GMWatch News Review archive

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Catholic voices from around the world are being raised in protest at the pro-GM bias of the US-Vatican conference in Rome which took place on Friday. There is outrage also at the arrogant assumption on the part of the organizing body, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, that it has a right to speak on behalf of the Church. There is suspicion among Catholic critics that the Academy has been co-opted by biotech interests - and we have the details! (see LOBBYWATCH AT THE VATICAN)

Good news from Europe, where a European Commission attempt to sneak a Monsanto GM maize through the approvals process has been thwarted, for the moment at least (EUROPE). However, the same maize, which has been heavily criticised by scientists from a number of countries, particularly France, after a feeding study on rats showed significantly different levels of white blood cells, kidney weights and kidney structure, as well as lower albumin/globulin rates, has been pushed through the approval process in Australia and New Zealand without the study even being considered (see AUSTRALASIA).

Finally, watch out for the most extraordinary change of mind by a leading GM zealot, Prof Thomas Hoban, who now says that the US has got it wrong on GM and must follow Europe. (see LOBBYWATCH AT LARGE).

Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.lobbywatch.org / www.gmwatch.org

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CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH AT THE VATICAN
LOBBYWATCH AT LARGE
CORPORATE TAKE-OVER OF SCIENCE
CONTAMINATION / PHARMING
EUROPE
FOCUS ON AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
THAILAND LATEST
AUSTRALASIA
DONATIONS

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LOBBYWATCH AT THE VATICAN
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A US-Vatican conference, "Feeding a Hungry World: The Moral Imperative of Biotechnology", took place in Rome on Friday 24 September.

It attracted worldwide condemnation, including from priests, bishops and other leading Catholics, in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the US:

PRIESTS IN ZAMBIA CRITICISE US-VATICAN CONFERENCE
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4371

SOUTH AFRICAN BISHOPS STATEMENT OF CONCERN
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4391

LEADING US CATHOLIC CONDEMNS CONFERENCE AS TOOL OF US
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4359

BISHOP GUTIERREZ OF THE PHILIPPINES LETTER OF CONCERN
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4378

MISSIONARY & AUTHOR, FR SEAN MCDONAGH
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4334

COLUMBAN CENTRE FOR PEACE, ECOLOGY AND JUSTICE (AUSTRALIA)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4323

GENERAL COUNCIL OF MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST COLUMBAN (IRELAND)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4382

+ LOBBYISTS IN THE VATICAN
The conference took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University under the aegis of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences with a line up of speakers who were all to a man known supporters of GM. They included the notorious US-industry lobbyist, CS Prakash.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=106

"It appears that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences," wrote the Executive Director of a leading US Catholic body, The National Catholic Rural Life Conference, "has allowed itself to be subordinated to the United States Government's insistent advocacy of biotechnology and of the companies which market it.

"Why has the Pontifical Academy of Sciences claimed for itself a lead voice? Is it because among its members are leading American advocates, members close to Monsanto, a leading US biotechnology company?"

Among those that Brother David Andrews surely must have had in mind was Peter Raven, a member of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences and one of the speakers at Friday's conference.

+ MONSANTO'S MAN AT THE VATICAN
Peter Raven is the Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden which is based in Monsanto's home town of St. Louis. The Garden and Raven's other projects have received millions of dollars of funding from Monsanto. The company's largesse is reflected in the Garden’s multimillion-dollar research centre - The Monsanto Center and in a nearby plant biotech research institute - in the establishment of which Raven and Monsanto were the chief driving force.

What's in it for Monsanto? An old friend of Raven's, the geneticist Wes Jackson, says of him, "In a certain sense he's a paid traveling salesman for Monsanto." According to Raven himself, "The basic research we do here at the Garden makes us a major resource for the biotechnology industry".

Raven has refused to criticise the company and at one time was actually married to the company's Director of Public Policy, Kate Fish, leading to jokes that even his sex life came corporate-sponsored.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=191

+ CATHOLIC INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ON WHAT'S WRONG WITH GM
Read a superb action leaflet from the Catholic Institute for International Relations - "What's wrong with GM? Why genetically modified crops are bad for people and bad for the environment" produced in response to the sustained industry-US lobbying of the Vatican.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4381

+ SEND A PROTEST LETTER ABOUT THE US-VATICAN CONFERENCE:
Address your concerns politely to:
Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences
Msgr Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Casina Pio IV, 00120 - VATICAN

*For maximum speed, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Or fax: +39-0669885218*

See an example letter from the Safe Food Coalition in South Africa
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4372

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LOBBYWATCH AT LARGE
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+ GM ZEALOT GETS COLD FEET!
According to an article about North Carolina State University professor of sociology Thomas Hoban's "Change of Heart" about GMOs, this former GM enthusiast now thinks GM foods need to be labelled, and, "The FDA practices of voluntary pre-market notification and substantial equivalence are no longer valid. It is time for the US to learn from the EU about regulation." He also says of GM pharma crops, "You probably don't want that stuff in food. You don't want to be the food company identified as having plastic or pig vaccines in your corn flakes."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4387

What makes this so remarkable is that Hoban is listed by CS Prakash's AgBioWorld as one of its expert Media Contacts on GM and his previous publications include such gems as, 'Biotechnology is Here to Stay: American retailers need not worry about consumer acceptance of foods produced with modern biotechnology'.

Hoban is best known for his consumer surveys on GM foods which have been used to reassure the food industry, and the world at large, that the American consumer is right behind GMOs - something Hoban himself is now starting to question. "Polls still show the vast majority of American consumers do not understand that they already have been eating genetically engineered foods," he notes. "When they find out, they resent the fact that no one told them scientists were changing their food."

Hoban's own surveys were biased with leading questions favouring positive responses from consumers. UCLA communications professor Michael Suman paraphrased Hoban's style of questions as asking consumers, "Here's biotechnology, it does these great things for you, do you like it?"

The results might have been different from those Hoban previously used to proclaim consumer confidence in GM, Suman suggested, if his surveys contained questions biased in the other direction such as: "Some people contend that some foods produced from biotechnology cause higher rates of cancer. If that is so, what effect would that have on your buying decision?"
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=64

+ GM 'PROTATO' TO CURE INDIA'S POOR AGAIN!!
Reports touting the miraculous nature of an Indian GM protein-enriched potato - the "protato", said to be able to counter malnutrition, are reappearing. The latest and most extravagant example is an article taken from CS Prakash's AgBioView list.

This article includes comments on the protato like "Zero child mortality in underprivileged children would be the goal" of this project, while the author tells us, "As far as I can see, there is no counter-argument at all - The Protato can and should be introduced".

What is so extraordinary about this is that the claims for the protato were exposed as fraudulent in the Indian press as far back as March 2003 (GM Potato Cannot Solve Malnutrition Problems: Experts, Financial Express):
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=151

Indeed, the claims for the protato have been so outrageous that they have caused annoyance even amongst pro-GM scientists in India. Prof. C Kameswara Rao, a fervent biotech supporter, has calls the GM protato a "dismal product". Rao has written, "I noticed that the potato used to make wafer chips in England has 6.0 to 6.5 per cent of protein, while that of the GE potato is only about 2.5 per cent. I do not understand how this dismal product could generate so much euphoria".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1709

According to the article, "The protein-rich GM potatoes are in the final stages of testing, before being submitted for approval". However, Prof Rao says that, far from being close to approval, the protato is "unlikely to see the light of the day in this decade" (Announcement of Release of GE Potato in India is Premature)!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1709

CS Prakash, who edits the AgBioView list, can hardly be unaware of the unreality of the claims made for the protato as Rao and others sent their comments to AgBioView in response to the hype about the protato previously circulated on the list.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4383

+ BIOTECH THEATRE WORKSHOPS NOT ALL THEY SEEM
Two theatre workshops in South Africa, organised to promote the "Public Understanding of Biotechnology", centre on the work of Y-Touring Theatre Company from the UK. However, a review of a Y-Touring play on GM foods perfomed to school children in the UK noted, "The GM campaigner looks ridiculous, behaves deviously, has no proper arguments against GM and loses the girl. His fiancee listens to the rational [pro-GM] scientist and furthers her career by promoting GM foods. We're told that science is pure and unbiased and that only scientists are qualified to comment on GM."
http://www.gmwatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=31&page=1&op=1
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4385

+ SPIN & CORPORATE POWER CONFERENCE
Strathclyde University, November 18th & 19th 2004.
Speakers from Australia, the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium,England and Scotland are taking part. Organisations taking part include Platform, Corporate Europe Observatory, PR Watch, Corporate Watch and leading academic researchers.
Further details from: http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/Geography/html/news%20items/Nov_confefence.htm http://www.strathac.uk/Departments/Geography/
Or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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CORPORATE TAKE-OVER OF SCIENCE
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+ BIOTECH & THE SUPPRESSION OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY
We have not seen, since the Inquisition, such suppression and manipulation of biological inquiry
A Special Event with Ignacio Chapela, Monday, September 27, 2004 from 5:30-7:30 Location: 2050 Valley Life Sciences Bldg, UC Berkeley
The webcast will be available on demand the following day at http://www.tenurejustice/pages/nobiology.html
For the event flyer and more event information go to:
http://www.tenurejustice.org/pages/NoBiology.html

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CONTAMINATION / PHARMING
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+ WIND CARRIES POLLEN RECORD DISTANCES
New Scientist reports a new study showing that GM grass has pollinated other grasses up to 21 kilometres away. This distance is "much further than previously measured", say the authors, and is thought to be a record for any GM pollen. Interestingly, previous estimates of the pollination distance based on smaller scale studies suggested far smaller pollination distances, something that has huge relevance for other GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4376

+ FEAR OF PHARMING
An article at ScientificAmerican.com states some obvious but welcome truths about the dangers of biopharm crops (e.g. "The problem is that containing genes from GM plants seems to be harder than scientists expected" etc.). It is mainly worth reading for Norman Ellstrand's trenchant comments:

EXCERPT:
Corn accounts for about two thirds of pharmaceutical crops being tested [and] has a strong tendency to cross-pollinate. "Corn is the world's worst organism for this," says Norman Ellstrand, a plant geneticist at the University of California at Riverdale and director of the Biology Impacts Center. "When I heard about this, my first thoughts were, 'What were they thinking?'" ...the problem, Ellstrand observes, is that there is little actual data on how far genes can travel.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4360

+ WUERTHELE ON PHARMA CORN
Here is a shortened version of the comments of EPA toxicologist, Dr Suzanne Wuerthele, writing in a personal capacity, on pharma corn. For the original Scientific American article, Fear of Pharming, see
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4360
For Wuerthele's comments in full, see
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4380

How quickly the discussion of GE pharmcrops has turned to tolerances - allowable amounts of drugs in our food. What we are talking about here is countenancing a new class of food contaminant.

While it is true that there are certainly levels of drugs which are not pharmacologically active and therefore "safe", that does not mean that setting tolerances for drugs in food will prevent toxicity to humans and wildlife or contamination of the environment. Consider pesticide tolerances in food:

1) The actual tolerances to set are argued vigorously by the pesticide manufacturers' scientists and lobbyists and they are not arguing for lower levels. ...

2) Risk/benefit analyses determine how much pesticide is ultimately allowed in food. Those who bear the risks don't always get the benefits. Imagine routinely ingesting a drug in your breakfast cereal because the probability of harm for you is judged to be low, and it allows drug manufacturers to make millions by cornering the market for that drug in Europe. ...

3) Pesticide uses are curtailed and sometimes pesticides are cancelled as new toxicity data emerges. Imagine learning that the levels of hormone legally allowed in your child's food for the last 10 years were three times higher than they should have been.

4) With few exceptions, no one can predict the additive effects of multiple pesticide exposures. Now imagine you have been diagnosed with an unusual disease. You've probably been ingesting legal and "safe" doses of dozens of different drugs at different times in different foods. How will you find out if they could have, in concert, contributed to your condition?

5) Pesticides are found in our soil, water, air and wildlife because they move from farm fields to the wider environment. Imagine discovering that you live next door to a pharmcrop field (the locations are kept secret) and you've been exposed to an unknown amount of an unnamed (it's confidential business information) drug just by breathing crop dusts created during harvest. ...

6) Pesticide applicators make honest mistakes, like applying the wrong amount of chemical to a crop. These can and have caused human illness. FDA can monitor only a tiny percentage of foods for above-tolerance amounts of pesticides. Now imagine the honest mistakes that can cause above-tolerance amounts of drugs to get into your food from pharmcrops: Seed mixups. Seed spills. Unanticipated pollen drift... Imagine that thanks to an honest mistake, and the inability of FDA to test all foods, your family has been exposed to an over-tolerance amount of a potent drug.

7) It happens. A few pesticide applicators, and even manufacturers cheat. They don't follow the rules, with negative health and environmental consequences. ...

8) After 9/11 we learned that some of the terrorists were learning to fly planes used for aerial pesticide applications. If there are tolerances for drugs in food, FDA will have to estimate exposure based on location and size of pharm crops. Now imagine someone stealing pharmcorn and intentionally planting it all over the seed production areas.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has it right: the tolerance for drugs in foods has to be Zero, and the only way to get there is to not manufacture drugs in food crops in an uncontrollable outdoor environment.

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EUROPE
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+ EUROPE HALTS GM MAIZE
European member states on 20 September failed to support a proposal by the European Commission to import a GM maize. The maize, made by US biotech giant Monsanto, failed to get the required qualified majority from representatives of the member states in an indicative vote.

The maize, which has been genetically modified to resist certain insects by producing a toxin in the plant, has been heavily criticised by scientists from a number of countries, particularly France. The French Commission for Genetic Engineering (CGB) was alarmed by the results of a feeding study of the GM maize on rats. This showed significantly different levels of white blood cells, kidney weights and kidney structure, as well as lower albumin/globulin rates in the rats fed the GM maize. The Director of the French national research body, INRA, who is a member of CGB, stated, "I hear the argument of natural variability, but what struck me in this file is the number of anomalies. There are too many elements here where significant variations are observed. I never saw that in another file." The confidential minutes of the CGB meeting (in French) are available from Friends of the Earth.

Last Thursday an alliance of environmental, farming and civil society organisations wrote to the European Union's executive Commission accusing them of "caving in" to pressure by the United States and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to accept GM foods. The United States, Canada and Argentina started proceedings last year in the WTO over Europe's position on GM foods.

This vote by a European regulatory committee is the eighth failed attempt by the Commission to win support for a GM product. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4363
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4358

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FOCUS ON AFRICA
http://www.gmwatch.org/africa.asp
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+ AFRICA INSISTS GMOS CAN'T BE TRUSTED
As agricultural and environmental experts met in Harare, Zimbabwe, this week to debate the potential risks of the production and trade in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at a conference with the theme, "African Policy Dialogues on Biotechnology", the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported the concerns of those like Joshua Mpinga from Zambia, "This biotech thing is just another way for these people to make themselves richer - to make us more dependent on them. And if the Europeans and Americans want to fight over who will get richer from biotechnology, then they should not use us as proxy battle grounds."

The paper also reported that delegates charged that promoters of GMO technology have failed to deliver on their promises that genetically modified crops would benefit consumers and poor farmers. They also said GMO crusaders have failed to prove that their crops would be friendly to the environment.

Delegates said corporations or exporters should be held strictly liable for damages caused by environmental damage. "The world urgently needs liability laws to make polluters pay for the genetic contamination they make," said John Mugabe, executive secretary for the New Partnership for Africa's Development's Science and Technology Forum.

Southern African Development Community delegates were also reported as being sceptical and expressed fear of the impact of agricultural biotechnology on the environment.

"We must be constantly on guard against new forms of exploitation," Joshua Mpinga from Zambia said.

Zimbabwe and Zambia, the paper reported, have been wary of permitting food aid that contains transgenic maize into the country, even though both countries were experiencing food shortages. Authorities in Zimbabwe have said this reluctance related to concerns about the safety of the food and the possible disappearance of major markets.

Minister of State for Science and Technology Olivia Muchena told the delegates that proponents of the technology had exaggerated the benefits of GMOs for economic, political and social reasons.

"Statements such as 'GMOs will stop hunger in Africa' are not only misplaced but also provocative. We know that poverty and hunger are caused by a number of economic, social and political factors," Muchena said.

"Narrowing the cause of hunger to the absence of one technology is really missing the point. Would we be wrong to think that the motives behind these reductionist statements are a way of looking for markets for their products?"

However, other delegates said Africa should be careful not to end up "throwing out the baby with the bath water".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4388

+ PANTS ON FIRE WINNER JOINS AFRICAN MILLENIUM GOALS TASK FORCE
Africa Harvest's Chief Executive Officer and GM zealot Florence Wambugu is one of 20 representatives from academia, the public and private sectors, civil society organizations, and United Nation agencies on one of 10 task forces laid out by the UN to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for Africa.
http://www.ahbfi.org/

Wambugu's hype and false claims for GM in Africa and particularly her misinformation about the failed Monsanto GM sweet potato project in Kenya are notorious.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=131

In 2004 GM WATCH awarded Wambugu a PANTS ON FIRE AWARD. http://www.gmwatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=59&page=1&op=2

+ US AIMS TO SPEED UP WEST AFRICAN ADOPTION OF GM COTTON
The United States will send a team of public- and private-sector experts to West Africa to assess that region's cotton industry and suggest improvements to production, processing and logistics systems so the region can become more efficient and competitive, including the use of biotechnology, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman says. This is part of a continuing campaign of targeting West Africa.
http://japan.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20040921-03.html
http://deltafarmpress.com/news/040820-brandon-column/

+ USAID GIVES SUDAN ASSURANCES ON AID
The Sudanese minister of humanitarian affairs, Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid, says that the director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Andrew Natsios, has promised that GM food would not be brought into Sudan, but Hamid affirmed that GM processed food has been brought in, in an interview with the BBC.
http://www.agbiotechnet.com

+ IITA "SENSITISES" NIGERIAN POLITICIANS TO BIOTECH
About 100 Nigerian top civil servants drawn from the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology, and Environment, have participated in a biotechnology seminar organized by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), one of the pro-GM institutes of the CGIAR.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=295
http://www.isaaa.org/kc

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THE AMERICAS
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+ GM CONTAMINATION A PROBLEM FOR US FARMERS
An Associated Press article reports that California rice farmers are worried Japanese customers will boycott their products if GM rice is allowed into the state. And in Hawaii, organic papaya farmers are outraged because traces of GM papaya are showing up in their harvest.

This week, already heightened tensions between the biotech industry and its foes peaked when the US government published a study showing that GM grass found its way into conventionally grown grass some 12 miles away [see CONTAMINATION / PHARMING, above] in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The study led to renewed calls for tighter gene flow regulations, especially from farmers who promise customers that their products are free of GM material.

More farmers are reporting finding trace amounts of GM organisms cross-pollinated or otherwise mingled with their organically grown crops. Those are potentially devastating discoveries because organic consumers generally demand that the higher-priced food they buy be free of GM adulteration.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4384

+ GM BANS IN BALLOTS IN SEVERAL CALIFORNIA COUNTIES
Leaders of Measure B, a Marin County ballot measure to ban GM crops, are bracing for an intense campaign over the next few weeks until the Nov. 2 elections. "We're up against some real big money here," said Mark Squire of San Anselmo, of GMOFreeMarin. "The core of the issue is that big corporations are trying to direct our food choices and policies."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4362

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THAILAND LATEST
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+ NINE THAI FARMS CONTAMINATED BY GM CROPS
Nine farms in Thailand have been found to be contaminated by GM papaya crops. The announcement comes after a scandal shut down a big part of the country's programme to test GM crops. Thai agricultural officials say the farms where the tainted plants were found are near the Khon Kaen agricultural research station.

Because of the scandal, the government says the GM studies can only continue in safe laboratory settings. It did not cancel the overall program, which is a joint project with Cornell University in the US.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4373

+ THAI PRIME MINISTER CITED IN PAPAYA COMPLAINT
A farm advocacy group has filed a police complaint accusing the prime minister and senior agriculture officials of negligence resulting in the contamination of local varieties of papaya by GM strains. The Network of Northeastern Alternative Agriculture called on Khon Kaen police to launch a criminal investigation into the spread of GM papayas from a government research station to local farms.

"Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Agriculture Minister Somsak Thepsuthin and government scientists running the experimental field tests for GM papayas should be held accountable for the contamination," said network leader Bumrung Kayotha.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4361

+ CORN CONTAMINATION TOO?
Corn samples will be collected from Ubon Ratchathani's Nam Yeun district to be tested for GMOs after corn farmers voiced concern about possible contamination of local plantations. Ubon Ratchathani senator Dr Nirund Pitakwatchara said he would ask the National Human Rights Commission and the Department of Agriculture (DoA) to look into it in the same way they did with the GM papaya scandal in Khon Kaen province.

Nam Yuen district is one of the country's major corn-producing areas. Dr Nirund said farmers in northeastern provinces were in panic after leakage of GM papaya from the DoA's Khon Kaen research station was confirmed recently.

The DoA allows the import of GM corn seedlings for research purposes only. Research on GM corn is being carried out by the DoA and private firms, including Monsanto Thailand, Syngenta and Dupont.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4361

+ LATEST GM THREAT: WATERMELONS
A nongovernmental organisation has claimed secret research on GM watermelons is being carried out in the Northeast. Network of Alternative Agriculture in the Northeast coordinator Ubon Yuwa said she had learned that a number of researchers had received funds from overseas to study GM watermelons. She said that suspicions mounted after a number of new varieties of watermelon had entered the market. Ubon called on the Department of Agriculture to investigate the matter.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4373

+ SCIENTISTS EXPRESS CONCERNS ABOUT CONTAMINATION
As the evidence of GM contamination mounts in Thailand, there is an impressively well-informed debate on GMOs going on in the country. Note how Thailand's press does something seldom seen in the West (where most media outlets are owned by the same handful of mega-corporations): they quote scientists expressing doubts about GM. Elsewhere the media falls in line with government/industry pretence that all the scientists (except, of course, the 'mavericks'), are pro-GM while the antis are all beardie tree-huggers who can't do logic.

See articles at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4374

EXCERPTS: MP Khunying Dr Kallaya Sophonpanich, who is also a nuclear physicist, said the safety of GM food is a central concern for many people. She said there has not yet been enough risk assessment done on the safety of human consumption. It is unknown whether GM food leaves any harmful residues in the human body. Will our children be at risk if they eat GM crops? These are the kind of questions that Thai people need answered from the officials involved, she said.

She suggested that the government should provide the information and let the public make their own decisions on whether or not to go for GMOs.

Khunying Kallaya said that nuclear energy was predictable in comparison to genetic engineering in the environment: "There is no way for you to know how far the GM crops will cross-pollinate, as you cannot control bees, birds or wind."

This year's Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, Prayong Ronnarong, who was honoured for his leadership role in building self-reliance in local communities, said Thai people should have full information on the GMO issue. He warned against taking a course which is opposed to nature's way: "According to my experience, doing things against nature always ends up in failure. Some countries might need GMOs, but in Thailand we are so rich in natural resources. Please don't try to win in a game against nature."

+ GM MULTINAITONALS EXPLOITING LOOPHOLES
Secret testing of GM crops prohibited by law are still being conducted under supervision of foreign multinationals, because of loopholes in the law, said the chairman of Thailand's National Bio Safety Committee (NBC).

"The 1999 amendment of the 1964 Plant Quarantine Act prohibits GM testing of 40 plant species including corn and cotton. But testing of these two plants can still be found today in Nakhon Sawan and many other places,'' said Assoc Prof Banpot Napompeth.

"The reason for this is that field trials of Bt cotton and corn, brought into the country by genetic giants like Monsanto and Cargil, were done before the 1999 amendment. The act only prohibits testing of GM crops that were brought in after the year 2000,'' Mr Banpot said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4377

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ EUROPE REJECTS THE GM CORN THAT NZ ACCEPTS
Co-Green Party leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is questioning the honesty of a ministerial response to a Parliamentary question, following news that MON863 GE corn has been rejected by a European Union regulatory committee.

The Green Party had raised concerns over the safety of the corn, in light of a suppressed study by Monsanto that showed rats fed with it developed several abnormalities. Neither the government nor Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) had been aware of the report at the time Monsanto's application was approved for use here.

"In Parliament earlier this month, Jim Sutton, on behalf of the Food Safety minister, defended the decision by FSANZ to approve MON863, on the basis that the European Food Safety Authority had approved the corn as safe for human consumption," said Green Party Co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons.

"While technically correct, Mr Sutton's response was at best misleading. He implied that MON863 had passed the EU's test and been approved to enter the market. What he omitted to say was that very serious questions remain in Europe over the safety of this food and that it had a number of hurdles to pass before final approval.

"In fact, MON863 has just fallen at the first hurdle. The European Union committee of member states that monitors GE applications (the Committee on the Release of Genetically Modified Organisms into the Environment) has declined to approve its release by 14 votes to four."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4379

+ GM SITE DISCLOSURE IN VICTORIA?
Victorians could soon know the location of the latest GM canola trials being conducted in the state after the Bracks Government on 21 Sept asked Bayer CropScience if the secret sites could be revealed. Department of Primary Industries officials met Bayer executives to discuss making the GM crop sites public after the Government was criticised by local government and anti-GM groups for allowing the trials on 80 hectares to be conducted secretly.

Network of Concerned Farmers spokeswoman Julie Newman said neighbouring farmers might not know there were trial sites nearby because, under the rules, only neighbours within 400 metres of the GM cultivation zone needed to be told.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4377

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BOOK OF THE WEEK
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If you want to know how a crazed bunch of far-right extremists have gained control of an essentially liberal populace and the most powerful economy in the world, read Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, by Al Franken (NY and London: Penguin, 2003). The answer is, Franken says, they "make stuff up". They are much better at telling lies than the rest of us, and they are quite happy to repeat them even after they're proven to be lies.

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DONATIONS
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Our thanks to all of you who have donated to GM WATCH. You can donate online in any one of five currencies via PayPal, at http://www.gmwatch.org/donate.asp OR by cheque or postal order payable to 'NGIN', to be sent to: NGIN, 26 Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX, UK. We appreciate your support.