WEEKLY WATCH number 223
from WEEKLY WATCH editor, Claire Robinson
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Dear all:
Yet another study has been released in the US which shows that organic farming can feed the world without any expansion of land used for growing food (ORGANICS RESEARCH). Contrary to agrochemical and GM industry propaganda, organic yields have been found to range from almost equal to, to above those achieved with conventional farming. And in the developing world the production gains from organic agriculture can be spectacular.
On the other side of the battle, in Victoria, Australia, the push is on by industry and its friends in government and the media to warm up the public to accept the scrapping of the GM moratorium. The scheme includes attempts to smear organic food as dangerous to health, a claim which has repeatedly been exposed as bogus. Playing a prominent part in the anti-organic food scaremongering is a British Lord who is supremely unqualified to give any view on the subject, having no expertise in science, farming, food safety, or consumer affairs. In fact, his only claim to fame is as a pusher of GMOs (AUSTRALASIA).
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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ORGANICS RESEARCH
EUROPE
AFRICA
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
GM ANIMALS
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
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ORGANICS RESEARCH
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+ ORGANIC FARMING CAN FEED THE WORLD - STUDY
Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food on individual farms in developing countries, as low-intensive methods on the same land - according to new findings which refute the long-standing claim that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.
Researchers from the University of Michigan found that in developed countries, yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. In developing countries, food production could double or triple using organic methods, said Ivette Perfecto, professor at U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, and one of the study's principal investigators.
"My hope is that we can finally put a nail in the coffin of the idea that you can't produce enough food through organic agriculture," Perfecto said.
In addition to equal or greater yields, the authors found that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizers, without putting more farmland into production.
Perfecto said the idea that people would go hungry if farming went organic is "ridiculous." "Corporate interest in agriculture and the way agriculture research has been conducted in land grant institutions, with a lot of influence by the chemical companies and pesticide companies as well as fertilizer companies - all have been playing an important role in convincing the public that you need to have these inputs to produce food," she said.
Read the Abstract at:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8107
More research showing how sustainable farming methods can help the poorest farmers in developing nations out of povertyhttp://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7370
+ KILLER QUOTE
"Low-tech 'sustainable agriculture,' shunning chemicals in favour of natural pest control and fertiliser, is pushing up crop yields on poor farms across the world, often by 70 per cent or more... A new science-based revolution is gaining strength built on real research into what works best on the small farms where a billion or more of the world's hungry live and work... It is time for the major agricultural research centres and their funding agencies to join the revolution." - New Scientist http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7370
*MORE RESEARCH ON ORGANIC BENEFITS*
+ ORGANIC FARMING COMBATS GLOBAL WARMING”¦ Big time, according to data from The Rodale Institute's long-running comparison of organic and conventional cropping systems. Converting the U.S.'s corn and soybean acres to organic production would sequester enough carbon to satisfy 73 percent of the Kyoto targets for CO2 reduction in the U.S.
http://www.newfarm.org/depts/NFfield_trials/1003/carbonsequest.shtml
+ IT'S OFFICIAL: ORGANIC REALLY IS BETTER FOR YOU
A 10-year study comparing organic and non-organic tomatoes has found that the organic ones have almost twice the quantity of antioxidants (called flavonoids) that help to prevent high blood pressure, thus reducing the likelihood of heart disease and strokes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2007/07/14/edorganic114.xml
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EUROPE
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+ EUROPE NOT HUNGRY FOR GM POTATOES
EU member states have rejected the latest application to grow GMOs in Europe, as the EU Agriculture Council failed to approve the commercial growing of a GM potato. There have now been no new GMOs grown in the EU for ten years.
Helen Holder of Friends of the Earth Europe said: "Too few EU member states support growing genetically modified crops, and now yet another has been refused authorisation. Now the decision is in the hands of the European Commission and we urge it to reject it too."
The Commission is, however, expected to approve the potato by an undemocratic procedure known as comitology, in line with its pro-GM stance.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8112
+ CYPRUS PARLIAMENT STANDS FIRM ON GM BILL
The Cypriot Parliament has refused to acknowledge a veto by President Tassos Papadopoulos on the stacking of products with GM content on separate supermarket shelves. "We said 'no' to the President," said Green Party leader George Perdikis.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8102
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AFRICA
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+ KOFI ANNAN - GMOs "NOT THE SOLUTION TO FOOD CRISIS IN AFRICA"
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who chairs the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), has ruled out the use of GMOs in the battle against food insecurity and poverty in Africa. "We in the alliance will not incorporate GMOs in our programmes. We shall work with farmers using traditional seeds known to them," he said. Annan said poor pricing of commodities, and not type of seeds, keeps African growers away from their farmlands despite spiralling food insecurity and poverty on the continent. Annan said insufficient infrastructure such as roads, poor storage facilities and weak market structures were to blame for Africa's continued dependence on food aid.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8110
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ASIA
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+ NEW VIDEO ON EFFECTS OF AGENT ORANGE IN VIETNAM
http://www.friction.tv/debate.php?debateno=672
Plus articles and quotes on Monsanto's legacy there
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8113
+ GM-FREE STATUS SOUGHT FOR KERALA
Kerala agriculture minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran has written to the central government minister of agriculture, Sharad Pawar, opposing experimental cultivation of GM crops in Kerala. The minister urged the central government to declare Kerala a GM-free state.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8101
+ INDIA BANS GM RICE IMPORTS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8101
+ DEBT-RIDDEN FARMERS FORCED TO OPT FOR GM COTTON
As the fresh sowing season starts, beleaguered cotton farmers, already steeped in debt, are being forced to opt for expensive Bt cotton. Dealers in Vidarbha say that there is hardly any non-Bt hybrid variety available in the market this year. Scientists at the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) fear disaster if the monsoon fails, as only three-per-cent cotton area in Vidarbha has protected irrigation, which Bt cotton needs, and because Bt cotton is highly capital-intensive.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8109
+ WRIT OVER BT COTTON FARMER SUICIDES
A public interest lawsuit brought in India aims to make the Maharashtra state government recognize the plight of the families of poor farmers compelled to commit suicide by the state's policies. In this context, it also wants the High Court to order a probe into the role of state officers in promoting Bt cotton.
The Nagpur division of the Bombay High Court has already criticized the approach of the state government to the issue. The suicide toll of farmers in the cotton-cultivating western Vidarbha region has passed 1800 in the last two years. Though the writ petition was originally filed back in February 2006, state officials have failed to obey the orders passed by High Court.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8106
+ INDIAN COTTON MEADOWS TURN INTO KILLING FIELDS
An Indian cotton farmer kills himself every eight hours - either unable to overcome grinding poverty or repay his debts, says an article for Bernama.com.
"It's a mass genocide here," said Kishore Tiwari, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, a farmers lobby group, adding that some two million farmers were now in dire need of financial aid because the only cash crop they relied on failed miserably.
The article reports how Bt cotton requires a large amount of investment for irrigation and fertilisers, which are not within the reach of poor farmers. Therefore, says Tiwari, "Yield is low ... Government must restore healthcare, education and create employment opportunities for the masses, and promote organic or natural farming which is cheaper than growing Bt cotton."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8115
+ BT COTTON HAS LOST ITS CHARM IN PUNJAB
Bt cotton, introduced into Punjab as a solution to the American Bollworm problem, has lost its charm for farmers, thanks to mealy bug attacks.
GM Watch comment: Punjab's the Indian state where Bt cotton has been most consistently claimed to have been a big success. Once again, though, any initial reductions in pesticide use are being undermined by growing problems with secondary pests - exactly the pattern pinpointed by research on Bt cotton cultivation in China.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8111
+ SHANTHARAM AND PRAKASH DEFEND BT COTTON
Former Syngenta man Dr Shanthu Shantharam and Monsanto-cypher Dr CS Prakash have published an article proclaiming Bt cotton in India a complete success... apart from the bogus claims of the "anti-GM lobby".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8106
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THE AMERICAS
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+ GM POTATOES EXPELLED FROM ANDES
The government of Cusco, a region in the Peruvian Andes, has banned all GM varieties of potato. The area was the birthplace of many varieties, and is still home to thousands of kinds of potato.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8116
+ RESPONSE TO FDA AND TRADE COMMISSION OVER MONSANTO'S rBGH
This February, Monsanto man Brian Robert Lowry wrote to the US Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission complaining that consumers are being misled by the labeling of dairy companies that refrain from the use of rBGH.
Now Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility has written an excellent and well-referenced letter to the same bodies disputing the accuracy of many of Lowry's statements.
EXTRACT: Mr Lowry claims that there is no difference between rBGH and rBGH-free milk: "Put simply, milk from cows supplemented with rBST is equivalent in all respects to other milk." This is incorrect. As Dr Michael Hansen of Consumers Union pointed out, Monsanto's Posilac adds one amino acid (methionine) to the cow's natural growth hormone molecule. It has been demonstrated that even small differences in this molecular structure can significantly change immunogenic properties. Therefore, rBGH is different than the cow's natural BGH and can be detected by the immune system. ... There are three major problems associated with rBGH, including the most controversial, the suspected links between this drug and human cancer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8118
+ U.S. TO MULL CHANGES TO OVERSIGHT OF GM CROPS
US oversight of GM crops, which critics charge is insufficient, may be overhauled. One change USDA is considering would abandon the existing two-tiered permit system in favour of a multilevel one.
USDA claims the new system would provide more stringent review for plants with which USDA is less familiar, or those that may pose an increased risk, such as plants that produce substances not intended for food use. Those engineered for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance would be less complicated, on the supposed grounds that they have been "safety field tested for more than 20 years"!
Though USDA is spinning the proposed changes to the public as "more stringent", the truth is revealed by former Vice President of industry body BIO L. Val Giddings. Giddings comments that the changes would "bring some benefits" to industry, including "more flexibility for APHIS [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] in dealing with newer developments, such as multi-year permits for plants modified to produce pharmaceutical or industrial compounds".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8104
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GM ANIMALS
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+ GM FISH DESTROYED
Biosecurity New Zealand has seized and destroyed 300 GM tropical fish from a Christchurch property. The fish are thought to have been bred from a consignment of red danio fish, imported from Singapore earlier this year.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8117
+ DRUG FROM GM RABBITS CLOSE TO APPROVAL
A drug developed from the milk of GM rabbits is one step closer to being the second such drug on the market following a European thumbs up of its Dutch facilities.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8117
+ GM VEGETARIAN PIGS DEVELOPED
Researchers from National Taiwan University have developed GM pigs designed to be herbivorous, and to produce "odorless and pollutant-free manure".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8117
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ THOMAS DEICHMANN'S SMOKE AND MIRRORS
In an article from the German press called "Hypochondria resurrected", Thomas Deichmann dismisses concerns over Monsanto's MON863 corn as bogus - "All smoke and mirrors".
That's an accusation that Deichmann is fond of levelling. Prior to his resurrection as a GM expert, Deichmann's principal claim to fame was as a "debunker" of a very different set of "myths". Deichmann's notoriety reached its height with an article on Bosnia he contributed to the magazine LM (formerly Living Marxism), in which he accused journalists of fabricating evidence of imprisonment and atrocities at the Trnopolje camp in Bosnia. As a result of Deichamnn's article, LM was sued out of existence with the court concluding, as did war crimes tribunals at the Hague, that Trnopolje was "a camp where Muslims were undoubtedly imprisoned" and where "many were beaten, tortured, raped and killed by their Serb guards". READ ON AT
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=161
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ AUSTRALIA: VICTORIA TO LIFT GM BAN?
Three years after extending its moratorium on the commercial growing of GM crops, the Victorian government appears poised to remove the ban when it expires in February 2008.
State agriculture minister Joe Helper believes that Victoria is now "open-minded" about GM crops and a "careful and considered approach" will be used to determine the impact of GM crops on the market before a decision is made.
Farmers' groups are split. The National Farmers Federation (NFF) has been lured by promises of increased yields for less expense, but the Network of Concerned Farmers sees an erosion of choice for non-GM farmers, with up to 10% additional costs to cover segregation bills. The United Dairy Farmers of Victoria voted in June to reverse their support for Victoria's ban on commercial GM canola. In response, consumer groups say that they will vote with their feet and choose non-GM soy or organic alternatives if the ban is lifted.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8108
+ GM PUSH VILIFIES ORGANICS
Recent attacks on the organic food industry are about discrediting it to soften up the public to accept GM crops, Dr Maggie Lilith of the Conservation Council of WA and the Say No to GMO campaign said. Some of the attacks emanate from Lord Dick Taverne, a British pro-GM lobbyist with no scientific or other relevant qualifications.
"The spate of recent claims that organic food is riskier and linked to health scares seems to have come from proponents of GM and those with a vested interest", said Lilith. "The claims about the safety of organic foods are unfounded and aim to spread misinformation to the public."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8108
+ FEDERAL BILL THREATENS GM MORATORIUMS
A bill recently pushed through federal parliament has the potential to threaten state moratoriums on GMOs by granting new powers to the federal agriculture minister.
Say No to GMO campaigner Janet Grogan said, "Under the bill's new emergency provisions, the federal agriculture minister could use drought or pest problems to justify the release of GM crops, with no requirement for a safety assessment or approval from the states. The bill also removes the requirement for community consultation when dealings may pose significant risks to the health and safety of people or the environment, and when genetically engineered crops are field-tested."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8108
+ NZ GOVT URGED TO REJECT "DANGEROUS" GM CORN
Two leading scientists are calling for the New Zealand government to reject a new GM corn which they say could be linked to diseases. Prof Garth Cooper of Auckland University and Associate Prof Jack Heinemann of Canterbury University want tougher testing of the corn, LY038, made by Monsanto.
The corn is designed for animal feed, but because of the risk of its accidentally entering the human food chain, it needs approval as a human food before it can be used. Food Standards Australia New Zealand last year recommended approval of the corn, LY038, made by Monsanto, but food safety minister Annette King sought a review. After the review, the agency has again recommended approval, saying food derived from LY038 "is as safe as food derived from other corn varieties".
But the Sustainability Council, chaired by Prof Cooper, and Canterbury University's Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, headed by Dr Heinemann, say the high levels of the amino acid lysine in LY038 make it the first GM corn designed to be substantially different from conventional corn in its nutritional profile.
They comment, "While lysine is an essential amino acid, it is also highly reactive with common sugars and the heat of cooking accelerates the formation of advanced glycation end-products." The latter are implicated in heart disease and kidney failure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8114