GMWatch News Review archive

from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

As news continues to emerge about Syngenta's illegal release of an unapproved maize and contamination of the food supply, it has become clear that supposed regulators in the US, Britain and Europe have colluded with the company to cover up the affair (CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST).

Don't miss the latest research findings on the toxicity of Roundup, the herbicide most commonly used on GM crops (NEW RESEARCH).

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

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CONTENTS
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CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST
LOBBYWATCH
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
MIDDLE EAST
ASIA
NEW RESEARCH
FOOD SAFETY
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

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CONTAMINATION SCANDAL LATEST
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+ US OFFICIALS FRET OVER SOUTH KOREA'S RESPONSE TO ROGUE CORN
U.S. industry and government officials say they are concerned South Korea may disrupt corn trade by requiring testing for an unapproved biotech strain produced in the U.S. over the past four years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5060

+ JOINT US-UK COVER-UP ALLEGED
From the UK Guardian:
The whereabouts of 170,000 tonnes of contaminated GM maize and its possible import into the UK has caused an international investigation and claims of a cover-up on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) first put out a statement saying the contamination was "on a small scale" but later retracted it, instead saying the maize was unlikely to have got into food but might have been fed to cattle.

The maize is not licensed to be grown in Europe and contains a GM antibiotic-resistant marker [resistant to ampicillin, a commonly used antibiotic] of a type scientists have advised the EU to phase out. It is theoretically possible for bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics as a result of contact with the marker genes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5053

Critics have expressed surprise that neither Syngenta nor the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the presence of the marker when they admitted that the release of Bt10 had taken place. "It is quite scandalous," says Greg Jaffe, head of the biotechnology project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5043
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5047
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5054

+ COMMISSION ONLY ACTS AFTER 10 DAYS
The Commission confirmed on 1 April that around 1000 tonnes of the illegal GM maize has entered the European food chain and some was planted at tests sites in Spain and France. The Commission has now written to the United States and to Syngenta for more information.

Friends of the Earth criticised the European Commission for doing too little, too late, about the illegal import into the EU of unapproved GM maize.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5056

+ DEFRA ACCUSED OF KEY ROLE IN GM CONTAMINATION COVER-UP
DEFRA has been accused of playing a key role in a cover-up designed to protect the GM industry from the effects of the latest GM contamination scandal. According to GM Free Cymru, the government department rushed out a press notice last week to protect Syngenta, within 24 hours of receiving notification of the contamination of maize supplies with Bt10.

GM Free Cymru says the DEFRA press notice was misleading, and contained statements which DEFRA must have known to be untrue:

** The DEFRA statement stresses that the contamination incident was on "an extremely small scale". But GM Free Cymru points out that by using Syngenta's own figures, around 187,000 tonnes of contaminated maize has entered the food chain.

** DEFRA pretends that because USDA has concluded that there are no safety concerns about the contamination incident, we should all come to the same conclusion. But there is no effective regulation of GM crops and foods in the USA, and Bt 10 maize has never come before the authorities for assessment or regulation either in the US or Europe.

** DEFRA states that Bt10 maize "is covered by the existing tolerance exemption for Bt11" and that it is virtually identical in its proteins. But DEFRA and ACRE knew as long ago as 2003 that Bt10 is unique and identifiable. It also contains ampicillin antibiotic resistant marker genes, which make it illegal in Europe.

** DEFRA and ACRE are in possession of technical data about Bt10 which they have refused to place in the public domain. We believe that since Bt10 was developed about ten years ago, it has changed its character and may be unstable. If this is the case, and if Bt10 really is a "failed" variety, DEFRA should be protecting the public, not Syngenta.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5044

+ 'FOOD SAFETY' BODY SHOULD ACT
GM Free Cymru has written to the European Food Safety Authority to demand that they impose an embargo on the import of US maize to the EU.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5037

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ NEW GOLDEN RICE PR BLITZ
Golden Rice is back - a new PR blitz is underway to acccompany publication of an article on how Syngenta scientists have managed to increase the level of precursor Vitamin A in the rice. See: 'GM golden rice boosts vitamin A'
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=X&oi=news&start=0&num=1&q=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4386933.stm

Syngenta is, of course, highly unlikley to be encouraging its scientists to study those genes that would make a non-GM vitamin-A rice possible, because that would deny Syngenta the GM poster child the industry so desperately needs, given its failure to demonstrate any benefits to consumers or the poor.

Similarly, the International Rice Research Institute is busy preparing to run trials on Golden Rice even though IRRI's own scientists already have types of rice they've been working on for longer that are naturally rich in vitamin A, iron and zinc.

Golden Rice has the money and support to be developed even though it's possible to achieve the same results without the uncertainties of GM. The renowned Indian scientist Dr Pushpa Bhargava has pointed out that in terms of meeting the requirement for vitamin A, "there are other cheaper and better sources already available". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5041

+ FOOD WATCHDOG PRO-GM AND 'BIASED AGAINST ORGANIC FOOD' SAYS ITS OWN REVIEW
Britain's official food safety watchdog must review its controversial policies on GM and organic goods, a wide-ranging official review of its performance has concluded.

The review, carried out to mark the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Food Standards Agency, makes it clear that its support for GM and its attacks on organic produce has caused a widespread loss of confidence in its judgement and independence.

This conclusion is all the more striking because the review - conducted by Baroness (Brenda) Dean at the agency's invitation - is otherwise notably sympathetic to the watchdog.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=625943

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AFRICA
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+ NIGERIAN CONSUMER BODY REJECTS GMOs
Nigerian consumers, under the umbrella All-Nigerian Consumer Movements Union, have rejected GMOs and called on the federal government to change its position on "these dangerous products".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5045

+ RESOLUTION FROM CONFERENCE ON GMOS AND AFRICA
Environmental, consumers and farmers' representatives from Africa participating in the African Conference on GMOs in Lagos 21-23 March 2005 have demanded a moratorium on GMOs in Africa until their safety for environment, health, and socio-economic conditions is established.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5045

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THE AMERICAS
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+ MOST CANADIANS WANT GM-FREE ZONES
58% of Canadians and 62% of Prince Edward Island residents said they want their Province to be declared a GMO-Free Zone, say surveys by Greenpeace. In Quebec, support for the GMO-Free Zone reaches 64%.

Part of the support for GMO-Free Zones results from citizens' frustrations towards the pro-GMO positions adopted by upper levels of government. In April 2004, the Federal Government adopted a "voluntary" labelling policy on GMOs. Until now, despite an overwhelming 83% of Canadians wanting mandatory GMO labelling, Greenpeace has yet to find a single product with a "Contains GMO" label on it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5052

+ US: NINE STATES LIMIT LOCAL GM BANS
At least nine US states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Dakota, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, and West Virginia have either passed or introduced legislation that would preempt local cities and counties from restricting the sale of GM seeds. The bills are viewed as a nationally coordinated attempt to block GMO-free ordinances similar to those approved by citizens in Mendocino and Marin counties in California in 2004.

Roger Lansink, an organic farmer, said, "What if some areas want to establish a GMO free zone for economic advantage? These bills will shut the door to that possibility."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5050

+ BIOTECH SEEDS POSE THREAT TO ORGANIC FARMERS, ENVIRONMENT
EXCERPT from good article by Brian Tokar:
Once again, the problem of GM varieties and their consequences for Vermont farmers is being debated in the Statehouse. Gov. Douglas and Agriculture Secretary Steven Kerr continue to assert that if Vermont farmers would simply communicate better with their neighbors, there would be no need for further legislation to address this vexing issue. "Coexistence," not regulation, we are told, is the answer to Vermont farmers' problems with GMOs.

... In Vermont, and worldwide, the market for organic and other identity-preserved non-engineered crops is growing rapidly, while the market for GMOs is highly contested and controversial. The Agency's approach offers no comprehensive protection for non-GMO growers, and no legal requirement for GMO growers to cooperate. This is an unacceptable situation for the vast majority of Vermont farmers who have little to gain and possibly everything to lose from this unreliable and highly disruptive new technology.

... What incentive do GMO growers have to begin talking more openly with their non-GMO farmer neighbors? This cannot happen without specific changes in statute...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5038

+ WORLD'S LARGEST RICE MILLER OPPOSES GM RICE IN MISSOURI
Riceland, the world's largest rice miller and marketer, has asked the US Dept of Agriculture to deny Ventria Bioscience's request to grow about 200 acres of the rice in Cape Girardeau, Scott and Mississippi counties in Missouri. Riceland says there is no level of acceptance among consumers, in the US or abroad, for GM rice.

The Food Products Association, a Washington-based trade association that represents the nation's major food companies, also is preparing to submit comments opposing Ventria.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5046

+ GM CROPS INVADE LATIN AMERICA
EXCERPT from good article:
Latin America is being invaded by GE crops. The promoters of these crops say they will help fight hunger, reduce agrochemical use, and bring prosperity to farmers and rural communities in Latin America. But so far experience has demonstrated that these novel crops do not fight hunger, do not reduce agrochemical use, do not benefit small farmers, and also create new forms of economic dependence.

... Resistance against GMO agriculture is manifesting in almost all Latin American countries from diverse sectors: from indigenous peoples who work to preserve their millenarian farming traditions and protect their seeds from genetic contamination, from environmental sectors that warn about the environmental impacts of GMOs and industrial agriculture, from farmers who seek to practice a truly ecological agriculture, and from progressive organizations and agrarian reform movements.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5035

+ BRAZIL'S LULA SIGNS UP TO MONSANTO LAW
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva has signed into law Brazil's new "biosafety" bill. It's been dubbed "Monsanto Law" because of its weakness and the ease with which it can be used to approve GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5036

+ CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN BRAZILS' BIOSAFETY COMMITTEE
Now that Brazil's new "Monsanto (biosafety) Law" has been signed into law, the National Technical Biosafety Committee (CTNBio) is working to push ahead rapidly with GM releases. It seems GM cotton was approved even before the bill, which minimises the input of the Ministry of the Environment, was signed into law.

Jorge Guimares, CTNBio's president, says other parts of the government lack his committee's expertise and so should keep out, but a representative of the Ministry of the Environment who was present at the meeting [to discuss approvals] says it seems "the GM cotton decision had already been taken before the meeting, which had its 'to-do list' altered in order to give priority to the commercial liberation process of the Bollgard cotton".

He also says that there was no evaluation of the environmental risk of the GMO in the Brazilian context, and that the decison was based on low-quality scientific studies.

In case anyone's in any doubt about what's going on, he spells it out, "Lets see, four of the current members are counselors of the CIB (Council for Biotechnology Information), an organization supported by biotechnology multinational companies, which are directly interested in the transgenic products liberation. Half of the scientific community members work with biotechnology and four in genetic improvement programs."

All this overseen by a President who when he was seeking election promised there would be no GMO releases by his government. Such a policy, Lula said, would be madness.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5049

+ BRAZILIAN MINISTRY PROTESTS APPROVAL OF GM COTTON
Brazil's decision to approve the planting and sale of GM insect-resistant cotton, taken by biosafety committee CTNBio, has been met with objections from the Ministry of Environment. A statement issued by the ministry says the decision goes against the precautionary principle, and contravenes Brazilian environmental legislation and the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety. The ministry says CTNBio's decision was based on unpublished studies, adding that the risks of growing GM cotton have not yet been assessed in a Brazilian setting.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5036

+ BRAZIL: GM SOY YIELDS DROP IN DROUGHT
Yields of GM soy grown in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul dropped sharply this year due to drought, according to farmers. Because the seeds planted in the state are not adapted to the local climate, they are less resistant to drought, reported the Association of Producers and Traders of Seeds and Seedlings of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Conventional varieties of soy, developed by national companies and institutions and adapted to the specific characteristics of the region, performed better, with up to 25 percent higher yields.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5049

+ WWF SELLS OUT TO AGRIBIZ
From John Vidal and Paul Brown's Eco Sounding in the UK Guardian:
Last week international conservation group WWF hosted a meeting in Brazil with major Latin American soya bean growers. The idea, said WWF, is to work with agribusiness corporations and persuade them to adopt better practices, such as leaving some forest standing and including corridors for wildlife. But WWF has provoked outrage among grasssroots organisations from many Latin American countries which met at a counter meeting down the road. More than 600 ecologists, unions, students, human rights and other groups all deplored the initiative as naive and dangerous. It was summed up by Corporate Watch: "The WWF's agenda seems to accept that monoculture cash crops, GM soya, intense pesticide use and land poverty will always be a feature of South American rural society."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5051

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MIDDLE EAST
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+ ORDER 81 AND THE BIOTECH INVASION OF IRAQ
An excellent article by Andy Rowell (author of Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat) on Order 81 has been published by Spinwatch.org. Order 81 has been imposed by the US on Iraq. It bans farmers from saving seed and facilitates a takeover of Iraqi agriculture by big corporations.

EXCERPT:
The new patent law ... explicitly promotes the commercialisation of GM seeds in Iraq. And it is this that worries the experts. This month Dr Al-Sharifi [new head of the Agriculture Ministry, charged with planning the reconstruction of the Iraqi agricultural sector] received an email. It was from the Independent Science Panel, whose members include some of the world's leading scientists on agriculture and genetic engineering. These include Dr Tewolde Egziabher, the head of Ethiopia's Environmental Protection Authority and Dr Arpad Pusztai, one of the world's leading independent researchers into the health effects of GM foods.

The purpose of the email was to "highlight the damage that Order 81 will do to Iraq's agricultural future". According to the scientists: "The Order promotes the view that GM varieties are really no different from 'new' varieties developed through conventional breeding programmes. This view is scientifically indefensible, and the many unique health and environmental hazards associated with GM crops and foods are now well documented in the scientific literature". Their closing remarks to Dr Al-Sharifi were stark: "We consider that the patrimony of your country is at stake here, and that your attitude to Order 81 will affect the lives of Iraqi people for generations to come."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5057

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ASIA
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+ ORGANIC FARMING TAKES HOLD IN RAJASTHAN
Large numbers of farmers have opted for a way of cultivation that does away with chemical pesticides, and most importantly, uses less water in a water-starved state. The dramatic results are nowhere more visible than in Rajasthan's Shekhawati belt.

When 55-year-old Banwarilal Jangir decided to turn to organic farming four years ago, he wasn't very sure of its benefits. He hoped it would improve the harvest in his 1.94-hectare farm in Nawalgarh, Rajasthan, where he cultivated wheat, fenugreek, chickpeas and isabgol. The yield wasn't high in the first year, but he wasn't disheartened. He struggled for a while, often selling the produce at market value, without making much profit.

Three years down the line, Jangir's efforts have finally paid off. Two companies have lined up to buy his crop this year and he's hopeful of getting a good deal. "I am sure I will earn at least 20 per cent more," says the elated farmer.

His story is echoed across Rajasthan, where thousands of farmers have opted for a way of cultivation that does away with pesticides, and most importantly for a desert region, uses less water.
Read on: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5055

+ BT COTTON IN PUNJAB: A LESSON IN EFFECTIVE PR
EXCERPTS: The story of official approval of hybrid varieties of Monsanto's GM Bt cotton is a lesson in effective Public Relations, says an article on Countercurrents.org. The PR machinery of Monsanto aided by a spineless and misinformed media and state collusion assured India joined the GM community on March 26, 2002, when it gave the green light for commercial cultivation of GM crops.

However, it was a small victory for the company with a massive belly. Only 6 states had approval for the commercial release of Bt cotton. The lucrative states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan were yet to be conquered. Thus began a media blitzkrieg.

While the farmers were committing suicide all along the cotton belt, what caught the headlines far more was write-ups inspired by Monsanto's PR machine. The stories of Bt failure were glossed over.

The propaganda exercise did not stop at media persons and bureaucrats. The lobbying reached the highest court of the country. On January 6, 1999, activist Vandana Shiva went to the Supreme Court challenging the "illegality" of the field trials authorized by the Department of Biotechnology. But the next year, when the SC was still considering the matter, Maharashtra Hybrid Company (Mahyco), in which Monsanto had a stake, was allowed to conduct large-scale field trials including seed production at 40 sites in six states.

The permission was granted based on "totally confidential" data from the small trials that allowed regulators to infer that Bt cotton was "safe. On January 5, 2001 a 10-member delegation comprising US judges and scientists met Supreme Court Chief Justice A.S. Anand to educate him -- and other members of the judiciary - on the advantages of biotechnology.

..Monsanto-India's PR person Ranjana Smetacek was all over the state without setting foot here. A story appeared in the Times of India with a Ludhiana dateline. Resembling a company handout, it quoted Ms Smetacek extensively to drive home the Bt advantage. It's another matter that nobody in Ludhiana's media community, including two correspondents of TOI (the story waswithout byline) had any clue who she was. It's a mystery how only theTOI's Ludhiana correspondents got to talk to her.
Read on: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5055

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NEW RESEARCH
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+ ROUNDUP DOESN'T ONLY POISON WEEDS
Recent studies on the most widely used herbicide in the world, Monsanto's Roundup and its glyphosate-based competitors, seem to indicate that this active ingredient, used by farmers as well as by public road services and Sunday gardeners, is not as inoffensive as its promoters claim. The stakes are big, because the use of glyphosate grows along with that of GMOs, the majority of which have been designed to "tolerate" this active ingredient, fatal to plants.

In an article in the American journal Environmental Health Perspectives, biochemist Gilles-Eric Seralini and his team from the University of Caen demonstrate, in vitro, several toxic effects of this compound as well as of the additives associated with it.

For their study, the researchers used human placental cell lines, in which very weak doses of glyphosate showed toxic effects and, at still weaker concentrations, endocrinal disturbances. This, for Seralini, could explain the high levels of premature births and miscarriages observed in epidemiological studies on women farmers using glyphosate. "The effect we have observed is proportional to the dose, but also to the length of exposure," he said.

Seralini is joined in his conclusions by Robert Belle, from the National Center for Social Research (CNRS) biological station in Roscoff (Finistere), whose team has been studying the impact of glyphosate formulations on sea-urchin cells for several years. In 2002, the Finisterian team had shown that Roundup acted on one of the key stages of cellular division. "This deregulation can lead to cancer," warns Robert Belle.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5040

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ EU COMMISSION WANTS TO KNOW HOW GM CROPS AFFECT HEALTH
The European Commission wants to know how GM crops might affect human and animal health in the longer term, eight years after the EU first allowed biotech crops. In a tender published on its website, the Commission's environment unit has advertised for interested parties to study the "potential cumulative long-term effects" of individual groups of GM crops, and say where more research is required.

Adrian Bebb of FoE said, "Consumers have been exposed to this, animals on farms have been exposed to eating huge amounts of GM feed with no long-term study," he said. "And they (Commission) are now admitting they haven't done the research."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5042

+ WARNING SIGNS POINT TO RISKS OF GM FOODS
A good article about health risks of GM foods, by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, has been published in The Scotsman.

EXCERPT:
In a study in the early 1990s rats were fed genetically modified (GM) tomatoes. Well actually, the rats refused to eat them. They were force-fed. Several of the rats developed stomach lesions and seven out of 40 died within two weeks.

... a UK government-funded study demonstrated that rats fed a GM potato developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, damaged immune systems, partial atrophy of the liver, and inhibited development of their brains, livers and testicles. When the lead scientist went public with his concerns, he was promptly fired from his job after 35 years and silenced with threats of a lawsuit.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5048

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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+ SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SCIENCE
Dozens of prominent scientists from all over the world are calling on the European Commission to support independent science in its next round of science funding, and to ensure maximum transparency and democratic input in deciding funding and research priorities.

The scientists want Europe's next round of public ressearch funding - Framework Programme 7 (2007 to 2013) - to establish broad funding criteria that put public interest ahead of 'wealth creation', and to include ethical and safety considerations before the research is funded.

They are demanding a redistribution of the research budget away from industry and technology driven areas like genomics and information technologies towards sustainable agriculture, ecology and energy use in sustainable systems, and holistic health. In particular, they would like to see top priority given to scientists working with local communities to revitalize and protect traditional agricultural and healthcare systems.

Please add your name and/or your organisation to endorse the comment here:
http://www.indsp.org/endorsements/endorsementISP-FP7.php