GMWatch News Review archive

GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 89

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:
* GM EXPANSIONS/APPLICATIONS
* LOBBYWATCH - THE FORESIGHT REPORT
* OTHER LOBBYWATCH STORIES
* FOOD SAFETY
* ROUNDUP
* CONTAMINATION
* RESISTANCE
* CORPORATE CRIMES
* SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
* BIOFUELS
* CLIMATE

REST OF THE MONTH'S NEW IN BRIEF:
* FOOD SAFETY
* LOBBYWATCH
* RESISTANCE

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LATEST NEWS
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GM EXPANSIONS/APPLICATIONS
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+ U.S.: VILSACK GREENLIGHTS MONSANTO'S GM ALFALFA
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that it will once again allow unlimited, nationwide commercial planting of Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its Environmental Impact Statement. Ag secretary Vilsack reiterated the concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GM seed, yet the Agency's decision places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GM farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.

"We're disappointed with USDA's decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice" said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. "USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment."

The decision marks a sharp reversal: Vilsack had hinted strongly that he would place geographic restrictions on the growing of GM alfalfa, to protect organic alfalfa growers from the threat of GM contamination. He even floated a fancy name for the policy: "coexistence". Even such a relatively mild restrictive policy would have broken with the longstanding USDA practice of giving GMOs a free pass.

Tom Philpott of Grist commented that Vilsack's announcement marks a USDA cave-in to the biotech industry's demands, and yet more evidence that Obama wants to be seen as a friend to powerful business interests - at the expense of smaller, less powerful interests like organic alfalfa and dairy growers, and, in this case, of the public interest.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12833

+ GM CROPS TO BE PLANTED IN UK AGAIN THIS YEAR
According to The Telegraph, a new wave of GM crops are to be planted in the British countryside this year as the Government increases its support for the technology. Leeds University is to apply for a licence for a new field trial of GM potatoes. And the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) want to plant GM crops on a demonstration farm as part of a new drive to boost public understanding of the latest developments in plant breeding.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12807

+ TURF SECTOR WANTS SOFTER RULES ON GM GRASS SEED
http://bit.ly/igUn4m

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LOBBYWATCH - THE FORESIGHT REPORT
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+ UK GOVT FORESIGHT REPORT - PUSHING FAILED SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURE AND GM
In 2008, we had 400 leading experts and 57 governments authoring and signing up to the IAASTD report, which found that the future of food production was in agroecological farming and that GM crops had little, if anything, to offer in solving world hunger. Response from GM company Syngenta, one of the IAASTD stakeholders: walked out of the process. Response from US government: refused to sign the report. Response from UK government: had to sign the report because they'd helped organise it, but met its release with resounding silence.

Now, in 2011, we have the 2011 Foresight Report, produced by the UK government's Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills (headed by former biotech lobbyist Caroline Spelman) and authored by, er, 400 leading experts from 35 countries. The report advocates an intensification of the existing failed agribiz system. It carefully leaves the door open to GM and other high-tech "solutions" to world hunger, while also putting in some faint praise for agroecology/organics.

The UK media, presumably as result of press campaign by UK government department, published a slew of articles using Foresight and GM-friendly soundbites from chief scientist Sir John Beddington to tout GM as a solution to world hunger. Beddington quoted as saying, "It is very hard to see how it would be remotely sensible to justify not using new technologies such as GM. Just look at the problems that the world faces: water shortages and salination of existing water supplies, for example. GM crops should be able to deal with that."

Pesticide Action Network North America's Marcia Ishii-Eiteman replied to Beddington in her blog: "'Should?' Is that the best you can do, Sir John? In reality, after 25 years of research, no drought or salt-tolerant crops have yet been commercially developed, while yield declines, surging herbicide use, resistant superweeds, and a host of environmental - not to mention social - harms have been documented where GE crops have been planted. In contrast, ecologically resilient agroecological farming systems are known to perform well under the stressed conditions increasingly associated with climate change and water scarcity. For a scientist, Beddington does a remarkable job of ignoring the science."

Ishii-Eiteman wondered whose report this actually was:

"I asked a few of my colleagues who are listed as among the report's '400 authors and contributors' what happened. They all indicated that they had had no say in the actual writing of this report. As one scientist - whose name is listed in the report - put it: 'I was invited by email to write a review to be published elsewhere. I didn't participate in any meetings, discussions, findings, or report writing. I hadn't even been alerted to the fact that a report had been issued. It isn't at all clear to me how the listed "stakeholders" actually participated in the process. The issue of GM crops never came up in anything I saw, and it doesn't even seem to feature strongly in the report. [The] conclusion that Beddington is just using the report to promote GM crops seems about right.'

Ishii-Eiteman added: "That's how they treated eminent scientists. What about farmers, workers and Indigenous communities? They are simply and entirely absent from this report."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12838
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12832

+ OTHER RESPONSES TO FORESIGHT (paraphrased - please check original articles for actual quotes)
***Devinder Sharma, Indian journalist and trade policy analyst: The Foresight report is limited in vision and anti-poor. The world already produces enough food for 11.5 billion people. Beddington and the government call for radical change but they really want to intensify existing policies. This is just a very clever camouflage for policies which have failed the poor around the world. The only objective of this report seems to be to oppose the findings of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Scientific and Technology for Development (IAASTD).
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12821

***GM Freeze: Foresight should pay more attention to the skills and knowledge of farmers around the world, including their ability to build soil fertility and increase crop yield using locally available natural resources. The report is too timid in its approach - what's needed is a big investment in developing the agroecological approaches to food production already practiced by millions of farmers around the world to feed their local populations while protecting the environment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12821

***Olivier de Schutter, UN special rapporteur for the right to food: Hunger is a political question, not just a technical one. Since the early 1990s, the food bills of many poor countries have been multiplied by five or six, the result not only of population growth, but also of a lack of investment in agriculture that feeds local communities. The focus on export-led agriculture makes these countries vulnerable to price shocks on international markets as well as to currency exchange volatility. The G20 countries should address food speculation by banks and financiers, stop the "land grab" of farmland in Africa and elsewhere by rich countries and help countries build food reserves and avoid spikes in food prices.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12821

+ FORESIGHT'S KEENEST ALLIES: THE RAELIANS
The Foresight Report's most outspoken defenders are a pro-GM, pro-cloning religious sect called the Raelians, who believe in free love, public nakedness, and the miraculous ability of techno-fixes to save mankind from all its problems. They are led by a former French journalist who now calls himself Rael. Rael claims to be a descendant of extraterrestrials who created human life on Earth through genetic engineering. He said, "Those who claim that GM crops will cause an environmental disaster are like those who tried to prevent cars from replacing horses a century ago on similar grounds. The truth is, if we had stuck with horses, London would now be one meter deep in horsesh*t!"
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12832

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OTHER LOBBYWATCH STORIES
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+ U.S.: BIOTECH INDUSTRY SPENDS OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS TO INFLUENCE CONGRESS
Since 1999, the 50 largest ag and food patent-holding companies and two of the largest biotech and agrochemical trade associations have spent more than USD572 million on campaign contributions and lobbying, according to a new report by Food and Water Watch. The companies and trade associations have hired a bevy of well-connected lobbying shops - including at least 13 former members of Congress and over 300 former congressional and White House staffers - to promote GM food and agricultural products.
http://bit.ly/gYwUl9

+ INDIA: PRO-GM GROUPS MOBILISING OPINION
A pro-GM group is lobbying the Indian government to allow farmers to cultivate GM crops. It's headed by Sharad Joshi, who is described in a press article as a "farm leader". But Joshi doesn't fit most people's idea of a farm leader - his background is in academe as an economics lecturer and as postal services bureaucrat in Switzerland. He has a history of pro-Monsanto agitations.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12824

+ EU: ANIMAL FEED LOBBY TARGETS ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY
A recent draft Commission proposal to change the legislation governing GM foods and feeds has revealed that the Commission is giving in to a long-standing combined demand from the biotech, food and animal feed industry to break down the so-called 'zero-tolerance policy' regarding contamination with non-authorised GM food and feed. This policy means that imported food and feed stuffs are not allowed to contain even the smallest amount of GMOs that have not been approved for sale in the EU. A new report from Corporate Europe Observatory examines evidence from the feed industry which shows how they distorted the facts and exaggerated the impacts as part of their lobby campaign to get rid of zero tolerance.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12834
Download report:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/system/files/files/article/FEFAC_article.pdf

+ MORE GM TRICKERY FROM EFSA
New EFSA Guidance on environmental risk assessment (ERA) is inadequate to assess the risks of GM plants, says a report from Dr Christoph Then of Testbiotech. Among other sleights of hand, EFSA has dumped the discredited term "substantial equivalence" to evaluate the safety of GM plants - but simply replaces it with new terms meaning the same thing - "the concept of comparative assessment" and "the concept of familiarity". Assumptions are made that the GM plant is somehow no different from its non-GM counterpart, without any data being required to back them up.

Dr Brian John comments: "The underlying EFSA strategy is to pretend that since the biology of the traditionally cultivated plants from which GM plants have been derived is well known, it can be assumed that there will be nothing new or Ӭsurprising in the GM varieties - which can therefore be assumed to be safe. That of course is a scam, as well as being intellectually feeble. It is probably also illegal, since the whole thrust of EU legislation on GM plants is that they are biologically DIFFERENT - and indeed the developers of GM plants have to show that their varieties are distinctive, uniform and stable."

For more on Testbiotech report and Brian John's comments in full:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12816

+ UK: SCIENCE UNDER ATTACK? NOT EXACTLY...
The BBC has put out yet another piece of GM propaganda in the shape of the BBC2 Horizon documentary, "Science Under Attack", presented by the new President of the Royal Society, Sir Paul Nurse. The programme recycled the old brainwash to the effect that public opposition to GM was based on an irrational fear and mistrust of science. In the view of this programme, science = GM. In a blog entry, Dr Michael Brooks noted the programme's failure to address the distorting influence on science and the fact that some scientists are "willing to compromise their integrity for money and positions of power". This blind spot is critical to the GM debate and the role that leading Fellows of the Royal Society have played in it.

The programme featured GM scientist Prof. Jonathan Jones, a Fellow of the Royal Society with links to Mendel Biotechnology and    Monsanto, who, according to Dr Brooks, "doesn't understand why people won't accept genetically modified crops. In a Cameron-esque moment, Nurse explains that he met a member of the public once, and they said they 'didn't want genes in their food'. From this he concludes that if people were just better informed about genetics (that is, if they just bloody listened to we scientists), the whole problem would go away."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12822

+ UK: THE GM SCIENCE COMMUNITY IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY
In a superb open letter to Sir Paul Nurse that's worth reading in full, Dr Brian John of GM-Free Cymru says, "I am intrigued by your apparent belief that scientists are always truthful and honest, and that they are all signed up to an unbreakable code of ethics. If only that were  true. In the GM field, as in the field of pharmaceuticals, research is driven above all else by the profit motive, and  corporate funding has largely taken the place of public funding both in the prioritization of research and in the conduct of experiments. In our researches over the past decade, we in GM-Free Cymru have homed in on case after case of poor science, selective or biased science, and fraudulent science. We have exposed many examples of "nutritional equivalence" feeding  trials dressed up as "safety trials" and of scientific conclusions which are at variance with data sets. Further, we have shown that in the great majority of cases scientists themselves have allowed their work to be dis
 torted
and misrepresented, on the basis that the paymaster (be it Monsanto, Syngenta or any other applicant for a GM consent) calls the tune, and that whistleblowers are not tolerated. The conspiracy of connivance and silence that we have uncovered is truly appalling -- and something of which the scientific community should be truly ashamed."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12827

+ UK: WHAT THE GREENS GOT RIGHT
Last November, British television's Channel 4 aired 'What the Green Movement Got Wrong', attacking environmentalism while supporting nuclear power, DDT, GM crops and geoengineering. The diatribe was laced with bias, misrepresentation and outright errors. One of the show's contributors, Adam Werbach, is a former member of Greenpeace International's Board of Directors. Werbach reported that the Channel 4 producers misled him about the content of the documentary, misrepresented his ideas and used his comments to support points of view he opposes. Contributors included Florence Wambugu, lobbyist for Monsanto and DuPont, and Stewart Brand, consultant for ExxonMobil, Cargill, Dow Chemical, General Electric, and Bechtel - a Who's Who of socially predatory and ecologically destructive companies.

Countering the programme, blogger Rex Wyler has written an article, "What the greens got right", which points out, "Historically, ecologists and environmentalists have offered thousands of genuine solutions and critical ideas to help humanity achieve peace and sustainability. The problem is not that ecologists offer no solutions. The problem arises because those solutions are not convenient for those who want to concentrate wealth and political power."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12808

+ GERMANY: ORGANISED IRRESPONSIBILITY OF GM CORPORATIONS - THE PAMPHLET THE GM LOBBY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO READ
Corporate Watch has published Organised Irresponsibility, a pamphlet on GM in Germany. The authors of the pamphlet - about the revolving doors between the GM industry and the German government - were taken to court and the distribution of the pamphlet was banned by the German state (we understand that the ban has since been lifted by a court). Inge Broer, a GM researcher and manager of the organisation FINAB, which arranges GM experiments in Germany, labelled Organised Irresponsibility a "booklet full of fabrications", though the facts in the pamphlet have not been successfully challenged.
Download Organised Irresponsibility from the Corporate Watch website:
http://www.corporatewatch.org/download.php?id=112
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12818

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ BT BRINJAL CAN DAMAGE LIVER, HIT IMMUNITY - STUDY
The consumption of GM brinjal can make you sick. If eaten regularly, it can adversely hit the immune response of the body, cause liver damage and lead to reproductive disorders. This has emerged from toxicity studies done by Mahyco in rats fed on Bt brinjal for up to 90 days, but the company either suppressed these facts or misrepresented them while submitting data to the regulator - the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC).

Based on this data, the GEAC approved the commercial release of Bt brinjal, but the approval was subsequently put on hold by environment minister Jairam Ramesh in February 2010. The moratorium remains in force till now. An analysis of raw research data done by an independent expert has revealed that major health problems arising in test animals were ignored and standard research protocols set by the department of biotechnology (DBT) were not followed.

Mahyco had concluded that there were no health effects of Bt brinjal - which was readily accepted by the regulator. But a close scrutiny of the same data revealed "serious indications that consumption of Bt brinjal can cause inflammation, reproductive disorders and liver damage".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12805

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ROUNDUP
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+ ROUNDUP - THE POISON OF THE PAMPAS: MUST-SEE VIDEO
A video news report by journalist Rolando Grana graphically shows the tragic human consequences of glyphosate spraying of GM soy in Argentina, including babies with birth defects. It contains interviews with Dr Dario Gianfelici, a medical doctor; scientist Prof Andres Carrasco, whose research showed that glyphosate/Roundup causes birth defects in doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying; and the journalist Marie-Monique Robin, who made the film, The World According to Monsanto. This video is in Spanish with English subtitles.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/26-gm-in-latin-america/12580

+ U.S.: EXPENSIVE CHEMICAL ARMORY NEEDED TO MANAGE HERBICIDE-RESISTANT SUPERWEEDS
US farmers are struggling to control glyphosate-resistant superweeds. University of Tennessee Extension weed specialist Larry Steckel says, "Palmer pigweed is so bad in some areas that growers have resorted to hand-weeding at a cost of $50 to $100 per acre. Some cotton fields have been completely abandoned."

Steckel adds he's not too worried about glyphosate resistance anymore - "That horse is out of the barn. My concern now is the long-term viability of [alternative herbicides] Ignite and other tools like PPO inhibitors if we continue to use them at current levels," he says. "Growers have to plan to rotate chemistries and modes of action to keep the weeds confused." He says timing is the biggest hurdle. "We know that Palmer amaranth can grow 2.4" to 2.6" per day and waterhemp 1.5" to 2.1" per day. You have hours ”” not days ”” to get Palmer amaranth and waterhemp under control if glyphosate hasn't done the job," he says.

Steckel says operating loans and cash rents are beginning to reflect the increased cost of weed management and added herbicides. "Conventional soybeans are picking up a bit," he says. "We experienced shortages in some herbicides last year. For the first time, I'm seeing growers back off on acres because they aren't sure they can be timely with herbicide applications."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12820

+ MONSANTO'S ROUNDUP TRIGGERS OVER 40 PLANT DISEASES
Jeffrey Smith has written an excellent article summarising the research on Roundup/glyphosate, which shows it causes or exacerbates over 40 plant diseases. These include Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in GM Roundup Ready soy. Mechanisms for causing disease include:
***The glyphosate molecule grabs vital nutrients and doesn't let them go
***Glyphosate annihilates beneficial soil organisms
***The herbicide can interfere with photosynthesis, reduce water use efficiency, lower lignin, damage and shorten root systems, cause plants to release important sugars, and change soil pH””all of which can negatively affect crop health.
***Glyphosate dramatically promotes disease-causing organisms, which overrun the weakened crops with deadly infections
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12806

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CONTAMINATION
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+ GM CONTAMINATION IN AUSTRALIA "STAGGERING"
Western Australia organic farmer Steve Marsh is suing his neighbour, Michael Baxter, over alleged contamination of his fields with GM canola. The contamination has led to loss of his organic status and therefore a loss of income. Marsh's lawyer, Richard Huston, says the Department of Agriculture and Food has failed to respond adequately to the matter. "If the Minister's aware, and he is, that contaminating material has found its way onto my clients' land...isn't it plausible that it possibly found its way somewhere else? If that's the case, what about the broader environmental implications of doing nothing about it?"

Rob Warburton is a local GM canola grower who visited Marsh's property. He says he was surprised at how extensive the contamination was. "What we saw was the GM canola had actually travelled a very, very long way to get to his property. From the point of view of a farmer, I was sitting in his field and I was quite staggered at how far these seeds had travelled, I'd never really seen anything quite like it.

"I feel a lot of empathy for Steve... he's a small landowner who was obviously having trouble making ends meet conventionally because of the high cost, high risk nature of farming at the moment. He saw a niche, which is organic farming, he's obviously benefiting from it... and you need that premium, without that premium there's no point in being organic."

Commenting on the case, the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia is standing firm on its zero tolerance stance on GM contamination, saying consumers demand it.

TAKE ACTION: Help organic farmer fight Monsanto
Monsanto has stated that it will back the GM farmer responsible for the contamination. Please donate to support Steve Marsh in his fight against Monsanto. You can donate by direct payment to the following bank account:
Bendigo Bank. Account Name: NASAA (WA) Inc GM Contamination Fund. BSB: 633000. Account Number: 141944298
More information: http://www.nasaa-wa.com.au/NASAA_WA/Home.html
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12817
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12825
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12795

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RESISTANCE
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+ COURT VICTORY FOR GM RESEARCHER SERALINI - GM LOBBY GROUP CONVICTED OF DEFAMATION
On 18 January, the Paris court handed down its decision in the trial that pitted Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini, researcher in molecular biology at the University of Caen and Chairman of the Scientific Council CRIIGEN, against the French Association for Plant Biotechnology (AFBV), chaired by Marc Fellous. The court sentenced the AFBV to a fine on probation of 1000 euros, one euro in damages (which had been requested by the plaintiff) and 4000 euros in court costs. Seralini had taken the association and its president to court, accusing them of defaming his research that called into question the safety of Monsanto's GM maize varieties.

Seralini re-analysed 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 results of the findings.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12814
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12813

+ FIFTY-EIGHT CROP DE-CONTAMINATORS ON TRIAL IN FRANCE
On 22 February 2011, fifty-eight GM crop decontaminators will be tried in a court in Paris for criminal damage. This is the third time the activists will be in court. At their first two trials Monsanto's lawyers were unable to establish the exact identity of the GM crops that were neutralized. Neither could the Minister of Agriculture identify the genetic make-up of the plants, nor prove the legality of the 2000 sq metre secret test site located near a cluster of bee hives.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12830

+ INDIA: STOP GM TRIALS IN KARNATAKA!
GM free Karnataka, a coalition of NGOs, has urged the state government to immediately stop three GM maize trials and one GM rice trial being carried out.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12824

+ MEXICO SAYS "NO" TO MONSANTO
The Mexican government has denied Monsanto's request to expand its pilot project to grow GM maize in northern Mexico.  The request was rejected because the government says additional tests and studies need to be carried out to determine the effect of GM maize on native species. Monsanto has appealed against the decision.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12837

+ TAKE ACTION TODAY: SUPPORT LABELLING
The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) and the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFEAGE) have launched a 'Label GM Food: Our Right to Know' campaign, to encourage the South Africa government to provide meaningful labelling for all GM foods. Please sign petition (open to international signatories) **by 31 January** at
http://www.labelgmfoods.co.za/

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ ARGENTINA: GM SOY COMPANY NIDERA REPORTEDLY FINED
More information has emerged on a story we reported on 11 January about Nidera, a Dutch-based agribusiness company that is one of Argentina's major GM Roundup Ready soy seed companies. That report, in the Argentine newspaper Pagina12, said that Nidera is being investigated for tax evasion by the Argentine government and accused the company of slave-like treatment of workers and human rights abuses. Now another report, for Radio Netherlands Worldwide, says that that Nidera has been fined 125,000 euros and that seven company executives were arrested. It added that when Argentinian police raided a Nidera plantation near Buenos Aires, they found 133 seasonal workers living under conditions that Julio Caraballo, health and safety inspector in San Pedro, said resembled "a concentration camp".

Nidera is a member of the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), which is about to launch its "responsible soy" label in Europe. The RTRS - which has been widely condemned as a greenwash initiative by over 200 international civil society groups - is heavily supported by the Dutch government, which has recently given it and a "responsible palm oil" equivalent programme a cash injection of 20 million euros of Dutch taxpayers' money. It seems that they are planning to put in the same amount per year for another five years.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12819
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12779

Nidera denies the allegations against it and denies that it has been fined:
http://www.nidera.com/default.aspx?partId=33&CID=434
http://www.nidera.com/default.aspx?partId=33&CID=435

+ REMEMBER BAYER ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY
January 27 was Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK. It's a good time to remember how Bayer, a chemical and pharmaceutical giant with an appalling record of collusion with Hitler and other crimes against humanity, became a key player in the development, commercialization and sale of GM crops.
Bayer: A History
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12829

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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
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+ POOR COUNTRIES URGED TO GET READY FOR SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
Environmental campaigners are urging developing countries to include the rapidly advancing science of synthetic biology ”” the building of new organisms using genes as biological 'bricks' ”” in their biosafety legislation for GM crops. They are concerned that synthetic biology products based on novel organisms could be developed, and commercialised, before there is regulation and understanding of their environmental and societal impacts.”¨http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12811

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BIOFUELS
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+ THE FUTURE OF ALGAE FUELS IS... WHEN?
A new study from the Rand Corporation, the global policy think tank on military issues, suggests that US Department of Defense is wasting its time exploring alternative fuels. It raised particular questions about the near-term viability of algae-based biofuels, which it said were not likely to be available in the next 10 years. Jim Bartis, the lead author of the study, said tellingly, "The less the you know about a technology, the better it looks."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12836

+ COURT CHALLENGE TO GM EUCALYPTUS TREES
The Sierra Club and other groups have launched a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture to force it do a proper environmental impact study of GM eucalyptus trees developed for biofuel feedstock.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12836

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CLIMATE
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+ BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE EMERGING CLIMATE MARKET
A very useful and wide ranging report prepared for Californians for GE-Free Agriculture (2009)
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~alitonak/Shortchanged%20PDF.pdf 

EXCERPT FROM SUMMARY:
The failure of the first generation of agricultural biotechnology to deliver on its principal promises of higher yields and lower inputs set the industry on a defensive stance in the past decade. Unabated public rejection and key defeats, not least in California, has led to a thorough rebranding and re-packaging of the old transgenic manipulations. The biotechnology industry has found an emergent market for expansion driven by popular concern over Climate Change. 

"Climate Ready Crops" are more likely to be developed by non-transgenic methods. Traditional transgenic techniques do not lend themselves to develop crop varieties tolerant of abiotic stress. Meanwhile, public reluctance to embrace transgenic products does not abate. Both developments make non-transgenic methods such as Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) the primary likely avenue for the development of "Climate Ready Crops."

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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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FOOD SAFETY
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+ BT BRINJAL CONFIRMED TOXIC BY MAHYCO-MONSANTO'S OWN DATA
A new report analysing the raw data of Monsanto subsidiary Mahyco's 14- and 90-day rat feeding studies on Bt brinjal dossier shows serious irregularities in the approvals process. The author of the new report, Dr Lou Gallagher, environmental epidemiologist and risk assessment expert, found that the company's own data indicate that Bt brinjal causes inflammation, reproductive disorders and liver damage. Gallagher's report also shows that the studies are seriously flawed, and wrongly appraised and reported both by Mahyco in its 'dossier' submitted to Government and worse, by India's regulators.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12803

+ KILLER TOMATOES AND 'DISAPPEARED' DEAD RATS
The most detailed safety studies ever done by a GM crop developer were carried out by Calgene in the 1990s. Calgene fed its Flavr Savr GM tomatoes to rats. Out of 20 female rats, 7 developed stomach lesions - bleeding stomachs. Seven of the 40 rats fed the Flavr Savr tomato died within two weeks. The dead rats had eaten the same tomato line as those that developed lesions. In the other groups, fed the other Flavr Savr line, a natural tomato control, or a water control, only one rat died. The Calgene-funded scientists dismissed the cause of death in a footnote as husbandry error, and no additional data or explanation was provided. The dead rats were simply replaced with new ones.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12770

+ NEW BOOK ON HEALTH RISKS OF GM FOODS
A new book by Dr Arpad Pusztai and his wife Dr Susan Bardocz examines the potential health effects of foods derived from GM plants. While the database on GM food safety is woefully inadequate, all the well-designed studies published to date and carried out independently of the GM industry have demonstrated potentially worrisome biological effects of GM foods. However, the complexity of GM foods makes their biological testing difficult. The authors propose a suggested protocol for GM crop/food health risk assessment, which uses comprehensive toxicological/nutritional methods that will also enable examination of the veracity of the claimed benefits of genetic manipulation, and screen for its unintended and potentially harmful consequences for human/animal health.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12793

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ VATICAN MAKES CLEAR IT DOES NOT ENDORSE GM CROP "SLAVERY"
A Vatican cardinal has made clear that news reports claiming the Vatican approves of GM crops are untrue. Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, a Ghanian who heads the Vatican's influential office for justice and peace, said farmers in the developing world shouldn't be dependent on foreign multinationals for their seeds and likened such dependence to a new form of slavery.

The US has lobbied the Vatican for years to persuade it to speak positively about GMOs, calling them a "moral imperative" to feed the world's hungry.

While saying he personally wasn't for or against GMOs, Turkson said the key issue concerned giving farmers access to suitable land that hasn't been eroded by multinational logging or mining companies. "As a result, you wouldn't need any genetic engineering," Turkson told the paper. "In this way, the farmer wouldn't have to buy GMOs from abroad. I ask myself, why force an African farmer to buy seeds produced in other lands and with other means? The doubt arises that behind this is the play of maintaining economic dependence at all cost."

"I'd even say it becomes like a new form of slavery," he added.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12783

+ WIKILEAKS: U.S. TARGETS EU OVER GM CROPS
The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country which opposed GM crops, WikiLeaks cables show. In response to moves by France to ban a Monsanto GM corn variety in late 2007, the ambassador, Craig Stapleton, a friend and business partner of former US president George Bush, asked Washington to penalise the EU and particularly countries which did not support the use of GM crops.

"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits. The list should be measured rather than vicious and must be sustainable over the long term, since we should not expect an early victory. Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," said Stapleton, who with Bush co-owned the St Louis-based Texas Rangers baseball team in the 1990s.

In addition, the cables show US diplomats working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto... It also emerges that Spain and the US have worked closely together to persuade the EU not to strengthen biotechnology laws. The cables show that not only did the Spanish government ask the US to keep pressure on Brussels but that the US knew in advance how Spain would vote, even before the Spanish biotech commission had reported.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12775

+ UK: BEEKEEPERS FUME AT ASSOCIATION'S ENDORSEMENT OF FATAL INSECTICIDES
A report has been published in The Independent about a story that broke last year about how the British Beekeepers' Association (BBKA) sold its logo to four chemical firms for use on insecticide packaging despite the products being fatal to bees. The BBKA is believed to have received about £175,000 in return for selling its logo.

The active ingredient chemicals in the four pesticides the BBKA endorsed are synthetic pyrethroids, which are among the most powerful of modern insect-killers. The deal was struck in secret by the beekeepers' association executive without the knowledge of the overwhelming majority of its members. After news of the deal emerged, some members expressed outrage and others resigned. The BBKA has said it will end these particular pesticide endorsements ”šÄì but has left the door open to future deals with agrochemical companies.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12790
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12674

+ MONSANTO, DUPONT AND OBAMA
US President Obama has taken his team of food and farming leaders directly from the biotech companies and their lobbying, research, and philanthropic arms:
***Michael Taylor, former Monsanto Vice President, is now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods.
***Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, is now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
***Islam Siddiqui, Vice President of the Monsanto and Dupont-funded pesticide-promoting lobbying group, CropLife, is now the Agriculture Negotiator for the US Trade Representative.
***Rajiv Shah, former agricultural development director for the pro-biotech Gates Foundation (a frequent Monsanto partner), served as Obama's USDA Under Secretary for Research Education and Economics and Chief Scientist and is now head of USAID.
***Ramona Romero, corporate counsel to DuPont, has been nominated by President Obama to serve as General Counsel for the USDA.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12799

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RESISTANCE
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+ GM EGGPLANT TRIALS SUSPENDED IN PHILIPPINES
Field trials of GM eggplant (brinjal/aubergine) have been suspended following a dispute at one of the trial sites that led local officials to uproot 3,000 plants. Local authorities uprooted plants because researchers had not fully complied with public consultation requirements.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12800