from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
A new study of old data (compiled in a Monsanto-sponsored experiment) on Monsanto’s GM maize MON863 shows that it had toxic effects on the livers and kidneys of rats. Typically, the study was only released when Greenpeace forced it into the light of day through a court case. Monsanto used an incomplete version of this same data to gain approval for the release of the maize by the Canadian authorities (FOOD SAFETY).
Bush's trip to Latin America has turned into a PR disaster. As one commentator put it, "Every time Airforce 1 touches down in a southern capital, the streets turn into a battleground between incensed protestors and fully-armored, truncheon-wielding Robo-cops." And the protests seem also to have prompted Mexico to call a halt to the entry of GM contaminated US rice (The Americas).
For the past week the gmwatch.org website has been suffering what we're told is a Denial of Service attack, aimed at making the site hard to access. Unfortunately, this may at times affect the links given below, but please stick with us!
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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URGENT APPEAL
FOOD SAFETY
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
BP-BERKELEY DEAL
ASIA
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URGENT APPEAL
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ NEW STUDY SHOWS GM MAIZE CAUSES LIVER AND KIDNEY TOXICITY
A study has been released showing that Monsanto used incomplete data to obtain approval of its GM maize and that laboratory rats fed with a GM maize produced by Monsanto have shown kidney and liver toxicity.
The study, published in the journal "Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology", analysed results of safety tests submitted by Monsanto when the company was seeking authorisation to market its GM maize MON863. The data shows that MON863 has significant health risks associated with it; nonetheless, the maize was approved for unconfined release into the environment and for consumption by both humans and animals. The incriminating evidence was obtained by Greenpeace following a court case, and passed on for evaluation by a team of experts headed by Professor Gilles Eric Seralini, a governmental expert in GM from the University of Caen.
An example of how Monsanto presents unsubstantiated opinions and wishful thinking as science is given by Seralini in his paper. Seralini notes, "Monsanto had deemed that, because the males and the females responded differently, there was no reason for worry. Yet, the liver, for example, is an organ that reacts differently as a function of sex."
CRIIGEN (Research Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering), which commissioned the study of data drawn from an experiment sponsored by Monsanto, said in a statement, "These revelations are certainly sufficient to require an immediate ban of GM maize MON 863 and all its hybrids from human or animal consumption, as well new and more carefully conducted feeding studies. This maize cannot now be considered safe to eat. We are calling urgently for a moratorium on other approved GMOs while the efficacy of current health testing methods is reassessed."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7637
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7638
Abstract of the study:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7650
Full paper available as a pdf file at http://www.agbios.com/docroot/decdocs/05-184-001.pdf or as a pdf attachment from Dr Brian John <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
+ EFSA TO REVIEW MONSANTO MAIZE CONCERNS
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has revealed that it will review the new data that revealed toxicity concerns in rats fed the MON863 variety of GM maize.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7647
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THE AMERICAS
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+ MEXICO STOPPING RICE IMPORTS AT THE BORDER
The USA Rice Federation said Mexican officials have stopped rice shipments at the border and were asking for certification that the grain is free of the unapproved LL Rice 601 strain, which contaminated the US commercial supply last year. Mexico is currently the largest export market for US rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7642
+ MEXICANS EATING GM RICE UNAPPROVED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
Greenpeace laboratory results reveal that US rice being sold in Mexican supermarkets is contaminated with an unapproved GM variety
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7639
+ MEXICO NOT U.S. TRASH CAN
Greenpeace activists staged a mock "wedding" between President Bush and Mexico’s President Calderon, including the throwing of GM rice at the couple
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7639
+ CALIFORNIA RICE COMMISSION SPURNS BIOTECH
The California Rice Commission has called for a moratorium on experimental plantings of GM rice in the state, saying federal controls meant to keep such varieties from contaminating commercial rice are inadequate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7646
+ LAX OVERSIGHT OF GM PHARMA CROPS EXPOSED IN USDA DOCUMENTS
The USDA has approved Ventria Bioscience's plans to plant 3,000 acres of GM pharma rice on plots in Kansas. The rice has been genetically engineered with human genes so that it expresses human proteins.
Already GM rice trials elsewhere in the US have caused widespread contamination of the US rice supply. Now the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act showing evidence of lax oversight of pharma rice plantings by Ventria and USDA in North Carolina.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7651
+ GM CROPS KILLING BEES?
Pennsylvania beekeeper John McDonald thinks that Bt crops could be responsible for the massive die-off of bees in the US. McDonald says the die-off is instantaneous, not spreading at the slower pace of conventional disease. He’s asking for more research.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7624
+ JUDGE ORDERS IMMEDIATE HALT TO SALES OF GM ALFALFA SEED
A federal judge has ordered an immediate halt to sales of GM alfalfa seed. The ruling by US District Judge Charles Breyer follows his decision last month that the US Dept of Agriculture had not fulfilled a requirement to prepare a full environmental impact statement before approving the crop's commercial release in June 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7630
+ GMOs INVADE OUR PLANET - WHAT’S THE HARM?
An article about New York Times columnist Denise Caruso’s new book about the risks of GM, "Intervention", cites Caruso as saying that the important questions about the possible negative consequences of genetic engineering are not typically investigated or even asked by the scientists creating the technology or by the industry. Still worse, they greatly resent having their assumptions and approach to science questioned.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7629
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7632
+ BRAZIL: THOUSANDS PROTEST BUSH, AGROFUELS
On March 8, thousands of Brazilians marched to celebrate women's day and protest the visit to Brazil of US president George W. Bush. The largest march took place in Sao Paulo, with more than 10,000 people participating (as many as 20,000, according to some reports). When a few demonstrators sat down to block the street, riot police sought to disperse the crowd with a barrage of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Chaos ensued as the demonstrators, including families with children, tried to escape. About 20 people were injured.
Bush used his South America trip to promote a plan for the region to increase its production of ethanol, an alcohol made from grain, to meet US fuel needs. The National Secretariat of the MST (Movement of Landless Rural Workers) blasted the "biofuels" campaign being promoted by Bush on his Latin American trip as a threat to food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7633
"”¦ the grain required to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV tank is enough to feed a person for a whole year." - WorldWatch Institute founder Lester Brown, quoted by Brian Tokar in "Green Energy: Panacea or Just the Latest Hype?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7633
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EUROPE
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+ DUTCH COUNCIL OF STATE ORDERS DESTRUCTION OF BASF GM POTATO TRIAL
The Council of State in the Netherlands has judged in an appeal by Greenpeace that the field trials of BASF had been illegally permitted by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and Environment (VROM) and destroyed the permits immediately. The court decision was based on the grounds that 1) these potatoes had been insufficiently tested in a controlled environment (like a greenhouse or laboratory) to be release in the open, and 2) the Ministry had not been able to do a proper environmental effect assessment (as required) since BASF had failed to provide information specific enough for this purpose on the location of the trial sites.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7635
+ GM SPUDS HAVE HAD THEIR CHIPS AS IRISH TRIALS STOPPED
BASF has abandoned its plans to grow GM potatoes in Ireland. It is now opting to grow them in Britain where there are fewer restrictions. BASF delayed starting the Irish trial last year citing the onerous monitoring requirements imposed by the EPA.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7634
+ CALLS FOR UK GM SPUD TRIALS TO BE STOPPED AFTER DUTCH COURT RULING
Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze have asked the government to suspend plans for experimental trials of GM potatoes in the UK, in the wake of the Dutch court ruling. The UK trials of BASF's blight resistant potatoes are due to take place from this spring at two locations for a period of five years. One site is a research centre in Cambridge, the other is proposed for Hedon/Preston, East Riding of Yorkshire.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7645
+ GM STARCH POTATO: STILL NO CULTIVATION IN 2007
The Amflora potato, developed by BASF Plant Science with an altered starch composition, apparently may not yet be cultivated this year in the EU. The European Commission has requested an opinion from the European Medicines Agency, EMEA, as prerequisite to an approval decision. The subject of interest is the marker gene used in the potato, making it resistant against the antibiotic kanamycin. GM plants are only approved in the EU if the resistance gene has no harmful effects on health and environment. According to a study by the World Health Organisation, WHO, kanamycin may have a greater importance in veterinary medicine than has been assumed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7635
+ NEW SETBACK FOR GM CROPS IN EUROPE
Members of the European parliament have blocked a resolution calling for greater use of GM technology. MEPs voted to delay the draft motion to allow more time for the agriculture committee to scrutinise it. The cross-party vote deals a blow to efforts by the European Commission to boost biotech at a ministerial meeting in June that will set new targets for its use. The resolution by Kyosti Virrankovski, a Finnish MEP, called for the "benefits" of genetic modification to be recognised and for an end to discrimination between GM and conventional crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7636
Read Journalist Klaus Faissner's analysis of Virrankovski's resolution
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7636
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BP-BERKELEY DEAL
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+ STOP BP BERKELEY
Check out the many resources at
http://www.stopbp-berkeley.org/
+ BIOFUELS AND THE GREEN RESISTANCE
EXCERPT from a good article in CounterPunch about the UC-BP deal: So far, in pursuing this deal, UC Berkeley has tried to avoid public scrutiny, has tried to cover up the fact that BP might be able to control an enormous amount of the curriculum as well as research trajectories. It has disrupted the students' right to demonstrate in front of California Hall - this at the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement. Two students were arrested for pouring what appeared to be oil on the steps of the building. The substance turned out to be organically grown molasses. Nevertheless, when the demonstrators offered to clean it up with mops and rags that they had brought, the campus police refused and physically intimidated several demonstrators. Since then a cadre of dissident professors roiled the Academy Senate at UC Berkeley demanding that the deal be properly discussed, but were largely rebuked even though the meeting occurred because of the rising outrage and opposition to British Petroleum on campus.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7649
+ CHAPELA ON BIOFUELS
"Indonesia without Biofuels used to be close to 20th in the world as producer of CO2 in the atmosphere. In a few years with biofuels it is now third, only behind the US and China."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7649
+ REICH WARNS OF UC-BP DEAL'S CONSEQUENCES
Stanford University lost out on a $2.5 million donation from film producer Stephen Bing as a result of its lending its name to greenwash an oil giant. UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich told this story while speaking in Berkeley's Academic Senate against the university’s recent deal with BP.
Exxon Mobil ran a series of ads shortly after it signed a 2002 agreement establishing a 10-year research accord with Stanford. The ads announced Exxon's alliance "with the best minds at Stanford," and carried the university’s seal and the signature of the Stanford professor heading up the research.
Reich said, "One such ad read, 'Although climate has varied throughout earth's history from natural causes, today there is a lively debate about the planet's response to more greenhouse gasses in the future'" Bing killed his pledge in response to the ads.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7649
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ASIA
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+ ASIA'S RICE UNDER THREAT
On March 29, thousands of Asians will rally in the Week of Rice Action to save the rice of Asia.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7631
+ FRESH APPROVALS OF BT COTTON BLOCKED IN INDIA
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has withheld any fresh approval of Bt cotton for commercial cultivation in the ensuing summer season. "We did not approve any new Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation as the matter is subjudiced in the Supreme Court," said a senior GEAC official.
The GEAC is awaiting further orders from the Supreme Court, which in response to a public interest lawsuit filed by Aruna Rodrigues and other, had directed that no new GM crop field trials should be allowed until the case is settled.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7643
+ COTTON SEED CONFUSION IN POOR COUNTRIES - NEW SCIENTIST
New Scientist reports on the recently published study by Glenn Stone showing that the apparent popularity of Bt cotton in India is due to a "fad" (EXCERPT): On the surface, the figures show the genetically modified Bt cotton produced by Monsanto and a number of Indian partners has had real success in India. ”¦ But according to Glenn Stone of Washington University in St Louis, the numbers hide the fact that the modified seeds are in fact contributing to a "complete breakdown in the cotton cultivation system". ”¦ it looks like introducing large numbers of new GM seeds, whatever the effect on yield, brings the risk of undermining traditional - and effective - farming practices.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7644