GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 298
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Ever doubted those scaremongering figures about having to double food production by 2050 to feed the world? And the fact that this 'problem' is always mooted in combination with the 'solution' of GM and/or even more intensive agriculture? Well, you were right to doubt. It's all a big lie (LOBBYWATCH).

And there's more about the Gates Foundation's now overt allegiance with Monsanto (AFRICA).

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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GM SALMON
CLONING
AFRICA
LOBBYWATCH
GM TREES
ASIA
NON-GM SUCCESSES
GM: DEFUNCT TECHNOLOGY
THE AMERICAS

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GM SALMON
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+ GM SALMON UNDER FDA CONSIDERATION
A Massachusetts-based company, AquaBounty Technologies Inc., has developed a fast-growing GM salmon that reaches market weight in half the usual time. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve what would be the nation's first commercial GM food animal.

"This is the threshold case. If it's approved, there will be others," said Eric Hallerman, head of the fisheries and wildlife sciences department at Virginia Tech University. "If it's not, it'll have a chilling effect for years."

Some in the fish farming industry are leery of the move toward engineered fish.

"No! It is not even up for discussion," Jorgen Christiansen, director of communications for Oslo-based Marine Harvest, one of the world's largest salmon producers, wrote in an e-mail.

Christiansen said his company worries "that consumers would be reluctant to buy GM fish, regardless of good food quality and food safety."

Some critics say the effort is pointless. "I don't see the necessity of it," said Casson Trenor of Greenpeace USA. "We don't need to build a new fish."

GMW comment: This story from the LA Times says AquaBounty "hopes to avoid the pollution, disease and other problems associated with saltwater fish farms by having its salmon raised in inland facilities." Would that mean inland facilities like the intensive hog and cattle operations that have polluted the air, water, and soil of entire neighbourhoods in the US?

We also wonder if AquaBounty has noticed the growing concerns about farmed salmon in general: US mega-retailer Target has announced that it will stop selling all farmed salmon on grounds of environmental responsibility.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12434

+ AQUABOUNTY: IN DEEP WATER
Aqua Bounty has a history of over-promising and underperforming: projected sales of its shrimp feed additive were slated to be $370 million by 2010; in fact, total sales for all of the company's products peaked at less than $800,000 in 2005. By 2008, the shrimp feed additive was withdrawn from the market, and the company's mid-year 2009 report notes total sales revenue at zero following withdrawal of the product.

A look at its financial reports shows a company in deep waters. Aqua Bounty lost more than $8 million in 2006, and more than $6.5 million each year in 2007 and 2008, and projected a $5 million loss for 2009. Despite the losses, the company recently received a $2.9 million grant from the Canadian government's "Atlantic Innovation Fund" and $100,000 from the US National Science Foundation.

The company's latest financial statement notes, "At this level of cash burn, Aqua Bounty expects its funds to take the Company at least into 2011 before revenues need to cover costs”¦. Once AquAdvantage® [GM] Salmon is approved for sale, the Company's focus will be to develop sales as quickly as practical."

In other words, the company’s future depends on FDA approval this year.
Source: Corporate Crime Daily
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12434

+ COALITION DEMANDS FDA DENY APPROVAL OF GM SALMON
A coalition of 31 consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations and food retailers submitted a joint statement criticizing an announcement this week by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it will potentially approve AquaBounty's GM salmon as the first GM animal intended for human consumption.

If the FDA opens this door, GM fish will likely be among the millions of salmon that currently escape from open ocean pens every year. This could be the last blow to wild salmon stocks and in turn the thousands of men and women who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. "Approving genetically engineered salmon is a sharp contradiction to the agreements the United States has signed at NASCO, where transgenic salmonids are considered a serious threat to wild salmon," said Boyce Thorne Miller, Science and Policy Coordinator for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and accredited observer at the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12441-coalition-demands-fda-deny-approval-of-gm-fish

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CLONING
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+ CLONED MEAT--NO ONE KNOWS ANYTHING
When Canadian agricultural leaders asked US agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack after a scandal about unlabeled clone products in Europe if "cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply," he said, "I can't say today that I can answer your question in an affirmative or negative way. I don’t know."

Online news outlet AlterNet asked the USDA if cloned products were already in the US food supply. A spokesman said the department was "not aware of an instance where product from an animal clone has entered the food supply" thanks to a "voluntary moratorium" -- but that offspring of clones, at the heart of the Europe scandal," are not clones and are therefore not included" in the voluntary moratorium.

It sounds as if Europe is not the only place eating milk and meat from unlabeled clone offspring. In fact, the BBC, UK newspapers and even a US grocer all report that US consumers are digging into clone food, whether or not they know it.

Like bovine growth hormone and Roundup Ready crops, the government says clone products are so safe they don't need to be labeled. But the 2008 FDA report, Animal Cloning: A Risk Assessment and a report from the European Food Safety Authority released at the same time, raise questions about the health of cloned animals, the safety of their milk and meat and even the soundness of the clone process itself.

To clone an animal, "scientists start with a piece of ear skin and mince it up in a lab. Then they induce the cells to divide in a culture dish until they forget they are skin cells and regain their ability to express all of their genes," writes the Los Angeles Times' Karen Kaplan. "Meanwhile, the nucleus is removed from a donor egg and placed next to a skin cell. Both are zapped with a tiny electric shock, and if all goes well the egg grows into a genetic copy of the original animal."

So far so good, except that it turns out many clones lack the ability to "reprogram the somatic nucleus of the donor to the state of a fertilized zygote," says the FDA report and be the perfect replica a clone is supposed to be.

The reprogamming problem, called epigenetic dysregulation, means many clones -- some say 90 percent -- are born with deformities, enlarged umbilical cords, respiratory distress, heart and intestine problems and Large Offspring Syndrome, the latter often killing the clone and its "mother," the surrogate dam. Clones that survive epigenetic dysregulation often require surgery, oxygen and transfusions at birth, eat insatiably but do not necessarily gain weight and fail to maintain normal temperatures, admits the report.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12433

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AFRICA
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+ OUTRAGE AS GATES FOUNDATION INVESTS IN MONSANTO
Farmers and civil society organizations around the world are outraged by the recent discovery of further connections between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Monsanto. A financial website has published the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio, including 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock with an estimated worth of $23.1 million purchased in the second quarter of 2010. This marks a substantial increase from its previous holdings, valued at just over $360,000.

"The Foundation's direct investment in Monsanto is problematic on two primary levels," said Dr. Phil Bereano, University of Washington professor emeritus and expert on GM. "First, Monsanto has a history of blatant disregard for the interests and well-being of small farmers around the world, as well as an appalling environmental track record. The strong connections to Monsanto cast serious doubt on the Foundation’s heavy funding of agricultural development in Africa and purported goal of alleviating poverty and hunger among small-scale farmers. Second, this investment represents an enormous conflict of interests."

Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s GM maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated. According to Mariam Mayet, environmental attorney and director of the Africa Centre for Biosafety in Johannesburg, some farmers suffered up to an 80% crop failure. While Monsanto compensated the large-scale farmers to whom it directly sold the faulty product, it gave nothing to the small-scale farmers to whom it had handed out free sachets of seeds. "When the economic power of Gates is coupled with the irresponsibility of Monsanto, the outlook for African smallholders is not very promising," said Mayet. Monsanto's aggressive patenting practices have also monopolized control over seed in ways that deny farmers control over their own harvest, going so far as to sue””and bankrupt””farmers for “patent infringement."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12435

+ MONSANTO IN GATES' CLOTHING
Under the guise of "sustainability", the Gates Foundation has been spearheading a multi-billion dollar effort to transform African into a GM-friendly continent, reports Eric Holt Gimenez, executive director, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy. The public relations flagship for this effort is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a massive Green Revolution project. Up to now AGRA spokespeople have been slippery, and frankly, contradictory about their stance on GMOs.

The first Director of AGRA was Gary Toenniessen, a career program officer for Rockefeller Foundation. He said AGRA was not ruling out GMOs and if and when they were introduced it would be with all the appropriate "safeguards". After AGRA was criticized for not having any Africans, Kofi Anan was named Chairman in 2007. He first said GMOs were out of the picture, but the next day he recapitulated. Last Spring, Joe DeVries, who runs the AGRA seed program was asked by a Worldwatch blogger if they were engaging in genetic engineering. "Read our lips," said Joe DeVries. "We are not promoting or funding research for GMOs." In fact, in Kenya alone AGRA has used funds from the Gates Foundation to write grants for research in GM agriculture. Nearly 80% of Gates' funding in Kenya involves biotech and there have been over $100 million in grants to organizations connected to Monsanto. In 2008, some 30% of the Foundation's agricultural development funds went to promoting or developing GM seeds.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12437

+ THE MONSANTO ADVISOR WHO WROTE GATES FOUNDATION'S SCRIPT ON GMOs
Robert Paarlberg:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Robert_Paarlberg

+ GATE FOUNDATION TIES WITH MONSANTO UNDER FIRE
The Seattle-based Community Alliance for Global Justice (CAGJ)'s AGRA Watch campaign has joined with other groups in an initiative that resulted in 250 people sending postcards to the foundation asking it to cut ties to Monsanto and other biotech firms and shift its funding priorities "from industrial agriculture to socially and ecologically appropriate practices." The groups are also planning an online-petition drive.

Elise Lufkin, senior program director of Giving Assets Inc., a group that advocates socially responsible investing, defended the Gates Foundation from accusations of conflicts of interest, saying the Gates investment is not necessarily a conflict of interest if the Foundation and Monsanto share the same goals!
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12442-gates-foundation-ties-with-monsanto-under-fire

+ KING CAUSES OUTRAGE IN AFRICA WITH GM CLAIMS
Civil society organisations have reacted with outrage to claims by David King, who was chief scientific advisor to the former UK prime minister Tony Blair, that the international campaign against GM crops is partly responsible for food shortages and food insecurity in Africa.

"Food insecurity in developing regions such as Africa is partially a result of the anti-GM campaign," David King, now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University in Britain, said during the 15th World Congress of Food Science and Technology held between Aug 22-26 in Cape Town, South Africa. "In Europe, people might have a choice between conventional and genetically modified products. In Africa, this is not the case. Here, any food that is available is great."

South African organisations that oppose the genetic modification of food, such as the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE), have condemned King’s statements.

"Africa’s food insecurity has nothing to do with the anti-GM campaign," said Fahrie Hassan, media spokesperson at SAFeAGE. It has in large part been caused by economic policy measures with strict conditions imposed on countries seeking loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since the 1980s, he argued.

Astonishingly, King repeated his lie from 2008 about flood-resistant GM rice. He claimed again that this GM wondercrop would be available now if it weren't for anti-GM campaigners.

King said, "The delay of developing a marketable product is partially a result of the pressure of the anti-GM campaign. Because of this, millions of poor people unnecessarily suffered from malnutrition and hunger over the past 10 years."

Fortunately, this time, King didn't get away with the lie. IPS News's report of King's speech contained a correction by Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association, to the effect that the flood-resistant rice in question is not GM.

Instead, it is the result of "normal breeding informed by knowledge of the genome and supported by environmentalists and organic organisations".
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12440-king-causes-outrage-in-africa-with-gm-claims

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ BIG FAT LIE ABOUT "FEEDING THE WORLD"
The idea that the world needs to double its food production by 2050 in order to feed a growing population is wrong, says a new report from the Soil Association. The report says the misuse of data could be used to allow even greater intensification of the global agricultural industry.

In the last couple of years, scientists, politicians and agricultural industry representatives around the globe have been using two statistics: the need to increase global food production by 50% by 2030, and for food production to double by 2050 to meet future demand.

These apparently scientific statistics have been dominating the policy and media discourse about food and farming, leading almost everyone to assume we need vast increases in agricultural production to feed a population of nine billion people by the middle of this century.

While ensuring an equitable and sufficient future food supply is of critical importance, many commentators are using this to justify the need for more intensive agricultural practices and, in particular, the need for further expansion of GM crops.

When the Soil Association, in its report Telling Porkies, looked into the reported sources for these figures, none of the sources actually stated that global food production needs to increase by 50% by 2030, or to double by 2050.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said: "The 'big fat lie' of needing to double global food production by 2050 has dominated policy and media discussions of food and farming, making it increasingly difficult for advocates of sustainable farming methods, such as organic, to convince people we can actually feed the world without more damage to the environment and animal welfare.

"Many of those misusing the statistics in the FAO paper to argue for massive increases in food production in both UK and globally, appear to be unaware that they are in effect condemning many in developing countries to ill-health and early deaths, because they assume the spread of our unhealthy, Western diet to developing countries. In addition, these projections assume an increase of over a billion cattle, which would lead to massive increases in emissions of global warming gases."

Those using these dodgy figures have continued to do so, even after the Government expressed some concern about them in September last year.

Independent sources quoted in the report say that with fairer, healthier diets and better distribution of food, organic farming could feed the world in 2050.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8946555.stm
http://www.soilassociation.org.uk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qbavgJQPY%2fc%3d&tabid=313

+ GM COULD SAVE US FROM SALMONELLA-CONTAMINATED EGGS!
A bizarre article by pro-corporate lobbyist Henry I. Miller in The Guardian claims that the recent recall in the US of salmonella-contaminated eggs could have been avoided if GM animals and organisms were de-regulated. Miller is described by The Guardian (on a separate page) as "a physician and molecular biologist and a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution". No mention is made of Hoover's primarily corporate backing or of Miller's links with another corporate front group, the American Council on Science and Health.
http://bit.ly/9n029q
More about Miller:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Henry_I._Miller
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Hoover_Institution
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/American_Council_on_Science_and_Health

+ BEACHY ADMITS LACK OF ACCEPTANCE OF GM
Roger Beachy, Director of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, has made some extraordinary admissions in a speech to the American Society of Plant Biologists. The standard GM promotional is that there is general acceptance of GM crops in North America and much of the rest of the globe, with resistance mostly confined to parts of Europe. But it's clear from Beachy's remarks that the GM lobby faces serious public opposition even in the US. They include: "One of the rocks lurking under the crest of our 'next [GM] wave' is public adoption of the new products being developed through biotechnology."

Beachy was formerly the founding president of the  Danforth Plant Science Center - an institute so aligned with and heavily dependent on Monsanto and its largesse that it's sometimes called "Monsanto's NGO".
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12438-beachy-admits-lack-of-acceptance-of-gm
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Roger_Beachy
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-09-24-usda-obama-monsanto-organic/

+ UK: "GM POTATO SHINES IN GM WATCH BACKYARD"
The Eastern Daily Press (EDP) has published an article hyping the GM blight-reistant potatoes that are being trialled in Norfolk, UK. The EDP reported, "A trial plot of genetically-modified potatoes at Norfolk's John Innes Centre has withstood five days of intense late-blight infection."

The pro-GM website AgBioWorld reprinted the article under the subject header, "GM potato shines in GM Watch backyard" - a reference to GMWatch's founder living in Norfolk.

But the celebrations over the trial not only seem to be premature, but to miss the point. As one of those commenting on the article notes, "The pioneering work at the Savari Trust in North Wales [using conventional potato breeding] is miles ahead of GM technology in producing very good late blight resistance in varieties that are already on the market. This has been achieved without the benefit of the massive public research funding that has been poured into GM blight resistance research. We should be investing more into these already existing solutions to get the blight resistance into even more varieties of potato without having to go down the GM route that the public has no appetite for."

A UK farmer commented on the Norfolk GM potato trial:

"It is still only August and if one of their two GM varieties has blighted already it is pretty damning (presumably the second one on page six at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/quality/gm/regulation/documents/10-r29-01-app.pdf) so the headline should really be 'Norfolk GM potato trial succumbs to blight'.
 
"We have got some Blue Danube growing here and no sign of blight as yet... Savari say they are not as resistant as the Sarpos which even in this wet part of the country have stayed blight-free into November.
 
"To be using Maris Piper as a control is a bit pathetic; it is a bit like those old TV adverts for tyres made out of rubber that was 'twice as hard wearing' when what they were comparing them to was a banana."
http://gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12443-qgm-potato-shines-in-gm-watch-backyardq

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GM TREES
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+ NEW ZEALAND: FIELD TEST OF GM PINE TREES PLANNED
In New Zealand, a state science company, Scion, plans to field test GM pine trees "in containment". The field test will last for 25 years, though each tree will be grown for a maximum of eight years.

Scion said the trees would not be allowed to release pollen or seed, though it has previously said branches from a few trees will be grafted onto non-GM rootstocks to produce pollen or seed in containment.

The technology is aimed at boosting production of wood and fibre-based products, biofuels, other chemical extracts from trees, and for increasing carbon capture through tree planting, the company said.
http://bit.ly/duGIK1

+ U.S. GM EUCALYPTUS
The South Carolina-based company ArborGen plans to plant 330 acres of eucalyptus trees genetically modified to withstand cold weather. The idea is that the tree, native to Australia, could be used commercially to make paper and as fuel for power plants. But an article for the Charlotte Observer says the GM tree could well prove another kudzu, an invasive vine that the government encouraged people to plant in order to control soil erosion and that now is out of control. Some species of non-GM eucalyptus are invasive in the US and have caused problems from depletion of groundwater to wildfire hazards.
http://bit.ly/aAovDW
Union of Concerned Scientists on risks of GM cold-tolerant eucalyptus:
http://bit.ly/c4mZTv

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: BAN SOUGHT ON GM ANIMALS
Humane Society International (HIS), an animal welfare group, wants a ban on the genetic engineering and cloning of farm animals.
http://bit.ly/bxMLer

+ INDIAN STATES OPPOSE BIOTECH BILL
The Madhya Pradesh government has reacted strongly to the setting up of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), accusing the Centre of attempting to impinge upon the autonomy of the State. Orissa, Kerala, Assam and several other States have also been opposing the Bill.

Mullakkara Retnakaran, Kerala Minister for Agriculture, said that almost all the provisions of the Bill were undemocratic and authoritarian. The commercial interests of corporate bodies was given prime protection. Commercial information was exempted from disclosure even under the Right to Information Act. Independent research on GM crops was not allowed.

"We are sure; you would agree with me that the destiny of India's agriculture cannot be left to a three member Authority with unlimited powers and unquestionable freedom, that too without an iota of accountability and transparency," he said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12439-indian-states-oppose-biotechnology-bill

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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ DISEASE-RESISTANT WHEAT
Marker assisted breeding used to develop wheat streak mosaic virus-resistant wheat:
http://bit.ly/aRpyVe

+ PEST-RESISANT WHEAT
http://bit.ly/aoPkIs

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GM: DEFUNCT TECHNOLOGY
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+ ONE GENE, MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS
One gene does not equal one function. Genes in mice and humans do not share a one-to-one correspondence for complex traits like drug and disease response nor do single genes do single things, says a good blog article by Dr Ray Greek. Greek is commenting on a new study published in Nature, which shows that mutations in a single gene can cause several types of developmental brain abnormalities that experts have traditionally considered different disorders. Lead researcher Murat Gunel, MD said, "This is going to change the way we approach single-gene disorders."
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/single-gene-multiple-functions

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THE AMERICAS
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+ MONSANTO'S STACKED TRAIT SOYBEAN APPROVED IN BRAZIL
The Brazilian GM regulator, CTNBio, has approved Monsanto's Bt Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybean for planting in Brazil. The soybean has "stacked" traits of a Bt insecticidal toxin gene plus a herbicide resistant gene.
http://bit.ly/dqqXsR

Yields of RR 2 soybeans disappointing:
http://www.deltaga.com/delta-in-the-press/monsanto-facing-distrust-as-it-seeks-to-stop-dupont.html

+ U.S. MAIZE FARMERS DESERT MONSANTO BECAUSE OF HIGH SEED PRICES
US maize farmers are deserting Monsanto in favour of rival DuPont because of Monsanto's high seed prices. Iowa farmer Tom Oswald said Monsanto has “got a little too big for their britches”.
http://bit.ly/bauSeT