GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 83
From 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
There’s good news from Brazil, where a courts is making up for the failure of the regulators and has revoked authorization for the release of Bayer’s GM maize (COURTS).
TERMINATOR is back. And don’t miss a priceless QUOTE OF THE MONTH, from human genome sequencer J. Craig Venter.
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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LATEST NEWS:
* RESEARCH
* GM APPROVALS
* SUPERWEEDS
* RESISTANCE
* GM-FREE REGIONS AND LABELS
* TERMINATOR
* COMPANY NEWS
* CONTAMINATION
* COURTS
* ENVIRONMENT
* CLONING
* BIOFUELS
* QUOTE OF THE MONTH
REST OF THE MONTH’S NEW IN BRIEF:
* LOBBYWATCH
* COURTS
* SUPERWEEDS AND VOLUNTEERS
* LABELLING
* RESISTANCE
* CORPORATE TAKEOVER
* GM APPROVALS
* NON-GM SUCCESSES
* BOOK
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LATEST NEWS
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RESEARCH
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+ GM WHEAT YIELDS UP TO 56% LESS IN FIELD EXPERIMENTS
Swiss research on GM wheat shows that its performance is greatly affected by different environmental conditions.
GM wheat lines grown in the greenhouse without fungicide treatment had increased biomass and seed number and a twofold yield compared with control lines. But in the field, these results were reversed. Fertilization generally increased GM/control differences in the glasshouse but not in the field. Two of four GM lines showed up to 56% yield reduction and a 40-fold increase of infection with ergot disease, compared with their control lines in the field experiment.
In the greenhouse experiments, while the control lines benefited from the fungicide treatment, the GM lines reacted negatively. The yield of GM lines dropped lower than the yield of the sprayed controlled lines.
Food policy analyst Devinder Sharma commented that GM and other crop varieties are failing in parts of the world because the crops are not properly tested in multi-locational field trials.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12366
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GM APPROVALS
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+ EU COMMISSION PRESSES AHEAD WITH GM IMPORT APPROVALS
Concerns from member states about the safety of six GM maize varieties did not stop the European Commission approving all six GM applications for import for food and feed.
Last month's Agriculture and Fisheries Council failed to deliver a qualified majority vote for any of the six GM applications, one of which is insect resistant and the rest both insect resistant and herbicide tolerant (ie, "stacked" GMOs). A number of concerns about the safety of the maize crops for health include:
*Disruption to the maize genome.
*Compositional changes in the plant.
*Possible allergenic interactions in stacked GMOs (ie, two GM traits present in the same plant).
*Questions about genetic stability of the GM inserts.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12390
+ CHALLENGING THE EU COMMISSION OVER GM APPROVALS
The European Commission is pressing on with new procedures governing the approval of GM crops for cultivation at a hastily arranged meeting. The Commission has offered to allow national bans on GM crops in exchange for approving all new GM crops at EU level without fuss.
Lawyers have advised that member states are being offered no additional powers to issue bans for health, environment and contamination reasons, despite these being the most serious and legally reliable grounds. Instead, only ethical grounds are offered, which are legally intangible, subjective and easily overturned in court.
In the UK, GM Freeze has written to Defra Secretary of State Caroline Spelman urging her to get 10 key questions answered before agreeing to any changes in the laws and procedures. Questions include:
**What legal grounds will enable Member States to ban GM crops without the risk of legal challenge?
**Will Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland be able to ban or restrict GMO cultivation without risk of legal challenge?
Also: Are the Irish Greens having the wool pulled over their eyes on EU Commission’s dodgy deal?
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12383
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12341
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12351
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12353
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12357
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SUPERWEEDS
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+ U.S.: SUPERWEEDS MARCH NORTH
In the US, glyphosate-resistant weeds have been found in at least 22 states. Herbicide-resistant weeds that have plagued Southern farmers are moving north to emerge in the Midwestern state of Missouri with similar tenacity. Last month, University of Missouri researchers confirmed that herbicide resistant giant ragweed has been found on 12 farms, bringing the total count of herbicide-resistant weeds in the state to five.
"It's a serious, serious problem," said Blake Hurst, a corn and soy farmer in northwestern Missouri and vice president of the board of the Missouri Farm Bureau. "The further north you get, the less of a problem it's been so far. Farmers here are denying it's going to happen to them. But guess what? It's on the way to your farm."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12394
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RESISTANCE
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+ MEETING REJECTS INDIA’S BIOTECHNOLOGY BILL
A round table on legal dimensions of GM in food and farming in the country has demanded withdrawal of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill and other legislations that facilitate easy entry of GM technology.
A declaration released after the two-day meeting organised by the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law and South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE) emphasised that these legislations were designed more to promote genetic engineering than regulate it.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12396
+ HUNGARY’S MORATORIUM ON GM POTATO
On 2 March 2010 the European Commission adopted two decisions regarding the GM Amflora potato: it authorised the cultivation of the potato in the EU for industrial use and allowed the use of Amflora's starch by-products as food and feed within the EU. The authorisations are valid for 10 years.
However, on 18 June, the Ministry of Rural Development of Hungary officially announced a moratorium on the Amflora potato. According to the decision, the marketing and use of feed derived from the GM potato and the adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of the potato in food and feed has been banned in Hungary.
Hungary’s scientific opinion on the GM potato is here:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12388
+ SANCTIONS URGED AGAINST EU’S GM CROP BAN
The largest US farm group has urged the Obama administration to begin steps towards imposing sanctions on the European Union in a long-running dispute over the EU's treatment of GM crops.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, in comments given to the administration on Monday, complained the EU still has not complied with a 2006 World Trade Organization ruling against its "de facto" moratorium on approving new varieties of biotech crops for sale in the 27-nation bloc.
GMWatch comment: For why farmers say of the American Farm Bureau Federation: “All its decisions are made for corporate America”: http://bit.ly/bB00GA
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12389
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GM-FREE REGIONS AND LABELS
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+ GM-FREE LABEL TO HELP FOOD SALES
A GM-free label for Irish food is to be introduced by the government next year in a bid to boost sales abroad. A recent study in the UK by Gfk/NOP found that 64% of customers in the Asda supermarket chain want the option to buy GM-free produce; 75% said they would pay more for such products, and 92% wanted labels to identify GM-free food.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12386
+ EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON GM-FREE REGIONS
6th European Conference of GMO-Free Regions, Brussels and Ghent, 16-18 September 2010
From the 16th to the 18th of September representatives of local, regional and national initiatives as well as organizations of farmers, environmental activists, consumers and critical scientists will meet in the European Parliament in Brussels. Together, they will discuss strategies and campaigns for GM-free agriculture and food.
http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/conference2010
+ U.S.: TAKE ACTION - SUPPORT LABELS FOR GM FOODS
http://www.capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=15154336&type=ML
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TERMINATOR
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+ STOP TERMINATOR’S RETURN CALL TO ACTION
Four years after the moratorium on Terminator technology was reaffirmed by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), proposals to develop and commercialize “genetic-use restriction technologies” (GURTs) are back on the agenda for policymakers and the biotechnology industry.
Terminator is a threat to food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity: ending the moratorium on Terminator will increase control of seed by transnational corporations (TNCs) and restrictions on farmers' rights to save and plant harvested seed. Additionally, pollen from GM crops with Terminator will contaminate non-GM and organic crops, and native plant species.
Industry is claiming that Terminator is needed to contain genetic contamination of food crops and other natural life forms from GM DNA in non-food crops, as a precautionary environmental necessity.
Take action against Terminator’s return:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12393
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ DOW AGRO SCIENCES INDIA IN BRIBERY SCANDAL
The Indian government has obtained a court order ordering a subsidiary of US-based Dow Chemicals, Dow Agro Sciences India, asking them to furnish reasons why they shouldn't be blacklisted for bribing Indian officials for clearing for sale an insecticide that was banned in America. Dow Chemicals had bought the Union Carbide after the Bhopal gas tragedy.
This follows the revelation earlier this year from the former managing director of Monsanto India, who worked with Monsanto for nearly two decades, that the company "used to fake scientific data" in submissions to government regulatory agencies to get commercial approval for its products in India.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12381
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CONTAMINATION
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+ ILLEGAL GM MAIZE GROWN IN IRELAND
The Irish Government has been accidentally growing an illegal variety of GM maize in field trials, despite its own policy to ban field trials and commercial cultivation of GM crops in the Republic.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (DAFF) carried out the field trials with a supposedly non-GM maize variety PR39T83 supplied by Pioneer Hi-Bred Northern Europe, a subsidiary of DuPont. The maize was found to be contaminated with Monsanto's GM variety NK603.
DAFF says it destroyed its fields of contaminated maize plants before they reached the flowering stage, in order to prevent pollen drift that would further contaminate neighbouring conventional and organic farmers, whose crops would then also have to be destroyed.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12380
+ ACTIVISTS QUARANTINE ILLEGAL GM MAIZE IN ITALY
Greenpeace activists from Italy, Austria, Germany and Hungary are quarantining illegal GM crops being grown in Italy. Wearing safety equipment to protect against contamination, the activists are isolating, cutting and securing the top of the GM maize plants, the part that contains the pollen.
Last week, Greenpeace took samples from the field in Friuli, northern Italy to a certified laboratory for analysis. The results confirm that the maize being grown in these fields is Monsanto’s GM maize, MON810. GM crop cultivation without a permit is illegal in Italy. There is considerable documentation highlighting the threats posed by MON810 to biodiversity, including the accumulation of toxins in soil, and negative impacts on species such as butterflies and moths.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12392
+ GM CONTAMINATION OF CHINA’S STATE GRAIN STORES
China's state grain reserves have been contaminated by illegal GM rice, according to Greenpeace. Greenpeace said it has found tainted samples at two rice processing enterprises that source their products from the strategic food reserve.
It is feared the transgenic products, which have not been approved as safe for public consumption, will spread nationwide because the reserves sell food and distribute emergency supplies during floods, droughts and other disasters.
The affected rice is believed to have originated in Hubei province, the site of field tests for strains containing the Bt toxin.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12371
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COURTS
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+ BRAZILIAN COURT SUSPENDS RELEASE OF BAYER’S GM MAIZE
In a landmark ruling, the Paraná Federal Court in Brazil has revoked authorization for the commercial release of Bayer’s Liberty Link maize. The judge specifically revoked authorization for the crop’s release in the North and Northeast of Brazil due to the absence of any studies relating to the potential impacts of this technology on biodiversity.
Additionally the ruling annulled the approval given by the Council of Ministers (the National Biosafety Council) to commercial release of the maize since their decision had been based on irregular procedures by the regulator, CTNBio.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12387
+ BRAZILIAN FARMERS DECLARE WAR ON MONSANTO
Farmers from two separate Brazilian associations are preparing to file suit against Monsanto, in a fight over the royalty fees the company demands for its GM Roundup Ready soy.
The Sinop Rural Union of northern Mato Grosso stated that it is preparing to take Monsanto to court over the company's practice of carrying out two separate royalties collections for its patented GM seeds.
The union objects to the high prices Monsanto demands upon purchase of its seeds. It also objects to Monsanto's practice of carrying out a second royalties collection at the time of harvest. The company tests all seeds arriving at warehouses to determine whether they are GM, then charges royalties to all farmers who bring in GM seeds and have not paid already. Farmers object that this practice does not account for possible contamination at the warehouse, and penalizes farmers whose seeds have been genetically contaminated through cross-pollination with Monsanto's product.
A second farmers group, the Association of Soya and Corn Producers of Mato Grosso, is also suing Monsanto over excessive royalties, and objects that the company pressures farmers to buy only GM seeds.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12374
+ GM IN THE DOCK
GM Freeze has published GM In the Dock, a series of three briefings examining a number of US court cases covering the legality of the authorisation of GM crops, the failure to protect farmers from contamination, and the consolidation of corporate control in agricultural markets, as well as exposing how far the industry will go to protect itself against the public interest.
These briefings expose a history of regulators’ disregard for the proper application of the law and the precautionary principle, which is now being corrected by the courts.
The series includes:
**"Courts check spread of GM alfalfa and beet" examines the case that found the USDA breached the law by authorising GM alfalfa without an Environmental Impact Assessment.
**"Monsanto and the monopoly investigators" - a look at Monsanto's part in the US Justice Department's anti-trust investigation into corporate concentration in agribusiness, including seed markets
**"Bayer brought to book for contaminating rice" examines the mounting findings against Bayer CropScience for its 2006 contamination of US rice supplies with an experimental variety that lead to EU import restrictions until April 2010.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12375
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ENVIRONMENT
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+ BRITISH MEAT AND DAIRY IS DESTROYING RAINFORESTS
Huge swathes of rainforest are being destroyed every year to grow animal feed for British factory farms, according to new research commissioned by Friends of the Earth (FoE).
More than 350,000 hectares of rainforest, twice the size of the Yorkshire Dales, is being chopped down to grow soybeans, most of which are GM. The animal feed is then imported to British factory farms to produce cheap meat and dairy for supermarkets.
FoE pointed to new research by the Royal Agricultural College that found if just eight per cent of agricultural land in the UK was used to grow crops for animal feed, it would be possible to halve the amount of feed currently imported from South America.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12372
Report in full on sustainable meat and dairy farming: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/pastures_new.pdf
+ CUCKOOS SOUND ECOLOGICAL WARNING
Cuckoos and other British birds are declining fast, writes Prof Colin Tudge in an article in the Daily Telegraph. Insects too have declined.
Tudge writes that while the major cause is chemical/industrial agriculture, the deeper problem is with our world view: “At least as pernicious, sadly, is science in its modern form: the way we use it, the way we misunderstand it, and oddly the way it misrepresents the world.
“Agriculture conceived as an exercise in industrial chemistry and the whole technology of genetic engineering are not as they are presented to us: the application of exact science to mechanisms that are thoroughly understood, to our universal benefit. They are gung-ho forays into unknown and unknowable territory.”
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12373
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CLONING
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+ CLONED LIVESTOCK GAIN FOOTHOLD IN EUROPE
A handful of breeders in Switzerland, Britain and possibly other countries have imported semen and embryos from cloned animals or their progeny from the United States. And although no vendor has publicly acknowledged it, meat or dairy products originating from such techniques are believed to be already on supermarket shelves, says an article in the New York Times.
GMWatch comment: Rudolf Jaenisch, a geneticist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates that something like 4-5% of the genes in a cloned animal's genome are expressed incorrectly. Cloning produces a high number of deaths and deformed animals. Some clones have been born with incomplete body walls or with abnormalities in their hearts, kidneys or brain function, or have suffered problems like "adult clone sudden death syndrome" and premature ageing.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12391
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BIOFUELS
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+ RISKS OF GM ALGAE
Researchers are trying to develop GM algae that produces oil for fuel. But GM algae will be impossible to contain and there are no biosafety measures in place to oversee production, says an article for the New York Times.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12384
+ ETHANOL SUBSIDIES ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
In the US, Congress finally is starting to recognize the high cost of filling up gas tanks with ethanol, the motor fuel made from corn. Billions of dollars in federal subsidies are on the chopping block, says an article for the Chicago Tribune.
The article says that when ethanol factories were popping up four or five years ago, livestock producers and food processors warned that using grain to make fuel would raise grocery prices. Not to worry, the biofuel industry responded, since corn would be phased out and inedible cellulose would be used instead. But the industry failed to deliver. "Cellulosic" ethanol, as it's called, looks as if it may never roll out on a commercial scale, despite Uncle Sam bending over to make it happen.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12385
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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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+ “WE HAVE LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE GENOME” VENTER
Excerpt from interview by German publication Der Spiegel with J. Craig Venter, whose team first mapped the human genome amid huge hype about cures for cancer, Parkinson’s disease, ageing, etc.”
SPIEGEL: How much would you be able to learn about us by [obtaining our entire genetic information]?
Venter: If anything, we don't really know how to read the genome and it can't tell us very much right now. So what's the ethical debate about?
SPIEGEL: The decoding of your personal genome has so far revealed little more than the fact that your ear wax tends to be moist.
Venter: That's what you say. And what else have I learned from my genome? Very little. We couldn't even be certain from my genome what my eye color was. Isn't that sad? Everyone was looking for miracle 'yes/no' answers in the genome. "Yes, you'll have cancer." Or "No, you won't have cancer." But that's just not the way it is.
SPIEGEL: So the Human Genome Project has had very little medical benefits so far?
Venter: Close to zero to put it precisely.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,709174-2,00.html
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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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LOBBYWATCH
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+ JONES BACKS DOWN OVER MONSANTO CONNECTION
On 18 July an article appeared in the UK’s Observer newspaper detailing Prof Jonathan Jones's failure to make clear his interests in Mendel Biotechnology and Monsanto in a recent pro-GM article for the BBC.
Towards the end of a storm of critical comments from readers posted on the Observer website, Jones himself left a comment, saying he had asked the BBC to update his bio note on the BBC website to include his interests in Mendel and Monsanto.
Observer article and reader comments: http://bit.ly/bmhRhY
More Jonesiana:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12370
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12378
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12379
+ UK AND U.S. SCIENTISTS PARROT MONSANTO TALKING POINTS
Jonathan Jones isn’t the only scientist to parrot Monsanto’s talking points. In the US, Jones has a twin in industry/government revolving-door beneficiary Roger Beachy, says PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America). Beachy was president of the Danforth Plant Science Center (the nonprofit that is Monsanto's de facto research arm) before being appointed head of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in September and made chief scientist of the USDA in January of this year. Having admitted his own bizarre fear of organic farming methods to Grist's Tom Philpott last March, Beachy is now ramping up his pro-GM fear-mongering, taking his talking point from Monsanto. He said that in order to feed more people, we need to utilize GM technology to grow more crops per acre, because, “If we don't, we'll have to expand [agriculture] to our parks, forests and golf courses.”
But the Union of Concerned Scientists has amply documented the fact that GM crops have failed to deliver on their promise of increased yields.
Jill Richardson of La Vida Locavore blog commented, “Apparently, the Obama administration never got the memo that the biotech industry's ‘feed the world’ rhetoric was based on market research to promote GE food acceptance among Americans and not on [the technology's] ability to deliver.”
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12395
+ UK: BLAIR TOLD PRINCE TO STOP CRITICIZING GM
Former UK prime minister Tony Blair asked Peter Mandelson to tell the Prince of Wales to stop his "unhelpful" attempts to influence government policy on GM crops. Mandelson accuses the Prince of being "anti-scientific and irresponsible" in his memoirs.
GMWatch comment: Peter Mandelson, widely known as the "Prince of Darkness", twice had to resign in disgrace as a Blair minister, before being appointed an unelected EU trade commissioner and then a Lord on Blair's recommendation. As trade commissioner, Mandelson attracted further controversy because of his close personal ties to wealthy businessmen whose interests were directly affected by EU trade policy.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12359
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COURTS
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+ MONSANTO LOSES EU BID TO HALT ARGENTINIAN SOY IMPORTS
The European Court of Justice has slapped down Monsanto over its attempt to bar the import of Argentinian soymeal. Monsanto had failed to get a patent on its GM soybeans in Argentina and dealt with it by blocking the import of such soybeans to other countries. Argentinian producers figured that if they couldn't sell soybeans directly, they could process it into soymeal and sell that.
Monsanto claimed that because the soymeal came from soybeans that would be patented in Europe, the soymeal also infringed the patent. The court disagreed, ruling that the European patent for the trait that makes soybeans resistant to the company's Roundup herbicide doesn’t extend to soymeal made from the patented seeds.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12338
+ LAWSUIT FILED TO HALT GM TREES
An alliance of conservation organizations has sued the US Dept of Agriculture over its approval of open-air field tests of a GM eucalyptus tree across the southern United States. The permit, issued to a company called ArborGen, was approved May 12 with minimal environmental review.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12330
+ BAYER LOSES FIFTH STRAIGHT TRIAL OVER GM RICE CONTAMINATION
Bayer AG lost its fifth straight court case over contaminated US long-grain rice to a Louisiana farmer who claimed the company's carelessness with its GM seed caused exports to plunge.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12362
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SUPERWEEDS AND VOLUNTEERS
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+ ROUNDUP RESISTANT WEEDS AND VOLUNTEERS HIT U.S. FARMING
US farmers are having to dig out Roundup-resistant corn volunteers that seeded themselves last year into this year’s soy. According to a British agricultural journalist who is touring the US, one farmer “dug so many corn plants out of his fields that his soy yields were decimated. For some reason it's worse this year than it's ever been before.”
And in Georgia, Roundup-resistant pigweed is threatening the cotton industry, according to Brad Haire, a University of Georgia weed expert.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12342
Here are Syngenta’s solutions chemicals, and more chemicals:
http://www.resistancefighter.com/
+ THE COMPLEX LEGALITIES OF VOLUNTEER CANOLA
You didn’t plant it, but if you harvest it, you owe Monsanto.
http://bit.ly/cgoITe
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LABELLING
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+ ANGER AT EU’S DECISION TO KEEP CONSUMERS IN THE DARK OVER GM FEED
Consumers will continue to be none the wiser about whether they are eating food from animals raised on GM feed after MEPs voted against introducing a compulsory labelling rule.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12339
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RESISTANCE
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+ BAYER RETREATS FROM GM RICE RELEASE IN BRAZIL
In Brazil, Bayer has withdrawn its application for commercial release of its GM LL62 rice. Bayer said that it needed more time to reach an agreement with leading rice producers, who are opposed to the product’s release.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12340
+ UK: SAINSBURY’S AFFIRMS REJECTION OF GM POTATOES
The UK’s Sainsbury’s supermarket chain has confirmed that it will not be stocking the GM blight resistant potatoes currently being trialed by the Sainsbury Laboratory of the John Innes Centre, based in Norwich.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12336
+ GM FIELD TRIALS SABOTAGED IN SPAIN
A group of anonymous activists have sabotaged two experimental GM maize trials belonging to Syngenta, in Torroella de MontgrÃ, Catalonia.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12355
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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ UK: FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY TO BE ABOLISHED
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is to be abolished by Andrew Lansley, the health secretary. The move has sparked accusations that the government has "caved in to big business".
Critics noted that the end of the FSA was floated days after the health secretary offered a pact with the food industry. Lansley publicly asked big business to fund the government's advertising campaign to persuade people to switch to a healthier lifestyle and in return it would not face legislation outlawing excessively fatty, sugary and salty food.
GMWatch comment: While seeing the back of the notoriously pro-GM, anti-organic FSA might be a cause for joy in GM Watch subscribers, the closure is happening for the wrong reasons. The move came after the FSA fought a running battle with the food industry over the introduction of colour-coded "traffic light" warnings for food.
Supporting the simple traffic light system, which required companies to label their products with red, amber or green symbols to denote the amounts of fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar contained per serving, was one of the FSA’s few acts in the public interest.
In contrast, most of the food industry advocated "guideline daily amounts", a system that lists percentages of recommended daily allowances included in each serving. Arguably it requires a PhD in nutrition to understand. The food industry spent an estimated £830m on lobbying to stop the traffic light scheme.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12350
+ BP, GEOENGINEERING AND GM
BP won't stop at dangerous deep water drilling: the company is investing in even more dangerous projects, including the field of genetic engineering known as synthetic biology and geoengineering the planet's atmosphere, says Jim Thomas in The Ecologist. Thomas concludes: “A growing group of citizens are calling for a halt to such experimentation on planet Earth (see www.handsoffmotherearth.org) and the expanding thick black muck in the Gulf should remind us all to listen to them. It is too late to prevent this disaster; not too late to prevent others.”
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12329
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GM APPROVALS
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+ FSANZ’S SECRET SMARTSTAX APPROVAL
The Australia/New Zealand food regulator FSANZ approved the multi-trait GM corn “Smartstax” in secret, says campaign group MADGE. FSANZ did not put the crop through a safety assessment or notify the public of the crop's approval.
http://www.madge.org.au/Docs/MR-100715-Smartstax.pdf
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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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**US scientists have released heat-, drought- and disease-tolerant beans. They yield and adapt well too.
http://bit.ly/9RIS2Y
**Blight-resistant potatoes resist fungus that caused Irish potato famine
http://bit.ly/cgrCte
**Wild potato germplasm holds key to disease resistance
http://bit.ly/a9QiYF
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BOOK
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+ WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO: NEW BOOK OUT
The book of Marie-Monique Robin’s documentary film, The World According to Monsanto, is out. An excerpt about the GM contamination of Mexican maize, which has caused deformed plants to sprout around the countryside, is here:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12331
The book is available from Amazon.
News and comment on genetically modified foods and their associated pesticides 
