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Dear all:
The Indian media is doing a good job of exposing the carnage caused amongst poor farmers by Bt cotton crops. But Monsanto is desperately trying to keep India's farmers on the GM treadmill by rolling out 20 new Bt hybrids. And GM lobbyists are even demanding that the Indian government subsidise Monsanto's expensive GM seeds to help enable greater "technology penetration"! (ASIA)
Meanwhile in Europe, EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel seems hell-bent on enabling GM contamination of organic crops, something hotly contested by organic farming bodies. (EUROPE)
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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CONTENT
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ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
TERMINATOR
MIDDLE EAST
FOOD SAFETY
PATENTS
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ASIA
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+ ANDHRA PRADESH FARMERS HIT BY FAILED BT COTTON...
A report for Indian TV station NDTV says farmers in Andhra Pradesh are grappling with crippling debt and desperation and choosing to end their lives after their cotton crop failed.
EXCERPT:
Most farmers say that Bt cotton, introduced to put an end to their problems, has now become one of the biggest causes of farmer suicides.
Twenty-year-old Vijayalakshmi is a widow and she blames Bt cotton for it. Less than two months ago, her husband Raju drank pesticide because the Bt cotton he grew on four acres left him with a debt of over Rs 1 lakh. With no buyers even for the land he owned, the humiliation of not being able to even ensure his wife and two little children don't go hungry was too much for the 25-year-old.
"We grew Raasi [Bt] hybrid seeds with great hope but it has ruined us. Never before, had we invested Rs 75,000 in one crop. Now he is dead and I have debts and two children. What should I do?" said Vijaylakshmi.
... "Bt cotton is hardly useful. They had said that it would yield 10-12 or even 15 quintals but I got only 3 quintals," said Devaiah, a cotton farmer.
... In the last four years that Bt cotton has been grown, every time farmers encountered a failure, they were told, that particular variety had failed for some reason but the technology itself was faultless.
So a new variety was popularised the next year. As one activist put it, Bt cotton has become the story of "operation successful, patient dead". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6159
+ ... BT "SOLUTION" IS PART OF THE PROBLEM
A second report from NDTV gives more examples of tragedies caused by Bt cotton:
EXCERPT:
In the 1980s, when cotton farmer suicides were reported in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, synthetic pyrethroids were brought in as the solution. In 1997, when Warangal cotton farmers committed suicide, genetically modified Bt cotton was touted as a solution. Four years after Bt cotton was introduced in Andhra Pradesh, the solution seems to have become part of the problem.
Chandraiah, a farmer in Gopanapally village in Warangal district committed suicide after his [Bt] crop failed. His wife Swarnakka does not even know if he drank pesticide, because she had no money to take him to hospital. Even his last rites were performed with money villagers contributed.
"We have huge loans. My son-in-law abandoned our only daughter because we could not pay dowry. The debt must be Rs 40,000 already. The crop loss broke my husband. I don't even know what he did to himself," said Swarnakka, farmer's widow. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6169
+ JURY URGES CANCELLATION OF BT COTTON APPROVALS
A jury of experts convened in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, noted the problems with Bt cotton and the economic losses suffered by farmers and urged the immediate cancellation of all Bt cotton approvals and for studies to be carried out on the problems with the crop. A scientist working for Nuziveedu Seeds said that there should not be any halt in the development of transgenic technology as it will help in evolving the perfect solution for the problem.[!!!] http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6165
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6164
+ DON'T MEET MONSANTO!
The South Against Genetic Engineering, a South Indian alliance of over 50 networks, farmers groups, civil society organisations, consumer activists, scientists, academics and media people, has urged the president and the prime minister of India to stand by India's farmers and not meet the CEO of Monsanto.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6152
+ PM SAYS HE WILL TAKE UP FARMERS' CAUSE WITH MONSANTO MAN
Andhra Pradesh agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured the state government that he would take up the cause of farmers with Monsanto chairman, Hugh Grant.
''On knowing that the Monsanto chairman was going to meet the prime minister, I and chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had met Dr Singh and represented to him that cotton growers of the state were being exploited by the US seed major,'' he said.
The Andhra Pradesh state government has decided to drag Mahyco-Monsanto to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) to challenge the company's high prices for Bt cotton seed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6164
+ GUJARAT MAY ALSO DRAG MONSANTO TO MONOPOLIES COMMISSION
The Gujarat Government may also bring a case against Monsanto to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6164
+ MONSANTO TO INTRODUCE 20 NEW HYBRID COTTON SEEDS
In an attempt to keep farmers on the GM treadmill, Monsanto India Ltd is planning to roll out 20 new hybrids of Bt cotton seeds - despite the widespread failure of the existing 20 hybrids!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6164
+ GM SEED SUBSIDY DEMAND
As poor farmers kill themselves as a consequence of growing what have been called Monsanto's "seeds of debt and death", the government of India is being lobbied to provide state subsidies for GM seeds to "enable technology penetration".
The Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) has asked the Indian government to set up a fund to compensate states that provide subsidy specifically to approved GM seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6172
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EUROPE
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+ EU FARM CHIEF DEFENDS MORE GMOs IN ORGANIC FARMING
Europe's farm chief has defended her plans to permit GM content in organic farming, saying it would be too costly for farmers to achieve higher purity in their organic produce. Questioned about her draft law that would allow products with up to 0.9 percent of GM content to retain a label of "EU organic," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the recommended labeling threshold was a realistic one.
"It's a standard threshold in the regulation," she told a news conference, referring to the 0.9 percent label level that is already enshrined in current EU law. "We live in the real world. The lower we go (on a threshold), the more expensive it will be for organic producers. We have to find the right balance," she said.
Environmental groups are outraged by the proposal, with one recently attacking it as the "thin end of a wedge which will allow the creeping contamination of organic food across Europe."
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) said, "There has not been, and will not be, any tolerance at all for GMO contamination of organic products," adding that the EU had a duty to ensure that farmers who wanted to stay GMO-free were protected in the event of contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6162
+ AUSTRIA BANS MONSANTO'S GM OILSEED RAPE
The Austrian government has banned Monsanto's GM oilseed rape, GT73. This brings the total number of European bans on GM foods or crops to twelve. The Austrian ban is based on the risk of genetic contamination and the inadequate risk assessment carried out before the European Commission authorised it for import in August 2005. This authorisation came despite a majority of EU environment ministers blocking its approval for environmental and health reasons.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6163
+ GM LABELLING WATCHDOGS NEED MORE BITE
GM Freeze is calling for improved leadership from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and more money for port, health and local authorities to ensure that UK consumers and farmers can be certain that food and feed they buy are correctly labelled as to its GM content and that it does not contain any genetic modifications which are unapproved in the EU. They describe the FSA's attitude to enforcement as "luke-warm".
In 2005, GM Freeze surveyed local authority departments with responsibility for enforcing the GM traceability and labelling regulations. The main findings of the survey included:
***Only one prosecution for a breach of the previous GM labelling regulations took place in 2004 by the local authorities surveyed and only three local authorities mounted investigations into possible breaches.
***44% of local authorities questioned had taken no food/feed samples to test for GM content in the last year.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6161
+ GM CROPS IN GERMANY STALLED
Because biotech companies and seed producers continue to reject the demands of German regulators that they pay mandatory contributions to a state-regulated compensation fund, observers don't expect any large-scale planting of GM crops in Germany before at least 2007.
Until now, German farmers have avoided large-scale plantings of commercial GM crops such as corn or rapeseed, because German regulators want to require mandatory contributions to a compensation fund that would help farmers whose crops were contaminated by genetically engineered crops.
Farmers growing biotech crops would be liable if neighboring non-GM fields were to become contaminated by GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6156
+ THREE QUARTERS OF SWEDISH FARMERS REJECT GMOs
Swedish farmers remain solidly opposed to GMOs despite recent moves by major farm cooperatives to introduce GM feed and crops. In an opinion poll published 19 January in the farm journal ATL, 74 % of farmers say they will not consider growing GMOs, while 68 % say they will not use GMO feed. Asked whether they would eat GMO products themselves, 64 % say no.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6155
+ EU MUST RESIST U.S. PRESSURE ON GMOs
The TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) has demanded that the European Union and US governments listen to consumers and not attempt to force GM foods onto European markets. The call comes amid reports of a WTO ruling - expected in the next two weeks - in favor of the US challenge to European delays in approving new types of GM foods.
The Bush Administration claims that the EU's cautionary approach has resulted in lost markets for American farmers. Yet, consumer suspicion over the GM content in US maize (corn) had already caused sales to Europe to drop by more than half, before the delay in GM crop approvals began in 1998. European consumers continue to avoid GM foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6157
+ GMOs ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, SAY FRENCH REAPERS
On December 9, the Orleans criminal court - followed by the Versailles court on January 13 for other deliberate reapers - discharged a group of activists for having deliberately reaped Monsanto's GM corn crops in 2004. The court recognized the "necessity" of the action. This necessity, according to the court, results from the "present danger of the uncontrolled spread of GMO genes, the dissemination of which had been authorized, contrary to the constitutional right to a healthy environment."
In an article in Le Monde, the activists write, "This is the beginning of the end for the impunity of France's transgenic industry; it's a subpoena addressed to the French State; it's an indictment of its cowardice. The illegitimacy of GMOs was established before; their illegality is finally recognized because their destruction is legally qualified as a necessity.
"We invoke a state of necessity everywhere GMO plants are cultivated or tested in the field. From now on, every citizen has the right to destroy them, and the government has a duty to prohibit them."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6153
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AFRICA
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+ GM CROPS ON TRIAL IN AFRICA
Cotton-growers and other farmers in Mali, West Africa, will this week decide whether GM technology is the way forward for the world's fourth poorest country. A "citizens' jury" will cross-examine international experts, representing a broad spectrum of views, before reaching its decision.
The event starts on 25 January with three days of witness testimony, after which the jury, made up of 43 small farmers and medium-size producers, will deliberate and deliver their verdict on 29 January. It will take place in Sikasso in southern Mali where two-thirds of the country's cotton is produced.
The jury will question a wide range of agricultural specialists including farmers from other poor countries who have first-hand experience of growing GM crops. Though the jurors' decision is not binding, it is expected to influence the future direction of agricultural policy in Mali and across the region where most people rely on subsistence farming.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6171
+ LIABILITY AND MARKET ACCESS PROBLEMS FOR GMOs IN AFRICA
An article for Reuters refers to the problems of restricted market access and liability for those growing GM crops but doesn't deal with the problem of increased farmer indebtedness caused by GM crops in South Africa.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5287
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6170
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THE AMERICAS
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+ ATTEMPTS TO WEAKEN VERMONT'S FARMER PROTECTION ACT
Vermont's Farmer Protection Act was created to protect farmers from lawsuits by corporations such as Monsanto, DuPont and Dow, in the event of GM contamination of their crops. (Monsanto successfully sued farmer Percy Schmeiser for having its genes on his land.) The Senate has overwhelmingly supported the bill (26-1), but some in the House of Representatives want to weaken it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6168
+ BOLIVIA GOING GM-FREE?
The Bolivian government has resolved to reject all requests to introduce GM maize for field tests, planting, production or deliberate release into the environment.
Dow AgroSciences had requested to undertake field tests with GM maize. Political events precipitated the resignation of Erwin Aguilera, who approved the release of transgenic soy from Monsanto, and who would have similarly approved the release of transgenic maize.
The government's new resolution was passed before the election of Evo Morales as Bolivia's new president. Morales has charged the US with "poisoning" Bolivia with GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6167
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TERMINATOR
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+ RENEWED CALLS TO BAN TERMINATOR
Governments are gathering from 23-27 January to discuss the Convention on Biological Diversity in Granada, Spain. A key item on the agenda is the potential impacts of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) on indigenous and local communities.
Terminator Technology, which is one of the GURTs under development, is an extremely controversial application of genetic engineering. It renders seeds sterile at harvest, thus preventing farmers from saving and re-using seed, and forcing them to return to corporations to buy seed every season.
Although the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has a "de facto" moratorium on the field-testing and commercialization of GURTs, it is under threat, as there have been increased efforts by industry and some governments to overturn this.
Moreover, industry is now presenting the technology as suitable for "biological containment", to prevent gene flow. However, this is a false argument as Terminator is not a reliable gene containment system for both technical and practical reasons.
For example, Terminator crops will still produce pollen and could cross with neighboring non-genetically engineered or organic crops. So gene flow could still occur, with potentially catastrophic impacts on agrobiodiversity and biodiversity, and on seed saving.
Civil society groups are calling for an international ban on Terminator Technology.
For more information, please visit www.banterminator.org
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6166
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MIDDLE EAST
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+ IRAN COMMERCIALISES GM RICE
Iran is claimed to have commercialized on a small scale its first variety of GM rice. The rice contains a bacterium gene identical to one found in Bt corn. If the Iranians ever tried to export the rice, they could run into patent problems, says Joel Cohen of the International Food Policy Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
The developments in Iran will turn up the pressure on the Bush administration to figure out how the government would handle imports of foods that have been bioengineered in other countries. Believe it or not, the country that pioneered agricultural biotechnology isn't sure yet how it will treat the products of other countries' scientists.
GM WATCH COMMENT: The source for this article - about how Iran and China are winning the GM rice race - is Joel Cohen. He's the former USAID man who, with Monsanto, designed the notorious GM sweet potato project - a project that generated tons of 'feel good' PR (and a totally useless GM product!) thanks to Cohen and Monsanto sticking an African face on the front of the project to punt it as a Kenyan rather than an American corporate project.
Given this, it's no surprise that Cohen is keen to play up Iranian and Chinese GM rice as non-American public sector projects, without owning up to how tiny the Iranian project is or the fact the Chinese have got cold feet and have not commercialized GM rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6160
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ FURTHER COMMENTS BY PUSZTAI ON ERMAKOVA STUDY
The UK's Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP) in a recent statement drew a critical comparison between Dr Ermakova's GM soy feeding study and one by Brake and Evenson. ACNFP stated:
"...Dr Ermakova's findings are not consistent with those described in a peer-reviewed paper published in 2004.1 In a well controlled study no adverse effects were found..."
Dr Arpad Pusztai questioned the validity of using the Brake and Evenson study, which had a very specific focus (testicular development in young male mice) as a means of casting doubt on the Ermakova study, which found that when female rats were fed on GM soya their offspring were five times more likely to die within three weeks of birth than those of mothers fed on normal soya. The offspring of the GM-fed rats were also very underweight compared with the non-GM fed offspring.
More than one of our subscribers, however, felt unclear as to why the ACNFP's comparison was invalid. One wrote to us:
"I probably have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, but doesn't the Brake/Evenson paper's abstract state that, as in the Ermakova study, pregnant 'test subjects' were fed on GM and various controls, and then their offspring 'tested'? It would seem that analyzing the male offspring is not terribly different, because there were both male and female offspring (presumably) in the Ermakova study, and, in both cases, the mothers were fed GM and the offspring analyzed."
At our request, Dr Pusztai commented further on the validity of using the Brake and Evenson study as a means of questioning the Ermakova study. His further comments are at:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6154
Here's a summary of Dr Pusztai's latest comments:
***The only passage in the Brake and Evenson paper relevant to the Ermakova study is when they say that during breeding they observed no mortality in the offspring.
***Ermakova used rats while Brake and Evenson used mice.
***The two studies used RR soybeans from different sources.
***In the Brake and Evenson study, because of the poor nutritional design, the work's conclusions probably cannot be justified. We have no idea what happened to the male mice once they were born, no feeding protocol, no data, no weights, no feed intake, no growth pattern related to feed intake, absolutely nothing.
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PATENTS
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+ PATENT MAY BE GRANTED ON FABRICATED STEM CELL WORK
According to New Scientist, "A patent application, filed by disgraced stem cell scientist Woo Suk Hwang and colleagues and based on work now admitted to be fabricated, may nevertheless be granted." Apparently, patent offices don't care about whether an invention works or whether it even exists - that's for the market to decide.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6168