GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 79
Claire Robinson, Monthly Review editor
Website: http//www.gmwatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX
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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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TAKE ACTION
LOBBYWATCH
GM EXPANSION/APPROVALS
FEEDING THE WORLD
GM HYPE
GM FAILURES
CATHOLIC CHURCH
RESISTANCE
LABELLING
CONTAMINATION
REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
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TAKE ACTION
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+ TAKE ACTION TO BAN GM CROPS IN EUROPE
The Avaaz petition to ban GM crops in Europe pending proper research has a third of a million signatures. They are trying to get a million, under a new rule that a request from one million citizens constitutes an official request to the European Commission. Don't delay, sign now and ask all your colleagues, friends and relations to do the same:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_and_biodiversity/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ NEW SITE ATTACKS JEFFREY SMITH
A new lobbying website called Academics Review has been set up to promote GM foods, fronted by GM scientists Bruce Chassy and David Tribe. Its primary purpose for the moment is to smear Jeffrey Smith and his groundbreaking book, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Modified Foods. Dr Brian John comments: "The whole exercise is utterly grotesque -- and is based on the hoary old line that they (Chassy and Tribe) represent 'proper' science and that anybody who disagrees with them or who provides 'inconvenient' evidence is by definition either a charlatan or a nutter. Their line is that proper peer-reviewed science always shows that GM products are entirely safe, and that on the other side there is nothing but 'misinformation'. That of course is a grotesque distortion -- there are scores of peer-reviewed papers that Chassy and Tribe have to explain away as aberrations or as based on fraudulent research." More information, and GMWatch's comment on how the new site
is using disinformation and ad hominem attack, here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12103
+ SCOTTISH NFU CALLS FOR MORE GM TRAIN WRECKS
A year ago, National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) President Jim Mclaren and NFUS Chief Executive James Withers admitted they thought GM agriculture in the U.S. had been a "train wreck" that should not be repeated in the UK. But now NFUS has written to the new EU Health and Consumer Commissioner, John Dalli, following his recent decision to authorise cultivation of BASF's GM potato, asking him to give the biotech industry everything else they want in terms of GM tolerance thresholds, GM authorisations etc.
Eve Mitchell, GM Freeze Coordinator, said: "The only thing that has changed in that year is that new evidence has come out questioning the safety of GM crops and that, with the addition of kochia (fireweed), there are now some 130 types of weeds resistant to herbicides used on GM crops infecting 11 million acres of farmland spreading in 40 US states. Meanwhile, Monsanto in India admit that a major cotton pest (bollworm) can now withstand their GM varieties designed to kill them. Maybe the NFUS aren't reading the right papers, because this policy is not only unwelcome, it's unfounded and unwise. Clearly the NFUS leadership need to start getting GM information from a wider range of sources than they are obviously doing at present.”
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12101
+ WSJ PLATFORM FOR PRO-GM PROPAGANDA
The Wall Street Journal recently published a letter from GM proponent Dr Henry I Miller in which he claimed that "false alarms" about the safety of GM foods have only been raised by "flawed [scientific] papers". The trouble is, very little that Miller claims about the studies he cites is actually true. GMWatch's Claire Robinson wrote a letter to the editor of the WSJ (with full references) pointing out why Miller's account of the "flawed" papers is completely wrong. She received no reply from the WSJ, who seem to be extremely close to Dr Miller, and as far as we can tell the letter was not published. Here's Claire's letter:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12092
+ EFSA'S REVOLVING DOOR UNACCEPTABLE
The Germany-based NGO Testbiotech has filed an official complaint with the European Ombudsman against EFSA, the EU's food safety agency. The complaint targets EFSA's decision to allow Suzy Renckens, head of EFSA's GMO Unit, to become a lobbyist for biotech giant Syngenta, without any 'cooling off' period or other restrictions. Renckens' move to become a leading lobbyist for one of the major biotech companies in Europe implies an obvious conflict of interest. "It is unacceptable that EFSA failed to act to prevent conflicts of interest in the case of Ms Renckens' move to Syngenta, considering the agency's powers over food safety decisions in Europe", says Christoph Then of Testbiotech. "As the two-year period within which officials need permission has still not passed, EFSA should immediately impose a ban on Ms Renckens' lobbying to influence EFSA."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12094
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GM EXPANSION/APPROVALS
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+ NOT JUST ENVIRONMENTALISTS AGAINST GM CROPS
The European Commission's approval of BASF's GM Amflora potato did not reflect a consensus in favour of the crop in Europe, says an article in the Irish Times. The governments of Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland are all opposed, making it clear in the wake of the commission's decision that they would not allow Amflora to be cultivated on their territories. And two of the 21 EFSA scientists on the EFSA panel that approved the Amflora potato did not share their colleagues' favourable view, saying the possibility of its antibiotic-resistant genes being transferred to bacteria in human or animal gastro-intestinal tracts could not be ruled out; if this happened, it would become more difficult to treat infections such as tuberculosis. The article points out that the EFSA panel assessing GM products has been chaired since 2003 by Dr Harry Kuiper, a Dutch biochemist who previously co-ordinated a research programme involving three leading biotech firms
Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12093
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12031
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12033
+ PAKISTAN: SCIENTISTS OPPOSE DEAL WITH MONSANTO
Pakistan's top scientists have expressed concerns regarding government's plans to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Monsanto for the introduction of "insect-resistant" Bt-cotton, saying that it could harm the interest of growers. "There is a need to get sound, critical and scientific input from experts in the country before signing such a deal," Dr Anwer Naseem, chairman of the National Commission on Biotechnology, said. "I have no idea whom the government has consulted."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12088
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FEEDING THE WORLD
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+ FOREIGN AID BILL MANDATES GENETIC ENGINEERING
The "Global Food Security" bill is back. After its introduction in the Senate a year ago, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton have been quietly pressing for this piece of legislation that aims to fight global hunger with one hand while orchestrating a giant taxpayer subsidy to pesticide and ag biotech companies with the other. The bill, also known as the Lugar-Casey Act - for Senators Richard Lugar and Robert Casey - would refocus aid programs on agricultural development, with a caveat: public funding of genetically engineered (GE) seeds is what this bill means by "agricultural development."
http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20100402#3
+ COLONIALISM LIVES IN BILL GATES' GM SEED PLAN FOR AFRICA
Bill Gates and the biotech juggernauts are doing their best to keep Africa dependent on imported technology, just like in the bad old days of colonialism, says an article by two members of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. Gates, Monsanto and Pioneer plan to give away GM seed to African farmers. But the authors say exporting a model of agriculture developed for the US to the 47 countries of sub-Saharan Africa is bad enough; worse, this model carries the high economic, environmental and social costs of producing only one or two crops on the same land year after year. It has caused enormous problems in the US, so why would they want to export it?
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12089
+ GATES SUPPORTS DUBIOUS TECHNO-FIXES
An outfit called Improved Maize for African Soils (Imas), which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has come under fire from the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), an NGO based in Johannesburg. ACB director Mariam Mayet said projects such as this one were dubious as they involved multinational firms that held patents to genes of interest. "Instead of the Bill and Melinda Gates supporting dubious technological fixes, support should be given to agro-ecological approaches that support sustainable agricultural systems addressing inequalities in food supplies, distribution and access," she said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12090
+ FARMERS CAN FEED THE WORLD WITHOUT TECHNO-FIXES
This OpEd by Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo of South Africa and Friends of the Earth International Chair Nnimmo Bassey of Nigeria says agroecology and not genetic engineering is the way forward for Africa.
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/archives/2010/04/farmers_can_feed_the_world_wit.html
+ FIXING AFRICA'S GM REGULATION
An article promoting GM crops for Africa is one of several one-sided pro-GM pieces currently being placed in the New York Times. On 30 March, it's, "A Race to Introduce GM Corn Before Africa's Climate Worsens". The next day, it's, "A Search for Regulators and a Road Map to Deliver GM Crops to Third World Farmers", reporting on the training of GM regulators in Africa by the Gates Foundation. This article accepts the Gates Foundation's claim that the training of African regulators is an "Africa-based, Africa-owned and Africa-led" initiative, but provides no supporting evidence and, tellingly, quotes no African critics. The first source quoted is Lawrence Kent. Kent is deputy director of the Agricultural Development Initiative at the Gates Foundation, but prior to that he was the PR man at the Danforth Center which is, in effect, Monsanto's charitable arm for pushing GM crops into developing countries.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12109
The guy who wrote the script for the Gates Foundation on fixing African GM regulation is Robert Paarlberg - an advisor to Monsanto:
http://www.spinprofiles.org/index.php/Robert_Paarlberg
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GM HYPE
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+ BIOECONOMY A SCIENCE FANTASY
A new GeneWatch UK report concludes that billions of pounds of taxpayers' money have been wasted in R&D investments intended to deliver a new biotech economy. Responding to a report on science funding by the Science and Technology Committee of MPs, GeneWatch's Director Dr Helen Wallace said: "The big problem with the science budget is not its total size but that the wrong people are deciding how to spend it. A cycle of hype is driving research investment decisions, which have become disconnected from reality." The new GeneWatch report questions whether current investments in the biosciences, including GM plants and human genome sequencing, can actually deliver the claimed future benefits to quality of life and the economy. It finds that, after decades of investment, the net value of the bioeconomy worldwide has been estimated to be zero or negative.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12102
+ HUMAN GENOME PROJECT A "BUBBLE"
Nearly ten years after the Human Genome Project's completion, there's not much sign of the promised medical innovations resulting from it, says science writer Philip Ball. A team of researchers in Switzerland now argue that the HGP was a "social bubble", analogous to the notorious economic bubbles in which investment far outstrips any rational cost-benefit analysis of the likely returns.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100331/full/news.2010.145.html
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GM FAILURES
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+ GM CORN CAUSES NEW PLANT PEST
Large-scale cultivation of GM corn is causing the spread of a new pest in the US Corn Belt, says a report for Testbiotech. The western bean cutworm infests the tips of the corncobs. Massive damage is being reported from those regions where the corn MON810 (sold as YieldGard by company of Monsanto) is grown on large scale. Monsanto's solution is to try to sell new varieties of GM corn such as SmartStax that produces six different insecticides in its plant tissue.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12099
+ BT DEBATE OVER RESISTANT PESTS
India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh's cautious stance in imposing a moratorium on GM Bt brinjal has been vindicated by Monsanto's admission that pests have developed resistance to the Bt cotton, says a report for India’s NDTV.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12088
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CATHOLIC CHURCH
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+ VATICAN SIGNALLING WINDS OF CHANGE ON GM?
The appointment of Cardinal Peter Turkson in January as the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to replace the notably pro-GMO Cardinal Renato Martino may usher in a more cautionary perspective about GMOs from the Vatican, says an article for GMO Journal. GMO Journal says it hopes "the Vatican is ready to confront the GMO debate with greater objectivity and less willingness to blindly repeat the industry jingles of needing GMOs to save the world from hunger."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12106
+ VATICAN OFFICIAL CAUTIONS AGAINST GMOs
http://www.archindy.org/criterion/national/03-10-genetic.html
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RESISTANCE
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+ TO Bt OR NOT TO Bt?
Greedy multinational companies are using muscle and media power to push through GM food products, backed by parasitic lobbies in India peddling unscientific evidence, says an article for Hard News. The author wonders if environment minister Jairam Ramesh will succumb to industry pressure to approve Bt brinjal and comments, "The way the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) draft bill is taking shape, with its draconian clauses to thwart any anti-GM voices, it wouldn't be too surprising if we are found chewing Bt vegetables in the near future."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12107
+ INQUIRIES INTO SICKNESS AND DEATH IN ANIMALS FEEDING ON BT COTTON MAY BE CENSORED
The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) has provisions to punish anyone who "without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of the organisms and products" or "who conducts field trials with organisms or products". The bill will provide legal ammunition to muzzle any citizen who dares to question the science of biotechnology, and clearly undermines our fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India, says veterinarian Dr Sagari R Ramdas. Dr Ramdas is especially concerned that the impacts of Bt cotton on livestock (goats, cattle and sheep have reportedly got sick or died after grazing on Bt cotton) will not be independently investigated because of the bill.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12108
+ MONSANTO TELLS FARMERS TO LET CATTLE GRAZE BT COTTON FIELDS - IN SPITE OF DEATHS
Mahyco-Monsanto has written to seed manufacturers advising them to ask farmers to let cattle graze on Bt cotton fields in an effort to counter the pink bollworm menace. This is in spite of studies showing that cattle that grazed on Bt cotton fields have died (see item above for link to details).
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/04/01/stories/2010040152501700.htm
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LABELLING
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+ SOUTH AFRICA: RETAILERS DEMAND GM LABELS
In South Africa, retailers are insisting that GM food or products with GM ingredients be labelled. Pick n Pay's Tamra Veley said, "Scientific evidence has not proven one way or the other at this point whether GM foods are safe for human consumption. Given this situation, we are strongly of the view that all GM foods be adequately labelled in order to keep consumers fully informed and give them the opportunity for informed choice." Woolworths said that it has removed all foods containing GM products from its shelves or labelled them.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12097
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CONTAMINATION
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+ ILLEGAL GM IMPORTS INTO KENYA
In January 2010, an international grain handling company in Kenya called Louis Dreyfus Ltd spent billions to import a consignment of 500,000 x 90kg bags of GM maize from South Africa, says the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition. This is in spite of the fact that at the time, there was a maize glut in Kenya. The Coalition says, "The import of GE maize even when the country has sufficient supplies of its own is a strategy for mulitinational dominance. This has been used in Haiti, Mexico, India and Thailand to drive farmers out of business." The Coalition thinks the importation contravenes biosafety rules in Kenya.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12096
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REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
For those who do not receive GMWatch's Weekly Watch
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+ ARGENTINA COURT BANS GLYPHOSATE SPRAYING NEAR TOWN
In a ruling bearing potentially far-reaching implications, a court in Argentina's Santa Fe province has upheld a decision blocking farmers from spraying agrochemicals near populated areas. A backlash has been building in Argentina against the increasing reliance on GM soybeans and the glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide widely used in their cultivation. GM soybeans dominate the country's farm output, but growing concern over the environmental impact of soybean-cultivation practices has spurred a legal and legislative assault. The current court case found that farmers "have been indiscriminately using agrochemicals such as glyphosate, applied in open violation of existing laws [causing] severe damage to the environment and to the health and quality of life of the residents." While the decision is limited to the area around San Jorge, other courts in the farming province are likely to follow suit if residents seek similar court action.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12069
+ 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
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12035
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12020
+ 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.
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".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12020
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12024
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12028
+ IS MONSANTO'S ADMISSION OF BT COTTON FAILURE A BUSINESS PLOY?
An 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
+ INDIA'S ORGANIC FARMERS DON'T HAVE PEST PROBLEMS ON COTTON
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12033
+ INDIA: FIRE AT BAYER PLANT
A fire broke out on 11 March at a Bayer CropScience pesticide plant in India. Toxic gases mercaptane and phosphorus tri-chloride leaked from the factory near Ankleshwar. A 27-year-old engineer was killed. The gases escaped the plant and could be smelled in nearby areas.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12067
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-firms/11153-bayer-a-history
+ SIR PETER LACHMANN'S GM FOOD FIGHT?
Remember the BBC Horizon programme that used the pin-up pig farmer Jimmy Doherty to promote GM as "simple" and "natural"? The producer and director of this prime time soft-sell advertisement was Michael Lachmann. In response to viewer complaints, the BBC finally admitted during the appeal process that: "Sir Peter Lachmann is indeed the father of Michael." A leading GM proponent, Peter 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, the first British bank to have to be baled out by the taxpayer during the recent financial crash, thanks to its excessive risk-taking and reckless drive for global expansion. Now he’s written an article for The Economist claiming GM crops will feed the world and solve the coming nitrogen crisis.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12040
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12042
+ 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 a 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
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12034
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12039
+ 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 has yet to be confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). But it is a setback for Monsanto in its legal battle to secure royalty payments on the use of its seeds.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12027
+ SEED PRICES SOAR WHILE YIELDS STAGNATE
Seed prices for central Illinois farmers have nearly tripled since 2000, while the US inflation rate over the same period rose just 28 percent. 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.
NOTE: See a great graph 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
+ 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.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12038
+ 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.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/31127/
+ THE TROUBLE WITH AGROFUELS
Despite strong evidence that growing food crops to produce agrofuels/biofuels is seriously harming both the environment and the world's poor, the Obama administration is backing big subsidies and programmes that are boosting their use.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12055
+ AGROFUELS MADNESS
The Environmental Protection Agency has produced an analysis which claims the reduction in food consumption which is associated with using foodstuffs for fuel as a greenhouse gas benefit. Rupert Read writing for ActionAid comments, "Quick translation: Starving people is supposed to be good for the planet!"
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12068
+ WHY THE ENVIROPIG IS FULL OF SH*T
The so-called Enviropig is a GM pig that a Canadian team has been trying to develop for more than a decade, in response to the pork industry's need to evade environmental regulations. Pigs crammed onto factory farms produce massive amounts of pig manure, which contains high levels of phosphorous. The phosphorous-heavy poop inevitably leaks out and contaminates water supplies around the farms. So regulators limit hog farms' capacity by limiting the amount of phosphorous pollution they are permitted to release. The Enviropig is intended to circumvent this and allow the continuation of intensive factory farming. (Geneticist Prof Joe Cummins says the Enviropig was dreamed up before current worries surfaced about phosphate fertilizer running out and subsequent skyrocketing prices. Unless chemical agriculture can break its addiction to phosphate fertilizer, it is going to need all the phosphorus pollution that intensively reared non-GM pigs can produce.)
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12052
+ U.S. FARMERS TO DEPT OF JUSTICE: "BREAK UP BIG AG"
Farmers have been testifying against Monsanto and other corporations' control of agriculture at an antitrust hearing in Ankeny, Iowa held by the US Department of Justice and the US Department of Agriculture.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12060
Video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-weiss/farmers-to-doj---break-up_b_501682.html
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides 
