FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
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No Weekly Watch this week because we're seriously short of dosh - funding appeal to follow! - but here's a great Monthly Review for you to get your teeth into.
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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HEALTH EFFECTS OF GMOs
COURT CASES
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
CATHOLICS AGAINST GMOs
NEW RESEARCH
CONTAMINATION
GM FAILURES
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
CORPORATE CRIMES
GM POTATOES IN UK
GM HYPE
CLONED ANIMALS
GM HUMANS
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
ONLINE RESOURCES
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HEALTH EFFECTS OF GMOs
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+ DAMAGING REPORT SUPPRESSED FOR 8 YEARS
Monsanto, in collaboration with Russia's Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Science, has been accused of suppressing a study of GM potatoes that showed they damaged the internal organs of rats. The research only emerged after a lengthy legal battle. Nutritional expert Dr Irina Ermakova says it shows that the GM potatoes damaged the kidneys, liver, large gut, blood serum, testes and prostate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7539
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7544
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7576
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7542
+ MONSANTO DOUBLE-SPEAK ON RESEARCH
Monsanto's response to the revelations about the study has been to claim that it is not peer reviewed. But a version of this study was used by Monsanto to gain approval from the Russian authorities for its GM potatoes to go into the food chain!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7576
+ INDIA: BT LEAVES BAD FOR ANIMALS
More than 2,500 animals have died in recent months after eating Bt cotton leaves.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7538
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7507
+ BT COTTON INVESTIGATED FOR TOXICITY
India's National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has decided to investigate whether the cause of death of over 1,500 sheep in Andhra Pradesh was the consumption of Bt cotton plant material.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7569
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COURT CASES
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+ FRANCE: MONSANTO FINED FOR FRAUDULENT ADVERTISING
A French court levied US $19,000 fines on Monsanto and Scotts France for misleading the public about the safety of the herbicide Roundup.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7536
+ ILLEGAL GM RICE IN THE UK - JUDGE LISTS FSA's MISTAKES
A High Court judge in the UK has identified a series of mistakes in the way the Food Standards Agency dealt with GM rice contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7567
+ U.S. FEDERAL COURT ORDERS HALT TO NEW GM FIELD TRIALS
A US federal district judge has ruled that the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new GM field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. Citing potential threats to the environment, Judge Harold Kennedy found USDA's past approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant GM bentgrass were illegal.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7509
+ LANDMARK U.S. FEDERAL RULING
In a separate ruling, another US federal judge has ruled that the USDA violated the law by failing to adequately assess possible environmental impacts before approving Monsanto's GM alfalfa. Judge Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court in San Francisco said the agency had been "cavalier" in deciding that a full environmental impact statement was not needed. The decision could block commercial sales of GM alfalfa seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7530
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7568
+ GM WATCH COMMENT ON U.S. COURT DECISIONS
The US promotes itself around the world as the model for GM crop regulation, but the judgments of its own judiciary - see above - tell a different story. And late last year yet another federal district judge ruled that the USDA the law by not conducting preliminary environmental reviews before permitting the cultivation of drug-producing GM pharma crops throughout Hawaii. US District Judge Michael Seabright also called USDA's regulatory heedlessness "arbitrary and capricious" and "an unequivocal violation of a clear congressional mandate." From these judgements and the USDA Inspector General's damning report last year, it is all too clear that USDA is simply not doing its job of protecting the public.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6888
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6891
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GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
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+ CHINA SAYS NO (AGAIN) TO COMMERCIALIZING GM RICE
China, the world's top rice producer, has shelved proposals for commercial production of GM rice for the fourth time since 2004.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7574
+ TAMIL NADU BANS SALE OF MONSANTO-MAHYCO SEEDS
The sale of Monsanto-Mahyco seeds has been banned by the Tamil Nadu government after its Bt cotton failed there. Thousands of farmers are in distress as a result of the failure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7569
+ EU COMMISSION DEFEATED FOR THIRD TIME ON GMOs
For the third time, EU governments have blocked a European Commission proposal to force a European country to accept the cultivation of GMOs on its soil. Only the UK, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden among the 27 members voted in support of the Commission.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7553
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7563
+ FDA PETITIONED TO WITHDRAW APPROVAL FOR rBGH
27 nations, including the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, have banned rBGH milk. Now US advocacy organizations representing consumers, family farmers, and cancer prevention specialists have filed a citizen's petition to the FDA, seeking the withdrawal of approval for Monsanto's GM cattle drug, or the labelling with a cancer risk warning of any dairy products produced with its use.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7562
+ CALIFORNIA DAIRIES GOING rBGH FREE
The largest dairy cooperative in California is telling its members to stop using Monsanto's GM cattle drug rBGH.
http://www.agbios.com/main.php?action=ShowNewsItem&id=8200
+ CALIFORNIA BILL WOULD HOLD GM PRODUCERS LIABLE
In California, an assemblyman has introduced legislation that would make companies developing GM crops liable for damages if their work results in contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7579
+ INDIA: 64 VILLAGES IN UTTAR PRADESH PLEDGE TO REMAIN GM-FREE
Sixty-four villages of Chitrakoot and Banda districts in Uttar Pradesh have declared themselves GM-free. About 2,000 farmers pledged never to cultivate GM crops. Instead, they will opt for organic farming and prepare their own seeds and fertilizers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7506
+ INDIA: FARMERS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE GM BAN
The 35th National Convention of the big Indian farmers' group Bharat Krishak Samaj has called for an immediate ban on all GM crops. BKS passed a resolution calling the failure of Bt cotton, and its devastating financial impact on thousands of cotton growers, "a national shame".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7569
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CATHOLICS AGAINST GMOs
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+ ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA CALLS FOR GM MORATORIUM
Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has written to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo asking for a moratorium on US rice imports because of GM contamination and a stop on all GMOs in the Philippines.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7537
+ CALL FOR CATHOLIC STAND AGAINST GM FOOD
The use of GM in the production of food crops poses unknown health risks, Columban Father Charles Rue says, in a call for an informed Catholic voice on GM foods in the lead up to the New South Wales election in Australia. In a statement, the Columban Missionary Society says it is concerned that a future NSW government will lift its moratorium on the commercial growing of GM food crops in the state. The legislation is up for review in 2008.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7554
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PHARMA CROPS
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+ NO PHARMA CROPS IN FOOD CROPS - NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
The editors of Nature Biotechnology have reaffirned their opposition to genetically engineering food crops to produce pharmaceuticals. And a Duke University researcher argues in the journal that field-grown pharma crops present too many problems to be a viable solution to the problems of an ailing agricultural sector.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7532
+ PHARMA CROPS IN GERMANY
In Germany, the first field trial involving GM crops producing pharmaceutical compounds took place in 2006. The pharma potatoes contained genes of the cholera bacterium and a rabbit virus. Now, a second field trial of GM pharma peas is planned for 2007.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7523
+ PHARMA PEAS THREATEN WORLD'S LARGEST PEA LANDRACE COLLECTION
The planned GM pharma pea trial in Germany (see above) will take place in Gatersleben (Saxonia-Anhalt), next to the Gatersleben gene bank, which accommodates the world's largest collection of pea land races (more than 5500 samples). Several hundred are cultivated every year in open fields to preserve their germination capability. The distance of the pharma peas from the fields of the gene bank's peas would be only 500 meters.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7523
+ SCANDAL: TAXPAYERS' MONEY SQUANDERED ON PHARMA PEAS
The pharma peas to be trialled in Germany (see above) were developed by the Eastern German biotech company Novoplant with more than 1 million euros of taxpayers' money.
The peas involve mouse genes that are claimed to produce antibodies against gastro-intestinal infections in pigs. However, a feeding study found that "not a single positive effect on the infection process was seen" with the GM peas. This result was suppressed by Novoplant when the company filed the application for the release of its pharma pease.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7557
+ ACTION: PLEASE SIGN PETITION ON PHARMA CROPS
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has a petition, policy paper, database and documents dealing with frequently asked questions about pharma crops posted on its new UCS website at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org
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GM FAILURES
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+ BT COTTON HAS FAILED IN VIDARBHA - STUDY
A new study on the introduction of Bt cotton in Vidarbha, India, where more farmers have taken up GM cotton than anywhere else in India, confirms that it has failed. The study shows that 70 per cent of small farmers have lost their landholdings as collateral for loans that they could never repay.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7540
+ MINISTER GIVES MONSANTO-COMPENSATION TO FARMERS
Tamil Nadu minister for agriculture Veerapandi S. Arumugam has distributed compensation to 996 farmers whose crop suffered after using Monsanto-Mahyco's GM Bt cotton seeds. The seed firm offered compensation of Rs. 5,000 per acre, Arumugam said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7525
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7525
+ LOW-COST CULTIVATION CAN SAVE MAHARASHTRA'S FARMERS
Low-cost farming can be a way out of misery for farmers who are driven to desperation and suicides, says a senior Maharashtra official. Sudhir Kumar Goyal blames the indiscriminate promotion of cost-intensive farming, including Bt cotton, for the poor condition of farmers in the state. Five districts of western Vidarbha have reported close to 1,500 suicides in the last 20 months.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7540
+ HAUNTED BY FARMER SUICIDES
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7583
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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ MONSANTO MERGER ANGERS BLACK FARMERS
A national black farmers group in the US says a proposed merger between Monsanto and Delta and Pine Land will create a monopoly and force black farmers out of the business. The National Black Farmers Association represents 80,000 members, predominantly small planters.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7566
+ MONSANTO MERGER THREATENS ORGANIC COTTON
Organic cotton could become more difficult to come by if the Monsanto and Delta and Pine Land merger goes ahead, says a new report. With more GM varieties, the risk of contamination of organic and conventional crops will almost certainly increase. The merger could also exacerbate rapidly increasing seed prices. Another concern is that Delta and Pine along with the USDA own patents to the controversial Terminator technology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7570
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BIOFUELS
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+ UC'S BIOTECH BENEFACTORS: THE POWER OF BIG FINANCE AND BAD IDEAS
British Petroleum has donated $500 million in research funds for UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois to develop new sources of energy - primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops. In addition to overwhelming the university's research agenda, what scientists behind this blatantly private business venture fail to mention is that the apparent free lunch of crop-based fuel can't satisfy our energy appetite, and it will not be free or environmentally sound.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7503
+ BIOFUELS - FACTS AND FICTION
George W. Bush used his seventh annual State of the Union Address to announce ethanol is the answer to oil dependency. The biotech industry is in ecstasy at the soaring demand for corn to meet the US thirst for ethanol. But as NFU Director of Research Darrin Qualman points out in a brilliant article, "Biodiesel and ethanol can't fuel this civilization":
http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/uf_january_2007.pdf
And in an article for The Ecologist, Mark Anslow expertly takes apart the claims for biofuels.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7561
+ GMOs AND SOUTH AFRICA'S BIOFUELS STRATEGY
A highly informative report on South Africa's biofuels strategy is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7565
+ ACTION: CALL ON EU TO ABANDON TARGETS FOR BIOFUEL USE
Please sign the open letter urging the EU to abandon its targets for biofuel use in Europe.
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/resources.php
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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ MONSANTO DUMPED TOXIC WASTE IN UK
Evidence has emerged that Monsanto dumped thousands of tonnes of highly toxic waste, including PCBs and remnants of Agent Orange, in British landfill sites, knowing that their chemicals were liable to contaminate wildlife and people.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7521
+ INDIA: DOW CORRUPTION SCANDAL
GM and chemicals giant Dow will pay a $325,000 civil penalty as a result of improper payments to Indian government pesticide regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7538
+ MONSANTO DESTROYING RURAL CANADA - FARMER
GMOs are destroying human health, the environment and the social fabric of rural Canada, says Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer campaigning for farmers' rights. Monsanto's "gene police" visit farmers suspected of growing GM seeds - on tips from neighbours forced by the contract to squeal - and threaten them with court action. The farmers are left wondering which neighbour betrayed them, leading to a "breakdown of the rural social fabric."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7550
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CONTAMINATION
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+ GM CONTAMINATION FOUND IN KUWAIT
Greenpeace has released test results which revealed GMOs in maize based food products imported from the USA to the Middle East, including Kuwait.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7537
+ GM RICE INDUSTRY FACES MELTDOWN - GLOBAL REJECTION GROWS
Forty-one of the world's biggest rice exporters, processors and retailers have issued written commitments to stay GM-free. This follows a major contamination incident in 2006, when the world's rice supply was contaminated with an experimental and illegal variety of GM rice produced by Bayer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7516
+ U.S. RICE FARMERS TAKE A HARD LIN
The Rice Producers of California (RPC) have released a market study that documents the powerful opposition to GM rice in key export destinations. RPC want a ban on not just commercial GM rice but any outdoor planting.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7552
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7564
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GM POTATOES IN UK
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+ BASF ANNOUNCES SECOND UK GM SPUD TRIAL SITE
BASF has announced the second UK trial site for its GM blight resistant potatoes. It has applied for permission to plant in Hedon, East Riding of Yorkshire. The GM potatoes are supposed to resist blight. BASF claims that the annual losses due to blight amount to GBP50 million per year. In contrast, the British Potato Council put the cost of damage due to blight at GBP3 million! Lots more info at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7582
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GM HYPE
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+ BT COTTON UPTAKE NO MORE THAN "A FAD" - STUDY
For all the hype over the rapid adoption of Bt cottonseed in India, a new study by a scholar from Washington University has found it may have been nothing more than a fad.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7535
GM WATCH comment: There is clear evidence that this kind of herd mentality can also affect the uptake of GM crops in countries like the US.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7575
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7580
+ UGANDA TO INTRODUCE GM BANANAS?
It is claimed that Uganda could soon introduce GM bananas after a successful GM sweet banana variety proved resistant to pests and diseases, according to an article in The East African. Geoffrey Arinaitwe, the Ugandan scientist who developed the GM banana featured in the article, is part of a group based in Belgium who have been responsible for a series of attempts to massively hype GM bananas, but each time their claims have been expertly debunked.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7558
+ MEXICO'S CORN CRISIS EXPLOITED BY GM LOBBY
The price of corn in Mexico has risen to its highest point in 10 years, reportedly due to a growing demand for the grain from the US to produce ethanol. The crisis brought on by the massive price hike is now being exploited by the GM lobby to push for the introduction of GM corn in Mexico via claims that GM is a panacea for increased corn production. However, USDA data does not support the claim that GM corn increases production. In fact, it shows that far from increasing yields, GM crops may actually reduce them. USDA data also shows that GM corn has had a negative economic impact on farms.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7527
+ MEXICO: BIG BIOTECH IS FORCING FARMERS TO BUY GM SEEDS
An article for CounterPunch reveals how the steep jump in tortilla prices is leading to massive imports of GM corn from the US. Some of this will be planted in spite of government prohibition.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7533
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CLONED ANIMALS
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+ DOLLY'S LONG GOODBYE
February 14 was the fourth anniversary of the premature death of the first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, but still the push for cloning goes on, writes Jonathan Matthews of GM Watch in an article for The Ecologist Newsletter.
Read the article: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7529
+ BEN & JERRY'S JOINS MARCH TO CAPITOL AGAINST CLONING
A herd of more than 100 cow-costumed marchers rallied on Capitol Hill to raise awareness of cloning.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7562
+ CATTLE EXPERT OPPOSES CLONES AS FOOD SOURCES
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7572
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GM HUMANS
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+ STOP GM HUMAN EMBRYOS!
After 25 years of genetic engineering of plants and animals, scientists are now ready to take the ultimate step: the genetic engineering of human embryos. In December, the British government said it would allow them to go ahead. It is planning to table draft legislation in March. This will be the first time any government has sanctioned genetic engineering of human embryos, and is against international agreements. WE ARE NOW AT A CRUCIAL THRESHOLD: IT IS VITAL THAT WE TELL THE GOVERNMENT THAT HUMAN GENETIC ENGINEERING IS UNACCEPTABLE. If we do not stop it now, in ten years we could be living in a world of "consumer eugenics". TAKE ACTION AT http://www.hgalert.org
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7581
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QUOTES OF THE MONTH
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+ MOST NAUSEATING QUOTE
US rice farmers have had to face their worst ever crisis thanks to the biotech industry, which has shown no willingness to accept responsibility for the major financial damage its GM rice trials have wreaked. None of this has been lost on Indian farmers, who have sought to protect their rice industry from similar devastation by putting a stop to GM rice trials in India, in some cases by setting fire to the crop.
But in an interview with an Indian newspaper, Clive James, chairman of the industry backed ISAAA, dismissed critics of GM crops as "selfish people". And when the interviewer referred to the destruction of the GM trials, the man the paper describes as "the voice of the global biotech crop industry" dismissed their actions as those of "people that seem to be on the fanatic side. They are violent in their thoughts."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7505
+ GM NOTHING TO DO WITH SOLVING INDIA'S HUNGER PROBLEM
Devinder Sharma: "Between 2001 and 2003, India had a record grain surplus of wheat and rice amounting to 65 million tonnes. If you could have stacked the bags of grain one on top of another there would be enough bags to walk to the moon and back; that was the quantity of food lying in India, and yet 320 million people went hungry. So let's be very clear; no-one is interested in eradicating hunger."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6338377.stm
+ BEWARE THE AMBASSADORS OF BIOTECH
From an article by Damien Morris: "The techniques used by the GM lobby... have been neatly documented in the book Genetically Modified Language by Guy Cook, a Professor in Language and Education at the Open University. Essentially Cook demonstrates that the GM lobby consistently paints a picture of a hapless, ignorant and emotional public, prone to manipulation through a media hijacked by NGOs who are extremists, terrorists or even unscrupulous sensationalists trying to increase their funding and membership. The wise and benevolent proponents of GM can then "educate" the simpleton public, and the truth will set them free into the brave new scientific future."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7520
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ONLINE RESOURCES
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+ THE MONSANTO FILES
An excellent online resource on the monster with lots of useful info and links:
http://www.voteyeson27.com/monsanto.htm
+ PETITIONS, EMAIL ACTIONS, CAMPAIGNS, GM VIDEOS, WEBSITES ETC.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7551