from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
This week there's an important cyberaction to ask Brazil's President Lula not to block GM food labeling at the upcoming meeting in Brazil on the Biosafety Protocol (THE AMERICAS).
Meanwhile, Britain ('perfidious Albion') is cheering along the almost universally hated Terminator technology (TERMINATOR). From India, we have some intelligent analysis of the disastrous new Indo-US farm pact (ASIA).
Finally, some excellent news - a large majority of EU ministers have demanded changes in the way decisions are made on the approval of new GM crops, including tougher scientific assessments. Current assessments, they say, are neither adequate nor independent (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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CONTENTS
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
ASIA
RESEARCH
LOBBYWATCH
CONTAMINATION REPORT
CHURCHES
TERMINATOR
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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+ SEEDS OF DEATH
"More than 40,000 farmers have committed suicide over the past decade in India -- although the more accurate term would be homicide, or genocide. More than 90 percent of farmers who committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Vidharbha in the 2005 cotton season had planted Bt cotton." - Dr Vandana Shiva
http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=32438
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THE AMERICAS
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+ IMPORTANT CYBERACTION: LETTER TO LULA
Two important conferences are coming up: the 8th meeting of the 188 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity from 20-31 March (COP-8) and the 3rd meeting of the 132 Parties to the supplementary Biosafety Protocol, also known as the Cartagena Protocol (MOP-3) from 13 to 17 March, both to take place in Curitiba, Brazil.
During this 3rd Meeting, the Protocol member states will finally have to decide on methods of identification and documentation for all international shipments of GMOs.
Just a few days remain before the meeting, but the Brazilian government has not yet disclosed its position. This is worrisome, especially considering that, at the second meeting of the Parties, Brazil, together only with New Zealand, stood in the way of international consensus.
Action: Please send letters to President Lula and his ministers urging them not to stand in the way of meaningful identification and labelling of GMOs for food, feed and processing. Spread as widely and as fast as possible.
ENGLISH Direct link to the cyber-action:
http://www.greenpeace.org.br/biosseguranca/?lang=en&ref=GPI
PORTUGUESE Direct link to the cyber-action:
http://www.greenpeace.org.br/biosseguranca/?lang=pt&ref=GPI
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6314
+ PRO-GM LOBBYISTS OUT IN FORCE AT MOP-3
As usual, pro-biotech lobby groups will be out in force for the upcoming meetings in Curitiba, Brazil, of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-8) from 20-31 March and the supplementary Biosafety Protocol, also known as the Cartagena Protocol (MOP-3), from 13 to 17 March.
The biggest lobby group will be the International Grains Council but at least delegates will know who the IGC and its constituent bodies represent. Much more insidious are lobby groups like the Public Research and Regulation Initiative - a pro-GM lobby which will be fielding over 40 representatives, mostly picked from the developing world and trained and scripted by PRRI, to promote identical goals to those of the industry.
Also active at these events is the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) which will once again be showing its Monsanto-backed film on GM, "Voices from Africa", on the 16th. Anyone going to MOP-3 should be encouraged to read a background article, "The Uncle Tom Award", by GM WATCH's Jonathan Matthews, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6319
+ IMPORTANT BRIEFING ON MOP-3
An important briefing by Lim Li Lin of the Third World Network for the 3rd Meeting of the Parties (MOP-3) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6320
+ MONSANTO'S WACKOES AT IT AGAIN?
Harry Cline of Western Farm Press writes on the pro-corporate Truthabouttrade website: "The environmental wackoes are at it again. The same old group of warm and fuzzy-sounding organizations have filed suit in federal court in northern California demanding the government rescind its approval of herbicide-resistant alfalfa. The Center for Food Safety, Sierra Club, the Cornucopia Institute and others of similar ilk want to toss out at least two decades of research and years of field trials." - and more in that vein.
Cline makes no mention of the farmers involved in the lawsuit and nor - ironically - has he made any attempt to inquire into the background of the sources he's used for this supposed expose of the "environmental wackoes".
His main source is ActivistCash.com which is, in reality, part of the internet PR campaign run by Rick Berman's Washington DC firm, Berman & Co. Berman & Co aggressively targets groups seeking to promote controls over alcohol, tobacco, food safety, animal rights or the environment. Berman is also behind the Monsanto-supported Center for Consumer Freedom which runs negative PR attacks on precisely similar targets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6313
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EUROPE
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+ MARCH FOR GMO-FREE REGIONS
March for GMO-free regions 5th April 2006 - Vienna FIND OUT MORE:
http://www.gmofree-europe.org/coexistence_conference.htm
+ BIG MAJORITY OF EU NATIONS DEMAND CHANGES TO GM APPROVAL SYSTEM
A large majority of EU nations demanded changes Thursday in the way decisions are made on the approval of new GM crops, arguing that decisions to approve eight such products since the EU lifted its moratorium were done without proper research.
Only three countries - Britain, the Netherlands and Ireland - said the current system was rigorous enough.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas acknowledged the EU rules could be changed, only three years after the current ones came into force, in wake of the widespread disapproval. He said the way experts review product applications at the European Food Safety Agency could be changed.
"I am aware of the criticism," Dimas said after the debate by EU environment ministers. "Certain changes may be beneficial."
The call by many for even tougher testing and review of new biotech crops could further strain divisions with the United States and others that argue that the EU is violating world trade rules in restricting imports of GM crops.
http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-big-majority-eu-governments-demand-changes-biotech-crop-/2006/03/09/1443609.htm
+ GM ANIMAL FEED IS SNEAKING INTO THE FOOD CHAIN - SAY NO!
Since April 2004 GM food has had to be labelled under EU law. But products derived from animals fed on GM feed - such as eggs, milk and meat - are excluded from labeling. Greenpeace is campaigning to close the loophole in the EU's GM labeling laws. The aim is to collect massive support for a petition to the European Commission, which demands consumer labeling for products derived from animals fed on GM feed.
Hundreds of thousands of signatures have already been collected. For details of how you can not only sign yourself but print off petitions to draw in loads more signatures:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/assets/binaries/ge-free-petition
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6306
+ MONSANTO ON IRISH TRADE TALKS TEAM
Irish Independent Senator David Norris says that a representative of Monsanto was on the official Irish delegation to the World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong last December. The Department of Agriculture told a newspaper that Norris's claim was not true. Here is Norris's reply to this denial:
"I stand by my statement. I cannot understand how the Department of Agriculture can deny such a claim. I have been provided with a list of the Irish delegation, a photograph and eye-witness accounts. The person in question is a full-time employee of Monsanto, being a senior political adviser to its operation in Brussels.
"In recent years Monsanto has managed to insert representatives into Irish delegations. They are provided with full accreditation, badges, access to all areas, etc.
"Another newspaper carried a similar denial but in this the Department of Agriculture indicated that the Monsanto representative was not part of a Department of Agriculture delegation. I never said she was. She was part of the Irish delegation as a whole."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6311
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AFRICA
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+ FAO PUSHES GM IN AFRICA WITH BIOTECH FRONT GROUP
The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF), is in the process of establishing an agricultural biotechnology network for professionals and stakeholders in Africa.
This network, titled "Agricultural Biotechnology Network in Africa" (ABNETA) claims to have been set up in recognition of "the enormous potential of biotechnology in plant breeding and therefore in food security".
GM WATCH comment:
This really stinks. ABSF is a Kenya-based front group spun off by the industry-backed ISAAA. ABSF was established when Florence Wambugu was in charge of ISAAA's "Afri-centre" and ABSF has Wambugu as its Vice President. Wambugu won GM Watch's PANTS ON FIRE award for the extraordinary dishonesty of her promotion of GM in Africa.
There are people starving in Kenya. Meanwhile Wambugu and her Monsanto and USAID backers have helped funnel millions of dollars and significant local resources into a totally unsuccessful and risky technology when viable and relatively inexpensive alternatives for improving crop production are readily available.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6308
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ASIA
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+ INDO-U.S. FARM PACT: BUSH ANNOUNCES USD130 MILLION DEAL FOR BIOTECH
Promising a second "green revolution", US President George W. Bush has announced an investment of 130 million dollars to boost Indian agriculture and biotechnology in a pact called the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative in Agricultural Research and Education. Bush said, "By working together, the United States and India will develop better ways to grow crops and get them to market and lead a second green revolution. This initiative will invest 100 million dollars to encourage exchanges between American and Indian scientists and to promote joint research to improve farming technology."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6303
+ FARM PACT BOARD DOMINATED BY MULTINATIONALS
Devinder Sharma, an agricultural scientist, who is also a food policy analyst on the forum for biotechnology and food security, says the Initiative's board is dominated by multinationals like Walmart and Monsanto, who are all set to determine the Indian agricultural research agenda. "The American IPR regime offers patent holders rights to life form, plants and seeds, so there is also the threat of losing rights to indigenous genetic resources. There is also the additional fear that India could become the dumping ground for all the genetically modified crops that there are no takers for in Europe and many other parts of the world," Sharma says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6303
+ INDIA OPENS AGRICULTURE TO U.S. INTERESTS AT HUGE COST
An informative article which gives good overview of the recent Indo-US pact, which has been described as America's pay-off for its nukes deal with India, is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6315
This article makes clear the full extent of that pay-off to US corporate interests. For instance, an official within India's ministry of agriculture says "the Indo-US initiative will cost India over 1000 crores with the US not spending a single penny." [1000 crores is around $2 billion!]
EXCERPT:
Suman Sahai [of Gene Campaign] says, "Earlier a private company like Monsanto only had the status of a business entity [but] now they can ask the director-general of ICAR [Indian Council of Agricultural Research] to get our vast genetic wealth from any of its more than 200 research establishments. The private companies can develop gene patents and sell them at a much higher price." This concern can't be denied as Madelyn E Spirnak, senior advisor biotechnology, USDA [US Dept of Agriculture] clarifies, "The US goal is to make sure that the Indian biotechnology markets remain open." The US goals could make the farmer-friendly Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers' Rights (PPVFR) Act redundant.
+ INDO-U.S. AG PACT: NO SECOND GREEN REVOLUTION
Dr Suman Sahai explains in a powerful opinion piece how the Indo-US ag pact is being spun to disguise its corporate goals.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6305
+ BIOSAFETY VIOLATIONS IN GM CROP TRIALS - AGAIN
Presenting damning evidence of blatant violations in biosafety guidelines of the Environment Protection Act in the case of GM food crop trials, the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) has shown yet again that such violations have now become a routine phenomenon, with no liability and monitoring mechanisms in place. A CSA team has now uncovered violations that took place in field trials of Bt brinjal and Bt rice in farmers' fields in Andhra Pradesh in 2004. This is close on the heels of various companies denying in a GEAC-convened meeting recently that there were any violations at all.
"Untested products are routinely being allowed to contaminate the food/feed chain. It is really time that GEAC and DBT [regulatory bodies] stop giving permissions for trials when they do not obviously have any control over the situation", said Ms Kavitha Kuruganti of CSA.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6309
+ MONSANTO FORCED TO CUT BT COTTON SEED PRICES
Faced with the allegations of high prices of Bt cotton, Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB) has decided to reduce the technology fee by 30%.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6309
+ INDIA: HIGH COURT ISSUES NOTICE ON FARMERS' SUICIDES
The Bombay High Court has issued notice to Maharashtra chief secretary and principal secretaries of agriculture and finance departments on the issue of suicides by cotton growing farmers. The court has directed the chief secretary and others to file an affidavit as to the steps taken to prevent the suicides within four weeks.
The public interest lawsuit (PIL) alleged the number of farmers committing suicides because of crop failure, since last June, reached 337 by the end of February. The PIL contended that most of these farmers were cotton growing farmers from West Vidarbha and the failure of government-promoted Bt cotton seeds ruined them.
According to the petitioners, the state government encouraged Bt cotton seeds, saying it would lessen spending on pesticides, which proved to be wrong. The PIL has demanded government's promotion of Bt cotton should be probed. It has also demanded families of farmers who have committed suicide be given compensation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6302
+ THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF BIOTECH LOBBYISTS
Dr Vandana Shiva has demolished the pseudo-science of a report by Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot of PG Economies Limited, UK. The report, "GM Crops : The Global Economic and Environmental Impact - The First Nine Years 1996-2004", falsely claims environmental benefits of reduced chemical use and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. It also falsely claims benefits to farmers amounting to $27 billion.
EXCERPT from Vandana Shiva's article:
Bt cotton is killing Indian farmers, not increasing their incomes. Brookes was in India recently and claimed $ 124 million increased in farm incomes and 54% increase in yields from Bt Cotton. However, every study in India carried out by citizens groups and government shows that Indian farmers are loosing not just incomes but lives.
Bt cotton was sold with the claim that it would give 15 quintals of yield per acre. However, yields have been as low as 20 kgs in one acre...
A study by the Center for Sustainable Agriculture showed that Bt cotton farmers uses seed that cost Rs. 1600 per acre, while organic farmers used seed of Rs. 450 per acre, a 355% difference. Bt was sprayed with pesticides like Monocrotuphos, Confidor, Trace, Avarint, Eudosulfab, Acephate, Demethoate, Imidacloprid, Quinalphos, Chlorpyriphos, Cypermethrin, etc. Average sprays were 3.5 times costing Rs. 2632 per acre. Organic farmers used ecological pest control agents like Neem, Trichoderma, Panchakavya etc. at Rs. 382 per acre. This is a difference of Rs. 2250/- or Rs. 7625/- per acre. Pest control in Bt cotton is thus 690% more costly than in ecological farming.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6310
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RESEARCH
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+ NEW PAPER ON GENOME SCRAMBLING EFFECTS OF GM
A new peer-reviewed paper on genome scrambling effects of genetic engineering by Dr Jonathan Latham of the Bioscience Resource Project and two other scientists is now available at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/JBB/index.html
The abstract is at:
http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?pii=S1110724306253762
The paper concludes that transgene insertion is infrequently, if ever, a precise event. Mutations found at transgene insertion sites include deletions and rearrangements of host chromosomal DNA and introduction of superfluous DNA.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6307
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ OFFSPRING OF GM ATTACK DOG UNLEASHED IN IRELAND
Amidst the escalating row over the prospect of GM potato trials in Ireland, a "gmoireland" blog has been launched to provide "a blow by blow commentary on the GM food debate in Ireland."
http://www.gmoireland.blogspot.com
The new blog aims to provide a "commentary based on facts and not the spin of either the Pro-GMOers or Anti-GMOers..." This careful even-handedness receives repeated emphasis: "As the players come out swinging in the next coming weeks and months on the issue of GM crops/food in Ireland I will be providing commentary on the statements and spin issued on both sides of the debate!!!" And again, "Be warned the Anti-GMOesr [sic] and the PRO-GMOers.......... you are being watched!!!!"
The blogger is Shane Morris, who styles himself on his blog "CelticLad".
Morris was a research assistant to Douglas Powell at the University of Guelph. Morris has also published papers on GM with Powell.
Powell has been called the "darling of the pro-biotech lobby and its chief attack dog" and has been accused of using his "regular appearances on the op-ed pages of the nation to denigrate anyone who criticizes the science or the regulatory framework around biotechnology".
In an article entitled Rude Science in the Manitoba Cooperator, editor John Morriss reviewed Powell's performance as a science communicator, describing him as a "tenured Assistant Professor at a Canadian university" who at some point "morphed into a full-blown apologist for biotechnology, while still operating under his 'food safety' umbrella".
For Morriss, even more serious than Powell's role as a biotech apologist is his "aggressive if not vicious attacks on other scientists who dare to challenge his views". Morriss gives the example of an "offensive attack on no less than the Royal Society of Canada and the members of the panel it appointed to review food biotechnology". That attack was co-authored by Shane Morris.
While studying under Powell, Shane Morris was also active within Powell's controversial "Food Safety Network". FSN's activities have enjoyed the financial support of Monsanto, DuPont, Eli Lilly, Syngenta, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta Seeds USA, ConAgra, McCain, McDonald's, Nestle, Ag-West Biotech, Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., Southern Crop Protection Association, Pharmacia, AgCare and the (biotech industry funded) Council for Biotechnology Information.
More: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6317
Morris disputes the accuracy of what we have said - see
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6321
+ THE NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY WHO'S WHO OF THE ETHICALLY CHALLENGED
If you want to know how morally, intellectually and spiritually bankrupt GMO promoters are, take a look at this list of the nominated "personalities who have made the most significant contribution to biotech in the past 10 years". This is taken from CS Prakash's AgBioView. We have added our comments in square brackets [ ] and given urls to profiles where applicable. As you will see, some of these people's views are so extreme it would be easy to doubt their sanity, let alone their honesty and their ethics!
***
EXCERPT:
Today in AgBioView from http://www.agbioworld.org - March 6, 2006
The Nature Biotechnology Who's Who - shortlist of nominees
We present below the 291 nominees, shortlisted by the editors of Nature Biotechnology, as personalities who have made the most significant contribution to biotech in the past 10 years.
Society and ethics
***Ronald Bailey. Science correspondent for Reason magazine, and a keen proponent of the integration of new biotechnologies. [author of articles such as "Organic farming could kill billions of people" and "Send in the clones". In "GM trade war", Bailey recommends *forcing* the EU to accept GM foods, "[The US] must persuade all the chief food exporting countries... to create a united front against the EU, leaving Europe with no sources for non-biotech feed grain imports." In other words, starve 'em into submission! http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=16 ]
***Arthur Caplan. Perhaps one of the most visible and accessible bioethicists in debates about biotech applications. [An accessible quote from Caplan: "Absolutely, somewhere in the next millennium, making babies sexually will be rare. Many parents will leap at the chance to make their children smarter, fitter and prettier."]
***Greg Conko. A commentator on public health and consumer safety issues in biotech.
[Praskash sidekick who does his commenting out of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian lobby group funded by Monsanto, Dow, Exxon and Big Tobacco! Very ethical. http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=31 ]
Many more at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6312
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CONTAMINATION
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+ REPORT REVEALS WORLDWIDE ILLEGAL SPREAD OF GM CROPS
The first report into the extent to which GM organisms have "leaked" into the environment reveals a disturbing picture of widespread contamination, illegal planting and negative agricultural side effects.
The report is a summary of incidents uncovered by the on-line Contamination Register set up by Greenpeace and GeneWatch UK. It reveals a catalogue of highly disturbing incidents across the world, including:
* Pork meat from GM pigs being sold to consumers
* Ordinary crops being contaminated with GM crops containing pharmaceuticals
* Growing and international distribution of illegal antibiotic resistant Maize seeds
* Planting of outlawed GM crops which have been smuggled into countries
* Mixing of unapproved GM crops in food, including shipments of food aid
* Inadvertent mixing of different GM strains even in high profile scientific field trials.
The report reveals 113 such cases worldwide, involving 39 countries - twice as many countries as are officially allowed to grow GM crops since they were first commercialised in 1996. Worryingly, the frequency of these cases is increasing, with 11 countries affected in 2005 alone. Contamination has even been found in countries conducting supposedly "carefully controlled" high-profile farm-scale evaluations, such as the UK.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6318
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CHURCHES
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+ PRIEST IN CLASH WITH MARTINO OVER GM FOODS
An Irish priest was involved in a row with a senior cardinal during a conference on social justice at Croke Park. Fr Sean McDonagh, an internationally-renowned expert on the environment, confirmed that he had a heated argument off-stage with Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace.
The angry exchanges occurred after the two had clashed openly at the conference over whether or not the Vatican had given its moral blessing to the production of GM foods. Fr McDonagh had argued that GM foods were morally irresponsible, and he accused Martino of being one of the main proponents of GM food. In reply, Martino claimed that Fr McDonagh had misrepresented him, and he insisted that the question of its morality was still open because the Pontifical Council had not yet made up its mind.
Afterwards, the Cardinal and the priest re-engaged with one another in private. "The Cardinal became really angry and accused me of running a world protest campaign against him," the Columban priest said. "He asked me why I was running a campaign against him on the issue, and that he was receiving letters from all over the world in opposition to GM food."
"I told him that I was not campaigning against His Eminence personally, but was arguing publicly against the immorality of producing genetically modified food, an issue which has a major impact on one billion Catholics throughout the world."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6311
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TERMINATOR
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+ UK MINISTERS BACK "TERMINATOR" GM CROPS
Ministers are trying to scrap an international agreement banning "terminator technology", a move which threatens to increase hunger in the Third World. Their plans, unveiled in a new official document buried in a government website, will cause outrage. Michael Meacher, who took a lead as environment minister in negotiating the ban six years ago, has written to Margaret Beckett, secretary of state for the environment, to object.
The government is to push for terminator crops to be considered for approval on a "case-by-case basis" at two meetings this month; its position closely mirrors the stance of the US and other GM-promoting countries.
Terminator technology would stop hundreds of millions of poor farmers from saving seeds from their crops for resowing for the following harvest, forcing them to buy new ones from biotech companies every year. More than 1.4 billion poor Third World farmers and their families pursue the age-old practice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6304
+ BRITAIN GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO TERMINATOR
From Scotland's Sunday Herald:
The government has abandoned its opposition to so-called terminator technology - a form of genetic modification that makes harvested seeds sterile, and has opened the door to testing such products.
Terminator technology was developed by the biotech industry and is highly controversial because it prevents farmers from saving their own seeds to grow new crops, forcing them to buy seed each season.
A global moratorium on the testing and commercialisation of terminator technology was established under the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in 2000. However, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recently stated that it will examine applications for terminator trials on a "case by case" basis.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6316
+ COMMENT BY JOHN VIDAL
John Vidal in The (UK) Guardian's Eco Soundings column challenges UK biodiversity minister Jim Knight:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6316