GMWatch News Review archive

From Claire Robinson, Monthly Review editor

 

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TAKE ACTION: We  missed this BBC poll and the pro-GM lobby have obviously been busy – 70% currently saying YES to GM crop trials

Please vote, and spread far and wide!

 

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EU feeding trials on rats, mice, pig and salmon have found that GM feed produces significant changes. Rats and fish fed Bt corn grew fatter than the control groups fed non-GM corn. Salmon fed on GM corn were slightly larger and ate slightly more. Their intestines had a different microstructure, they were less able to digest proteins, and there were changes to their immune system and blood.

 

Prof Ashild Krogdahl of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, one of the research team, commented on another worrying finding: "A frequent claim has been that new genes introduced in GM food are harmless since all genes are broken up in the intestines. But our findings show that genes can be transferred through the intestinal wall into the blood; they have been found in blood, muscle tissue and liver in sufficiently large segments to be identified."

Watch video of Prof Krogdahl announcing her team's findings:

 

TAKE ACTION: These findings have profound implications for GM foods and animal feed. Please write, email or phone your supermarket expressing concern about these findings and telling them to act on a precautionary basis. Contact details for supermarkets in the UK:

 

Please emphasize your concern about the use of GM in animal feed, due to the gene transference, and tell them either to remove GM feed from their supply chain or to label clearly products of animals that are GM-fed (and non-GM fed!). Make it clear that if they refuse to act, you will switch to a better supermarket. Information here on where to buy non-GM fed products in the UK:

 

GM Freeze has told the UK Food Standards Agency it must revise its public information on the presence of GM DNA in animals fed GM feed in light of the above study, which found genes from GM Bt maize in the blood of animals fed on the crop, as well as in the flesh of salmon fed on GM feed. The project also found GM proteins and, critically, antibodies to those proteins, in the blood of rats fed Bt maize, indicating an immune response to the GM proteins.

 

Yet the statement currently on the FSA website, dated after these findings were announced, says, "[F]ragments derived from GM plant materials may occasionally be detected in animal tissues." This is inaccurate and does not reflect the scientific findings of whole genes, proteins or antibodies in the blood and flesh of animals fed GM.

 

Genetic mutations in bollworm pests that allow them to develop resistance to GM crops may be much more diverse in field conditions than in laboratory tests, according to a study. The nature of the mutations may also mean that a commonly used strategy for reducing resistance – the "refuge" strategy – may be less effective than believed. 

 

The research shows that pest resistance to Bt can be conferred through dominant mutations, not just recessive mutations, as previously thought. Thus a single copy of a mutated gene is enough to confer pest resistance on its offspring.

 

"Dominant resistance is more difficult to manage and cannot be readily slowed with refuges, which are especially useful when resistance is recessive," said Bruce Tabashnik, head of entomology at the University of Arizona, and co-author of the study.

 

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This year has seen extraordinary – though scarcely reported – developments in Brazil, where soy farmers are rebelling against Monsanto's exploitative royalty practices. 

 

Monsanto makes farmers pay royalties not only when they buy the seed but also when they deliver their harvest to the silo. If the farmer declares that his crop is GM, Monsanto demands a 2 percent royalty payment either in money or by confiscating a proportion of the farmer's harvest as the royalty. This has infuriated farmers, who point out that a good harvest can be due to favourable weather or their own good farming practices – factors that have nothing to do with Monsanto's GM traits.

 

Farmers who declare their crop to be non-GM must submit to having it tested by a Monsanto official. If Monsanto claims to find GM contamination, the farmer has to pay a higher royalty fee of 3 percent. At least one farmer challenged Monsanto's positive result, and an independent test came up with a negative finding.

 

The farmers sued Monsanto and won. A court in Rio Grande do Sul ordered Monsanto to return royalties paid since 2004 or a minimum of $2 billion. 

 

Monsanto appealed and the dispute escalated to the Supreme Court of Brazil. But the Supreme Court decided that the ruling must apply across Brazil. So now up to 354 farmers unions involving about 5 million soy growers could join the dispute, meaning that Monsanto could face a royalties payback of a massive 7.5 billion USD. 

 

Monsanto has told farmers they must continue to pay royalties until the case is finally settled.

 

Brazil's farmers are rapidly losing their freedom of choice due to the GM industry's takeover of the supply of seed for commodity crops like soy, said Pierre Patriat, President of APROSMAT, the association of seed producers of Mato Grosso, in a remarkable speech given at an industry conference.

 

Patriat says that this consolidation of the market threatens Brazil's food security and food sovereignty. He makes it obvious that this pattern can – and will – be repeated in any country or region where the GM industry gains the required level of market penetration.

 

GMWatch can only add that this pattern in turn threatens to remove freedom of choice from the supply chain that receives Brazilian exports and from the end users – consumers worldwide. It exposes as hogwash the talk so often heard in Europe that GM will "increase farmer and consumer choice".

 

The use of pesticides continues to rise in Brazil as GM crop planting increases, according to an article in the country's leading economics and finance newspaper, Valor Economico. Despite the significant growth of the area cultivated with GM seeds, a technology that promises to reduce chemical use in agricultural production, sales of these products increased by over 72% between 2006 and 2012 – from 480,100 to 826,700 tons – according to data from Sindag, the association that represents pesticide manufacturers in the country.

 

A second article from Valor Economico reports that Brazil's Bt maize crop, engineered to kill Armyworm caterpillars, has been threatened with infestation by aphids. Only a return to chemical insecticides saved the crop.

 

In 2008, Egypt reached an agreement with Monsanto to import, grow and sell the company's GM maize. The first shipment of 70 tons arrived in Egypt in December 2010 and was planted without restriction. The second and most recent shipment of 40 tons arrived in January 2012, but was seized by the ministry of agriculture because it was not properly approved by the ministry of environment.

 

Egypt drafted its own biosafety law in 2004 and it was supposed to go into effect the same year. But according to Osama El Tayeb, a biology professor at 6th of October University, "We produced a very good draft in 2004, then Monsanto came in and started bribing some people from the [Ministry of Agriculture] for them to block the normal process from draft to law."

 

Now it looks as if the biosafety draft law will finally be implemented. "Morsy [the new Egyptian president] is not a dictator," said Tayeb. "He is open to discussion and he is not corrupt. And the whole GMO issue is about corruption, so I'm confident for the future."

 

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In a new series of briefings, GM Freeze and Pesticides Action Network expose the dangers posed to human health and the environment by the chemicals likely to fill the gap created by failing GM technology and the rise of "superweeds". These herbicides (dicamba, 2,4-D and glufosinate ammonium) are exactly the kind of older, more dangerous chemicals the GM industry promised its technology would make redundant, and all raise significant safety issues. Two (2,4-D and glufosinate ammonium) appear on PAN's Highly Hazardous Pesticide list because of chronic human health concerns, and 2,4-D is a component of Agent Orange ‚Ä" the defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War. 

 

Superweeds no longer killed by the chemicals used with GM crops now infest millions of acres of US farmland. The GM industry's suggestion "solutions" are more GM varieties and more chemical weedkillers.

 

GM Freeze and Pesticides Action Network (PAN) warn that this escalation of the pesticides arms race will cause serious problems for European farmers and consumers if the EU approves GM herbicide tolerant crops for cultivation. Pete Riley of GM Freeze said: "Some of these chemicals never should have been approved in the first place, and there have long been calls for them to be banned. It's only because GM is failing that the biotech industry is forced to recommend them to farmers again." 

 

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has released its new study titled, "How much glyphosate is on your dinner plate? SA's food safety compromised by lack of testing". This study highlights numerous risks posed by the herbicide glyphosate to human and animal health as well as worrying regulatory failures, particularly in relation to the monitoring, inspection and testing of food for glyphosate residues.

 

The Maharashtra state government is seriously considering switching from GM Bt cotton to non-GM cotton seeds. Maharashtra agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has ordered a comprehensive review of Bt cotton. He wants Bt cotton companies to tie up with agriculture universities in the state and pump money into research to find an alternative to itself. Companies that refuse to cooperate will be banned, Vikhe-Patil said.

 

"I had my serious reservations about Bt even in 1999. It hasn't helped dry-land farmers, like those in Vidarbha. It takes care of only bollworm. But farmers still have to use pesticides for other pests like reddening of leaves (lalya)," Vikhe-Patil said. "There is a clear mismatch between promised and actual benefits, especially in input costs and productivity."

 

Patil has ordered criminal proceedings against officials of Monsanto-Mahyco, a Bt cotton company, for allegedly providing the government with wrong information.

 

Vikhe-Patil said that farmers will be better off using traditional varieties of cotton seeds.

 

The Bt cotton crop in Punjab is under the suspected attack of a new disease that turns part of the cotton plant stem black.

 

Farmer suicide was unheard of in the tribal communities of Adilabad, India, until the introduction of Bt cotton, says an article in The Hindu. Since January 2011, 101 cotton farmers have committed suicide.

 

According to the American journalist, Eric Sevareid, the chief cause of problems is solutions. This principle, known as Sevareid's Law, perfectly describes America's disastrous experiment with GM crops and predicts the failure of attempts to develop blight-resistant GM potatoes in Ireland, writes Gavin Lynch in a very funny but intelligent article that's worth reading in full:

 

In the US Midwest, GM Bt corn is falling victim to corn rootworm, the pest it's engineered to kill. University of Minnesota professor Bruce Potter said the GM corn is backfiring: "Instead of making things easier, we've just made corn rootworm management harder and a heck of a lot more expensive."

 

An Illinois farmer explains why he switched from GM soy to non-GM: poor yields, high seed costs, and rising dependence on herbicides to cope with resistant weeds:

 

Stubble from GM corn and soybeans is apparently so tough that it's puncturing the tyres of farm vehicles, prompting DuPont, a major producer of GM corn and soybeans, to bring out tyres that are able to cope with the stubble. The new tyres are reinforced with Kevlar, a synthetic fabric made by DuPont and used in military helmets and bulletproof vests. The Kevlar tyres cost almost $300 apiece, roughly twice as much as regular tyres. It's a nice little earner for DuPont – but another expense for farmers who grow GM crops.

 

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In an astonishing lapse from journalistic objectivity, The Independent newspaper claimed the results of a "survey" it carried out showed that public opinion is shifting in favour of GM crops. However, the survey asked the biased question, "Do you think the government should encourage experiments on GM crops so that farmers can reduce the pesticides they use?"

 

The article brought comments from unimpressed readers, such as: "Talk about a loaded question to get the answer you want. Of course people want farmers to use less pesticides. To balance things out why not ask whether the govt should encourage experiments on GM crops so that farmers can use MORE pesticides. Because ultimately that is what farmers seems to end up having to do when they switch to GM crops and the increased productivity and protection from pests doesn't materialise." And another: "Next up – a survey commissioned by snake oil salesmen with the question: 'If my snake oil will cure every disease you'll ever get, will you buy it?'"

 

Unsubstantiated claims for the safety of GM foods made by Anne Glover, European Commission chief scientific adviser, have triggered a response from French MEP Corinne Lepage. Glover had said, "There is no substantiated case of any adverse impact on human health, animal health or environmental health, so that's pretty robust evidence, and I would be confident in saying that there is no more risk in eating GMO food than eating conventionally farmed food." She added that the precautionary principle no longer applies.

 

Lepage replied, "Glover's statement is simply inaccurate. Regarding the environmental impact of GMOs, the evidence is overwhelming and completely concrete. Not only is the dissemination of GMOs to non-GM plants proven, but the damage caused by regrowth elsewhere, which requires the use of ever more toxic pesticides, has already become a reality. 

 

"Regarding health, several valuations [in animals] have revealed that GMOs affect the liver, the kidneys, blood count and weight." 

 

A gullible journalist writing for The Observer gushed over Oxitec's GM mosquitoes, supposedly aimed at combating dengue fever, while neglecting to ask basic questions, writes Erica George in an article for the new website, GM Education. Thus the article does not mention the links of Oxitec staff with the GM firm Syngenta, nor does it question the need for the technology or investigate alternative strategies.

 

GM promoters have been trying to avoid consumer hostility to the new GM non-browning "Arctic" apple by claiming that no new genes are inserted; rather, existing genes in the plant are switched off. But Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, points out that this is incorrect: "The 'non-browning' GM apple will have a range of genetic sequences inserted. Modified apple DNA will be inserted along with genetic sequences from at least three different species," including genes from a plant virus and two different bacteria. 

Why "cisgenic" or "intragenic" foods like the Arctic apple are GM by another name:

 

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Olympics sponsor Dow's 2,4-D-tolerant GM corn (maize) is projected to increase the use of the toxic pesticide 2,4-D from 3.3 million pounds today in the US, to over 100 million pounds. 2,4-D has been linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity and kidney/liver damage, among other health problems. And 70 health professionals have warned EPA about the potential impact of Dow's 2,4-D GM corn. 2,4-D-tolerant GM corn is now starting to be approved for import as food into other countries, such as South Africa. The US Dept of Agriculture is preparing to multiply all these problems by also approving Dow's 2,4-D GM soy.

 

Last chance to sign this important petition.

 

Two weeks ago, while Americans were focused on early July barbecues and fireworks, the pipeline of GM crops awaiting USDA approval suddenly swelled to bursting. With public opposition to GM foods and crops growing by leaps and bounds (and Prop 37 – California's ballot initiative to label GM foods – garnering unprecedented popular support), the Big 6 pesticide corporations are rushing to quickly ram a dozen new GM crops through the pipeline. Nine are engineered for use with toxic herbicides.

 

Meanwhile, industry allies in Congress are threatening sweeping policy changes that would override any semblance of objective scientific and judicial review. Buried deep in thousands of pages of the Farm Bill — signed off on by the House Agricultural Committee — are three riders which would — if approved — gut the USDA's already weak regulatory process for GM seeds.

 

TAKE ACTION: Urge your Representative to reject the proposed biotech riders, stand up to pressure from the Big 6 pesticide corporations and defend our precious democracy.

More on the biotech riders:

 

Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency has given the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Teagasc, the go-ahead to carry out trials on a GM potato designed to resist potato blight. The Green Party, An Taisce (National Trust for Ireland) and organic farming and environmental groups have condemned the move.

Non-GM blight-resistant potatoes developed amid curious absence of publicity:

 

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In his first month as president of Paraguay, Federico Franco has thrown open the doors of his country to foreign investments that have raised questions about environmental safety, according to Luis Rojas, an economist with the NGO, BASE Investigaciones Sociales. As an example, Rojas cited the government's authorisation to plant GM cotton developed by Monsanto, without waiting for the preliminary studies required by law.

 

The previous president, Fernando Lugo, had put up some resistance to Monsanto's control of the country's agriculture, and so, according to some observers, he had to go.

 

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The California Democratic Party has voted to endorse Proposition 37, which would require the labelling of GMOs in food products.

 

In California, the battle over Proposition 37 is heating up. A flier was sent out by a group opposed to the proposition containing the endorsements of three Democratic California Assembly members, even though the Democratic Party of California (and 90 percent of consumers) support GM labelling.

 

The group that ran the flier is "No on 37: Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme, Sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers", formerly known as the Coalition Against the Costly Food Labeling Proposition.

 

"No on 37" receives funding from the Council for Biotechnology Information (CBI) and Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), both front groups for the "Big 6" pesticide and GM companies: Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont, and BASF. The flier proudly bears the endorsements of Assembly members Henry Perea, Manuel Perez, and Alexandra Rooker, the Vice-Chair of the California Democratic Party – despite the fact that the California Democratic Party has endorsed Prop 37!

 

Monsanto's website reveals that the corporation contributed $1,500 to Assembly member Perea's reelection fund in April this year.

 

The question before California's voters, who in November will vote on whether GM foods should be labelled, could not be more stark: Do you side with anti-worker, pro-polluter forces epitomised by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and deceptive corporate front groups, or do you side with 90% of California voters, the California Labor Federation, family farmers, the Consumer Federation of America, the United Farm Workers, California Certified Organic Farmers, the Organic Consumers Association, Public Citizen, the California League of Conservation Voters, the Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club – and people's democratic right to know what they are putting in their bodies?

 

The rundown of who the pro-labelling activists are up against is here:

 

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The trial has begun in Argentina of GM soy producers for spraying pesticides on people. The lawsuit has been brought by a group of residents who report high rates of birth defects, infant mortality, neurological disease, cancer, and other illnesses in their families and communities from the spraying.

 

The residents formed the group that's leading the lawsuit, the Mothers of Ituzaingo. Two courageous women from the group, Sofia Gatica and Maria del Milagro Godoy, will speak at the GMO Free Regions Conference in Brussels on 4-5 September 2012. Register here: 

 

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American and Canadian farmers speak out against seed patents and GM crop contamination in North America. The farmers express concern that they cannot guarantee their crops are GM-free and advise European farmers not to follow the US down the GM route. 

 

EVeryman, aka Evan from The Boyz In The Wood comedy web series, performs his F Monsanto Rap with D Rock and Itchy the beagle.

Lots more anti-GM songs

 

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GMO Free Regions Conference – Brussels, 4-5 September 2012. Register: 

 

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There's a disconnect between the much-trumpeted positive findings of a new study on Bt cotton in India by Germany-based researcher Matin Qaim and the ground realities in Indian states like Maharashtra where Bt cotton is the predominant crop and farm suicides continue to climb. Kishore Tiwari, convenor of the farmer group Vidarbha Jannadolan Samiti (VJAS), said, "The German study says cotton yields and profits increased by 24 and 50 per cent respectively among Bt cotton farmers as against non-Bt crops, whereas in Vidarbha there is an agrarian crisis directly linked to the farmer-suicide-prone district predominantly cultivating Bt cotton." 

 

The Coalition for a GM-Free India has issued a critique of two studies that hype the supposed benefits of Bt cotton to farmers – one of them the Qaim study (above).

 

 

Dozens of papers in peer-reviewed journals assert GM crops reduce pesticide use. But these claims are exposed yet again as lies by an updated analysis by Dr Charles Benbrook of pesticide use on GM and non-GM equivalent crops over the first 16 years of use, from 1996 to 2011, based on US government data. Crops considered are herbicide-tolerant (HT) corn, soy, and cotton; Bt corn; and Bt cotton. Benbrook's analysis shows:

*Use of glyphosate on GM Roundup Ready (RR) soy acres INCREASED from 0.69 pounds per acre in 1996 to 1.56 in 2011.

*Use of all herbicides on GM RR soy acres INCREASED from 0.89 pounds per acre in 1996 to 1.68 in 2011.

*The differential between herbicides used on GM RR soy and non-GM soy is growing, showing that GM RR soy is increasing the use of herbicides over time whereas non-GM soy is decreasing herbicide use. 

*HT crops have INCREASED herbicide use by a total or 527 million pounds (239 million kgs).

*HT soybeans account for 72% of the total increase in herbicide use across the three HT crops.

*Bt crops produce far more insecticide than the chemical insecticides they are meant to replace – confirming that GM Bt crops do not reduce or eliminate insecticides, but simply change the way that pesticides are used, from sprayed on, to built in.

*In fields planted to GM SmartStax corn, expression of Bt proteins is 3.73 pounds per acre – 12 X more than the chemical insecticide sprays displaced (0.31 pounds active ingredients).

 

A new study has confirmed Bt toxicity to non-target beneficial insects and showed how experiments claiming to refute their original results were designed not to find the effect. The study confirms that the Bt toxin present in GM crops kills ladybird larvae, which GM supporters claim are unaffected by the toxin.    

 

The study, by Angelika Hilbeck and colleagues, raises questions regarding the integrity of previous work published by GM proponents, whose experimental protocols were re-tested and shown to lack the ability to pick up signs of toxicity even in target insects that the pesticide is designed to kill.

 

The new study confirms that regulatory procedures for Bt crops are inadequate and that Bt crops are on the market under false pretences of safety.

 

The discussion about GM will be dead within ten years, according to journalist and food activist Michael Pollan. Pollan said anticipated GM breakthroughs hadn't borne fruit and conventional breeding is more effective.

 

 

Seventy-five family farmers, seed businesses, and agricultural organizations representing over 300,000 individuals and 4,500 farms have filed a brief with the US Court of Appeals asking the court to reverse a lower court's decision dismissing their protective legal action against Monsanto's patents on GM seed.

 

The outspoken TV host gives his views on why Americans should have GM labelling.

 

The Gates Foundation has given the John Innes Centre GBP6.4 million to research ways of making cereal plants fix their own nitrogen, including maize in Sub-Sarahan Africa. The project was described by GM Freeze as a waste of money that should have been used on more productive research. Nitrogen-fixing wheat and other cereals have been promised by the GM industry for several decades, without success. This is because nitrogen-fixing ability is a complex trait that is unlikely ever to be conferred by GM.

 

Dr Michael Antoniou, a molecular geneticist from King's College London's medical school, commented: "There are safer, proven technologies, so I'm afraid the Gateses have been grossly misled. GM has failed to deliver for farmers."

 

The GMO authorities in South Africa have given the green light for the importation of Dow's controversial 2,4-D tolerant GM maize (variety DAS 40278-9) into South Africa, where it will be used as food.

TAKE ACTION: Sign petition to ban the maize in SA:

 

 

 

 

 

A report co-authored by genetic engineers provides scientific and other authoritative evidence debunking the common claims made for the safety and efficacy of GM crops and foods:

 

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