GMWatch News Review archive

WEEKLY WATCH number 229
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear all:

Canadian farmers Percy and Louise Schmeiser, who were sued by Monsanto for having its patented genes on their land through no wish of their own, have been awarded 'the Alternative Nobel Prize' (ALTERNATIVE NOBEL PRIZE).

A Trojan Horse has been delivered to UC Berkeley in protest at the university's plan to do a biofuels deal with BP to develop GM agrofuels (THE AMERICAS).

And a 10,000-strong rally has taken place in India to publicise the suicides of cotton farmers, many of whom bought expensive Bt seeds only to see their crop fail (ASIA).

Claire
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

GM FLOWERS
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
EUROPE
THE AMERICAS
ALTERNATIVE NOBEL PRIZE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GM FLOWERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM FLOWERS ARE A GM GIVE AWAY
Regulatory relief is being sought for specialty GM crops, such as GM flowers, to save companies time and money and help them bring their products to market. But Dr Michael Antoniou, reader in medical and molecular genetics at King's College London, says GM ornamental plants demonstrate 'that the development of GM crops is a purely commercially motivated enterprise ...there is absolutely no benefit to humanity from this exercise. What a total waste of time and resources with potentially dangerous environmental consequences.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8344
See Dr Antoniou's recent article 'Economics, not common sense, drives GM crops'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8321

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ PAKISTAN: SHORTFALL IN COTTON TARGET
A ten percent shortfall of cotton yield in Pakistan is mainly due to the mealy bug and cotton leaf curl virus attacks disproportionately affecting Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8346

+ INDIA: GEAC SAYS NO TO GM BRINJAL
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has turned down the request of Sungro Seeds Research Ltd for largescale field trials of its six Bt brinjal hybrids but has said 'yes' to other GM trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8346

+ INDIA: FARMER SUICIDES INSPIRE HIGHWAY BLOCKADE ACROSS INDIA
To publicize the plight of thousands of Vidarbha cotton farmers who have committed suicide, a unique protest rally was held in honor of Mahatma Gandhi. The rally kicked off a national highway blockade of non-violent resistance that will start October 11 and last indefinitely. More than 10,000 cotton farmers of the Vidarbha region participated in the rally. At the root of the thousands of suicides among Vidarbha cotton farmers is a credit squeeze in combination with the absence of a minimum support price and expensive inputs like genetically modified seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8342

+ INDIA: MORE BACKTRACKING ON FOOD SAFETY
India's health ministry is reluctant to go ahead with its earlier proposal for mandatory labelling of GM food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8337

+ INDIA: GOVT ALLOWS IMPORT OF GM SEED EDIBLE OIL
India's directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) has lifted the ban on the import of edible oils extracted from GM oilseeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8337

+ PHILIPPINES: GOVT BODIES COLLUDED WITH FIRMS ON ENTRY OF GMOs
Greenpeace has denounced the entry into the Philippines of GM foods and organisms and accused government regulators of having links with multinational companies that produced them. Greenpeace has released a report detailing the alleged links of members of regulatory agencies under the department of agriculture with lobby groups funded directly or indirectly by GM-producing corporations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8338

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ ONLY SMALL MINORITY OF AUSTRALIAN FARMERS WANT GM CROPS
Only 27.6 percent of farmers want to see GM grain crops introduced into Australia, according to a Rural Press survey, while a clear majority are opposed to GM commercialisation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8343

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM STRUGGLES TO RAISE ITS PROFILE
Europabio, a front group for biotech in Europe, had a Commons-style debate recently about how the GMO industry had failed to communicate properly with the public about the benefits of the technology. One man, in all seriousness, then proposed that Monsanto should merge with Pfizer to create soybeans that contain Viagra! 'Will they never learn?', asks John Vidal in The Guardian.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8332

+ ITALIAN CAMPAIGN PLANS MASS VOTE AGAINST GM FOOD
Italian food producers, consumers and conservation groups hope to get three million signatures in a petition drive to ban GM food, a move they hope will renew Europe's rejection of biotech crops. 'What's happening is an extraordinary experiment in participatory democracy,' Mario Capanna, chairman of Genetic Rights, one of the members of the 'GMO Free' coalition, said.

In hundreds of marketplaces and food fairs across Italy, campaigners have been handing out forms that look like ballot papers. They invite people to answer 'yes' or 'no' to whether food production should be 'genuine ... founded on biodiversity and free from GMOs'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8340

+ EU ENVIRONMENT CHIEF FACES GM HOT POTATO
Europe's environment chief faces a showdown this month with his colleagues in the EU's executive Commission over biotech foods and crops. Since July, the biotech industry has been waiting for the Commission to authorize an application by German chemicals group BASF for a GM potato for use in industry rather than as food. EU farm ministers discussed the BASF application in mid-July but failed to reach agreement. As a result, the decision over the potato has landed on the Commission's plate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8341

+ IRISH POLITICAL PARTY THINKS GM OFFERS JOBS AND CHEAP FOOD!
Fine Gael, the second largest political party in the Republic of Ireland, has claimed the government's new GM-free policy will put 7,000 jobs at risk and cause rising food prices. But GM-free Ireland says, 'Our new govenment's strategy to position Ireland as a leading producer of quality GM-free conventional and organic food is far more economically intelligent than the outdated industrial agribusiness model.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8349

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ HUGE PREMIUM FOR BRAZILIAN GM-FREE CORN
European wheat problems are provoking a significant purchase of Brazilian GMO-free corn with a huge premium over the Chicago price.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8332

+ FEEDING THE WORLD WITHOUT GM
The work of a Kansas State University professor is challenging the assumption that GM plants are the great scientific and technological revolution in agriculture and the only efficient and cheap way to feed a growing population.

Jianming Yu, an assistant professor of agronomy, is teaming with Rex Bernardo, a professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota, on research with marker-assisted selection. This agricultural technology offers a sophisticated method to greatly accelerate classical breeding through genetic analysis and selection of existing natural diversity in various crops without having to resort to alien species.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8334

+ TROJAN HORSE DELIVERED TO UC BERKELEY
Hundreds of students and citizens demonstrated against the proposed $500 million research deal, funded by giant oil company BP, that would create an Energy Bioscience Institute (EBI) to develop GMOs for use as biofuels. Protestors wearing white lab coats bearing the BP logo delivered a Trojan Horse to the conference, with a label reading 'A Generous Gift To Berkeley From BP.' Upon arrival, the horse delivered an 'oil spill' at the entrance to the Bancroft Hotel, where the conference was just opening.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8347

+ THE UNITED STATES' FAILING FOOD SYSTEM
In the United States there is a disconnect between the people and the food system, where the people are reduced to mere consumers, says Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute. Mittal says Americans are 'losing food democracy, food sovereignty', and that GM food, introduced into 60% of processed food without democratic consent, is one example of this.

EXCERPT:
... corporations are also taking over our airwaves. There is a steady flow of myths. 'We need this [GM] technology to feed the world; we need the technology because it is friendly to the farmers; we need this technology because it is environmentally friendly.' But now the truth is beginning to come out ...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8336

+ AGROFUEL PRODUCTION IS 'THE PRINCIPAL ENEMY'
With the new hype about substituting petroleum-based energy products with agrofuels, international investment in Brazil's large-scale production of sugarcane, soy and other agrofuel monoculture is providing a lifeline to Brazil's big landowners. But the prospect of ecological devastation from agrofuel production has inspired the Brazilian landless workers' movement, MST, to oppose its expansion. Already, the MST has begun occupying plantations and mills operated by transnational corporations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8333

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ALTERNATIVE NOBEL PRIZE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ PRIZE FOR SCHMEISERS
A 2007 Right Livelihood Award has been given to Canadian farmers Percy and Louise Schmeiser. The Schmeisers fought Monsanto in court after the company sued him for having its Roundup Ready genes on their land (their crop was contaminated by GM canola). The Jury honoured the Schmeisers 'for their courage in defending biodiversity and farmers' rights, and challenging the environmental and moral perversity of current interpretations of patent laws'. The Awards are often referred to as 'Alternative Nobel Prizes'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8335
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8339