GMWatch News Review archive

WEEKLY WATCH number 285
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

Dear all:

The latest report from the GM industry lobby group ISAAA is out. ISAAA tries to portray GM as unstoppable by claiming growing acreage worldwide. While ISAAA's figures are widely disputed, taking them at face value reveals a strangely muted picture of GM crop adoption. See NEW ISAAA REPORT.

A week after India proposed new legislation that would jail GM critics, an Italian scientist and government official who planned to talk about GM-free policies at a conference have reportedly been refused visas to enter the country (INDIA: BT BRINJAL BACKLASH).

Please sign the petition against the corrupt GM bill that the industry and its ministerial supporters are trying to drive through.
http://greenpeace.in/safefood/chavan-petition/

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Website: http//www.gmwatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX

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CONTENTS
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KEY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE ON GM
NEW ISAAA REPORT
LOBBYWATCH
CLIMATE
AFRICA
INDIA: BT BRINJAL BACKLASH
GREENWASH
RESEARCH
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
CLONING

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KEY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE ON GM
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Check out this excellent summary of the key scientific evidence, drawing on 114 different studies plus other authoritative documents, on the risks of GM crops and the many safer alternatives.
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-crops-research-documenting-the-limitations-risks-and-alternatives
http://bit.ly/a6zPh8

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NEW ISAAA REPORT
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+ ISAAA FIGURES SHOW REDUCED GM CROPS IN 7 COUNTRIES
The latest data from the GM industry body ISAAA on GM crops around the world reveals that seven out of 25 countries had reduced GM cultivation areas in 2009 and another remained static. No new countries grew GM crops during this period.

The combined area of all GM crops in 2009 covered just 2.7% of all agricultural land. Very little of this production went directly to feed people, as most went into animal feed (GM maize, soy and canola), industrial scale biofuels (GM maize, soy and canola) or to produce cotton.

The expansion of GM maize in Brazil alone accounted for over 60% of the 9 million hectares increase in GM cultivation area in 2009. In seven other countries the area under GM crops actually fell in 2009 (compared with 2008), including two of what ISAAA describe as "mega" countries:
*China's GM cultivation area was down 3%;
*Paraguay's GM cultivation area was down 19%.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11971:isaaa-figures-show-reduced-gm-crops-in-7-countries
http://bit.ly/bAnY31

+ CRITICS TAKE APART THE ISAAA REPORT
CRIIGEN, France: "The Americas account for 89% of GMOs in surface area, or 97% of food and feed GMOs”¦ We regret that ISAAA begins its report with "biotech crops and their vital contribution to the alleviation of poverty, hunger and malnutrition" citing a 1970 Nobel Prize winner, since these GMOs have from the beginning fed essentially just the pigs, cows and poultry of rich countries."

Gene Ethics Director Bob Phelps: "Most GM product goes into animal feed, biofuels or cotton products as shoppers avoid eating GM foods even though are unlabelled. GM is not a global industry. Just six countries dominate GM cropping, with the USA, Brazil, Argentina, India, Canada and China growing 95% of all GM crops. Though 20 other countries, including Australia, grow some GM they are just dabbling."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11972:criigen-and-geneethics-take-isaaa-apart
http://bit.ly/9aA6E9

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ AUTHORS ADMIT FALSELY CLAIMING rbGH SAFETY ENDORSEMENT
After acquiring the GM bovine growth hormone rbGH from Monsanto, Elanco (part of Eli Lilly) has stepped up efforts to convince milk processors and the wider food industry that milk from rbGH-injected cows is safe. Central to their new campaign is a paper, allegedly commissioned through PR company Porter-Novelli, from eight prominent experts and academics in medicine and dairy science. The paper claims that various scientific bodies endorsed the safety of rbGH except, according to those bodies, they didn't!

According to Rick North of Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, "Elanco's numerous false statements and misrepresentations on endorsing organizations are only the tip of the iceberg. The entire report is riddled with similar inaccurate, misleading claims about rBGH itself."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11965:authors-admit-falsely-claiming-rbgh-safety-endorsement
http://bit.ly/9frObI

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CLIMATE
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+ NEW REPORT: GM CROPS FAILING TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE
A new report from Friends of the Earth International reveals that claims made by the biotech industry that GM crops can combat climate change are both exaggerated and premature.

The report, "Who Benefits from GM Crops?", examines the evidence for these claims, and says that GM crops could actually increase carbon emissions while failing to feed the world. This is because GM crops are responsible for huge increases in the use of pesticides in the US and South America, intensifying fossil fuel use. The cultivation of GM soy to feed factory-farmed animals is also contributing to widespread deforestation in South America.

The report also reveals that globally GM crops remain confined to less than 3% of agricultural land and more than 99% are grown for animal feed and agrofuels, rather than food.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11970:gm-failing-to-tackle-climate-change
http://bit.ly/cE2oCP
Read the press release here:
http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2010/Feb23_new_report_GM_crops_failing_to_tackle_climate_change.html
Read the report here:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Who_Benefits/who_benefits_full_report_2010.pdf

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AFRICA
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+ GATES FOUNDATION HYPES GM "VAPORWARE"
Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto have joined with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help scientists in Africa develop GM corn that would allow poor farmers to increase their yields with less fertilizer. Both Pioneer and Monsanto have agreed to make the seeds available royalty-free to small-scale farmers.

But”¦ Monsanto hopes to have its drought-tolerant seeds to small-scale farmers in Africa by 2016, four years after the projected release of a commercial variety in the United States.

As for Pioneer, they will first use advanced conventional breeding techniques to improve yields, and then add their genetically engineered genes later. The conventional version should be ready by 2014. The transgenic version? Eventually.

An article for GRIST comments: "From his years as CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates knows well the name for this kind of product: vaporware". Meanwhile, if African farmers want improved seeds, they should look in their own backyard -- because they already exist in the form of non-GM varieties.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11963:the-bernie-madoff-of-agriculture

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INDIA: BT BRINJAL BACKLASH
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+ INDIA'S PRIME MINISTER STEPS IN AFTER PAWAR SOS
Following the Indian government's moratorium on Bt brinjal c/o environment minister Jairam Ramesh, policy analyst Devinder Sharma warned of the backlash: "Under pressure from GM companies, Agri and S&T [Science and Technology] Ministry [are] planning a coup."

The agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, has lobbied constantly for GM crops, even during the public consultation and even in his power base of Maharashtra where so many Bt cotton farmers have committed suicide. Pawar's nephew is said to own a Bt cottonseed company.

The science and technology minister, Prithvi Chavan, is another vocal supporter of GM crops who's recently been exposed as having parroted paragraph after paragraph of GM industry lobby material in official Government communications.

The coup is in full swing, with those ministers being made co-decision makers with the environment minister on the release of GM crops. If they had been in that position when the Bt brinjal decision was taken, there would be no moratorium.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh has now stepped in to make it clear that environment minister Jairam Ramesh will not have the last word on the introduction of Bt brinjal or any GM food. However, the prime minister has supported the moratorium on Bt brinjal.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11966:indias-pm-steps-in-after-pawar-sos
http://bit.ly/dsPwa7
http://www.littleabout.com/news/73939,pm-upholds-moratorium-bt-brinjal.html

+ NOW PAWAR DENIES VISAS TO GM CRITICS
India's new proposal to jail anyone questioning the safety of GM crops has yet to become a law. But the government appears to have already started muzzling anti-GM voices, environmental activists allege.

A regional government official and a professor of genetics from Italy have been allegedly denied visas by the Indian government. The two were supposed to speak at an international conference on "genetically modified organism-free movement" organised by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in Delhi.

Maria Grazia Mammucini is the director of the regional government of Tuscany's agency for agriculture, while Marcello Buiatti is a professor of genetics at the University of Florence and a member of the European Network of Independent Scientists.

They have played a key role in getting regions in Europe declared GM-free and were supposed to share their experience at the meeting.

The visas were denied at the behest of the agriculture ministry which is headed by pro-GM politician Sharad Pawar.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11973:now-pawar-denies-visas-to-gm-critics
http://bit.ly/amRWCD

+ "HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A CORPORATION SCORNED"
Ever since India's environment minister decided not to push ahead with Bt brinjal, he has been under fierce attack in parts of the media. As P. Sainath has written, "The Bt brinjal story [the Indian government's refusal to license Monsanto's Bt brinjal] had mostly only one villain ”” Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh... [his opponents] in this media story preferred to function from behind the scenes, plying newspapers and channels with faked data and false information. Hell hath no fury like a powerful corporation scorned, as the minister is learning."

Although Monsanto and its lieutenants are doing their best to stay in the shadows, suspicions are focusing more and more publicly, as an article in The Telegraph (India) shows, on why certain of Ramesh's ministerial colleagues have been so prominent in the attacks.

In the article, Malvika Singh writes: I remain dumbstruck and increasingly suspicious of why some within the cabinet are protesting so vociferously against... the government's decision to put a moratorium on the introduction of Bt brinjal.

...this no-holds-barred attack on a government decision by certain cabinet ministers, aired aggressively on the front page of dailies, bodes ill for the government in power. Desperate cries for genetically modified products to be introduced here for ensuring future food security reflect inappropriate and unwarranted reasoning. This is dangerous. ”¦

The[se] men, some of whom have been in power for decades, should have led India. They failed to do so. And, for some strange, unknown reason, they are now hysterically endorsing an untested GM product.

Why did the minister of science and technology reply to a GM seeds query from the former minister of health by quoting extensively from a Monsanto document in support of the introduction of those one-time-use seeds into the Indian foodscape? Surely Monsanto documents are for Monsanto employees to quote from and not for cabinet ministers to use as 'empirical' evidence.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11967:seeds-of-fresh-trouble-in-india
http://bit.ly/ayzUJI

+ THE LEGAL CASES THAT LAID THE GROUND FOR BT BRINJAL BAN
There are many heroes in India's struggle against the imposition of GM crops. An article for Frontline points to those who have fought the vital battle against regulatory capture via the courts.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11968:legal-cases-laid-ground-for-bt-brinjal-ban
http://bit.ly/bzLMNk

+ SCIENCE ON BT BRINJAL HAS NOT BEEN DONE - SWAMINATHAN
Commenting on the Indian government's retreat from commercialization of Bt brinjal, pro-GM scientist MS Swaminathan has told Forbes India that the country needs an independent regulatory authority for GM research. He also says the science on Bt brinjal simply hasn't been done. Asked by Forbes, "Personally, do you feel it's safe to consume Bt Brinjal?", he says, "I can't say because it's not a question of astrology."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11959:swaminathan-no-urgency-for-bt-brinjal
http://bit.ly/cLtpF7

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GREENWASH
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+ WWF: LOYAL ALLY TO AGRIBUSINESS AND GLOBALISATION
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) seems to have become a sort of environmental secretariat for agribusiness companies, as it is playing an increasingly dubious role in greenwashing the operations of global agribusiness, says Javiera Rulli in a comprehensive analysis. WWF is leading Round Tables on the so-called "sustainable" production of some of the most damaging global agricultural monocultures. The most controversial case is the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), which includes corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Bunge and ADM among its members.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11956:wwf-loyal-ally-to-agribiz
http://bit.ly/cTmAKv

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RESEARCH
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+ GENETICS NOT A KEY DRIVER OF YIELD
The management and agronomy of crops are more important drivers of yield than genetics, says a new study published in Nature. The study adds that they can also make crop production more sustainable.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11960:genetics-not-a-key-driver-of-yield
http://bit.ly/9mBImd

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THE AMERICAS
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+ GM PIGS ON YOUR DINNER TABLE
The Canadian Government regulatory body Environment Canada is about to announce that the University of Guelph has successfully satisfied the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, allowing GM "Enviro" pigs to be "produced using approved containment procedures."

This brings GM pigs a step closer to North American dinner tables. But if anyone takes any comfort from those "approved containment procedures", consider how many times containment has broken down even at an experimental, rather than commercial, stage of production.

For instance, when nearly 400 GM pigs used in biotech research entered the US food supply, the FDA said, "It could not verify the researchers' claim [that the pigs weren't dangerous] because they failed to keep enough records."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11958:gm-pigs-on-your-dinner-table
http://bit.ly/aieFYU

+ FAO PROMOTES GMO
The Food and Agriculture Organisation will hold a meeting in Mexico (March 1-4) on "Agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries" as a route to food security. This comes just after the Mexican government has authorised the first field trials of GM maize in the country, despite the fact that Mexico is the centre of origin of maize. NGOs Via Campesina North America and Network in Defence of Maize comment, "This conference has been prepared with no intention to hide the promotion of biotechnology as a solution for the food and climate crises, thus promoting the corporations' standpoint and agenda."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11964:gmos-steal-our-future
http://bit.ly/chYKml

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EUROPE    
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+ BULGARIAN GOVT CLIMBDOWN OVER GM CROPS
Campaigning by environmental groups and the public has weakened the determination of the Bulgarian government to allow the cultivation of GM crops in the country.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11962:govt-forced-to-climb-down-on-gm-crops
http://bit.ly/bDJLNC

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CLONING
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+ IRAN'S FIRST CLONED SHEEP DIES YOUNG
Iran and the Middle East's first cloned sheep, Royana, has died at the age of three, a victim of the "premature death syndrome" to which clones are prone. She had just half the life span of the UK cloned sheep, Dolly, who also died prematurely.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11969:irans-first-cloned-sheep-dies-young
http://bit.ly/bG9goG