WEEKLY WATCH number 299
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from Claire Robinson, MONTHLY REVIEW editor
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Dear all:
Apologies for the absence of Weekly Watches in recent weeks - I've been away at a GM conference and busy with other GM-related work. If you want to see exactly what, check out, for example, my recent article for the Latin America Bureau: GM SOY "A DEATH SENTENCE" FOR ARGENTINA.
Incidentally, a few subscribers seem not to have received even the Monthly Reviews and Weekly Watches that we have sent out. If you think you might have missed some, please go to our archive.
Once again, a court in the United States is cleaning up after the mess left by the so-called regulator, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While the FDA has long claimed that there's no difference between milk from cows treated with the GM bovine growth hormone rbGH and natural milk, an Ohio court has issued a ruling confirming what we all know - it is different (THE AMERICAS).
Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX
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CONTENTS
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THE AMERICAS
ASIA
COMPANY NEWS
GMOs AND LIABILITY
FILM
WORLD FOOD DAY
AFRICA
EUROPE
RESEARCH
LOBBYWATCH
GM SOY REPORT
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THE AMERICAS
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+ rbGH MILK RULED "COMPOSITIONALLY DIFFERENT" IN OHIO
Several years ago, several US states tried to ban "rbGH-free" claims on dairy products produced without the GM hormone rbGH. Monsanto, who owned rbGH at the time, helped found a group of rbGH-loving dairy farmers called AFACT. AFACT then pushed to ban any label claims telling consumers which milk came from cows that had not been treated with rbGH. AFACT was unsuccessful in most states where they tried this, except for Ohio. Ohio was the one state where it looked as if they might win. Ultimately the fight went to the courts.
But now an Ohio court has ruled that dairies can still say that milk is "rbGH-free". It must also contain an FDA disclaimer saying "[t]he FDA has determined that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST-supplemented cows." Now, here's the BIG news. The court struck down the FDA's claim (which has proved a major block to good regulation on rbGH) that there is "no measurable compositional difference" between milk from rbGH-treated cows and milk from untreated cows.
The court cited three reasons why the milk differs:
* Increased levels of the hormone IGF-1;
* A period of milk with lower nutritional quality during each lactation; and
* Increased somatic cell counts (i.e. more pus in the milk).
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12566
+ BRAZIL BATTLES "MAD SOY DISEASE"
Approximately 50% of the soy fields in the Northern Region of Mato Grosso, Brazil are currently cultivated with GM varieties. Previously, Asian rust disease has proved a problem in Brazilian soy. Now another disease, "mad soy disease", is devastating soy crops. There are two prime suspects in this case:
(i) Glyphosate herbicide: GM soy is sprayed with glyphosate. There is a well-documented link between glyphosate and increased plant diseases.
(ii) No-till farming: GM soy is usually grown in a farming system called no-till, in which farmers avoid ploughing and control weeds through glyphosate herbicide. Studies have found that no-till encourages plant pests and diseases, which thrive in the crop residue left on the soil.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12554
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ASIA
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+ CHINA: PUBLIC DISQUIET OVER GM CROPS
The Chinese public is pushing back against the GM promoters
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12573
+ INDIA: GM BRINJAL BRINGS SHAME TO INDUSTRY SCIENCE
Six science academies, which unanimously recommended lifting of the moratorium on Bt brinjal imposed by environment minister Jairam Ramesh in February, have been found guilty of plagiarism, says an article in India Today. Scientists who drafted the report did not examine data submitted by developers of Bt brinjal to the regulator based on which clearance was given. Instead, they relied on the views of an individual scientist - P. Anand Kumar - expressed in a newsletter. Kumar, in his article published in Biotech News, drew liberally from the report of the Monsanto-funded outfit - International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). So, in effect, the academies based their so-called recommendations on industry claims.
On the same day when the dubious report of academies was being circulated, another report on Bt brinjal - the Scope and Adequacy of the GEAC Environment Risk Assessment (ERA) - by Dr David A Andow of the University of Minnesota was released. Andow concludes that the scope of ERA set by GEAC was too narrow and that EC-II did not perform an adequate ERA. Because of resistance, he predicts, Bt brinjal is projected to fail in 4 to 12 years.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12543
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12571
+ STOP MONSANTO'S "PROJECT SUNSHINE"
Mounting an attack on the state government of Gujarat, the farm activist movement Kisan Swaraj Yatra, joined by hundreds of tribal women farmers, demanded that the Chief Minister Narendra Modi scrap the tribal welfare department's joint project with Monsanto in the tribal districts of the state called "Project Sunshine". Kisan Swaraj Yatra says the project is only leading farmers down an unsustainable path and providing ready markets for an MNC like Monsanto, known for its anti-farmer activities. The project has been supplying farmers with hybrid maize, which Kisan Swaraj Yatra says require high inputs of water, and subsidized fertilizer.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12550
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO'S FORTUNES TURN SOUR
As recently as late December, Monsanto was named "company of the year" by Forbes magazine. Last week, the company earned a different accolade from Jim Cramer, the television stock market commentator. "This may be the worst stock of 2010," he proclaimed. Monsanto has been buffeted by setbacks this year that have prompted analysts to question whether its winning streak from creating ever more expensive GM crops is coming to an end, says an article in the New York Times.
The company's stock, which rose steadily over several years to peak at around $145 a share in mid-2008, closed on October 4 at $47.77, having fallen about 42 percent since the beginning of the year. Its earnings for the fiscal year that ended in August are expected to be well below projections made at the beginning of the year, and the company has abandoned its profit goal for 2012. Early returns from this year's harvest showed that Monsanto's newest product, SmartStax corn, which contains eight inserted genes, was providing yields no higher than the company's less expensive corn that contains only three foreign genes.
Monsanto has already been forced to sharply cut prices on SmartStax and on its newest soybean seeds, called Roundup Ready 2 Yield, as sales fell below projections. John Gilbert, an Iowa farmer, told the Christian Science Monitor about GM crop uptake: "A lot of it, to be perfectly honest, is herd mentality. They believe Monsanto when they say it's going to yield more." But scepticism has begun to set in, with the Christian Science Monitor noting that a common criticism now being leveled at GM firms like Monsanto is that crop yield increases have largely been the result of advances in conventional breeding, but that those features are only being made available in strains sold with GM traits as well.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12541
+ WHAT'S DRIVING MONSANTO'S FALL FROM GRACE
Incisive commentary by Tom Philpott of Grist:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12563
+ U.S. FARMERS MAY SWITCH FROM GM SEED
Seed farmers throughout the US are complaining that GM seeds are becoming much too expensive, resistant to weed killer, and can contaminate conventional seed crops. However, they still use the seeds. But with biotech seed companies being investigated for anticompetitive practices, seed farmers may change their minds.
"The technology has really been hyped up a lot," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, author of a 2009 study for the Union of Concerned Scientists, which concluded that yield increases have come mainly from conventional plant breeding. "Even on a shoestring, conventional breeding outperforms genetic engineering."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12549
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GMOs AND LIABILITY
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+ GMOs: HISTORIC AGREEMENT BUT SMALL STEP FOR LIABILITY
After over 6 years of negotiations, the international community finally agreed in Japan to put in place a liability and redress regime in case of contamination caused by GMOs. This agreement, which will be known as the Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Supplemental Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, is not a strict international liability instrument with a backup fund. However, this agreement will enable countries to adopt and implement their own liability provisions and redress legislation and financial security while offering them some protection against WTO legal challenges about obstacles to trade. The agreement will apply to damages caused directly by GMOs like genetic contamination. By keeping open the causality chain link between the damage and the GMO in question, it also includes products of GMOs, which is a good element for an effective and meaningful liability regime.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12564
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FILM
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+ SCIENTISTS UNDER ATTACK - FILM REIVEW
Billed as "a political thriller on GMOs and freedom of speech", a powerful film by the German film-maker Bertram Verhaag tells the stories of two scientists, Dr Arpad Pusztai and Dr Ignacio Chapela, whose research showed negative findings on GM foods and crops. Review:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12567
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WORLD FOOD DAY
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+ ANTI-MONSANTO PROTEST IN INDIA
On eve of World Food Day (& anti-Monsanto day!) hundreds of farmers and activists made a bonfire of GM seeds in Jalna, India. The protesters said the bonfire was intended to send a message to corporations like Monsanto - "They need to quit Indian farming since it is obvious that their profiteering agendas are against farmers." Find out more and see pictures from the event:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12569
+ ANTI-MONSANTO PROTEST AT MONSANTO'S AUSTRALIAN HQ
Mothers and consumers dumped rogue GM-canola weeds and GM-contaminated soy infant formula at Monsanto's Melbourne office to mark World Food Day.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12570
+ ENDING ADRICA'S HUNGER MEANS LISTENING TO FARMERS
Africa is hungry - 240 million people are undernourished. Now, for the first-time, small African farmers have been properly consulted on how to solve the problem of feeding sub-Saharan Africa. Their answers appear to directly repudiate the massive effort to launch an African Green Revolution funded in large part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53186
Related IIED Press Release
http://www.iied.org/natural-resources/media/world-food-day-marked-call-democratise-agricultural-research-and-ensure-food
New Website: Excluded Voices - Democratising Agrcultural Research
http://www.excludedvoices.org/democratising-agricultural-research-food-sovereignty-west-africa
Download Multimedia publication:
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=14603IIED (Webpage from which to download 10.6Mb PDF)
+ HOW BIOTECH FIRMS EXPLOIT WORLD FOOD PRIZE WEEK
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12574
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AFRICA
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+ TELL GATES FOUNDATION TO SUPPORT REAL SOLUTIONS FOR HUNGER
The Gates Foundation is increasingly being forced to deal with criticism of its more dubious activities and programmes. With Via Campesina, the AGRA Watch campaign group (AGRA = The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, an initiative of the the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its the biggest grantee), which is based, like the Gates Foundation, in Seattle, has initiated both a letter for sign-on and an electronic petition to the Gates Foundation. The petition asks the Foundation to support real solutions for hunger. Please sign on and circulate to other groups and individuals.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12565
+ AFRICAN RESPONSE TO THE GATES FOUNDATION
http://undercovercop.org/2010/10/14/side-event-on-african-responses-to-the-gates-foundations-green-revolution-in-africa/#more-280
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EUROPE
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+ STATES RIP APART EU BID TO SPEED UP GM CROP APPROVALS
European states accused by the European Commission of "flouting" WTO rules by banning GM crops have rejected commission moves aimed at speeding new authorisations. A commission plan, led by EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, to allow states to decide individually whether to ban the cultivation of crops, was torn to shreds by leading GM opponents, France, Germany and others.
"Let me be very clear, in France we refuse even to enter into this discussion," said France's Chantal Jouanno during talks between European Union environment ministers in Luxembourg. She said a commission proposal failed to deliver adequate assessments of the impact of GM agriculture on the environment, on human health, or on other socioeconomic needs. Until then, "it's off-limits," she snapped.
Only the Netherlands - a firm backer of GM crops - gave Dalli its solid backing on the core issues at stake. Dalli's proposals have come under attack from anti-GM campaigners, who say they will enable fast-track approvals of GM crops by some European countries and encourage contamination. They also say that the ability of countries to opt out of GM crop cultivation will be compromised by lack of legal protection and by WTO constraints.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12568
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RESEARCH
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+ IT PAYS NOT TO CULTIVATE GM CROPS
The first economic analysis of growing GM crops on a wide scale has found that the biggest winners were the farmers who decided not to grow them. The study, which looked at maize yields in the corn belt of the US, found that farmers who continued to grow conventional crops earned more money over a 14-year period than those who cultivated GM varieties. The study said all farmers benefited from the significantly lower level of pests that came about after the introduction of GM maize to the US in 1996, but the conventional farmers who continued to cultivate non-GM varieties also benefited financially from not having to pay the extra costs of purchasing GM seeds.
GMWatch comment: Even if we accept that the study's analysis is correct, any decrease in corn borer populations in neighbouring non-GM crops will only last until resistance develops in corn borers. And what about the deficits neighbouring non-GM growers can suffer as a result of GM crops? For example, what about the explosion in secondary pests found with Bt cotton in China that has affected a range of neighbouring crops (i.e. not just cotton)? And what about the huge costs arising from the GM contamination of non-GM crops, as with US rice and Canadian flax, to take just two recent examples?
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12556
In addition, Doug Gurian-Sherman points out how minor any benefit is in the context of the huge size and value of the corn crop and the much bigger gains from conventional breeding and improved agronomy - something that the authors of the study do not consider.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12576
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ UK: PUBLIC OPPOSITION TO GM FARMING RISING
A piece in Farmers Weekly by the pro-GM columnist David Richardson claimed an NFU poll showed growing public acceptance of GM. But Peter Melchett of the Soil Association says the poll shows the opposite: "Four statements about GM crops were put to people in the poll, two basically in favour, two against. The answers showed that concern over GM crops has grown from 48% in 2008, to 50% in 2009, and is sharply up again this year to 56%. So the NFU's own polling shows steadily rising opposition to GM. The NFU poll also shows that when people were asked if farming GM crops would undermine trust in British farming, 48% said yes, which is up from 44% in 2009, and 37% in 2008."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12562
+ U.S. EVANGELICAL PURSH FOR GM FOODS
The BBC World Service's One Planet programme on the environment on 7 October interviewed genetic engineer Dr Roger Beachy. Beachy's interview appears to be part of a new evangelical push on the part of the US government hyping GM crops as the solution to world hunger. In the BBC interview, Beachy claims GM is being demonized but then proceeds to demonize organic production, as he has done before (even suggesting organic food may be dangerous to eat!). Beachy characterizes people who oppose GM crops as anti-science or just plain ignorant. He also uses straw man arguments, dismissing scientifically valid concerns about the uncontrollability of GM contamination with a story about a man who (according to Beachy) had an irrational concern about potatoes being contaminated by GM corn or cotton.
This strategy exactly fits with what Guy Cook, Professor in Language and Education at the Open University (OU) and author of Genetically Modified Language, a book which critically analyses the war of words waged by those arguing for GM crops, found in research investigating the type of language deployed by GM crop scientists. The public, Cook's data revealed, is often portrayed as as emotional, rather than rational, and as uniformly ignorant. Cook notes that this "characterization of the public is often achieved through anecdotes of some farcical encounter with a particularly 'uninformed' member of the public: a commonly voiced one concerns people who are worried that they may be 'eating genes'." Interestingly, research suggests that technical knowledge of GM does not necessarily lead to increased acceptance of GM crops.
Another interviewee in this BBC programme is a genetic engineer working in the field of medical biotechnology, Dr Michael Antoniou, who does not share Beachy's confidence about the safety of GM when applied to agriculture. It's well worth listening to the programme to hear Antoniou's strong points about the safety issues and the sustainable way forward for agriculture.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/gd/episode/p00b2rgn/One_Planet_The_father_of_GM_foods_bolivian_seeds_and_wildebeest/
GMWatch transcript and comment:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12558
+ SCIENCE MEDIA DIRECTOR MADE FAKE CALL
Fiona Fox, the Director of Britain's pro-GM Science Media Centre, is in the news. It's as a result of the disgraced former Labour politician Jim Devine being ordered to pay his former office manager £35,000 in damages after she won an employment tribunal claim against him that centred on a hoax that Fox helped Devine to perpetrate. Doing a bizarre favour for an allegedly corrupt politician has to be seen in the context of Fox's dark history which includes includes even more shameful "lapses of judgement" made in the interests of her ideological agenda.
http://bit.ly/arFlkw
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GM SOY REPORT
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Here's a summary of spin-off news from the publication of the report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?, co-authored by nine international scientists, which collects research showing that GM soy and glyphosate spraying are unsustainable. The report highlighted Argentine government scientist Prof Andres Carrasco's research linking glyphosate spraying on GM soy to birth defects.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/component/content/article/12479-reports-reports
+ LAB STUDY ESTABLISHES GLYPHOSATE LINK TO BIRTH DEFECTS
Article summarizing Carrasco's research, for Institute of Science in Society:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12542
+ ROUNDUP: ARGENTINA'S HUMAN TRAGEDY
Article on the events in Argentina around Carrasco's study on glyphosate/birth defects:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12548
+ GM SOY "A DEATH SENTENCE" FOR ARGENTINA
Article for Latin America Bureau by Claire Robinson on efforts to silence Carrasco:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12553
http://www.lab.org.uk/index.php/news/57-focus/653-gm-soya-qa-death-sentenceq-for-argentina
+ GM SOY LINKED TO BIRTH DEFECTS - AND IT'S IN BABY FORMULA
From article on the report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?, by Australian Food News: "Monsanto's herbicide Roundup used on genetically manipulated (GM) Roundup Ready crops is linked to human cell death, birth defects, cancer and miscarriages, says a report released at the European Parliament by an international group of scientists. The report comes at a crucial time for Australia, where a popular infant soy formula has tested positive [for] unlabelled GM soy and corn, and Roundup Ready canola and cotton are grown."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12546
+ SHANE MORRIS WADES IN ON GM SOY REPORT
We'd assumed that (former?) Canadian government employee and GM food propagandist Shane Morris had dropped off the face of the earth after he was internationally condemned for co-authoring a paper that's been described as a "flagrant fraud", and for actions that led to the shutting down of the GMWatch website after we reported on the scandal.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Shane_Morris
But Morris has been beavering away in Ireland and re-surfaced there in the wake of the publication of the scientific report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? The Irish Green Party had cited the report in the Irish Times. Morris replied in a letter to the editor, calling the report "flawed" and accusing it of "scaremongering". Green Party agriculture spokesman Trevor Sargent replied in another letter published in the Irish Times, "This important report presents the findings of more than 100 peer-reviewed studies on GM soy and the herbicide glyphosphate, often sold as Roundup. More than 95 per cent of GM soy is engineered to tolerate Roundup. "Whether or not Mr Morris accepts the concerns of the majority of EU consumers who wish to avoid genetically modified food, there is now a scientific basis for this concern. The biggest market for the important Irish food export business is other EU member states. Given a choice between food with GM ingredients or food free of GMOs, over 60 per cent of EU consumers in repeated surveys want the GM-free product."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12537
+ NEW RESEARCH RAMPS UP PRESSURE FOR SCIENCE-BASED GM BAN IN EUROPE
Research has demonstrated unequivocally that herbicide-tolerant GM crops are associated with large-scale environmental and health effects, and pressure is building on the European Commission to respond by bringing in an immediate GM moratorium, reports GM-Free Cymru. GM-Free Cymru says the EFSA, the Commission's own health and safety watchdog, has failed to react to the clear warning signs in the scientific literature over the past few years, simply repeating that GM crops and foods are "just as safe as their conventional counterparts."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12544