GMWatch News Review archive

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GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 58
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FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
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Dear all:

This month saw the Rome food summit, BIO's grand business convention in San Diego, and a continuing escalation in the campaign by the biotech industry and its corporate and political supporters to exploit the food crisis.

But at the same time as the BIO bash was under way in the States, people from over 100 different countries were meeting in Modena, Italy for the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, to consider such issues as the risks of GM technology, the pressures on biodiversity, and the long-term needs of agriculture in a world where greenhouse gases and dependency on fossil fuels desperately require cutting.

During IFOAM's session on GM, it became clear that the biotech industry's coming under growing pressure from within its U.S. heartland -- with Monsanto's GM hormone (rBGH) being phased out under consumer and food industry pressure, concern increasing among big food manufacturers over lax regulation, and Obama committed to GM labelling.

It's ironic that with resistance rising in the U.S., politicians like Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and Gordon Brown, the UK's Prime Minister, are following in Tony Blair's footsteps in succumbing to corporate pressure and the demands of the Bush administration over GM.

What's encouraging, though, is not only that other political leaders are standing firm but that a healthy scepticism about claims that GM is a quick fix for the food crisis is also on the rise, with even the boss of GM giant Syngenta having to admit "GM won't solve the food crisis" while in the UK, Sir Martin Doughty, the chairman of the Government agency Natural England has cautioned the Government against "rushing headlong to embrace GM crops as the solution to rising food prices".

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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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS 
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HELP GM WATCH FIGHT BACK!
QUIZ TIME
FILMS
MILKING THE FOOD CRISIS
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"GM WON'T SOLVE THE FOOD CRISIS"
GETTING OUT OF THE FOOD CRISIS
"BIOFUELS" & BIOTECH
LOBBYWATCH
REGULATORY BREAKDOWN IN INDIA
GM FAILURES
HEALTH RISKS
GM EXPANSION / APPROVALS
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
CORPORATE CRIMES
NON-GM SUCCESSES
CONTAMINATION
COCOLATE NEWS
CLONING

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QUIZ TIME
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Answers to the first GM Watch quiz, the winners, and our second quiz marking 10 years of GM watch, all coming soon!

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FILMS
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+ NEW FILM -- RBGH: YOUR MILK ON DRUGS
Watch this new 2-part video about Monsanto's GM hormone, online here.
http://www.YourMilkOnDrugs.com

+ EXCELLENT FILM ON THE FOX NEWS WHISTLEBLOWERS
Short film about what happened when two investigative journalists tried to broadcast a programme about the real impact of Monsanto's GM hormone, online here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trWcqxrQgcc&feature=related


+ BUY U.S. VERSION OF "THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MONSANTO"
"Devastating expose . . . Will freeze the blood in your veins" ””- The Gazette
"Extraordinary documentary" -- LeMonde
"Scrupulous, thorough, and damning" -- Montreal Mirror
"Presents a cogent and horrifying enough picture of the world's leading seed manufacturer to warrant concern and fury." ””- Hour

http://www.MonsantoFilm.com

+ INTERVIEW WITH MONSANTO MOVIE MAKER
Video interview with the director of "The World According to Monsanto" here.
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1582&updaterx=2008-06-22+09%3A47%3A01

+ GREAT LIST OF GMO FILMS ONLINE
Pick of the best GM films online (updated) here.
http://nogmo.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=summary&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3dfilms
and
http://nogmo.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_pagedir=Next&_c11_BlogPart_handle=cns!C5C0F69133E66E52!547&_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=summary&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3dfilms

+ COMPILATIONS MADE FOR PLANET DIVERSITY
Short films on GMOs and diverse related topics here.
http://www.planet-diversity.org/storiesandvideos/video-playlist.html

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MILKING THE FOOD CRISIS
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+ LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK
While millions are pushed deeper into hunger and poverty by the agrofuel boom and the food crisis it's triggered (see "BIOFUELS" & BIOTECH), Monsanto's boasting a 42% jump in its third-quarter profits and is raising GM seed prices by an average of 20% to further capitalize on the planting boom, according to the Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121439662618603123.html

+ U.S. FOOD POLICY UNDER FIRE
At the UN emergency summit on food in Rome 3-5 June, Bush administration officials found themselves on the defensive on a wide range of US policies, from agrofuel production to genetic engineering and subsidies. But that didn't stop them denying that Bush's ethanol boom had anything to do with spiraling food prices, or claiming that GM crops were a magic fix for the crisis.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-food5-2008jun05,0,561673 2.story
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-06-03-voa22.cfm
PROTESTING PEASANT FARMERS EXPELLED FROM SUMMIT
http://www.grain.org/m/?id=191

+ ZERO TOLERANCE UNDER ATTACK
The Financial Times reported that under food industry pressure Androulla Vassiliou, European Union health commissioner, is set to recommend lifting the EU's zero tolerance threshold for contamination by unapproved GM crops. But warnings that the EU could be unable to find supplies are just scaremongering -- see "GM WON'T SOLVE THE FOOD CRISIS". 
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fe227c42-4209-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html

+ BROWN PUSHES EU TO ALLOW MORE GM ANIMAL FEED
British prime minister Gordon Brown called on the European Union to relax its rules on importing GM animal feed in an attempt to cut spiraling food prices. But he was accused of falling for industry hype -- see "GM WON'T SOLVE THE FOOD CRISIS".
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brown-pushes-eu-to-allow-more-modified-animal-feeds-851020.html

+ GM CROPS NEEDED IN BRITAIN, SAYS MINISTER
The Independent reported that Labour Ministers were preparing to open the way for GM crops to be grown in Britain on the grounds they could help combat rocketing food prices and food shortages in the world's poorest countries. Leading the charge is Gordon Brown's environment minister Phil Woolas.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gm-crops-needed-in-britain-says-mi nister-849991.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027610/Ministers-industry-accused-exploiting-world-food-crisis-relaunch-campaign-GM-food.html
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/columnists/2008/06/24/big-six-pleased-the-gm-genuie-has-escaped-the-bottle-91466-21139261/


+ MINISTER MET LOBBYISTS FIRST
Shortly prior to promoting the GM agenda, environment minister Phil Woolas held talks with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, a biotech industry PR group representing Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Dow, Pioneer (DuPont), and Syngenta.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/gm-crops-needed-in-britain-says-minister-849991.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1028373/Controversy-Minister-met-lobbyists-hours-shift-policy-GM-foods.html
GM Watch comment: This industry lobby group is run by Lexington Communications, a PR agency intimately connected to the New Labour Government.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=139

+ "SCEPTICISM IS A COMMODITY THE WORLD CAN'T AFFORD" -- MONSANTO CEO
During the recent UN summit on the food crisis, Monsanto announced that it will double the yield of corn, soy, and cotton by 2030 and help improve the lives of poor farmers by 2020. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said that not everyone may believe the company but that given the food problems the world is facing, "scepticism is a commodity the world can't afford right now". Environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings comments: "Is it common practice in business these days to roll out promises for categorical, but as yet unspecified, products that may or may not come along 12 to 22 years from now?"
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/6/6/82019/26162

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH
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+ THE U.S. APPROACH TO THE FOOD CRISIS
"Well, certainly we think that GMOs (genetically modified organisms) are safe. We've been using them for 10 years in the United States and they have a proven effectiveness in increasing yields, in lowering the use of fertilizer, in providing better water and soil management and also increasing taste and appearance. So, you know, those are all good things." -- U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer quoted in "AT UN SUMMIT, US OFFERS THREE-PRONG APPROACH TO FOOD CRISIS", Voice of America, 3 June 2008
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-06-03-voa22.cfm
GM Watch comment: Every single claim Schafer makes is either hugely controversial or an outright lie - mostly, they're outright lies!

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"GM WON'T SOLVE THE FOOD CRISIS"
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+ "GM WON'T SOLVE THE FOOD CRISIS", SAYS SYNGENTA
Genetically modified crops will not solve the current food crisis, according to Martin Taylor, chairman of GM giant Syngenta, who admitted it would take 20 years to launch GM crop varieties designed to address the problems of the developing world. He told the Guardian: "GM won't solve the food crisis, at least not in the short term."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/27/gmcrops.food

+ GM -- PHONEY SOLUTION TO FOOD CRISIS
Friends of the Earth warned world leaders attending the UN food security conference in Rome that "biofuels", GM and international trade liberalisation are false solutions to the current global food crisis that will push millions more people into hunger and poverty while worsening climate change.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/world_leaders_warned_off_p_02062008 .html
NOTE: New briefing on the food crisis: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/food_crisis.pdf

+ BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA DEBUNK ZERO-TOLERANCE ATTACKS
The Financial Times reported that diplomatic sources in Brazil and Argentina, the coutries which supply almost all the EU's animal feed supplies and soya for processed food, question claims that the EU's regulatory stance on GM is a serious obstacle to trade. "We produce to satisfy our clients. We are not going to produce something they are not going to buy," said a Brazilian source.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fe227c42-4209-11dd-a5e8-0000779fd2ac.html

+ NEWSNIGHT DEBUNKS GM ANIMAL FEED CLAIMS
In a special report on GM and the food crisis for Newsnight (BBC2, 19 June), Susan Watts, the Science Editor of the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, dismissed the claim that the EU speeding up GM approvals could reduce the cost of importing animal feed. Watts noted that in the 12 months from May 07 to May 08 prices rose as follows on the world market:
Feed barley (100% non-GM) - 43%
Maize gluten (about 25% GM) - 72%
Argentinian soya meal (100% GM) - 110%
Argentinian soya meal has full approval for import to the EU!
See also the analysis in the important new briefing from GM Freeze.
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/89D_yields_briefing%5B1%5D.pdf
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brown-pushes-eu-to-allow-more-modified-animal-feeds-851020.html
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/06/22/Europe_considers_new_rules_on_crops/UPI-52111214111442/

+ MEDIA UNCRITICALLY PUBLISHING INDUSTRY HYPE
A number of recent news stories on soaring food prices worldwide have uncritically cited unsubstantiated claims that GM crops are the solution to the problem, according to experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). There is no evidence that currently available GM crops strengthen drought tolerance or reduce fertilizer use. Nor do they fundamentally increase crop yields.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0626-20.htm

+ GM: A CROP OF HYPERBOLE
In a superb commentary in the San Diego Union Tribune, Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington and formerly the EPA's biotech specialist and an advisor on biotech to the FDA, writes, "Let's be clear. As of this year, there are no commercialized GE crops that inherently increase yield. Similarly, there are no GE crops on the market that were engineered to resist drought, reduce fertilizer pollution or save soil. Not one."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080618/news_lz1e18gurian.html

+ DON'T FALL FOR GM HYPE
As European farm ministers met on 23 June, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and the European Farmers Coordination called for governments not to fall for biotech industry propaganda that GM crops are a solution to the food and feed price crisis.
http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2008/Jun23_EU_agriculture_council_dont_fall_for_GMO_hype.html

+ FEEDING THE WORLD: GM NOT THE ANSWER
Informative commentary from Bob Phelps about how, "Multinational GM and agrochemical companies constantly exploit disasters and political upheavals - drought, famine, food prices and disease - to maximise their profits and to justify their private interests in the public's eyes. Without these false promises to allay our fears, GM products have little to offer and cannot be justified."
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7530

+ U.S.: CONGRESS SHOULD REJECT FOOD CRISIS MONEY FOR GM CROPS
Congress should reject the $150 million earmarked for GM crops "nestled like a snake in the Bush Administration's $770 million aid package aimed at easing the global food crisis", as they do not increase yield, says a letter in the Chicago Daily Herald.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=210576&src=

+ GM WON'T FEED THE STARVING AND CREATES MORE POVERTY
A good article by Geoffrey Lean in the Daily Mail points out how UK ministers and industry are exploiting the world food crisis to relaunch the campaign for GM food. Lean writes: "It's been hard, over recent weeks, to switch on the TV or radio without hearing some variation of this theme. And it is passing from punditry into policy. ... But it's all hype. The truth is GM crops do nothing to ease world hunger. Quite the reverse. They actually threaten to make it worse."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027909/GEOFFREY-LEAN-It-wont-feed-starving-creates-poverty-So-told-GM-food-answer.html


+ NATURAL ENGLAND WARNS BROWN OF DANGERS OF GM
Gordon Brown and his government were given a blunt warning about their renewed enthusiasm for GM crops (see MILKING THE FOOD CRISIS) by the head of the government's own countryside and wildlife agency. In a letter to The Independent, Sir Martin Doughty, the chairman of Natural England, cautions against "rushing headlong to embrace GM crops as the solution to rising food prices". He says they can harm wildlife, and there is little evidence that the present generation of GM crops will help in reconciling surging global food demand with protecting the environment.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-gm-crops-852357.html http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/natural-england-warns-brown-of-d angers-in-promoting-gm-crops-852341.html

+ BROWN AND WOOLAS SHORT ON GM FACTS AND HISTORY
Gordon Brown's and Phil Woolas's calls for a re-think on GM crops in the UK are described by GM Freeze as "short on facts and history". They point out that four GM crops were extensively tested in the UK and three were found to threaten long-term harm to farmland wildlife. The fourth was withdrawn by Bayer for "commercial reasons" -- widely accepted to mean that the GM variety did not perform as well as non-GM strains of maize. And the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), which published its 2500-page report based on peer reviewed publications, concluded that the yield gains in GM crops "were highly variable" and in some places "yields declined". Asked at a press conference if GM crops were the answer to world hunger, IAASTD director Prof Bob Watson (now Phil Woolas's chief scientist at Defra) said, "The simple answer is, 'No'." The government approved the IAASTD report on 9 June.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13045.cfm
IMPORTANT BRIEFING: GM Freeze's new analysis examining claims that GM crops will increase yields:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/89D_yields_briefing%5B1%5D.pdf

+ SCOTLAND STANDS FIRM AGAINST GM
Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, made it clear his government would veto GM crops.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com:80/latestnews/Two-more-years-of-food.4205723.jp
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2350876.0.UK_must_think_again_on_growing_GM_crops_says_cabinet_minister.php
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/700032/?UserKey=0

+ GORDON "DOES A TONY" -- FALLS FOR GM HYPE
The Soil Association summarised the strong body of published evidence that shows GM crops do not increase yields and could cause negative health impacts. Worth reading in detail.
http://www.soilassociation.org:80/web/sa/saweb.nsf/848d689047cb466780256a6b00298980/991c5bd24896e8de8025746d00413442!OpenDocument

+ GM CROPS WON'T FEED THE WORLD, ONLY BIG CORPORATIONS
Robin Maynard notes that in the UK government's 'GM Nation?' debate, 85% of the British public opposed GM crops being grown in the UK, and that all African countries bar South Africa signed a declaration condemning GM giant Monsanto's attempts to characterise GM crops as the solution to world hunger. But unlike the people GM is supposed to benefit, Gordon like Tony Blair can't see through the GM gloss.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/06/gm-crops-wont-f.html

+ GM NOT THE ANSWER
Prof Phil Bereano points out GM does not mean "crops with greater yields" and directs attention to the findings of the recent report from the U.N. and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development that GM could not play a substantial role in solving key problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, hunger or poverty. 
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008019446_weblets27.html

+ OVER 250 FAITH ORGANIZATIONS REJECT GMOs, PATENTS ON LIFE
More than 250 faith-based organizations called on the summit leaders in Rome to eliminate the root causes of hunger such as poverty and unjust social structures. In a statement, the faith-based coalition, which includes dozens of Catholic religious orders, echoed the concern the Pope has expressed for the protection of small farmers. They also cautioned against GM crops and patents on life and urged a review of biofuel production.
http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1212652732-faostatement_final_eng.pdf

+ GM WON'T CUT FERTILIZER USE
Despite the "voodoo" claims about GM crops magically reducing fertilizer use from the US Secretary of Agriculture, amongst others, there are not only no GM crops at all on the market that do that, but attempts to understand the mechanisms involved are still at a preliminary stage.
http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2008/artspdf/may0801.pdf

+ GM DOESN'T DELIVER
For the last decade or so GM soya, the world's largest GM crop, has been producing lower yields than comparable conventional varieties.
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/elmoresoyastudy.htm
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/gmnebraskasoycomment.htm


+ "ZOMBIE" SEEDS WILL WORSEN CRISIS
The EU is using taxpayer money to develop "Zombie" seeds -- GM sterile seeds that can be brought back to life with the application of a chemical. This puts at risk the traditional practice of saving and re-sowing seeds, which is how many small Third World farmers survive.
http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/letters/letters-gm-farming-838897.html

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GETTING OUT OF THE FOOD CRISIS
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+ AFRICA DOES NOT NEED GM FOR FOOD SECURITY
The need to increase domestic food production in African countries does not call for GM seeds, says UN food expert, Mafa Chipeta. He says that the African countries should be able to fulfill their needs through simple changes to agricultural practices which will cost them less than GM seeds.
http://www.ugpulse.com/articles/daily/news.asp?ID=5942

+ SMALL IS BOUNTIFUL
Our best chance of feeding the world is a mass return to peasant farming of small holdings, says George Monbiot in an article for the UK's Guardian. The data shows that in spite of the myth that large-scale means efficient, in fact, the smaller the farm, the greater the yield: "A recent study of farming in Turkey ... found that farms of less than one hectare are twenty times as productive as farms of over ten hectares. ... [This] appears to hold almost everywhere." This has implications for land ownership that most governments don't want to think about. A large number of people need access to land in order to grow the food we need.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/06/10/small-is-bountiful/


+ THINK ORGANIC, ROME SUMMIT URGED
Aid charity Send a Cow urged global leaders meeting in Rome to invest in small-scale organic farming as the best way out of the world's food crisis for the poorest of the poor.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/default2.asp?active_page_id=97
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2008/jun/05/food.internationalaidanddevelopment

+ SMALL FARMS BEST FOR ENVIRONMENT AND HUNGER
Small-scale, not industrial farming, is the answer to food shortages and climate change, organic farmers argued at the Organic World Congress in Modena, Italy, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1962261720080620

+ THE FOOD, CLIMATE AND ENERGY CRISIS: FROM PANIC TO ORGANIC
Connecting the dots in our food-climate-energy crisis, millions of green consumers are voting with their dollars for foods and products that are healthy, locally produced, energy efficient, and eco-friendly, says Ronnie Cummins in an article for Common Dreams. He adds that a growing number of politicians, mainly at local and state levels, are also waking up. The problem is, "we have a Fast Food Nation, living in denial (at least until recently), gorging ourselves on the industrialized world's cheapest and most contaminated fare, allowing out-of-control politicians, corporations and technocrats to waste our tax money on corporate welfare, destroy the environment, starve the poor, wage a multi-trillion dollar war for oil, and destabilize the climate."
http://www.just-international.org/article.cfm?newsid=20002742

+ DIVERSIFICATION AND ENDING AGROFUEL SUBSIDIES ARE KEY TO SOLVING FOOD CRISIS
Tom Philpott writes that, "If the current crisis has taught us one thing, it's that food production needs to become more diversified and dispersed, not concentrated ever more tightly into fewer and fewer hands. Here's my alternative to Monsanto's vision: Let's end the biofuel mandates and subsidies -- currently eating up around $13 billion per year in taxpayer cash -- and invest the savings in grain storage and the infrastructure required to really revive local and regional food production."
http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2008/06/13/

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"BIOFUELS" & BIOTECH
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+ USDA DATA EXPOSES LIES OVER FOOD CRISIS
The Bush administration has been busy trying to deflect criticism of the "biofuel" boom it initiated -- after heavy lobbying by biotech and agribiz interests -- by blaming rising demand for meat in India and China, rather than biofuels, for pushing up global food prices. Bush's secretary of agriculture Ed Schafer and the US Dept of Agriculture's chief economist have encouraged this view. But Daryll E. Ray at the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, has analysed USDA data on China and India's grain trade and shows both countries are still net exporters of grain. The USDA data all points in one direction: "there is no demand for feed grains from China and India, and none from Indonesia and Brazil as well."
http://www.agpolicy.org/weekcol/409.html

+ OFFICIAL REVIEW ADMITS AGROFUELS' ROLE IN FOOD CRISIS
The Guardian has reported how Britain and Europe will be forced to fundamentally rethink a central part of their environment strategy after a UK government report found that the rush to develop "biofuels" has played a "significant" role in the dramatic rise in global food prices, which has left 100 million more people without enough to eat, and even their environmental benefits are in question.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/19/climatechange.biofuels

+ TAKE ACTION -- URGE MEPs TO REJECT "BIOFUELS" TARGET
On 7 July, the Environment committee of the European Parliament will vote on the Renewables Directive, including the 10% agrofuel target. There are amendments tabled which would make this target be abandoned. Please write to as many of your own country's MEPs as possible, either by email, fax or letter to ask them to vote for a ban on targets. How to here:
http://www.grassrootsnetroots.org/articles/article_13159.cfm
AND/OR sign an alternative ready-made letter at
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/index.php

+ WILDLIFE AND LIVELIHOODS AT RISK IN KENYAN BIOFUELS PROJECT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/24/biofuels.wildlife

+ CORN AS FUEL HAS HIT FOOD SUPPLY
Once considered the "green" solution to foreign oil dependence, corn ethanol has morphed into a humanitarian and environmental disaster, writes Andy Kimbrell in Newsday (EXCERPTS): Diverting one-quarter of America's massive corn harvest from food to fuel has nearly crippled the globalized food system. A bushel of corn fetches about three times the price it did two years ago, one big reason for quadrupling tortilla prices in Mexico. Wheat and soybean farmers, lured by higher profits, switched over to corn. As a result, supplies of those crops are limited and wheat prices have risen an astronomical 130 percent since 2007, exacerbated by poor Australian harvests. If you thought corn ethanol was at least lessening our dependence on foreign oil, think again: Ethanol displaces only 3 percent of our oil use. Additionally, the journal "Science" recently published research suggesting that biofuels are worsening global warming as well as hunger... [and] biotechnology can provide no solution.
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opfritop5733237jun20,0,6299589.story


+ "BIOTECHNOLOGY FOR BIOFUELS"
GM Watch: The biofuel-biotech connections are many. Much of the corn that's pouring into the Bush administration's subsidy-driven corn-ethanol boom is Monsanto's GM corn, and the "biofuel"-driven food crisis has provided a windfall for Monsanto, which with its industry partners is also exploiting the crisis to promote GMOs. And just to bring you the worst of all worlds, GM proponents are also exploiting the biofuels debacle to further promote GM second- and third-generation biofuels. In fact, the wheels of a $500 million academic-industrial juggernaut aimed at developing/promoting biotech for biofuels is already rolling. At the end of last year Chris Somerville officially started his work as the Director of the BP-Berkeley "Energy Biosciences Institute", funded by the half-billion dollar partnership between the oil giant and the labs of UC Berkeley. And a new journal, Biotechnology for Biofuels, with Somerville as co-editor, has just been launched.
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/info/update

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ CAMPAIGNERS BLAST EU LOBBY REGISTER PLANS
Transparency campaigners have slammed as "fundamentally flawed" and worthless Brussels' plans to introduce a voluntary register for EU lobbyists. Jorgo Riis, member of the alliance for lobbying transparency, Alter EU, said, "The end product is proof that commercial lobbyists have effective influence in Brussels. Why has the Barroso commission not pushed further on transparency?"
http://www.theparliament.com/latestnews/news-article/newsarticle/campaigners-blast-eu-lobby-register-plans/

+ CORPORATE ESPIONAGE HITS HEADLINES
Not long ago Mother Jones published an interesting article about how Beckett Brown International (later called S2i), which apparently had Monsanto on its client list, made use of cops and former Secret Service agents to spy on environmental groups and other activists.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/04/firm-spied-on-environmental-groups.html
BBI's activities seem to have included surveillance, infiltration, and possibly even stealing stuff like laptops and confidential documents. The story has now hit the mainstream media in the form of an article in the Washington Post. One name that keeps coming up is that of Nichols Dezenhall -- a PR firm that specialized in crisis communications, particularly for corporations involved in biotechnology. Nick Nichols, the firm's Chairman and CEO liked to advise his corporate clients to "Fight like guerillas" and to quote the George Carlin line, "If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten!"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=248
The firm also collaborated in portraying environmental activists as "eco-terrorists" with the Competitive Enterprise Institute - the co-founders with C.S. Prakash of the pro-GM lobby AgBioWorld.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2002/05/29/corporate-phantoms/
http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.asp?id=1385&deptid=8
The Washington Post article is at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101572_pf.html

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REGULATORY BREAKDOWN IN INDIA
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+ INDIA: NEW REGULATORY AUTHORITY MEANT TO SPEED UP GM APPROVALS
Two years ago, the Supreme Court raised a conflict of interest objection to the power assumed by the department of biotechnology (DBT) to regulate the environmental release of GMOs. In a bid to reclaim that power from the environment ministry, DBT has now come up with a draft law to set up the national biotechnology regulatory authority (NBRA). Proposed as a statutory body that will provide "a single window mechanism for bio-safety clearance" of GM products and processes, NBRA is clearly meant to shift the regulatory power from the environment ministry to DBT, despite its being a body dedicated to promoting biotechnology.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Plan_for_GM_regulatory_authority_may_spark_a_turf_war/rssarticleshow/3143579.cms

+ INDIA: TOTAL REVIEW OF BT COTTON SOUGHT
Dr Pushpa M. Bhargava, the Supreme Court's invitee to India's apex GM regulatory committee GEAC, has called for a 3-4 year moratorium on GM crops and for "a total review of India's experience with Bt cotton". He said, "there is substantial evidence which calls for a total review of the approval of Bt cotton in India."
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/25/stories/2008062555961400.htm
http://www.financialexpress.com:80/news/Total-review-of-experience-with-Bt-cotton-sought/326652/

+ GEAC FALSIFIES MINUTES
Despite the opposition of Dr Pushpa Bhargava to further releases of Bt cotton and other crops, the GEAC has, says an article in The Hindu, claimed his support in its for a Bt cotton release. But Dr Bhargava told The Hindu, "No, that is not what I had said. What I had said was that unless all the data are available, we must keep everything on hold." Contesting the many points put out in the minutes of the meetings, he said: "none of these points was mentioned in the meeting."
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/06/26/stories/2008062650031500.htm

+ SHEEP DEATHS: THE TRUTH REVEALED
The Supreme Court nominee to the GEAC, Dr P.M. Bhargava, has called the bluff of the committee. It had said the sheep deaths in Andhra Pradesh two years ago were unconnected to the sheep grazing on Bt cotton leaves and concluded that the deaths might have been due to pesticides used in cotton cultivation, giving a clean chit to Bt cotton. But Bhargava found the reports of the two institutes and the state government's letter that GEAC claimed to base its judgement on actually contradicted its claims. The GEAC also stated, "prior to the release of Bt cotton in India, a battery of studies to assess the safety of Bt toxin to the environment and animals was conducted". This was not true either, noted Bhargava.
http://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/06/26/stories/2008062650021500.htm

+ INDIA: CALL FOR EFFECTIVE REGULATION OF GM CROPS
A strong regulatory body was needed to control the release of GMOs, said P.V. Satheesh, Director of Deccan Development Society (DDS). He pointed to the evidence of problems with Bt cotton seeds in Andhra Pradesh. He also pointed to the deaths of 2,500 sheep after grazing on Bt crops. DDS has conducted experiments on sheep and "found that Bt cotton caused death in them," he said. These findings had been submitted to the central government, said Satheesh.
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/20/stories/2008062054910600.htm

+ INDIA: "STOP RELEASE OF GMOs"
The Indian Medical Association and South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE) resolved at a seminar on GM foods and health that the central government must immediately stop all release of GM crops for open field trials and commercial use. The ministry of health should stop the release of GMOs into the nation's food chain and introduce mandatory labelling of imported processed food items.
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/23/stories/2008062351100300.htm

+ INDIA: GEAC APPROVES NEW BT COTTON VARIETY
http://www.merid.org/fs-agbiotech/more.php?id=6814Decision
http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/csurv/geac/decision-may-84.pdf

+ GEAC UNDER PRESSURE TO VET GM FOOD IMPORTS
India's GM regulator GEAC is under pressure to check illegal imports of GM food.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/GEAC-under-pressure-to-vet-GM-food-imports/327507/0

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GM FAILURES
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+ UGANDA: GM BANANA FAILS TO DEFEAT DISEASES
A GM banana being trialed in Uganda has failed, falling victim to the disease (Black Sigatoka disease) it was designed to resist.
http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=487&Itemid=1

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HEALTH RISKS
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+ OVER A DOZEN FEEDING TRIALS SHOW REASON FOR CONCERN
http://www.soilassociation.org:80/web/sa/saweb.nsf/848d689047cb466780256a6b00298980/991c5bd24896e8de8025746d00413442!OpenDocument

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GM EXPANSION / APPROVALS
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+ BRAZIL APPROVES SYNGENTA'S GM CORN
Brazil's National Biosafety Commission, CTNBio, has approved Syngenta's transgenic BT11 corn for commercial sale.
http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200806191701DOWJONESDJONLINE000942_univ.xml
See also: SYNGENTA, MURDER AND MILITIAS IN BRAZIL
A telling article about Syngenta in Brazil from late 2007.
http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=461&Itemid=1

+ AUSTRIA LIFTS BAN ON GM CORN
Austria has lifted a ban on importing and processing a Monsanto GM corn as part of the European Union's efforts to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on biotech foods, the EU said. Austria's move does not allow for the GM crop to be planted in Austria and other arrangements are in place to stop the GM corn coming into the food supply.
http://www.coextra.eu/country_reports/news1202_en.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/24/business/EU-FIN-ECO-WTO-EU-Biotech.php

+ HAWAII: ON GM TARO BILL, LEGISLATORS CATER TO BIG BUSINESS
The Hawaiian legislature has killed a bill that would have placed a 10-year moratorium on the genetic engineering of the traditional food plant, taro. This was despite overwhelming public support for the moratorium.
http://www.molokaitimes.com/articles/8610145347.asp

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RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
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+ NGOs SUPPORT POLISH ANTI-GM ACTIVIST ZAGORNY
More than 30 public interest groups from throughout the world have urged Polish President Lech Kaczynski to pardon activist-farmer Marian Zagorny, who faces more than two years in prison for his work against genetic engineering and other practices harmful to family-scale farming.

+ BIOTECH'S ASSAULT ON MEXICO
As the global food crisis escalates, Big Biotech is capitalizing on the desperation of the hungry at runaway prices and rapidly diminishing reserves as a wedge to foist GM seeds on a reluctant Third World, says an article about the promotion of GM in Mexico (EXCERPT): Last October, Armando Villareal, a farm leader in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, was gunned down after a farmers' meeting. Villareal had been denouncing the illegal planting of GMO corn in the Mennonite-dominated municipalities of Cuauhtemoc and Naniquipa.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ross06232008.html

+ MEXICAN PEASANTS VS. "TECHNO-SCIENCE"
This article explains how grassroots networks of peasant groups in Mexico and their allies in academia are challenging the top-down strategies of corporate farming and biotechnology for feeding the world. Researchers such as Kathleen McAfee, an assistant professor in international relations at San Francisco State University, are weighing in on the side of small-scale farmers who want the US to stop exporting its subsidized crops to poor countries, displacing native varieties of those same crops and the people who grow them. McAfee's work points to the need to consider agriculture in its cultural context.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/459
http://www.kmcafee.com/index.php

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ CALL TO SUSPEND TOXIC SEED TREATMENTS IN U.S.
In light of the mounting evidence that new seed chemical coatings are deadly to bees and the action of Germany in calling for an immediate suspension of these seed treatments, the Sierra Club has reaffirmed its call for a US moratorium on the neonicotinoid chemical treatments to protect bees and crops. Germany's federal agricultural research institute noted, "It can unequivocally be concluded that poisoning of the bees is due to the rub-off of the [neonicotinoid] pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds." Bayer and Monsanto have acquired patents to coat their proprietary corn seeds with the neonicotinoids.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ EGYPTIAN CORN PIRATED BY MONSANTO
Following Egypt's recent approval of the cultivation and commercialisation of a GM pest-resistant corn variety that marks the first legal introduction of GM crops into the Arab world, Nagib Nassar, Egyptian professor of genetics and plant breeding at University of Brazil, said, "At the end of the day what was originally an Egyptian variety will become not only registered in Egypt but owned by Monsanto." Tarek Saif, biotechnologist at Egypt's National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, said Egypt's collaboration with Monsanto started with the word "partnership" to pave the way for public acceptance of GM plant and ended with "ownership" for Monsanto. "How did an Egyptian variety become owned by Monsanto just as a result of crossing it with its line?" Saif asked.
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1099

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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: A WORLD BEYOND GM CROPS
"Indian scientists do not promote sustainable technologies because they are disconnected from the farming community," Devinder Sharma told scientists at a recent National Summit on GM crops, to a stunned silence. When he told his audience, "there is an alternative and sustainable way of reaping a plentiful harvest, wherein millions of small farmers cultivate a large number of crops without GM crops and chemical pesticides," they accused him of romanticising subsistence agriculture. Sharma concludes, "What becomes abundantly clear is that those who talk of the immense potential of GM crops are not even aware that the same objectives are being achieved without harming the environment and playing havoc with human, animal and plant health."
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun202008/editpage2008061974358.asp

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CONTAMINATION
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+ BELGIUM COLZA FIELDS CONTAMINATED WITH BANNED GMOs
Fifteen Belgian fields of colza  -- a crop similar to rapeseed (canola) and used in cattlefeed, cooking oil, and, increasingly, as a biofuel, have been contaminated by GMOs banned in Europe, the country's public health ministry announced.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsPX6vzW3--SiQ7Ujz8MkGpQWWwg

+ AUSTRALIA: GM HEADACHE FOR GRAIN HARVESTERS, BEEKEEPERS
Contract harvesters and apiarists are among the many rural businesses affected by Monsanto's commercial GM canola grown at secret sites in New South Wales and Victoria this winter. "Beekeepers, grain harvesters and many other rural industries are kept in the dark about GM canola sites but GM contamination would wreck our businesses," says beekeeper Graham Connell of Macedon, Victoria. "The Victorian and NSW governments that permit GM canola to be grown must set up a public register of all GM sites so we can do our best to avoid GM contamination."
http://www.madge.org.au/Docs/geneethics-release-2008-06-26.pdf

+ GM COEXISTENCE PLANS A FAILURE
For the first time in Australia, the GRDC-funded GM canola coexistence protocols have been explained to around 120 farmers in Western Australia. Participants soon became aware that supplying non-GM markets for market specification is not a viable option if GM crops are commercially released under the existing protocols. There was outrage in the audience as farmers became aware of the impositions on non-GM farmers and disgust that industry had endorsed the protocols without consideration for farmers wishing to provide a GM-free choice for consumers. 'The protocols are a farce,' said Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers. 'They only exempt all sectors from liability by placing all the costs, responsibilities and liabilities onto non-GM farmers for every operation from seed production to storage to delivery. The final product cannot possibly meet the market specifications for non-GM products. Both consumer and farmer choice will be denied.'
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ NESTLE CEO ASKS EUROPE NOT TO OPPOSE GM CROPS
CEO of Nestle, Peter Brabeck, has asked policymakers in Europe to re-evaluate their opposition to GM crops. Rising commodity costs are denying the poor access to basic food items. One way to counter this situation is to accept GM crops, said Brabeck.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080625.WBwreguly20080625072613/WBStory/WBwreguly
GM Watch comment: That this particular global food giant keeps championing GM as a saviour of the poor and hungry is particularly rich given its appalling record of complete disregard for the health of infants in the developing world via irresponsible marketing of breast milk substitutes, see:
http://www.babymilkaction.org/
PS Nestle UK are keen to emphasise that Brabeck's enthusiasm for GMOs doesn't extend to any of their products!!!

+ NO GM MARS BARS
A recent BBC news story about Mars using genetics to "improve" the cocoa plant for chocolate, triggered speculation in some quarters that we were well on our way towards GM Mars Bars. But Mars North America says it is interested in traditional breeding informed by genomics, and not GM, to improve cocoa crops.

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CLONING
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+ US CONSUMERS FACE ADVENT OF CLONED FOOD
The US Food and Drug Administration ruled in January that clones of cattle, pigs and goats were safe to eat. Since then the US Department of Agriculture has asked producers to refrain from introducing milk and meat from clones into the food supply "to ensure a smooth and seamless transition into the marketplace". Consumer groups, however, believe that may already be happening as the market outpaces regulation. The offspring of cloned animals are not included in the moratorium, they point out, and producers are already selling semen from cloned animals.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e08c5aec-4185-11dd-9661-0000779fd2ac.html

+ CLONED ANIMALS RESEARCH REPORT PUBLISHED
The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) published in-depth research into the views of the UK public about cloning animals, and cloned animals, their offspring and their products (such as milk and eggs) entering the food chain. The researchers found, "As participants learned about the current low efficiency rates of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) they became increasingly concerned about the impact the technique has on animal welfare. This became a significant factor behind their reluctance to accept food derived from cloned animals."
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2008/jun/clone

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GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
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+ MUSLIMS NOT PREPARED TO DECLARE CLONING 'HALAL'
Philippine's Muslim clerics and food experts said they were not yet prepared to adopt a ruling on whether or not to declare experimental animal cloning as "halal", which means permissible or lawful.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4147


+ WILLY WONKA AND THE CLONING FACTORY
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
Is Lou Hawthorne biotech's Willy Wonka?
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4112

+ DOG CLONING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
by Marcy Darnovsky and Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
In the minor flurry of stories last month about an on-line auction of dog cloning services, the issue of intellectual property was completely overlooked. That's too bad, since the cloning business, like so many others, is best understood by following the money.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4111

+ CLONING THE DEAD
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
The UK is now proposing allowing scientists to try to create clonal embryos from the tissues of dead people, most of whom did not give their consent.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4106

+ SCIENTISTS FIND HYBRID EMBRYOS EASY TO MAKE
Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have already produced almost 300 hybrid embryos, by inserting human DNA into cow eggs, since their controversial research project started in January.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4144

+ SCIENTIST: DON'T FIGHT SEX SELECTION
Selecting the sex of babies will get cheaper, easier and harder to regulate against, says world-renowned human reproduction expert Professor Lord Robert Winston.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4148