from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
This week we have news of an important new paper summarizing the woeful state of GM food safety research (FOOD SAFETY). It's one of those items we should forward to all our friends and contacts.
The New Zealand government is getting into GM brassicas. Evidently they can't think of any way of keeping pests off cabbages apart from making every cell of the plant express a toxic insecticide (AUSTRALASIA).
And protests are mounting in India as the Indian government appears hell bent on killing off the lucrative rice industry by releasing a GM variety (ASIA).
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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FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
RESEARCH
INDEPENDENCE OF SCIENCE
BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
BIOWEAPONS
BIOFUELS
KFC COSY UP TO THE MONSTER
FOOD SECURITY
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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. The paper discusses - in remarkably clear and readable terms - the health hazards related to GM plants used as food or feed, with mention of GM vaccines including si RNA- and nanobio-technologies.
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
*a consensus has emerged that the effects observed in some published studies must be experimentally followed up but THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE.
*most of the animal feeding studies performed so far have been designed exclusively to reveal only husbandry production differences [e.g. do animals gain weight satisfactorily on a GM feed compared to a non-GM feed?]
*studies designed to reveal physiological or pathological effects are extremely few
*these studies demonstrate a quite 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
*such follow-up studies have not been performed
*studies are inhibited by lack of funds for independent research *studies are also inhibited by the reluctance of producers to deliver their GM materials for analysis
*the transgenic DNA sequences provided can differ from the inserted sequences found in the actual GM plants
*the differences between the transgenic DNA sequences given by producers and the actual inserted sequences found in their products means that risk assessments made prior to approval do not necessarily cover the potential risks associated with the products
*the Bt-toxins expressed in GM plants have never been carefully analysed, and accordingly, their characteristics and properties are not known.
The authors conclude, "We are left with a high number of risk issues lacking answers, adding up to a vast area of omitted research, and this falls together in time with a strong tendency towards corporate take-over of publicly funded research institutions and scientists."
The paper is by Terje Traavik (scientific director, GENOK-Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology) and Jack Heinemann (NZIGE-New Zealand Institute of Gene Ecology), and is called "Genetic Engineering and Omitted Health Research: Still No Answers to Ageing Questions".
To read the article in full (including references) online, go to: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7219
To download the article in full in Word or PDF formats go to: http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=409
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ASIA
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+ PROTECT RICE EXPORTS FROM GM CONTAMINATION: INDUSTRY
Leading commodity exporters have urged the Indian government to take lessons from the big losses being suffered by the US rice industry and US farmers on account of the contamination of American long grain rice by GM grains. 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.
RS Seshadri of Tilda Riceland said, "India exports good quantity of long grain basmati and non-basmati rice to Europe, West Asia and Japan at premium prices. Consumers in these regions do not accept GM rice. The US and Chinese exports of rice have taken a heavy beating as their rice is contaminated with GM grains."
Seshadri and other exporters held a joint press conference with Greenpeace and with the leading Indian farmers' organisation Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU), which recently led local farmers in destroying Monsanto-Mahyco's Bt rice. The burning of Mahyco's Bt field trials in Ramapura village in Karnal, Haryana, took place on October 28.
R S Seshadri, who is also a member of the All-India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA), which represents exporters like Satnam Overseas, Sunstar, and Kohinoor, said, "Indian rice is GM-free and we want to keep it that way."
Amira Foods India's managing director Karan Chanana echoed similar sentiments. "GM basmati could spell the death knell for the industry... We are not prepared for its consequences. Hence India should not allow GM rice on its soil."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7203
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7205
+ INDIA WARNED OVER GM RICE CROPS - BBC
EXCERPT: Rice traders and environmentalists have jointly issued a stark warning to the Indian government at a meeting in Delhi. They said that trials of GM rice may harm exports and jeopardise the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7211
+ BKU TORCHES GM RICE TEST FIELD IN KARNAL
Framers 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. The incident took place at Rampura in Karnal district where GM rice was at the harvest stage.
Some 400 or more BKU farmers, including local farmers and the farmer on whose land Mahyco were conducting the trial, set fire to the crop, saying it would contaminate existing rice. After the incident, BKU said they planned to burn all such fields in India where trials are underway.
The Karnal district police have charged the union's national spokesperson, Rakesh Tikait, and 100 others on charges of criminal intimidation and damage to property by fire. Rakesh Tikait is the son of BKU president Mahinder Singh Tikait. So far, no arrests have been made.
Yudhvir Singh, a senior official from the BKU said, "The GM-testing happening in this country is a dirty joke which is being played on us. We run the risk of hundreds of thousands of farmers losing their livelihoods if bans are imposed or we lose consumer confidence in products."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7203
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7205
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
+ GM WATCH COMMENT ON GM RICE TRIAL DESTRUCTION
Mahyco - Monsanto' Indian partner - is encouraging the police to bring criminal charges against the farmers who destroyed the GM rice trial in Haryana.
But all the evidence points to the fact that Mahyco once again misled local people about the nature of the trial, even keeping the farmer on whose land the trial was being conducted in the dark.
And given the company's repeatedly documented history of biosafety violations in India, it's the executives of Mahyco who should be slung into prison. The farmers are only seeking to protect the livelihoods of their fellow rice farmers and the interests of the consumers of India's staple crop.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7205
+ THAILAND REAFFIRMS THAT ALL ITS RICE IS GM-FREE
Thai authorities have assured importing countries that Thai rice is free of GMOs, in light of the growing concerns over rice contamination. Vijak Visetnoi, the deputy director of the Commerce Ministry's Foreign Trade Department, said Thai exporters should turn the crisis into an opportunity, expanding rice markets in the EU because of the concerns about US and Chinese shipments.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7210
+ NEW RICE FARMING SYSTEM PROMISES WONDERS
EXCERPT from India's Financial Express:
Several efforts are on for increasing production of world's major staple crop, rice, in a cost-effective manner (and without GM). Conservation of natural resources and improvement in soil health are vital for boosting crop production on a sustainable basis.
One such model developed is the system for rice intensification (SRI), developed by Fr Henri de Laulanie in 1980s in Madagascar. "SRI offers unprecedented opportunities for improving rice production in a variety of situations around the world, not just by increments but even by multiples", says Norman Uphoff of the Cornell International Institute for Food Agriculture and Development...
According to Uphoff, the average yield of rice under SRI is reported to be 7 to 8 tonnes per hectare, which is much higher than the average yield under conventional chemical agriculture. India's rice productivity, by contrast, is around 2 tonnes per hectare.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7211
+ INDEPENDENT EXPERT COMMITTEE REPORTS ON BT BRINJAL - GOVT'S GUIDELINES VIOLATED
The Independent Expert Committee set up on Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant) has released its full report. The committee has found that research guidelines that the Indian government's Dept of Biotechnology has evolved relating to the biosafety assessment of GM crops, have not been adhered to by the developers of Bt brinjal. Further, the committee notes that from the existing data, "it is not possible to arrive at any meaningful conclusions regarding the safety of the product" or "its efficacy".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7212
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EUROPE
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+ GM TRACES PRESSURE SPAIN'S ORGANIC FARMERS
Organic farmers in Spain are, according to a Reuters article, 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 Aragon logged only 37 hectares of organic grain, data shows.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7207
See also "GMO contamination in Spain: a warning for Europe - Impossible Coexistence: Seven years of GMOs have contaminated organic and conventional maize: an examination of the cases of Catalonia and Aragon": http://eu.greenpeace.org/downloads/gmo/impossiblecoexistence060404.pdf
+ THE MISLEADING VOICE OF EUROPABIO
An article in the Financial Times about European testing for the rogue GM rice strain (LL601) currently contaminating US rice contains a number of questionable statements.
The most dubious has to be the one attributed to the Brussels based GM lobbyist Simon Barber of EuropaBio: "Mr Barber of Europabio pointed out that all crops are approved by national food safety authorities before trials were begun."
This gives the impression that even though LL601 never gained approval for commercial growing in the US, it will still have gone through a careful screening process by the US's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make sure that it was safe before field trials began.
But nothing could be further from the truth, as Bill Freese, a biotech expert at the Center for Food Safety in the US, confirmed to us when we sent him the article. Bill told us, "This is absolutely false. FDA does not review GM crops either prior to or during the field trial process, which often goes on 5-10 years."
Europabio is short for the "European Association for Bioindustries" and it describes itself as "the voice of the European biotech industry." It is a voice that is constantly heard within the European Union, where it seeks to shape legislation in a way that suits its members' interests.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7206
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AFRICA
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+ GM BANANAS CAN WAIT
Richard Markham and Anne Vezina of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain, based in Montpellier, France, say that the situation created by the bacterial wilt disease attacking bananas in Uganda is both more complex and less intractable than GM proponents claim in a recent SciDev article - "Uganda 'needs biotech law' to save banana sector".
In an interesting letter to SciDev, they write, "Banana farmers should not be scared into accepting GM bananas as the only solution to a problem for which other measures are proving effective..."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7217
+ 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 e-mail. 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
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ 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 Research GM researcher, said the tests were unnecessary. "I think you've just got to put things in perspective and ask if there's actually a need for it, and there isn't a need for it," Dommisse said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7213
+ BRASSICA TRIAL "CRAZY"
The proposed brassica trial is crazy, comments the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand. Their press release says, "Brassica pollen travels large distances, the seeds are small and brassicas cross easily, with hundreds of variants in existence. GMO brassicas will be one of the riskiest and dirtiest GMO crops possible."
Says Claire Bleakley of GE Free NZ, "New Zealand Crown Research Institutes are doing the country a disservice by continuing to pursue GE experiments long after they have reached their expiry date in the real world of consumer markets where the customer is right."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7213
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THE AMERICAS
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+ OREGON DOESN'T WANT PHARM DRUGS IN FOOD
An Oregon state committee on biopharming has made final recommendations on how to regulate crops designed to make drugs. The committee recommends that:
*State directors of agriculture and public health should have veto rights over applications.
*Only crops not designed for human or animal consumption should be used.
*If food crops are used, they should be grown indoors unless the applicant can demonstrate why outdoor plantings are "desirable and safe."
*Applicants should carry insurance to cover potential damages their crops could cause, such as humans being accidentally exposed to allergens.
The report to Gov. Ted Kulongoski and the Legislature is designed to provide guidance on a bill expected to be introduced during the next several months.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7215
+ GRAIN PROCESSORS DEVELOPING PROCESSES TO MEET TOUGH GM TOLERANCES
Grain processors like Cargill and ADM are developing storage and screening processes that allow them to meet some of the toughest GM tolerances in the world.
ADM already adheres to Europe's specifications, permitting no more than 0.9% of GM in its supplied corn. In three years time it says it will have sufficient infrastructure to meet tolerance levels as low as 0.01%.
"We can supply virtually all the markets in the world, including Europe and Japan and others with high standards" says Lynn Clarkson of ADM. But he admits they can't meet North Korea's requirement of zero levels of GM material.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7204
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RESEARCH
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+ FIRMS BOLSTER CROPS WITHOUT GM - WALL ST JOURNAL
An article in the Wall Street Journal about "agriculture's second biotechnology revolution" says seed firm are bolstering crops without GM, using marker assisted breeding.
EXCERPT:
... rows of robotic devices are deciphering the DNA in slices of thousands of corn plants sent daily from as far away as Chile and Hawaii. Scientists here search the results for subtle genetic differences that explain why a particular plant is better than others at tolerating cold, repelling insects, surviving drought or making more seed.
Armed with this knowledge, crop breeders can create better corn. But not by gene-splicing, the method that has stirred resistance, especially in Europe, to crops spiked with DNA from other organisms. The new technology uses old-fashioned selective breeding - finding plants with desirable traits and mating them. Except that in this case, selective breeding is turbocharged...
George Kotch, research director of Syngenta AG's North American vegetable seeds business, was quoted as saying, "The public is lukewarm [!!] on GMO products. Now we have a technology that doesn't have an image problem."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7209
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INDEPENDENCE OF SCIENCE
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+ NEW CONTROLS NEEDED TO MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE OF SCIENCE
Research conducted by GeneWatch UK, and published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, shows that scientists are failing to disclose their financial interests in the form of patents. The study of research papers on molecular biology and genetics, published in the leading science journal, Nature, between January and June 2005, showed that the authors of seven papers did not reveal that they had made patent applications and the authors of an eighth paper did not reveal connections to the biotech industry.
"GeneWatch's study has shown that scientists are failing to be open with the public about their financial interests. Publishing a scientific paper will be come to be seen as concealed commercial advertising if journals don't take steps to bring scientists into line", said Dr Sue Mayer, GeneWatch's director and author of the research. "If they are to be held in respect, scientists are going to have to start operating to the standards of others in public life".
The study found that two thirds of the papers in which authors had patent applications or company affiliations that might be considered to be competing financial interests did not disclose them.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7221
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BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
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+ NEW BRIEFING
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. It documents the way in which this powerful alliance has been using these agreements, which are proliferating around the world, to confront worldwide opposition to GMOs and to weaken regulatory controls.
The briefing, "Bilateral Biosafety Bullies", is by GRAIN and the African Centre for Biosafety and is at
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=199
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BIOWEAPONS
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+ BIOSECURITY BOARD ASSAULTS REGULATION
We may be in for many more dangerous years before the wild excesses of the biodefense boom are brought under control, says an article for the Sunshine Project. A National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity (NSABB) working group was formed to recommend biosecurity rules to govern the new field of synthetic biology. Instead, it is set to assault regulation of a wide range of biodefense and biotech risks.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7202
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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.
EXCERPT:
Several well-respected analysts have raised serious concerns about this rapid diversion of food crops toward the production of fuel for automobiles. WorldWatch Institute founder Lester Brown, long concerned about the sustainability of world food supplies, says that fuel producers are already competing with food processors in the world's grain markets. "Cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in grain production this year," reports Brown, a serious concern in a world where the grain required to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV tank is enough to feed a person for a whole year. Others have dismissed the ethanol gold rush as nothing more than the subsidized burning of food to run automobiles.
The biofuel rush is having a significant impact worldwide as well. Brazil, often touted as the the most impressive biofuel success story, is using half its annual sugarcane crop to provide 40 percent of its auto fuel, while increasing deforestation to grow more sugarcane and soybeans. Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests are being bulldozed for oil palm plantations-threatening endangered orangutans, rhinos, tigers and countless other species - in order to serve at the booming European market for biodiesel.
+ BIOFUELS: A DISASTER IN THE MAKING - ACTION ALERT
Global Forest Coalition is sending a letter to the Conference of the Parties of the Framework Convention on Climate Change on the risks of biofuels. The letter calls upon governments to suspend all subsidies and other forms of inequitable support for the import and export of biofuels, in the light of the negative environmental and social impacts caused by the large-scale export-oriented production of biofuels.
The Coalition has started gathering signatures to this letter. Please let them know as soon as possible - ideally by November 4 (at simonelovera@ yahoo.com) if your organization is willing to support it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7218
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KFC COSY UP TO THE MONSTER
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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. The fast-food company has said that its signature fried foods will no longer include the unhealthy fats. 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 biotech giant Monsanto. Monsanto says that Vistive soybeans are grown through conventional breeding techniques, but critics say that's misleading because they still contain the Roundup Ready trait.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7208
+ OUT OF THE FAT, NOT THE FIRE: COMMENT ON KFC MOVE FROM ONE WHO KNOWS
British food writer Felicity Lawrence comments on the KFC move with typical incisiveness (EXCERPT):
... here's the real conundrum. Thanks to subsidies and the muscle of large US-based food multinationals, 20% of available calories in the US now come from soy oil. Experts such as Joseph Hibbeln at the US government's National Institutes for Health believe this unprecedented change in our diets is not only responsible for cardiovascular disease but is changing the architecture and functioning of the brain.
His theory is that the dramatic rise in omega-6 fatty acids mainly from oils such as soya, have flooded out the omega-3 fatty acids we need to build the brain, as well as for vascular health, because they compete for the same metabolic pathways.
If he's right, companies like KFC are leaping out of the fat straight into another oil-fuelled fire. But don't worry Monsanto is on the case. It has another new modified soya bean in the pipeline - Vistive omega-3, due to become available around 2011-2013. Perhaps they hope customers won't have noticed this other problem before then. It's taken over a decade for progress on trans fatty aids after all.
There is of course another simpler way - just stop eating so much industrial oil, full stop. But then KFC couldn't sell so much fried chicken.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7214
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FOOD SECURITY
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+ FAO SHOWS INTEREST IN ORGANIC AG FOR FOOD SECURITY
From October 30 - November 4, the Committee on World Food Security of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) is meeting in Rome to discuss a host of issues, including the presentation of the Mid-Term Review of Achieving the World Food Summit Target, which concludes that practically no progress has been made since its establishment in 1992. Taking a solutions-oriented approach, a side event organized by IFOAM in the FAO Headquarters drew attention to the potential of organic agriculture for achieving global food security.
Alexander Mueller, Assistant Director-General of FAO said that many countries request FAO's assistance to develop organic agriculture. He says, "there is a need to shed light on the contribution of organic agriculture to food security, so that FAO can provide objective and informed advice to its member countries. Thus, FAO plans to hold in 2007 an international conference on organic agriculture and food security." The conference aims to identify organic agriculture's potential and limits to the food security challenge, including conditions required for its success. The report of the conference will be submitted to the 2007 Session of the Committee on World Food Security.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7222