GMWatch News Review archive

GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 100

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:
GM FAILURES
LOBBYWATCH
RESISTANCE
GM EXPANSION/APPLICATIONS
CONTAMINATION
VIDEOS

REST OF THE MONTH'S NEW IN BRIEF

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PLEASE SUPPORT GMWATCH
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Welcome to 2012 and to GMWatch's 100th Monthly Review!

100 Monthly Reviews, and our other listservs stretching back still further, reflect our enduring commitment to countering the massive deceptive propaganda campaigns of the biotech industry and its supporters.

As we enter a critical new year in that battle, please support the work of GMWatch. It's easy to donate - details here:
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Every new donation will help us make a difference in 2012!

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LATEST NEWS
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GM FAILURES
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+ INDIA: BIG LOSSES FOR MAHARASHTRA'S BT COTTON FARMERS
Maharashtra dryland cotton farmers who opted for Bt cotton are likely to make big losses, a farmer advocacy group has alleged. The Maharashtra chief minister said that government will announce a bailout package to dryland farmers to the tune of Rs. 2000 crore that will cover the failure of the Bt cotton crop in 2011-12. This has happened twice in last five years, the first time being in the year 2005-2006, when government compensated farmers to the tune of Rs. 220 crore.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13565

+ INDIA'S "OWN BT COTTON" VARIETIES HAVE MONSANTO GENES
The launch in India of a supposedly "entirely indigenous" Bt cotton variety, called Bikaneri Narma, was greeted as a huge success for the public sector and as an example of how GM crops could be developed independently of multinational corporations like Monsanto and their intellectual property stranglehold over farmers. Here, we were told, was a Bt cotton variety whose seeds farmers could replant - thanks to a decade or more of heavy public and philanthropic investment.

But now scientists have revealed that the crop seems to have actually been developed using a Monsanto patented gene. At a meeting hosted by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), which had marketed the variety, a decision was reached to stop production.

Just a day after the announcement about Bikaneri Narma, a second, similar case emerged. In what could be a significant fraud in India's publicly funded biotech research, another variety, Bt cotton NHH44, claimed by government scientists as indigenous technology, was also found to be sourced from US firm Monsanto's original patented product.

Much of the flak is being heaped on lead scientist, Prof. BM Khadi. Khadi is Principal Scientist at India's University of Agricultural Sciences, and at one time headed India's Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR). Khadi is also a GM regulator. As well as sitting on India's apex GM regulatory body, the GEAC, Khadi is an advisor to the Indian Government's Dept of Biotechnology. In fact, Khadi was serving as a regulator during the period when his university and the CICR were seeking regulatory approval for his allegedly fraudulent GM cotton varieties. This would mean Khadi was one of the regulators who failed to identify the actual gene construct used in these GM varieties!

In the wake of these revelations, Coalition for a GM-Free India has demanded an immediate stop to all public sector transgenic research and an independent inquiry into potential fraud on the part of the scientists involved.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13577
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13578
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13579

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ STUDY CONCLUDES GM FOOD IS SAFE!
The pro-GM lobby, especially in the US, has been hyping a new review of animal feeding studies on GMOs, which concludes that there are no effects on the health of GM-fed animals. But the study is about as far from scientifically rigorous as it is possible to get:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13576

+ GM PR CAMPAIGN QUESTIONED IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Austrian member of the European Parliament Franz Obermayr has asked parliamentary questions about EuropaBio's questionable PR campaign to recruit celebrities like Bob Geldof to promote GM crops.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13567

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RESISTANCE
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+ PERU'S MORATORIUM ON GMOs COMES INTO LAW
Peru's President and Congress have banned GMOs for ten years.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13570

+ U.S.: MORE CONCERN OVER GM FISH
A Senate subcommittee looking into risks posed by GM salmon heard concerns that these fish could escape their pens and compete with other fish for food, territory and mates. Fisheries author and journalist Paul Greenberg called the GM salmon "a technology that has been made irrelevant by advances elsewhere in the marketplace yet which, for some reason, still seems to draw taxpayer dollars in the form of research and development investment."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13574

+ UNCONSTITUTIONAL, UNETHICAL, UNSCIENTIFIC - INDIA'S GMO BILL
The Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, if passed, will adversely affect agriculture, health of humans and animals, and the environment, causing unparalleled harm, says Pushpa Bhargava, known as the father of biotechnology in India. Bhargava says, "It is now widely accepted that the existing procedure in India (and even elsewhere) for regulation of genetic engineering technology is faulty and insufficient."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13575

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GM EXPANSION/APPLICATIONS
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+ U.S.: MONSANTO CORN UNLIKELY TO HELP DROUGHT-STRICKEN FARMERS
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced it would allow unlimited planting of Monsanto's drought-resistant corn. But Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman points out that the company and the USDA have admitted the crop will fare only modestly better than current conventional varieties under low- and moderate-level drought conditions. This means that this corn will be useful only for a fraction of corn acres ”šÄì just 15 percent by USDA estimates. In addition, there are several types of new non-GM drought-tolerant corn that are likely to do as well as or better than Monsanto's corn. Data suggest that conventional breeding is producing drought tolerance 2-3 times faster than genetic engineering.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13571
Successful non-GM drought-resistant crops:
http://www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/31-need-gm/12319

+ U.S.: BOULDER COUNTY, COLORADO VOTES TO ALLOW GM CROPS ON COUNTY LAND
The 3 commissioners of Boulder County, Colorado, have ignored the public outcry and voted to allow GM sugar beets to be grown on publicly owned county land.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13569

+ INDIA: WHY IS KARNATAKA SILENT ON GM CROP TRIALS?
Two months after the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) gave its approval to 16 companies and research institutions to conduct open air/field trials on 13 crops and 38 GMOs in Karnataka, the state government remains silent on the issue. The government, which had earlier declared that it would not allow GM field trials, has not made its stand clear on whether it will give permission for the field trials.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13566

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CONTAMINATION
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+ TRANSGENES IN MEXICAN MAISE - TEN YEARS ON
Ten years ago, the discovery of transgenes in Mexican maize sparked a discussion on the use of GM crops in centres of origin and genetic diversity. A new report asks what Mexico might lose if GM contamination continues.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13572

+ NEW CONSUMER LAWSUIT OVER NOT-SO-NATURAL GM FOOD
Food company Frito-Lay was recently sued for the labelling products containing GM ingredients as "made with ALL NATURAL" ingredients. The lawsuit is brought by the same law firm that earlier this year sued ConAgra for its Wesson oil line's "all natural" labelling. ConAgra moved to dismiss the case, saying that since FDA decided that GMOs are not meaningfully different from foods developed through traditional plant breeding, no label notifying a consumer about the presence of GMOs was required. But the Court found that ConAgra had misstated the issue and that the labelling was misleading. While the case was dismissed for other errors, the Court gave the plaintiffs a chance to correct them.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13573

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VIDEOS
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Frames of anguish
New film exposes the disastrous impact of Bt cotton.
http://bit.ly/t7oC3q

What you should know about the European food agency - 3-minute video
http://vimeo.com/33337236

Dr Don Huber talks about GM foods
http://j.mp/s0W1Rm

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REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
For those who do not receive our GMWatch Review
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+ MONSANTO CORN FAILING IN 4 STATES - EPA
Monsanto Bt corn that's genetically engineered to kill insects is losing its effectiveness against rootworms in four states and may be failing in other states too, the US Environmental Protection Agency said. Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance to the plants' insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from entomologists, the EPA said, adding that Monsanto's program for monitoring suspected resistance is "inadequate".

EPA said that Monsanto's proposed solution of using Smartstax corn, which contains two types of Bt toxin, in fields where bugs have developed resistance could merely hasten resistance to Smartstax. EPA recommends using conventional insecticides to kill the bugs.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13526
Monsanto (still) denies the superinsect problem, despite evidence
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13540
EPA seeks information on pest resistance in GM insecticidal plants
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13527

+ USDA WORKS TO SPEED UP APPROVAL OF GM CROPS
Even as GM crop are failing as never before, the US government is seeking to speed up approval of GM crops. Under a new two-year pilot program at the USDA, regulators are training the world's biggest biotech firms, including Monsanto, BASF and Syngenta, to conduct environmental reviews of their own GM seed products as part of the government's deregulation process. This would eliminate a critical level of oversight for the production of GE crops. Regulators are also testing new cost-sharing agreements that allow biotech firms to help pay private contractors to prepare mandatory environmental statements on GM plants that the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) is considering deregulating.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13544

+ VIRUS CONFIRMED IN GM SALMON
AquaBounty's GM salmon, currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration for potential sale to American consumers, tested positive for the Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus in 2009. The virus appears to be a new strain of ISA. AquaBounty's GM fish are in a closed, land-locked facility, so the virus is thought to have entered the facility through imported eggs or young fish.
http://gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/13553
http://www.livingoceans.org/media/releases/salmon-farming/isa-virus-confirmed-aquabounty%E2%80%99s-genetically-engin
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVh4TRey0OE&feature=youtu.be
 How AquaBounty's sickly GM salmon swallowed hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars:
http://gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/13444

+ CONGRESS MUST INVESTIGATE GM SALMON
A US Senate Subcommittee held a hearing on the environmental impacts of GM salmon on 15 December. But Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said that Congress needs to investigate the human health impacts of GM salmon.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13553

+ KUCINICH SEEKS CONSUMER PROTECTION AND CHOICE
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has announced legislation that would prohibit open-air cultivation of GM pharmaceutical and industrial crops, preventing biological contamination of the food supply.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13541

+ DUST FROM GM CROPS SPURS RESIDENTS' LAWSUIT
A group of Kauai (Hawaii) residents has sued a major seed company, saying its GM crops have led to pesticide-laden dust being blown onto homes for more than a decade.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13550

+ MONSANTO'S CARIBBEAN EXPERIMENT
Monsanto is one of eight biotech companies using Puerto Rico's agricultural land for GM seed experiments. Most of these seed developers occupy more than the 500-acre limit that the Constitution of Puerto Rico allows, while receiving hefty government benefits.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13523

+ "OCCUPY" PROTESTERS TARGET GM CHILLIS
Occupy protesters marched in New Mexico against the genetic modification of chilli peppers.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13529

+ GLYPHOSATE CAUSES GENETIC DAMAGE IN AMPHIBIANS
Research carried out in Argentina shows that glyphosate, the chemical ingredient in Roundup herbicide used on GM soy crops, causes genetic damage in amphibians. One of the authors, biologist Delia Aiassa, leads a research team studying the impact of glyphosate on human health. Aiassa said exposure to glyphosate can cause asthma, chronic bronchitis, skin and eye irritation, damage to the kidneys, liver and nervous system, cancer, developmental problems in children, and birth defects. She said pregnant women are at greater risk of miscarriage, and in men fertility problems are more frequent, if they are exposed to the chemical.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13542

+ GLYPHOSATE CONTAMINATES GROUNDWATER - STUDY
Glyphosate has been detected in 41% of groundwater samples taken in Spain, according to a new study. The study exposes yet another lie about glyphosate pushed by manufacturers and regulators - that it is immobilised or rapidly and harmlessly degraded in soil.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13549
Study abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22101424

+ INDIAN GOVT FALSIFIES FARMER SUICIDE FIGURES
Although there are continuing reports of a very high suicide rate among Indian farmers, with many blaming failed GM Bt cotton crops as a significant factor, the Indian Government is claiming that farmer suicides are falling through the floor!  
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13522

+ GM IS SPEEDING UP THE PESTICIDE TREADMILL - EXPERT
India's farmers are on a faster technology-pesticides treadmill on account of GM technology, confirms US academic, Glenn Davis Stone. Stone says, "Farmers didn't really start adopting Bt cotton until around 2005, and within five years we have gone from one genetic construct to four. We have gone from terrible problems with American bollworm to greatly reduced problems with that pest but huge problems with aphids."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13543
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13545

+ GM RISKS LOOM FOR WHEAT INDUSTRY
Australia is heading at breakneck speed towards the commercialisation of GM wheat. According to CSIRO, 2015 is a realistic date. This means within five years, consumers face the possibility of eating GM bread, whether they like it or not.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13533

+ AUSTRALIA BAKERY CHAIN SHUNS GM WHEAT
Australian bakery chain Bakers Delight has ruled out using GM wheat after a social media campaign by Greenpeace.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13525

+ BAYER TARGETS NON-GM WHEAT TRAITS
Bayer's CropScience plans to develop new heat- and drought-resistant wheat traits over the next decade without the use of GM. By using marker-assisted breeding techniques, which enable plant breeders to screen huge numbers of seeds for desired traits such as drought-resistance, the company said it will be able to develop new varieties much more quickly.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13525

+ FORMER MONSANTO LOBBYISTS' DARK ARTS EXPOSED
One of Britain's largest lobbying companies has been secretly recorded boasting about its access to the heart of the Government and how it uses the "dark arts" to bury bad coverage and influence public opinion. Senior executives at Bell Pottinger claimed they could manipulate Google search results and Wikipedia pages to improve the image of their clients. In 1999 Bell Pottinger stated in a letter obtained by the UK newspaper, The Observer, that it worked for "Monsanto and genetic engineering of food".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13532

+ MONSANTO DIRTY TRICKS PR FIRM BIVINGS GOES BELLY-UP
The Bivings Group used to handle internet PR for businesses such as Monsanto. Now, a group of hackers called Anonymous are claiming they hit its website, forcing the firm to shut down operations. Bivings was identified in an investigation by GMWatch founder Jonathan Matthews and the investigative journalist Andy Rowell as key operatives in a major dirty tricks campaign targeting scientists and others critical of GM. The GMWatch investigation of Bivings helped prompt articles in The Guardian, New Scientist, and The Ecologist as well as programmes on BBC radio and TV.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13538

+ OMBUDSMAN DEMANDS EFSA ADMIT FAILURE OVER REVOLVING DOOR CASE
The European Ombudsman has ruled in favour of a complaint filed by the NGO Testbiotech against the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and its approach to the "revolving door". The case concerns a former senior member at EFSA, Dr Suzy Renckens, who was head of the unit responsible for the risk assessment of GM plants. Renckens then moved to a job at GM firm Syngenta. The European Ombudsman agreed with Testbiotech's complaint and stated that "EFSA should acknowledge that it failed to observe the relevant procedural rules."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13539

+ ARE NON-GM SOY FEED SUPPLIES RUNNING OUT?
A recent meeting at the EU Commission on GM food and feed legislation repeated a fiction that has been current since 2000 but is no more true now than it was then ”šÄì that non-GMO feed supplies are running out. This time, the teller of the tale was AGRA CEAS, a consulting firm charged by the Commission with evaluating the EU's GMO food and feed legislation in anticipation of the Commission's "review" of the rules next year.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13554

+ EFSA ADMITS BT MAIZE THREAT TO BUTTERFLIES
The European Food Safety Authority GMO Panel's new opinion on Pioneer Hybrid/Mycogen Seed's insect resistance GM maize 1507 acknowledges the crop puts non-target species at risk, including butterflies, but disregards both these risks and big gaps in the applicant's data in recommending the crop for EU cultivation.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13548

+ FRANCE MAINTAINS OPPOSITION TO GM CROPS
GM maize is unlikely to make it into French fields next year despite the lifting of a ban on a US strain.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13524

+ GM PLANTS FOUND OUTSIDE SWISS LABS
Spot checks conducted in 2011 found "isolated examples" of GM plants near research laboratories and a station in different places in Switzerland.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13552

+ NEW EU CHIEF SCIENTIST A GM EVANGELIST
EU President Barroso's new "independent" chief scientific adviser Anne Glover is a genetic engineer and GMO evangelist.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13536

+ UK BIOTECH FIRM OXITEC MAY RELEASE GM MOSQUITOES IN U.S. ...
The US government is quietly considering letting British company Oxitec release GM mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13534
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13568

+ ... AND GM MOTHS IN THE UK
Oxitec has also proposed releasing a GM strain of the diamondback moth to reduce populations of the vegetable-eating insects. Dr Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK, said: "Changing one part of an ecosystem can have knock-on effects on others in ways that are poorly understood. This could include an increase in different types of pest. Wildlife that feeds on insects could be harmed if there are changes to their food supply."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/8957655/Millions-of-GM-moths-could-be-released-to-combat-crop-pests.html

+ NON-GM PURPLE ANTI-CANCER TOMATOES
In 2008 headlines were generated around the world by the John Innes Centre's claims of having created the ultimate healthy superfood - a purple anti-cancer GM tomato that had significant levels of the antioxidants, anthocyanins. Now researchers in Brazil have produced a non-GM variety.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13531