GMWatch News Review archive

=====================================================
GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 63
=====================================================

-----------------------------------------------------------
MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------

CAMPAIGNS/ACTION ALERTS
SPECIAL GM ISSUE OF THE ECOLOGIST
LOBBYWATCH
GM APPROVALS / EXPANSION
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
STARTLING FACTS OF THE MONTH
BEHIND THE HYPE
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
BT PROBLEMS
OTHER RESEARCH
GM GENOCIDE
GM INSECTS
NEW BOOK
CORPORATE SCIENCE
GENETIC CROSSROADS

-----------------------------------------------------------
CAMPAIGNS/ACTION ALERTS
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ REFORM GM RISK ASSESSMENTS - REFORM THE EFSA!
On the 4th of December EU Ministers will be meeting to decide how to reform the EU authorization system of GMOs.
EU TAKE ACTION: Call on politicians to speak up, defy the GM lobby, and vote for the environment and consumer protection
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/take-actio n

+ WHY WE MUST GET GM OUT OF ANIMAL FEED
Consumer pressure and scientific concerns have largely kept GM foods and crops out of Europe. But millions of tons of GMOs enter Europe each year in the form of GM animal feed. Unlike GM foods meant for humans, these "stealth GMOs" do not have to be labelled and remain hidden from consumers.

In the face of growing consumer rejection of GM foods even in their homeland of the USA, GM animal feed has become the biotech industry's lifeline. Stop GM animal feed and we stop the GM industry in its tracks.
Find out more
http://www.bangmfood.org/stealth-gmos
UK TAKE ACTION: now on GM animal feed
http://www.bangmfood.org/take-action

-----------------------------------------------------------
SPECIAL GM ISSUE OF THE ECOLOGIST
-----------------------------------------------------------

The November 2008 issue of The Ecologist is a special on GM, with contributions by leading experts, academics, and scientists. Highly recommended. To find out more or to subscribe, go to
http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=1987

-----------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ UK: JIMMY’S GM FOOD FIX
As UK government ministers try once more to smooth the way for the entry of GM crops into the UK and Europe, Horizon, BBC television’s flagship science series, broadcast a programme that pretended to be a balanced look at GM. In fact, it was an advertisement for the GM industry. Fronted by the friendly face of farming, Jimmy Doherty, the programme managed to ignore all the problems and risks of GM while citing discredited promotional claims from the GM industry (GM means less pesticides, GM will feed the world) as fact. On the other hand, doubts about GM were twisted to sound unscientific and irrational and were immediately countered by yet another industry line of spin. GM Freeze warned the BBC in advance about the inaccuracies and lack of balance in the programme.

Don’t miss Jonathan Matthews’s review for The Ecologist of Jimmy’s GM Food Fight, at
http://www.theecologist.org:80/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2003
The article is also archived at
http://www.bangmfood.org/feed-the-world/17-feeding-the-world/18-jimmys-gm-food-f ix
GM Freeze’s comment on Jimmy’s GM Food Fight is at
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/45-Failure-of-GM-bananas-hidden-by-documentary.ht ml

+ ROBERT PAARLBERG CHALLENGED
Robert Paarlberg, author of "Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa," writes in a newspaper article, "U.S. agricultural aid is needed to help African scientists to do their own [genetic] modification of food crops. Let them get comfortable with the technology, and let them sell it to their governments."

Linn Cohen-Cole challenges Paarlberg in a scathing article for OpEd News. She writes that Paarlberg "may as well be a paid mouthpiece for Monsanto." In fact, Paarlberg is a member of the Biotechnology Advisory Council to the CEO of the Monsanto Corporation. He has also been a member of the Emerging Markets Advisory Committee at the [GM promoting] United States Department of Agriculture, a scientific liaison officer to [the GM promoting] IFPRI from the [GM promoting] U.S. Agency for International Development, and a consultant to the National Intelligence Council [strategising for the U.S. Intelligence Community], USAID, IFPRI, and the World Bank.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dear-Wellesley-College-my-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-08 1125-20.html

+ GM PROPONENT ACCUSED OF SLANDER
GenØk, a Norwegian government research centre that studies the health risks of GM foods and vaccines says that GM proponent Dr Klaus Ammann made completely unsubstantiated public accusations of scientific fraud and misconduct against it. Ammann made the accusations at the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) in Cork, Ireland in August 2008. The power point file of the talk is available on-line at: http://www.botanischergarten.ch/ABIC/Ammann-ABIC-Cork-20080826.ppt

GenØk states in a press release, "Since we became aware of Dr Amman's accusations against us, we have subsequently learned that he has engaged in similar irresponsible behavior directed at individuals and organizations that do not share his political or scientific views." GenØk is calling for a public apology and retraction.
Read full story at:
http://english.genok.org/news_cms/2008/november/gen_k_defends_its_scientific_int egrity_from_falsehoods_of_swiss_scientist._demands_public_apology_and_retraction ./66
More on Ammann here:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=8&page=A
GM Free Ireland's comments on the notorious ABIC Conference:
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ REINING IN THE INFLUENCE INDUSTRY
Around GBP1.9bn is spent on lobbying Europe's politicians in Brussels, writes David Miller in The Guardian, and registration and transparency is now required. What is more, the system governing the behaviour of officials allows for widespread conflicts of interest. An example is Scottish Conservative MEP John Purvis, who has a financial stake in a firm that invests in the biotechnology sector. At the same time he has been seen as a leading advocate for biotech in the European parliament.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/31/eu

-----------------------------------------------------------
GM APPROVALS / EXPANSION
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ 3000 HECTARES OF ILLEGAL GM MAIZE IN POLAND WITH INDUSTRY ASSISTANCE
In late September the biotech industry lobby group EuropaBio announced in a press release that, "The cultivated acreage of biotech crops has increased over ten fold in Poland... in 2008".
http://www.europabio.org/articles/GBE/EuropaBio%20Press%20Release%20cultivation% 20figures%202008_290908.pdf

This seemed surprising in a country where the population is amongst the most opposed to GM foods anywhere, not to mention Poland having a national ban on GM crops. But what EuropaBio failed to mention was that the plantings it was trumpeting were illegal. In Poland itself, as an article for infogm.org makes clear, representatives of the biotech industry openly discuss ways of getting around the law, while Monsanto Poland uses its website to offer technical and practical help to illegal growers of GM maize.
Article in French: http://www.infogm.org/spip.php?article3691

-----------------------------------------------------------
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ UK: MINISTERS PLANNING SECRET GM CROP TRIALS?
Media reports say UK ministers are drawing up plans for GM crops to be grown in secret and more secure locations, including military sites, to prevent trials being wrecked by saboteurs. They may ask the police to target opponents of GM crops in the way that they have cracked down on animal rights protesters. Another option is for the controversial crops to be grown at a secure government site such as Porton Down near Salisbury, which carries out military research and includes a science park where they could be securely developed away from the public.

The reports say ministers intend to scrap a rule that says scientists must disclose the location of GM crop trials on a government website. Hilary Benn, the environment, food and rural affairs secretary, and business secretary Lord Mandelson are also demanding a review of security arrangements.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/government-to-defy-critics-with- secret-gm-crop-trials-1021675.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23587754-details/GM+crops+to+be+g rown+at+military+sites/article.do
UK government denies that it plans secret trials on the grounds that this would be against European law:
http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=22670

GM Watch comment: Porton Down was originally set up to support the British use of chemical warfare. Later it moved into biological warfare. It's been at the centre of a series of unethical human experimentation scandals:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3206993.ece

Comment by the Soil Association: Once again the government appears to be siding with the GM industry rather than public interest on the issue of GM crop trials.

Opponents to GM crop trials are dismissed as ignorant vandals, but problems of GM contamination in America confirm that their concerns are based not on irrational fear, but on hard evidence.

In 2006 it was discovered that 30% of the entire US long-grain rice supply had become contaminated by experimental GM rice varieties unapproved for human consumption. Not only was this a public safety disaster, but also cost the rice industry over $1 billion. The contamination source? 'Controlled' field trials.

+ MONSANTO PREDICTS GM CROPS COMING TO UK SOON
Monsanto is predicting that GM crops will arrive in the UK soon, as the public tires of claims that the technology is unsafe. Monsanto's head of external affairs, Colin Merritt, insists the biotech industry has learned its lessons from the past and is developing and marketing the next generation of GM products with the consumer very much in mind.

But Peter Melchett of the Soil Association said he does not believe the industry is capable of producing complex products able to benefit wider society. He is also adamant consumer opposition is too entrenched for the technology ever to be accepted in this country and that farmers do not want GM crops. "Opponents of GM crops are winning the war, not because of media hype or fear, but because the science is supporting them," he said.
http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=24&storycode=22839

-----------------------------------------------------------
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ AUSTRALIA: GM FOOD PUSH LIKE HITLER
"They're going to control the world. We thought Hitler was a bad fella ... these guys could show him a thing or two and they're creeping up on us quietly without guns or anything like that, but the poison is there."
Australian food guru Margaret Fulton, talking about the GM food companies at the launch of the Greenpeace True Food Guide Canola Edition 2009 in Sydney, Australia
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24697594-5005961,00.html

+ DOUBLESPEAK ON GM FOOD SAFETY
“For the scientist, GM is an extension of the past 10,000 years of genetic modification by agricultural selection. It is precision engineering as opposed to the blunderbuss of conventional breeding”¦ There is no evidence that the GM maize [rejected by Zambia as food aid] was dangerous.”
John Krebs, former chief of the UK Food Standards Agency

“On the same day that Lord Krebs wrote that there is ‘no evidence’ that GM maize is dangerous, a study funded by the Austrian Government found that GM maize ‘severely impairs reproduction in mice’, and said that there is an ‘urgent need for further studies’.”
Peter Melchett, in a letter to The Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article5167299.ece

+ GM FOOD SAFETY “NOT MY JOB” SAYS EVERYONE
Philip Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, quoted in Playing God in the Garden, New York Times Magazine, 25 October 1998:
"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
...
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties (GMO Policy), Federal Register, Vol. 57, No. 104, 1992, p. 229:
"Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety."
...
Frequently Asked Questions on EFSA GMO Risk Assessment, The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), 15 May 2006, p. 7, http://www.cibpt.org/docs/FAQ-EFSA-GMO-Risk-Assessment.pdf :
"It is not foreseen that EFSA carry out such [safety] studies as the onus is on the applicant to demonstrate the safety of the GM product in question."
http://www.bangmfood.org/quotes

-----------------------------------------------------------
STARTLING FACTS OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ WHO OWNS NATURE?
*Ten companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales.
*Ten companies now control almost 90% of agrochemical sales worldwide.
*Ten companies now account for three-quarters of industry revenues.
*The top ten pharmaceutical companies control 55% of the global drug market.
Source: ETC Group's new 48-page report, "Who Owns Nature?"
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15594.cfm

-----------------------------------------------------------
BEHIND THE HYPE
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ ROUNDUP READY 2 SOYA YIELDS AS MUCH AS CONVENTIONAL SOYABEANS?
Monsanto is about to launch its new Roundup Ready 2 Yield GM soyabeans. Monsanto claims that Roundup Ready 2 Yield produces a 7-11% superior yield than the original Roundup Ready, which ought to be surprising since herbicide resistance is not a yield trait. But in fact, Roundup Ready 2 Yield is an admission that the original Roundup Ready had a major yield drag, one of several unanticipated consequences of this insertion event. The 7-11% yield gain attributed to Roundup Ready 2 Yield is approximately the same as the yield penalty that researchers found in the original Roundup Ready soyabeans. Thus, Roundup Ready 2 Yield has brought simply restored the yield status quo as it was before GM Roundup Ready soya was invented!
http://www.bioscienceresource.org:80/commentaries/article.php?id=37

+ MUCH-HYPED GM LANDMINE-DETECTION FAILS
There's been a huge amount of publicity over the past few years about how GM plants are going to solve the problem of landmine detection. News items around the globe -- from the New York Times to the BBC, TIME Magazine and Reuters -- have trumpeted the life saving potential of plants genetically modified to 'Red Detect': change from green to red when grown near to landmines or unexploded ordinance.
http://www.time.com/time/globalbusiness/article/0,9171,1565533,00.html
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23600/story.htm

Now it has emerged that the technology has failed. Aresa reports, "As was expected the tests in Serbia did not produce a positive result (none of the plants changed colours to red)". The scientific staff have been fired and Aresa is seeking to transform itself from a biotech firm into a property company something Aresa describes as a "far less risky" investment strategy.
http://www.aresa.dk/uploads/File/aresa-PR-311008-UK.pdf
http://www.aresa.dk/uploads/File/aresa-update-2008-18-09-uk.pdf

+ EXTRA-NUTRITOUS GM FOODS STILL YEARS AWAY
As part of its attempt to force GM foods into Europe and get round the objection that they offer no consumer benefits, the biotech industry and its friends are hyping GM foods engineered for extra nutrition. We've had the media reports of the "cancer-fighting" GM tomato, engineered to contain the same nutrients already found in a host of natural foods like berries, aubergines, red cabbage, red onions, etc. Now there is news of "a GM soyabean that can help to prevent heart attacks". The soyabean is engineered to contain Omega 3 fatty acids, the same nutrients that are already found in natural foods like oily fish, flaxseed oil and walnuts. The GM soyabean will be available in four years' time ... maybe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/02/AR2008110201939. html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5068437.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5068449.ece

Prof Ian Crute is one of those hyping the GM soyabean in The Times. The Times describes him as "director of Rothamsted Research [RR], a publicly funded agricultural science institute" but omits the fact that RR partners with GM firms and has a long history of propagandising for the technology: http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=188

-----------------------------------------------------------
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ VICTORY IN HAWAII: GM COFFEE AND TARO BANNED ON BIG ISLAND
The Hawaii County Council has voted unanimously to uphold a ban on GM taro and coffee.
http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/11447/40/

+ TASMANIA BANS GM UNTILL 2014
The Tasmanian Government has banned GM crops until the end of 2014, at least. This policy resulted from an exhaustive inquiry that has all-party support for a GM-free stance.

+ GREENPEACE URGES EU TO KEEP GM CROPS OFF MENU
Greenpeace is urging the European Union to ban GM crops from being used in food sold in the bloc because they pose "unpredictable risks" to both consumers and the environment.

Greenpeace activists climbed the EU headquarters building in Brussels and unfurled a huge yellow banner saying "Stop GMOs!" Environment ministers from the 27 EU nations plan on 4 December to discuss how to authorize GMO use in the future.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/24/business/EU-EU-Biotech.php

+ GET GM ANIMAL FEED OUT OF EUROPE
Good letter in the Farmers Guardian about the loophole that lets millions of tons of GMOs into Europe each year disguised in animal feed:
http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=45&storycode=22877

Stop these stealth GMOs in the food supply: http://www.bangmfood.org/take-action

+ U.S. CAMPAIGN MOBILIZES HEALTH-CONSCIOUS SHOPPERS
Non-GMO Education Centers are now appearing in natural food stores nationwide. These six-foot high blue towers feature books, DVDs, CDs, and handouts about GMOs.
View the Non-GMO Shopping Guide
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/documentFiles/144.pdf
View the GMO Health Risks Brochure
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/DocumentFiles/140.pdf
Purchase 50 of the Guides and/or Brochures at cost price
http://www.fsicart.com/seeds/

+ LEGAL TUSSLE OVER GM SUGARBEETS
A lawsuit filed by the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds and the Sierra Club seeks to halt the planting, sale and use of Roundup Ready sugar beets until the US Dept of Agriculture conducts an in-depth environmental study of this GM crop.
http://feeds.sfgate.com/click.phdo?i=a0b9b59b4e5828176d6f33875f944c89

-----------------------------------------------------------
BT PROBLEMS
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ GM BT MAIZE REDUCES FERTILITY IN MICE
Comprehensive long-term studies commissioned by the Austrian government reveal that mice fed GM maize produced fewer and smaller litters with many genes affected compared to controls. The studies showed that GM Bt maize fed to mice significantly reduced their fertility over three to four breeding cycles within one generation.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GmMaizeReducesMiceFertility.php
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/13/102525/47
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1084974/Does-eating-GM-food-lower-fert ility.html

Download the Austrian study Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long-term reproduction studies in mice:
http://www.bmgfjgv.at/cms/site/attachments/3/2/9/CH0810/CMS1226492832306/forschu ngsbericht_3-2008_letztfassung.pdf

+ COMMENTS ON THE AUSTRIAN STUDY
Dr Jan van Aken of Greenpeace International: "GE food appears to be acting as a birth control agent, potentially leading to infertility - if this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what kind of disaster we are waiting for."
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/ge-threat-to-fertility-11 112008

Dr Brian John of GM Free Cymru: "This work will do huge damage to the GM industry worldwide, since it shows that a crop -- Monsanto's maize line NK603xMON810 -- which has been approved as safe by EFSA, and given consent for use in food and feed by the EC, is in fact dangerous to health. It demonstrates that the approvals process is at best inadequate and at worst corrupt."
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15588.cfm

Monsanto's statement on the study:
http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=658

+ MONSANTO TRIED TO BLOCK AUSTRIAN RESEARCH
Dr Brian John says of the Austrian study: “It has emerged that Monsanto was asked to provide the GM materials and non-GM comparators for the Austrian study, but declined. This is par for the course. Monsanto (and the other GM corporations) have NEVER provided any help for feeding studies or other research over which they do not have direct control. That is why truly independent studies are almost impossible to conduct.” GM Free Cymru has documented some of the episodes of blocking / intimidation / corrupt science on its website, for example:
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/manipulation.htm
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/gm_health_effects_part1.htm
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/exposed.htm
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/news/Press_Notice10Mar2008.html “

+ EFSA GIVES POSITIVE OPINION AGAIN ON GM BT MAIZE
For the third time, the EFSA has given a positive opinion on the two GM maize events Bt11 and 1507. In November 2007, Environment Commissioner Dimas had proposed that an approval for cultivation for these Bt maize events should not be given. In May 2008 the Commission sent the two notifications back to the EFSA asking it to review eleven scientific studies that had come out since the EFSA gave its last opinion. On 29 October 2008, the EFSA once more gave an opinion -- once again it is positive.

Netherlands-based campaign group IFRIK asks: "How can it be that over years now the Competent Authorities of several member states as well as the DG Environment sees risks in the cultivation of these Bt maize varieties -- but the EFSA simply maintains its position that everything is fine? Do the members of the GMO Panel have such a completely different view on what makes a risk?"
http://www.ifrik.org/en/blog/efsa-gives-positive-opinion-again

+ CALL FOR REFORM OF THE EFSA:
http://links.mailing.greenpeace.org/ctt?kn=12&m=30601806&r=MTExMjgxNzgzMwS2&b=0& j=NDMwNDQyNTIS1&mt=1&rt=0

+ THE EVIDENCE OF SCIENCE AND OF INDIAN FARMERS IS THE SAME
An investigation into Bt cotton health impacts on animals in four villages in India confirms the Austrian scientific findings (above) that GM Bt crops adversely affect fertility and cause reproductive problems.

Aruna Rodrigues (petitioner to the Supreme Court of India in the public interest lawsuit regarding GM releases) has just returned from a field trip to look into the problem. She was accompanied by two experienced vets.

Aruna reports: “The findings are deeply worrying and serious. They include reproductive problems in buffalo and shepherd herds of sheep and goats (reduced fertility, aborted foetuses, premature deliveries and calf deaths), toxic effects leading to sudden unexplained deaths, as well as reduced milk yields and fat content.”

The GM regulator GEAC has failed to carry out any proper investigation into the effects of Bt cotton on livestock.

+ FARMERS CALL FOR BAN ON BT COTTON TO SAVE LIVESTOCK, HUMAN HEALTH
Geneticist Dr Sudhir Kumar Kaura of the Kisan Bachao Andolan (Save Farmer Movement) has written to the President of India calling for a ban on Bt cotton because of deaths and illnesses in livestock that have eaten cottonseed based oilcake or grazed fresh Bt cotton leaves.

The letter says, “According to our survey in Haryana state, animals are dying at a large scale every year and lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of animals have died in last 5-7 years and even greater number of animals are affected by various ailments caused by Bt cotton toxicity like abortion, premature delivery, skin problems, reduction in milk yield up to 90 per cent, prolapse of uterus, remaining off feed for long periods, etc.” The letter also draws attention to allergic reactions to Bt among cotton workers.

+ GM BT MAIZE DISTURBS IMMUNE SYSTEM OF MICE
The Italian government's National Institute of Research on Food and Nutrition has just published a report online in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry documenting significant disturbances in the immune system of young and old mice that have been fed the GM Bt maize MON 810.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk:80/MON810gmMaizeMiceImmuneSystem.php

-----------------------------------------------------------
OTHER RESEARCH
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ GM CONTAMINATION OF MEXICAN MAIZE CONFIRMED
The journal Nature has published a report on new research confirming that Mexico's ban on GM maize has not stopped transgenes getting into traditional 'landrace' maize crops in the Mexican heartland. The new study was carried out by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City and will be published in the journal Molecular Ecology.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081112/full/456149a.html

The original research exposing this GM contamination scandal was published by Nature back in 2001, but on publication the researchers David Quist and Ignacio Chapela from the University of California, Berkeley, became the focus of a ferocious campaign of vilification aimed at discrediting them and their research. Read George Monbiot's Guardian article exposing Monsanto's PR firm's covert involvement in this campaign.
http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit4.html.

The investigation into this dirty tricks campaign was coordinated by GMWatch. We eventually exposed the fact that the campaign to discredit the researchers originated with Monsanto itself, and formed part of a much wider smear campaign against the company's critics. For more on this see "Monsanto's web of deceit":
http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit_index.html

Disturbingly, evidence in the current Nature article shows that factors other than science are still coming into play in relation to the publication of research that's problematic for the biotech industry. A reviewer of the new paper apparently sought to block publication on the grounds that the research could "gain undue exposure in the press due to a political or other environmental agenda".
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081112/full/456149a.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
GM GENOCIDE?
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ GM GENOCIDE
When Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM Bt cotton, he was branded a scaremonger. In fact, says a harrowing report in the Daily Mail by Andrew Malone, who traveled to India's cotton belt, "it's even WORSE than he feared". Malone writes: "In one small village I visited, 18 farmers had committed suicide after being sucked into GM debts. In some cases, women have taken over farms from their dead husbands -- only to kill themselves as well... Village after village, families told how they had fallen into debt after being persuaded to buy GM seeds instead of traditional cotton seeds. The price difference is staggering”¦."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousa nds-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html

+ CHARLES MUST SHUT UP OR GIVE UP THRONE -- TAVERNE
Whenever Prince Charles speaks against GM crops, you can bet that British peer and GM proponent Lord Dick Taverne will pop up in the press with a demand that he give up "meddling" in political matters or give up his claim to the throne. Here he is again:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/31/prince-charles-gm-crops-mona rchy

+ PRINCE SHOULD CONTINUE TO SPEAK OUT -- POLL
A Daily Telegraph poll reveals strong backing from the public for Prince Charles to continue to speak out on issues such as global warming, GM food, and organic farming. Asked if he was right to speak out publicly on such controversial issues, 68 per cent were in favour with only 24 per cent against. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/3411051/Public-support -falls-for-Queen-Camilla.html

+ STUDY DISPUTES BT COTTON AND FARMER SUICIDE LINK
The link between farmer suicides and Bt cotton is disputed by a report from the (pro-GM) International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington DC. An article in The (UK) Guardian titled "Indian farmer suicides not GM related, says study" proclaimed, "Suicides among Indian farmers have not increased as a result of the introduction of GM crops, according to a large scientific study."

However, the full report, for those who take the trouble to read it, tells a different story from the one that was spun to the media. The authors have done no work at all in the field and they admit that the statistical data they have used does not allow conclusions as to the numbers of Bt cotton farmers who have committed suicide: "None of the reported data sources on farmer suicide provide information about the concerned farmers' characteristics."
IFPRI paper available at: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/ifpridp00808.asp
GM Watch's detailed critique of the paper is at:
http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1226402334-BtCottonAndSuicides.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------
GM INSECTS
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ USDA PAVES WAY FOR GM SUPERBUGS
In October, the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, one of three federal agencies responsible for oversight of GMOs, said it would soon give the green light for GM insects designed to combat the spread of invasive species like the Asian Citrix Psyllid. This insect, according to an article in Forbes magazine, has “infested much of Florida and decimated the state's orange juice industry”.
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/11/18/usda-genetics-agriculture-biz-cx_wp_11 18pests.html

For an article in The Ecologist about the agrochemical/biotech industries’ creative role in defining and identifying “invasive species”, their eccentric views on what constitutes crop damage, and their readiness to come up with a profitable solution, see
www.lbamspray.com/Reports/ecolog.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------
NEW BOOK
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ FOOD FOR PARANOIA, FIRED WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS
As the Health Canada whistleblower whose testimony led to the agency's banning Monsanto’s GM bovine growth hormone rBGH, a product designed to increase milk yields in cows, Shiv Chopra puts little faith in regulatory bodies and food safety standards.

"There's the tainted blood inquiry, mad cow disease, silicone breast implants ... there's a whole series of things that government says it knows better," said Chopra, talking about his book, Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower.

The agency fired Chopra, a microbiologist, and fellow scientists Gérard Lambert and Margaret Haydon in 2004, six years after they testified before the Canadian Senate about their concerns surrounding rBGH.

Hormones, pesticides and vaccines get fast-track approval because greedy corporations put pressure on government officials who then overrule scientists, Chopra said.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=b391f2e8-27e2-4a54-a37f -c93aa985a1c5

The rBGH scandals: http://www.purefood.org/text4.html

-----------------------------------------------------------
CORPORATE SCIENCE
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ AUSTRALIA: HOW TO RIG A MONSANTO GM TRIAL
In Australia, the media has failed to notice that Monsanto’s GM canola trials have been manipulated to make the GM-canola look as though it outperformed normal canola, says Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers.

Julie says:
*The non-GM varieties could not perform to their full potential because standard weed control was avoided
*A tall variety (of the GM-canola) was planted to provide the impressive visual difference in height for those that were not aware that Australian plant breeders have been deliberately breeding for shorter varieties.
*For an added visual extra, the non-GM canola was sown far thicker resulting in a spindly look.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-to-Rig-a-Monsanto-GM-t-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-0 81115-787.html

+ AUSTRALIA: GM CANOLA APPROVED ON FALSE GROUNDS
Community organisation MADGE (Mothers are Demystifying Genetic Engineering) is challenging the validity of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand safety assessment of GM canola, saying the regulator did not have access to necessary information about the crop to verify its safety.

Reading into the raw data supplied by GM crop developer Monsanto, MADGE's Madeleine Love went further to suggest that Food Standards may not have understood the random GM techniques when it approved the safety of the crop.

"Monsanto was not able to identify and characterize one of its intended GM proteins in the GM canola planted in Victoria and New South Wales this year. Instead they supplied Food Standards with information about a protein that was not expected to be present in the crop."

"The protein they were looking for is expected to be comprised of both bacterial and flower structures that have never been consumed before in the human diet. It is essential to know exactly what the protein is so it can be tested for allergenicity, since most food allergic reactions are caused by proteins in the food."

An Australian Medical Journal article reported that serious food allergic reactions needing hospitalization have risen five-fold in the youngest age groups, and clinic consultations for allergy have risen 12-fold since the mid 1990s. The authors did not consider a possible link with the introduction of GM foods.
http://www.madge.org.au/Docs/madge-release-2008-11-14.pdf

-----------------------------------------------------------
GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
-----------------------------------------------------------

+ SILENCING SCIENCE
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
A biotech company is suing a researcher for defamation after he published results casting one of the company's products in a unflattering light.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.rsvp1.com/s19a629V0q6

+ REGENERATING A MAMMOTH FOR $10M
The New York Times says scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.rsvp1.com/s164239V0qa

+ TESTING OF EMBRYOS NEEDS GUIDING
According to an article in Nature, the prospect of people using the technologies sold by personal-genomics companies to choose the genetic make-up of their children raises controversy.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.rsvp1.com/s165639V0qb