GMWatch News Review archive

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GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 54
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FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
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Please tell all your non-English speaking friends about our past Monthly Reviews in Portuguese, Dutch and German.
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=93&page=1 <http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=93&page=1>
 
Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org <http://www.gmwatch.org>  / www.lobbywatch.org <http://www.lobbywatch.org>  

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS 
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NEW FILM & BOOK
NEW RESEARCH
HEALTH HAZARDS
SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP OF SCIENTISTS
SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION
RESISTANCE/BANS/RESTRICTIONS ON GM 
GM EXPANSION/APPROVALS
AUSTRALIAN STATES' GM BANS
HYPE & LIES
GM FAILURES
LABELING
CONTAMINATION
MARKER ASSISTED BREEDING
CLONING
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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NEW FILM & BOOK
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+ EXPLOSIVE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT MONSANTO
Coming soon... an explosive documentary about Monsanto by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin. Le Monde Selon Monsanto (The World According to Monsanto) is due to be broadcast on the Franco-German TV channel ARTE on 11 March (we think at 21.00 hrs, French time) and is already scheduled to go out on about 12 other channels worldwide. Filmed in the Americas, Europe and Asia, it looks at Monsanto's toxic record of PCBs, Agent Orange, rBGH, and GMOs. Marie-Monique Robin's book of the film is also coming soon. Lots more info and quotes at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8811

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NEW RESEARCH
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+ NON-GM COTTON MORE PROFITABLE
A multi-year study of GM and non-GM cotton cultivation in the US shows all types of GM cotton failed to give a better return than non GM cotton varieties.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8797

+ PESTS EVOLVE RESISTANCE TO GM CROPS
The bollworm - the insect pest that's supposed to be killed by GM Bt cotton - has developed Bt resistance and is beginning to spread in parts of the US, a scientific study has found.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8736
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8737
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8794

+ HERBICIDE-RESISTANT GENES FOUND TO PERSIST IN WEEDS
More on previously reported research conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists which found that herbicide-resistant genes escaping from GM canola into weedy relatives persisted over a 6-year period.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8778

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HEALTH HAZARDS
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+ HEALTH HAZARDS OF GM FOODS - GOOD SUMMARY
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8801

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SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP OF SCIENTISTS
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+ US SUPPRESSES AND FALSIFIES SCIENCE
Leading US scientists have called on Congress to make sure the next president does not do what they say the Bush Administration, and others before it, have done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8773

+ USA: MONSANTO UNIVERSITY
Public-university researchers get cash for studying GMOs - and the shaft for studying organic agriculture, says an incisive article.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8789

+ SHANE BARKING WHILE COLLEAGUES MUZZLED
Shane Morris - the Canadian Government science bureaucrat with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - is still hard at work lobbying for GMOs in Ireland. By contrast, the public pronouncements of other Canadian government scientists seem to be tightly controlled, requiring approval from the top. For instance, Climatologist Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria, who works closely with several Environment Canada scientists, says, 'They've been muzzled. The concept of free speech is non-existent at Environment Canada. They are manufacturing the message of science.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8748

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SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION
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+ SHAME ON 'WORMY' RESEARCH
Times Higher Education recently reported on a letter to the British Food Journal signed by 40 scientists demanding the retraction of the discredited Shane Morris/Doug Powell 'wormy' corn research. The research purported to show that consumers preferred GM to non-GM sweetcorn but omitted to mention a sign calling the non-GM corn 'wormy'! Prof Peter Saunders comments in a letter to THE: 'The paper describing the work should not be allowed to remain in the literature, yet the authors refuse to withdraw their paper, offering instead less and less plausible accounts of what happened to the sign.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8807

+ NEW REPORT - PROPAGANDA DRESSED UP AS SCIENCE
The Open University (OU) and the Economic and Social Research Council have been slammed for deception and duplicity following the release of a press statement about a new study into the attitudes of UK farmers towards GM crops. The press statement claims, 'Farmers are upbeat about genetically modified crops' and the lead author, Prof Andy Lane, is quoted as saying, 'New technology such as GM is attractive to farmers'. But as Dr Brian John of GM Free Cymru points out, the OU research team concentrated all of their efforts on 30 large-scale commodity farmers, 'whose pro-GM attitudes have been known for years - and then dressed up their responses as somehow representative of the farming community.' No less than 16 of these farmers had taken part in GM crop trials. And how were the 30 farmers chosen? By none other than SCIMAC and the NFU, two bodies which have for years been unashamedly promoting the virtues of GM at every opportunity.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8796
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8817
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8826

+ MORE MISREPRESENTATION FROM NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
In a full-page editorial headed 'Another Inconvenient Truth', Andrew Marshall, editor of Nature Biotechnology, accused the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and the Italian media of deliberately ignoring important data which was favourable to GMOs from Prof Tomasso Maggiore at the University of Milan. But an article in the Spring 2008 issue of Science in Society makes clear not only that there was no substance to the claims about Maggiore's work but that Nature Biotechnology is guilty of extraordinary double standards.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8732
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8812

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RESISTANCE/BANS/RESTRICTIONS ON GM 
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+ FRENCH BAN ON GM CORN BECOMES OFFICIAL
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8740

+ POLAND STICKING TO PLANNED GM ANIMAL FEED BAN
Despite a change of Government and a legal challenge from the EU Commissiion, Poland is sticking to its guns over banning GM feed for livestock.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8751

+ SOME U.S. GROCERIES TAKE GMOs OFF THE SHELVES
In Oregon, some grocers are taking items containing GMOs off their shelves. Believing that genetically engineered foods are untested for health effects on humans, the Ashland Food Co-op has launched a program to get all such products off its shelves this year - and other area markets, including Shop N Kart and Food For Less, say they are steadily increasing offerings of GM-free food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8815

+ 'MEGA MARCHA' AGAINST DUMPING GM CORN IN MEXICO
Thousands of protesters took part in the January 31 'Mega Marcha' in Mexico City. Estimates of numbers range from 50,000 to 200,000. The protesters opposed the dumping in their country of US GM corn and US beans. Almost all participants in the Mega Marcha were opposed to GM corn being introduced in Mexico.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8734

+ EU COMMISSION 'DEBATE' ON GMOs
After years of bitter disagreements between member states and European institutions on GMOs, the Commission has decided to hold an unprecedented debate on the future of GMOs in Europe. The president of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has promised that the debate will be the first step before a public discussion involving all EU leaders.
EXTRACT from article in the New Statesman: But while the discussion might be public, the huge political and economic pressures applied behind the scenes will be very private indeed. The UK is likely to lead a small pack of pro-GMO countries and biotech industries who will push for markets to open up to these risky products...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8806

+ STALEMATE IN EUROPE - OPPOSITION HARDENING
EU farm ministers have fallen short of a consensus agreement to allow imports of five GM products, including a GM potato, paving the way for default approval by legal rubberstamp. 'The debate in Europe appears to be heading toward stalemate,' Jacqueline Mailly, senior European regulatory affairs adviser at the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Brussels, said. 'If you take the Austrians, for example, they now appear to be standing firmer than ever against biotechnology.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8777
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8781

+ GM FIRMS PUSH FOR SECRET TRIAL LOCATIONS
GM firms are lobbying the British government to promise greater secrecy for future GM crop trials. The only GM crop trial in Britain last year was vandalised. Martin Shaw, who was charged with causing damage to the fence surrounding last year's trial said the protests would continue as long as there were trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8770

+ OPPOSING GM FOOD IS IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
Campaigners who oppose GM food aren't vandals - they are acting in the public interest, says Peter Melchett in the UK Guardian.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8810
More (unpublished) letters to the Guardian in response to its secret trials article
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8814

+ STORMY DAY IN INDIA'S SUPREME COURT
A temporary ban on GM field trials imposed as a result of a public interest lawsuit (PIL) brought before India's Supreme Court by Aruna Rodrigues and others has been removed in scandalous circumstances. The Chief Justice appeared reluctant to allow counsel for the petitioners, Prashant Bhushan, to speak. He also seemed to indicate that he wouldn't read the submissions on GM crops because he was not a scientist and couldn't be expected to understand them. He even seemed to suggest that behind the PIL lay economic interests, such as those of the pesticide industry! As a result Bhushan responded sharply, saying in effect that he would not bother to present evidence in such a court, and inviting the judges to give their judgment without hearing the Petitioners. For details of the final order of the court, see:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8772
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8758
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8759
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8760

+ INDIA: PROTESTS SEEK STOPPAGE OF GM TRIALS
Accusing Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) of 'carrying on research upon the diktats of US-based Monsanto', farmers and environmental organisations staged protests at the field trial sites of GM brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) within the campus.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8800

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GM EXPANSION/APPROVALS
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+ BRAZILIAN GOVT LICENCES TWO GM MAIZE VARIETIES
The Brazilian government has licensed the commercial release of two varieties of GM maize: MON810, produced by Monsanto, and Liberty Link, produced by Bayer. In 2007 the regulator CTNBio ruled in favour of the commercial use of GM maize. However, appeals lodged by IBAMA (linked to the ministry of the environment) and ANVISA (linked to the ministry of health) had blocked the release.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8805

+ SWISS GRANT PERMISSION TO PLANT GM WHEAT IN ZURICH
GM wheat trials have been approved for this spring at the Agricultural Research Institute of Zurich-Reckenholz.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757

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AUSTRALIAN STATES' GM BANS
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+ VESTED INTERESTS MASQUERADE AS PUBLIC INTEREST SCIENCE
Victoria's ban on GM food crops ended 28 February - and following widespread media exposure of the putative health and environmental hazards of GM food, chief scientist Gustav Nossal was joined by three well known GM proponents for a media conference to brief journalists on 'Which concerns [about GM food crops] are the most justified? Which risks can be managed and which can't?' The briefing is 'vested interests masquerading as public interest science,' says Greenpeace spokesperson Louise Sales.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8816
Victoria MP's constituents want ban to stay
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8747
Scandal of Nossal's flawed report that recommended lifting the ban:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8744

+ SOUTH AUSTRALIA TO STAY GM-FREE
South Australia will keep its ban on growing GM crops. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about whether the state would follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales, which have abandoned their moratoria. SA joins Western Australia and Tasmania in keeping the ban. SA agriculture minister, Rory McEwen, says the decision was influenced by the views of major commodity markets for South Australian produce. 'On balance, Cabinet felt that there was no reason to lift it', he says. 'The risks to present markets outweighed the opportunities that might be created.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8733

+ SA FARMERS SAY KEEP GM BAN
Most (56 percent) of South Australia's grain growers would not support the lifting of the moratorium on growing GM crops, says a Rural Press Marketing Survey done for the Stock Journal. More than 70 percent of South East respondents said they would not grow GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8819

+ GM CROPS BAN CONTINUATION 'COMMON SENSE' - SCIENTIST
The South Australia state government's decision to maintain the moratorium on GM crops is 'a victory for common sense and the precautionary principle', writes Michael Lardelli, senior lecturer in genetics at the University of Adelaide. With admirable prescience, Lardelli says, 'In a world with faltering oil production and with phosphate extraction in decline, industrial-scale agriculture has a questionable future. We must explore other paths to food security and the maintenance of the GM moratorium ensures that we can.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8749

+ AUSTRALIAN FARMERS CALL FOR EXTENSION OF GM CROP BANS
At a public meeting in the grain growing region of Corowa, New South Wales, Australian farmers passed a resolution calling for state governments to extend the moratoria on the commercial growing of GM food crops and demanded that the issue be discussed at the Federal Government's 2020 Summit in April 2008.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8724

+ NSW OPPOSITION SAYS MOST GROWERS WILL NOT PLANT GM CANOLA
Member of the New South Wales opposition Rick Colless says most canola producers have told him they will not switch to GM seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8718

+ CANADIAN FARMERS WARN OF DANGERS
Canadian farmers have been visiting Australia to explain the problems they've been facing from GM crop cultivation. Farmers in Canada rejected the proposed commercialisation of GM wheat and GM flax due to the experience of contamination and loss of markets from GM canola.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8724
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8718
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8715

+ JAPANESE CONSUMERS LOBBY AUSTRALIAN GOVT
Consumer activists visited the Australian Embassy in Tokyo on February 21 to deliver Japanese consumers' request to the Australian government, on a national level, to maintain a GM-free policy.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8819

+ FARMERS TO SUE FARMERS
The Network of Concerned Farmers (NCF) is threatening legal action against farmers growing GM canola unless risk management is introduced prior to planting. 'GM contamination will be uncontrollable but no minimum limit of contamination has been set for companies to deduct a user fee from our income,' said Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers. 'It's a blank cheque from farmers' incomes to the biotech companies whether you want to grow GM or not.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8808

+ GM CROP TRIAL AXED BECAUSE COMPANIES WON'T SUPPLY SEED
Western Australia's first broadacre trial of GM canola has been called off after seed companies refused to supply the seed to WA for the research project. The trial was to be co-ordinated by the South-East Premium Wheat Growers Association (SEPWA). It was intended to measure the performance of several different GM varieties compared to current grains.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8819

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HYPE & LIES
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+ UNSPINNING ISAAA'S HYPE
 Every year the biotech industry lobby group, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) holds a big media event at which it launches its annual report on the global acreage of GM crops grown in the previous year. Every year the report features a list of headline-grabbing statistics that show GM crops are transforming world agriculture. The only problem is that ISAAA's claims, and the figures that back them up, turn out under scrutiny to be either inflated, exaggerated, misleading or just plain wrong! Below are some of ISAAA's latest claims.

+ HALF THE WORLD'S POPULATION BENEFITED FROM GM CROPS IN 2007
This figure is arrived at by adding together the entire population figures of China, India and all other countries where GM crops are grown, despite the fact that these crops are only grown on a small scale in the vast majority of those countries. In China, for example, GM represents only 2.9% of China's agriculture area; in Europe it's only 0.119% of the agricultural area!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8765

+ 2007 SAW A 12% INCREASE IN THE UPTAKE OF GM CROPS
This double digit figure is claimed by ISAAA to be 'the second highest increase in global biotech crop area in the last five years,' but ISAAA's 2007 data includes for the first time a large number of GM poplar trees in China that have been planted there for many years! This makes the area of GM planting since 2006 in ISAAA's report look much bigger than it really is.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8764

+ THE AREA UNDER GM WILL REACH 200 MILLION HECTARES BY 2015
This means that even by the biotech industry's own best estimate, well over 95% of crops will still be produced from seeds bred without GM technology well into the future. Industry data puts the current area under GM crops (including trees) at 114 million hectares in 2007, which represent just 2.2% of global farm and commercial forestry land. GM Freeze point out that this means that nearly 98% of crops grown are non-GM. In addition, the vast majority of crops, such as wheat, barley, rice, potatoes, fruit and vegetables, are conventionally bred non-GM varieties.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8764

+ EU COMMISSIONER BLAMES LACK OF GMOs FOR RISING PRICES
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel is blaming the EU's slow regulatory system for the approval of GMOs for a perceived shortage of animal feed and rising prices. However, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' reasons behind shortages of commodity crops are very different. Their analysis suggests that the rising demand for agrofuels, plus increased demand for feed from the Far East (China in particular) and the drought in Australia, are causing shortages.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8721
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8788
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8792
NFU Scotland joins the chorus:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8743
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8791

+ BT COTTON DOESN'T BOOST YIELDS
Indian agriculture experts have debunked recent claims that Bt cotton has been a boon to Indian farmers and has raised yields. Krishan Bir Choudhary, president of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj and former director, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed), points out that productivity increases are down to better rainfall: "Wherever crops receive enough water, production has been good, and not just for cotton. The Bt gene is meant to prevent bollworm pest and does not boost productivity at all.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8818
The truth about Bt cotton in India:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8742
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8746

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GM FAILURES
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+ GM CROPS HAVE FAILED
As part of our celebrations of 10 years of GM Watch, we've republished the article with this title by Lim Li Ching and Jonathan Matthews documenting the failure of GM crops to increase yield, improve agronomic performance, reduce agrochemicals, and increase farmer income. It's accompanied by telling examples taken from a subsequent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report that bear out the article's conclusions about the failure of GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8728

+ GM CROPS INCREASE PESTICIDE USE
The just-released 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' report from Friends of the Earth concludes that GM crops have caused an increase rather than a decrease in toxic pesticide use:
*4 out of every 5 acres of GM crops worldwide are Monsanto's Roundup Ready varieties, designed specifically for use with glyphosate, the weed-killing chemical that Monsanto sells under the name of Roundup. Weedkillers, or herbicides, are the largest class of pesticides.
*U.S. government data reveal a huge 15-fold increase in the use of glyphosate on soybeans, corn and cotton in the U.S. from 1994 to 2005, driven by adoption of Roundup Ready versions of these crops.
*In 2006, the last year for which data is available, glyphosate use on soybeans jumped by 28%.
*The intensity of glyphosate use has also risen dramatically. From 1994 to 2006, the amount of glyphosate applied per acre of soya rose by more than 150%.
*Rising glyphosate use has spawned a growing epidemic of weeds resistant to the chemical in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil.
*Weed scientists have reported glyphosate-resistant weeds infesting 2.4 million acres in the U.S. alone.
*Increasing weed resistance to glyphosate has led to rising use of other toxic chemicals, examples:
*In the U.S., the amount of 2,4-D applied to soybeans more than doubled from 2002 to 2006. 2,4-D was a component of the Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange.
*The use of the pesticide atrazine, banned in the EU because of links to health problems such as breast and prostate cancer, has increased by 12% on maize in the U.S. from 2002 to 2005.
*In Argentina, it's projected that 25 million liters of herbicides other than glyphosate will be needed to tackle glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm

+ GM CROPS DO NOT YIELD MORE
The new report 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' shows:
*Overall, GM crops do not yield more and often yield less than other crops
*Roundup Ready soybeans, the world's most widely planted GM crop, have 6% lower yield than conventional soy, according to Univ of Nebraska researchers
*Even the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture admits that no GM crop on the market has been modified to increase yield. The main factors influencing crop yield are weather, irrigation, soil fertility, and conventional (non-biotech) breeding for increased yield.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755

+ GM CROPS OFFER NO RESPITE FOR HUNGER
The new report shows GM crops benefit the biotech industry and some large growers, not small farmers.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755

+ MONSANTO PROFITS FROM INCREASED CHEMICAL USE
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8756

+ READ THE NEW REPORT
'Who Benefits from GM crops?' Executive summary at
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/who_benefits_summary.pdf
Full report
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/who_benefits.pdf

+ EUROPABIO ADMITS INCREASED CHEMICAL USE
An excellent article by Rikki Stancich in the magazine Ethical Corporation walks a clear path through current biotech industry hype. It also includes a frank admission from the biotech industry-lobby group EuropaBio that Roundup Ready (GM) crops have led to 'the weeds themselves' now being 'Roundup resistant, which has resulted in much higher applications of Roundup along with a host of other chemicals'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8739

+ EVEN POORER YIELDS/PROFITABILITY WITH BOLLGARD II
Monsanto is choosing not to pursue re-registration in 2009 of its Bollgard (single gene) Bt cotton because of insect resistance fears. After that only stacked gene (Bollgard 2) varieties of Bt cotton will be available. But these cost more and don't yield as well as single gene Bollgard - to such an extent that there's a warning it could cost cotton growers in the state of Georgia an extra $60-100 million a year, causing 'unprecedented profitability hardship' (in the words of UGA Extension Agent Scott Brown) to cotton producers. The production value of Georgia cotton is expected to fall by a minimum of $100 per acre.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8794

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LABELING
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+ THE RIGHT TO KNOW IF FOOD IS GM
In the US, the labeling of GM food has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Both leading Democratic candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, are on record in support of labeling. In Hawaii, State Senator Mike Gabbard has introduced a bill, SB 3232, into the state legislature, requiring all GM whole foods sold in the state to be labeled. He has also introduced a second bill, SB 3233, requiring those producing and researching GM crops to report the locations of their farms and research sites to the Department of Agriculture. This information would be posted on the DOA website.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8813

+ BEN & JERRY'S FIGHTS FOR HORMONE-FREE LABEL
Ben & Jerry's, one of the first companies to label its ice cream as free of Monsanto's GM hormone (rBST), is joining others in a national effort to protest a ban on hormone-free labels. Pennsylvania was recently the site of such a battle, as the state enacted a ban on the labels, only to approve hormone-free labeling later. Indiana recently pulled legislation that would have banned the labels, and lawmakers in Ohio are expected to make a decision on them soon.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8725

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CONTAMINATION
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+ NEW CONTAMINATION INCIDENT IN US
The US authorities have announced the discovery that some corn seed produced by Dow AgroSciences has been contaminated with an unapproved GM variety since 2006. Dow has recalled the contaminated seed that was sold for the 2008 crop. The company said 53,000 acres of the affected products were planted in 2007. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8802
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8803
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8809

+ BIOTECH INDUSTRY IMPUNITY FUELS CONTAMINATION SPREAD
Biotech companies are acting with impunity as cases of GM contamination continue on a global scale, a new report reveals. 'GM Contamination Register Report 2007', by Greenpeace International and GeneWatch UK, details 39 new instances of crop contamination in 23 countries over the past year. Most of the contamination involved such staple crops as rice and maize, but also included soy, cotton, canola, papaya and fish. Since 2005, the GM Contamination Register has recorded 216 contamination events in 57 countries since GM crops were first grown commercially on a large scale in 1996. This year's annual report on the Register was released on the same day that Kenyan environmental and farmers' organisations confront the government and US seed giant Pioneer Hi-Bred with evidence of GM-contaminated maize seed in their country, and Greenpeace activists in the Netherlands protest shipments of illegal GM-rice varieties to Rotterdam.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8821

+ EU CRACKS DOWN ON CHINESE RICE IMPORTS AFTER GM TRACES FOUND
The EU has decided to crack down on imports of rice from China after member states said that some products contained banned GM Bt63 rice. From April 15, only rice and rice products such as noodles, rice paper and rice starch which feature on a special EU-approved list will be allowed into the 27-member bloc.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8752
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757

+ 'EVERY EUROPEAN GETS A DOSE OF GM EVERY DAY' - SYNGENTA MAN
Mike Mack runs Syngenta. In a recent article in The Times, Mack makes an interesting claim - that the proof of the safety of GM foods is there for all to see in Europe, because European livestock eat imported GM maize and soya - hence, 'Every European gets a dose of GM every day.' This is a startling admission because up till now the industry has always claimed, as part of its argument that meat, milk and eggs from animals fed on GM crops do not need to be labeled, that consumers are not exposed to GM material by eating food from GM-fed animals. But recent scientific evidence shows GM DNA does end up in milk and animal tissues of GM-fed animals, contrary to the assurances from the industry and the likes of the UK's Food Standards Agency.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8779

+ BIOHAZARD MAPS RELEASED
Up-to-date biohazard maps have been released by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) to inform the public about where GM trials are taking place in South Africa.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8790

+ US: THE BIGGEST BEEF RECALL EVER
Recently, a large number of 'downer' dairy cows (cows that cannot get up) illegally ended up in the US food supply courtesy of one of the nation's biggest meat companies, Westland/Hallmark Meat Company. A Humane Society video shows scenes of appalling cruelty and suffering. One commentator noted, 'Many factory-style dairies inject cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH)... While I don't claim to know why the animals in the Humane Society video got sick, animals injected with rBGH can suffer from increased udder infections (mastitis), severe reproductive problems, digestive disorders, foot and leg ailments, and persistent sores and lacerations - which can add up to an early death.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8799
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8809

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MARKER ASSISTED BREEDING
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+ MARKER ASSISTED BREEDING: PLANT BREEDING WITHOUT THE MADNESS?
An article for Outlook India heralds marker assisted breeding (MAB) as an alternative to GM technology which does not raise health concerns as it does not involve introduction of foreign genes. But Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman says that although progress with MAB is encouraging, there are important cautions that need to be recognized. Among them is the fact that MAB is subject to the inherent limitations of genetics.
Read both sides of the argument at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8716
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8722

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CLONING
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+ SCIENTISTS FIND WAY TO SCAN FOR CLONED MEAT
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8771

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GENETIC CROSSROADS
Center for Genetics and Society
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+ PhRMA AND BIO SELF-IMAGE: DOWNTRODDEN AND BESIEGED
Pity the poor bioscience industry.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3939

+ A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT
A question following the largest beef recall in American history: Why on earth has the FDA approved meat produced by cloning?
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3938

+ CLONING, CHILDREN AND CONSENT
After a string of actions that are a mix of the rushed and the unjustified, Jesse Reynolds is now reluctant to offer the benefit of the doubt to the UK's governance of reproductive and genetic technologies: 'Current proposals would be significant steps in the erosion of the key bioethical principle of informed consent.'
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3923

+ EMBRYOS CREATED WITH DNA FROM THREE PEOPLE
British scientists say they have created human embryos containing DNA from two women and a man in a procedure that researchers hope might be used one day to produce embryos free of inherited diseases.
http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3921

+ SEX SELECTION: CONSUMER RIGHT OR VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN?
Is the problem with sex selection that it's sometimes inaccurate, or that it's wrong?
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3946

+ EXPANDING THE EGG BUSINESS
Two troubling developments in the growing commerce surrounding women's eggs.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3934