GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 256
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:


For a decade or more, in the face of growing global opposition, Monsanto has proclaimed that GM crops are vital for feeding a hungry world, while critics countered that the food is there and that distribution is the key to tackling hunger. But now that Monsanto wants to defend the agrofuel gravy-train that's sent food prices sky-rocketing, the company's spin has suddenly gone into complete reverse.

The ethanol boom may be pushing millions towards starvation and hundreds of millions deeper into poverty, but hey, says Monsanto's chief technology officer, "From a production perspective, we have abundance [of food]". Rob Fraley now says the "challenges" are - wait for it! - in distribution.

Fraley made his pitch at the launch of a new multi-million dollar lobby group for ethanol that Monsanto has helped set up (AGROFUELS). There could be no clearer demonstration that Monsanto's concern has never been with feeding the hungry. Monsanto's leading role in the ethanol lobby shows that as far as the company's concerned, the hungry can happily starve, which is exactly what they're starting to do in places like East Africa, just so long as it's good for the company's bottom line (EXPLOITING THE FOOD CRISIS).

The plight of the hungry is also not stopping Monsanto from engaging in its own massive price hikes to cash in on the ethanol boom. The Organization for Competitive Markets is warning farmers that when the ethanol bubble finally bursts, they shouldn’t expect Monsanto to cut its prices: "farmers will be forced into bankruptcy, and the lack of an effective remedy for antitrust in crop seed will be a substantial cause." (EXPLOITING THE FOOD CRISIS)

And don't miss our compilation of recent reports debunking all the hype about GM being the solution to the current crisis (FOOD CRISIS - REPORTS).

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

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CONTENTS
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FOOD CRISIS -- REPORTS
EXPLOITING THE FOOD CRISIS
FOOD CRISIS -- MORE COMMENT
AGROFUELS
NON-GM SUCCESSES
AFRICA
EUROPE
AUSTRALASIA
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
LM WATCH
RESEARCH
COMPANY NEWS
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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FOOD CRISIS -- REPORTS
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+ ARTICLE DEBUNKING GM HYPE
Superb overview of the misleading hype being promoted about GM crops
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080618/news_lz1e18gurian.html

+ FOOD CRISIS REPORTS
*Debunking claims that GM crops are becoming the norm
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/GM_crops_land_area_final.pdf
*Debunking claims of increased yields with GM crops:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/89D_yields_briefing%5B1%5D.pdf
Debunking claims of GM crops resistant to drought:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/drought_briefing_final.pdf
*Debunking the claims of cheaper GM animal feed
(GM animal feed has seen the fastest rate of feed price inflation!)
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/animal%20feed/Briefing_animal_feed_GMOs_May_2008.p df
*Debunking claims the EU's "zero-tolerance" policy on non-approved GMOs is no longer workable
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/ZERO_TOLERANCE_Campaigner_briefing_FINAL.pdf http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/zero_tolerance.html
*Briefing on solving the global food crisis:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/food_crisis.pdf
*Briefing on the main recommendations and findings of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report, which found GM was not the answer to the food crisis
http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/special_IAASTD_brieifing.pdf

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EXPLOITING THE FOOD CRISIS
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+ MONSANTO'S SHAMELESS PR REVERSAL
A decade ago Monsanto launched a massive PR campaign in Britain claiming that GMOs were vital to feed the world. Here's a typical response at the time from one of Monsanto's many critics - Tony Juniper: "People know over here that, in fact, poverty is the principal cause of hunger in the Third World. There isn't a shortage of food. And people are quite rightly, in our view, interpreting these claims as a means to get bigger markets to get a return on the investments that Monsanto has put into generating these new crop technologies. "
http://www.monsanto.co.uk/news/99/march99/160399_AllThings.html

Hans Herren, Director General of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, in Kenya and winner of the World Food Prize, made a similar point about the PR onslaught, "We already know today that most of the problems that are to be addressed via Golden Rice and other GMOs can be resolved in matter of days, with the right political will."
http://ngin.tripod.com/feedingorfooling.htm

Monsanto, of course, denied that what it was doing involved exploiting the poor and hungry to promote GMOs through emotional blackmail. But this week while launching a new lobby group to run a big PR drive to keep the agrofuel boom on course, Monsanto's chief technology officer declared, "From a production perspective, we have abundance [of food]". Rob Fraley went on to say that the "challenges" are distribution and access to food because of wealth distribution - ie poverty!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-adm-monsanto-jul25,0,4202606.stor y

With Monsanto blaming the food crisis on poverty, in order to avoid any action being taken that might hurt its profits, it's hard not to be reminded of Michael Manville's comment nearly a decade ago about the biotech industry's cynical PR exploitation of poverty and hunger: "...the companies who make [GM foods], and the flacks who hawk their falsehoods, offer us a new definition of depravity, a new standard to plunge for in our race to care least, want more, and divest ourselves of all shame."
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/2001/04/biotech/

+ MONSANTO'S MASSIVE PRICE HIKES DURING WORLD FOOD CRISIS
The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) says Monsanto's market power is driving up seed prices and could devastate farmers and their communities. OCM is continuing to encourage several state attorneys general to expand their antitrust investigation into Monsanto's suspected anticompetitive practices in the US seed industry.
"Monsanto's market power has been quietly accruing over several years and has now begun materially impacting price," said Keith Mudd, OCM's board president. "The lack of competition and innovation in the marketplace has reduced farmers' choices and enabled Monsanto to raise prices unencumbered."

Monsanto executives recently said they expect to raise the price of some seed corn varieties to $300. Said Fred Stokes, executive director of OCM, "If and when the ethanol boom subsides, Monsanto will not lower its prices, farmers will be forced into bankruptcy, and the lack of an effective remedy for antitrust in crop seed will be a substantial cause."
http://www.opednews.com/articles/During-a-world-food-crisis-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-0 80723-548.html

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FOOD CRISIS -- MORE COMMENT
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+ WANT TO CUT FOOD PRODUCTION? SOW GM SEED!
Research analyzing yields in the US cereal grain belt shows that the productivity of GM crops was less than in the era prior to the introduction of GM seeds -- with soya showing a drop in yield of up to 10%, writes Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group. And GM seeds are dearer than conventional seed, which means the farmer's profit margin is less.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00266.htm

+ GM ROUTE REINFORCES INDUSTRIAL, ENERGY-RELIANT MODEL OF AGRICULTURE
Biotech companies have failed to deliver crops capable of thriving in drought, salt or nutrient-deprived conditions and so GM cannot cut food costs or end hunger, says a letter in the Financial Times from Richard Sanders of the Organic Research Centre in the UK
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/282bfd52-513b-11dd-b751-000077b07658.html

+ FOOD CRISIS USED BY CORPORATIONS TO EXPLOIT US -- NAOMI KLEIN
A very good interview in which Naomi Klein explains how corporations are using "shock doctrine" to force unpopular policies -- including GM food -- onto the public:
http://i3.democracynow.org/2008/7/15/with_crises_in_fuel_food_housing

+ MORE CAUTION NEEDED, NOT LESS
In response to a letter in the UK Guardian claiming that precautionary measures are suffocating innovation in food production, allotment holder Dave Leonard says we need more precaution, not less. He is one of many gardeners in the UK whose produce has been killed by the secondary effects of a Dow weedkiller.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/14/food

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AGROFUELS
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+ UPRISING AGAINST ETHANOL MANDATE
The ethanol industry, until recently a golden child that got favorable treatment from Washington, is facing a critical decision on its future, says the New York Times. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks. Feed prices have soared in the last two years as fuel has begun competing with food for cropland. "When you find yourself in a hole, you have to quit digging," Perry said. "And we are in a hole." However, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) is continuing to lobby to keep the ethanol boom going.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/business/23ethanol.html?em&ex=1216958400&en=6e 824834a4b001dd&ei=5087%0A

+ NEW LOBBY GROUP FOR ETHANOL
A multi-million dollar lobby group -- the Alliance for Abundant Food and Energy -- has been launched in Washington D.C. by Archer Daniels Midland Co, DuPont Co, Deere & Co, Monsanto Co and the Renewable Fuels Association to lobby for "biofuels". The group argues that agricultural innovation -- such as GM crops -- is the best way to address global hunger, not reducing biofuel production. World food prices rose by 40 percent last year, causing food riots, hoarding and bread lines, something widely attributed to the "biofuel" boom.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2429978720080724

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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ NON-GM BRED SOYBEANS PRODUCE 10% YIELD ADVANTAGE
Pioneer Hi-Bred has launched "a new generation" of soybean varieties designed to increase yields by 40 percent during the next 10 years.
GM Watch comment: It's not GM that delivered the yield advantage that's being trumpeted. Instead it was down to molecular marker technology -- a biotechnology approach involving no GM.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080711/BUSINESS/80 7110363/1029/business

+ GM AND DROUGHT -- NEW BRIEFING
Even if GM could engineer more drought-tolerant plants, which is far from clear, it will take years and come at a considerable cost. Meanwhile cheap, or even free, non-GM techniques and technologies are available now. A new briefing from GM Freeze explores these issues and suggests that rather than pouring yet more money into a technology with no assurance of delivery, we should instead expand the use of these non-GM, more sustainable approaches today.
Briefing at: www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/drought_briefing_final.pdf

+ NON-GM ANTIFREEZE PROTEIN FOR ICE CREAM
A University of Wisconsin-Madison food science professor has discovered a non-GM edible antifreeze that can preserve ice cream's smooth, silky texture. Unilever sells ice cream in the US, the Philippines and Mexico that includes a GM antifreeze protein derived from fish.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/15358

+ ORGANIC ROUTE TO IMPROVED SOIL FERTILITY
Organic methods of improving soil fertility are resulting in improved yield and plant health for farmers in the Rift Valley, Kenya, write Hasit Shah, managing director of Sunripe Farms, and Anna Bradley of the Soil Association in a letter to the Financial Times. They add, "These organic agriculture techniques are practical, low-cost and can be easily extrapolated and carried out across Africa to ensure that soils remain viable and sustainable. We wait to see if the large philanthropic funds, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which have been set up to produce more food using high-tech techniques, will deliver what has been achieved already on a smaller scale in the Rift Valley."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/51619732-56bc-11dd-8686-000077b07658.html

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AFRICA
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+ SOUTH AFRICA: POTATO BOARD PROTESTS AGAINST GM POTATO RELEASE
Potatoes South Africa (PSA) has indicated it will appeal against the application by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in which the council asks for permission to release a GMO potato, SpuntaG2, onto the market on a commercial scale. PSA fears consumer resistance and a possible negative impact on exports that might result from a GM cultivar in South Africa.

GM Watch comment: This looks like a body blow to the attempt to commercialise GM potatoes in South Africa. And perhaps not surprisingly given the complete failure of GM potato commercialisation elsewhere -- it even had to be abandoned in the USA after big food companies rejected Monsanto's Bt potatoes.

It also seems extraordinary that the researcher pushing this GM potato, Gurling Bothma, claims this as a South African project. As a report from the African Centre for Biosafety notes, this GM (Bt) potato has a long history, beginning not in South Africa but in Michigan (USA) with the Michigan State University (MSU) and it went to Egypt long before South Africa subsequently received the project as a hand-me-down.

In fact, it was only with the failure of MSU GM potato projects in Egypt and Indonesia that "the MSU turned all its attention to South Africa as the last avenue for commercializing the Bt potato."
http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/19032597747cf9fe70bd79.pdf?PHPSESSID=9bc4 dbf43f7851ff6bfc6facc5ec5701

Michigan State University's involvement was part of the USAID-funded project - the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Program (ABSP). ABSP's private sector partners have included Asgrow, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred and DNA Plant Technology (DNAP).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/print-profile1.asp?PrId=274
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=507

+ SOUTH AFRICA: SMALL FARMERS PUSHED TO USE GM SEED
Rural farmers are often lured into planting GM seeds by the department of agriculture by promises of substantial bank loans and the prospect of huge earnings, says Lesley Liddell, director of Biowatch. "But in the end, most farmers end up in huge debt, because they can't save seeds and are obliged to buy the matching GM fertilisers and pesticides."
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43256

+ BURKINA FASO COMMERCIALIZES GM COTTON
Burkina Faso has commercialized Bt cotton, making it the third African country after South Africa and Egypt to join the ranks of biotech crop countries.
http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=546& Itemid=1
Articles on the failures of Bt cotton in South Africa, China and India:
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/2007/jun.php
http://www.grain.org/research_files/SWang_tarnished.pdf
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/agrar_forstwissenschaften/bericht -77674.html
http://www.indiagminfo.org/Independent%20studies%20&%20papers%20on%20GM%20crops% 20in%20India/STUDIES%20ON%20PERFORMANCE%20OF%20BT%20COTTON/Maharashtra-Bt%20Cott on%20Vs.%20Non%20Bt%20Cotton%20-%20MEC%20study%20report-2005-06.pdf

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EUROPE
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+ ACTION ALERT: SAVE GM ANIMAL FEED BAN IN POLAND
Please take urgent action to save the GM animal feed ban introduced by the previous Polish government. The government has capitulated but the president has the last word. Please send a letter to Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej Lech Kaczynski, ul. Wiejska 10, 00-902 Warszawa, Poland
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. fax.+48 22 695-22-38

+ BASF TAKES GM POTATO CASE TO EU COURT
BASF has taken legal action against the European Commission for failure to act on its genetically modified Amflora potato. BASF said in a statement it filed the action with the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg because the Commission unjustifiably delayed the approval of Amflora after a 12-year process.
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSWEA3123200 80724

+ SAFETY OF CLONED ANIMAL PRODUCTS UNCERTAIN -- EU AGENCY
The European Union's food safety agency said cloned animal products may not be safe and further study was needed. "It is clear there are significant animal health and welfare issues for surrogate mothers and clones that can be more frequent and severe than for conventionally bred animals," Vittorio Silano, chair of EFSA's scientific committee, said. According to a report in the Daily Mail, the UK's food and farming department, DEFRA, has refused so far to ensure that cloned products do not reach consumers.
http://in.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idINL2310023020080724?pageNumber=2&vir tualBrandChannel=0
http://www.dailymail.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/article-1038170/EU-food-safety-expe rts-say-NO-cloned-meat.html

+ GERMANY: GM HONEY BANNED, BUT NO PROTECTION FOR BEEKEEPER
The Augsburg administrative court in Southern Germany has ruled that honey containing pollen from MON810 GM corn is not tradable. Although the judge recognizes that the plaintiff, beekeeper Karl-Heinz Bablok, is adversely affected by this ruling because he is not allowed to sell such honey, it is the court's opinion that he has no claim to protection against the growing of GM corn.
http://www.biofach.de/en/newsletter/archive/

+ GERMANY: BEEKEEPERS SET UP HIVES IN FRONT OF BAVARIAN PARLIAMENT
The Bavarian government is growing MON810 Bt corn as part of a research project. A German court has ruled (see above) that any contamination of bee products with MON810 will render these unfit to be marketed, because MON810 only has approval as feed but not as food. This week, the MON810 corn will begin to flower. So beekeepers have evacuated over 50 hives from the region and taken them to the Bavarian capital Munich, which has declared itself GM-free. Here, they set up the hives in refugee camps throughout the city and especially in front of the Bavarian parliament and the governor's office.
http://www.moraybeekeepers.co.uk:80/N&Views/German_BK.htm

+ UK: CHINESE RICE PRODUCTS CONTAIN ILLEGAL GM RICE
The UK Food Standards Agency has provided a list of Chinese rice products tested since 12 April and found to contain illegal Bt63 rice. In April, the European Commission adopted an emergency measure requiring imports of specified products from China to be certified free of Bt63.
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2008/jul/bt63update

+ UK: WAS YOUR TAKEAWAY COOKED IN GM OIL?
It is illegal for caterers to use GM ingredients unless they are clearly labelled on their menus or displayed on a prominent notice. Despite this 66% of the cafes; restaurants, takeaways and pubs visited by Surrey Trading Standards Officers were using GM oil in their cooking without letting customers know. (Make sure your Trading Standards Officers are active on this issue!)
http://www.costsectorcatering.co.uk/online_article/Was-your-takeaway-cooked-usin g-GM-oil/3991

+ GM CROP REAPERS DETECT ILLEGAL GM MAIZE IN FRANCE
Jean-Louis Cuquel was summoned to appear in court on July 10 following a writ served by Confederation Paysanne and others who found Monsanto's GM corn MON810, banned since February, growing in one of his fields. MON810 was approved for planting in 2007 but banned in 2008. When Cuquel planted in 2008 he had seed left over from the previous year and said he could not afford to throw it away.
GM Watch comment: It's sometimes claimed by pro-GM lobbyists that if any reason is found to ban a GM crop once it's been introduced, then this offers no more difficulty than, say, a drug recall. This article shows that in practice, regaining control over an agricultural crop is far more challenging.
Article in French: http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences-et-environnement/article/2008/07/11/les-faucheurs -d-ogm-detectent-du-mais-transgenique-interdit-chez-un-petit-agriculteur_1072372 _3244.html#ens_id=1072373

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ AUSTRALIA: GM CONTAMINATION OF HONEY A PROBLEM FOR BEEKEEPERS
In February the state government allowed GM canola into Victoria. But beekeeper Graham Connell, with 40 bee hives, said because there is no state registry on farms using GM, he has no way of knowing which canola farms were GM-free. Thus he cannot guarantee that his honey is GM-free. He said honey sellers asked beekeepers to sign statutory declarations declaring them GM-free, so a legal challenge is inevitable if this situation is allowed to continue. He said bees are in decline worldwide and blamed GM contaminated crops for the decline.
http://www.macedonrangesleader.com.au/article/2008/07/07/38558_mrv_news.html

+ CSIRO SCIENTIST'S GM LETTER CAMPAIGN BACKFIRES
CSIRO Plant Industry Deputy TJ Higgins has conducted a letter campaign urging Australian chefs not to boycott GM food products. Higgins wrote on CSIRO letterhead to more than 50 chefs who had signed Greenpeace's GM-free Chef's Charter. But his letter campaign has "backfired spectacularly" with health scientists and chefs angered over public resources being used for pro-GM lobbying.

Sydney restaurateur and cookbook author Holly Davis said some chefs are "very concerned. I thought that CSIRO was an impartial research organisation." Higgins, whose promotion of GM foods is strongly supported by Australia's chief scientist Jim Peacock and Victoria's chief scientist Gus Nossal, is CSIRO's co-inventor of the GM field pea, abandoned because toxicologists found it caused immune problems and lung damage in mice.
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080721-CSIRO-scientist-campaign.html

+ GM BANANA TRIALS TO BEGIN IN NORTH QUEENSLAND
Planting for Australia's first trial of GM bananas will begin later this year in north Queensland.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/24/2313593.htm?site=idx-qld

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: U.S. MAY PUSH AGRI, DEFENCE AGENDA AFTER NUKES DEAL -- SCIENTIST
An eminent scientist has expressed fear that after the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, Washington may try to push its agricultural agenda and defence sales to New Delhi. Past president of Indian Nuclear Society and former Director of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Dr Placid Rodriguez said the deal comes under the whole gamut of strategic alliance covering defence, space, nuclear and agriculture. Rodriguez said, "Our agricultural universities, state universities, ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) laboratories -- they will be completely overwhelmed by giants like Monsanto whose resources are plenty and whose motivation is only monopoly."
http://www.ptinews.com/pti/ptisite.nsf/all/146DFB76C72B487B652574860036601C?Open document

+ GEAC TRIES TO MUZZLE SUPREME COURT'S OBSERVER
Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava is one of two eminent Indian scientists appointed as observers to the meetings of the country's apex GM regulatory body, the GEAC, on the basis of an order of India's Supreme Court, as a consequence of the Public Interest Litigation brought by Aruna Rodrigues and others.

As soon as Dr Bhargava saw at first hand what was going on in the GEAC and how little scientific and regulatory credibility it had, he began to comment publicly on the committee's shortcomings, which is what members of the GEAC are so annoyed about. He added to their embarrassment by revealing that the minutes of the GEAC did not tally with his actual comments to the committee. GEAC has now taken advantage of his absence from a meeting to attack him in what is clearly an attempt to stop any further public comment on their activities.

The committee, stacked with government officials and industry representatives, noted Bhargava should be mindful of "confidentiality in the functioning and deliberations of the Statutory Committees of the government...(what) the public is entitled to know is the combined wisdom and decisions of the committee and not the individual views expressed in the meetings."

In a letter to the committee, Bhargava has hit back saying: "This is surely an authoritarian (and not a democratic) view of a meeting. The public, I strongly believe, has a right to know about unresolved dissensions in a meeting."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Developmental_Issues/GM_panel_SC_observer_spa r_over_making_findings_public/articleshow/3254534.cms

+ INDIA: "WE NEED A MORATORIUM ON BT COTTON"
Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, special appointee to the GM regulator GEAC, has demanded a 5-year moratorium on Bt cotton. He cites factors that have not been properly considered by GEAC, including deaths of sheep that grazed Bt cotton, damage done by Bt cotton to other crops, and Bt allergy in humans.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=BO&a utono=328397

+ INDIA'S FARMERS GO BACK TO BASICS
In Andhra Pradesh 300,000 farmers are reaping increased yields and earning better incomes without GM seeds and chemical pesticides, and using local pest management techniques.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/features/article_1417167.php/Ind ias_suicide-prone_farmers_go_back_to_basics

+ INDIA: GEAC SHOULD ADDRESS HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS
The government must clarify why it is setting up the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA), replacing the existing regulator Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) which is already acting as a single window clearance for biotech products, says Krishan Bir Chaudhary, president of farmer group Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, in a letter to the Financial Express.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/GEAC-should-address-health-and-environmenta l-concerns/335290/1

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ MEPs TOO CLOSE TO BUSINESS
Europe's leaders are sleepwalking into the issue of MEPs' links with commercial interests, warns a new report by SpinWatch. The report, Too Close for Comfort? investigates potential conflicts of interest of some MEPs, including John Purvis, the leading Conservative MEP promoting biotech in the European Parliament. Purvis, as the report notes, has significant financial interests in the biotech, nuclear and financial sectors.
http://www.spinwatch.org/images/too%20close%20for%20comfort.pdf

+ CALL FOR IRISH GOVERNMENT'S CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER TO RESIGN
An article in the Irish Times quotes the Irish government's chief scientific adviser, Prof Paddy Cunningham, as saying that the acceptance of GM food in the EU is "inevitable". But contrary to what Prof Cunningham implies, GM crops are grown on 0.21% of EU farmland, and leading EU retailers are beginning to extend their bans on food containing GM ingredients to exclude meat, poultry and dairy produce from livestock fed on GM animal feed.

Prof Cunningham is a member of the biotech lobby group European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES), a task force of the European Federation of Biotechnology whose members comprise biotech and pharmaceutical industry groups, including Monsanto Europe, the Association of German Biotech Companies, the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (USA), etc. He ALSO recently worked as a consultant for the US company Elanco, a division of the US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly and Co. that markets Monsanto's GM-produced rBGH growth hormone, which is illegal in the EU. Having a biotech industry lobbyist occupy the post of chief scientific officer of Ireland is a conflict of interest, says a press release from the GM-free Ireland Network: "Prof Cunningham should be removed from his post."
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI40.pdf

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LM WATCH
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+ DISTORTIONS, FALSEHOODS, FABRICATION
For the second time, the UK's Channel 4 has been fiercely criticised by the broadcasting regulator Ofcom for a TV programme attacking environmental science, reports George Monbiot in the Guardian. For the second time, the director was Martin Durkin. Ten years ago, his series Against Nature was found to have misled his interviewees about "the content and purpose of the programmes" and distorted their views "through selective editing". Now Ofcom has ruled that the programme he made last year -- The Great Global Warming Swindle -- treated two scientists and an organisation (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) unfairly. For the second time, Channel 4 has had to make an embarrassing prime-time statement.
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/07/21/distortions-falsehoods-fabrications/

+ DURKIN, GM & LM
Durkin has directed a series of controversial films for Channel 4 which deride environmental concerns. These include the notorious Against Nature which, amongst other things, promoted extreme genetic technologies and human cloning, and Modified Truth: The Rise and Fall of GM, which presented GM food as perfectly safe and as much needed to feed the starving in the Third World.

The latter led Dr Tewolde Gebre Egziaber, head of the Ethiopian government's Environmental Protection Authority, to issue a joint letter attacking the programme as a propaganda vehicle that exploited the Third World's rural poverty to support the monopoly control and global use of GM crops by transnational corporations and emotionally blackmail the UK public into using GM.
http://www.biotech-info.net/joint_letter.html

What Monbiot doesn't mention in his latest article (see item above), but has commented on extensively elsewhere, is Durkin's critical links to the network centered on the magazine LM, formerly known as Living Marxism -- the house magazine of a bizarre and cultish right-wing libertarian group known as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
Find out more at http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_watch.html
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/0321climate_swindle_the.php
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6115
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=151
Revealing George Monbiot interview about the LM network
http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_george_monbiot.html

+ GENOCIDE APOLOGIST/BIOTECH APOLOGIST
News that the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic is to be handed over to the UN war crimes court in the Hague to face charges of genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other atrocities, is a reminder that the LM group have not only acted as climate change deniers and apologists for biotech. They've also acted as genocide deniers (Bosnia, Rwanda) and apologists for Serb nationalists like Karadzic.

A good example of how the roles of biotech apologist and war crimes apologist can be seamlessly combined is provided by Thomas Deichmann, who has, for example, co-authored a book defending biotech and published an interview in LM with Karadzic -- after Karadzic had been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.

In fact, Deichmann has -- post-Bosnia -- so successfully reinvented himself as an expert commentator on biotech that last year he even turned up on a panel of experts at the ESRC-funded, highly prestigious, EGN Genomics and Society conference. Dr Alex Plows, one of the senior social scientists at the EGN event told us, "This was our conference and it was colonised [by LMers]!" Dr Plows also said she was "absolutely furious that Deichmann was given a platform at the EGN conference... The association compromises the integrity of UK social science."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_watching.html
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=161

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RESEARCH
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+ ALLERGEN-FREE GM FOODS FACE PROBLEMS
Genetic modification of plants and crops has long been touted as a means of producing hypoallergenic foods, but real progress in this area is limited by overcoming the "essential requirement for some of the major allergenic proteins for normal plant function," wrote Mohan Singh and Prem Bhalla from the University of Melbourne.

The scientists found that attempts to create an allergen-free GM tomato failed. They said, "The transgenic plants exhibited severe growth retardation along with yield reduction ... and some transgenic lines did not bear any fruit. These results highlight the obstacles in removing certain plant allergenic proteins that perform essential cellular housekeeping functions."
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=86624-allergens-tomatoes-peanuts

+ TESTING TIME FOR SUBSTANTIAL EQUIVALENCE
Survival and fitness was reduced in the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna when fed MON810 maize, compared with a non-GM control maize, according to a new study published by Thomas Bohn et al in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. This is yet another sign that substantial equivalence, the concept that GM plants are the same as their non-GM counterparts and do not require special safety tests, is nonsense, says a very interesting article from the Bioscience Resource Project.
http://www.bioscienceresource.org/news/news19.php

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ TAKE ACTION: KELLOGG BOYCOTT
In the US, a boycott against Kellogg is being called because of its readiness to use GM sugar beet in its products. Kellogg doesn't currently use sugar from GM sugar beets, but Kellogg spokeswoman Kris Charles said the company likely will use it once it enters the nation's sugar supply this year.
http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/07/saying_no_to_fruit_loops_fli nt.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org

+ DELTA & PINE'S SOYBEANS TRANSFER TO MONSANTO
Delta and Pine Land's Deltapine soybean varieties are being transitioned to Monsanto's Asgrow soybean brand. This announcement is no surprise, since Monsanto's acquisition of Delta & Pine Land last year means Delta & Pine's breeding program and germplasm library are now owned by Monsanto. But what's bound to happen is that Monsanto will maintain a monopoly position by eliminating Delta & Pine from entering into partnerships with other seed companies to develop new traits and share genetic resources, says an article for OCM.
http://www.competitivemarkets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=216& Itemid=20

+ MONSANTO HARRASSES THE DEAD
Monsanto's private investigators have tried to serve legal papers to 11 people who are deceased, says an article for OCM. The papers were served as part of Monsanto's investigation of the Pilot Grove Cooperative in Missouri. Another farmer spent $400,000 defending his family from frivolous litigation by Monsanto even though the fields Monsanto alleged were sown to its patented soybeans were actually, the farmer says, sown to popcorn.

"With Monsanto, you're guilty until you're proven innocent," said one farmer. One of Monsanto's tactics is to make these cases so expensive that farmers have little recourse but to settle. About 20 of these customers have already decided to settle in order to avoid a costly fight. The details of these settlements are unknown due to gag orders, yet OCM says that to date, out of court settlements with Monsanto may exceed $100,000,000.
http://www.competitivemarkets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=202& Itemid=20
http://www.competitivemarkets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=198& Itemid=20

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GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
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+ DIGGING THEMSELVES A HOLE
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
In the wake of new methods of deriving fully potent stem cells without destroying embryos, researchers and advocates appear to be falling into two camps.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4165

+ CLONING CANINE PATRIOTISM?
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
Hwang Woo Suk's dog cloning company is running online auctions and a "Golden Clone Giveaway" essay contest. Fortunately, the media are mostly ignoring the hype.
http://www. biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4158

+ FAME-COURTING BIOTECH RUNNING SHORT OF CASH
For the past decade, Advanced Cell Technology Inc. has claimed one spectacular success after another. Now, ACT could be on the verge of shutting down.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4180

+ IS SOCIAL EGG-FREEZING THE RIGHT THING FOR YOU?
Thanks to a new flash-freezing technique called vitrification, which minimises damage to the eggs, a new generation of thirty-something "social" egg freezers determined to secure their shot at motherhood is growing.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4181

+ INDIA: GOV'T TO REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION OF SEX SELECTION
The Uttar Pradesh state government in India has decided to review the poor implementation of India's law prohibiting sex selection.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4161

+ BROWN DELAYS EMBRYO BILL
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown postponed until autumn the vote on the bill to overhaul the oversight of assisted reproduction and embryo research.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4160