Claire Robinson, editor
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PREVIOUS GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEWS AVAILABLE - IN GERMAN
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=82&page=1
AND IN DUTCH
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=81&page=1
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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
MORE CONTAMINATION
GM FAILURES
NON-GM SUCCESSES
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
COMPANY NEWS
CORPORATE CRIMES
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
FOOD SAFETY
GM APPLICATIONS / EXPANSIONS
TERMINATOR
LOBBYWATCH
WTO
BIOFUELS
FAST FOOD
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
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+ USDA DEREGULATES GM CONTAMINANT RICE
The US Dept of Agriculture said on 24 November that it has "deregulated" a strain of GM rice that has contaminated world rice supplies.
"With this decision, USDA is telling agricultural biotechnology companies that it doesn't matter if ... you contaminate the food supply with untested genetically engineered crops, we'll bail you out," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety.
"In effect, USDA is sanctioning an 'approval-by-contamination' policy that can only increase the likelihood of untested genetically engineered crops entering the food supply in the future, and further erode trust in the wholesomeness of US food overseas.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7322
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7238
+ USDA APPROVES GM RICE BUT TRADE STILL FETTERED
US regulators' latest move may do little to soothe doubts about the oversight of GM foods destined for export markets, analysts and industry groups said this week.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7338
+ CONTAMINATED RICE DUMPED IN AFRICA
Testing has confirmed that contamination by illegal GM rice LL601 has occurred in Ghana and Sierra Leone, the main African recipients of rice as commercial imports and food aid from the US.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7318
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7327
+ THE INDUSTRY'S WORST EVER CRISIS
An article - "Rice farmers biggest losers over altered rice" - from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, gives a revealing picture of what GM contamination has meant for US farmers, millers and exporters. It's a picture that should set alarm bells ringing worldwide whenever GM crop trials are proposed.
REMEMBER: no GM rice has ever been grown commercially in the US. There were only ever trials, and those trials were completed five years ago - back in 2001.
So what has the GM contamination meant for the US rice industry?
*The industry's worst ever crisis
*41% of US rice exports negatively affected
*A host of federal lawsuits
*Trade with the 25-nation EU at a standstill
*Other countries have banned US long-grain rice imports
*Many other countries requiring testing
*Some markets for medium- and short-grain rice also affected
*The problem involves more than one kind of GM rice
*A third of long-grain rice samples - including everything from unmilled to parboiled rice - tested positive for GM traits
*GM traits are so prevalent in US rice that "you cannot guarantee statistically that you'll ever get rid of them"
*US rice can never again be validly described as "GM-free".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7271
US rice farmers take the biggest hit:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7233
+ BAYER BLAMES FARMERS AND GOD FOR RICE CONTAMINATION!
Bayer - in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of farmers - has contended that rice farmers and an "act of God" are to blame for the inadvertent release of its unapproved GM rice.
Lawyers for the farmers have pointed out that the farmers had no reason to suspect that the seeds they were planting were contaminated by Bayer's unapproved variety.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7306
+ UK: JUDGE GIVES GO-AHEAD TO FSA HIGH COURT CHALLENGE OVER GM RICE
A High Court judge has given Friends of the Earth permission to take its legal challenge against the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to a full hearing in the High Court. The environmental campaign group says that the FSA failed to take appropriate action to prevent unauthorised GM rice entering the UK food chain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7312
+ THAILAND REAFFIRMS THAT ALL ITS RICE IS GM-FREE
Thai authorities have assured importing countries that Thai rice is free of GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
+ WORLD'S TOP RICE EXPORTERS SAY 'NO' TO GM RICE
The world's leading rice exporting countries, Thailand and Vietnam, have agreed to cooperate on preventing the use of GM rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7337
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7308
+ INDIA: PROTECT RICE EXPORTS FROM GM CONTAMINATION - INDUSTRY
Leading Indian rice exporters, including Tilda Riceland and Amira Foods India, have urged the government to take lessons from the big losses being suffered by the US rice industry and US farmers on account of GM contamination. They have said that policy measures should be put in place to see that GM rice is not developed in India so as not to imperil Indian exports.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7203
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7205
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7211
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7337
Rice exporters forge alliance with environmentalists:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7309
+ INDUSTRY APPLIES TO SUPREME COURT TO STOP GM RICE TRIALS
An application to prevent GM rice trials in India has been filed in the Supreme Court by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters, a major economic player in the country.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7310
+ BKU TORCHES GM RICE TEST FIELD IN INDIA
400 or more farmers from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which represents hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers, torched a field in Haryana where tests for a GM rice variety were being carried out.
BKU said they planned to burn all such field trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7203
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7205
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
+ ANOTHER GM RICE TRIAL DESTROYED IN INDIA
Over 200 farmers, under the banner of the Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association, destroyed a GM Bt rice field trial in a village about 20 km from Coimbatore.
Monsanto-Mahyco appears to have been carrying out the Bt rice trial without telling the farmer it was GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7258
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7259
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7280
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7292
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7286
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7287
+ CHHATTISGARH GOVT CRUSHES GM RICE TRIALS
A government team led by agriculture minister Nankiram Kawar rushed to a GM rice trial site in the State and ordered its destruction. Their action was prompted by reports in the local media of biosafety violations similar to those that had prompted the destruction of other GM rice trials in India.
The trial was being conducted only about one km away from the world's richest collection of rice germplasm at the the state agriculture university.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7325
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MORE CONTAMINATION
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+ MORE GM CONTAMINATED SEEDS IN NZ
A bungle at the border, reports the New Zealand Press Association, has let nearly two tonnes of sweet corn seed into the country to be planted even though it is "contaminated" with GM seeds. This is just the latest inadvertent import of GM seed. One incident sparked the "Corngate" political row that dominated much of the 2002 election campaign. In 2005, NZ farmers expressed frustration when a big maize consignment was found to be contaminated by GM material - endangering export markets - and proposals were made for as much as 13,500 tonnes of maize to be dumped.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7346
+ BT BHINDI TRIAL VIOLATIONS
Gross violations of regulatory guidelines have occurred in a field trial of Bt bhindi (okra) in the Gulbarga region of Karnataka, according to an investigation by Indian TV station NDTV. The farmer who leased the land for the trial of the GM crop had eaten some of the crop and even sold some in the market, even though Bt bhindi has not been cleared for human consumption.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7246
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7252
+ GM TRACES PRESSURE SPAIN'S ORGANIC FARMERS
Organic farmers in Spain are abandoning maize after finding traces of GM strains in their crops. In 2004 farmers planted 120 hectares of organic maize in Aragon in Spain. All the crop was later found to have been contaminated by GMOs and the following year in Aragon only 37 hectares of organic grain were grown.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7207
+ UK GOVT'S PLANS ON "COEXISTENCE" FATALLY FLAWED - MELCHETT
Peter Melchett of the UK's organic body the Soil Association says it has been advised by a top QC that the government's approach to "coexistence" is fatally flawed and unlawful.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7242
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GM FAILURES
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+ NEW BT COTTON DISASTER IN MAHARASHTRA
An important article in The Hindu directly contradicts claims of a "bumper crop" of Bt cotton in the main cotton growing belt of Maharashtra, India, where since June last year a staggering 1132 farmers have taken their own lives. According to the the farmers' campaign group Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) all the recent cotton growers' suicides have been due to "the mass failure of Bt cotton."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7323
+ A HUNDRED FARM SUICIDES A MONTH IN VIDARBHA
Farm activist Kishor Tiwari has emphasised that the low yields triggering farmer suicides were due to Monsanto's Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7341
+ BT BUBBLE SET TO BURST - EXPERTS
An article in the Deccan Herald quotes pro-GM Indian scientists as warning that bollworm resistance to Bt cotton is growing in Gujarat, and will be found throughout the country within 4 years making the technology redundant.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7275
+ BRAZIL: GM SOY INCREASES HERBICIDES
The Brazilian environmental institute Ibama reports that figures from 2000-2004 show the introduction of Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready soybeans seeds led to greater use of agrochemicals.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7290
+ GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEEDS UNDERMINE CONSERVATION TILLAGE, COST FARMERS
Glyphosate-resistant horseweed has set back conservation tillage efforts. It has proliferated because of the use of GM glyphosate-tolerant crops. Farmers are also having to resort to more complex weedkiller mixes, which cost more.
Horseweed is just one of the glyphosate-tolerant weeds afflicting US farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7343
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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ UGANDA: NON-GM VITAMIN A-FORTIFIED SWEET POTATO TO COMBAT BLINDNESS
A team of researchers at Namulonge and Kabanyoro Research Institute have come up with a non-GM vitamin A-fortified sweet potato.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7248
+ GOLDEN RICE STILL STUCK IN LAB
Despite all the hype, genetically engineered Golden Rice still hasn't made it past the development stage. This contrasts with a series of non-GM successes with biofortifying crops, some of which are already being tried out by farmers in their fields.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7311
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7326
+ NEW REPORT ON ALTERNATIVES TO GM RICE
New, environmentally sustainable and consumer-friendly technologies render the imprecise technology of GM obsolete, according to a new report by Greenpeace. The report, "Future of Rice", brings together the ways in which farmers and scientists are improving rice production and increasing farmer income through the use of technologies such as marker assisted selection (MAS).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7277
+ INDIA SET TO BECOME WORLD'S LEADING ORGANIC COTTON PRODUCER
India accounts for 31.71% of the world's organic cotton production, making it currently the second largest global producer of organic cotton. And India is expected to emerge as the world's number one organic cotton producer in the next cropping season.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7308
Lower costs, higher yields and better profits for organic cotton producers:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077
+ MARKER ASSISTED SELECTION PRODUCES HIGH-NUTRIENT WHEAT
Researchers at University of California at Davis have developed a wheat variety that contains high levels of protein, iron, and zinc. The researchers used the non-GM method of marker assisted selection to help utilize a gene found in wild wheat but not in domestic varieties.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7326
+ NON-GM SUCCESS CLAIMED AS GM SUCCESS!
The non-GM wheat success story (above) has been claimed by CS Prakash's pro-GM AgBioView list as a GM success story!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7344
+ NON-GM NEW FLOOD TOLERANT RICE
An Associated Press article reports on the exciting development of new varieties of flood-tolerant rice that can survive long submergence under water. A misleading media report has led to the story going out on pro-GM lists. In fact, the breeding was conventional but assisted by the non-GM method of marker assisted selection.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7340
+ FIRMS BOLSTER CROPS WITHOUT GM - WALL ST JOURNAL
An article in the Wall Street Journal about "agriculture's second biotechnology revolution" says seed firms are quietly bolstering crops without GM, using marker assisted breeding.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7209
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GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
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+ SOUTH AUSTRALIA EXTENDS GM BAN
The South Australian government has extended a ban on GM food crops until the end of April 2008.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7289
+ BOLIVIA TO OUTLAW GM CROPS AND GO ORGANIC
According to a BBC World Service programme, the Bolivian government aims to transform the country into an organic oasis in South America and to outlaw GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7269
+ BRAZIL BANS GMOs IN INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7268
+ HUNGARY RESTRICTS GM CROPS
Hungary's parliament has overwhelmingly backed legislation which severely restricts the planting of GM crops, making their cultivation almost impossible. "This is Europe's, perhaps the world's, strictest GMO law,"Agriculture Minister Jozsef Graf said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7334
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7331
+ BIGGEST RUSSIAN FOOD AND FEED IMPORTERS GO GM-FREE
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7324
+ US STATE DOESN'T WANT PHARM DRUGS IN FOOD
An Oregon state committee on biopharming has made strict recommendations on how to regulate crops designed to make drugs. If food crops are used, says the committee, they should be grown indoors unless the applicant can demonstrate why outdoor plantings are both "desirable and safe."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7215
+ SOUTH AFRICA'S LARGEST DAIRY NOW rBST-FREE
Clover Dairies, South Africa's largest dairy, is now carrying the "rBST-free" label on their cartons to certify that the cows that produce its milk are not injected with Monsanto's GM growth hormone, also known as rBGH.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7242
+ WE'RE DRINKING WHAT? U.S. CONSUMERS DUMP rBST MILK
US milk producers are falling over themselves to ban milk produced from cows injected with Monsanto's GM growth hormone, rBST or BGH, to satisfy a massive consumer backlash.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7298
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO BUY-OUT OF DELTA WILL LOCK UP COTTONSEED MARKET
Monsanto's offer to buy Delta & Pine Land Co. "will create a titan with a hammer lock on every corner of the cottonseed market - seed genetics, seed distribution and seed price," says an article in the US press.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7234
+ BOND HOLDERS OF SOLUTIA WANT TO GO AFTER MONSANTO
Bondholders of Solutia Inc. are asking a bankruptcy judge to end the company's control of its bankruptcy case and allow them to negotiate their own plan with the company's former parent, Monsanto. The bondholders argue that Solutia's proposed Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan offers an "exceptionally generous" settlement to Monsanto at the bondholders' expense.
Solutia was loaded with its former parent company Monsanto's retiree health care, pension and environmental liabilities, including cleanups of PCBs.
These costs, totaling billions of dollars, drove Solutia into bankruptcy in December 2003. Monsanto is also defending a lawsuit by pre-bankruptcy Solutia equity holders who allege that Solutia was set up fraudulently and doomed to fail under the financial weight of the liabilities.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7282
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7279
+ MONSANTO: AN ENVIRONMENTALLY DISASTROUS COMPANY
Monsanto has been identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "potentially responsible" for 93 contaminated US sites under Superfund law.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7278
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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ BAYER HONOURS WAR CRIMINAL
Bayer continues to refuse to distance itself from the convicted war criminal Fritz ter Meer. On All Saints Day the corporation again had a wreath laid on ter Meer's grave.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7272
+ BAYER'S DANGEROUS DECEPTION
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Bayer's Dangerous Deception - Hiding the Evidence of Adverse Drug Effects" describes Bayer's suppression of information that its drugs were not as safe as it claimed.
This has major relevance to the whole system of regulation of GM crops and foods - a system almost entirely built on the disclosure of information by the applicant, ie companies like Bayer. As the FDA states it in its 'Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties': "Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety."
And as the NEJM article notes, it is now known not only that Bayer has suppressed damaging evidence of possible adverse drug effects, but that it has also deliberately avoided acquiring such evidence: "litigation uncovered a memorandum from a company executive arguing against performing a study of [a Bayer drug's] risk. 'If the FDA asks for bad news, we have to give," read the memo, "but if we don't have it, we can't give it to them.'"
The article concludes that, "It is naive to expect companies to voluntarily fund studies that could sink lucrative products", while "the FDA lacks the regulatory clout to require them". Or as a director of corporate communications at Monsanto once put it: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7348
+ NO IMPUNITY GRANTED TO KILLERS OF SILVINO
The people responsible for the death of the Paraguayan boy Silvino Talavera by poisoning with agrochemical spraying will go to jail, their appeal having been rejected. In 2003, when Silvino was 11 years old, Silvino was sprayed with a toxic cocktail used on nearby Roundup Ready fields. The spraying led to his death and also contaminated the food Silvino was carrying, consequently poisoning 22 members of his family.
Similar problems beset other peasant farmers in Paraguay who find themselves living amidst a monoculture of Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically engineered soy, and sometimes being driven off their land to make way for the expansion of GM soy.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7345
+ ARGENTINA: "STOP THE SPRAYING!"
In Argentina, residents are mobilizing in an attempt to stop their neighbourhoods being sprayed with agrochemicals, mainly glyphosate, that have proliferated since the massive adoption of GM soy. The "Paren de fumigar" (Stop the Fumigation) campaign was started in January and covers all rural areas.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7290
+ VIOLENT ATTACK ON FRENCH GM PROTESTORS
Police in southwest France detained farmer Jose Bove after a protest against GM foods in the town of Belin-Beliet near Bordeaux. Bove was detained after he and other protesters went to the local police station to file a complaint against the silos' manager, whom they said fired on them with a shotgun and rammed his truck into three cars. The man was also taken into custody.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7232
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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ UK: LORD SAINSBURY QUITS!
The GM entrepreneur and enthusiast, Lord Sainsbury, has quit as UK prime minister Tony Blair's science minister. Government sources claimed the Labour Party's biggest financial donor was tired of being tainted in the Party's cash-for-peerages.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7256
+ RUMSFELD - WAR CRIMINAL, MONSANTO MAN
Much of the world welcomed the electoral rebuke given President Bush's Republican Party and the resignation of defence secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld. In an extraordinary joint statement, more than 200 members of the European Parliament hailed the American election results as "the beginning of the end of a six-year nightmare for the world." Rumsfeld was president of Searle Pharmaceuticals, a company owned by Monsanto.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7250
+ NEW CONTROLS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE OF SCIENCE
Research in the Journal of Medical Ethics shows that biotech scientists are failing to disclose their vested financial interests in their journal articles.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7221
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ GENETIC ENGINEERING AND OMITTED HEALTH RESEARCH
A new paper points out that many scientific questions concerning the health effects of GMOs that were raised 20 years ago still remain unanswered.
Amongst the many points the authors note:
*very few studies on the possible effects of GM food/feed on potential animal or human consumers have been published in peer-reviewed journals
*studies designed to reveal physiological or pathological effects are extremely few
*these studies demonstrate a worrisome trend - studies performed by the industry find no problems, while studies from independent research groups often reveal effects that should merit immediate follow-up, confirmation and extension - but THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE.
The paper by Prof. Terje Traavik and Dr. Jack Heinemann is called "Genetic Engineering and Omitted Health Research: Still No Answers to Ageing Questions".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7264
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GM APPLICATIONS / EXPANSIONS
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+ EU TO DEBATE APPROVING FIRST "LIVE" GMOS IN 8 YEARS
For the first time in eight years, EU experts will soon debate whether to let farmers grow Bayer's biotech potatoes. The EU's last approval of a GMO product for cultivation was in 1998.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7334
+ UK GOVERNMENT OK's GMO POTATO TRIALS
The British government is giving German chemicals group BASF permission for the first trials of GM crops in the UK since 2003. The company will be allowed to conduct two trials to produce GM potatoes in Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7347
+ STOP GM WINE
Wines of South Africa (WOSA), the body that claims to represent exporters of South African wines, inexplicably seems to be backing GM trials. Click the link below to automatically send them an email. It only takes a minute:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=87&page=1
WARNING: Don't be fobbed off with assurances about WOSA's opposition to GM yeast; if GM grape trials go ahead then all South African wine could be GM contaminated.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7216
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7260
+ GM BRASSICA TRIALS IN NZ
In Lincoln, New Zealand, Crop and Food Research has applied to field-test GM Bt brassicas - a class of vegetable including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and forage kale - for 10 years.
Dr Elvira Dommisse, a former Crop and Food Research GM researcher, said the tests were unnecessary and accused those behind it of deliberately misleading the public. She said GM scientists were making statements directly at odds with published peer-reviewed studies.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7213
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7253
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7263
+ BIOTECH IN PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico is betting on biotech as a way out of its economic woes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7276
+ BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS USED TO OPEN MARKETS FOR GM
A new briefing looks at how governments, the agribusiness sector and transnational companies are increasingly using bilateral trade agreements to prise open markets for GM crops.
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=199
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TERMINATOR
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+ TERMINATOR-STYLE FIELD TRIALS IN INDIA
The Supreme Court of India has temporarily banned new GM trials pending the outcome of a case brought by Aruna Rodrigues and others, but it made an exception for a new GM mustard. Rodrigues has now brought forward new evidence that suggests that in making its application to the Supreme Court to trial GM mustard, Delhi University may have suppressed important scientific information. Rodrigues says the GM mustard in question is a Terminator-style plant that can spread sterility to its many wild and cultivated relatives worldwide. The petitioners are therefore calling for a total ban on *all* GM field trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7251
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7249
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7262
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ AS MILLIONS STARVE, ALARMISTS BLOCK FAMINE SOLUTIONS
An article called "As millions starve, alarmists block famine solutions" has appeared widely in the US press post-Thanksgiving, courtesy of Scripps Howard News Service. It claims, "Already, alarmist groups have exacted tragedy as the price for their exaggerated fears and peculiar reasoning - once by persuading the president of Zambia to decline genetically modified corn from the United States during a famine."
In fact, there was no tragedy. The Zambian government did its own exhaustive research into both sides of the GM argument before reaching its decision - and no one died from famine.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7330
+ ALEX AVERY'S "TRUTH ABOUT ORGANIC FOODS"
A new book, The Truth About Organic Foods, has just come out. The author is Alex Avery, director of research and education for the Monsanto-backed Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues. Dennis Avery and his son Alex have been attacking organic agriculture for years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7300
+ BIOTECH INDUSTRY ATROPHYING - GM LOBBYISTS
A revealing article has appeared on the pro-GM listserv AgBioView. Usually, GM lobbyists want us to believe that the onward march of GM crops across the globe is massive and inevitable. But the leading biotech lobbyists Henry I.
Miller and Greg Conko tell a different story. They describe an atrophying industry sunk in a "public policy miasma" that's "severe, worsening, and seemingly intractable". Amongst multiple failures, they note how "the number of field trials in the United States involving gene-spliced horticulture crops plunged from approximately 120 in 1999 to about 20 in 2003."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7270
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WTO
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+ EU REFUSES TO FIGHT WTO RULING ON GM FOODS
Friends of the Earth Europe has condemned the decision of 21 November by the EU not to contest a controversial ruling against the EU's GM moratorium by the WTO in the transatlantic trade war over GM foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7313
+ CANADIAN CANOLA STILL BANNED FROM EUROPE DESPITE WTO
The Canadian government has gone into overdrive promoting the WTO ruling on Europe's GMO moratorium as a "victory" for GM canola farmers in Canada. But in fact, "Nothing has changed," said Diane Wreford, assistant vice president of public affairs for the Canola Council of Canada. "There has been no victory."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7335
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BIOFUELS
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+ RUNNING ON HYPE: BIOFUELS
An excellent article on biofuels and how they compete with food production has been published by CounterPunch.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7218
+ NGOs WARN AFRICA OF DANGERS OF BIOFUELS AND GM IN FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
An open letter to the African delegates to the UN climate change talks urges them to call for rejection of large-scale biofuels and/or GM technology as ways to achieve fast growth or more efficient fuel conversion. They point out that dependence on biofuels and GM technology may exacerbate the problems of climate change, environmental degradation, social inequality and poverty, particularly in Africa.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7267
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7218
+ TURNING FOOD INTO FUEL: GM DROUGHT TOLERANT SOYBEAN AND ITS USE IN THE PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL
A new report from the African Centre for Biosafety.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7321
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FAST FOOD
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+ KFC: OUT OF TRANS FATS INTO TRANSGENICS?
KFC has added its name to the list of restaurants stripping trans fats out of its menu items. By April 2007, the fried menu items in all 5,500 of its restaurants will be prepared with low-linolenic soybean oil, which contains zero trans fats.
The company that provides the Vistive brand of low-linolenic soybeans is none other than Monsanto. Monsanto says that Vistive soybeans are grown through conventional breeding techniques, but critics say that's misleading because they still contain the genetically engineered Roundup Ready trait.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7208
Over-reliance on soya oil may be causing brain damage, heart disease:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7214