GMWatch News Review archive

=====================================================
GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 60 =====================================================

----------------------------------------------------------- 
MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS 
----------------------------------------------------------- 

QUIZTIME
*CAMPAIGNS OF THE MONTH*
PRINCE CHARLES SPEAKS OUT / FOOD CRISIS
LOBBYWATCH
LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL: IRISH PRO-GM CONFERENCE
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
SUPERWEEDS
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
ENVIRONMENT
CONTAMINATION
CORPORATE CRIMES
HEALTH RISKS
REGULATORY BREAKDOWN IN INDIA
COMPANY NEWS
BIOWEAPONS
GM TREES
GENETIC CROSSROADS

----------------------------------------------------------- 
QUIZTIME! 
-----------------------------------------------------------

We've just announced the winners and answers for our second quiz FARMING IN A GM WONDERLAND. Some example answers below. All the questions and answers from our first two quizzes are available at
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/26-10-YEARS-OF-GM-WATCH-QUIZTIME!.html

EXTRACT:
”¦7. Monsanto and its supporters claim that GM crops have been widely adopted in countries like the United States because of their economic benefits for farmers. Which organization in its review of GM crop cultivation in the U.S. commented, "Perhaps the biggest issue raised by these results is how to explain the rapid adoption of [GM] crops when farm financial impacts appear to be mixed or even negative"?

ANSWER: USDA - United States Department for Agriculture (USDA/ERS)

NOTES/SOURCES: Jorge Fernandez-Cornejo and William D. McBride, Adoption of Bioengineered Crops, Agricultural Economic Report No. AER810, May 2002
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer810/

8. The Director of Corporate Affairs for Monsanto India says the increase in GM cotton acres there "bear testimony to the success of this technology and the benefit that farmers derive from it." According to Washington University researcher Glenn Stone's multi-year study of the behaviour of cotton farmers in a key cotton growing area of India, what underlay the rapid spread of GM cotton there?

ANSWER: Seed fads.

NOTES/SOURCES: Stone argues that far from farmers carefully assessing the technology before adopting it more widely, the process is more like a "craze". He argues that GM cotton has contributed to a disruption of farmers' process of learning, as they rely less on experimentation and observation and more on advertising and a kind of herd mentality where everybody copies everyone else, leading to blind adoption. See: Glenn Davis Stone, Agricultural Deskilling and the Spread of Genetically Modified Cotton in Warangal, Current Anthropology, Volume 48, Number 1, February 2007
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/research/stone/stone480102.web.pdf
Articles about this research here
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7644

9. The wife of which South African farmer who has been flown around the world by Monsanto to preach the benefits of GM cotton and detail how it has transformed his family's life, admitted on camera that they made no profit from the crop?

ANSWER: TJ Buthelezi

NOTES/SOURCES: See the film, A Disaster in Search of Success: Bt Cotton in Global South
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7994
For a profile of TJ Buthelezi
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=184

----------------------------------------------------------- 
CAMPAIGNS OF THE MONTH
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ UK SUPERMARKETS CAMPAIGN
There's been an URGENT call for letter writing to UK supermarkets to reinforce the level of public concern over GM foods. Obviously, it's important for maximum impact to make your letter as personal as possible but a model letter is available on the GM watch site for those who would like one, plus addresses for each of the supermarkets to write to. PLEASE SPREAD NEWS OF THIS CAMPAIGN AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN. Thank you!
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/27-UK-SUPERMARKETS-CAMPAIGN.html

+ U.S. CITIZENS FIGHT GM SUGAR BEETS
Michigan residents are calling for a boycott of Kellogg's to pressure the company into rejecting the use of sugar from Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM sugar beets and to spark widespread market rejection in products ranging from cereal to baby food to candy. Links to all the boycott details here
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/7/164144/8933

----------------------------------------------------------- 
PRINCE CHARLES SPEAKS OUT / FOOD CRISIS
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ PRINCE CHARLES WARNS GM CROPS ARE MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
In a story that made the front page of the UK's Daily Telegraph and triggered a storm of media interest, Prince Charles warned that GM crops were the "biggest disaster environmentally of all time" and that firms were conducting a "gigantic experiment" with "nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong".

Relying on "gigantic corporations" for food, he said, would result in "absolute disaster". "That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future," he said. "What we should be talking about is food security not food production -- that is what matters and that is what people will not understand.

"And if they think its somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/15-Prince-of-Wales-in-tune-with-public-and-independent-scientific-opinion.html

+ PRINCE BACKED BY REPORT
The Prince's comments come hard on the heels of the UN International Assessment of Agriculture report (IAASTD), carried out by 400 scientists and endorsed by 60 countries, including the UK. The report found no conclusive evidence that GM crops increase crop yields over time. It argued that even if crop yields are in the future pushed up by GM, this might still carry an unacceptable environmental and social cost, with degraded soils, accelerating climate change and a betrayal of the world's poor. The biotech industry pulled out of IAASTD in a fit of pique, when it became clear that the report would not endorse GM crops. The approved report stated that "business as usual" was no longer an option and that science and technology must learn to work with traditional knowledge and indigenous communities in finding localised farming solutions.
http://sustainablefoodmonitor.org/content/iaastd-overhaul-agriculture-systems-ne eded-gm-crops-not-solution

+ MINISTERS FURIOUS
UK Government ministers are said to be privately furious about the Prince's remarks about GM crops, which they believe risks becoming a constitutional crisis. One Labour source said the Prince had "overstepped the mark".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/2571514/Prince-Charles-wrong-on-GM-says-minister.html

+ WOOLAS SAYS GOVERNMENT WILL PRESS AHEAD WITH GM
Phil Woolas, the UK's environment minister, said the government had a "moral responsibility" to investigate whether GM products could help alleviate hunger in the developing world: "We see this as part of our Africa strategy." He also told The Sunday Telegraph that the Government would press ahead with GM crop trials and look at moving to a more "liberal" regime in Britain, unless scientific evidence showed that the crops had done harm.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/2571514/Prince-Charles -wrong-on-GM-says-minister.html

+ CHARLES CALLED "A LUDDITE"
A number of Labour Members of Parliament have attacked the Prince as a "Luddite".
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044146/Prince-Charles-battle-ministers- cynical-attempts-push-GM-food-solution-world-hunger.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044664/The-Luddite-Prince-GM-catastroph e.html

+ PRINCE CHARLES IS RIGHT -- SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
The Scottish government supports Prince Charles' argument, says environment minister Michael Russell: "GM is not the panacea its advocates claim it is, and the dangers of GM crop cultivation continue to outweigh the advantages." Russell adds that the Northern Ireland government agrees [and so too does the Welsh Assembly - GM Watch].
http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.2432193.0.on_principle_we_should_back_prince.php

+ JOHN INNES CENTRE SCIENTISTS ATTACK PRINCE
Scientists at the UK's leading GM plant research institute, the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, have said that the Prince of Wales' attack against GM crops was "shocking and ill-informed".
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=NOED13%20Aug%202008%2020%3A53%3A33%3A637

+ PRINCE ANYTHING BUT ILL-INFORMED -- PLANT GENETICIST
John Innes-trained plant geneticist Dr Jeremy Bartlett considers the Prince's remarks as "anything but ill-informed", and explains why in a letter to the Eastern Daily Press at
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ SUPPORT FOR THE PRINCE
Kavitha Kuruganti of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, India, said:
"Many of us in India are watching and reading with keen interest the reports coming out of the UK, on Prince Charles' statements and views on GM crops. There are scores of civil society organisations which have recorded appreciation of the Prince's views here. He is right in pointing out that genetic engineering will compound the problems that exist - why wouldn't they, given that we are turning to the same corporations which have created the problems in the first place? Millions of smallholder farmers in countries like mine will have sustainable livelihoods only when they get away from corporate science & technology seeking profits all the time."

+ YET MORE SUPPORT FOR THE PRINCE
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/letters-to-the-editor/Prince-Charless-principled-stand-on.4425856.jp
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/2571514/Prince-Charles-wrong-on-GM-says-minister.html
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/15-Prince-of-Wales-in-tune-with-public-and-independent-scientific-opinion.html
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/15-Prince-of-Wales-in-tune-with-public-and-independent-scientific-opinion.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/13/gmcrops.food
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/gmcrops.food1
http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=charles-right-on-gm-crops&method=full&objectid=20700397&siteid=93463-name_page.html

+ OIL, GENETICS AND THE END OF CHEAP FOOD
The "cheap" food of the last 50 years has been based on wasteful use of fossil fuels, says Peter Melchett of the Soil Association in a letter to The Guardian: "Industrial agriculture involves turning oil into food because oil and natural gas are used to get nitrogen out of the air and into a sack of artificial fertiliser." He adds, "All current GM crops are just as oil-dependent as any other non-organic farming system, which is one of the reasons why Prince Charles was right to criticise them so strongly."
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/theguardian/2008/aug/19/5

+ PRINCE CHARLES SEEN AS "GUARDIAN OF COUNTRYSIDE"
A survey published shortly after the Prince of Wales spoke out on GM showed that he is seen by many as the best guardian of Britain's countryside. The survey which the Prince topped was conducted by Country Life - a magazine which is pro-GM!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/20/eacharles120.xml

+ PRINCE CHARLES IS RIGHT -- AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE
African farmers who have heard about GMOs are emphatically opposed to their introduction, says Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Nigeria: "Prince Charles' comments should be a wakeup call to remind those who are ravaging our environments that they will one day be called to account."

+ UK MINISTER SHOULD DO HIS HOMEWORK -- VANDANA SHIVA
The UK's environment minister Phil Woolas said it was the government's moral responsibility "to investigate whether genetically modified crops could help provide a solution to hunger in the developing world. We see this as part of our Africa strategy." Dr Vandana Shiva replies in an article for the Daily Telegraph, "The current [food] crisis is a result of speculation and diversion of food crops to biofuels, it is not a crisis of production". Shiva adds, "Yield and environmental resilience are multigenetic traits, and there is no GM crop currently engineered for high yields. ... One would imagine an environment minister would want to investigate whether biodiverse and ecological farming could help provide a solution to hunger, especially in Africa. The recently concluded International Assessment on Agriculture Science and Technology has concluded that GMOs and industrial agriculture is not the solution. Small scale ecological agriculture is the answer to poverty and hunger. Mr Woolas
should read the report."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/21/eashiva121.xml

+ AFRICA CANNOT AFFORD DEPENDENCE ON MONSANTO
Africa cannot afford to mortgage its food security to businesses such as Monsanto, writes George Ogola, lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire. Ogola adds that UK environment minister Phil Woolas' criticism of Prince Charles's comments as "entirely Luddite" sounded like "the views of a Monsanto company salesman".
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9530&Itemid=5821

+ SMALLER FARMS MEAN FOOD SECURITY
Christian Aid says that GM technology requires finance and favours large farms: "This would inevitably neglect the larger part of the African population and is far from guaranteed to deliver the needed productivity gains."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/23/food

+ DOMINIC LAWSON'S ATTACK ON PRINCE
By far the nastiest response to Prince Charles' criticisms of GM and industrial agriculture came from journalist Dominic Lawson, in a badly-researched article for The Independent called "The Prince is entitled to his views -- but not his ignorance". Readers' comments on this article on The Independent's website were generally supportive of the Prince and critical of Lawson.

+ DON'T BE TAKEN IN BY GM PUBLICITY -- MEP
"We must not fall for the publicity of the large biotechnology companies promoting GMOs for their own profits," writes MEP Jill Evans in The Western Mail: "Amongst other things they would have us believe that their products may be an easy solution for rising food prices." But, says Evans, nothing could be further from the truth.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/2008/08/19/don-t-be-taken-in-by-gmo-publicity-91466-21556037/

+ GM PROFIT MONSTER
From Eco Soundings in The Guardian:
Monsanto, which now has a virtual monopoly of US transgenic soya, cotton, and corn seed sales, has just made record profits in the middle of a world food crisis. That has not stopped it writing to US farmers saying that its "competitive challenges" have "forced" it to increase its herbicide prices more than 50%, and the price of its corn and soya seeds by 35%. Twelve states, and 35 farm and citizen groups, are calling for an investigation into Monsanto's competitive practices.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/20/1

+ MONSANTO FLEXES ITS MUSCLE
An important article by agricultural commentator Alan Guebert explores how Monsanto is making the most of its monopolistic position in the GM seed and accompanying chemicals market, and farmers are paying a heavy price. In the wake of massive price hikes of Roundup, the company is set to raise the price of seed corn to over $300 per bag.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/column/Guebert-081008

+ INTERVIEW WITH MONSANTO'S HUGH GRANT
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant gets away with claiming in an extraordinarily unchallenging interview that his company is already helping to feed the world through better seeds! He also says that Bt cotton is reducing the use of pesticides and that GM seed will solve the global water shortage.
Transcript at http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/20/corner_office_grant_transcript/

+ GM SEED UNLIKELY TO HELP MALAWI FARMERS
Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant has recently been promoting GM at a conference in Malawi on the future of world agriculture. In an article for New Statesman, John Vidal asks whether GM crops will help poor farmers in Malawi. He concludes that the chances of such farmers benefiting from GM are "utterly remote" and that it would be "criminal" to ask them to take the risk.
http://www.newstatesman.com/food/2008/08/malawi-world-seeds-technology

+ WORLD HUNGER? LET THEM EAT BIOFUELS / ORGANIC CAN FEED THE WORLD
A letter to The Independent points out that biofuels are a major cause of the food crisis. Another says there is evidence that in a world of rising oil prices and climate change, organic farming can feed the world.
http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/letters/letters-defining-britishness-910781.html

+ THE TRUTH ABOUT GM -- DR COLIN TUDGE
In a characteristically brilliant article for the New Statesman, Dr Colin Tudge, biologist and award-winning science writer, asks, "Will GM technology feed the world -- or destroy farming, and human health, in the name of corporate profit? How can we tell, when the science is up for sale?"
http://www.newstatesman.com/food/2008/08/technology-feed-crops-farming

----------------------------------------------------------- 
LOBBYWATCH
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ NINA FEDEROFF -- GM DIPLOMAT
The New York Times recently ran an interview with Nina V. Federoff, "science and technology adviser" to the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development. Federoff has a special place in her heart for GMOs, and says: "There's almost no food that isn't genetically modified. Genetic modification is the basis of all evolution.... The paradox is that now that we've invented techniques that introduce just one gene without disturbing the rest, some people think that's terrible."

Unsurprisingly, Federoff has affiliations to the biotech industry, as detailed by Tom Philpott of Grist in an article at http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/25/123816/462

----------------------------------------------------------- 
LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL: IRISH PRO-GM CONFERENCE
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ OFFICIAL SUPPORT FOR GM FOOD CONFERENCE CRITICIZED
Groups opposed to the growing of GM food have criticised the Irish government for allowing its agriculture and food development body Teagasc to sponsor a big pro-GM conference in Cork. The chefs' group Euro-Toques Ireland called on the government to reaffirm its promise to negotiate to keep Ireland free of GM crops. Euro-Toques says the conference, entitled Agricultural Biotechnology for a Competitive and Sustainable Future (ABIC for short), promotes GM algae, crops, trees, fish and livestock as a solution to rising food prices and climate change.

GM Watch comment: The conference in question is taking place at the Irish university where the controversial Canadian government bureaucrat Shane Morris has been based for the last few months. Large delegations from the Canadian government and the Canadian Embassy are expected to attend.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0823/1219416998929.html

+ NON-GM CROPS MORE PROFITABLE -- UK GOVERNMENT SCIENTIST
The ABIC pro-GM jamboree in Ireland last week didn't go entirely to plan. Two contributions in particular proved awkward for the organisers. One came from UK government ministry Defra's chief scientist Prof Bob Watson and the other from Prof Dennis Murphy, who heads the biotechnology department at the University of Glamorgan.

Prof Murphy apparently made statements to the conference such as: "nothing has happened in commercial biotech for 15 years... [we're] relying on 1st generation GM products which have under-performed... we must reduce our obsession with GM ...it will not feed the world, maybe a small section." Prof Watson meanwhile said that financially GM crops were not as profitable as conventional crops and that it was incorrect to attribute hunger in Africa to a lack of GM crops.

GM "VITAL" TO MEETING WORLD'S FOOD NEEDS -- GM CONFERENCE
Biotechnologies such as GM crops are necessary to double global food production by 2050, the ABIC conference in Ireland was told by Dr Charles Spillane of University College Cork.

GM Watch comment: Spillane runs the GM lab that the Canadian government bureaucrat, Shane Morris, retreated to at the height of the "wormy corn" scandal. Spillane has subsequently published a paper with Morris attacking EU regulation of GM. Morris continues, while at University College Cork with Spillane, to be employed by the Canadian government. The organisers of this pro-GM conference are based in Canada.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ THE WORM AT WORK
Before the opening of the ABIC event, Kathy Sinnott MEP and Michael O'Callaghan of GM-free Ireland held a press conference at which they criticized the support of seven Irish government agencies for the conference, and called on the government to fund an independent conference on GM-free food and farming, in line with official government policy. According to Michael O'Callaghan, "Shane Morris turned up uninvited at the press conference and then repeatedly held a series of bits of paper with the words 'bullshit', 'pure bull', 'incorrect', 'lies' etc. whenever one of the speakers said something he didn't approve of, just like a trained monkey! In the questions and answers session after our presentations, he kept interrupting the speakers. I had to ask him to shut up!"

Outside the conference where protesters were gathered, Morris was spotted waving a notice saying, "Down with this kind of thing" -- apparently inspired by a scene from the "Father Ted" TV series! We have also heard from a conference participant concerning a poster exhibit Morris had at the event reporting some research he's doing into the views of Irish scientists about GM, and guess what? There's the suggestion it might have a skewed sample! We are told that no medics were polled (doctors are historically cautious about GM). Even without the medics, the results are startling:
35% of Irish scientists would not buy GM baby food
40% would not buy GM of any kind.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

For more on the "wormy corn" scandal see:
Michael Meacher MP - correspondence with High Commissioner for Canada
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/meacher.php
Corn fakes, Private Eye, November 2007
http://www.bioscienceresource.org/news/news10.php
Corn on the cobblers, Private Eye, January 2008
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/morris/privateeye.php
Leading Experts Demand Retraction of "Wormy Corn" Paper from British Food Journal, January 2008
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2008/Wormy-Corn-BFJ24jan08.htm
UK House of Commons: Early Day Motion condemns Shane Morris
http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=34547&SESSION=891

----------------------------------------------------------- 
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ USDA GIFT TO MONSANTO
The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) give-away insurance rates for GM crops risk bankrupting the public coffers, writes Prof Joe Cummins in an article for ISIS. In September 2007, the USDA's Federal Crop Insurance Corporation approved a Biotech Yield Endorsement (BYE) pilot programme that enables farmers growing Monsanto's GM maize to receive crop insurance at a greatly reduced cost of between 20 and 70 per cent. The crop insurance policies insure producers against yield losses due to natural causes such as drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, frost, insects, and disease -- even though the GM crops are only engineered for protection against two insect pests and for herbicide tolerance.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDAgifttoMonsanto.php

+ DAVID VS MONSANTO
Lauren David is the latest in a long line of American farmers to be sued by Monsanto for stealing its patented genes. David was fined fined $786,989 for planting seed that he produced from Roundup Ready soyabeans.
http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/794006.html

----------------------------------------------------------- 
SUPERWEEDS
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ "WORST PEST SINCE THE WEEVIL" STRIKES U.S. COTTON FARMERS -- FARMS ABANDONED?
Georgia's cotton farms are being overwhelmed by the glyphosate-resistant superweed palmer amaranth, or pigweed, according to an article in The Times and Democrat. The problem has come about as the result of the widescale use of Monsanto's glyphosate-resistant GM cotton.

Cotton, soybean and corn farmer John Olson said a good way to describe the 2008 agriculture year would be "year of the weeds". "We got to get a whole new chemical, a complete overhaul on our chemical program," he said.

Charles Davis, Calhoun County Clemson Extension agent and crop specialist, said while neighbours to the south in Georgia have seen some cotton fields totally wiped out from the pigweed, no local fields have experienced total devastation. "We have not abandoned any farms yet like they have in Georgia," Davis said. "And we don't want to get there."
http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2008/08/11/news/doc48a0b9335b8c2586375444.txt

----------------------------------------------------------- 
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ POOR FARMERS NOT BENEFITING
"[The] variability [of GM crop performance], combined with the high costs of GM seeds, creates serious risks for small-scale farmers, who are most certainly not the ones benefiting from GM crops." -- Dominic Glover, a development specialist who has followed the story of GM crops and the agri-biotech industry in the developing world for the last 8 years
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/25-Dominic-Lawsons-attack-on-Prince-Charles.html

+ FOOD FASCISM
"One company controls 95% of the GM seeds sold anywhere in the world: Monsanto. Most of the food traded in the world today is controlled by 5 grain giants; about 50% is controlled just by Cargill. So you might look at soya - genetically engineered soya growing in Argentina or Brazil -- and here in Europe you might think 'Oh, that's Brazilian soya'. No! It's Monsanto's seed and Cargill-traded. Only the land, the soil of Brazil was used. The control is of agribusiness. The control is by the seed corporation and the biotechnology industry...

"So while the prices of food have gone up 50%, the profits of these corporations have literally gone up 100%... Five giant seed companies, five giant grain-trading companies: we are talking about control that humanity has never experienced in its history.

"Italy had a Mussolini, Germany had a Hitler. The world has now the ten giant corporations controlling our food system, creating a food fascism. Food fascism means an end to food, just like fascism in Europe meant an end to freedom."
-- Video interview with Dr Vandana Shiva, vice president of Slow Food International, at:
http://multimedia.slowfood.it/index.php?method=multimedia&action=zoom&id=24084

+ EXPLOITING THE FOOD CRISIS
"The GM industry is simply using the heightened interest in food prices as a vehicle to promote its products. This is evidenced by a new partnership between Monsanto and other agribusiness giants - the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy. The group has been set up to promote biofuels - which drive up the price of food - with one hand, while offering GM crops as the solution to the price rises with the other.

"Prince Charles and others concerned about the proliferation of GM crops are not seeking to 'limit food production at a time of growing hunger,' but to prioritise the needs of the world's billion or so small farmers over those of big business." -- Clare Oxborrow, Freinds of the Earth UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/24/gmcrops.food

----------------------------------------------------------- 
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ HERSHEY'S IN BRAZIL GOES GM-FREE
Chocolate bar manufacturer Hershey's in Brazil has announced that it will not source ingredients from Cargill, one of the world's largest food providers, because the company cannot guarantee that soy, lecithin, and oils are not GM.
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/7/164144/8933

+ GM MORATORIUM MAY BE EXTENDED IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
With a state election set for 6 September, the Western Australia Labor government has pledged a four-year extension of the current moratorium on GM crops and a limit on GM canola trials to 10 hectares. The Liberal Party has promised large-scale GM trials and the introduction of GM cotton. The Greens and the Socialist Alliance have stated their complete opposition to GM crops.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/764/39452

+ TASMANIAN GM-FREE BREAKTHROUGH
Tasmania's all-party joint select committee has recommended that its ban on the release of GM food crops should be extended and reviewed after five years. "The GM ban helps isolate the rogue states of Victoria and NSW which allow Monsanto's Roundup tolerant GM canola to be grown commercially this year," says Gene Ethics Director Bob Phelps.
http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/CTEE/genetech.htm

+ NEW ACTION AGAINST GM CROPS IN FRANCE
A hundred "volunteer reapers", including veteran activist José Bové, destroyed two fields of Monsanto MON810 maize, which is currently forbidden from being grown in France. "These were commercial trials by Monsanto based on MON810 maize, with added herbicide-resistant genes. MON810 has been banned since February 2008 and Monsanto continues to want to force it through," said Bové.
http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/depeches/infojour/reuters.asp?id=76974

+ CATALONIA SAYS NO TO GMOs
On 20 August, more than 105,896 signatures against GMOs were delivered to the Catalan Parliament.
www.somloquesembrem.org/img_editor/file/ Press%20Note%20OGM%20-%20English%20version%2020_08_2008.doc

----------------------------------------------------------- 
ENVIRONMENT
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ ARGENTINA: SOY -- HIGH PROFITS NOW, HELL TO PAY LATER
Argentina's soybean expansion has serious social, environmental, health and economic impacts, says an article for Inter Press Service. The advance of soy displaces native forests with their wealth of biodiversity, and takes over land used for family agriculture and belonging to indigenous peoples. Glyphosate-resistant superweeds are also a problem.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43353

+ ROUNDUP READY SUPERWEEDS
Extract from an article on superweeds caused by GM crop plantings:
"So how in the world did we take a weed like horseweed -- that 15 years ago wasn't a problem weed -- and make it a huge problem?

"Well, we sprayed Roundup and killed it repeatedly. Then, all of the sudden, it became resistant. At the same time, we went into no-till systems in big acreage. That's how we made horseweed one of the top three weeds in the South in about a five-year period."
-- Dick Oliver, University of Arkansas weed scientist
http://deltafarmpress.com/soybeans/libertylink-welcomed-0813/
More on superweeds:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/14/9630/00762

----------------------------------------------------------- 
CONTAMINATION
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ U.S. FARMERS SUE OVER GM RICE
Arkansas citizens and farmers have filed a lawsuit against several chemical companies and Riceland Foods, Inc., alleging they lost money because of contamination by GM rice. The lawsuit centres on Bayer's development and testing of an unapproved GM rice, Liberty Link Rice 601 (LL601).
http://www.pbcommercial.com/articles/2008/08/08/news/news1.txt
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/14/business/NA-US-Rice-Lawsuit.php

+ USDA SEEKS TO SEGREGATE GM LIVESTOCK
The US department of agriculture wants to keep GM animals from mixing with traditional livestock, saying the risks are unclear. So far, no products derived from GM animals have been approved for human use, although the Food and Drug Administration has approved the safety of meat from cloned cattle.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121997565847182283.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_leftbox
GM Watch comment: Just as with crops, segregation is a non-starter, with experimental GM animals already having ended up in the food chain. See "The genetic engineer's garbage can: The US food supply": http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5728

----------------------------------------------------------- 
CORPORATE CRIMES
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ GERMANY: FLEEING GM AND PESTICIDES, BEES TAKE REFUGE IN CITIES
In Germany, bees are fleeing insecticides and GM crops to take refuge in cities. On July 15, six German apiarists moved their 30,000 bees into Munich city, some 500 km south of Berlin. They were trying to save their bees from GM maize crops 80 km from Munich. "If our bees were to come in touch with the genetically modified maize, and the honey was contaminated with it, we would not be allowed to sell it," Karl Heinz Bablock, one of the six apiarists who resettled their beehives, said.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43557

+ WHY DOES THE BRITISH BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION ENDORSE DEADLY PESTICIDES?
In an unpublished letter to the Guardian, British beekeeper Phil Chandler asks, "Why does the British Bee Keepers Association endorse pesticides?" He writes, "The BBKA demands more taxpayers' money for research into bee diseases, while at the same time taking money from Bayer to endorse pesticides that are known to be toxic to bees."

+ GERMAN COALITION SUES BAYER OVER PESTICIDE HONEYBEE DEATHS
The German organization Coalition against Bayer Dangers has brought legal action against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer AG Board of Management, for "marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world".

The coalition filed the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who claim they lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the Bayer neonicotinoid pesticide clothianidin in May. Since 1991, Bayer has been producing the insecticide imidacloprid, which is one of the best selling insecticides in the world, and which is often used as a dressing for maize, sunflower, and rape seed. Bayer exports imidacloprid to more than 120 countries.

In the US, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit August 15 to force the federal government to disclose studies it ordered on the effect of clothianidin on honeybees. Colony collapse disorder has claimed more than one-third of honeybees in the United States since it was first identified in 2006.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-25-01.asp

+ SIERRA CLUB URGES U.S. EPA TO SUSPEND NICOTINYL INSECTICIDES
In light of the mounting evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides are deadly to bees, the Sierra Club has reaffirmed its call for a US moratorium on these pesticides to protect bees and crops, until more study can be done.
http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2008-07-30.asp

----------------------------------------------------------- 
HEALTH RISKS
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ DR PUSZTAI ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF GM SAFETY SCANDAL
On 10 August 1998 the GM debate changed forever with the broadcast of a programme on British TV featuring a brief but revealing interview with Dr Arpad Pusztai about his research into GM food safety. Dr Pusztai's comments on the 10th anniversary of the scandal are worth reading for the light they throw on the current state of GM food safety:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/14-Dr-Pusztai-on-the-10th-anniversary-of-GM-safety-scandal.html

+ GM CROPS: THE HEALTH EFFECTS
A Soil Association report looks at the body of published, peer-reviewed scientific evidence from controlled animal studies that demonstrate that GMOs cause a wide range of serious unexpected health impacts. Evidence is also emerging that if GM crops are fed to animals, small amounts of GM material appear in the resulting meat and dairy products, and this had not been previously identified.
http://www.soilassociation.org/Web/SA/saweb.nsf/cfff6730b881e40e80256a6a002a765c/62b3b08dfb6cdaea80256a9500473789/$FILE/gm_health_effects.pdf

+ NEW POWER POINT PRESENTATION ON GM HEALTH RISKS
A downloadable PowerPoint presentation on "The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods" is at
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showDocumentFile?objectID=162
You can also download either a PDF of the script or the Microsoft Word version.
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showDocumentFile?objectID=163
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showDocumentFile?objectID=164

----------------------------------------------------------- 
REGULATORY BREAKDOWN IN INDIA
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ GM REGULATOR TRIES TO SACK SUPREME COURT APPOINTEE
The GEAC, India's apex GM regulatory body, is trying to have the scientist the Supreme Court appointed to bring transparency to its proceedings sacked -- just six months into his appointment. The GEAC is trying to get P.M. Bhargava off its back although the Supreme Court said that the whole purpose of his induction was to take on board the concern of the public interest litigation petitioner, Aruna Rodrigues, that "the constitution of GEAC is not proper as it lacks independent experts, thereby leading to lack of transparency" in determining GM approvals.

In its last monthly meeting on August 13, the GEAC decided to "seek modification" of Supreme Court order which had asked the regulatory body to invite Bhargava to participate in its deliberations. Bhargava has been outspoken about GEAC's flouting of biosafety rules and exposed falsification of the body's minutes.

According to the minutes of the August 13 meeting, GEAC made a series of allegations against Bhargava. These included holding him responsible for "the malicious and distorted views on the regulatory process being reported in the newspapers periodically".
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/6_months_on_GM_crops_panel_wants_expert_off_board/articleshow/3423882.cms

+ BIOSAFETY DATA ON GM BRINJAL MADE PUBLIC
The GEAC has published information on biosafety studies of Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant), developed by Mahyco, on its official website. Mahyco had sought to prevent the data being made public after an order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) stated that it should be disclosed to the public.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/25/stories/2008082555781300.htm

+ GM TRIALS IN INDIA
GM rice trials have been approved in 10 out of India's 25 states. The GM crops undergoing field trials in India are: brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, chickpea, cotton, groundnut, maize, mustard, okra, pigeon pea, potato, rice, sorghum and tomato. In a single meeting on 22 May 2006, GEAC approved an astonishing 24 items for 91 field trials.
http://india.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=139624

+ INDIA: SHEEP DEATH -- NO TEST FOR BT TOXIN DONE
Following concern over the large number of sheep that died after grazing in Bt cotton fields, India's GM regulatory body -- the GEAC -- gave Bt cotton a clean bill of health, declaring in its minutes: "analytical reports received from the IVRI Izatnagar and Department of Animal Husbandry, Hyderabad, have confirmed that sheep death in AP [Andhra Pradesh] cannot be attributed to Bt cotton." But now it has emerged that IVRI had, in its own words, "conducted no experiment on grazing or feeding of Bt plants" and "no information on these aspects has been provided to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee".
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/08/07/stories/2008080750041700.htm

+ MORE GOATS DIE IN INDIA AFTER EATING BT COTTON LEAVES
Around 120 goats died after consuming Bt cotton leaves cultivated in Patnagarh sub-division on Sunday. Bt cotton is banned, though its seeds are illegally available in the State.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20080806092736&Page=Q&Title=Orissa&Topic=0

----------------------------------------------------------- 
COMPANY NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ MONSANTO TO SELL GM DAIRY HORMONE BUSINESS
Monsanto has announced that it will try to sell its business of producing the GM growth hormone for dairy cows, rBGH or rBST. The decision comes as more retailers, responding to consumer demand, are selling dairy products from cows NOT treated with the GM hormone.

GM Watch comment: rBGH, marketed as Posilac, was launched in 1994. It was Monsanto's first GM product to hit the market, and it's taken 14 years of hard campaigning to get to this point... but what a success!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/business/07bovine.html?ei=5070&en=7e1305646359117f&ex=1218772800&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1218117951-6NflL06Qp8VMfrsHfW5n0w
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2008/08/c2833.html
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0807-13.htm

+ COMMENTS ON MONSANTO'S ATTEMPT TO GET RID OF rBGH
"No one wants the growth hormone rBGH used in milk production, not even the company that makes it. In the last year we've seen retailers including Walmart, Kroger, and Starbucks fall like dominoes in the race to meet consumer demand for artificial growth hormone-free milk."
-- Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter

"If genetically engineered products like this were safe, Monsanto would put 'made with GE' in big block letters on all its products."
-- Josh Brandon, agriculture campaigner with Greenpeace

"[rBGH is] a very attractive product."
-- Monsanto spokeswoman Christie Chavis

+ AMERICAN NURSES ASSOCIATION OPPOSES rBGH, CALLS FOR GM LABELLING
The House of Delegates of the American Nurses Association passed a resolution at their latest annual conference making it ANA's official position to oppose rBGH. The ANA also supported the labelling of all GMOs.
http://www.psr.org/site/PageServer?pagename=oregon_safefood

+ DOT-CORN BUBBLE ABOUT TO BURST?
The "dot-corn" bubble may be about to burst as farmland prices spike and agriculture stocks rise even faster than Internet shares did in the late 1990s, Citigroup chief equity strategist Tobias Levkovich said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080821.RCORN21/TPStory/Business

----------------------------------------------------------- 
BIOWEAPONS
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ U.S.: VITAL UNRESOLVED ANTHRAX QUESTIONS
The FBI's lead suspect in the September 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died on 29 July, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a US government lab, sent by a top US Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks. The case has (conveniently) closed with Ivins' death, as no other suspect will be sought and he will never get the chance to defend himself in court.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html

----------------------------------------------------------- 
GM TREES
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ BID TO PLANT GM TREES IN UK
Scientists have applied to plant GM trees in Britain despite fears that they will damage native wildlife. They want to plant poplars that have been genetically altered to reduce the amount of lignin, a constituent of wood. The team believes this will make it easier for the trees to be used to produce ethanol, an agrofuel that can be used to replace petrol in cars, as well as pulp for paper.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/09/eatrees109.xml
What's wrong with GM trees?
http://bereagardens.blogspot.com/2008/02/gm-trees.html

----------------------------------------------------------- 
GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
----------------------------------------------------------- 

+ DNA DATABASES RUN AMOK
by Jesse Reynolds
Genetic forensics may assist in solving crimes, but the too-common assumption of the technique's infallibility makes it prone to implementation errors - seen most recently in the UK and Australia.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4208

+ BREADLINE OR EGG LINE?
by Marcy Darnovsky
More women are trying to deal with the economic downturn by selling their eggs or signing up as surrogates.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4205

+ GERON, EXETER AFFILIATES MERGE TO CREATE LIVESTOCK CLONING SHOP
Geron and Exeter Life Sciences said today that Start Licensing, a joint venture between the two firms, and ViaGen, a subsidiary of Exeter, have merged to form a new entity that will focus on animal cloning.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4213

+ THE STRANGE SAGA OF "BERNANN" MCKINNEY
by Jesse Reynolds
The story of the first happy customer of RNL Bio's new pet dog cloning service is almost too outlandish to mock. But while cloning certainly seems to attract more than its share of eccentrics, a dismissal is inappropriate.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4215

+ WHITHER STEM CELL FUNDING?
by Jesse Reynolds
Is funding for stem cell companies drying up? Perhaps it depends who, and when, you ask.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4206