GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 296
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

According to media reports, meat from the offspring of a US-cloned cow may have entered Europe's food chain (CLONING). The UK's Food Standards Agency helpfully said, "there was no way to know for sure unless we have a time machine.”

In the US, canola with GM genes has established itself in the wild (THE AMERICAS).

There have been two momentous events in the Americas - one a great victory for justice, the other a shocking injustice committed on a courageous scientist who dared to speak out about the dangers of Monsanto's glyphosate herbicide (THE AMERICAS).

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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CLONING
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
LOBBYWATCH
GM WHEAT
CORPORATE CRIMES
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
AUSTRALASIA
FEEDING THE WORLD
COMPANY NEWS
BIOFUELS
GM TREES

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CLONING
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+ MEAT FROM CLONE OFFSPRING ENTERS EUROPE'S FOOD CHAIN”¨Britain’s Food Standards Agency said it found meat from three offspring of a cloned cow had entered the food chain in Europe. But it could not state for certain whether milk from a cloned offspring had been sold.

The statement was made after an investigation sparked by a report last month in the International Herald Tribune. In the article, a British dairy farmer who insisted on anonymity said that he was using milk from a cow bred from a US-bred clone as part of his daily production.

US authorities have declared food from cloned cattle and other animals safe to eat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/business/global/14clone.html?src=busln
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10942050

+ UK: FSA NEEDS TO GET A GRIP ON CLONED MILK
GM Freeze is calling for urgent action by the Food Standards Agency to ensure that no milk from cloned dairy cows enters the food chain and for procedures to be put in place to prevent the import of cloned embryos from the US.

Cloning farm animals is not legal in the European Union. Many safety and ethical issues have been raised, including:

Ӣ The health and welfare of the cloned embryo and animals
Ӣ The welfare of the surrogate mother
Ӣ High failure rates from cloning procedures
Ӣ Food safety of cloned products
Ӣ Increased problems in UK farm animals from lack of genetic diversity.

Basic research on the safety of food products from clones has not been carried out. On 6 July the EU Parliament voted overwhelmingly for a ban on food from clones and their offspring and for an immediate moratorium on all such products until the Commission can bring forward the required legislation.

It is has not been confirmed if the cloned dairy cattle in the UK have also been genetically modified.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12401

+ DOLLY CREATOR CONCERNED ABOUT CLONED COWS
Prof Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly, the cloned sheep, believes that "while the scientific evidence seems to confirm that cloned meat and milk are safe, large-scale agricultural cloning raises troubling ethical concerns about animal welfare." He said, "The production of cloned animals with the present procedures is associated with a greater than normal death of foetuses during pregnancy, difficulties at birth and death of animals after birth."

Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said, "This is the wrong direction not just for farming, but for the planet. For human health, no evidence of danger is not the same as safe. There’s been no long term safety testing of meat or milk from cloned cattle if business interests get their way, there never will be. It is a scandal that we’re even considering cloning animals, given that we already know that terrible suffering it imposes on surrogate mothers and the many cloned offspring where things go wrong. On this, the public are right."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12403

+ ADVERSE IMPACTS OF CLONING ON ANIMAL HEALTH: EXCELLENT REPORT
In studies on sheep, cows and mice clones, the following problems were detected:
*Placental abnormalities
*Foetal overgrowth, prolonged gestation
*Stillbirth, hypoxia, respiratory failure and circulatory problems, lack of post-natal vigour
*Increased body temperature at birth
*Malformations in the urogenital tract
*Malformations in liver and brain
*Immune dysfunction, a malformation of related organs
*Bacterial and viral infections
(Extracted from the TestBiotech report:
Cloned farm animals - a 'killing application'? (PDF)
http://bit.ly/a8y047 )

+ UPDATES ON CLONING SCANDAL IN THE UK
*UK supermarkets vow NEVER to sell clone meat or milk http://bit.ly/9RirvG

*Food Standards Agency's future in doubt after cloned cattle fiasco: http://bit.ly/d3pBre

*Food Standards Agency "believes" no milk from clones sold - in other words, it has no idea http://nyti.ms/cgIUZ1

*More Soil Association comment http://bit.ly/apYUAR

*Colin Tudge: Cloning, cruelty and how science sold out to greed http://bit.ly/cP0eq6

*The European Parliament recently voted for a ban on meat and milk from clones and their offspring http://bit.ly/c1qypc

+ SAFETY OF FOOD DERIVED FROM CLONES: THE STATE OF THE SCIENCE
*Useful study from TestBiotech: Cloned farm animals - a 'killing application'? (PDF)
http://bit.ly/a8y047

*The FDA report which is constantly cited as showing safety, based its conclusion on the safety of "cloned" milk on just 3 studies. All 3 showed some compositional differences with milk from cows not derived from clones:
http://bit.ly/a8y047 p22

*The Center for Food Safety looked at the evidence and said that any conclusions regarding safety of food derived from clones and progeny are premature http://bit.ly/a8y047 p23

*The Center for Food Safety also noted that the FDA's assessment of compositional analysis of meat and milk from clones was based on "few studies that analyse small samples".

*A poll by Eurobarometer (2008) showed 58% of European citizens thought cloning for food production could never be justified http://bit.ly/chrBKL

*Eurobarometer (2008) also showed 83% of European citizens said special labeling should be required if food products from the offspring of cloned animals came into shops http://bit.ly/chrBKL

*77% of US consumers "not comfortable" with eating cloned animal products: http://bit.ly/c44XtW

*81% of US consumers believe cloned foods should be labeled: http://bit.ly/c44XtW

*Scottish Government wants tighter controls on offspring of clones http://bit.ly/aEZMv0 National Beef Association agrees.

*Canada: Federal government investigates cloned embryo claims http://bit.ly/cOFNrE

*Scotland: Politicians urge full parliamentary inquiry into 'cloned beef' http://bit.ly/986PQY

*US: US Dept of Agriculture (2008) asked for cloned animals to be kept off market "indefinitely" in "voluntary moratorium" http://bit.ly/aAU5kc

*UK: TAKE ACTION: Why cloning should be banned - write to your MP http://bit.ly/cvrvGo
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12407
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12409

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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
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+ HARVARD SCIENTISTS "SPEED UP EVOLUTION", AIM TO SELL TECHNOLOGY TO DUPONT
Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston have invented a table-top machine that can generate multiple changes in the DNA of bacteria all at once, speeding up the evolutionary process, according to an article in Bloomberg. Aiming to sell the technology for use in chemicals, energy, and the drug industry, they’re talking with DuPont and other companies, members of the team said.

The research team leader, George Church, is a pioneer in synthetic biology, the field in which scientists manipulate DNA to create organisms that don’t exist in nature. Bloomberg repeats the scientists' claim that "Researchers may one day be able to use these techniques to develop cotton that’s waterproof or bananas that stay ripe for months".
http://bit.ly/9okeKl

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ THOUSANDS BLIND FOR WANT OF GM RICE?
One of the biotech lobby's perennial stories has surfaced once again. Ingo Potrykus, the developer of Golden Rice, writes in an editorial for Nature that thousands of children and adults are going blind because excessive regulation of GM foods is preventing the release of GM beta-carotene-enriched Golden Rice. Potrykus writes, "I ... hold the regulation of genetic engineering responsible for the death and blindness of thousands of children and young mothers."

Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman challenged Potrykus's claims:

"GE may take longer than modern breeding, but typically about the same amount of time. The first golden rice had low beta-carotene. A version with higher amounts was ready in 2005, not 1999. Crosses into good rice varieties then takes several years, field tests to make sure the crop grows well several more--this has nothing to do with regulation. Finally a GE crop takes about 50 to 200 million dollars, regulations maybe a few million to 10 million. Conventional breeding costs in the low millions."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12399

The latest media outlet for this biotech industry favourite is Voice of America, the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the US government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America#VOA_as_a_propaganda_tool

+ ANNIVERSARY OF A WHISTLEBLOWING HERO
Twelve years ago, in August 1998, Dr Arpad Pusztai gave a 150-second interview to British TV that changed the history of GM. Pusztai went public with his research findings showing that GM potatoes harmed rats. The media storm and consumer backlash that followed saw the major UK supermarkets banning GMOs from their own-brand products.

Pusztai's safety testing protocol was supposed to eventually be required for all GM food approvals in Europe. But this never happened. With support from the highest levels of government, biotech defenders quickly mobilized a coordinated attack campaign trying to distort and cover up the evidence.

Their attempts continue with the biotech industry propaganda website, Academics Review (www.academicsreview.org), run by GM advocates Bruce Chassy and David Tribe, which recycles old lies about Pusztai's research. Jeffrey Smith expertly takes apart the deception in two articles:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12410
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12411

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GM WHEAT
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+ ALARMING EFFECTS IN GM WHEAT
Research by Swiss scientists shows alarming effects in GM wheat. The wheat grew normally and had better resistance to a certain fungal disease in the greenhouse, but the metabolism of the plants went out of control after being exposed to environmental conditions. The plants were severely affected by the extremely toxic fungal disease (ergot disease) and yield was lowered by up to 50 percent. Testbiotech is calling for GM plants to undergo comprehensive 'stress tests' before they are released into the environment.

Christoph Then from the German expert group Testbiotech said, "The results from Switzerland show a huge gap in the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants. So far, we don't know enough about how these plants behave under certain environmental conditions such as climate change. The technically inserted gene sequences are not under the control of the plants' genome regulation. Their stability needs to be tested systematically under various conditions.”
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12402

Interesting quote from media story on GM wheat for which Syngenta is main source: "Most in the industry don’t expect to see a GM wheat on the market until 2024."
http://bit.ly/b3mH4F

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ BIOTECH CANARIES: SICKENED WORKERS GET LITTLE RELIEF
David Bell, a former employee os Davis, California biotech firm AgraQuest developed a lung condition called histoplasmosis and other respiratory maladies while working at the firm. He blames his poor health on his exposure to bacteria, fungi and insects he handled while working for the firm in 1998.

But a workers' compensation judge disagreed, leaving Bell with staggering medical bills. "It's kind of freaky to live on limited income and get medical bills of $12,000 to $17,000," Bell explained.

He's just one of many injured biotech workers around the country who believe workplace-safety laws are not protecting them.

In the past dozen years, Bell has endured four sinus surgeries and submits to monthly hookups for intravenous transfusions of immunoglobulin to help strengthen his weakened immune system.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12414

+ MONSANTO RESTRICTS ACCESS TO NON-GM SOY SEED
Brazil exports non-GM soybeans and processed soy products to Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan. Many of the exports, particularly soybean meal, are used for animal feed. Ricardo Tatesuzi de Sousa, executive director of ABRANGE (the Brazilian Association of Non-Genetically Modified Grain Producers), said Brazil’s non-GMO exports are growing and that the segregation process was not a problem: “We’ve been organizing all the logistics to guarantee segregation. It’s easy for us to do that. It’s a matter of organizing farmers, and having markets pay a premium to farmers."

The challenge is that Monsanto Company is abusing its power over the seed market by restricting access to non-GM soybean seeds. Tatesuzi de Sousa says the percentage of Brazil’s non-GMO soybean production has decreased in the past year from 45% to 40% due to the seed shortage.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12404

+ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER BHOPAL
The Indian premier has agreed to ask for the extradition of former Union Carbide manager.
Article in German: http://tiny.cc/vwk4i

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ASIA
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+ PHILIPPINES: FARMERS PROTEST BT EGGPLANT TESTING
Farmers groups have protested the field testing of GM Bt eggplants (aubergine/brinjal) in the Philippines. The Department of Agriculture has started multi-location field testing prior to commercialization.

The people of India, where the Bt brinjal originated, were successful in pressuring their government to issue a moratorium for the commercialization of Bt eggplant. A French scientific study slammed the commercialization of Bt brinjal, heating up the controversy over the biotech crop’s safety. Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco) developed the GM eggplant. Mahyco is the Indian partner of Monsanto.

A study team led by Caen University professor Gilles-Eric Seralini of the Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering has not only branded Bt brinjal “unsafe for human consumption” but also raised serious doubts about safety data presented by developers Mahyco to the government.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the petition to support the farmers: http://bit.ly/9tXwEe
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12413

+ PHILIPPINES: AG SECRETARY TO BAN GM EGGPLANTS
Philippines agriculture secretary Proceso Alcala said he will ban the commercial production of GM eggplants in the country.
http://bit.ly/aK0IhQ

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THE AMERICAS
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+ ARGENTINA: VIOLENCE DENIES COMMUNITY ACCESS TO RESEARCH ON GLYPHOSATE HEALTH EFFECTS
Dr Andres Carrasco is an Argentine government scientist whose research findings that glyphosate causes birth defects in frogs even at very low concentrations were announced in 2009. On 7 August 2010 Carrasco was due to give a talk on his research in the Argentinian town of La Leonesa, which has become a centre for activism against glyphosate spraying of rice and GM soy crops. But a a violent organized mob attacked community activists, residents, and public officials who came to hear the talk and forced the event to be abandoned. Three people were seriously injured. Carrasco and his colleague shut themselves in a car and were surrounded by people making violent threats and beating the car for two hours.

Witnesses implicated local officials in the attack, as well as a local rice producer. They believed the attack was motivated by powerful economic interests behind local agro-industry.

Amnesty International is asking people to write to Argentine government officials asking for an impartial investigation of the incident and for studies to be carried out on the health effects of the spraying on local people.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12418
More on Carrasco's research: http://bit.ly/ZsLBV

+ U.S.: VICTORY! JUDGE'S RULING UPROOTS USE OF GM SUGAR BEETS
A federal district judge for the Northern District of California has issued a ruling granting the request of the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club to repeal the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA’s) approval of GM "Roundup Ready" sugar beets. In September 2009, the Court had found that the USDA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Monsanto-engineered GM crop without first preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. The crop was engineered to resist the effects of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which it sells to farmers together with the patented seed.

In the ruling, the Court officially "vacated" the USDA "deregulation" of Monsanto's biotech sugar beets and prohibited any future planting and sale pending the agency’s compliance with NEPA and all other relevant laws. USDA has estimated that an EIS may be ready by 2012.

Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, commented: "Time and again, USDA has ignored the law and abdicated its duty to protect the environment and American agriculture from genetically engineered crops designed to sell toxic chemicals. Time and again, citizens speaking truth to power have taken USDA to court and won."

In his order, Judge Jeffrey White noted that USDA's "errors are not minor or insignificant", and voiced his "concern that Defendants are not taking this process seriously". He also pointed out that "despite the fact that the statutes at issue are designed to protect the environment," USDA and the sugar beet industry focused on the economic consequences to themselves, yet "failed to demonstrate that serious economic harm would be incurred pending a full economic review."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12417-judges-ruling-uproots-u se-of-gm-beets

+ GM CROP ESCAPES INTO AMERICAN WILD
Researchers in the US have found new evidence that GM crop plants can survive and thrive in the wild, possibly for decades.

A University of Arkansas team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola. Transgenes were present in 80% of the wild canola plants they found.

They suggest GM traits may help the plants survive weedkillers in the wild.

"We just drew 11 lines that crossed the state [of North Dakota] - highways and other roads," related research team leader Cindy Sagers.

"We drove along them, we made 604 stops in a total distance of over 3,000 miles (5,000km). We found canola in 46% of the locations; and 80% of them contained at least one transgene."

Sagers and her team found two varieties of transgenic canola in the wild ”” one modified to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide (glyphosate), and one resistant to Bayer Crop Science's Liberty herbicide (gluphosinate). They also found some plants that were resistant to both herbicides, showing that the different GM plants had bred to produce a plant with a new trait that did not exist anywhere else.

GMW comment: The industry position on GM plants establishing in the wild used to be that it wouldn't happen because they lack the necessary "fitness". Now, the industry has shifted its position to one of, "It can happen, but it doesn't matter" (see http://bit.ly/9VTvD8).
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12408

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EUROPE
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+ ITALY: FIELD OF ILLEGAL GM CORN DESTROYED BY ACTIVISTS
Film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdGLyGveaCo&feature=youtu.be

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ LAB ERRORS LED TO GM LEAK
A probe into the escape of GM plants from a government laboratory found scientists had left routes open. Scientists also washed out their high-security specialist containment laboratory with water that was flushed straight into the storm water system.

Details of a criminal investigation into a GM breach at a Plant and Food Research glasshouse laboratory are exposed in papers released under the Official Information Act.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents describe a slew of failures and oversights by the government agencies charged with overseeing New Zealand GM laws.

The errors were made by the Environmental Risk and Management Authority, charged with allowing the importation and use of GM material; Plant and Food Research; and MAF, which audits the controls.

In the six months that followed the discovery of the leak, scientists refused to be interviewed by MAF staff, potential evidence was destroyed and paperwork showed the GE seeds used to grow the plants should never have been allowed into New Zealand.

When asked by the reporter about the handling of the GM seeds, communications manager Roger Bourne said no staff would be allowed to be interviewed and said, "We don't have to give a reason," before hanging up the phone.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12400

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FEEDING THE WORLD
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Two media reports unwittingly expose the biotech industry lie about having to have GM - or even to produce vast amounts of extra food - to feed the world. It's clear that feeding the world is simply a matter of political will:

+ THE POOR STARVE AMIDST PLENTY
According to a recent study, over 40% of the food produced in America is wasted each year, and only 2% of this waste is composted. Food waste is now the second largest waste stream sent to landfills, where it produces methane, a deadly greenhouse gas that further impacts climate change. Climate change, in turn, is having a deadly impact on our food supply.

+ INDIAN POOR STARVE WHILE GRAIN ROTS IN STORAGE
India is home to one quarter of the world's starving population and one third of its malnourished children, while at the same time maintaining a surplus of food grain in government storage areas.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12415

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO TO CUT PRICE PREMIUMS ON SEED
Monsanto will cut premiums on SmartStax corn seed by 67 percent versus 2010 prices and by 75 percent for Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seed, JP Morgan Chase & Co. said in a report. It's unclear whether this has anything to do with the Dept of Justice antitrust investigation into monopolistic pricing policies by Monsanto and other seed giant.
http://bit.ly/9rtFaf

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BIOFUELS
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+ CARGILL TO BUILD BIODIESEL PLANT
Soy/agribiz giant Cargill is to build a biodiesel plant in Argentina.
http://www.soyatech.com/news_story.php?id=19738

How Cargill is feeding Europe's meat demands at the expense of the Amazon:
http://bit.ly/cly3RE

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GM TREES
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+ SIGN STOP GM TREES PETITION
http://bit.ly/5QYAM