GMWatch News Review archive

GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 91

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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CONTENTS  
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LATEST NEWS:
* RESISTANCE
* GM ANIMALS
* GM/ROUNDUP RISKS LATEST
* LOBBYWATCH
* RESEARCH
* CLONING
* CONTAMINATION
* VIDEOS

REST OF THE MONTH'S NEW IN BRIEF:
* U.S. GM APPROVALS
* GM FAILURES
* VIDEO OF THE MONTH
* LOBBYWATCH
* RESISTANCE
* CORPORATE CRIMES
* TAKE ACTION
* SUSTAINABLE FARMING

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LATEST NEWS
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RESISTANCE
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+ PREMIER OF AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST WHEAT STATE BINS GM WHEAT
Western Australia premier Colin Barnett has rejected the commercialisation of GM wheat in WA, Australia's largest wheat producing state, due to export market rejection, particularly by Japan. However, a proposed trial of GM wheat and barley is due to begin this year in Western Australia. There are fears it could contaminate non-GM crops and impact export markets.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13006

+ INDIA'S FARMERS NARRATE BITTER BT COTTON TALES AT JUDGES' ROUND TABLE
Eleven farmers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu explained the havoc wrought by Bt cotton on their farms to a round table on GM, presided over by a panel of senior judges. The farmers said Bt cotton had not given them economic benefits. They added that they had become poorer, their soils had become more toxic, and animals grazing on Bt cotton stalks had either died, or become sick.

The panel of judges concluded:
*Bt cotton seeds were found to be good for an initial boost in production for one or two years, after which there was consistent failure.
*Farmers were duped without adequate information on the identity and quality of cotton seeds.
*Large crop losses were noticed and pest attacks increased wherever there was BT cotton crop in the neighbourhood.
*Adverse health conditions were noticed in farmers including severe skin irritations and diseases.
*There was a rise in the mortality and infertility rates in cattle.

P. V. Satheesh commented:
"It is interesting to know that even in their guarded expression [they are not supposed to express judicial opinions outside of a formal court room] the judges were seething with anger at the kind of inhuman penalties proposed by the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India [BRAI], a bill in front of the Indian Parliament [which would impose draconian penalties such as imprisonment on critics of GM crops].

"Their expression which they called 'observation' could not be more to the point: 'such legislation should necessarily be within the format of the fundamental rights of the citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution; since otherwise it would be a piece of law in conflict with the Constitution and hence void and inoperative'."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13013
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13007

+ PROTESTS MOUNT IN U.S. OVER GM FOODS
Americans have staged protests in many cities throughout the US against GM foods. As the movement for labeling GM foods gathers pace in the US, demonstrators also held protest rallies in Washington outside the White House. Protesters say there is compelling evidence that GMOs are not safe and labeling foods as organic does not guarantee that they are GM-free. The US may soon be the only country in the world that does not require labeling of GM food.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13008
U.S. Action Alert: Contact your Senators and Representative and encourage them to support legislation requiring mandatory labeling of GM foods:
http://bit.ly/ek1npy

+ U.S. SEED SELLERS SUE MONSANTO
On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses and organic agricultural organizations, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) has filed suit against Monsanto to challenge its patents on GM seed. The organic plaintiffs were forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement should they ever become contaminated by Monsanto's GM seed, something Monsanto has done to others in the past.  
 
"This case asks whether Monsanto has the right to sue organic farmers for patent infringement if Monsanto's transgenic seed should land on their property," said Dan Ravicher, PUBPAT's Executive Director and Lecturer of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. "It seems quite perverse that an organic farmer contaminated by transgenic seed could be accused of patent infringement, but Monsanto has made such accusations before and is notorious for having sued hundreds of farmers for patent infringement, so we had to act to protect the interests of our clients."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13017

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GM ANIMALS
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+ MAJOR CANADIAN FOOD PROCESSOR SAYS NO TO ENVIROPIG
A Quebec pork processor assured environmental groups that it won't use the GM Enviropig even if it's eventually approved by Health Canada.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13003

+ GM COWS PRODUCE HUMAN BREAST MILK
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said the organisation was "extremely concerned" about how the GM cows had been produced. Helen Wallace, director of biotechnology monitoring group GeneWatch UK, said: "We have major concerns about this research to genetically modify cows with human genes. There are major welfare issues with genetically modified animals as you get high numbers of still births. There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe from humans and it is really hard to tell that unless you do large clinical trials like you would a drug, so there will be uncertainty about whether it could be harmful to some people. Ethically there are issues about mass producing animals in this way."
http://bit.ly/gPs7oK

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GM/ROUNDUP RISKS LATEST
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+ HUBER UPDATE
After weeks of silence about the Dr Don Huber letter to the USDA that exposed troubling preliminary research about Roundup/glyphosate, an update has been published on author Steve McFadden's blog. It seems Huber's letter was NOT intended to go public, but was leaked. When it was leaked, Huber was unavailable for answering questions or interviews with the media due to a heavy travel schedule. It looks as if he'll now be more available and outspoken.

Huber reported on what he described as a newly discovered pathogen that Huber said is new to science. This pathogen apparently increases in soil treated with glyphosate, he said, and is then taken up by plants, later transmitted to animals via their feed, and onward to human beings by the plants and meat they consume. The pathogen is extraordinarily small. It can be observed only via an electron microscope operating at 38,000 power of magnification. It has yet to be phenotyped or named, though that work is almost complete and will be announced in a matter of weeks.

GM feed grown on glyphosate-treated fields irritates the stomach of livestock, such that many farm animals are fed daily rations of bicarbonate of soda in an attempt to soothe their stomach lining. Huber showed a slide bearing images of dissected hog stomachs - one from a hog fed GMO feed and the other conventional feed. The GMO hog had a rudely inflamed mass of stomach and intestinal tissue.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13021

+ HUBER WRITES TO EU AND U.S. ADMINISTRATIONS WARNING AGAINST MORE ROUNDUP READY APPROVALS
Huber has written to the EU and US administrations warning them not to approve/release any more GM Roundup Ready crops until science has established the significance of the new pathogen. Huber wrote:

"Based on the scientific evidence currently accumulating, I do not believe it is in the best interests of the agricultural producer or consuming public for regulatory agencies to approve more GMO crops, particularly Roundup Ready alfalfa and sugar beets, until independent research can establish their productivity when predisposed to potentially severe diseases, the irrelevance of the new [micro-]organism, and their nutritional equivalency."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13024

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ INDIA: BBC COLLABORATES WITH DUPONT
BBC World News is producing a panel discussion entitled "Feeding India: What will it take? (A Global Collaboratory on Food)". Disturbingly, this BBC event is being "supported" by the GM/chemical giant DuPont. Even more disturbing is the BBC/DuPont panel. It is 100% pro-GM, with 2 of the five panelists directly representing the GM/agrochemical corporations. The event is taking place on the evening of 7 April at Hotel Taj Mahal, New Delhi. The BBC says it is in front of an invited audience and is not for broadcast.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13023

+ EUROPE: GM LOBBY HIJACKS EU SUSTAINABLE FARMING REPORT MEP WITHDRAWS HIS NAME
In view of the upcoming review of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU Parliament's Agriculture committee took the initatiative to come forward with a report regarding the long-standing problem of the EU's reliance on imported soy for animal feed.

Europe's reliance on feed imports, including soy, is causing huge problems both here and overseas. Soy monocultures in South America lead to land conflicts, deforestation and massive pesticide use.

Green MEP Martin Hausling, who produced the report, called for an overhaul of existing trade agreements such as the 1992 Blair House Agreement between the US and the EU, which forced the EU to end support for growing its own oilseed crops. This opened up a huge import market for soy. Hausling's report also urged moves to improve Europe's food sovereignty by shifting to locally produced feed.

However, the biotech industry and pro-GM allies in the Parliament found a way to obstruct the original intention of the report. They managed to convince some MEPs to introduce the issue of low-level presence of non-authorised, currently illegal, GMOs in animal feed.

This was an irrelevant addition as the issue was already dealt with in other Parliamentary business. Lobby groups pushing for the abandonment of the EU zero tolerance policy in the past include EuropaBio, animal feed association FEFAC and COCERAL, and companies like Cargill, ADM, Bunge and Nidera.

Adding the GM issue dramatically changed the report and meant that no MEP who took a critical stance on GMOs could support it. As a result, Hausling withdrew his name from the report.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13020

+ LET'S HEAR IT FOR SCEPTICISM
Government Chief Scientific Adviser John Beddington has attacked people's scepticism about scientific pronouncements on climate change and GM foods. But Prof Andy Stirling disagrees: "The alarming contradiction here is that organised, reasoned, scepticism ”” accepting rational argument from any quarter without favour for social status, cultural affiliations  or institutional prestige ”” is arguably the most precious and fundamental quality that science itself has (imperfectly) to offer. Without this enlightening aspiration, history shows how society is otherwise all-too-easily shackled by the doctrinal intolerance, intellectual blinkers and authoritarian suppression of criticism so familiar in religious, political, cultural and media institutions."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13005

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RESEARCH
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+ STUDIES SHOW ANIMALS FED ON GM DIET FACE PROBLEMS
A new report by Gilles-Eric Seralini and colleagues reviewing 19 studies of mammals fed with commercialized GM soybean and maize appears to indicate liver and kidney problems in the mammals fed on the GM diet.

The report is published in Environmental Sciences Europe. The authors studied raw data of 90-day-long rat tests that include biochemical blood and urine parameters of mammals eating GMOs modified for pest resistance. The tests were conducted as a result of court actions or official requests and the authors reviewed the studies in the light of up to date scientific knowledge.

Though the tests may not point to chronic toxicity of GMOs the authors nonetheless cautioned that the signs highlighted in the kidneys and livers could spell the onset of chronic diseases and suggested that more detailed and prolonged studies be conducted. The authors stated that no minimum length for the tests is yet obligatory by European law for any GMOs cultivated on a large scale.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13026

+ NEW RISK ASSESSMENT NEEDED FOR GM CROPS
A study by Hartmut Meyer published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe explains why existing risk assessment for GM crops in the EU is inadequate to protect health and the environment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12994

+ MOST STUDIES SHOWING GM SAFE ARE FROM INDUSTRY
Most of the studies demonstrating that GM foods are as nutritional and safe as those obtained by conventional breeding have been performed by biotechnology companies or associates, which are also responsible for commercializing these GM plants, a new review of the scientific literature has found. The authors noted, "Especially critical is the recent review by Dona and Arvanitoyannis (2009), who remarked that results of most studies with GM foods would indicate that they may cause some common toxic effects such as hepatic, pancreatic, renal, or reproductive effects, and might alter the hematological, biochemical, and immunologic parameters."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13012

+ ROUNDUP AND BIRTH DEFECTS: CARRASCO VS MONSANTO
Last year Prof Andres Carrasco published research that found that glyphosate and Roundup cause birth defects in frog and chicken embryos at extremely low doses. Monsanto/Dow have now replied to Carrasco's research in a letter to the editor of the same journal that published Carrasco's original study. The Monsanto/Dow authors say that Roundup is completely safe and doesn't cause birth defects - citing research from industry and reviews of that same research. The Monsanto/Dow letter is published in the journal back-to-back with Carrasco's response. The exchange makes clear the enormous divide that has opened up between independent science (which finds risks from agrochemicals and GM foods) and industry 'science' (which doesn't). Read the two letters and see who you'd rather believe.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13001

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CLONING
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+ UK AND EU COMMISSION BETRAY EUROPE OVER CLONE PRODUCT CONTROLS
A campaign to put controls on cloned meat and milk has been killed off by the UK Government and Brussels. The move signals the start of a free-for-all in 'Frankenfood' despite claims the technology is cruel and unethical. Shoppers will be left in the dark because products from the offspring of cloned animals will not require special labels. One MEP warned supermarkets could soon be flooded with their milk.

Caroline Spelman, Conservative food and farming secretary and former biotech lobbyist, led the moves in Brussels to sabotage attempts to regulate or label food from clones and their descendants. Commission officials joined her in arguing that such controls could provoke a trade war with the US.

Most MEPs, on the other hand, called for a complete ban or, failing that, clear labelling. However, the labelling compromise was rejected by the Commission, the UK Government and Conservative MEPs. The failure to reach any agreement leaves the 27 EU states without meaningful controls on clone farming and food.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13022

+ WE WON'T SELL CLONE MEAT SAY UK SUPERMARKETS
UK supermarkets have pledged not to sell cloned meat and milk due to consumer hostility. But as a spokesman for the Co-Op pointed out, without labelling or testing systems that will detect the products of clones, supermarkets are reliant on the honesty of their suppliers to enable them to avoid stocking them.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13025
For more on cloning, why it should be banned, and how, if you're in the UK, you can let your MP know what you think of Caroline Spelman:    
http://bit.ly/cvrvGo

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CONTAMINATION
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+ FLOODS SPREAD GM SEED
An Australian farmer whoswe fields have been infested GM canola (oilseed rape), washed down by the December floods, says the spread of large chunks of GM seed highlights the inadequacy of Australia's co-existence policy. "I have not grown GM, and have no intention of doing so, with the mounting evidence that there are financial benefits to growing non-GM. Inevitably there will be more and more contamination and we could face the situation where Monsanto owns Australia's canola crop."
http://bit.ly/eKCHwc

+ U.S.: RICELAND AWARDED USD 136.8 MILLION IN GM CONTAMINATION SUIT AGAINST BAYER
An Arkansas jury has awarded Riceland Foods Inc. $136.8 million in its lawsuit against Bayer CropScience over GM rice. The award is believed to be the largest in Arkansas history. The circuit court jury said Bayer owed Riceland $11.8 million in compensatory damages and $125 million in punitive damages.

A Riceland spokesman, Bill J. Reed, said: "We are pleased that the jury's award recognizes the tremendous harm caused to Riceland and the entire rice industry when Bayer contaminated the US rice supply with its Liberty Link rice. Riceland feels vindicated that the jury also found that Bayer was solely responsible for the farmers' damages resulting from the loss of the European Union market."

Although the EU in June lifted its testing requirements for US rice, other suppliers have moved into the European market and supplanted American farmers, according to advocates of US rice farmers.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12991

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VIDEOS
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+ EFFECTS OF GM POTATOES ON RATS
Dr Arpad Pusztai discusses his research on the effects of feeding GM potatoes to rats. He was sacked for telling the truth about his results to the general public.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/28-gm-food-safety/13027

+ WHAT'S BEHIND THE "RESPONSIBLE" SOY LABEL? DETECTIVE PIG FINDS OUT
What's behind the "responsible" soy label? Detective Pig finds out... The soy industry is not what it seems. Soy production in South America means deforestation and pesticide poisonings - just to feed Europe's livestock. Brilliant animation.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/26-gm-in-latin-america/13014

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REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
For those who do not receive GMWatch Reviews
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GM APPROVALS/EXPANSIONS
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+ U.S. LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST GM ALFALFA APPROVAL
Attorneys for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Earthjustice have filed a lawsuit against the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA), arguing that the agency's recent unrestricted deregulation of GM Roundup Ready alfalfa was unlawful. This is the second case challenging the legality of USDA's handling of GM alfalfa. In 2007, in another case brought by CFS, a federal court ruled that the USDA's approval of the GM crop violated environmental laws by failing to analyze risks such as the contamination of conventional and organic alfalfa, the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, and increased use of Roundup.  
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12989

+ U.S. MAIN FORCE BEHIND KENYA'S BIOSAFETY ACT
The US was the main force behind the speedy enactment of the Biosafety Bill that allowed the introduction of GM crops and products into Kenya, a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks has revealed.

GMWatch comment: The African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum, whose conference platform for Monsanto and other US backed speakers is credited with galvanising support for the Biosafety Bill in Kenya, was spun off as a Kenyan GM front group by ISAAA. ISAAA is a US-centered, GM promotion and "technology transfer" agency funded by Bayer, Cargill, Dow, Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta, in addition to foundations and Western governmental funding agencies, including USAID. ISAAA's Board of Directors has contained leading biotech industry execs from firms such as Monsanto and Syngenta.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12961

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GM FAILURES
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+ "GREAT LEAP FORWARD" FOR GM FARMING - 2,4-D AND DICAMBA-TOLERANT CROPS
GM giants Dow, BASF and Monsanto have come up with their answer to glyphosate-resistant weeds - crops tolerant to the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba.
GMWatch comment: Dow's 2,4-D-tolerant crops will enable massive use of 2,4-D herbicide. 2,4-D was an ingredient of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed on Vietnam by the US in the 1960s and 70s. Dow's latest crops are touted in a press report as "a great leap forward in farming productivity". More like a great leap back into the dark ages. Independent scientific studies link 2,4-D with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a type of cancer; reproductive damage in humans; birth defects; and neurotoxicity. Studies link dicamba exposure with increased incidence of lung and colon cancer. It is a developmental toxin that is suspected of causing birth defects in humans.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12974

+ DECLINE AND DEATH OF GM WITH NO-TILL FARMING
A long but interesting article has appeared in Ag Journal on the decline of GM herbicide-tolerant crop/no-till farming in the US. It's worth reading to the end to see that experts are recommending returning to farming methods that many of us will recognize as agroecological/organic. Weed scientist Neil Harker is quoted as saying, "We've been given the idea that weed control is a dead simple solution: just picking the right herbicide. It has nothing to do with herbicide, it's all about good agronomics."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12979

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VIDEO OF THE MONTH
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+ "BENEFITS" OF GM CORN: YOUR SOWS BECOME INFERTILE AND YOU GO BANKRUPT
Jerry Rosman, a pig farmer in Iowa, was cultivating GM corn (Roundup Ready and Bt), which he fed to his pigs. Result: his sows became infertile, and then after one year he went bankrupt. This confirms a study by the Austrian government showing that feeding mice exclusively on GM corn caused infertility.
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-videosb/22-gm-and-agriculture/12983

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ EU URGED TO CARRY OUT "COMPLETE OVERHAUL" OF FOOD SAFETY AGENCY
Transparency campaigners have called for a "complete overhaul" of the rules governing the European food safety authority (EFSA). The demand follows revelations that four members of EFSA's management board have direct links to the food industry, causing a potential conflict of interest. The lobby watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has written to EU health and consumer commissioner John Dalli urging him to investigate. Piet Vanthemsche has financial interests in the GM seed industry. Milan Kovic has links to the food/biotech/chemical industry lobby group, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). CEO research coordinator Olivier Hoedeman said, "EFSA's independence cannot be guaranteed if members of its management board are employed by private companies or lobby groups with a vested interest in influencing EU food regulation."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12984
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Milan_Kov%C3%A1%C4%8D

+ BLACK OPS AGAINST GM CRITICS AND OTHERS
Greenpeace is suing people connected with a now defunct private security firm, Beckett Brown International (BBI), for conducting illegal black ops against it and other activist organisations. BBI targets included GM critics, the Centre for Food Safety and GE Food Alert, and various scientists and individuals. BBI sent its reports to clients such as Wal-Mart, Halliburton, the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group and Monsanto. Other defendants in the lawsuit are two public relations firms, Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum, and chemical giants Dow Chemical and Sasol America. Greenpeace accuses the defendants of "clandestine and unlawful activities", claiming they stole confidential documents, conducted illicit surveillance - sometimes using off-duty policemen - and "in all likelihood" broke into Greenpeace offices and other locations between 1998-2000. It cites at least 200 illegal actions in this period.
http://gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12940

+ WHY GM WATCH ARE "A BUNCH OF MURDERING BASTARDS"
According to corporate consultant Patrick Moore, GMWatch are "low-life" "murdering creeps", "profiteering on ignorance"; not to mention "a bunch of murdering bastards" with an "anti-human, murderous agenda". How come? Find out more here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12932

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RESISTANCE
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+ ARGENTINE COURT UPHOLDS BAN ON ROUNDUP/AGROCHEM SPRAYING
In Argentina, a new court ruling has upheld a 2010 ban on the spraying of glyphosate and other pesticides near homes in Chaco province. While the case concerns rice crops, the ruling will also apply to GM soy. Pesticides named in the case include glyphosate (Roundup), endosulfan, methamidophos, chlopyrifos, and picloram. The court banned spraying with chemicals within 1000 meters of housing if the method is terrestrial and 2000 meters if aerial. The court re-asserted the precautionary principle and stressed that priority should be given to public health over agricultural production.

GMWatch comment: While we know this victory is a partial one, we think it's an important step towards getting glyphosate and other dangerous pesticides banned.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12985

+ INDIA: MINISTERS BACK OPPOSITION TO SEED BILL
A section of Congress is set to back the demand of chief ministers of BJP and other Opposition-ruled states to reject the Seeds Bill, 2010, in its present form. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, spearheading the campaign against the bill, has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the bill, whose avowed purpose is to facilitate production and supply of seeds of quality, will put the peasantry at the "mercy of agri-businesses."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12973

+ 96% WANT GM LABELED
In a poll conducted by US news station MSNBC, 96% of respondents voted strongly in favor of labeling GM foods.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12942

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ INDIA: MPs BRIBED TO SUPPORT INDO-U.S. DEAL ON NUCLEAR, BIOTECH TOO?
Five days before the Manmohan Singh government faced a crucial vote of confidence on the US-India Knowledge Initiative in 2008, a political aide to Congress leader Satish Sharma showed a US Embassy employee "two chests containing cash" he said was part of a bigger fund of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore that the party had assembled to purchase the support of MPs. Manmohan Singh and George Bush announced the US-India Knowledge Initiative in 2005. The agreement was ostensibly aimed at ushering in a second Green Revolution in India, but what it brought into the frame was the overwhelming presence of American corporations: giant traders, seed companies and retailers. The ultimate goal, critics of the initiative warned, is to spread farm biotechnology and tighten the grip of intellectual property rights over Indian agriculture. Monsanto, Wal-Mart and ADM are on the board of the US-India Knowledge Initiative.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12976

+ USDA REGULATORS WORKED WITH MONSANTO TO DEREGULATE GM ALFALFA
An article for Truthout exposes the scandalous way in which GM alfalfa was deregulated in the US. In a string of emails between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto, federal regulators and Monsanto employees shared edits to a list of the USDA's questions about Monsanto's petition to fully legalize the alfalfa. Later emails show a USDA regulator, Dr Virgil Meier, accepted Monsanto's help with drafting the initial environmental assessment (EA) of the alfalfa and planned to "cut and paste" parts of Monsanto's revised petition right into the government's assessment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12939
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12944
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Virgil_Meier

+ U.S.: BAYER IN COURT: "WE DON'T KNOW HOW" GM RICE CONTAMINATION HAPPENED
In a US court case brought against Bayer, the company responsible for contaminating the US rice supply with unapproved GM rice, Bayer executive Scott Johnson has admitted he has no idea how the worst catastrophe in the history of the rice industry occurred: "It happened, but we don't know how." Oh, and an eminent professor who's a GM expert, and the USDA, don't know, either.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12933

+ SOUTH AFRICA "DUMPING" MAIZE ON AFRICA
South Africa has dumped GM maize on African markets, the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) alleged. "In the last four months, South Africa has dumped almost 300 000 metric tons of GM maize on to Kenya, Mozambique and Swaziland," it said in a statement.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12934

+ BT MAIZE AND BEE COLONY COLLAPSE
Interview with bee researcher Prof Dr Hans-Hinrich Kaatz of the University of Halle-Wittenberg:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/11621

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TAKE ACTION
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+ EUROPE: TELL SUPERMARKETS "RESPONSIBLE" SOY LABEL IS MISLEADING
Tell supermarkets not to mislead their consumers by committing "label fraud" - sign the petition here and help discredit the new label for "responsible" soy, due to be launched by the Round Table on Responsible Soy this spring. There are separate actions for Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain.
The petition can be found at the following links:
English: http://www.toxicsoy.org/toxicsoy/Action/action.html
German: http://www.regenwald.org/mailalert/681/verantwortungsbewusste-soja-ein-fall-von-verbrauchertauschung
French: http://www.sauvonslaforet.org/mailalert/682/soja-responsable-duperie-pour-les-consommateurs%C2%A0%C2%A0
Spanish: http://www.salvalaselva.org/mailalert/678/soja-responsable-confundiendo-a-los-consumidores
Dutch: http://www.gifsoja.nl/Gifsoja/Actie/actie.html
More information on the RTRS "responsible" soy claim:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12948
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12975

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SUSTAINABLE FARMING
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+ SAVE CLIMATE AND DOUBLE FOOD PRODUCTION WITH ECO-FARMING
Eco-farming could double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change, according to a new UN report. An urgent transformation to "eco-farming" is the only way to end hunger and face the challenges of climate change and rural poverty, said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, following the presentation of his annual report focusing on agroecology and the right to food to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Agroecology mimics nature not industrial processes. It replaces the external inputs like fertiliser with knowledge of how a combination of plants, trees and animals can enhance productivity of the land," De Schutter said. "Yields went up 214 percent in 44 projects in 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa using agro-ecological farming techniques over a period of 3 to 10 years... far more than any GM crop has ever done."

Other recent scientific assessments have shown that small farmers in 57 countries using agroecological techniques obtained average yield increases of 80 percent. Africans' average increases were 116 percent. "Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agro-ecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilisers in boosting food production in regions where the hungry live," De Schutter said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12951
The report is here:
http://bit.ly/eU98iY