GMWatch News Review archive

------------------------------------------------------------
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all

Welcome to WW52 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.

NGIN/GMWATCH has continued to attract considerable attention as a result of George Monbiot's recent Guardian article, "Invasion of the Entryists", a fully referenced version of which is now available on George's site at www.monbiot.com. The article drew on our new Biotech Brigade database at
www.gmwatch.org

In addition, the Guardian's environment correspondents have kindly given us an award - well, of sorts! They also give some ironic "eco-gongs" to our friends in the Living Marxism (LM) network, which has a long history of infiltrating media organisations and science lobby groups in order to promote its own agenda and which is now embedded right at the heart of the UK's science-media groups dealing with the biotech issue. (See HIGHLIGHTS)

The Royal Society and others have tried to brush off the Monbiot/GM WATCH revelations as "paranoia", "conspiracy theories", "nonsense", "hilarious" etc.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1895

What they have completely failed to do is respond to any of the well-evidenced facts that they have welcomed into their midst people whose attitude to the truth is reflected in their long history of denial of the horrors of the Rwandan genocide, of massacres, torture and other war crimes in Bosnia and terrorist atrocities in Ireland.

Even our eco-gong was eclipsed this week by some really good news. Bayer CropScience, the UK arm of German biotech and chemicals giant, has just pulled 6 of its GM seed approval applications in the UK
http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/12/18/rtr1186107.html

This follows on from news that Bayer has stopped all testing in the UK. Now if that isn't a seasonal blessing, I don't know what is!

Talking of which, there won't be a Weekly Watch next week for obvious reasons, but we'll be back the following week with our roundup of the end of the year.

We'd like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a GM-Free New Year!

Claire    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ngin.org.uk

------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
ECO-GONGS OF THE WEEK!
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
RESOURCES OF THE WEEK
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS

------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------

+ MICHAEL POLLAN ON SUPPRESSION OF SCIENTIFIC DISSENT
"We let the prestigious peer reviewed journals decide for us, license our journalism... but what happens when a journal decides to unpublish something? Does it mean that the peer review process, the gold standard, was really just tin?... The powerful interests, challenged by a troublesome discovery, can discredit that discovery simply by muddying the waters, with media attacks, retractions, and firings. The very sorts of attack that would actually bring more attention to the source of dissent in the political pages of the newspaper usually bring only silence in the science pages. There [seems to be] no need to disprove the science. But the answer should be more science, not attack followed by silence." - Journalist Michael Pollan, speaking on a live webcast from UC Berkeley: 'The Pulse of Scientific Freedom in the Age of the Biotech Industry', a public conversation with scientists whose work has been suppressed.

Speakers included Ignacio Chapela, organiser of the event, recently denied tenure; Arpad Pusztai, who was fired and gagged for his work on GM potatoes; Tyrone Hayes, whose work on atrazine was quashed; and John Losey of monarch butterfly fame.

The complete event is available in the Berkeley web archive.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/archive.html

+ DEVINDER SHARMA ON FEEDING THE HUNGRY, UNFAIR TRADE, AG SUBSIDIES AND FOOD SECURITY
"I come from a country that has the dubious distinction of producing a surplus of 65 million tons of food, yet has the largest population of malnourished in the world." - Indian food policy analyst Devinder Sharma, explaining how India's 'surplus' rice and wheat is exported to developed countries for animal feed, so that India may earn hard currency.

"If Orwell were writing today, he would say, 'All animals are equal but some are even more equal than human beings.' In Europe a cow receives three US dollars per day in subsidy; in Japan, it's eight, whereas half of the world's farmers live on less than two dollars per day. The cow is the most food-secure animal in the world." - Devinder Sharma, referring to the situation where cows in developed countries receive more in subsidies than what many farmers in developing nations earn daily.

Read the article from which these quotes are taken, "The business of world hunger," by Bronwyn Chester, about Devinder Sharma's speaking tour of the US, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1889

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ FALLOUT FROM BIOTECH BRIGADE/MONBIOT ARTICLE CONTINUES
The following email from Bob Ward, PR man for the Royal Society (RS), was one of several forwarded to us from the "psci-com: on the public understanding of science" list. Predictably, the dismissive responses to the information posted about the new GMWATCH directory on biotech promoters and about George Monbiot's related Guardian article all come from interested parties:

Date:    Wed, 17 Dec 2003 15:42:25 -0000
From:    "Ward, Bob" <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Subject: Re: New global directory of pro-GM lobby group/promoters
Ho ho ho! For those interested in both sides to the debate about so-called "Independent Science Reporting", it might be worth reading the letters in 'The Guardian' responding to George Monbiot's hilarious article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1103605,00.html
Merry Christmas to all those conspiracy theorists out there!
Bob Ward
Senior Manager
Policy Communication
Royal Society
6-9 Carlton House Terrace
London
SW1Y 5AG

In a letter to The Guardian in response to the Monbiot article, to which he here refers, Ward claimed that the RS didn't host the Sense About Science Working Party on peer review, yet we have leaked documents showing the Working Party has indeed been hosted at the RS. The document also shows that Ward could not be unaware of this as he is named in the documents as one of those delegated by the RS to liaise with the Working Party!

More on Sense About Science: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=151
More on the RS: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=113
To see the rest of the fallout
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1895

+ CHINESE MOTHER FILES SUIT OVER GM FOODS
A Chinese mother has filed a lawsuit against the Swiss food giant, Nestlé, claiming the company failed to declare the use of genetically modified food in products sold in China. Zhu Yangling from Shanghai alleges that the Chinese version of the company's chocolate drink, Nesquik, contains GM crops. Her case has been recognised by a Shanghai court, which had the drink tested and found traces of GM crops.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=113&sid=4555684

+ GM-FED COWS DIE MYSTERIOUSLY ON FARM IN HESSE, GERMANY
Twelve cows fed GM maize on a farm in Hesse, Germany have died in mysterious circumstances. Fifteen Greenpeace activists protested with a cow's skeleton in front of the Robert-Koch Institute in Berlin, which authorised the GM maize and which has refused to conduct a full investigation into the deaths. Greenpeace is calling for a full investigation into the deaths of the cows and an immediate ban on the GM maize concerned, Syngenta's Bt176 maize. Henning Strodthoff of Greenpeace said, "The GM maize should never have been approved. Even the US has now taken it off the market. In this situation no new licences for GM plants should be issued, and certainly not by this institute." The case is particularly explosive because the EU is discussing a new application for another Syngenta GM maize. This bt11 maize is intended for human consumption, and forms the same poisonous protein.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1890

+ ANIMALS AVOID GM FOOD, FOR GOOD REASONS
Read Dr Eva Novotny's excellent report for Scientists for Global Responsibility on experimental and anecdotal evidence showing that animals seek to avoid GM food and do not thrive if forced to consume such food. The report contains an analysis of Aventis (now Bayer)'s feeding trial of Chardon LL GM maize, which the government wanted to commercialise in Britain. This was the trial in which twice as many chickens fed GM maize died as those fed non-GM maize, a result which Aventis/Bayer claimed was normal and not significant!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1890

------------------------------------------------------------
ECO-GONGS OF THE WEEK!
------------------------------------------------------------

+ NGIN/GMWATCH GET AN AWARD - BUT WHERE'S THE MONEY?
We're honoured that Guardian environmental columnists John Vidal and Paul Brown have given NGIN/GMWATCH their Agro-industry Website Award - even if it does involve being grouped with AgBioWorld - but what's all this about our being funded by Friends of the Earth?

We wish! We've never had a penny out of them. But perhaps John Vidal and Paul Brown know something we don't. "Dear friends at FoE, if a cheque isn't already winging its way to us, please remember the spirit of Christmas and make it a large one!" (Details of where to send it at end.)

On the other hand, the funders of our co-award winners, AgBioWorld, could do with far greater exposure - and we're determined to give it to them:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=106

Excerpts from the Guardian Eco Gong awards (the usual suspects at Living Marxism and its spin-off organisations are well represented):

*Agro-industry Website Award is shared between Ngin, a web-based GM watchdog group (part-funded by Friends of the Earth), which sends out daily updates on the backward march of the biotech agriculture sector; and AgBioWorld, an industry-sponsored site that offers an opposite take on the week's developments.

*International Contrarian Award goes to Sceptical Environmentalist author Bjorn Lomborg, who this year was accused by a Danish scientific committee of gross negligence and "not comprehending science". It said: "Objectively speaking, the publication of the work under consideration is deemed to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty."

*Bjorn Lomborg Contrarian Award goes to Senator James Inhofe, of Oklahoma, who went to the climate talks in Milan and announced that global warming was "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated". As chairman of the US Senate environment committee, he will have been aware of the recent World Health Organisation report that stated that climate change was already killing 160,000 people a year - a figure that is soon expected to double.

*Senator Inhofe Services to British Contrarianism Award goes to Claire Fox, panelist on the Moral Maze BBC Radio 4 programme and director of the Institute of Ideas. Fox and her erstwhile Living Marxism (LM) chums have had a shrill year trying to undermine the "precautionary principle", organic food and Kyoto, which they say are against progress. [More on Claire Fox:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=142   ]

*Newcomer Contrarian Award goes to Ceri Dingle, also part of the LM network, whose slogan is: "Let's forget about Kyoto. We want the poor driving Ferraris!"

*The Happy Mule Award for GM goes to the British government for its stubborn persistence against all scientific evidence, public opinion, and opposition from supermarkets in voting for the import of GM sweetcorn. It was agreed this month to get in before regulations protecting the consumer.

*Houdini Political Escapism Award goes to former environment minister Michael Meacher, for the GM farm-scale trials. Designed to get the government off the hook in its first term, the four years of scientific trials into whether GM was good for the environment turned up firm results. Having insisted that science should be paramount, the government seems to have no alternative but to say no to GM oil seed rape and beet.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,7843,1107999,00.html

Couple of GM WATCH caveats:

Best newcomer should really have been a joint award with Paul Ohm. In the year of the Wright brothers, this simulator Concorde pilot from Edgbaston burst upon the scene courtesy of AgBioWorld's CS Prakash, winning plaudets in the process from 'Praki the next generation'. Quite a debut!
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=225

Also, a Flaming Phoenix award might have been nice for LM-er Thomas Deichmann in recognition of his remarkable reinvention - from war crimes revisionist into biotech industry apologist - what a journey:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=161

------------------------------------------------------------
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------

+ CRITICS LAMBAST WINSTON
Last week Lord Robert Winston, a signatory to the Sense About Science letter to Blair calling for more government support for GM crops, said that in some ways he regretted signing the letter and that there was a danger of science being used to deny uncertainties and of scientists following the money rather than engaging in a genuine dialogue over controversial scientific issues.

Needless to say, this has not gone down well. A photo of a glum Lord Winston appeared on the cover of the Times Higher Education Supplement, while the headline beneath announced "Critics lambast Winston's ideas". Lewis Wolpert, professor in the anatomy and developmental biology department at University College London, and a signatory of the Blair letter, said Lord Winston's suggestion about dialogue with the public was "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1893

+ PRINCE'S INFLUENCE 'BARS SCIENCE HONOURS'
An article in the Times blames Prince Charles for the absence from the Honours list of scientists Colin Blakemore, another of Lord winston's critics, and Derek Burke. Burke according to an MP quoted in the The Times Higher Educational Supplement has missed out on a knighthood because, it is implied, has been one of the strongest critics of the Prince's opposition to GM crops. Judge for yourself in what way Derek Burke might best be honoured - the biotech industry certainly owe him a deep debt of gratitude.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=26
The allegations follow the leak of a Cabinet Office document at the weekend.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-935283,00.html
http://www.thes.co.uk/current_edition/story.aspx?story_id=2008323
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1894

These articles should be seen in the context of an ongoing drive on the part of pro-industry lobby groups to discredit the Prince of Wales, who is seen as a major obstacle to a future ruled by corporations. In July 2002 Lord Dick Taverne, chairman of Sense About Science, was reprimanded in the House of Lords after he called for Prince Charles to be made to relinquish the throne if he made any more statements critical of GM crops. Yet Taverne, like Lord Haskins (another frequent critic of the prince), appears to have had no trouble obtaining a peerage.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=127

+ BIOTECH INDUSTRY CHANGES PR TACTICS

The Guelph Mercury in Canada carries an article explaining the new soft-sell tactics of the biotech industry: "Rather than trying to convince everyone biotechnology has something to offer, the industry will concentrate on those who are at least neutral when it comes to new technology."

This tactic is part of a wider plan of the type explained by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton in their book, Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry: "Since at least the days of Aristotle, practitioners of the art of rhetoric have understood that an endorsement from their opponent carries more persuasive power than anything they can say themselves. The public relations industry therefore carefully cultivates activists who can be co-opted into working against the goals of their movement. This strategy has been outlined in detail by Ronald Duchin, senior vice president of PR spy firm Mongoven, Biscoe and Duchin... Activists, he explained, fall into four distinct categories: 'radicals,' 'opportunists,' 'idealists,' and 'realists.' He outlined a three-step strategy: 1. isolate the radicals [e.g. by likening them to terrorists, a strategy currently being deployed by the UK lobby group Sense About Science]; 2. 'cultivate' the idealists and 'educate' them into becoming realists; then 3. co-opt the realists into agreeing with industry."

Thus industry is targeting the opportunists, idealists and realists, having written off the radicals [read: terrorists!] as unpersuadable.

The Guelph Mercury reporter has fallen hook, line and sinker for the new PR strategy. He naively enthuses about "Kenyan biologist" and GM promoter Florence Wambugu, on the grounds that she is "someone other than a company or a self-interest group". Excuse me?! The reporter is evidently unaware of Wambugu's corporate affiliations. An ex-Monsanto trained scientist and advisor to DuPont, Wambugu has also been employed to promote biotech in Africa by the ISAAA - an organisation which not only receives a major part of its funding from the biotech industry but has had representatives of Monsanto and Syngenta on its board.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1896

+ GROWING HUMAN ORGANS ON THE FARM
A team of scientists led by Esmail Zanjani at the University of Nevada, Reno has managed to produce sheep-human chimeras with a high proportion of human cells in some organs. According to results presented at a conference earlier this month, in some cases between 7 and 15 per cent of all the cells in the sheep's livers are human. The original goal of the research was to see if unborn children with genetic defects could be treated by injecting healthy stem cells into the fetus. This is still the main aim, but the technique could also be used to grow "humanised" organs for transplanting into humans.

The theory is that such cells would not be rejected by the human immune system, though this remains unproven. There is also the risk of transferring animal diseases to humans. Among the diseases that some scientists believe have "jumped" from animals to humans in recent decades are AIDS, encephalitis, BSE, Ebola, and the respiratory disease SARS.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1892

+ REQUAIO EXHORTS LULA NOT TO GENUFLECT TO MULTINATIONALS
Governor Roberto Requiao, Governor of Parana state in Brazil, has criticized the Brazilian Agriculture Minister Roberto Rodrigues, stating  that he had become a pesticide salesperson who showed signs of enforcing the entrance of transgenic products in Parana state. Requiao pleaded with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to prioritize the country's interests by not yielding to Monsanto and other multinationals. Requiao stressed that transgenic soybeans remain banned from being exported through Paranagua port, Parana, and blamed the federal government for allowing transgenics into the country.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1887

+ ZAMBIA TO EXPORT OVER 50,000 TONNES OF SURPLUS MAIZE
Zambia will export over 50,000 metric tonnes of maize to neigbouring countries, Deputy Agriculture Minister Chance Kabaghe said. Kabaghe said that Zambia produced a surplus of 120,000 tonnes of maize this year. Kabaghe said Zambia has already exported 20,000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe, which is facing food shortages because of political and economic upheaval and drought. Zambia was among six nations in the region hit by severe food shortages since last year, but in June Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana announced it had produced enough grain to feed its people.

Zambia's government last year refused to accept GM food donated by the US government as part of its contribution to international relief efforts.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1887

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESOURCE OF THE WEEK: the Pusztai papers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ PUSZTAI GM AND FOOD SAFETY PAPERS ON THE WEB
Link to the following papers via this URL (note the new Denver presentation at end): http://www.biotech-info.net/new.html

*Genetically Modified Foods: Are They a Risk to Human/Animal Health? by Arpad Pusztai, Ph.D., An actionbioscience.org original article
*Science as Culture (draft) The Pusztai Controversy: editorial introduction, October 7, 2001
*Submission by Stanley Ewen (M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., F.R.C.Path) to the Health Committee of the Scottish Parliment in response to their investigation into the health impact of GM crops.
*Submission of evidence to the Clerk to the Health and Community Care Committee of the Scottish Parliament from Dr. Árpád Pusztai's Submission to the Scottish Parliament
*Can Science Give Use the Tools for Recognizing Possible Health Risks From GM Foods? by Dr. Arpad Pusztai, in Nutrition and Health, 2002, Volume 16, pp. 73-84
*Dr. Pusztai's PowerPoint Presentation: GM FOOD/FEED: GAPS IN RISK-ASSOCIATED RESEARCH THAT NEED TO BE FILLED, presented at the Denver Conference

+ KEEP UP WITH EUROPEAN REGULATORY NEWS
The latest FOE Europe biotech newsletter is now available (pdf file):
http://www.foeeurope.org/biotechnology/biotechmailoutdecember2003.pdf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK:  from the GMWATCH archive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
13/12/2003 THE WEEKLY WATCH number 51
15/12/2003 Lula told not to genuflect to multinationals / Zambia exporting (non-GM!) maize
15/12/2003 Pusztai papers - lots of links
15/12/2003 The business of world hunger
16/12/2003 Cows die mysteriously on farm in Hesse/Animals Avoid GM Food
17/12/2003 Growing human organs on the farm
17/12/2003 NGIN gets award but where's the money???!
18/12/2003 Biotech PR taking a new twist
18/12/2003 Prince's influence 'bars science honours'
18/12/2003 Royal Society, Spiked etc. versus the "conspiracy theorists"
18/12/2003 Winston attacked by the Usual Suspects
FOR THE COMPLETE GMWATCH ARCHIVE: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

-----------------------
SUBSCRIPTIONS
-----------------------
subscribe
http://www.gmwatch.org/sub.asp

unsubscribe
see end of this message

archive
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

directory
http://www.gmwatch.org

websites
http://www.ngin.org.uk
http://www.gmwatch.org

communications
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

donations to 'NGIN'
NGIN, 26 Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX, UK
or e-mail for details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Go to a Print friendly Page

Email this Article to a Friend

Back to the Archive