GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 260
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Europe is gradually discontinuing the use of GM crops, says a report for the Inter Press Service (IPS), and even BASF says it may give up on GM crops for Europe (EUROPE), although it plans to continue to target the U.S. and Asia.

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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MONSANTO, WALL STREET AND THE REGULATORS
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
EUROPE
UK GOVT - GM INDUSTRY MOUTHPIECE
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
RESEARCH
ASIA
CONTAMINATION
PRO-GM ELITE EAT ORGANIC
COMPANY NEWS
MONSANTO UNDERMINING MILLENIUM GOALS
BIOPIRACY
GOLDEN RICE
NEW BOOK
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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MONSANTO, WALL STREET AND THE REGULATORS
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+ DEVASTATING IMPACT OF REGULATORY BREAKDOWN
The current US-led financial crisis has implications that go way beyond Wall Street, speculators and investment banking. Marie Robin's film The World According to Monsanto contains chilling footage of George Bush Senior's visit to Monsanto's HQ, when he was US Vice President. Bush tells the folk at Monsanto that if they run into problems steering their new GM products past US regulators, "Call me. We're in the 'de-reg' business. Maybe we can help."

It is, of course, "the 'de-reg' business" that ultimately lies behind recent market meltdowns. As Brent Blackwelder of Friends of the Earth USA says of Bush's taxpayer-funded bailout: "This financial crisis has exposed the right-wing's anti-regulation philosophy as an abject failure. Their hands-off approach... has resulted in greedy corporate titans getting rich on the backs of working people... and is causing irreparable harm to the planet. And now we face a trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded bailout. Enough is enough. We oppose the Bush administration's... blank-check bailout... What is needed is truly fundamental reform, not this no-strings-attached proposal. The government must impose oversight and re-regulation... The days of the fox guarding the henhouse, with corporate lobbyists writing the laws that regulate their industries, must end."
http://action.foe.org/pressRelease.jsp?press_release_KEY=418

And nowhere has the fox been guarding the henhouse more than with biotechnology. An article from a 1998 edition of The Ecologist, "Revolving doors: Monsanto and the regulators", describes in detail the extraordinary regulatory breakdown in the US that led to largely untested GM foods being unleashed on world markets.
http://www.psrast.org/ecologmons.htm

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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
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+ BIOTECH SNAKE OIL: A QUACK CURE FOR HUNGER
Bill Freese explains in detail why GM crops do not provide a solution to the food crisis. Among other things he points out that unintended, yield-lowering effects are a serious though little-acknowledged technical obstacle of genetic engineering, and are one of several factors foiling efforts to develop viable GM crops with drought-tolerance, disease-resistance and other traits. Monsanto claims yield problems occurred only at the start but recent evidence suggests GM soybean yields continue to lag behind those of conventional varieties. http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2008/092008/freese.html

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EUROPE
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+ THE DAYS OF GM CROPS MAY BE NUMBERED IN EUROPE
Pressure from the president of the European Commission has not succeeded in advancing the cause of GM crops, says a report for IPS - the Inter Press Service. In spite of the power wielded by the executive organ of the European Union, the bloc's member countries are gradually discontinuing the use of GM seeds. This is due in large measure to the difficulty of convincing European farmers to adopt the transgenic crop production model, but also to increasingly vociferous protests in different parts of Europe and demands that governments take an active role.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43895

+ BASF MAY CUT AND RUN FROM EUROPEAN MARKET
BASF says it may abandon research into GM crops for the European market should it fail to get approval for its GM Amflora potato.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aCGKeh_e3LrM&refer=germany

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UK GOVT - GM INDUSTRY MOUTHPIECE
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+ UK GOVT A GM INDUSTRY MOUTHPIECE
Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth UK accused the UK Government this week of increasingly being prepared to act as a mouthpiece for the GM industry.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/sep/24/4
Clare was reacting to the comments of the latest Labour minister - Ian Pearson - to join New Labour's all out push for GMOs. Pearson is Lord Sainsbury's successor as Science Minister. It's worth noting that Sainsbury - an ardent GM enthusiast with extensive biotech interests - remains by far the cash-strapped Labour Party's biggest individual financial donor.

+ SCOTLAND URGES UK-WIDE BAN ON GM CROPS
Scottish ministers are putting mounting pressure on the UK government to end its support for GM crops now that Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have all agreed to become GM-free. In the wake of the latest incident of GM crop contamination, the Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell, is urging Whitehall to alter its stance to take account of the strong opposition to GM crops in all the devolved administrations: "The political dynamic of the GM debate in these islands has changed profoundly over the last year and it is time that the UK government woke up to the fact." http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2446130.0.scotland_urges_ukwide_ban_on_gm_crops.php

+ UK MINISTER ACCUSES "MESSIANIC" ANTI-GM LOBBY OF IGNORANCE
UK food and farming minister Jeff Rooker has attacked opponents of GM crops, who he said are on a "messianic mission" to halt the technology. He expressed frustration at what he described as the "anti science climate" across the EU. http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=21489

+ UK GOVT ACCUSED OF "BREATHTAKING NAIVETY" ON GM
After Ian Pearson, the UK science minister, was quoted in The Guardian as saying that the public would accept GM if the technology could help feed people in developing countries, like sub-Saharan Africa, Patrick Holden of the Soil Association said, "There is no evidence that GM crops increase yields, reduce pesticide use or bring any public benefits to society. And there is a growing body of evidence there could be health risks." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/22/gmcrops.foodhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/22/eagm122.xml

+ NATURAL ALTERNATIVES TO GM CROPS
Geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou, in a letter published in The Guardian, says Pearson needs to get his science straight before taking a stance in support of GM: "Properties such as innate pest or blight resistance, drought or salt tolerance and yield are sophisticated processes that manifest from the function of multiple genes working in a tightly regulated, coordinated manner. The introduction of such properly functioning complex gene networks in plants by the crude and genetically disruptive GM transformation process is currently not possible." Dr Antoniou says there are existing natural crops that are well adapted to harsh conditions, and insofar as genes provide the solution, marker assisted breeding is a less risky biotechnology method than GM.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/sep/24/4

+ INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS AND NEW LABOUR'S CONTINUING GM PUSH
Comment from GM Watch: The other sleazy aspect of New Labour's continuing GM enthusiasm - in addition to the GM interests of its biggest donor - is the Party's unhealthily close connections to GM industry lobbyists. Before environment minister, Phil Woolas - currently at the centre of a new sleaze row over his links to lobbyists (see below) - launched Labour's latest pro-GM onslaught, he is known to have been briefed by the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC). The ABC, which was set up by the biotech industry, is run by Lexington Communications. Lexington's director, Mike Craven, was head of New Labour's press office as well as working with Labour's former deputy prime minister.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=138
New Labour's former chief media spokesperson's PR firm also runs the GM industry front group CropGen.
http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/469/9/
New Labour sleaze: Why did Minister give Commons pass to lobbyist friend?http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058794/New-Labour-sleaze-Why-did-climate-change-Minister-Commons-pass-friend-green-lobbyist.html
New Labour sleaze: Kick-backs, cronies and Labour's love affair with the City spivs
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1058596/PETER-OBORNE-Kick-backs-cronies-Labour-8217-s-love-affair-City-spivs.html

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AFRICA
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+ GM LABELLING TO BE MANDATORY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Labelling of the GM contents of food will become mandatory once the Consumer Protection Bill is implemented, and producers, importers, distributors and retailers will be held liable for any damage these products might cause.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A845077

+ FARMERS OPPOSE GM POTATOES
The proposed commercial release of a GM potato in South Africa has become something of a hot potato as farmers and some major food giants say they will not use them. Potato SA, which represents potato farmers, has written to the department of agriculture saying the potential costs, particularly of consumer backlash and possible loss of exports, outweigh the potential benefits.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20080917054736313C486568

+ AFRICAN HERITAGE CROPS THREATENED BY SOUTH AFRICAN GMO DECISION
Strong concern has been expressed over the recent Appeal Board decision to overturn a landmark decision by the South African GMO authority to ban the genetic engineering of sorghum, a prized African heritage crop.
http://www.grain.org/m/?id=201 http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4MWpodvVJv9kxkUar1xl3Pop0dA

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THE AMERICAS
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+ CALL FOR GM MORATORIUM IN CANADA
A coalition of civil society groups is calling on all candidates and Parties in the federal election to support an immediate moratorium on all new GM crops and food approvals until the government's procedures for GM risk assessment have strengthened to meet strict international and scientific standards.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/16/c4844.html

+ BRAZIL APPROVES BAYER GM COTTON SEED
CTNBio, Brazil's biosafety regulator, has approved the use of Bayer's herbicide tolerant GM cotton seed. However, the seed must still be approved by Brazil's agriculture ministry before it can be used for cultivation.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2152466320080821

+ BS ALERT: GM CROPS "THRIVE" IN DRY CONDITIONS
Someone has pulled the wool over the eyes of Associated Press. An article called "Transgenic crops thrive in US" claims GM corn and soybeans are thriving in arid fields across the Great Plains of the US Midwest, displacing wheat. And we're told that this is down to genetic engineering: "Corn and soybeans varieties whose transgenic traits allow them to adapt to drier climates are making those crops more competitive for farmers to grow than wheat." But there are NO corn or soya GM products on the market that have been engineered to have any kind of drought resistance! A more credible explanation for this expansion in corn and soya acreage is the market distortions caused by the massive subsidies for "biofuels". http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10533635&ref=rss

+ FORMER MONSANTO DIRECTOR ADVISING OBAMA
The Obama campaign has revealed its five main science advisors and two have ties to the biotech industry: Sharon Long, Monsanto board of directors, 2002-2007; and Gilbert Omenn, Amgen director, 1987-present. Omenn also serves on the board of industrial-chemical concern Rohm and Haas. Tom Philpott asks, "Where are the ecologists? Where are the scientists who don't see the world as a discrete, independent set of problems ready to be solved by corporate-led science? Where are the scientists who believe in the precautionary principle?"
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/9/18/123340/083 http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/obama-campaign.html

+ SECRET APPROVAL, NO LABELING FOR GM ANIMALS
The Center for Food Safety issued a statement in response to the US FDA's release of a draft guidance outlining the approval process for GM animals. CFS calls the proposed FDA rules "seriously flawed". The new proposal uses a secret approval process wherein no one other than FDA reviewers can see the data submitted before final approval. And FDA maintains that GM animals should not be labeled.
http://wistechnology.com/articles/5041/

+ BAN TRANS FATS NOW, GM FOODS LATER?
Decades after they were first introduced, trans fats, which were allowed to become ubiquitous in the global food chain, are now thought to be responsible for millions of undetected premature deaths, and there are calls for bans. The epidemiological studies on the health effects of trans fats, which ultimately produced devastating results, were not conducted until decades after the introduction of foods containing this man-made ingredient. In the absence of any epidemiological studies in relation to GM foods, claims that the latter are safe for human consumption based on a decade of widespread use in the American food chain are unsubstantiated by science. Yet given the trans fats experience, why have no such studies been conducted for GM foods?
http://www.nlpwessex.org/docs/transfats.htm

+ MONSANTO CEO AND MICHAEL POLLAN ON YOUTUBE
A video featuring a discussion between Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant and journalist Michael Pollan has been placed on YouTube. Grant predictably uses the current food crisis to push for GMOs as a solution to "needing more food". But the reality, as Michael Pollan points out, is that the food crisis has been driven more than anything by the ethanol led "biofuel" boom (and nobody has lobbied harder to keep that boom going than Monsanto, which has profited hugely out of it while the food crisis has been ratcheted up). Film at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9I1IkbcHNE
Blog:
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/devouringseattle/archives/149242.asp

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ OPEN LETTER TO THE ROYAL SOCIETY
Recently, in what is seen by many as a move timed to back up the UK Governments renewed support for GM crops, the Royal Society announced a call for evidence for a new research report on "biological approaches to enhance food crop production". Friends of the Earth and other NGOs are very concerned that this repeats some of the work of the International Agriculture Assessment (IAASTD) and will try and give a more prominent role to GM crops in meeting future food needs. They've written a joint open letter expressing concern about the remit of the research, and suggesting what they should be focusing on: i.e. implementing the findings of IAASTD. Details of the Royal Society report here
http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?tip=1&id=7926

+ GM ADVOCATE ATTACKS JEFFREY SMITH
Maine's top advocate for GM foods has lashed out at Jeffrey Smith, the keynote speaker at the Common Ground Country Fair. Smith said the attacks are aimed at undercutting him personally and not the science behind his research. "They'd lose in a debate with the details," Smith said. "So, they try and distract people."
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5425694.html
Thanks to Jeffrey Smith, Marie Robin's film, The World According to Monsanto, is now easily available on DVD in the US at
http://www.fsicart.com/seeds

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ NINETY PERCENT OF AUSTRALIANS WANT GM FOOD LABELLED
A Newspoll survey has shown nine out of 10 shoppers in Australia want the presence of GM ingredients labelled on all food products. According to the survey, 54 per cent of respondents said they were less likely to buy a GM product, while only 2 per cent said they were more likely to buy it. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/shoppers-want-choice-on-gm-food/1278789.aspx

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RESEARCH
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+ SCIENTISTS UNCOVER BEES' ABILITY TO SPREAD TRANSGENES OVER SEVERAL KILOMETRES
A study by scientists from the Nairobi-headquartered international research centre ICIPE, in collaboration with the French Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), has established that bees have the potential to spread transgenes from GM crops to wild relatives over several kilometres.
http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=13820

+ BT COTTON HAS WIDER IMPACT THAN TARGET CROP
GM Bt cotton cuts the numbers of pests in neighbouring fields of ordinary crops, a study conducted in China shows. But Clare Oxborrow of FoE says, "It's not surprising that the number of target pests has fallen - the GM cotton contains a toxin poisonous to them. This study tells us nothing about the wider ecological impacts of growing Bt cotton, such as the impact on non-target species. It also fails to identify the impact on crop yields and the overall level of pesticide-use." The study also ignores the very serious problem of secondary pests emerging, as identified by the Cornell multi-year study of Bt cotton cultivation in China.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/18/eagmcotton118.xml

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: "I AM NO LAB RAT"
A consumer mobilization campaign on GM foods called "I Am No Lab Rat" was launched in Hyderabad, India by the actress and activist Amala Akkineni. The campaign intends to create awareness among consumers about what GM foods are, the known health impacts of such foods and the fact that consumers will have no choice if GM foods are allowed in. "Letters of appreciation" from a fictitious company called Monsterco were distributed amongst newspaper readers, thanking them for becoming lab rats in an experiment, and walkers were greeted by scientists from Monsterco seeking to recruit lab rats for their genetic experiment.
http://www.iamnolabrat.com/

+ INDIA: BAN FIELD TRIALS OF GM RICE
Gene Campaign has alleged that leading seed company Mahyco has violated guidelines in conducting field trials of GM rice in Jharkhand. http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/18/stories/2008091860931200.htm http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14161921.htm

+ BT BRINJAL SAFETY DOCS AVAILABLE
The documents the government of India was forced to release on the biosafety of Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) are downloadable from this blog page:
http://mightybrinjal.wordpress.com/

+ INDIAN ARTIST AUCTIONS WORK TO RAISE FUNDS
Indian artist Sharmila Samant's works auctioned in Australia have raised Australian $20,160 for families of Indian farmers who committed suicide following consecutive GM crop failures. The installations, evoking the crippling effects of genetic engineering on the agrarian economy in India, were crafted during a series of workshops organised by Samant with farmers.
http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/09/10/0809101414_indian_artist_samant_auctions_works_to_raise_funds.html

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CONTAMINATION
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+ GM CROPS CAN'T BE CONTAINED
http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/09/how_to_contain_gm_crops.php

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PRO-GM ELITE EAT ORGANIC
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+ AMID MILK SCARE, CHINA'S ELITE EAT ORGANIC ONLY
Associated Press report: While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow. And it's all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php
GM WATCH comment: This news follows on from a couple of other recent revelations about the pro-GM elite: that despite Tony Blair's claims that he fed his children GM foods, the former Prime Minister's wife has admitted that she always tried to make sure the children ate organic; and that even Monsanto's CEO buys organic! Among many other food contamination problems in China, Chinese rice has been found to be contaminated with an unapproved GMO.

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO: HERBICIDE POWERHOUSE
For the 2008 fiscal year, Monsanto's corn business should exceed $2 billion in gross-profit generation for the first time. Monsanto's Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides business is on track to be above $1.9 billion of gross profit for the 2008 fiscal year, ahead of the previous forecast. Tom Philpot comments, "Monsanto's success rests on Roundup Ready technology -- selling seeds genetically engineered to withstand heavy doses of its flagship herbicide. But Roundup-tolerant weeds (so-called "superweeds") are on the rise. Eventully, farmers will have to shift away from Roundup -- Monsanto's”¦ cash cow. "
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/9/16/134046/599

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MONSANTO UNDERMINING MILLENIUM GOALS
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The President of the General Assembly of the United Nations made some very powerful points at the opening this week of the High-level Event on the Millennium Development Goals at the U.N. in New York. Here are a few of the points made by H. E. M. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann:

9. It is clear that the world food crisis is increasing social tensions and bringing about a significant rise in extreme poverty...

11. The World Bank has concluded that 75 per cent of the increase in food prices stems from the production of biofuels and factors related to rapidly growing demand for biofuels. [Remember that nobody has lobbied harder to keep that boom going than Monsanto, which is at the very heart of the pro-ethanol lobby]

14. The essential purpose of food, which is to nourish people , has been subordinated to the economic aims of a handful of multinational corporations that monopolize all aspects of food production, from seeds to major distribution chains, and they have been the prime beneficiaries of the world crisis. A look at the figures for 2007, when the world food crisis began, shows that corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill, which control the cereals market, saw their profits increase by 45 and 60 per cent, respectively...
http://appablog.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/opening-remarks-by-h-e-m-miguel-d%E2%80%99escoto-brockmann-president-of-the-general-assembly-at-the-high-level-event-on-the-millennium-development-goals-25-september-2008-united-nations-new-york/

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BIOPIRACY
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+ CLIMATE-READY GM CROPS: THE PATENT RACE
The world's big seed companies face claims of biopiracy as they race to secure patents for climate-proof GM crops. Over the past four years, biotechnology companies have flooded patent offices with applications for "climate-ready" genes. Vandana Shiva, founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, says the climate-ready genes companies are claiming as their own invention already exist and that local farmers are familiar with the varieties in which they appear.
http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5644

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GOLDEN RICE
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+ PATENT SYSTEM "STIFLING SCIENCE"
You may have thought that it was the failure of genetic scientists to engineer enough pro-vitamin A into Golden Rice that was holding up its public launch. But an article for the BBC entitled "Patent system 'stifling science'" says the delay is due to the patent quagmire created by all the "companies holding patents for technologies used to engineer the rice". "It has taken years just to figure out how many patents there actually are and who owns them. We must address this lack of transparency," says Dr Richard Gold, professor of intellectual property law at McGill University in Montreal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7632318.stm

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NEW BOOK
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+ INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND CROP GENETIC RESOURCES
A new book by Regine Andersen, a senior fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) in Norway, is said to provide the first comprehensive analysis of how international agreements affect the management of crop genetic resources in developing countries.
http://www.merid.org/fs-agbiotech/more.php?id=7037 http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/5/1/0/2/p251027_index.html

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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+ UK: FORESTRY COMMISSION AND GM TREES Recent press reports say GM tree researchers in the UK see this as an ideal time to revive efforts to introduce GM trees. The Forestry Commission - the public body charged with protecting and enhancing forestry in Britain says that it does not see GM trees as a priority, and they are not themselves undertaking any GM tree research, but they are working on establishing a protocol for considering requests by other researchers to conduct GM trials on Forestry Commission land. If enough people contact the FC before they get their GM trial protocol cast in stone, they might be persuaded that letting GM trees out in the national forest is a bad idea. Contact details for the FC are here:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/HCOU-4U4HZS
It's also possible for individuals and groups to lobby their local forestry forum, at least if they are in Scotland where these seem most developed. Details here:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6agllr
For information on the many concerns about GM trees see:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/24-Bid-to-plant-GM-trees-in-UK.html

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GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
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+ HANK GREELY ON CGS AND HUMAN GENETIC MODIFICATION
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
While Stanford bioethicist Hank Greeley denies being "enthusiastic" about human genetic modification, he's certainly opposed to prohibitions on it or on reproductive cloning.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4282

+ GOOGLE CO-FOUNDER HAS GENETIC CODE LINKED TO PARKINSON'S
Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, said that he has a gene mutation that increases his likelihood of contracting Parkinson's disease, and that he discovered that he carried the mutation using a service from 23andMe, a biotechnology start-up co-founded by his wife.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4296

+ THREE MORE BLIND PATIENTS HELPED BY GENE THERAPY
Three more patients treated with an experimental gene transfer approach have reported better vision.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4293

+ STEM CELL BACKERS QUESTION WHERE MCCAIN STANDS
Some of the nation's top embryonic stem cell research advocates say they are growing concerned that Sen. John McCain will backtrack on his previous support for the work if elected president.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4295

+ A BETTER ROAD FOR OBAMA ON STEM CELLS
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
Obama needs to put his opponent on the spot for his recent wavering on whether he would, if elected, actually lift the restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4298