GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 263
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

Yet another GM contamination event has occurred, with an unauthorized GM cotton grown only in trials turning up in animal feed. (THE AMERICAS).

People around the world who support the World Wildlife Fund have voiced concern about its involvement in attempts to greenwash GM soya by engaging in a process of discussion around sustainability guidelines for cultivation of the GM crop. WWF is making placatory noises but more pressure is needed (STOP WWF's GREENWASHING OF GM SOYA).

Don't miss an eye-opening interview with the former head of the European Food Safety Authority, Patrick Wall, in which he likens GM regulators to motorbikers at a bikers' convention: "if you ask the motorbike riders 'do you think riding a motorbike is dangerous?' they say 'no', whereas other people would think they're half crazy!" One of our readers, whose father was an undertaker who found motorcyclists to be among his best customers, wrote to tell us he was not reassured.

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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RESEARCH
THE AMERICAS
STOP WWF's GREENWASHING OF GM SOYA
LOBBYWATCH
EUROPE
HEALTH AND BIOSAFETY RISKS OF GM FOODS
COMPANY NEWS
NEW REPORT
PATENTS
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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RESEARCH
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+ GM SALT TOLERANCE "TOO COMPLEX" TO ACHIEVE
Growing crops in salt water is becoming necessary to overcome shortages of fresh water, but GM has failed to provide any salt-tolerant crops, says an article in the journal Science. The Dutch researchers say that trying to genetically engineer salt tolerance into crops has so far proved impossible because "the genetic manipulations necessary to achieve this may too complex to be achieved at present."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7765109.stm

+ CONTAMINATION RISK UNDERESTIMATED -- STUDY
New research from France shows that current guidelines on the safe isolation distances for GM maize may not adequately prevent cross pollination of conventional crops. The findings suggest that if GM maize becomes more widely adopted by farmers, then existing models will underestimate the 'safe' distance between GM and non-GM crops.
http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=8819&codi=41 060&idproducttype=8&level=0

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THE AMERICAS
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+ UNAUTHORIZED GM COTTON CONTAMINATES ANIMAL FEED
An unauthorized strain of GM cotton was accidentally mixed in with other harvested cotton in Texas last month. The GM cotton, grown in West Texas, was stored along with 20,000 tons of commercial cotton seed in a warehouse. Nearly half the crop was processed into cottonseed oil and cotton meal to use as animal feed before officials at Monsanto, which grows the experimental cotton on a test plot, realized the mistake.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hC7U_BFHfE7fQmWoybm
UPfeAeS_gD94RI6F80
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/content/2008/12/ifruit.shtml

+ CONTAMINATION OCCURS AS USDA WEAKENS BIOTECH RULES
This contamination occurs just as the USDA is working to finalize rules that would substantially weaken biotechnology oversight before the Bush administration leaves office. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently submitted comments on the proposed rules, lambasting the USDA's rulemaking as "a serious abdication of its responsibility" to regulate agricultural biotechnology and ensure GM crops are produced and used safely. For UCS's comments on the proposed rule, go to:
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/UCS-comments-
APHIS-rule-FINAL-11-24-08.pdf

+ OBAMA'S TEAM INCLUDES DANGEROUS BIOTECH "YES MEN"
Biotech "Yes Men" on US President Obama's team threaten to expand the use of dangerous GM foods in our diets, says Jeffrey Smith in an article for the Huffington Post. Instead of giving us change and hope, they may prolong the hypnotic "group think" that has been institutionalized over three previous administrations -- where critical analysis was abandoned in favour of irrational devotion to this risky new technology.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/obamas-team-includes-
dang_b_147188.html
TAKE ACTION: Please sign a petition asking President Obama to make his GM labeling plan comprehensive and meaningful.
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/TakeAction/MandatoryLabelingPe
titiontoObama/index.cfm
Quote from Obama showing either his ignorance or his willingness to promote the GM industry line: "Advances in the genetic engineering of plants have provided enormous benefits to American farmers. I believe that we can continue to modify plants safely with new genetic methods."
http://thetruthaboutgmos.com/blog/?p=48

+ TAKE ACTION FOR A PRO-SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE SECRETARY
The US secretary of agriculture oversees the safety of the US food supply, domestic farming policies, food stamp programs, and the nation's 297,000 square miles of forest. The Obama Transition Team has set up a website to facilitate public input for policy initiatives in the new Obama Administration. Please encourage President-Elect Obama to select a Secretary of Agriculture who looks forward to a sustainable future at: http://change.gov/page/content/contact/
And/or sign petition (you can also use the sample letter here) at
http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/

+ LAWLESSNESS AND LOOPHOLES FOR GM IN PERU
As Peru awaits final legislation for biosafety regulation, many worry that it will be insufficient to protect food security and genetic diversity in the country. Farmer Julio Evaristo, who has lectured on his seed saving at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, says the unpredictability of GM seeds could threaten his family's food supply. "You don't know which ones will come with defects, which ones won't produce," he says of GM seeds. But Peru's government, months from implementing a free trade agreement with the US, is not focused on small-scale farmers like Evaristo.
http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5761

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STOP WWF's GREENWASHING OF GM SOYA
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A big thank you to all of you who sent WWF letters criticizing their participaqtion in a GM Soy Debate about sustainability criteria for GM soy. Your intervention has been VERY effective with WWF issuing a statement in which they apologise for appearing to endorse GM soy.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/forests/our_solutions/responsible_fore stry/forest_conversion_agriculture/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=152801

So well done! BUT. This response on their website is still very weak. It is filled with justification of the RTRS (Round Table on Responsible Soy), which has dropped the GM issue totally from their discussion. Their logic is that the RTRS is about assuring the sustainable production of soy whether it is GM or non-GM. This is total sophistry. GM soy is overwhelmingly what is being grown in those South American countries where soy is proving destructive both socially and environmentally. GM soy is fundamentally NOT sustainable.

The history is that the WWF started the RTRS with what were doubtless good intentions but in order to get the big guns - ADM, Bunge, Cargill, etc. - to participate, they had to greatly weaken the exercise. That included dodging the whole issue of GMOs, and also weakening the requirements around deforestation. As it stands now, the RTRS "criteria" totally ignore the critical issue of GMOs - and they allow deforestation of the Amazon as long as it is in an area that is "zoned" for agricultural use. What that means is that big farmers will continue to bribe local government to "zone" areas of the Amazon as open for clearing for agriculture. And so clearing of the rainforest will simply continue, but now painted green with a big "RTRS Approved" seal.

In their response to your letters re the GM Soy Debate, WWF talk about the "successful completion of the RTRS process." The fact is that unless it gets strengthened to (1) reject GM soy completely and (2) have real teeth in its protection of the rainforest, it will be a success only for the big soy processors, the big exploitative farmers, and Monsanto!

Please reply to WWF by telling it that it is an accomplice to greenwashing through the RTRS. If they haven’t written to you, you can let them known your concerns at their continued involvement in greenwashing here: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/who_we_are/offices/index.cfm

For more on the problems of RTRS, see:
*THE ROUND TABLE ON IR-RESPONSIBLE SOY
Certifying Soy Expansion, GM Soy and Agrofuels
This report shows how the Round Table is legitimising the existing environmentally and socially destructive practices of soy monocultures which have drawn widespread concern from around the world.
http://www.lasojamata.org/files/RTbriefing%202008_6.pdf

+ HIDDEN COST OF GM ANIMAL FEED
A good recent article about the environmental and social devastation caused by soya expansion in Paraguay is here (85% of the soya grown in Paraguay is GM):
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/environment/2008/dec/07/meat-soya-
environment-paraguay
For more on the terrible problems created by GM soy
http://www.econexus.info/pdf/ENx-Argentina-GE-soya-Summary-2004.pdf
http://www.lasojamata.org/
http://www.lasojamata.org/files/RTbriefing%202008_6.pdf

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ UK: KING PROMOTES GM ON BBC
The former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, David King, has been promoting GM crops again, this time to members of the public at a cafe in Oxford as part of BBC Radio 4's "Street Science" series. King pushes all the most unscientific industry lies on GMOs, including claims that:
*15-20 years (!) of GM food consumption by Americans proves it's safe
*GM crops "reduce the use of pesticides"
*GM enables farmers to "get twice as much out of the crop".

Still most preposterously, King claims, "Using GM technology there are now
varieties of major crops, rice, wheat and maize being produced that are drought
resistant, flood resistant, saline resistant and disease resistant, which could
transform Africa's ability to feed its people." In fact, no such GM crops are available, though conventional breeding has produced some notable successes in this area. But this doesn’t stop King giving completely bogus details about the supposed successes of GM flood-resistant and drought resistant crops!
Transcript of the programme:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/46-Transcript-of-David-Kings-Street-Science.html
You can listen to the programme here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/streetscience.shtml
Peter Melchett's critique of King's claims is here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/09/david-king-gm-crops
Street Science follows King's bogus claim of a GM breakthrough in Africa on Radio 4's Today programme last year, and the misleading recent BBC Horizon programme, Jimmy's GM Food Fight. Details of how to make a complaint to the BBC about its standards of accuracy are available here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

+ JIMMY'S FARM STRICTLY GM-FREE!
In the wake of pig farmer Jimmy Doherty's GM promotional on the BBC's so-called science series Horizon, a member of the public has forwarded to GM Watch an email from Jimmy's farm in response to a question about whether they use GMOs. Jimmy's farm manager is categorical: "all our products are completely GM free as is the feed which we use for all the animals".

+ NATURE ON IAASTD AND BANGMFOOD.ORG
An editorial in Nature journal implies that the IAASTD report on the future of agriculture failed. This is untrue. The report only failed in one respect it failed to please the GM industry, whose representatives walked out of the process when it became clear that the report would not endorse GM crops as a solution to food security problems. The Nature editorial also gives some welcome publicity to a new campaign opposing GM crops - www.banGMfood.org
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7221/full/456421b.html

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EUROPE
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+ EU GM CAMPAIGN SUCCESS!
Campaigners have managed to prevent pro-GM countries (the UK and Germany) from wrecking an important EU environment ministers' meeting on GMOs and
food safety. Over 70,000 messages were sent to EU politicians. Subsequently, EU
environment ministers agreed that:
*The long-term effects of GMOs on the environment, living organisms and health
need to be assessed.
*There should be independent scientific research on GMOs, and access to information that is currently kept secret by agro-biotech companies.
*The European Food Safety Authority should consider the environmental impact of herbicides spread over GM crops.
*Pesticide-producing GM crops should be treated in the same way as chemical pesticides.
*Regions and local communities have a right to establish GM-free zones.
Details of the new legal framework for the authorisation of GMOs can be found in this EU document:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/fr/envir/104
510.pdf
For news and comment:
http://www.euractiv.com/en/cap/eu-ministers-back-gmo-free-zones/article-
177557
http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/press-centre/press-releases2/EU-GMO-
authorisation-system

+ BRITAIN TRIED TO BLOCK VITAL GM SAFEGUARD
Britain has single-handedly set out to sabotage a vital safeguard against farmers unwittingly growing GM crops, a leaked document reveals. The document shows that the UK government is alone among European member states in opposing a provision that would keep GM contamination of seed to the "lowest possible" levels.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/britain-tries-to-block-
vital-gm-safeguard-1041641.html

+ BENN CALLS FOR NEW SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEM
In a speech at the Fabian Society, Hilary Benn, UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, gave a speech on the need for a new sustainable food system that is less dependent on fossil fuels. He announced the formation of a Council of Food Policy Advisors that includes some promising candidates. However, Benn, who has recently made statements in favour of GM crops, does not close the door on GM. He notes that the new body will be asking "science what it can contribute in the form of new crops and technologies" - and while this should not just mean GM, it's all too likely that it does. Benn also carefully avoids mentioning the IAASTD report on the future of agriculture - could this be because it failed to endorse GM crops?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/10/food-foodtech

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HEALTH AND BIOSAFETY RISKS OF GM FOODS
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+ FORMER FOOD SAFETY CHAIR QUESTIONS GM RISK ASSESSMENTS!
In an astonishing interview released on YouTube, the former chairman of the European Food Safety Authority Prof Patrick Wall says people have lost confidence in EFSA's ability to assess the risks of GM food.

Prof Wall says: "Do we want corporate giants to own the food chain? GM food has no benefits for consumers... EFSA is a consumer protection agency; it is not meant to rubberstamp biotech dossiers... We cannot force-feed European citizens products that they don't want. We live in a democracy. People have a right to have objections... If people don't want (GM) technology they have a right not to have it."

Although Prof Wall personally believes GM foods approved by EFSA are safe, he said EFSA's GMO panel is "populated by experts who are comfortable with the technology... and many of them use it in their laboratories and their research institutions and they're quite comfortable with it; and so - for them - they wouldn't see the same risks that maybe a citizen would see..."

He likened this situation to a motorbike convention: "if you ask the motorbike riders 'do you think riding a motorbike is dangerous?' they say 'no', whereas other people would think they're half crazy!"
For the full interview + link to transcript: http://www.gmfreeireland.org/efsa
Press release at http://www.gmfreeireland.org/press/GMFI44.pdf

+ GM FOODS ARE HEALTH RISK INDIA'S HEALTH MINISTER
India's health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has made a strong statement warning of the health risks of GM food. Speaking at a farmers' meeting, he said, "GM food is a health hazard. No independent health impact tests have been conducted on the safety of Bt brinjal. But people are pushing for its introduction in the market. The health ministry will take all necessary steps to see that GM food is not commercialized unless all the safety criteria are met. As a minister of PMK [Indian political party] and as the health minister, I will always oppose this technology."
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php
http://www.hindu.com/2008/12/10/stories/2008121054150400.htm
Government should not allow GM food in Gujarat:
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-58360.html

+ NORMS FOR GM CROP TESTING CREATED BY BIOTECH INDUSTRY
Dr Pushpa Bhargava was appointed by the Supreme Court of India to oversee the GM regulator GEAC as a result of a public interest lawsuit brought by Aruna Rodrigues and others. In recent months he has come under attack from members of GEAC who want him off the committee. Now the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in Washington, DC has written an open letter in support of the more stringent testing of GM foods demanded by Dr Bhargava.

CFS criticises claims by GEAC's secretary Dr Ranjini Warrier to the effect that GM crops are safety tested according to internationally accepted norms:

"Far from representing some consensus of independent agricultural scientists, as
he states, the current norms for GM crop testing are largely a creation of biotech industry officers intent upon securing rapid approval for commercial use of their crops absent adequate testing for potential harm to the environment or human health. This is an extremely serious misrepresentation.

"Time and again, Dr. Warrier dismisses legitimate tests recommended by Dr. Bhargava, invariably adopting the position of biotech companies rather than the views of independent scientists."
http://www.madge.org.au/Docs/centreforfoodsafety.pdf

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO LOSES MARKET SHARE
Monsanto's refusal to cut its prices is costing it market share, according to a report in investment journal The Motley Fool: "Monsanto has been steadily gaining market share for a number of years as high crop prices caused farmers to do anything that they can to increase their yields. Now that crop prices are falling and credit is tight farmers are less willing to cough up the extra cash for Monsanto's premium seeds."
http://caps.fool.com/blogs/viewpost.aspx?bpid=115238&t=01001019292467236
494

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NEW REPORT
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+ CONCERNS OVER GM HIGHLIGHTED IN NEW REPORT
According to a new 'Vital Signs Update' by the Washington DC-based Worldwatch
Institute, while the US remains the global leader in the production of GM crops
questions remain over their ability to address promises of enhanced yields and nutrition. WWI's report also highlights several other concerns surrounding GM crops, including the transfer of food allergens across crop species, the unintentional spread of GM crops, contamination of organic and other non-GM crops, the development of weed and pest resistance, and toxicity to animals.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5950

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PATENTS
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+ INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND GMOs A FATEFUL COMBINATION
With the expanding scope of patents on GMOs and the implementation of such crops in most countries, farmers' rights and biodiversity are at risk, and food security has become dependent on a few transnational biotechnology companies, according to speakers at a recent workshop in Geneva.
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1342