GMWatch News Review archive

GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 88

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

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS  
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LATEST NEWS:
* LOBBYWATCH
* GREENWASH
* CORPORATE TAKEOVER
* GM-FREE PRODUCTS
* RESISTANCE

REST OF THE MONTH'S NEW IN BRIEF:
* VATICAN LOBBYWATCH
* AFRICA LOBBYWATCH
* EUROPE LOBBYWATCH
* NO-TILL
* RESISTANCE
* GM EXPANSION/APPLICATIONS
* GM FAILURES
* CORPORATE TAKEOVER
* CORPORATE CRIMES
* MEDICAL BIOTECH
* SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY

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LATEST NEWS
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ WIKILEAKS: SPAIN A KEY ALLY OF PRO-GMO AMERICA
The US and Spain have collaborated closely in order to defend GM crop production within the EU, US diplomatic cables (made public via Wikileaks) have revealed. The cables' release came just days after the European Commission was handed a petition of over one million signatures calling for a GMO ban in Europe.

Shortly after Germany decided to ban MON810 maize cultivation in April 2009, and facing rising opposition within his own country, Spanish secretary of state and deputy minister Josep Puxeu contacted US officials to call for support, according to a US cable dated 19 May 2009.

Lamenting "the most complicated week" of his life, Mr Puxeu asked the US government to maintain pressure on Brussels to allow GM cultivation within the EU and proposed greater collaboration with Spain on the subject.

Spain was the first EU country to grow GM maize and at the time of the cable cultivated nearly 75 percent of the EU's GM maize MON810 (developed by Monsanto).

With France, Austria and other EU states strongly opposed however, Monsanto officials warned the US mission in Madrid that "If Spain falls, the rest of Europe will follow", reports the cable.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12744

+ WIKILEAKS: U.S. ENGINEERS WAYS TO FORCE-FEED EUROPEANS WITH GM CROPS
WikiLeaked cables revealed more about the US' role as a global bully, trying to thrust unpopular GM crops onto cautious governments and their citizens, reports Jeffrey Smith. In a 2007 cable from Craig Stapleton, then US Ambassador to France, he encouraged the US government to "reinforce our negotiating position with the EU on agricultural biotechnology by publishing a retaliation list." A list, he added, that "causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility."

The stated reason for their attack was that "Europe is moving backwards not forwards" on GMOs, with "France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the [EU] Commission." The Ambassador was concerned that France and others would put a ban on the cultivation of Monsanto's GM corn seeds called Mon 810, engineered with a gene that produces a toxic insect-killing pesticide in every cell. Mon 810 is the first GM crop approved for planting EU-wide and has been a test case for biotech expansionism into the continent.

According to the cable, the Ambassador also rejected the France's new "Grenelle" environment process, which looks beyond just the science of new technologies to also take into account "common interest." Evidently a government that looks out for common interest is just too much for Ambassador Stapleton. He wrote, "Combined with the precautionary principle, this is a precedent with implications far beyond MON-810 BT corn cultivation."

He was also upset about France's draft biotech law that "would make farmers and seed companies legally liable for pollen drift." This concept that the "polluter pays" is a foundational principle of US law - except for GMOs. Here Stapleton also wants France to give a free pass for Monsanto and other GM seed companies.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12750

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GREENWASH
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+ MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR "RESPONSIBLE SOY" GREENWASH FROM DUTCH GOVERNMENT
The Netherlands government has given 20 million Euros of Dutch taxpayers' money to corporate-led greenwash initiatives such as the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), which will label GM and monoculture soy as responsible and sustainable. The equivalent initiative to greenwash palm oil production will also benefit from this development aid money.

Much of the GM soy destined to feed European livestock is imported through Dutch ports. While soy production in South America is in reality a massive human rights tragedy, the Dutch government is investing heavily in initiatives that falsely portray the trade as sustainable.
http://www.mvo.nl/Kernactiviteiten/Duurzaamheid/Grondstoffenvoorziening/Nieuwsarchief/14122010Dutchgovernmentallocates20milliont/tabid/2463/language/nl-NL/Default.aspx
Why GM soy can never be responsible or sustainable:
http://www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/12479-reports-reports

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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ AUSTRALIA: MONSANTO TO FIGHT GM-C0NTAMINATED ORGANIC FARMER
West Australia organic farmer Steve Marsh has lost his organic certification after GM canola contamination was found on his land. Monsanto revealed that it would give legal support to the neighboring GM grower if Mr Marsh sought redress for his losses through the courts.

Gene Ethics Executive Director, Bob Phelps, commented that in the same week that the contamination was announced, the regulator licensed Monsanto trials of GM canola designed to survive even more repeated sprayings of Roundup herbicide. Phelps said, "This will add to the burden of unmanageable herbicide tolerant weeds that already cost Australian land managers over $4 billion per year."

Phelps said the West Australia government kept the contamination secret for weeks. He added that Agriculture Minister Terry Redman had not kept one of his former promises on GM canola segregation and handling, despite claiming "GM and non-GM canola can be segregated and marketed separately," when he lifted the GM ban this year. Phelps said Redman also went back on his promise to publish the sites of GM canola farms so that non-GM growers could take evasive action.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12754
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12758

+ MINISTER BLASTED OVER GM CONTAMINATION
West Australia's shadow Minister for Agriculture Mick Murray has called for current Agriculture and Food Minister Terry Redman to allow WA shires to declare themselves GM-free after organic farmer Stephen Marsh lost his organic certification due to contamination. Murray said Redman had broken his promise that there would be no contamination of non-GM crops by nearby GM farms.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12757

+ UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA HOME TO NEW MONSANTO CENTRE
A new Monsanto Canada Breeding Centre has opened at the University of Manitoba. Monsanto relocated its Canadian corporate head office to the U of M in 2005, following the construction of a new office building. The new $12 million Monsanto Canada Breeding Centre will act as a site for breeding activities and research. Protesters gathered on campus to oppose the expansion of genetic engineering in agriculture, and more specifically, the presence of Monsanto on campus. Manitoba's Green party leader, James Beddome, said, "If we start having our next generation of students going over to do their research with Monsanto it's going to bias the quality of their education."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12746

+ UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA DELAYS RELEASE OF FILM CRITICAL OF MONSANTO
The public release of a film critical of Monsanto called Seeds of Change was delayed because of the efforts of the U of M administration to hide the film from a popular audience. Monsanto has a long and intimate relationship with the University of Manitoba.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12746

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GM-FREE PRODUCTS
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+ HERSHEY DEAL TO SUPPLY NON-GM PRODUCTS FOR BRITISH CONSUMERS
UK supermarket chain Asda (owned by the US's Walmart) has struck a deal with US chocolate company Hershey to sell their products in British branches of Asda from February next year. ASDA has made this deal dependent on Hershey being able to reformulate the products to use ingredients from non-GM sources. Asda stated, "We took this decision based on our belief that customers in the UK do not currently wish to see GM ingredients in these products." US consumers may well wonder why Hershey isn't doing the same for them, given that it's clearly a practical and profitable option.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12749

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RESISTANCE
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+ PHILIPPINES: UNIVERSITY BOWS TO CITY HALL, UPROOTS GM EGGPLANTS
Amid loud cheers from organic farmers and people opposed to Bt aubergines/eggplants, UP (University of the Philippines) Mindanao complied with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte's order to uproot the GM crop uprooted from the field test site near the entrance to the campus for reportedly failing to conduct consultations with regional governments, a requirement for the conducting of field tests for GM crops. City Agriculture Office chief Leo Avila said, "They have to stop first and go back to zero because it seems that we mean different things when we say 'strictly confined field trial'."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12753

+ INDIA: REPORT ON KISAN SWARAJ YATRA
Here's an inspirational report from India about the Kisan Swaraj Yatra, the massive civil society mobilization for a pro-farmer, pro-people, and pro-planet form of agriculture:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12760

+ THE TOXIC FIVE: WHY ARE THEY STILL IN OUR FOOD?
In 1998 and 1999, former Health Canada scientist, Dr Shiv Chopra, along with two co-workers, Drs. Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert, testified to the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry that they were pressured by senior supervisors to approve drugs of questionable safety, including the GM cattle drug, Bovine Growth Hormone (rBST) then produced by Monsanto and Eli Lilly. In return for their whistleblowing, the scientists were fired from their government positions.

Since then, Chopra has been an outspoken critic of corporate agriculture and its pocket regulators. In an inspirational interview by natural health advocate Dr Joseph Mercola, Chopra discusses the five toxic elements of the food supply that should be banned immediately. GM foods are one of them. Chopra also talks from practical experience about how ordinary people can reclaim the food production system from the control of the corporations.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12761

+ OPEN LETTER OPPOSING RELEASE OF GMOs IN ECUADOR
Ecuador has its GM-free status written into its constitution. But according to civil society organisations, the country's ministry of environment is over-riding the constitution and is planning to bring in rules to regulate the production, distribution, and release of GMOs.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12752

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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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VATICAN LOBBYWATCH
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+ VATICAN HAS NOT ENDORSED GM FOOD, OFFICIAL SAYS
The Vatican did not endorse a statement in favor of easing restrictions on and allowing more widespread use of GM crops, especially in poorer nations, said a Vatican official. "The statement is not a statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences because the Pontifical Academy of Sciences as such - 80 members - wasn't consulted about it and will not be consulted about it," Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy's chancellor, said. Some news agencies had mistakenly reported that the statement, "Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development", represented the Vatican's endorsement of easing regulations on and promoting the use of GM crops.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12704

+ "UNBIASED" EXPERT HELPS VATICAN ON GM CROPS
An article in the US press recounts how leaders of the Catholic Church seeking information about GM crops and their impact in developing countries turned to Andrew Apel, who said he "was excited to help the church" and found it "a huge honor to be considered a worldwide expert in the field." Apel described himself as "an independent source of objective information upon which the Holy See and its various bodies can draw".
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12735
The following profile of Apel makes clear just how unbiased and objective this "worldwide expert" on GM crops really is:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Andrew_Apel

+ LEAKED CABLES SHOW GM IS KEY STRATEGIC INTEREST FOR U.S.
A leaked cable (via Wikileaks) on discussions between US government representatives and Vatican officials from 2005 reveals the extent of the lobbying for GM by US biotech interests. Interestingly, Cardinal Renato Martino, the most prominent pro-GM cheerleader at the Vatican, is reported in the cable to have supported GM foods "in part to compensate for his vocal disapproval of the Iraq war and its aftermath - to keep relations with the USG [US government] smooth". So even Martino's support for GM may have had little to do with any supposed benefits and more to do with politics. At the time of the report, he was thought to be "through pushing the issue".
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12741

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AFRICA LOBBYWATCH
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+ WIKILEAKS DOCUMENT SHOWS U.S. GOVT PUSHING GM FOOD FOR AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Buried deep in the Wikileaks files is the US government's objective to steer many African countries toward the use of GM agriculture. In a document outlining priorities for intelligence gathering in Burundi, Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and others in the region, one objective is "Government acceptance of genetically modified food and propagation of genetically modified crops." Tom Laskawy commented in an article for Grist: "it's ... a shame to see that our spymasters are actively engaged in efforts to make the world safe for Monsanto. Aren't there better things for them to do?"
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12706
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12711

+ VOICE OF AMERICA PROMOTES GM CROPS FOR AFRICA
The US government-funded news service Voice of America has published an article, "Are GM crops Africa's path to food security?" that clearly aims to convince us that they are. But the article includes incisive comments by Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman to the effect that GM crops fail to increase intrinsic yields and are encouraging the spread of superweeds and Bt-resistant pests.

Gurian-Sherman also says that developing a trait using GM takes a long time and costs far more than conventional breeding. A GM trait typically costs a minimum of about 5 million USD, but realistically more like 60 million or more, whereas a typical trait in a non-GM maize costs about 1 million USD. Conventional breeding is also more successful at producing crops with desirable complex traits such as drought tolerance.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12717
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12721

+ INTERNATIONAL COALITION CALLS ON GATES FOUNDATION FOR REAL SOLUTIONS TO HUNGER, CLIMATE CHANGE
Seattle-based AGRA Watch and La Via Campesina North America, supported by 60 organizations and 40 academics and scientists from around the world, have called on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support real solutions to climate change, hunger and poverty.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12713

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EUROPE LOBBYWATCH
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+ EFSA CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - NEW REPORT
A report by Testbiotech reveals severe conflicts of interest at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The chair of EFSA's expert GMO Panel responsible for risk the assessment of GM crops has been working for years with a so-called Task Force group at the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). A member of staff from Monsanto heads the Task Force, and all its members are from biotech corporations. ILSI itself states that its Task Force group influenced EFSA standards for the risk assessment of GM plants. There is evidence in several documents that ILSI did indeed influence the work of EFSA. For example, EFSA does not request feeding trials to investigate potential health impacts of GM crops. The document used to justify this doubtful position is partially plagiarized from an ILSI paper.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12699
Full report: http://www.testbiotech.org/en/node/431

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NO-TILL
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+ CARBON CREDITS FOR NO-TILL WITH GM AND GLYPHOSATE?
Monsanto and the biotech lobby are pushing for no-till agriculture (as practised with GM Roundup Ready crops/glyphosate herbicide) to qualify for carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which aims to promote technologies that counter climate change. If farmers that grow Roundup Ready crops can access carbon credits for the no-till methodology, sales of Monsanto's seeds will increase, as will sales of its chemicals, as countries will encourage more farmers to plant Roundup Ready crops to qualify for carbon credits. This is a serious development that, if approved, will herald a big expansion of GM agriculture.
Excerpt from article: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12723
For full article and references, please go to http://www.cetri.be/spip.php?article1940〈=en

+ NO-TILL: BIG WHITE LIE?
Much of the farming that is called no-till is nothing of the sort, according to US farmer and author Gene Logsdon. Logsdon says that many "no-till" fields are actually ploughed - just by different, sometimes more destructive, machinery than the traditional type of plough. Logsdon is also the author of a book on organic fertilization called Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12724

+ THE TRUTH ABOUT NO-TILL
Many studies suggest that no-till is no better than tillage at sequestering carbon in soil - and the herbicides used with no-till may cancel out supposed environmental benefits:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/images/pdf/gmsoy_sust_respons_full_eng_v14.pdf

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RESISTANCE
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+ SERALINI VS FELLOUS - A GM LIBEL CASE OVER INDEPENDENT SCIENCE
Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini's libel case against Marc Fellous of the Association Francaise des Biotechnologies Vegetales (AFBV) has been heard in Paris. Seralini is a leading researcher into the risks of GMOs.

Seralini has undertaken the crucial task of re-analysing the data presented by Monsanto and various member states on the health impacts of three Monsanto GM maize varieties (MON 863, MON 810 and NK603). He found that there were "signs of hepatorenal toxicity, possibly due to the new pesticides specific to each GM corn", but both EFSA and Monsanto dismissed the result of the findings. Seralini's research and his critique of the approval processes for Monsanto crops have made him unpopular in biotech circles.

Seralini is suing for libel following a smear campaign, which appears to have come from the French scientific organisation for biotechnology, the Association Française des Biotechnologies Vegetales. He argues that the campaign has damaged his reputation, reducing his opportunities for work and his chances of getting funding for his research.

The court's verdict is expected in January 2011.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12715

+ BRUSSELS SAYS FIRST EVER CITIZENS' PETITION DOESN'T COUNT
Campaigners have presented a Greenpeace-organized petition of more than a million signatures to the EU executive, demanding a halt to approvals of new GM crops. But now officials from the European Commission and the European Parliament say the citizens' views don't count. The conflict is over when the EU's new citizens' initiative (ECI) - a petition procedure under the Lisbon Treaty allowing European citizens to demand action in a particular area - enters into force.

"We've always said that we take their opinion very seriously but it's not an ECI as the legislation is not yet in place," Michael Mann, the EU Commission's administration spokesman, said. "Strictly speaking, they would have to do it all over again. The Greenpeace view that the petition counts as the Lisbon Treaty is in place doesn't stand up to legal scrutiny."

The satirical magazine Private Eye commented that the Commission's response was "Worrying but pehaps not surprising: the Commission's European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has so far ignored all public opposition to GM foods and given a staggering 125 GM authorisations since 1998."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12702
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12703
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12718

+ SOUTH AFRICA: COMPETITION COMMISSION REJECTS PIONEER HI-BRED TAKEOVER
South Africa's Competition Commission has decided not to approve the takeover of Pannar Seed, the country's largest seed company, by the seed giant, Pioneer Hi-Bred, a subsidiary of the DuPont chemical company. The decision is significant as it keeps over 50 years of plant breeding experience and expertise in South African hands and puts the brakes on increased consolidation of the South African agricultural seed sector.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12716

+ GREENPEACE SUES CHEMICAL AND PR FIRMS FOR SPYING
Greenpeace has filed a lawsuit against Dow Chemical, Sasol North America (which owns CONDEA Vista), and PR firms Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum, for hiring private investigators to steal documents from Greenpeace, tap its phones and hack into its computers. Boxes of files from the security firm hired by Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum on behalf of Dow, Sasol North America, and other companies, reveal daily logs, emails, reports, phone records and other evidence that shows what these corporations were working to disrupt the private lives of community members in Louisiana fighting to keep their communities free of toxic poisons and community meetings and efforts to educate the public about the public health threats posed by these companies.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12697

+ U.S. COURT ORDERS UPROOTING OF GM BEETS
Federal District Judge Jeffrey S. White issued a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate destruction of hundreds of acres of GM sugar beet seedlings planted in September after finding the seedlings had been planted in violation of federal law. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety on behalf of a coalition of farmers, consumers, and conservation groups. The court outlined the many ways in which GM sugar beets could harm the environment and consumers, noting that containment efforts were insufficient and past contamination incidents were "too numerous" to allow the illegal crop to remain in the ground. In his court order, Judge White noted, "farmers and consumers would likely suffer harm from cross-contamination" between GM sugar beets and non-GM crops. He continued, "the legality of Defendants' conduct does not even appear to be a close question," noting that the government and Monsanto tried to circumvent his prior ruling, which
 made GM
sugar beets illegal.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12698

+ OHIO FARMERS "SNATCHING UP" NON-GM SEED - BUT IT'S HARD TO FIND
Though far more GM seeds are available to growers than non-GM, Ohio growers are snatching up non-GM seed and planting more non-GM acres than their Midwest counterparts, including Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Reasons, said Ohio State University Extension agronomist Peter Thomison, include economics, premiums, and fewer pest problems. The problem is that biotech companies are restricting access to non-GM seed.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12739

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GM EXPANSION/APPLICATIONS
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+ INDIA: CLEARANCE FOR FIELD TRIAL OF GM RUBBER?
In the face of opposition from the Kerala government to all GM crops, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has approved a proposal from the Rubber Board for conducting field trials of GM rubber.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12705

+ GM RICE TRIALS THREATEN INDIA
Calcutta University has been given a go-ahead to conduct field trials of GM rice at the Rice Research Station, Chinsurah. Experts fear that the new variety might wipe out the 1200-odd existing rice varieties conserved at the rice station.
GMWatch comment: It's worth remembering the massive damage that GM rice trials did to US rice:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSIndia-30351820071106
And Bayer, the company responsible for the trials, is still trying to shift the liability onto the farmers who suffered the damage!
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12733

+ GM MAIZE TAKES ROOT IN MEXICO
Monsanto, DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred unit and Dow AgroSciences recently completed experiments in northern Mexico with GM maize, and are seeking government authorization to enter a "pre-commercial" phase, expanding the growing area to nearly 500 acres from 35 acres.
http://on.wsj.com/eDr6Gy

+ NON-BROWNING APPLE SLICES - ANOTHER MARVEL FROM GM PROFITEERS
Non-browning apple slices are the latest marvel from the GM profiteers. A Canadian company has applied to US authorities for permission to market the "Arctic", a GM apple that doesn't go brown when cut into. Assessing the need for such a product, author and commentator Jim Hightower points out that keeping apples from going brown is as simple as putting lemon juice on them. His comment is well worth reading:
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12736

+ CISGENICS, INTRAGENICS, AND GM LOBBY DOUBLESPEAK
The "non-browning apple" that a Canadian company is asking the US to approve, is an example of an "intragenic" or "cisgenic" product. Cisgenics or intragenics is touted by biotech lobbyists as safer and more publicly acceptable than transgenics, on the claimed grounds that it uses genes from the species of interest or related species, not from an unrelated foreign species. But a scientist explains that cisgenic/intragenic food is every bit as unsafe as GM/transgenic food:
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12737

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GM FAILURES
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+ INDIA: PESTS EAT INTO GM CROP MYTH
Insects expected to drop dead after feeding on GM Bt cotton plants - bollworms - have instead been found in research conducted in India to be thriving and even successfully breeding on the plants. Entomologists at the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Karnataka, say their observations, coming within eight years after the start of commercial cultivation of GM cotton in India, question the wisdom of relying heavily on GM plants to fight pests.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12725
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/gm-cotton-fails-pests-thriving-when-they-should-be-dead.php

+ GM MAIZE PLANTINGS DECLINING IN EUROPE
A report for ENDS notes that the popularity of GM maize - the main GM crop approved for cultivation in the EU - is waning among cereal growers in the Iberian peninsula. This is highly significant because Spain and Portugal accounted for almost 86% of the 94,700 hectares under GM cultivation in the EU in 2009. GM maize (MON 810) cultivation in Portugal fell this year for the first time since the variety's commercial authorisation in 2005. In Spain, 2010 has seen an 11% year-on-year drop to 67,726 hectares, the smallest area of GM maize cultivation since 2006, according to data from seed producers. The figures are said to indicate that a significant percentage of producers who experiment with GM maize end up abandoning it.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12742

+ AUSTRALIA: PROBLEM OF PREMATURE SPROUTING IN GM CANOLA
A crop of GM canola has sprouted in the pod while still green. The farmer who found the problem plants in his fields says his crop may now be worthless. He'd already lost his previous GM canola crop after a locust attack.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12734-gm-contamination--broken-vow-fury

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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ THE INTERNET IS BEING CAPTURED BY ORGANIZED TROLLS FOR INDUSTRY
Pro-corporate interests are using the internet to hijack proper debate about issues that affect their profitability, writes George Monbiot in The Guardian. The method is called astroturfing. An astroturf campaign is one that mimics spontaneous grassroots mobilisations, but which has in reality been organised.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12731

+ CORPORATE SEEDS FLOOD PAKISTAN
After floods ravaged Pakistan, corporate seeds (some suspected to be GM) are flooding into the country in the name of agricultural reconstruction.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12727

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ COLONIALISM AND GM MOSQUITOES
A new GeneWatch UK briefing questions the role of the British scientific establishment in the release of three million GM mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands earlier this year. The secret experiments were revealed by UK biotech company Oxitec last month, which claimed misleadingly that the mosquitoes were sterile. The GeneWatch briefing shows that no public consultation was undertaken on potential risks and informed consent was not sought from local people. Oxitec is a spin-out company from Oxford University and the trials were funded by the Wellcome Trust: neither body appears to have required any ethical oversight before using Grand Cayman for the trials.

GeneWatch UK's Director, Dr Helen Wallace, said: "The British scientific establishment is acting like the last bastion of colonialism, using an Overseas Territory as a private lab. There is no excuse for funding trials without public consultation or ethical oversight to help out a spin-out company that is heavily in debt".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12732
GeneWatch report at:
http://www.genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Oxitecbrief_fin.pdf

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MEDICAL BIOTECH
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+ THE GREAT DNA DATA DEFICIT: ARE GENES FOR DISEASE A MIRAGE?
The "genes for disease" that were confidently expected by medical geneticists to explain common disorders cannot be found, despite the huge amounts of money that have been poured into research, says an article by Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson that's well worth reading in full. The article notes that the media often gives little attention to even strong environmental links to disease, while speculative genetic associations can be front page news.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12720

+ CANCER IS A MAN-MADE DISEASE - RESEARCH
Cancer is a modern man-made disease, caused by environmental pollution and lifestyle factors, shows research. In other words, genetics are not much of a factor, except insofar as environmental factors can damage people's genetic material. This is not the first research to show this, but at least it's made headlines.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1320507/Cancer-purely-man-say-scientists-finding-trace-disease-Egyptian-mummies.html

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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
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+ U.S.: "BUSINESS AS USUAL" WINS OVER PRECAUTION ON SYNBIO
A report on synthetic biology by the US president's bioethics commission concludes that no new regulations are needed for the field, which aims to create novel organisms with techniques that manipulate and synthesize DNA sequences. A letter signed by 58 public interest organizations from 22 countries - including the Center for Genetics and Society - characterizes the recommendations as "deeply flawed." A press release from Friends of the Earth, International Center for Technology Assessment and ETC Group expressed disappointment that "'business as usual' has won out over precaution in the commission's report." FoE's biotechnology policy campaigner Eric Hoffman put it bluntly: "Self-regulation equates to no regulation."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12738