from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
The world of things GM has descended into farce, with the chief justice of India berating NGOs for opposing GM field trials and implying their actions are instigated by the pesticide industry! In the same week, a widely publicized new report adds to the existing body of evidence showing that GM means more pesticides. We wonder if the chief justice reads anything apart from industry PR materials. (ASIA; NEW REPORT: GM CROPS HAVE FAILED)
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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UNSPINNING ISAAA's HYPE
NEW REPORT: GM CROPS HAVE FAILED
SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP OF SCIENTISTS
EUROPE
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
GENETIC CROSSROADS
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UNSPINNING ISAAA's HYPE
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INTRO: 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! Here are some of ISAAA's latest claims.
+ HALF THE WORLD'S POPULATION BENEFITTED 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 very 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! (Expert report shows that GE won't feed the world - Louise Sale)
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. (Industry grossly exaggerates GM importance - GM Freeze)
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. (Industry grossly exaggerates GM importance - GM Freeze)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8764
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NEW REPORT: GM CROPS HAVE FAILED
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+ GM CROPS HAVE STALLED
Bob Phelps of Australia's GeneEthics group points out that:
*In 1996 GM soy, corn, canola and cotton were launched, with two new traits - tolerance to lethal weed killers or built-in Bt insect toxins, but in 2008, just the same four crops and two traits are commercially available.
*Seven countries grew 97.5% of GM crops in 2007, the same as 2006.
*And five of those countries are in North and South America, where most GM crops are used for animal feed or biofuel production.
*No-one, anywhere, wants to eat GM foods and if they were fully labelled as they should be, GM food crops would not be grown at all.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8763
+ GM CROPS INCREASE PESTICIDE USE
The just released 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' report concludes that GM crops on the market today 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. Weed-killers, 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 a substantial 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
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755
+ MONSANTO PROFITS FROM INCREASED CHEMICALS
Business Week had a lead feature on the 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' report, which notes:
*As more acres of 'Roundup Ready' crops are planted, the use of the pesticide has increased.
*The increased application has led weeds to develop a resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
*The report lists eight weeds in the U.S. that are now glyphosate-resistant.
*The amount of weed-killing herbicides used by farmers has exploded.
*In Monsanto's first fiscal quarter, sales of Roundup and other chemicals jumped 47%.
*The company expects up to $1.4 billion in gross profit for 2008 from its chemicals business ... which would be a 10% increase from 2007.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8756
+ GM CROPS DO NOT YIELD MORE
The new report 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' also 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 University 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 also shows GM crops benefit the biotech industry and some large growers, not small farmers.
*The vast majority of GM crops are used to feed animals in rich countries rather than people in poorer nations.
*South America's expanding GM soybean plantations produce soy meal for Europe's livestock industry, and have reduced food security by displacing poor farmers and reducing land area planted to food crops like corn and beans for local consumption.
*Industry claims that GM cotton has boosted cotton yields and increased small farmers' income. However, close examination reveals that cotton yield gains are attributable more to favorable weather conditions (India, the U.S) and a shift to irrigation (South Africa) than to the biotech trait.
*In South Africa's Makhatini Flats, portrayed internationally as the 'success story' demonstrating the benefits of GM cotton, the number of small cotton growers has plummeted from 3229 in 2001/02 to just 853 in 2006/07.
*Not a single GM crop on the market is engineered for enhanced nutrition, increased yield potential, drought-tolerance, or other attractive traits touted by the biotech industry.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755
+ GM CROPS FOR LARGE SCALE GROWERS
The vast majority of GM crops are grown by larger scale growers
*Some large-scale growers in North and South America benefit from a 'convenience effect' - reduced labour needs and increased flexibility in the timing of herbicide applications, though resistant weeds are beginning to erode these benefits.
*Thousands of U.S. farmers have been forced to pay Monsanto tens of millions of dollars for the 'crime' of (allegedly) saving and replanting the company's patented seed.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755
+ 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 available at
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/who_benefits.pdf
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SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP OF SCIENTISTS
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+ 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 very tightly controlled (see next item), requiring approval from the top. This makes it difficult to believe that a Canadian public servant could have - in the words of former UK environment minister Michael Meacher - 'embarked on such a vigorous and controversial public campaign as that of Mr. Morris without the reassurance that his superiors were at ease with his actions.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8748
COMMENT by Prof. Joe Cummins: The High Commissioner for Canada (in London) James Wright's claim of the Canadian Government's allowing government scientists to say about anything they wish to say, does not seem to agree with the real Canadian Government. The article [below, from Canwest News Service] shows that government scientists have to wear muzzles. The only time their muzzles are removed is when their Minister allows them to be removed!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8748
+ ENVIRONMENT CANADA SCIENTISTS TOLD TO TOE THE LINE
Canwest News Service reports: Environment Canada has 'muzzled' its scientists, ordering them to refer all media queries to Ottawa where communications officers will help them respond with 'approved lines'. 'Just as we have 'one department, one website' we should have 'one department, one voice,'' says a PowerPoint presentation from Environment Canada's executive management committee that's been sent to department staff. Gregory Jack, acting director of Environment Canada's ministerial and executive services... said the policy is meant to bring Environment Canada **in line with other federal departments** [our emphasis]. 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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EUROPE
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+ 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 material. 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. Products which feature on the list will have to undergo testing in accredited EU laboratories, officials said. The crackdown came after EU member states reported that they had found more traces of the GM rice Bt63 in products made in or sent from China. This news shows yet again how allowing GM field trials can trigger damaging economic consequences for the food and farming industry. The contamination of U.S. rice, also as a consequence of field trials, is believed to have cost the grains industry over a billion dollars.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8752
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757
+ POLAND STICKING TO PLANNED GM LIVESTOCK FODDER BAN
Poland is sticking to plans to ban the use of GMOs in livestock fodder, despite an earlier rethink, the agriculture ministry has announced. The Polish government is planning to turn to the European Court of Justice to overturn the European Commission's ruling against Poland on the ban.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8751
+ KING'S CLAIMS EXPOSED YET AGAIN
From the current edition of The Ecologist: The Government has been unable to substantiate public remarks made by its outgoing chief scientific adviser Sir David King that not investing in GM agriculture has cost the UK economy GBP4bn... Earlier in 2007, Professor Howard Davies, of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, estimated the entire worldwide GM industry to be worth only GBP2.5bn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8750
+ MISLEADING CLAIMS BY NFU SCOTLAND
The NFU Scotland is misleading politicians and the public by suggesting livestock farmers and consumers will suffer if new GM crops are not authorised in Europe for animal feed, says Stuart Hay of Friends of the Earth Scotland. Hay says animal feed prices are rising not because of how GM crops are regulated but 'because of worldwide shortages caused by poor harvests and because farmers are growing biofuels instead of food or feed.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8743
GM Watch comment: It looks like Europabio, the American Soybean Association and other GM-industry linked lobbyists are going around every farmers' union in the EU, supplying them with misinformation of this sort and 'encouraging' them to speak out to the press and governments.
+ 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
+ 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. 'Personally, I intend to pull up as many crops this year as I can,' he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8770
+ EU FAILS TO AGREE ON GM SOY, COTTON
EU biotech experts failed to agree on authorising two GM products, one soybean and one cotton. Both products are marketed by Bayer, which requested EU approval for import and processing for use in food and animal feed. They would not be for cultivation in Europe's fields.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757
+ MORE CONTOVERSIAL APPROVALS COMING UP
A crucial EU Agriculture Council vote on Monday will consider several GM approvals, including a potentially harmful GM potato which contains an antibiotic resistance marker gene that should already have been phased out under EU law since 2004!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8768
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ASIA
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+ GM TRIALS IN INDIA THREATEN TRADE TIES
Perceptive article from the Times of India points out how India is finding itself increasingly on the defensive in agricultural trade for permitting field trials across the country of GM food crops. In one case India's GM regulators even seem to have deliberately mislead the Russian Government in an effort to cover up the extent of GM trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8753
+ NON-GM BASMATI RICE CAN RESIST BLIGHT
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8753
+ THE TRUTH ABOUT GM COTTON IN INDIA
Kavitha Kuruganti in a brilliant article in the Deccan Herald takes apart claims that GM cotton has boosted india's cotton harvests. She gives the example of Madhya Pradesh, where there were highly impressive yields in the years *before* the introduction of Bt cotton. In 1997-98, for example, Madhya Pradesh's yields were 740 kilos per hectare. That's never been equalled since the introduction of Bt cotton. And that's not just the case in Madhya Pradesh itself but even in a state like Gujarat which is considered particularly productive. Gujarat's own official report on cotton production identifies the real reasons for its increased productivity in recent years: 'Parameters like irrigation facility, good monsoon, use of drip, low pest pressure... [etc.]'. From 2002 onwards, ie when Bt cotton was introduced, the increase in the irrigated cotton area in Gujarat is around 33 per cent.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8742
+ GM WATCH SPECIAL: THE MARKETING OF GM COTTON
A compilation of articles which expose the lies with which Bt cotton has been marketed in India.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8746
+ 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, was removed last Wednesday 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 sumbissions 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 Prashant Bhushan was finally driven to respond sharply, saying in effect that he would not bother to present evidence in such a Court, and inviting the judges to give their judgement without hearing the Petitioners. For details of the final order of the Court see below.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8772
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8758
+ SUPREME COURT ORDERS INVOLVEMENT OF EMINENT SCIENTISTS
The final ORDER of India's Supreme Court was for GM approvals by India's regulators to be allowed to proceed, but only with the presence of the scientists Dr. PN Bhargava and MS Swaminathan as invitees, along with the formulation of BIOSAFETY GUIDELINES. All of this must be in place before India's main regulator - the GEAC - can give new approvals. Dr. Bhargava has previously raised serious concerns about some of the GM crop trials proposed, and it will be interesting to see whether MS Swaminathan will stand by his own recommendations in his report questioning the need or desirability of herbicide tolerant crops in India and championing the need to protect biodiversity and crops for which India is the centre of origin/diversity.
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'S GM 'REGULATOR' OPENLY PROPAGANDIZES FOR GM
Charudatta Mayee, co-chairman of India's apex GM regulatory body, the GEAC, is also on the board of directors of ISAAA - the controversial industry-backed GM lobby group (see UNSPINNING ISAAA's HYPE above) whose high-profile board members, past and present, include Monsanto's Robert Fraley, Wally Beversdorf of Syngenta, and Gabrielle Persley, executive director of the AusBiotech Alliance.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8761
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ UNDER GM PRESSURE IN VICTORIA
With Victoria's moratorium on the growing of GM canola set to expire at the end of the month, campaigning MP Tammy Lobato said she is being inundated with concerned constituents who want the state to remain GM-free. 'With the end of the moratorium fast-approaching, residents and retailers alike are contacting me wanting to take action to stop the introduction of GM canola,' she said. 'Signs are popping up in shops and at houses all over my electorate,' she said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8747
+ VICTORIA: UNREST GROWS OVER GM CANOLA
Victorian Premier John Brumby said that in deciding to lift the state moratorium on GM canola plantings, he had accepted the findings of a report led by scientist Sir Gustav Nossal giving the all-clear. But there is growing disquiet about some of the assumptions underpinning the report's terms of reference, key findings and recommendations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8744
+ JAPANESE ACTIVISTS TELL AUSTRALIA TO STAY GM FREE
On 13 February Japanese activists placed a message on a cargo ship telling Australia to reject GM canola. The message, projected onto a ship carrying GM canola and a nearby grain silo read 'Australia stay GM free!'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757
+ 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
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THE AMERICAS
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+ BRAZIL APPROVES TWO GM MAIZE VARIETIES
Following the decision taken by CTNBio (National Technical Commission for Biosafety) in 2007, seven out of eleven Ministers of the National Biosafety Council ignored the vast documentation about the risks of Liberty Link and MON810 maizes and approved both varieties for commercial release in Brazil.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8757
+ U.S.: ROUNDUP RESISTANCE COMPOUNDS DROUGHT DAMAGE
Farm Press reports: Despite the best efforts of scientists, farm commodity groups and virtually everyone associated with agriculture in the Southeast, the spread of glyphosate resistant weeds, particularly Palmer amaranth, continues to devastate cotton and soybean production in specific pockets of land from southern Virginia to southern Georgia. Combining one of the worst droughts on record and the continued movement of herbicide resistant plants proved to be a bad duo for Southeastern farmers in 2007. In those specific areas where resistance is widespread, crop yields plummeted across the region.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8745
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GENETIC CROSSROADS
Center for Genetics and society
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+ ONE GENE, TWO GENES; RED GENES, BLUE GENES
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
The cover of a recent issue of New Scientist conveniently captures almost all that is wrong with media coverage of genetic discoveries.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3930
+ WARNING; SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE CYNICISM
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
Big Pharma is lobbying hard to get the European Union to permit direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs. Consumer groups are pushing back with spoofs of drug ads.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3926
+ CLONING, CHILDREN AND CONSENT
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
After a string of actions that are a mix of the rushed and the unjustified, now I am reluctant to offer the benefit of the doubt to the UK's governance of reproductive and genetic technologies.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3923
+ 'ROOTS IN A TEST TUBE'
by Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical Times
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3919
+ A NEW PATH FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH, WITHOUT HOLY GRAILS
by Marcy Darnovsky, Genetic Crossroads
A series of new techniques has moved the stem cell debate onto new technical, political, and ethical landscape, where it may be possible to find a clear path through the current stalemate.
http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3917
+ 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