from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all:
There are some excellent articles this week - including one on how big business misuses language to deny consumer protection (LOBBYWATCH) and another on the BP-Berkeley deal, which exposes the similarities of the deal to the Manhattan Project in which scientists came together to build the atom bomb. And no, the analogy with the bomb doesn't come from opponents of the deal, but from the proud scientists and corporate honchos running the project (BIOFUELS).
Encouraging things continue to happen in ASIA where resistance to GMOs is breaking out all over. In India scientists are cautioning against the much-hyped GM mosquitoes (GM MOZZIES) and the Andhra Pradesh state government is warning farmers off Bt cotton (ASIA).
The Wall Street Journal reports on the problems for exports being caused by the failure to stop experimental GM plants from contaminating the hundreds of millions of acres of crops grown in the US (THE AMERICAS).
And we kick off with several important CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK, including a couple of urgent ones.
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
ASIA
EUROPE
THE AMERICAS
GM MOZZIES
FOOD SAFETY
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
ANIMAL BIOTECH
LOBBYWATCH
BIOFUELS
------------------------------------------------------------
CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------
+ SIGN THE MILLION-SIGNATURE PETITION AGAINST GM RICE
Go to the "Week of Rice Action" - WORA - webpage and sign on to show your support via http://www.panap.net For more info see ASIA (below)
+ BERKELEY: DON'T SIGN THE BP DEAL!
Sign the petition at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/147963846
For more info see BIOFUELS (below) and
http://www.stopbp-berkeley.org/
+ SIGN THE GLOBAL APPEAL AGAINST PATENTS ON SEEDS
http://www.no-patents-on-seeds.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=39
+ HELP STOP POLAND'S 'GMO ACT'
The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside is calling upon Polish Parliamentarians and Senators to reject the proposed new 'GMO Act', which allows for the planting of commercial GM crops in currently self designated GMO Free Zones. Show solidarity with the Polish people by signing-on as a matter of urgency at: http://icppc.pl/pl/gmo/open_letter.php
+ SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST GM POTATO TRIALS IN YORKSHIRE, UK
http://www.hedonagainstgm.org.uk/
+ *URGENT* - TELL FDA: NO FOOD FROM CLONES!
The US Food and Drug Administration needs to hear you don't want food from animal clones - a public comment period is only open until *April 2* - so if you see this by Monday please send your letter immediately!
http://ga3.org/campaign/Cloning
For more info see ANIMAL BIOTECH (below)
------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ S. KOREAN GOVT ORDERS LABELLING OF ALL GM PRODUCTS
The South Korean government has said that from June, all products with GMOs must be clearly labelled.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7704
+ S. KOREA SAYS NO TO GM RICE IMPORTS
S. Korea's leading civil and farmer organizations this week voiced an unequivocal "NO!" to the import of GM rice and their stand is being supported by the Korean Ministry of Agriculture.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7710
+ 30,000 PEOPLE IN NEPAL RAISE THEIR VOICES FOR RICE
The All Nepal Peasant's Association (ANPA) announced that to date 30,000 people have signed the WORA (Week of Rice Action) statement, Save OUR RICE. 80 members of the Nepali Parliament are among the signatories. Balram Banskota of ANPA said, "We do not want nor need GE rice and we do not want any technologies that deplete our rice diversity and culture".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7688
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7696
+ PHILIPPINES: PEOPLE WANT RICE GM-FREE
Hundreds of text messages stating "I love my rice GMO-free" kept Philippines Dept of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap's phone busy on March 15. His new textmates: Filipino consumers demanding GM-free rice and rice production. The text barrage was the World Consumers' Day activity that is part of Greenpeace's campaign against GM rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7696
+ WITHDRAWAL OF MONSANTO GM MAIZE ORDERED BY PHILIPPINES AG SECRETARY
Philippines Ag Secretary Arthur Yap said he had ordered the Bureau of Plant Industry to withdraw its approval for Monsanto's GM maize MON 863. But it looks like pressure has been applied to reverse his order.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7698
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7712
+ ORISSA: 1,727 VILLAGES DECLARED GM-FREE
700 newly elected representatives of Panchayats (village assemblies) in Orissa, India, and the Governing Body members of Orissa Nari Samaj - a confederation of 53 block-level tribal women's organizations - have taken an oath not to cultivate GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7692
+ MORE TROUBLE FOR MONSANTO OVER INDONESIAN BRIBES
A good article by US agricultural correspondent Alan Guebert, following the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) court action over the bribery of a senior Indonesian Ministry of Environment official by Monsanto's Government Affairs Director for Asia, which formed part of a 5-year spree of illegal payments .
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7695
+ ANDHRA PRADESH AG DEPT WARNS MOST FARMERS AGAINST BT COTTON
The Agriculture Commissioner in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh has said the introduction of GM crops, combined with climate change, is resulting in new pest problems. The State's Agricultural Dept has cautioned rainfed farmers against opting for Bt cotton for this reason. In Andhra Pradesh, about 78% of cotton is rainfed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7703
+ ANIMAL HUSBANDRY DEPT WANTS BT COTTON SALES STOPPED
Andhra Pradesh's Animal Husbandry department will write to the agriculture department to stop sales of Bt cotton seeds until investigations into sheep/goat/bullock deaths after grazing on Bt cotton are completed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7689
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7694
+ GREENPEACE FIGHTS FOR TRANSPARENCY OVER INDIA'S GM TRIALS
Greenpeace is suing India's GM regulators the Dept of Biotechnology to force the DBT to provide data on biosafety tests of GM rice and other crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7689
+ INDIAN GOVT SOLD OUT TO GM INTERESTS
In the wake of India's Supreme Court putting a hold on GM crop trials, K K Tripathi, an Advisor to the Department of Biotechnology, has claimed that concern over GM crops amounts to "certain vested interests" driving away innocent farmers from utilising the technology to increase production!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7694
For more on the regulatory sell out to GM interests
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7709
+ GM CROPS EXACERBATE "BREAKDOWN" IN INDIAN FARMING SYSTEMS
More on Prof Glenn Stone's study on GM crops in India which concluded that they were a "fad", this time from the UK's newspaper The Independent:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7684
MORE GM FADS: A herd mentality on GM crops predominates in US farming too.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7684
------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE
------------------------------------------------------------
+ EURO PARLIAMENT VOTES TO PROTECT ORGANICS
The European Parliament has rejected a proposal to allow traces of GMOs up to 0.9% in organic food. The result of the vote is a clear indication from European elected representatives that the right to GM-free food is non-negotiable.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7705
The Soil Association has called on the UK Government to follow suit in UK legislation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7706
+ DAY 15 OF HUNGER STRIKE IN FRANCE
March 29 2007 was the 15th day of the hunger strike for a moratorium on GMOs to become effective before the spring sowing season. All French presidential candidates except Nicolas Sarkozy have adopted a position favourable to the moratorium.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7701
------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ IMPORTERS QUESTION PURITY OF U.S. CROPS
The Wall Street Journal reports that, "Recent breakdowns in the system meant to keep experimental GM plants from contaminating the hundreds of millions of acres of crops grown in the US has farmers and import markets questioning the purity of US goods."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7690
+ MEXICO MAINTAINING BLOCK ON GM-CONTAMINATED RICE
Reuters reports that Mexico will not let its guard down in the search for unauthorized GM material in rice imports from the United States, according to a top government biosecurity official. Marco Antonio Meraz, who heads Mexico's biosecurity commission, said all shipments of US rice were required to show certification they contained no GM material. He said health officials also were taking samples from some rice shipments to ensure exporters were telling the truth. Mexico is the biggest overseas market for US rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7707
+ MULTIPLE CONTAMINATION OF US RICE
FOUR different Bayer GM rice varieties have been discovered in US long-grain rice stocks, although not all have been announced by USDA. The four GM traits now known to be in the supply are: LL601, LL62, LL06 and (most recently) LL604.
In addition, there are still other "mystery (GM) traits", with a lot oftsting still going on. All the contamination appears to be the result of GM rice trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7707
+ USA RICE FEDERATION SAYS "NO!" TO RICE TRIALS
USA Rice Federation, which describes itself as "the national advocate for all segments of the rice industry", has filed comments with the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking "in the strongest possible terms that the permit for Ventria [Bioscience]'s pharmaceutical rice be denied." "If Ventria's pharmaceutical rice were to escape into the commercial rice supply, the financial devastation to the U.S. rice industry would likely be absolute," the USA Rice comments say.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7708
+ HAWAIIANS, FARMERS PUSH FOR BAN ON GM TARO
Upset over the death of a bill that would ban genetic modification of the taro plant, farmers and Native Hawaiians shouted down chief lawmakers in a noisy protest at the state Capitol. Protesters wanted lawmakers to hold a hearing on a bill that would place a 10-year moratorium on GM taro. A similar bill banning field-testing of GM coffee is still pending. Last August, the USDA was severely croiticised by a federal judge in Hawaii for the way it had illegally approved trials of GM corn and sugar cane.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7713
+ MONSANTO ASKS COURT TO ALLOW SALE OF GM ALFALFA
Monsanto has asked a San Francisco federal court to allow it to continue selling its GM Roundup Ready Alfalfa while the USDA conducts a court-ordered environmental impact study. Earlier this month, US District Judge Charles Breyer halted the sale of the GM alfalfa at the request of farmers, environmentalists and consumer advocates who say that it could harm the US economy and the environment.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7695
+ LABELLING DEMANDED IN CANADA
Greenpeace has dumped five tons of corn in front of the office of the Quebec Liberal Party, to insist on mandatory labelling of GMOs. Mandatory labelling has consistently been supported by a majority of Quebecers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7704
+ UPDATE FROM THE GM-FREE BRAZIL CAMAPIGN
All the latest news in English at
http://www.aspta.org.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm
------------------------------------------------------------
GM MOZZIES
------------------------------------------------------------
+ INDIAN PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS WARN AGAINST GM MOSQUITOES
Indian public health experts are not excited by the news that American scientists have created GM mosquitoes to help fight malaria, saying it had been tried in India in the past and abandoned as a failure. Said P. K. Rajagopalan, a scientist who was associated with the aborted Indo-US project, "Uncontrolled release of GM organisms to wipe out traditional mosquitoes ... raises serious questions on ecosystems and public health." He added that he did not rule out the possibility of released GM insects becoming carriers of a human disease "they were never before able to transmit". He also said he hoped India did not "once again become a testing ground for this dubious technology."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7685
------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD SAFETY
------------------------------------------------------------
+ NEW PUSZTAI ARTICLE ON GM POTATO CONTROVERSY
At a time when the biotech industry is planning to grow GM potatoes in open field trials in the UK, it's educational to revisit the scandal of the suppression (by industry, governments and scientific establishments) of the 1999 study by Dr Arpad Pusztai detailing the damaging effects produced by GM potatoes on rats. Dr Pusztai tells the full story in a new article at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7702
+ MORE EVIDENCE ORGANIC FOOD GOOD FOR YOU
The scientific evidence is growing that organic food is better for you, reports Peter Melchett, but GM lobbyists and politicians wedded to the food industry are doing their best to deny it.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_melchett/2007/03/is_organic_food_really_healthi.html
------------------------------------------------------------
AFRICA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ SA REJECTS WORLD'S FIRST GM MAIZE FOR BIOFUELS
South Africa's regulatory authority has rejected Syngenta's application to grow GM maize for fuel ethanol on biosafety grounds. The Executive Council's grounds for refusal were that Syngenta had failed to provide convincing proof of food and feed safety even if the primary intended use is ethanol production. This was the first GM industrial crop for which commercial approval (for cultivation or import) has been sought anywhere in the world.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7683
See below for more on BIOFUELS
+ ACCRA 2007: ANOTHER WEST AFRICAN MINISTERIAL TO PROMOTE GM CROPS?
26-30 March 2007 saw West African ministers attending, as part of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS), a Conference on Biotechnology being held in Accra, Ghana. This Conference is the follow up to a series of Ministerial Conferences financed and supported by US Government agencies in order to encourage the acceptance of GM crops in Africa. To help the ministers critically consider the issues FoE Africa has prepared a briefing document. Read it at http://www.eraction.org/publications/FoEAfrica_briefing02.pdf
------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ CSIRO: PUBLIC RESOURCES FOR PRIVATE PROFIT
As we previously reported, Australia's CSIRO Plant Industry - a supposedly public sector science body that makes a virtue of being in bed with big business - sacked leading soil and organic researcher Dr Maarten Stapper last week. His research on healthier soil systems and criticisms of GM crops upset CSIRO management, says NGO Gene Ethics. "This travesty of justice shows again that priorities for taxpayer-funded research are grossly distorted by CSIRO contracts with companies that direct public funds to private profits," says Bob Phelps, director of Gene Ethics.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7691
------------------------------------------------------------
ANIMAL BIOTECH
------------------------------------------------------------
+ FDA "CHERRY-PICKED EVIDENCE" TO PUSH THROUGH CLONED FOODS
The US FDA says that food from clones is safe, but a new report from the Center for Food Safety shows that the FDA found virtually no scientific studies to support the commercial release of these experimental foods. FDA found no studies on meat from cloned pigs; meat or milk from cloned goats; meat from cloned cows; or milk from offspring of cloned cows. FDA cites just three peer-reviewed studies on milk from cloned cows; all three studies showed differences in milk from clones that should have prompted further research.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7686
+ PROF SCHUBERT ON CLONED FOOD
David Schubert, a Professor in the Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory at The Salk Institute, writes in Nature Biotechnology that, "if there is any increase in disease associated with the consumption of clonal animals, it will be impossible to detect against the normal background of disease unless the disease is unique or appears in a novel cohort... For example, if a biotech product were to enter our food chain that causes a disease like Parkinson, which has a incidence of about 20 per year per 100,000 (ref. 10), then an additional 60,000 new cases per year in the United States would have to be reported before any change in public health status could be detected. Assigning a cause to any epidemic of this type would be impossible." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7715
+ SCIENTISTS CREATE SHEEP THAT IS 15% HUMAN
Scientists at the University of Nevada have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs. The organs are intended for transplant into humans. The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells. There are fears that such transplants could enable viruses to pass from animals to humans. Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7697
------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
------------------------------------------------------------
+ WAMBUGU ALERT: KENYANS READY TO EMBRACE GM FOODS???
AgBioview and other pro-GM listservs have been busy circulating an article from Capital FM (Kenya) headlined 'Kenyans ready to embrace genetically modified foods'
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/newsarticle.asp?newsid=2013&newscategoryid=1
However, the article fails to report who commissioned this extremely dubious (and heavily spun!) piece of research. The East African Standard, however, tells us it was the Africa Harvest Foundation.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200703301050.html
Africa Harvest are a GM propaganda outfit run by the Monsanto-trained Kenyan, Florence Wambugu. Africa Harvest's communication activities (read PR spin) are supported by CropLife International - a lobby group led by corporations such as BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, and Syngenta.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=131
+ HOW CORPORATIONS DENY CONSUMER PROTECTION
A brilliant article (well worth reading in full) identifies the dubious but commonly used rhetorical tactics by which big business can thwart consumer interests. Nearly all the strategies referred to - from industry front groups and fakery, to "muddying the waters" and "poisoning the well" - will be all too familiar to those following the activities of pro-GM lobbyists. Equally familiar from the GM debate are many of the actors in the US that the author names as significant deployers of such tactics on behalf of the MNCs that back them, eg:
*the American Enterprise Institute
*the Competitive Enterprise Institute (co-founders of CS Prakash's AgBioWorld)
*the Center for Consumer Freedom, and
*the Cato Institute.
The article is by Chris Hoofnagle, University of California at Berkeley senior staff attorney and senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7699
+ REED-ELSEVIER'S HYPOCRISY - SELLING ARMS AND HEALTH!
Reed-Elsevier is a sponsor of the pro-GM lobby group Sense About Science. It also promotes arms sales! And it's probably best known as the world's largest publisher of scientific and medical journals. Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ), says it's brazen hypocrisy.
http://www.jrsm.org/cgi/content/full/100/3/114
------------------------------------------------------------
BIOFUELS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ FIVE-YEAR FREEZE NEEDED ON BIOFUELS - MONBIOT
In 2004 journalist George Monbiot warned that biofuels would set up a competition for food between cars and people. The people would necessarily lose: those who can afford to drive are richer than those who are in danger of starvation. It would also lead to the destruction of rainforests and other habitats. He now says he was wrong on one thing: he didn't expect these effects to happen for many years. In fact, they are happening already. Monbiot writes, "It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7693
+ THE REAL AGENDA BEHIND BIOFUELS
Here's a rough translation from the Portuguese of the revealing words of Hector Huergo - the president of the Argentinean Biofuels and Hydrogen Association, and one of the original promoters of GM soy in Argentina. He was speaking at a conference in Buenos Aires at which the key note speaker was Monsanto's vice president, Robert Fraley: "Friends, the only thing that matters is to do businesses. Because the poor will continue to exist, they will have to be the concern of the NGOs (sic). And now the great business will come from biofuels. Once again behind the promises to solve the problems of climate change is hidden the only objective which is to get a great slice of the future businesses."
READ THE PORTUGUESE ORIGINAL HERE:
http://www.pagina12.com.ar:80/diario/suplementos/futuro/13-1675-2007-03-24.htm
+ REPORT CRITICISING 2nd GENERATION BIOFUELS
Read 'Second Generation Biofuels: An Unproven Future Technology with Unknown Risks' by Helena Paul and Almuth Ernsting.
http://www.stopgetrees.org/article.php?story=20070328154023422
EXTRACT: Billions of dollars are being spent on a technology which clearly will not be available in the crucial time left to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. The current situation is highly reminiscent of Gentech (biotech) industry promises for the second generation of GM crops such as drought and salt resistant crops, which still remain elusive even after many years of research. These Gentech "futures" have been very important to maintaining interest in Gentechnology. It is likely that second generation biofuels will suffer from similar delays but will in the meantime, be used to promote the Gentech agenda.
+ BIG OIL BUYS BERKELEY
The BP-UC Berkeley research deal pushes academic integrity aside for profit writes Jennifer Washburn in the LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-washburn24mar24,0,4865913.story?coll=la-opinion-center
EXTRACT: UC President Robert Dynes has characterized the BP deal in telling words. "It is my belief," he said, "that we are reinventing the research university in this public-private partnership." [You can say that again!]
+ FALLOUT FROM THE NEW MANHATTAN PROJECT
EXCERPT from great article for CounterPunch on the BP-Berkeley deal: One of the first casualties of the deal is already clear - the English language. The authors of this proposal have already begun a laundering operation, even before the deal is signed. Genetically modified organisms and biotechnology are nowhere to be seen. The brief era of "biotech" is over, it seems; a new age of "synthetic biology" is dawning. Oddly, we find ourselves back in a world of electricians, chemists and masons. Instead of living GMOs we are dealing with "DNA circuits"; instead of genes we find "biobricks". Plants no longer decompose; in this brave new science they undergo "depolymerization". These linguistic constructs are presumably an attempt to obscure the fact that the core of the BP project for growing fuel instead of food remains the global proliferation of new, reproducing, life forms that contain genes transferred from distant species, with very poorly understood results.
It is not by accident that the parties to the BP-Berkeley deal borrow their rhetorical strategies from their counterparts in the military and nuclear fields. The UC scientists and administrators begin the proposal by invoking, in the most effusive terms, the Manhattan Project. In fact, the whole initiative is to be modeled on the Manhattan Project's "team science" model. But that project is properly remembered for its secret, reckless decision-making. With its very first experiment, Arthur Compton, the head of the Chicago scientists involved, risked building a secret reactor in the middle of the city. Compton explained: "We did not see how a true nuclear explosion, such as that of an atomic bomb, could possibly occur"; still, as Richard Rhodes the historian of the Manhattan Project put it, he was risking "a small Chernobyl in the midst of a crowded city."
Here, then, are some questions: What is modern science that its shining hour was the Manhattan Project, a secret project to build a weapon of mass murder? What is modern science that it flourishes in secrecy? ...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7700