who have maintained there are no differences between GM-fed and non-GM-fed animals, and that there is therefore no need for labelling or segregation of feed supplies to meet consumer demand for GM-free products. We summarise the evidence.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11841:are-animals-fed-gm-feed-different
http://bit.ly/7URhyQ

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REVOLVING DOOR
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+ GATES FOUNDATION = MONSANTO
Former Union Carbide (responsible for the Bhopal disaster) and Monsanto man Sam Dryden is the new director of Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dryden also has ties to the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, agrichem company Celgro and biotech firm Emergent Genetics.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11842:gates-man-ex-monsanto-ex-union-carbide
http://bit.ly/7qaXb1

+ HEAD OF EFSA GMO PANEL MOVES TO SYNGENTA
The former head of the GMO-panel at the European Food Safety Authority EFSA, Suzy Renckens, has moved directly into the genetic engineering industry - to a post at Syngenta - without any objections or restrictions being imposed by the authority. According to a report by Testbiotech, she said that in future she would also be approaching the authority personally in regard to marketing approval for GM plants. In her previous position at the EFSA she had been in charge of precisely this group of experts dealing with such applications.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11848:revolving-door-at-efsa
http://bit.ly/6jG7ix
A group of NGOs are calling for a thorough investigation of the circumstances and urging the European Commission to take immediate action.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11858:close-efsas-open-doors-to-industry
http://bit.ly/5PkIzM

+ UK: GM SCIENTIST NEW CEO OF ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH
Former Monsanto man, Professor Maurice Moloney has been appointed the new Director and Chief Executive of Rothamsted Research. Who he? The Chief Scientific Officer of SemBioSys Genetics Inc. - a plant biotech company well known for its controversial work on pharma crops (eg producing insulin from safflower seeds). A GM pharma specialist, Moloney has also worked on deriving a blood anti-coagulant from canola. Previously, Moloney led the Cell Biology group at Calgene, acquired by Monsanto in 1997, where he developed the world's first GM oilseeds, which resulted in RoundUp Ready Canola and other novel crops. Moloney holds more than 300 patents.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11846:gm-scientist-new-ceo-of-rothamstead
http://bit.ly/687Whv
Farmers Guardian article: http://bit.ly/6d7opb

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ LACK OF GMOs COSTS MILLIONS OF LIVES - UK FORMER CHIEF SCIENTIST
UK chief scientist Sir David King is at it again. On a previous occasion he claimed that the flood resistant rice going into farmers' fields was GM, when it is non-GM. Now, in a speech to the annual City Food Lecture in London's Guildhall, King claimed that millions of lives have been lost due to the reluctance of some countries to accept GM crops. Speaking about flood-resistant rice, he said it would have been available much faster if it had been GM! But the truth is very different - the rice researchers tried to produce a GM variety and failed.

This is not the first time King has been engaged in totally false and irrational claims. The first time he was caught making false claims, he claimed it was "an honest mistake". So how many honest mistakes is one scientist allowed before they become dishonest mistakes? Peter Melchett of the Soil Association has said that King's fervent belief in GM crops is making him blind to reality. And like other GM promoters, he also seems to have a serial disregard for the truth.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11857:lack-of-gmos-costs-lives-claims-leading-scientist
http://bit.ly/6fyG5W
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11861:millions-have-died-over-gm-crops-king-
http://bit.ly/6cy6LL

+ U.S. REPORT ON ITALY AND GMOs IS DISINFORMATION
A USDA report claims that Italy is “the Achilles heel of the campaign to maintain Europe's defences against genetically modified crops”. The report claims that 65% of Italians support biotech and that the Vatican is a "vocal advocate" of GM crops as a way of easing hunger in Africa. Both claims are untrue. The following people and bodies have declared their opposition to GMOs: the Italian government’s minister for agriculture; 16 of Italy's 20 Regional Governments; the main farming union, Coldiretti; and many major retailers with a presence in Italy.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11854:us-gm-report-an-insult-to-truth-and-democracy
http://bit.ly/4Hruay
And far from endorsing GMOs, Pope Benedict XVI has stated, "The campaign to promote GM sowing, that pretends to grant food security [...] risks to ruin small farmers and to suppress their traditional crops, making them dependent on GM production companies." As for the Italian public, the most recent survey - carried out by Coldiretti-SWG in 2009 - found that nearly three out of four Italians (72%) believe that foods with GMOs are less healthy than conventional ones, up from 52% in 2003.
http://www.coldiretti.it/docindex/cncd/informazioni/047_10.htm

+ BIOTECH'S PERFECT SPOKESMAN - STEWART BRAND
Biotech and nuclear lobbyists have latched on to the ageing hippie technophile Stewart Brand, one time editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, as their perfect spokesperson. And Brand is getting a slew of publicity with the publication of his new book Whole Earth Discipline. Brand's never been short on hubris. "We are as gods", he wrote in the first Whole Earth Catalog. Even in those days Brand was pushing space colonies, and he claims that if he'd known about GMOs then, he'd have been more than in favour: "30 to 40 years ago I think I would have said to all the genetic engineering stuff - hot dog!" According to the science editor of the Financial Times, Brand "gushes about the technology in a way that might raise a blush even in a spokesman for Monsanto". Brand also thinks patents are no problem with GMOs. He even seems to be in favour of dictatorship as a means of imposing the changes he considers necessary. His wife, Ryan Phelan, is founder and CEO of DNA Direct, a company working in
the controversial area of marketing DNA tests to consumers.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11843:biotechs-perfect-spokesperson-stewart-brand
http://bit.ly/6Zp0Yq

+ GREENPEACE NOT BACKING DOWN ON GM
Contrary to recent claims by pro-GM lobbyists, Greenpeace is NOT "backing down on GMOs", quite the opposite.
Details here: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11844:greenpeace-qnot-backing-down-on-genetic-engineeringq
http://bit.ly/8yWYNv

+ SO MUCH FOR "SENSE" ABOUT SCIENCE
Every few months, the lobby group Sense About Science (SAS) issues a pamphlet that makes fun of celebrities getting their science wrong. Newspapers lap it up. The problem is that, says Zac Goldsmith in an article for The Guardian, they have fallen into a trap. While they quote Sense About Science with the kind of deference usually reserved for the Royal Society, the organisation is suspect, being a spin-off of a bizarre political network that began life as the ultra-left Revolutionary Communist Party and switched over to extreme corporate libertarianism. Article worth reading in full: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11829:so-much-for-qsenseq-about-science
http://bit.ly/75HHPx
Lots more about Sense About Science: http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Sense_About_Science

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THE AMERICAS
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+ CANADIAN FLAX INDUSTRY MAY BE SHUT DOWN 3-5 YEARS DUE TO GM CONTAMINATION
The worst-case scenario for Canadian flax producers is that the industry will shut down for three to five years to purge whatever GM seed is already growing, says Barry Hall, president of the Flax Council of Canada. Canadian flax has been contaminated by a de-registered variety called Triffid, developed at the University of Saskatchewan by Alan McHughen, leading to massive market losses in Europe. Officials say Canada's entire $320-million industry is threatened.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/01/20/mb-flax-triffid-manitoba.html

+ GM COTTON CROPS IN U.S. ARE USELESS
GM cotton crops in the US are becoming useless as weeds evolve a resistance to the herbicide glyphosate, says a report for ABC News. In the southern cotton crops, mutant weeds are becoming so bad that mechanical harvesters are being damaged, and weed control must be done by hand. Also, a new scientific study by a research team including Monsanto scientists has found that the herbicide resistant weed population could threaten GM crop technology.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11847:gm-cotton-crops-in-us-useless
http://bit.ly/8IYIQI
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11851:study-explains-development-of-superweeds
http://bit.ly/6XupLG
Video showing hand weeding:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8767877
More on the new study:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11855:monsanto-funded-study-backs-pesticide-report
http://bit.ly/8ApJma

+ GM FREEZE COMMENT ON NEW STUDY
GM Freeze have published a briefing on herbicide resistance.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11856:gm-crops-escalate-herbicide-arms-race
http://bit.ly/8DiSjE

+ FAILING PEST CONTROL PUSHES BT COTTON COSTS HIGHER
The boll weevil and tobacco budworm are no longer economic pests in most areas of the Cotton Belt, but they've been replaced by secondary pests like the tarnished plant bug, which are proving to be costly bugs to control as well. Additional insect control costs are coming from increasing foliar sprays, higher technology fees and pest resistance, according to Jeff Gore, research entomologist at the Delta Research and Extension Center. Gore says, "The trend line for foliar costs dropped significantly with boll weevil eradication and Bt cotton. But for the past four or five years, we’re seeing a significant upward trend on foliar costs. It's approaching where we were before Bt cotton and boll weevil eradication. "In Mississippi, we have growers who are spending well over $100 for foliar insect control. You add that onto technology fees and seed treatments, you understand why our cotton acreage is decreasing."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11852:failing-insect-control-pushes-bt-cotton-costs-higher
http://bit.ly/72fCAo

+ SELL MONSANTO SHARES - FORBES
Given Monsanto's well advertised problems, it's not perhaps surprising that a recent Forbes article advises traders to consider selling their Monsanto shares because "bearish bets are best for Monsanto".
http://bit.ly/7Hsqwt  

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ASIA
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+ GM RICE IN CHINA - ANY CLOSER TO COMMERCIALISATION?
GM lobbyists have been busy claiming that China has flung the door open to GM rice, but this is far from being the case, according to an article for the Third World Network. The article says, "the Chinese have been cautious about GE rice, subjecting it to biosafety assessment and review". It's also worth noting that some reports have emphasised that GM rice won't be commercialised until years of trials have been completed and public acceptance has been achieved.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11860:gm-rice-in-china-any-closer
http://bit.ly/7pfYZQ

+ BRINJAL FIRE FRIES MINISTER
As India's central government begins a series of public meetings across the country this month on the commercial release of GM brinjal (eggplant or aubergine), activists and farmers' groups are mobilising to oppose the plan. The meetings are a response by Minister for Environment Jairam Ramesh to a storm of protests generated by the approval issued by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in October last year for the commercial cultivation of the GM Bt brinjal.

The environment ministry's first hearing, held in Kolkata, ended up in a shouting match between Ramesh and the 400 scientists, farm experts, farmers' bodies, representatives of consumer groups and NGOs, and other citizens, who are opposed to the introduction of Bt brinjal. More than 200 people who were not allowed inside the venue protested outside.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11850:brinjal-fire-fries-minister
http://bit.ly/6I5CGf

+ INDIAN GOVERNMENT AT WAR OVER BT BRINJAL
*Ministers divided over Bt brinjal
*8 states reject Bt brinjal
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11859:indian-government-at-war-over-gm-eggplant
http://bit.ly/6ShnCQ

+ FARMER SUICIDES AND BT COTTON NIGHTMARE UNFOLDING IN INDIA
A new report by Dr Mae-Wan Ho examines the latest wave of farmer suicides and ecological nightmares unfolding around Bt cotton - and exposes the “fudged” data and false claims of success that have perpetrated this humanitarian disaster. Telling quote from one farmer who grew Bt cotton: “We were cheated by the seed companies. We did not get the yield promised by them, not even half of it. And the expenditure involved was so high that we incurred huge debts. We have heard that the government is now planning commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal. But we do not want Bt seeds of any crop anymore.”
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11838:farmer-suicides-and-bt-cotton-
http://bit.ly/7Wep7p
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/farmersSuicidesBtCottonIndia.php

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RESEARCH
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+ USDA DOESN'T WANT TO PUBLICIZE STUDIES SHOWING NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF ROUNDUP
Robert Kremer is a microbiologist with the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service and an adjunct professor in the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of Missouri. His and other scientists’ research has found that Roundup (glyphosate):
+increases a root fungi problem that seems to encourage sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soybeans and corn
+has toxic effects on microorganisms and can stimulate them to germinate spores and colonize root systems
+immobilize manganese, an essential plant micronutrient
+can be toxic to rhizobia, an important bacterium that fixes nitrogen
+increases infection with Fusarium fungi, some species of which produce mycotoxins that harm human and animal health
+can persist in soil and contaminate groundwater
+encourages the development of glyphosate-resistant weeds
+encourage a shift of microbial communities in the soil to more detrimental species.

Why isn't this information getting out to farmers and the public? Kremer says: "I was working with USDA-ARS to publish a news release about these studies. I've gone all the way to the administrators, but they are reluctant to put something out. Their thinking is that if farmers are using this (Roundup Ready) technology, USDA doesn't want negative information being released about it. This is how it is. I think the news release is still sitting on someone's desk."

Meanwhile, Kremer says attempts are ongoing to find a technofix for the problems that Roundup causes, such as supplementation of nutrients by foliar application. Understandably, he concludes, "I'm more interested in sustainable agriculture."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11840:scientist-finding-many-negative-impacts-of-roundup-ready-gm-crops
http://bit.ly/8TUKgK

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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ MONSANTO'S "CORRUPT SCIENCE" IN GM ASSESSMENT
A new report by Madeleine Love of MADGE Australia and submitted to the elected politicians of Western Australia and South Australia, has revealed that "evidence" based on corrupt science has been accepted at face value by regulators across the globe prior to the issuing of consents for RR canola commercialization and feed and food use. RR canola (oilseed rape) has consent for cultivation in Australia, US, Japan and Canada. It is allowed in Europe for processing and feed use, but not for cultivation.

Love has pointed out that the studies on which these consents were based were highly defective and probably fraudulent.  Also, none of the studies were true health / safety studies.  As is often the case with feeding studies contained within "approval dossiers", the emphasis is not on the health or physiology of the animals involved, but upon "nutritional equivalence" and '"performance" parameters such as animal weight, growth rates etc. Animal deaths, replacements and ailments are hardly ever recorded.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11849:monsantos-qcorrupt-scienceq-in-gm-assessment
http://bit.ly/8gP04U

+ PLANS FOR BRITISH "GM FOOD REVOLUTION" UNDER FIRE
"For decades politicians have starved agriculture of resources on the mistaken notion that the market would deliver a secure food supply," said the biologist and award-winning science writer Colin Tudge at the Oxford Real Farming Conference. "As a result tens of thousands of farmers have gone to the wall and Britain has been robbed of the skills it needs to feed the people. The government has recognised that we're now in trouble and are desperately pinning their hopes on untried GM technology to save us. But scientists who truly understand agriculture know that this can't solve our food supply problems. The real answer is to redesign agriculture from first principles. But this time our prime objective must be feeding people, not making profits for large business corporations as now," said Tudge.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11837:plans-for-british-gm-food-revolution-come-under-fire
http://bit.ly/5qIB6O

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NANOTECH, COPENHAGEN & FOOD FUTURES
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+ FOOD INDUSTRY "TOO SECRETIVE" OVER NANOTECH
The food industry has been criticised for being secretive about its use of nanotechnology by the UK's House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. Lord Krebs, chairman of the inquiry, said the industry "wants to keep a low profile" to avoid controversy. While there were no clear dangers, he said, there were "gaps in knowledge".

Patrick Mulvaney, Co-chair of the UK Food Group (the leading UK network for non-governmental organisations working on global food and agriculture issues), recently warned in the light of the failure of Copenhagen (COP15): "To ensure all are healthily fed now and forever in our rapidly changing world, the evidence provided by people's organisations across the globe is compelling - ecological food provision will improve health and livelihoods while helping cool the planet.

“Industry was clearly irritated that there were no legally-binding agreements, which would enable them to increase their control over, and profits from using and manipulating, the earth's resources. Their Plan B is however in full swing. They will increasingly argue, in the vacuum of decisive governance, that the situation being so urgent, individual governments should support and not prevent them from exploiting every resource in order 'to find solutions'. So, unless we increase our vigilance, we will see a slew of funding and relaxation of regulations that will further industry’s control over the food system and the biosphere."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11839:food-industry-too-secretive-over-nanotech
http://bit.ly/53DQMJ

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ORGANICS
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+ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE BETTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Organic agriculture stores more carbon in the soil than conventional agriculture. It has fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional agriculture because it doesn't use fossil fuel intensive pesticides or fertilizers. Its combination of expanded soil fertility and flexible crop rotations make it more adaptable to the effects of climate change and, in the case of developing countries, better suited to produce more food. These are the findings of a new paper by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Organic Agriculture and Carbon Sequestration.
Download the FOA paper from: http://ow.ly/YFSf

+ GM PUSHERS TARGET ORGANICS (AGAIN)
There has been a spate of articles pushing the line that organic agriculture must embrace GM crops. This phenomenon recurs every few years and invariably results in yet another rejection of GM by organic proponents - partly because the pile of evidence confirming the undesirability of GM crops gets bigger by the year. An article in the New York Times centers on the "unlikely" marriage of genetic engineer and keen GM proponent, Pamela Ronald to an organic farmer. They have written a book promoting GM, Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11827:can-gmo-seeds-be-qsustainableq
http://bit.ly/8DHIX2