from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
I'm happy to report that our websites are back in business despite malicious attackers doing their best to delete the content. Thanks to everyone who sent us messages of support.
This week's Weekly Watch is packed with some fascinating information, including details of a long-suppressed Russian study that found serious changes in the liver, kidneys and large gut of rats fed on GM potatoes (DAMAGING STUDY SUPPRESSED); more on the threat of pharma crops, including pharma peas in Germany (PHARMA CROPS); the latest in a succession of legal judgements in the US that have exposed GM regulation as "cavalier", "arbitrary", "capricious" and a violation of the law (LANDMARK US FEDERAL RULING); and why a farmers' campaigner who's been leading the fight to stop farmer suicides in Maharashtra says Monsanto has "played a major role in killing farmers" (ASIA).
Finally, please don't forget our CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK on pharma crops and biofuels.
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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MEXICAN CORN CRISIS SPECIAL
LANDMARK US FEDERAL RULING
DAMAGING STUDY SUPPRESSED
PHARMA CROPS
ASIA
MIDDLE EAST
EUROPE
CLONING
CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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MEXICAN CORN CRISIS SPECIAL
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+ MEXICO'S CORN CRISIS EXPLOITED BY GM LOBBY
The price of corn in Mexico has risen to its highest point in 10 years, reportedly due to a growing demand for the grain from the US to produce ethanol. The crisis brought on by the massive price hike is now being exploited by the GM lobby to push for the introduction of GM corn in Mexico via claims that GM is a panacea for increased corn production. However, USDA data does not support the claim that GM corn increases production. In fact, it shows that far from increasing yields, GM crops may actually reduce them. USDA data also shows that GM corn has had a negative economic impact on farms.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7527
+ MEXICO'S TORTILLA CRISIS: HARVEST OF NAFTA
More than 120,000 people protested in Mexico City on January 31 against massive hikes in the price of corn. The protesters were demanding renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, restoration of grain self-sufficiency, and wage increases. President Felipe Calderon has announced the duty-free import of 650,000 metric tons of white maize from the US. This has enraged Mexico's farmers. Since the inception of NAFTA in 1994, they have felt their government has allowed cheap US grain imports, heavily subsidized by US taxpayers, and the elimination of government price supports to destroy their livelihoods, driving millions of them off the land.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7527
+ BIG BIOTECH IS FORCING FARMERS TO BUY GM SEEDS
An article for CounterPunch reveals how the steep jump in tortilla prices is leading to massive imports of GM corn from the US. Some of this will be planted in spite of government prohibition. (EXCERPT): Competing with highly subsidized US farmers is driving their Mexican counterparts into bankruptcy ... A great deal of the 36,000,000 tons of corn Mexico has imported from the US in the past six years is genetically modified - 40% to 60% estimates the environmental group Greenpeace, reasoning that US producers, barred from dealing GMO corn in Europe and Japan, are using Mexico as a dumping ground for the grain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7533
+ MEXICAN CORNMEAL COMPANIES ACCUSED OF USING GM CORN
Greenpeace has accused Mexican cornmeal companies Maseca and Minsa of introducing GM corn into the market, an action they deny. Greenpeace Mexico's Areli Carreon showed official documents and lab tests confirming production of tortillas with GM corn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7527
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LANDMARK US FEDERAL RULING
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+ LANDMARK US FEDERAL RULING
The New York Times: "A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Agriculture Department violated the law by failing to adequately assess possible environmental impacts before approving Monsanto's genetically engineered alfalfa. Judge Charles R. Breyer of Federal District Court in San Francisco said the agency had been "cavalier" in deciding that a full environmental impact statement was not needed because the potential environmental and economic effects of the crop were not significant. Plaintiffs in the case - some alfalfa seed companies and environmental and farm advocacy groups - said they would push to stop the sales and planting of the alfalfa, which is resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group that organized the lawsuit, said the decision by itself could block commercial sales of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds but that the plaintiffs would ask for an injunction to make sure."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7530
+ GM WATCH COMMENT
The US promotes itself as a model of GM crop regulation, but the judgements of its own judiciary tell a different story. This latest judgement follows on from the US federal district judge who earlier this month ruled that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) must halt approval of all new field trials until more rigorous environmental reviews are conducted. That ruling resulted from the USDA's illegal approvals of field trials of herbicide tolerant GM bentgrass.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/GTBC_DecisionPR_2_7_07.cfm
Late last year another federal district judge ruled that the USDA flouted both the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act by not conducting preliminary environmental reviews before permitting the cultivation of drug-producing GM pharma crops throughout Hawaii. US District Judge Michael Seabright also called USDA's regulatory heedlessness "arbitrary and capricious" and "an unequivocal violation of a clear congressional mandate."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6888
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6891
Even the USDA's own Office of Inspector General's audit found numerous holes in its regulatory oversight. Overall, the regulatory system was found to be so weak that it increased the risk that experimental GMO crops would "persist in the environment."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6086
Despite which, the USDA has been working flat out with USAID to shape biosafety regulations around the world.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7528
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DAMAGING STUDY SUPPRESSED
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+ DAMAGING REPORT SUPPRESSED FOR YEARS
Russia's Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Science has refused (in spite of many requests) to disclose documents on their research to assess the safety of GM foods. In May 2004 a Russian court ruled information relating to the safety of GM foods should be open to the public.
Greenpeace knew about a 1998 report on a GM potato feeding study from the Institute which had been used in obtaining approval for Monsanto's GM "New Leaf" potato in 2000. Greenpeace tried to obtain the report but the Institute and Monsanto both refused to release it. So Greenpeace and local activist groups again took the Institute to court, and in Sept 2005 the court ruled that the Report must be released. It was handed over, and examined by the nutrional science expert Irina Ermakova. Ermakova produced a brief paper on her findings, and a summary has now been translated and published by GM Free Cymru.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7539
"Concealment of information about GMOs in food products is not only illegal, but also immoral", says lawyer Nevrova Irina. "It is especially amazing that it is the service in charge of protecting consumers' rights that refuses to provide the results of the research. After such actions we can hardly trust the authorities".
http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/en/press/releases/greenpeace-information-about
+ COMMENTARY ON SUPPRESSED GM POTATO STUDY
EXTRACT: During the experiments 4 rats died: two rats from the GM-RB [fed on Genetically Modified Russet Burbank potatoes] group (showing abrupt changes in the large gut and in the liver), and two rats from the "control" group (due to pneumonia). Serious changes in the liver, kidneys and large gut were observed in the rats from the GM-RB group after their killing, in contrast to other groups. The liver in the rats from the GM-RB group had lighter yellow-brown colour, and was easily torn. Cysts in the kidney and in the liver were discovered in 3 rats out of 8 during the six month study (i.e. 40% of rats). Signs of adipose dystrophy appeared in the cells of the liver (the hepatocytes) in rats from the RB-GM group, which were rarely noted in the RB group. Different sizes of cellular infiltrations were discovered in the large gut in rats from the GM-RB group.
http://admin.gmwatch.org/archive/arcedit1.asp?arcid=7542
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PHARMA CROPS
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+ GM PHARMA PEAS THREATEN WORLD'S LARGEST PEA LANDRACE COLLECTION
In Germany, the first field trial with crops producing pharmaceutical compounds took place in 2006. The pharma potatoes contained genes of the cholera bacterium and a rabbit virus. Now, a second field trial of GM pharma peas is planned for 2007. The peas contain mouse genes and, according to Novoplant, produce antibodies against gastro-intestinal infections of pigs caused by E. coli bacteria. The peas are to be mixed in animal feed as a pharmaceutical additive and a replacement for antibiotics.
The trial will take place in Gatersleben (Saxonia-Anhalt), next to the Gatersleben gene bank, which stores 148,000 crop samples of 2,500 species used for research and plant breeding. The gene bank also accommodates the world's largest collection of pea land races (more than 5500 samples). Several hundred are cultivated every year in open fields to preserve their germination capability. The distance of the pharma peas to the fields of the gene bank's peas would be only 500 meters.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7523
+ PHARMA CROPS NO SOLUTION TO AILING AG SECTOR - NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
Claire G. Williams of Duke University, North Carolina argues that field-grown pharma crops using food crops present too many problems to be a viable solution to an ailing agricultural sector. Problems include *impossibility of containment and subsequent crippling liabilities for contamination of other crops *steep capital outlay *non-uniformity of yields and protein quality *contamination from pesticides.
In its response to Williams, Nature Biotechnology restates its sceptical stance about pharmaceuticals in food crops: "Although industry organizations, such as the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), continue to support food crops for PMP and PMIP expression systems, we hold to our original view that they pose too many problems and nonfood crops are a better alternative."
Williams' piece agrees with this; she wants pharma crops to be grown in contained systems and to use non-food crops. However, as we have pointed out ad nauseam, all plants are food for something. Williams touts duckweed and algae as non-food crops, but duckweed is eaten by, er, ducks as well as fish, both of which are eaten by people; algae, meanwhile, is eaten by thousands of humans as a food supplement.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7532
+ ACTION: PLEASE SIGN US PETITION ON PHARMA CROPS
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has a petition, policy paper, database and documents dealing with frequently asked questions about pharma crops posted on its new UCS website at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org
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ASIA
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+ PHILIPPINES: CARDINAL OPPOSES GM RICE
Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has added his voice to the growing criticism of the government for allowing the sale of US GM rice in supermarkets. Rosales asked President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to recall Uncle Sam Texas Long Grain Rice. "We believe that we should strongly oppose any experiment or attempt to use genetically engineered food that is not safe or good to the environment," Rosales said. "We should feed our people with foods that are produced through natural means."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7537
+ INDIA: DOW CORRUPTION SCANDAL
Genes and chemicals giant, Dow will pay a $325,000 civil penalty as a result of improper payments to Indian government pesticide regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Dow also agreed to cease and desist from future violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7538
The case is reminiscent of the scandal over Monsanto's corruption of officials in Indonesia.
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=58&page=1
+ INDIA: BT LEAVES BAD FOR ANIMALS - EXPERTS
Hundreds of sheep and buffaloes have died after eating Bt cotton crop waste in Warangal district. Deccan Development Society director P. Sateesh said that more than 2,500 animals had died in recent months after eating Bt cotton leaves. Chinese scientist Dr Yang Song and Thailand's Alternative Agriculture Network president Day Cha agreed that due to Bt cotton cultivation, animals were dying and the environment was being polluted.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7538
+ INDIA: BT COTTON NO MORE THAN "A FAD" - MORE ON STUDY
India's newspaper The Hindu has a story on the study we recently reported on the adoption of Bt cotton in India. EXCERPT: For all the hype over the rapid adoption of Bt cottonseed in Warangal, a key cotton growing district of Andhra Pradesh known for suicides by farmers, a new study by a scholar of Washington University has found that the acceptability was nothing more than a fad.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7535
The study is available as a pdf at
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/research/stone480102.web.pdf
+ INDIA: MONSANTO "PLAYED MAJOR ROLE IN KILLING FARMERS"
Here's an excerpt from a recent interview in the Indian press with Kishor Tiwari of farmers' group Vidarbha Jan-Andolan Samiti. Kishor is on the ground in the killing fields of Maharashtra's main cotton belt and has fought to stop the farmer suicides that have been spiralling out of control:
*What do you blame for the continuing deaths?
Kishor: Monsanto and other Bt cotton companies have played a major role in killing farmers. According to the survey of the Maharashtra government in June 2006, 7 lakh of 17 lakh farmers want organic farming. It means cost of inputs has been unbearable. Again, yield of cotton crop has come down from 500 quintal an acre in 1995 to 2 quintal an acre. The price of inputs has gone up from Rs 1,600 per acre to Rs 8,000 per acre since 2002.
*Why do you blame Bt?
Kishor: Sharad Pawar [India's agriculture minister who has his political power-base in Maharashtra] forced the Maharashtra government to tie up with Monsanto to market cotton. ICAR was involved in promoting it. In Andhra Pradesh, the government banned Monsanto but after five days, the Maharashtra government tied up with Monsanto... The crop has been affected by disease every year. While Andhra fought to get compensation from Mahyco [Monsanto's partner], our agriculture minister is an agent of the company and is paying compensation out of tax payers' money.
*Has the government changed its stance on cotton?
Kishor: Yes. Now government is saying the Bt crop has failed. ...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7534
+ MINISTER GIVES MONSANTO COMPENSATION TO FARMERS
Tamil Nadu minister for agriculture Veerapandi S. Arumugam has distributed compensation to 996 farmers whose crop was damaged after using Mahyco's GM Bt cotton seeds. The seed firm offered compensation of Rs. 5,000 per acre, Arumugam said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7525
+ MORE ON MONSANTO COMPENSATION TO BT COTTON FARMERS
Jai Krishna of Greenpeace India has sent us further comment on the payouts in Tamil Nadu. He points out that the compensation only came about "because of the animosity created during the destruction of the GM rice field trial in Coimbatore on November 10 and the subsequent failures of Bt cotton in the state of Tamil Nadu."
Jai Krishna also notes the way news coverage has been carefully spun: "Note the fact that the news is underplayed: it does not contain the figure of Rs. 63,58,000. This along with the previous news of compensation in Salem, for 9.86 lakhs makes it the one of the highest compensation ever accepted by Mahyco (read Monsanto) for Bt cotton losses since the first time it introduced Bt cotton in 2002, a sum of Rs. 7.3 million rupees."
Jai Krishna also notes that "even the name Mahyco is not present" in some press coverage and there have also been attempts to blame the problems on the soil condition, "making the compensation from Mahyco appear like an act of philanthrophy".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7525
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MIDDLE EAST
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+ GM CONTAMINATION FOUND IN KUWAIT
Greenpeace has released test results which revealed traces of GMOs in maize based food products imported from the USA to the Middle East, including Kuwait.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7537
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EUROPE
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+ FRANCE: MONSANTO FINED FOR FRAUDULENT ADVERTISING
A French court levied US $19,000 fines on both Monsanto and Scotts France for misleading the public about the herbicide Roundup. One of the groups to which damages also must be paid stated that the court decision "puts an end to Monsanto's lies." A former chairman of Monsanto Agriculture France had claimed that Roundup is biodegradable and "left the soil clean."
These claims have for many years been contradicted by research. In a court case as long ago as 1996, the Attorney-General of New York State Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau and the Environmental Protection Bureau, ordered Monsanto to "immediately cease and desist" from claiming that "its glyphosate-containing pesticide products or any component thereof are safe, non-toxic, harmless or free from risk." Similarly, Monsanto was forced to cease claiming that these products were "biodegradable". Sadly, until the French ruling, the prohibition applied only in New York State, leaving Monsanto free to continue lying elsewhere. In the UK, these lies are endlessly repeated.
www.mce-info.org/Pesticides/docs_pdf/roundup_etat_new_york.PDF
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7536
+ UK: ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY: MAKE GMOs A SPECIAL CASE
GMOs should be made a special case when new rules on liability for environmental damage are put in place in the UK, say a group of environmental organisations. The UK is due to implement the European Environmental Liability Directive this year and public consultations are currently underway. The group are calling upon UK politicians to support their proposals to strengthen the UK's environmental liability laws for GMOs to go well beyond the baseline laid down in the Directive. If the government's current proposals are implemented, biotech companies are unlikely to be held responsible for any damage to wildlife caused by their GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7524
+ UK: A WILD BIRD CHASE
The government's chief scientist, Sir David King, has focused on wildlife as the cause of last week's bird flu outbreak in the UK - but it looks like he's wrong, says Peter Melchett in an excellent article in The Guardian that also covers organic farming and GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7524
Organic and free-range poultry may have naturally stronger immune systems than those reared intensively, and don't get so sick with flu viruses:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0208-06.htm
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CLONING
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+ DOLLY'S LONG GOODBYE
February 14 was the fourth anniversary of the premature death of the first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, but still the push for cloning goes on, writes Jonathan Matthews of GM Watch in an article for The Ecologist Newsletter. EXTRACT: ...Dolly lives on, not only in the industry of the abnormal that she gave birth to but as a "cuddly" incarnation of the dream of a world remade without natural boundaries - limited only by our imagination and desires. That dream may be inherently defective but it has powerful economic drivers...
Read the article: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7529
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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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+ ACTION: CALL ON EU TO ABANDON TARGETS FOR BIOFUEL USE
Please sign the open letter urging the EU to abandon its targets for biofuel use in Europe.
http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/resources.php
You or your organisation can support the open letter by sending a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+ ACTION: PLEASE SIGN PETITION ON PHARMA CROPS
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has a petition, policy paper, database and documents dealing with frequently asked questions about pharma crops posted on its new UCS website at http://www.ProtectOurFood.org