from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
As if America's gift to the world of illegal GM rice weren't enough (GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL), now it seems another illegal GM rice, this time from China, has appeared on our shelves. And if Chinese media reports are to be believed, it's all down to the arrogance and ambition of one man. (EUROPE)
Farmers are paying a heavy price for GM contamination. US rice farmers are said to have lost $150 million in just the first 2 days of the GM rice crisis, and they're far from alone when it comes to GM.
There have long been complaints from US corn farmers about GM leading to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year in exports to the EU. And now a report out of Iowa State University says US soybean exports to the EU have also "dropped to almost economically insignificant levels." Before GM, the EU was the US's largest overseas customer for its soybeans. (THE AMERICAS)
Finally, yet another major GM showcase project for Africa has gone belly up. A much hyped GM cassava has unexpectedly lost the virus resistance that it had been claimed would increase harvests by 50% and deliver food security to Africa. (AFRICA)
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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AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
ASIA
GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
GM MEDICINES
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AFRICA
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+ MONSANTO GIVES $15 MILLION TO "FUEL WORK IN AFRICA"
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has announced it has received a $15 million gift from Monsanto. The article announcing the donation in Monsanto's home-town newspaper, the St Louis Post-Dispatch, is a perfect illustration of how public relations triumph over reality when it comes to GM.
The article says half Monsanto's money will be used to "fuel work in Africa".
The example of such work given in the article is the Danforth Center's work on cassava - "the most important food security crop in Africa, one that keeps farmers from starvation when the main crop fails."
The article goes on: "But in the last decade, a plant virus has swept across eastern Africa and decimated the cassava crop. Danforth Center scientists have engineered a virus-resistant cassava, but have not yet surmounted political hurdles that have kept them from field testing the engineered cassava."
The conclusion could not be clearer - Danforth Center scientists have genetically engineered resistance to a virus that devastates a crop vital to Africa's food security, and only misplaced political hurdles are standing in its way.
But this is a complete fiction. As Mariam Mayet of the Africa Centre for Biosafety recently revealed (see next item), the Danforth Center's GM cassava unexpectedly lost any resistance it had to the virus some time ago. In other words, the Center's flagship project for Africa had come to a grinding halt not because of any political obstacles but because it's turned out to be a dud (more details below). That, however, hasn't stopped its continuing use for public relations purposes!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6989
+ MORE ON GM CASSAVA FAILURE
Mariam Mayet of the Africa Centre for Biosafety reports on the failure of the Monsanto-backed Danforth Center's research on GM cassava. The Danforth Center has been heavily involved in a Disease-Resistant Cassava for Kenya Project, with funding from USAID, for the past seven years.
However, on the 26 May 2006, the Danforth Center quietly announced that it had discovered that its GM virus-resistant varieties of cassava had lost resistance to the African cassava mosaic virus (CMVD).
This failure demolishes the claim on the Danforth Center's website that "transgenic plants developed at the Danforth Center have demonstrated strong resistance to the disease in greenhouse trials over multiple years."
It also undermines plans to push Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to test GM cassava under field conditions. Clearly, the promises held out by the Danforth Center are no longer credible: "the project will help 200,000 Kenyan cassava farmers and their families and increase cassava harvests by 50% on a sustainable basis." Similar benefits are promised to neighbouring Uganda and to millions of farmers throughout Africa.
And this isn't the first big GM showcase project to fail in this way. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6979
+ BULLSH*T OVER AFRICA
"Can science feed Africa?" was one of the big events at the British Association's Festival of Science this week in the UK. But looking at the contributors to Tuesday's event, you might think Africa deserves better.
Speakers included Prof David Baulcombe of the Sainbury Laboratory of the John Innes Centre, who claimed to be helping the audience "discover the technology that promotes environmental sustainability and the development of rural economies."
It was Prof Baulcombe who was the inspiration for our character Prof Bullsh*t. This was after Baulcombe misled another meeting with a series of wildly inaccurate claims about GM.
Baulcombe's misinformation included a claim that US government research had shown that Bt crops brought "enormous environmental benefits", including "an increase in the diversity of insect life, ... a corresponding increase in the diversity of small mammal life and a corresponding increase in the diversity of birds of prey in those areas of the United States [where Bt crops were grown]."
All of this turned out to be a complete fiction. What Baulcombe presented as official US research due "to be released shortly" was subsequently shown to have never even existed! Recently published US research, on the other hand, shows Bt cotton produces no benefits at all in terms of biodiversity - the exact opposite of Baulcombe's claim.
And Prof Baulcombe was not the only contributor to the event with a decidedly dodgy track record... http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6968
+ MORE BULLSH*T OVER AFRICA
A recent pro-GM conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, organized by the Sustainable Development Network, presented a very African face, with Moeletsi Mbeki of the South African Institute of International Affairs and the Hon. Ruth Oniang'o, MP, of the government of Kenya, as keynote speakers.
But don't be fooled. The Sustainable Development Network is a very deceptively named organisation. Although it gives little away about itself on its website, not even an address, it lists as its contact: 'Kendra Okonski, coordinator of the SDN phone: 4420 7836 0750'
That's a London number and it doesn't just belong to SDN. It's also the phone number for the International Policy Network (IPN). The IPN is an ultra-right lobby group headed by Julian Morris, who also claims the title of Environment and Technology Programme Director for the Institute of Economic Affairs, a think tank that has advocated that African countries be sold off to multinational corporations in the interests of "good government".
Okonski works under Morris at IPN. The daughter of a US lumber industrialist, she has worked for a variety of anti-regulatory NGOs, including the Monsanto-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington DC.
IPN uses SDN as a front for pro-corporate lobbying on development issues. And Okonski, wearing her SDN hat, has used Johannesburg as her stomping ground before. In 2002 she was involved in organising the infamous 'Fake Parade' of GM-crop supporting 'farmers' during the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6981
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THE AMERICAS
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+ INDUSTRY STILL NOT READY FOR GM WHEAT
An updated report on the potential impact of GM wheat from Iowa State University grain market analyst, Bob Wisner, sounds a sombre warning about the potentially dire economic impact of GM crops.
There have long been complaints from the US of the loss of its corn exports to the EU, but this report points out that US soy exports to the EU have also now "dropped to almost economically insignificant levels. Historically, the EU has been the largest overseas customer for U.S. soybeans and often has been its largest foreign buyer of soybean meal."
The report concludes, "Loss of the U.S. corn export market in EU and the sharp downward trend in US soybean and soybean meal exports to EU are strong cautions to the wheat industry that GM issues in that market should be taken seriously."
Wisner also points out that exports account for 56% of the market for US hard red spring wheat, making export market acceptance vital to the US wheat industry's economic health. Wisner warns that the introduction of GM wheat could risk the loss of one-fourth to one-half of US hard red spring and durum wheat export markets and up to a one-third drop in price, as earlier reports also found.
Wisner's report also refutes claims that US wheat acreage is falling because of GM wheat not being available. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6994
+ MONSANTO BACKED GM BILL DIES IN LEGISLATURE
SB1056, a bill that would have pre-empted local laws placing restrictions on GMOs, failed to make it out of committee in the California Senate and died with the close of the legislative year.
The Monsanto-backed bill was introduced last year after the passage in California of four county and two city bans on GM crops. It was opposed by associations of cities and counties, environmentalists, organic and family farmers, and thousands of citizens concerned that it would have pre-empted democratically established local rules. California currently has no state regulations to protect farmers, consumers or the environment from the risks of GM crops.
Assemblywoman Patty Berg said, "I argued against that bill and I voted against that bill because I think it's bad for California... Bottom line: if the people don't want it, it shouldn't be forced on them."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6964
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6970
+ GM CROPS WIPING OUT MONARCH HABITAT
You may have thought the problem was monarch butterfly larvae dying when they fed on Bt corn pollen, but it doesn't stop there. An article in the Boston Globe says that the advent of GM crops means that milkweed, the only plant on which the monarch feeds, is being eradicated from America's farmlands under the onslaught of Roundup. The article points out, "The GM switch meant the loss of 80 million acres of monarch habitat..."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6993
+ SUPPORT VIA CAMPESINA OCCUPATION OF SYNGENTA IN BRAZIL - TAKE ACTION!
Since 14 March, Via Campesina has occupied Syngenta Seeds' experimental test site in Santa Teresa do Oeste, Paran, Brazil. The occupation occurred after Via Campesina learned that Syngenta had illegally planted GM soy at a site within a protected boundary zone of the Iguaçu Falls National Park. This occupation is a non-violent method for Brazil's rural poor to protest against GMOs and demand that Brazil's natural resources be used to produce food and livelihoods for Brazilians - not to enrich the coffers of Syngenta's shareholders.
NGOs working with Via Campesina are asking us to increase the pressure on Syngenta by sending an e-mail or letter to Pedro Rugeroni, head of Syngenta in Brazil, and to Syngenta's board members in Switzerland. Details here: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6998
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EUROPE
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+ ILLEGAL GM CHINESE RICE DISCOVERED IN EUROPE
Greenpeace International has released findings that show illegal GM rice from China has contaminated food products in France, Germany and the UK. Greenpeace International has notified authorities that the illegal GM rice poses serious health risks and calls upon European governments to take immediate actions to protect consumers.
Greenpeace offices tested samples of rice products such as vermicelli, rice sticks and other processed foods found in Asian specialty stores and Asian restaurants. Three positive samples were found containing an illegal GMO not approved anywhere in the world. However this could be the tip of the iceberg with rice products included in everything from baby food to yoghurt.
Said Jeremy Tager of Greenpeace International: "Innocent consumers again become the victims of the GM industry's 'contamination first' strategy. A group of rogue scientists pushing for the approval of GM rice in China leaked the illegal seeds to the market and have created major genetic contamination." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6982
Reuters report on illegal Chinese rice in Europe: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6983
GM WATCH COMMENT:
This latest contamination scandal appears to have arisen out of clear collusion between GM scientists and a commercial company to sell Chinese farmers GM seeds without informing them either that the seeds were genetically engineered or that it was illegal to plant them.
According to a report in the China Morning Post, this started some five years ago and the man at the centre of the scandal is Zhang Qifa, who is described as "China's leading biotechnology scientist". The article says, "Most investigations identified Professor Zhang - who works at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Huazhong (Central China) Agricultural University - as the source of the illegal grain."
http://www.gmwatch.org/print-archive2.asp?arcid=5499
+ EU COMMISSION: FOOD IMPORTERS SHOULD DO MORE TO KEEP OUT GMOs
The European Commission said food importers need to do more to keep imports of illegal GMOs out of the 25-nation bloc. Food companies that import illegal GM foods risk legal action by national governments, the Commission said. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6985
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6995
+ EU MAY ORDER AUSTRIA TO LIFT BAN ON GM MAIZE
The EU Commission may order Austria to lift its bans on two GM maize varieties now that its presidency of the 25-country European Union has run its course. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6992
+ FRENCH POLICE ARREST THREE AS HUNDREDS DESTROY GM CROPS
French police arrested three people after hundreds of protesters, including anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove, tried to destroy a field of GM maize at Grezet Cavagnan in southern France.
Grezet Cavagnan is where a giant 'X' was carved into a GM maize field after a court order forced Greenpeace to remove information from its website identifying where the GM maize was growing. Under EU law such information should be publicly available. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6976
+ BIOFUELS ARE GM TROJAN HORSE INTO EUROPE - TAKE ACTION!
The new interest in biofuels opens the door for GM oilseed rape and other GM seeds to be imported into Europe for processing into biofuels, warns the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside. The reality is that biofuels can be a "Trojan Horse" which by-passes existing controls and contaminates the seed chain.
A Biofuel Act that could pave the way for the entry of GMOs for biofuels has just passed through the Upper and Lower Houses of the Polish Parliament. All the good work done to keep GMOs out of Poland in the Seeds Act (which does not stop the import of GM seeds for industrial purposes) and the Animal Feed Act will be undermined if GM seeds are allowed into Poland for biofuels production.
The Coalition asks us to write to the Polish president (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) urging him to use his prerogative and not sign the current Biofuel Act until appropriate changes have been incorporated. Sample letter at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6997
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ASIA
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+ BIOPIRACY OF INDIAN RICE
A report from India reminds us of how two years ago, Syngenta tried to snatch the germplasm of twenty thousand rice varieties from the state of Chhattisgarh. The varieties were kept by Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGKVV), Raipur, which, the report says, was doing a secret deal with Syngenta until a public outcry stopped it.
Now, germplasm of 18 local varieties from Jatropha have allegedly been stolen by a biotech company called D-One. Again, the medium for the robbery has been IGKVV. IGKVV has failed to protect the bio-resources of Chhattisgarh to which it is presumed to be the custodian.
IGKVV isn't always so generous with its resources. The varieties it tried to sell to Syngenta were collected from farmers by Dr R H Richharia in a publicly funded project. He documented them in a book called "The Encyclopedia of Rice". The university has kept the work unpublished and the information in it firmly out of the public domain. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6977
+ INDIA: WILTING Bt COTTON
A new disease has appeared on Bt cotton in India's Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh. The disease is called "kanchu rangu endu tegulu" (bronze wilt) and there is no treatment for it. Scientists say that the disease is prevalent more in Canada and America. The affected Bt cotton plants are drying up and dying within 3-4 days of initial signs of infection.
Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu, executive director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, commented, "A November 2000 report of the USDA on bronze wilt points out that there is an association between a new strain of the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens [Bt] and the bronze wilt and that the bronze wilt is present in the seed of all US cotton varieties. Bronze wilt apparently caused damage to American cotton in 1995 and 1996 and more so in 1998.
"Many Roundup Ready GM cotton varieties in the US had to be removed due to their susceptibility to bronze wilt, as per an August 2005 Delta Farm Press report." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6969
+ DROP BIOSAFETY BILL - KEEP BAN IN THAILAND
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has stepped up its call for the caretaker Thai government to drop the draft biosafety bill for fear the legislation would pave the way for commercialisation of GMOs.
Witoon Lienchamroon, director of BioThai, a network of academic and community organisations concerned with the importance of biological resources and conserving biological diversity, said the government's draft bill of the biosafety law appeared to promote the use of GMOs instead of protecting the country's biological resources. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6991
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ BAYER, NOT TAXPAYERS, MUST PAY FOR GM RICE TESTING IN EUROPE
Friends of the Earth Europe has demanded that Bayer finances all European food testing for its illegal GM rice LL601. EU member states are obliged to carry out testing of foods on their shelves following contamination of the food chain in the US with Bayer's experimental GM rice. Each individual test can cost over 200 Euros. Bayer announced this week that its profits in the second quarter of 2006 have risen to over 7 billion Euros. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6967
+ SUSPICION OVER VALIDITY OF BAYER'S TEST FOR LL601
The US FDA has verified a new "10 minute" strip test for LL602 rice which has a limit of detection of 2%. The UK's Food Standards Agency says it has taken action to ensure that testing and monitoring is carried out on consignments of American long grain rice in the UK.
But Pete Riley of GM Freeze commented on the new test: "A two percentage limit of detection is worthless in the present situation - low level but nevertheless illegal contamination would be missed if this method was adopted. Any regulator endorsing its use would be doing the public a gross disfavour and would be helping to cover-up the extent of this serious contamination incident."
So far no cargoes of rice originating in the US have been refused entry or rice on supermarket shelves withdrawn despite reports of widespread contamination in the US and court action against Bayer for failing to prevent the contamination or warn farmers of the dangers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6980
GM Free Cymru's Dr Brian John on his suspicions over validity of Bayer's test: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6973
+ PROTEST OVER AMERICAN GM RICE
GM Free Cymru has lodged a formal complaint against alleged complacency by the Food Standards Agency over the GM rice contamination. GM Free Cymru's Dr Brian John said FSA assurances that it was safe to eat was "complacent and utterly irresponsible" as no safety tests had been conducted. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6984
+ RICELAND TOLD "YOU'RE NOT TO TALK ABOUT THIS"
After an export customer of rice marketers Riceland discovered the contamination, Riceland got a visit from some men from the Enforcement Division of the US Securities and Exchange Division. According to Bill Reed of Riceland: "There was input from the Securities Exchange Commission... because this was significant. They told us, 'You're not to talk about this.' In fact, we weren't even able to tell our salesmen."
The Securities and Exchange Division is supposed to regulate the securities markets and protect investors. It's interesting, as GM Free Cymru's Dr Brian John notes, that the first instinct of the US government was to protect investors. No mention anywhere of protecting the health of consumers or even the interests of farmers. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6984
+ FOURTH LAWSUIT FILED OVER GM RICE
A fourth lawsuit has been filed against Bayer CropScience LP, accusing the company of negligence after its unapproved GM rice was found in the US food supply. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6973
+ SCALE OF GM RICE CONTAMINATION
In Doug Gurian-Sherman's report published by the Center for Food Safety in June, the following facts emerge: ***In the USA over the last decade or so, there have been 195 rice field trials. Of those, 111 were for herbicide resistant varieties such as the LL varieties tested by Bayer. ***There were 13 large field trials (50 acres or more) involving GM rice. The average size of these large field trials was 327 acres, and the largest trial saw GM rice planted on 1,259 acres. ***Only 5 out of the 195 field trials have environmental assessments completed. This means that for the other 190 field trials, nobody bothered to check what outcrossing there may have been into other rice crops or wild relatives. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6990
+ FORMER BAYER CHIEF ON CONTAMINATION
The following statement made in 2000 by Dr Paul Rylott, former head of Bayer CropScience UK, is illuminating given the current contamination fiasco. Rylott was replying to a question about whether there was "any danger of cross-pollination" from GM crop trials:
"OK, we know that cross-pollination will occur but we've got thirty years of experience to say we know how far pollen will travel. And therefore what we've done is we'll grow a GM crop at a distance away from a non-GM crop, so the people that want non-GM can buy non-GM, and the people that want GM can buy GM. The two will not get mixed up. Everybody will have the right to choose."
http://www.gmwatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=23&page=1&op=2
+ PRO-GMer ADMITS GOVT AGENCIES HAVE ADOPTED "DON'T LOOK, DON'T FIND" POLICY
In the wake of the US GM rice and grass contamination scandals, even biotech proponents have accused regulators of laxity. Gregory Jaffe, the pro-GM director of the biotechnology project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, admits, "Government agencies, he says, have adopted what almost amounts to a 'don't look, don't find' policy." Not so long ago Jaffe was complaining that GM was being discouraged and that the pipeline was running dry - there just weren't enough GM crop trials in the US!
But as former EPA biotech specialist Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman said, "It is intrinsically impossible to assure that contamination will not occur, it is not just a matter of sloppiness. That was the conclusion of a US National Academy of Sciences report from two years ago.
"For example, we should not forget that Monsanto/Scott's WAS FOLLOWING APHIS ISOLATION POLICY when the bentgrass contamination occurred. For all we know, policy was followed when the rice contamination happened. This is fundamentally much different than mere sloppiness, because there is no easy remedy. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6966
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6971
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ HUMAN ERROR "PROBABLE CAUSE" OF GM CANOLA CONTAMINATION
Human error has been identified as the most likely cause of the GM contamination of conventional canola two years ago. Low level contamination of the commercially-grown "Grace" variety was discovered in 2005.
A trial of GM canola was conducted in Tasmania in 1998, and a year later grace canola was grown on a separate site three kilometres away, but an investigation by the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator has found that is not how the contamination occurred.
Alex Schaap from Tasmania's Department of Primary Industry said, "The mystery still remains as to what the source of the contamination is. The only hypothesis left standing is some form of human error, perhaps something as simple as somebody not labelling seed bags correctly, and seed hence being mixed."
Does anyone believe this is a controllable technology?
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6996
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ DENNIS AVERY'S FULL OF HORSESH*T
This week's edition of the BBC's Food Programme in the UK brought together Joel Salatin - famous for his 'beyond organic' farming system - and Dennis Avery, a vigorous supporter of pesticides, irradiation, GMOs etc.
GM Watch subscriber Trish Shuker points out an interesting detail. On what the programme called his "70 acre farm, which looks remarkably organic," Avery apparently uses a mulch of "organic horse manure" from his stable to help grow his tomatoes.
Why's that remarkable?
Because Dennis Avery is not only the Director of Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, a rich and powerful US free-market think tank funded by chemical companies, agribusiness and biotech corporations, but he's the originator of the great "E. Coli myth". This is the idea that people who eat organic foods are at a significantly higher risk of food poisoning because of organic farming's use of farmyard manure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6986
+ STOTT "IN A TINY MINORITY" AMONG SCIENTISTS
Geographer Philip Stott is well known for his forthright support for GM, his scepticism about human-induced climate change and his antipathy to those with environmental concerns of even the most moderate kind.
Stott likes to present those who disagree with him as either anti-scientific or as scientific mavericks. But, as recent comments by fellow geographer Simon Batterbury make clear, Stott's narrative is back-to-front. Even within his own discipline and amongst his own former colleagues and students, Stott's views stand out as dubious and eccentric.
EXCERPT from Batterbury's comments: "I would point out that in the professional community of scientists and geographers working on these issues, Stott is in a tiny minority of those who believe human-induced global warming may be mitigated (or is actually unimportant in the climate record), that the sterling work of environmental activists has little value, that GM food is largely risk-free, that tropical rainforests are sufficiently protected, or that the capitalist motive of agro-food and energy companies somehow doesn't impose its own agenda on 'science'..."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6975
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GM MEDICINES
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+ "DON'T BE DELUDED THAT THIS IS THE CANCER BREAKTHROUGH"
Last week's news of a melanoma "cure" from gene therapy is the latest in a series of advances that lack staying power, says John Cornwell in the Sunday Times.
Two dying men with malignant melanoma have been cured after their genetically engineered white blood cells turned into "cancer hunters" and mopped up proliferating malignant cells. If it works for this virulent form of skin cancer, argue the researchers, it could work for other cancers.
But Cornwell cites gene therapy's atrocious record: the death of a healthy teenager and two children with an immune disorder who developed leukemia after gene therapy. He cautions: "The record of gene therapy, so far, should give us pause before rejoicing over the melanoma cures in the US. In the first place they were just two claimed successes out of 17 similarly treated patients, and melanoma has a way of coming back after a patient has been declared free of it. In the second, scientists in the business of battling with cancer these past 40 years have given up on discovering anything like a magic bullet."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6972