GMWatch News Review archive

WEEKLY WATCH number 286
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

Dear all:

Six European countries have already said they will not grow BASF's GM potato, approved by a diktat of the European Commission, and popular resistance is growing (EUROPE).

And the Pope definitely hasn't given any blessing to GM crops, and the avidly pro-GM Cardinal Renato Martino has now been replaced by a far more considered cardinal as head of the influential Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (CATHOLIC CHURCH).

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

EUROPE
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
COMPANY NEWS
CATHOLIC CHURCH
THE AMERICAS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE    
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ SIX EUROPEAN COUNTRIES REFUSE TO GROW GM POTATO
The shocking approval of BASF's GM potato by Jose Manuel Barroso's Commission has been met with a wave of strong reactions among the EU member-states. The governments of Greece, Austria, Luxembourg, Italy, Hungary and France have publicly announced that they will not allow the cultivation of the GM potato in their countries. Barroso was jeered when he sought to defend the move during a lively parliamentary Q&A session in Strasbourg. MEPs, some of whom held up posters which read "For a GMO-free Europe", said the commission had "failed to follow proper parliamentary procedure" by not consulting the assembly before reaching its decision.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12021:no-blessing-for-gm-crops-from-vatican
http://bit.ly/b6MjXU
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12031:barroso-jeered-by-meps
http://bit.ly/crERZ2
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12033:switzerland-stands-strong--ban-barroso
http://bit.ly/dzkPRS

+ TAKE ACTION: ONE MILLION SIGNATURES NEEDED
The EC has just allowed GM crops into Europe, ignoring the concerns of the public. We've signed an important new Avaaz petition for independent research and a moratorium on GM crop development. With 1 million citizens' signatures, we can make an official legal request to the European Commission. Sign at the url below and let's get to 1 million:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_and_biodiversity/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK

+ SWITZERLAND STANDS STRONG AGAINST GM
The Swiss Parliament has extended its ban on the cultivation of GM plants for three more years, until at least 2013.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12033:switzerland-stands-strong--ban-barroso
http://bit.ly/dzkPRS

+ NO GM CROPS WILL BE GROWN IN BULGARIA
Bulgaria’s Agriculture Minister, Miroslav Naydenov, has said that no GM crops will be grown in the country. Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov said, "Our society perceives the release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a threat to human health, Bulgarian nature and the development of organic farming."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12035:no-gm-crops-will-be-grown-in-bulgaria
http://bit.ly/dtCHHK

+ BATTLE ON GM FOODS CAN'T BE WON - EU OFFICIAL
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said he was against GM foods but said they were an unavoidable part of the future. Asked by students in Sofia whether he was against GM foods, after the EU approved their cultivation, he said: "I am, generally speaking, against because we don't know what will be the long-term effect of it. But we cannot win that battle." A letter of response to Buzek’s fatalistic stance “A letter from the little people of Europe”, is at
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12032:letter-to-jerzy-buzek
http://bit.ly/amd6a9

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ NO GM GRAIN SEEDS FOR MASS CULTIVATION - CHINESE MINISTRY
China’s Ministry of Agriculture denied it approved GM seeds to be imported for domestic cultivation and insisted that there's no domestic cultivation of GM crops in China. In response to allegations (possibly by Clive James, head of the GM industry-backed lobby group ISAAA) that the ministry had given the green light to imports of GM seeds and allowed massive-scale domestic cultivation, the ministry said that although it has already authorized the imports of four GM crops of cotton, soybeans, corn and canola as raw materials for trial, the ministry has not yet approved any GM food crop seeds to be imported for cultivation. The ministry's support last August for two strains of GM rice and a type of corn for field trials was the first time China has approved GM staple foods for cultivation.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12020:top-scientist-cautious-over-gm-food-safety
http://bit.ly/aD62S4

+ CHINESE SCHOLARS UP IN ARMS OVER GM APPROVALS
More than 120 Chinese scholars have filed a petition to the nation's top legislature, demanding, on the grounds of biosafety, the revocation of the Agriculture Ministry's certificates on two GM rice breeds and more cautious licensing in the future. The scholars are "seriously concerned" about the perils of transgenic foods, especially on domestic breeds' heredity and consumers' health, which they said could jeopardize "the national security and its people." Too much uncertainty remains for GM foods, they said. While acknowledging certain merits of biotechnology, they also cited a failed three-year trial on GM cotton as evidence of potential long-term hazards.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/11/content_9576374.htm

+ TOP CHINESE SCIENTIST CAUTIONS OVER GM FOOD SAFETY
People are rightly concerned about the safety of GM insecticidal (Bt) rice, says Yuan Longping, called “the father of hybrid rice in China”. The authorities should be cautious in promoting GM foods across the country because scientists could not predict all possible threats such a gene could pose to human beings, he said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12020:top-scientist-cautious-over-gm-food-safety
http://bit.ly/aD62S4

+ NEWS FROM JAPAN ON GM CROPS
Activists in Japan report finding more GM canola growing in the wild near harbours and roads to food oil factories. For the first time they have also noted the hybridization of GM broccoli. In Shinjo, Miyagi Prefecture, Tohoku University will start field trials with experiments to develop and compare two types of rice modified to be more sensitive to ultraviolet light.
More news from Japan:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12024:news-from-japan-on-gm-crops
http://bit.ly/a8F25R

+ MONSANTO’S BT COTTON HITS RESISTANCE TROUBLE IN INDIA
Resistance to Monsanto’s GM Bollgard 1 Bt cotton has been confirmed in one major insect pest of cotton the pink bollworm in four districts of Gujarat. Reports also suggest that sucking insect pests, which are not controlled by Bt toxin, are also increasing. Yields of Bt cotton are reported to be down by 8.5% and pesticide costs up by one third.

Monsanto is blaming farmers for the problem, claiming they failed to provide non-GM refuges in cotton crops, which are designed to prevent resistant bollworms growing in numbers. Monsanto’s solution is another Bt cotton, this time containing two resistance genes, and to apply more chemicals.

Devinder Sharma of Forum for Biotechnology and Food Safety said, "This is the pattern Monsanto has been following everywhere. Once Bollgard 1 fails, they start pushing Bollgard 2 and tell farmers to apply more pesticides. This is a vicious circle that Indian cotton farmers have got into,"
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12028:monsantos-qvicious-circleq-for-small-farmers
http://bit.ly/b7exMj

+ IS MONSANTO’S ADMISSION OF BT COTTON FAILURE A BUSINESS PLOY?
An interesting article in the Times of India says the Indian government believes that Monsanto’s announcement of the failure to beat the pink bollworm might be a ploy to phase out single gene GM cotton and hard-sell its new and more expensive Bollgard II variety. A court order is in place that forces Monsanto to sell the single gene Bt cotton variety at a much lower price.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12043:bt-cotton-failure-a-profit-ploy
http://bit.ly/94EuST

+ INDIA’S ORGANIC FARMERS DON’T HAVE PEST PROBLEMS ON COTTON
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12033:switzerland-stands-strong--ban-barroso
http://bit.ly/dzkPRS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ SIR PETER LACHMANN’S GM FOOD FIGHT?
Remember the BBC Horizon programme that used the pin-up pig farmer Jimmy Doherty to front Jimmy's GM Food Fight? While supposedly investigating the science of GM foods, the TV programme had Jimmy - once a purveyor of all things natural, telling the audience how "simple" and "natural" GM was. And by the end of the programme, Jimmy was enthusing that it would be "madness to turn away from this technology. The science is absolutely amazing. It offers hope."

The producer and director of this prime time soft-sell advertisement was Michael Lachmann. After viewer complaints, the BBC investigated whether the programme was biased. For months, the BBC refused to answer one viewer's persistent query as to whether the programme's director was related to Sir Peter Lachmann, a notoriously aggressive pro-GM scientist. Eventually, the BBC finally admitted during the appeal process that: "Sir Peter Lachmann is indeed the father of Michael."

A leading GM proponent, Lachmann was at the forefront of the campaign by the Royal Society to discredit the scientist Arpad Pusztai after he warned that his research had found GM potatoes harmed rats. In an astonishing revelation at the time, a Guardian article reported the editor of the Lancet, Richard Horton, as saying he had been threatened by Lachmann over the Lancet's planned publication of Pusztai's research. Towards the end of what was described as a highly aggressive phone call, Lachmann apparently told Horton that if he published Pusztai's paper, this would “have implications for his personal position” as editor.
http://bangmfood.org/mediawatch/25-mediawatch/40-sir-peters-gm-food-fight

+ MATT RIDLEY’S GM MAGIC WAND OVER NITROGEN CRISIS
Matt Ridley is the disgraced chairman of Northern Rock. Northern Rock was the first British bank to have to be bailed out during the recent banking crisis, thanks to its excessive risk-taking and reckless drive for global expansion. The bank got into such dire straits under Ridley that it eventually had to be nationalised to save it. Ridley was forced to resign.

But this bursting of the financial bubble hasn't lessened Ridley's taste for the bubble biotech, as is clear from an article he has written for The Economist hyping the benefits of GM crops. Its opening paragraph alone is testament to this: "Imagine you could wave a magic wand and boost the yield of the world's crops, cut their cost, use fewer-fossil fuels to grow them and reduce the pollution that results from farming. Imagine, too, that you could both eliminate some hunger and return some land to rain forest." And it's not only future promises that Ridley deals in, the article is also full of unrestrained claims such as, "Genetically modified crops are proving to be an unmitigated environmental miracle".

Those in the developing world who've ended up on the receiving end of this "miracle" often have a very different story to tell. Take, for instance, what's been happening in Latin America, where massive GM soy expansion has caused the destruction of not just millions of hectares of rainforest, but has lead to violent land grabs, displaced indigenous peoples, dramatically increased use of toxic pesticides with resulting health problems, all as the result of the creation of vast unsustainable GM monocultures.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12040:matt-ridleys-new-nue-thing
http://bit.ly/bw4XAg

+ RIDLEY’S NITROGEN NONSENSE
Ridley’s Economist article (see above) claims GM crops will solve the coming nitrogen crisis. Chemical agriculture relies on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, which is made from fossil fuels and takes huge amounts of energy to make so everyone knows it’s on the way out. Ridley says specially designed GM crops are yielding more with less nitrogen fertilizer. But GM crops are NOT needed to solve the nitrogen crisis. Read why here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12042-matt-ridleys-nitrogen-nonsense
http://bit.ly/aGWpkP

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ BAYER “INTENTIONALLY” CONTAMINATED U.S. RICE - COURT
An Arkansas court has ruled that Bayer CropScience “intentionally” contaminated US rice supplies with its unapproved GM rice. The court ordered the company to pay Lennie Joe Kyle, the farmer who suffered losses when his rice was contaminated with Bayer’s GM product, a total of US$1.3 million.
http://gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12041-bayer-qintentionally-contaminated-us-rice
http://bit.ly/9SrbeP

+ SEVEN U.S. STATE ATTORNEYS PROBE MONSANTO
At least seven US state attorneys general are investigating whether Monsanto has abused its market power to lock out competitors and raise prices. Iowa and Illinois, whose antitrust probes Monsanto disclosed previously, have joined with Ohio, Texas, Virginia and two other states in a working group coordinating the inquiries, according to investigators, farmers and seed dealers. They declined to identify the sixth and seventh states. The state investigations add to pressure on Monsanto over allegations of abusive competitive tactics. In addition, rival biotech/chemicals company DuPont has launched a civil antitrust lawsuit against Monsanto, accusing it of monopolistic practices. One example of the impact of Monsanto's monopoly power is in the rising price of seed, according to the American Antitrust Institute and others. Peter Carstensen, a former Justice Department antitrust lawyer who teaches law at the University of Wisconsin, said, "The portion of the price of soybeans that
Monsanto is taking has gone up precipitously even as the amount of acres planted of those seeds has also increased."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12034:seven-us-state-attorneys-probing-monsanto
http://bit.ly/c8uf3e
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12039:seven-state-probe-threatens-monsantos-profit
http://bit.ly/apxtPE

+ LEGAL SETBACK FOR MONSANTO IN ARGENTINE SOY DISPUTE
Monsanto's EU patent on its Roundup Ready soybean seeds should not extend to cover imports of processed soybean meal into the 27-nation bloc, an adviser to Europe's top court said. The opinion must still be confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a final ruling. But it is a setback for Monsanto in its legal battle to secure royalty payments on the use of its seeds. Monsanto filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands against Dutch soymeal importer Cefetra after the biotech firm's patented Roundup Ready DNA sequence was discovered in three soymeal shipments from Argentina in 2005 and 2006.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12027:legal-setback-for-monsanto-in-argentine-soy-dispute
http://bit.ly/bvUeeV

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CATHOLIC CHURCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ NO BLESSING FOR GM CROPS FROM VATICAN
After the European Commission approved the commercial cultivation of a GM potato, the Vatican's semi-official newspaper clarified that the Church has no official position on the practice of modifying the genes of produce. The newspaper article observed that as GM crops have spread across the globe the number of hungry in the world has become higher than ever.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12021:no-blessing-for-gm-crops-from-vatican
http://bit.ly/b6MjXU

+ VATICAN OFFICIAL CAUTIONS AGAINST GMOs
The Catholic News Service reported that GM food crops could be used as "weapons of infliction of hunger and poverty" if managed unjustly, according to the new head of the influential Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Cardinal Peter Turkson told Catholic News Service that he would urge an attitude of caution and further study of the possible negative effects of GMOs. Under Cardinal Turkson's predecessor, Cardinal Renato Martino, the justice and peace council sponsored several pro-GM conferences in alliance with the US Government and pro-GM lobbyists.
http://www.archindy.org/criterion/national/03-10-genetic.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ SEED PRICES SOAR WHILE YIELDS STAGNATE
Seed prices for central Illinois farmers have nearly tripled since 2000, while the U.S. inflation rate over the same period rose just 28 percent, says an article in the US press. Seed companies such as Monsanto say the increase in price is due to advances in seed biotechnology that help farmers achieve higher yields. Yet soybean yields have hardly risen. In fact, over the past decades yields have grown less than 1 percent, according to research by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
NOTE: There's a great graph with this important article showing soybean seed prices steadily climbing over the past decade while yields have hardly budged.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12037:seed-prices-soar-while-yields-stagnate
http://bit.ly/9os3RC

+ RESISTANT WEEDS THREATEN TO CRIPPLE U.S. FARM ECONOMY
Glyphosate-resistant weeds are now established in 19 states and deemed a serious economic concern - both for the increased cost to destroy the weed, and for the potential to drag crop yield, reports an article in the Iowa Independent. Mike Owen, a weed specialist at Iowa State University, said, "Just as an estimate, if growers are only using glyphosate, and if they are making application at only particular instances, they are likely losing five or so bushels of soybeans per acre. And there are similar, if not higher, numbers of bushels of corn being lost... Suffice it to say that it is a butt-load of money." Weed resistance is prompting more frequent applications of herbicide to provide adequate control and maintain crop yield potential. Statistics show that producers are more than doubling the amount of glyphosate that was initially used for weed control. Owen said, "We also need to look at how the marketing has influenced the growers' decisions. Certainly marketing campaigns are
very influential in the decisions that growers make."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12038:resistant-weeds-threaten-to-cripple-iowas-agriculture-economy
http://bit.ly/aPNKIK

+ CANADIAN GROUPS URGE U.S. TO STOP NEW GM ALFALFA
Canadian farmers are worried that a ruling prohibiting the planting of GM alfalfa in the US may soon be overturned. Several farmer and consumer groups are urging the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) not to permit the introduction of GM alfalfa in the US, saying the move could have an irreversible negative impact on the future of organic food and farming in Canada. The USDA is currently inviting comments on its environmental impact statement on the impacts of allowing the deregulation of two lines of GM alfalfa produced by Monsanto and Forage Genetics International.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/31127/