WEEKLY WATCH number 214
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
If you read nothing else this week, don't miss our extraordinary story from Brazil, which strongly suggests that in an atmosphere of transparency, GM crops could not be approved at all. (THE AMERICAS)
An article that deserves a far wider readership than it will receive on the brave young web mag where it's been published looks at the recent massive bee die-off. The article fingers the culprit as GM crops. It seems there is evidence from the Netherlands that they can cause "colony collapse disorder". (BEE CRISIS)
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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THE AMERICAS
ASIA
BEE CRISIS
PHARMING
EUROPE
AFRICA
COMPANY NEWS
LOBBYWATCH
BIOFUELS
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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THE AMERICAS
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+ JUDGE MAKES GM BAN PERMANENT
A US federal judge on Thursday barred the planting of GM alfalfa nationwide, ruling that the government didn't adequately study the GM crop's potential to mix with organic and conventional varieties. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer made permanent a temporary ban he ordered in March on Monsanto's GM alfalfa.
According to an Associated Press article, "The ruling is a major victory for anti-biotech crusaders, who have been fighting the proliferation of genetically engineered crops. It is the first ban placed on such crops since the first variety the Flavr Savr tomato was approved in 1994."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7829
+ GM MAIZE APPROVAL POSTPONED DUE TO TRANSPARENCY!
EXCERPT from an amazing report from the GM-Free Brazil Campaign:
For the first time in the history of the CTNBio (the National Technical Biosafety Commission) its regular meeting has been opened to outside observers. The most important direct result was that the commercial release of GM maize, on the agenda for immediate approval, has been postponed indefinitely.
For eleven years, the Commission's meetings were always held behind closed doors. But a court decision in response to a suit filed by a Regional Federal Prosecutor in Brasilia was issued the first day of the April meeting, and forced the CTNBio's doors open to the public.
The commercial release of Bayer's gluphosinate-ammonium tolerant GM maize was expected to be approved at CTNBio's meeting. But Greenpeace representatives walked into the CTNBio meeting room and requested observer status, without the right to speak. Rather than back down, the Commission's president simply threw up his hands and canceled the March meeting.
A month of confusion ensued in the wake of that decision. First, CTNBio president Colli threatened to suspend the meeting again if "outsiders" insisted on attending. Meanwhile, more civil society organizations and independent scientists also requested authorization to be allowed in.
Groups of professors from two major Brazilian universities published letters criticizing the Commission, its procedures and the way it deals with science, as well as demanding more transparency and public participation.
Although the people authorized to enter the room did not have the right to speak, the powerful effect of the Commission having "witnesses" to its debates and decisions was amazing.
The Commission always portrays itself as a "technical" body and argues that "ignorant" people should not interfere in such complex matters as GMOs, on which they have nothing to contribute.
Indeed, closing the CTNBio's doors is the only way that the federal government had maintained the appearance of a "science-based" commission. Those who witnessed this most recent meeting watched even its own internal rules being ignored and broken by its members. Field trials are almost automatically authorized, "following a historical pattern," as declared one of the members.
Just like at the GM maize public hearing held in February, once again the best scientific argument mustered by pro-GM members of the CTNBio is the same one used by biotech companies: "GMOs have been planted for over ten years in many countries and no negative impact has been recorded so far." Some members, however, do go straight to the point, explaining that "my project will be affected" if the CTNBio starts to demand more risk analyses.
Even so, the awareness caused by the presence of civil society was enough to have the commercial release of Bayer's GM maize taken off the agenda. CTNBio members were certainly ashamed to decide "in public" an authorization so full of both technical fragilities and administrative irregularities.
CTNBio president Walter Colli and the Science & Technology minister himself have indeed promised to fight hard to close the CTNBio's doors again.
Colli actually changed his earlier stance and declared last week that the commercial release of GM maize "is not a priority for the Commission at this time" and may not even be put on the next meeting's agenda in May. He seems to be following orders to wait until the Commission's doors are closed so that they can "be alone" to decide the matter "scientifically". If this happens, Brazilian democracy will be the biggest loser. For the GMO promoters who always say that opposition to GMOs is merely ideological, it is important that the CTNBio's decisions be taken in secret, to keep their myths alive. The veil over supposedly science-based decisions also helps keep the real economical interests behind them in the shadows.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7825
+ GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEED PROBLEMS IN BRAZIL
A Brazilian TV report describes the serious problems of glyphosate-resistant weeds in Brazil as a result of the widespread cultivation of GM soya. According to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation EMBRAPA, there are now about 10 different kinds of weeds in the world, three of which are in Brazil, that don't die when submitted to glyphosate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7823
+ U.S.: SCHLOSSER, THE FDA AND CLONES
The FDA's proposed rules on meat and milk from cloned animals are just one more indication of how the agency and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been captured by special interests and no longer serve the public interest, writes Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, writing in the UK magazine The Big Issue. Schlosser points out, "the food safety policies of the FDA and the USDA are virtually indistinguishable from those of the industries they are supposed to be regulating." (see also QUOTE OF THE WEEK)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7816
+ POLICE BRACING FOR PROTESTS IN BOSTON
When 20,000 delegates descend on Boston for an international biotechnology conference starting Sunday, they will be met by dozens if not hundreds of protesters and by police bracing for what could be the biggest demonstrations in the city since the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7826
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ASIA
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+ INDIA'S REGULATORS ONLY PUSH GM CROPS
Kavitha Kuruganti of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture comments on media reports of GM regulators claiming huge benefits for GM crops: "monitoring of GMOs right from field trials stage is almost completely absent/unscientific in this country ... Hundreds of farmers are reporting health problems like skin allergies but the government chooses not to assess such impacts and therefore will always claim that there is no authentic report. A report from Madhya Pradesh by a team of doctors has been submitted to GEAC on this issue - as a member of GEAC how can Dr Ananda Kumar claim that there is no such report from any part of the cotton belt?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7815
+ MORE ON BT COTTON DEATHS IN LIVESTOCK
Kavitha Kuruganti in an article for CounterCurrents, writes about the deaths of sheep and goats that died after grazing on Bt cotton fields. She points out that even now, no studies have been done to test toxicity in conditions that simulate real life open-grazing situations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7818
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BEE CRISIS
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+ GM CROPS COULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR BEE DIE-OFFS
An excellent article for web mag thesimon.com suggests that GM crops may be responsible for colony collapse disorder, which is seeing huge numbers of bees die off and disappear.
EXCERPT: How could something so wondrous as pest-resistant corn kill millions upon millions of bees? Simple - by producing so much natural pesticide that bees are either driven mad or away. ...
[Biologist and beekeeper John McDonald writes,] "Canadian beekeepers have detected the disappearance of the [bee predator] wax moth in untreated hives, apparently a result of worker bees foraging in fields of transgenic canola plants. [And] the planting of transgenic corn and soybean has increased exponentially, according to statistics from farm states. Tens of millions of acres of transgenic crops are allowing Bt genes to move off crop fields."
McDonald's analysis stands up under scrutiny. A former agronomist has commented that the one trial of GM crops in the Netherlands quickly led to colony collapse within 100 kilometers of the fields, and it's reasonable to hypothesize nature's pollinators would bear an averse reaction to plants with poison coursing through every stem.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7819
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PHARMING
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+ GM SEED STRANDED AT CHILEAN AIRPORT
Close to 200 tonnes of a GM seed, which is not allowed near Canadian dinner tables or farm fields, is sitting at a Chilean port waiting to be loaded onto a ship for Vancouver.
The safflower seed, laden with fish growth hormone, was due to slip into Vancouver and be trucked to Calgary for processing, say the Canadian entrepreneurs who engineered the seed for use in aquaculture.
But their plan is in limbo because the federal government refused to issue the permit needed to import the seed into Canada. Entrepreneurs at Canadian biotech firm SemBioSys say they have little choice but to grow their crops offshore because of the unresolved debate about whether to allow molecular farming in Canada.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7809
+ DOWN ON THE PHARM IN THE UK
Scientists are growing GM tobacco engineered to contain an anti-HIV drug in a laboratory based at a London hospital.
The Guardian article that tells the story claims that things are much more relaxed when it comes to pharma crops in North America and quotes Ventria's pharma rice in Kansas as an example. It doesn't mention that Ventria was chased out of California and even out of Monsanto's home state of Missouri when it tried to cultivate pharma rice there. It also wrongly claims that some diabetics "object to" GM insulin as if it were an ideological issue, whereas in fact, their refusal of GM insulin has more to do with its sometimes life-threatening side effects.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7810
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EUROPE
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+ ILLEGAL GM MAIZE ENTERS EU THROUGH IRELAND
Lab tests commissioned by Greenpeace prove that a shipment of US animal feed intercepted in Dublin Port and later in Rotterdam entered the EU illegally with a cargo contaminated by unauthorized and toxic varieties of GM maize.
The tests showed 2.4% contamination for a GM maize variety called Herculex patented by Pioneer / Dow Agrosciences, which is approved in the USA but illegal in the EU. The tests also showed 20% positive for Monsanto's GM maize MON863; the latter is still approved for animal feed and human food in the EU, even though the European Food Safety Authority has been forced to review its approval following allegations of scientific fraud, cover up, and a recent peer-reviewed study by French scientists which found it causes serious liver and kidney damage in laboratory animals.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7821
+ NETHERLANDS URGED TO TRACK DOWN BAD MAIZE - EU COMMISSION
The Netherlands has to find and remove from the market the maize that according to Greenpeace contains illegal maize varieties, said a spokesperson of the European Commission (EC).
GM Free Cymru criticized the EC for "a complete breakdown of its GM testing and labeling scheme, which is supposed to protect consumers across Europe from exposure to unauthorized and toxic GM products."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7821
+ UK SPY AT GM PROTEST
Paul Mercer, who was paid GBP2500 per month by arms company BAE to spy on the peace movement, also infiltrated a protest against milk from GM-fed cows outside Sainsbury's, according to John Vidal, writing in the Guardian.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7820
+ MORE ON GREEK BAN ON GM CORN AND CONFISCATION OF CHINESE RICE
Greece's deputy minister of agriculture Mr. A. Kontos has signed a new revision of a January 2006 ministerial decree that prohibits commercialization and usage of the GM corn MON 810 series in Greece.
Kontos has also ordered the confiscation of 88 tons of Chinese rice protein meal because it contains an unapproved GM event (Bt 63). Ministry of Agriculture border authorities will have the product destroyed or re-exported. Another 90 tons of similar Chinese origin product is being held in Pireaus customs awaiting laboratory test results.
The discovery of the Chinese GM rice has led to the promulgation of a public order to Greek Customs and local agricultural authorities, requiring that all shipments of imported rice be subjected to laboratory testing before clearing through customs, and that entry controls are not to rely only on accompanying documents and certificates.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7827
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AFRICA
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+ SOUTH AFRICA: BIOWATCH COST RULING UNDER FIERCE ATTACK
Did High Court Judge Eric Dunn act "capriciously" against the environmental watchdog group Biowatch, or was he dispensing a legal "healing balm" to tame its ardour for information?
These are some of the legal arguments that the High Court is mulling over in an appeal case that is expected to have major ramifications for public interest bodies that challenge the actions of corporations in South Africa.
The appeal case comes after a partial legal victory in 2005 by Biowatch, which went to court to ferret out information about GM experiments in South Africa by Monsanto and other companies.
Although Biowatch won access to a wide variety of information from Monsanto and government regulators, Dunn took the unusual step of ordering Biowatch to pay the legal costs of Monsanto.
Richard Moultrie, counsel for Biowatch, argued that Dunn's ruling was contradictory, lacking in logic and also "capricious".
But Monsanto's legal counsel, Frank Snyckers, took a different view. He said Dunn had been given no option but to administer the "healing balm of a costs award" to punish Biowatch for submitting legally incoherent and "unintelligible" requests for information.
Judgment has been reserved for the time being.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7817
+ SUDAN TO RELEASE DARFUR-BOUND AID
Sudan will release 100,000 tonnes of cereals bound for the troubled Darfur region after holding it in Port Sudan for checks, said the UN food agency, the World Food Programme. Sudan was holding the aid on the basis it was GM, a charge the WFP has denied.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7811
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO'S SOYBEAN MONOPOLY CHALLENGED IN MUNICH
On 3 May 2007 ETC Group (a Canadian-based international civil society organization - formerly known as RAFI) together with "No Patents on Life!" and Greenpeace will continue a 13-year legal battle against one of biotech's most notorious patents. At an appeal hearing at the European Patent Office in Munich, civil society organizations will argue that Monsanto's patent on all GM soybeans - unprecedented in its broad scope - must be revoked.
Critics refer to the patent as "species-wide" because its claims extend to all biotech soybean seeds -- irrespective of the genes used or the genetic engineering technique employed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7828
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ MORE ON THE LM GROUP
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7813
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BIOFUELS
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+ BIOFUELS - THE NEXT GENETIC REVOLUTION?
As the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is expected to give a green light to nukes and large-scale biofuel production, including GMOs, an Ecologist Special Report has been published on the "facts, fictions and fabrications" behind biofuels.
Interesting snippet about how the GM companies hope that we won't mind GM crops grown for biofuels: "Biotech companies ... seek to create a distinction in the public's mind between GM as food (not acceptable) and GM for industrial uses (acceptable)."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7814
+ BIOFUELS AND GM CROPS ARE RECIPE FOR GLOBAL FAMINE
Just as boosting ethanol or biodiesel production fails to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions, so does investing billions of dollars in research into GM crops, says Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute. Both biofuels and GM crops require large-scale monocultures, which are a recipe for global famine, she says.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7824
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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+ BIG BOYS BENEFIT FROM USDA POLICIES
Alan Guebert, agricultural journalist whose columns appear weekly in more than 70 newspapers throughout the US and Canada, and in magazines in a dozen countries in Europe and Asia:
In the upside down world of the US Department of Agriculture's current leaders, sound science is what they say it is and food safety seems to be what is best for agribusiness. ... Monsanto, the only maker and seller of the hormone, claims in its request [to the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration] that the rBGH-free labeling "disparage(s) milk and den(ies) farmers a choice in using approved technologies."
No, I'm not making this up. Monsanto truly believes hormone-free labeling is "deceptive advertising... that mislead(s) consumers" and it wants government to protect - and maybe even enhance - sales of its hormone while protecting you from yourself.
Hey, just because you can read doesn't mean you're smart enough to make personal choices.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7822
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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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+ TAKE ACTION ON THE LOSS OF HONEYBEES!
Asking for the science to be done
http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2007-04-07.asp
+ BIOFUELS: PLEASE TAKE ACTION
The British government is consulting on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. Biofuel targets and incentives already promote more rainforest destruction and thus more climate change, threaten food security and food sovereignty, particularly in the global south, and harm the biodiversity on which all of us depend. Please take part in the consultation and tell the government that we need a moratorium and no targets now. Here you will find an email action where you can raise your concerns: http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/index.php
+ GM SPUDS IN THE UK - GET ACTIVE!
Oppose BASF's plans to trial GM potatoes in the UK http://www.mutatoes.org/take-action.php
+ 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
+ BERKELEY: DON'T SIGN THE BP DEAL!
Sign the petition at