from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
Some great news: European Union ministers have voted overwhelmingly to allow nations to keep their GM bans. It was a move that The Economist magazine described as "a big blow to the biotech seed firms". (EUROPE).
Some shocking news: in Paraguay, GM soy growers, backed by the police, appear to have killed and injured peasant farmers and driven them off their land as part of a land grab to enable GM soy expansion (THE AMERICAS).
Don't miss news of an inportant new book (LOBBYWATCH).
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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FOOD SAFETY & COMPANY NEWS
Bt10 CONTAMINATION LATEST
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
EUROPE
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
BIODEMOCRACY 2005 REPORT - excerpt
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FOOD SAFETY & COMPANY NEWS
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+ HEALTH EFFECTS OF GM FOODS NEED FURTHER STUDY, SAYS W.H.O.
A call by the World Health Organisation for further safety assessments on using GM foods should give governments pause for thought before giving their approval for the wider use of the technology.
The report warns, "...some of the genes used to manufacture GM foods have not been in the food chain before and the introduction of new genes may cause changes in the existing genetic make-up of the crop. Therefore, the potential human health effects of new GM foods should always be assessed before they are grown and marketed, and long-term monitoring must be carried out to catch any possible adverse effects early."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5411
+ MONSANTO PUBLISHES MON863 STUDY
Monsanto has finally published its MON 863 90 day rat study, after being ordered to release the study by a German court.
Read all 1139 pages - if you can download it!!
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/sci_tech/prod_safety/fullratstudypdf
Read Monsanto's 11-page summary:
http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/content/sci_tech/prod_safety/ratstudy.pdf
For a review commissioned by the German authorities from Dr Arpad Pusztai on both the full 90-day study and a Monsanto summary see:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=66&page=1
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5429
For Dr. Pusztai's review, in easy-to-read table form, of some of the significant differences found in the rat-feeding study, see:
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=220
For Dr. Pusztai's list of reasons why the Mon 863 study should have been rejected, go to
http:www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle/?objectID=219
See detailed information on the study provided by Professor Seralini at:
http://www.greenpeace.ca/f/documents/campagnes/ogm/MON_863_Seralini_june05.pdf
For the Friends of the Earth report on conflicts of interest in the European Food Standards Agency:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/publications/EFSAreport.pdf
+ MONSANTO SHARES SLIDE ON WEAK EARNINGS
Monsanto said third-quarter net income fell 81 percent due to write-offs for two large acquisitions and predicted next quarter's results would fall short of Wall Street's forecast, sending the company's shares down 6.5 percent by mid-day on 29 June.
Monsanto (down $4.02 to $63.82) said net earnings for the period ending in May fell to $47 million, or 17 cents a share, compared with $252 million, or 93 cents per share, a year earlier.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5431
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Bt10 CONTAMINATION LATEST
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+ THIRD JAPANESE SHIPMENT TESTS POSITIVE FOR Bt10
A third shipment of corn intended for feed use in Japan has tested positive for Syngenta's unapproved corn Bt10. Of the US corn imported by Japan for food use, 90 percent is identity preserved and considered non-GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5423
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ASIA
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+ NON-GM BUMPER RICE PLANT BRED IN JAPAN
A high-yielding non-GM rice plant which does not fall over in bad weather has been created by a team of researchers at Nagoya University, Japan.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5405
+ PHILIPPINES TOWN BANS BT CORN, ADOPTS ORGANIC FARMING
In Surallah, an area of South Cotabato in the Philippines, local officials have banned the entry and planting of GM crops, especially Bt corn, as part of their moves to transform the municipality into a "chemical-free zone" and a haven for organic crops.
Surallah Mayor Romulo Solivio made the declaration after launching organic farming as the municipal government's flagship agriculture program for the next three years. "We will work for the changing of our farming systems from conventional to traditional sustainable agriculture through organic and biodynamic farming," Solivio said in a press conference.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5413
+ BAD ECONOMICS OF BT CORN IN PHILIPPINES
A new report from Greepeace argues that Bt corn has proven to be a neither practical nor ecologically sustainable option for small farmers in the Philippines for the following reasons:
1. The corn borer is a pest that is manageable. There are cheaper, readily available and proven non-GM means of controlling the corn borer.
2. Bt corn seeds are a lot more expensive.
3. Yield from non-Bt varieties can match if not exceed Bt varieties.
4. There are strong indications of negative effects on the soil ecosystem and non-target organisms.
5. Farmers may be sued for patent infringement or for saving Bt corn seeds or from contamination of their crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5413
+ MONSANTO CON-TRICK IN PHILIPPINES
Monsanto's agents appear to be recommending that farmers apply large quantities of fertilizer to Bt corn in the hope of artificially boosting yield and so convincing other farmers that it's worth switching to Bt corn.
This follows previous reports of Monsanto's Bt corn acreage in the Philippines expanding through stealth, deception and the complicity of government officials who have been subjected to intensive lobbying.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4795
+ PHILIPPINES CHURCH GROUP TO PROBE CLAIM ON GM CORN
The Diocese of Marbel in the Philippines says it will conduct a survey to look into claims by Monsanto that Bt corn gives high yield.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5435
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THE AMERICAS
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+ CIA DIRECTOR GROWS HIS OWN
Rumours that the political and corporate elite wouldn't dream of eating the stuff that they're keen to provide to the rest of the world, will only be fueled by news that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency likes to grow "natural" food for his table. In an interview with TIME magazine, Porter Goss said, "We have a farm that [uses] no pesticides, no hormones, no additives - just compost and hard work. And we grow natural."
Former directors of the CIA have, of course, been more than willing to intervene in countries where US-linked agricultural interests were thought to be at risk - notoriously, in arranging the violent overthrow of the democratic government of Guatemala on behalf of United Fruit, a company later owned by George Bush Snr - Dubya's father. Don't, however, expect the CIA to do anything about the social and ecological catastrophe affecting peasant communities and indigenous people as a result of GM soya (see below).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5421
+ GM SOY GROWERS MASSACRE PEASANT COMMUNITY IN PARAGUAY
Brazilian GM soy growers protected by the police and military in Paraguay attacked a peasant community in Caaguazu on 24 June. They have evicted 270 people, burnt down all 54 houses and the peasants' crops. Two men have been killed - Angel Cristaldo and Luis Torres. There are many people injured and 30 people were arrested, amongst them many women and children. They have all been released, but have nowhere to go back to.
The incident appears to be part of the pattern of land grab, ecological destruction and social disaster that's accompanying the RR soya push in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.
Caauguazu and San Pedro are regions where GM soy monocultures have been expanding in the last 5 years. There are 2m hectares of GM soy monocultures in Paraguay and the government plans another 2m hectares. Less than 2% of the population owns 7% of the land, causing the expulsion of the peasants of their historical territories. The GM soy monocultures aimed for export is a principal cause of this severe situation: land conflicts have multiplied in recent years. In 2004, 162 land conflicts and 118 land occupations took place.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5421
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5424
+ GM SOY PROBLEMS IN BRAZIL
After a few years of planting GM soy, Brazilian farmers are going to have to spend more money on agrichemicals, says Greenpeace agronomist, Ventura Barbeiro. "The advantage of using less agrichemicals during the first years of GM soy use will disappear rapidly. Without a doubt there is an initial reduction in agrichemical use, but then the problem with weeds comes back," he says. Barbeiro reports that GM farmers in the US have found that after three years they have to use more herbicides.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5413
+ BIODEMOCRACY 2005 - Pete Shanks reports
Read a great report by Pete Shanks, the author of Human Genetic Engineering, on the three-day Teach-In and protests held in Phialdelphia last week to counterbalance the annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5437
more on Philadelphia
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5421
SEE EXCERPT AT END
+ GATES GIVES MORE MONEY TO GM PROJECTS
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving four grants totaling $47 million to researchers claiming to fight malnutrition by genetically altering the nutritional content of bananas, cassava, rice and sorghum.
The GM projects should come as no surprise given the leading role played in the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges in Global Health by Monsanto-trained scientist/lobbyist Florence Wambugu.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5425
+ HAWAII: STATE BOARD OK'S GM ALGAE ON BIG ISLAND
The state Board of Agriculture has given its approval to test and grow a GM microalgae at a lab near Kona. Mera Pharmaceuticals will begin immediately to import the microalgae from a California laboratory, even as opponents seek to block the permit. The permit was approved on a six-to-two vote after nearly three hours of testimony.
Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, told the board that the nonprofit organization will file for a contested case hearing. The majority of those who testified were against the project.
The GM strains of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were engineered with 7 different monoclonal human antibodies, hormones, and interleukins.
This type of "field trial" of a GM algae has never been attempted before in the US. All government agencies, FDA, USDA/APHIS, and the EPA had waived oversight of the trial. No peer reviewed studies or studies of any kind proving Mera's claims of "no harm to the environment or human health" were included in the proposal to the Board of Agriculture.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5432
+ DON'T FALL FOR THE HYPE OVER BIOTECH
An unusually incisive article with the above title has appeared in the US press.
EXCERPT:
Pro-biotech activists... get pretty frothed up about the alleged wonders of biotechnology. But after 10 years, the real questions are, "Where's the science?" And "Where's the economics?"
Are the markets there for biotech wheat? Of course not. Otherwise, it probably would be on the market now... According to a report issued by agricultural economist Dr Robert Wisner of Iowa State University one year after Monsanto pulled the plug, US farmers still stand to lose one-half of foreign markets and one-third of their wheat price if Roundup Ready wheat were to be introduced.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5426
+ GM SEEDS BRING U.S. FARMERS PRIVATE EYES, ANGST AND LAWSUITS
A legal war has cropped up between dozens of American farmers and a bioengineering company over who owns the right to replant patented soybean seeds.
In the last six years, Monsanto has filed nearly 100 lawsuits against farmers in 25 states, alleging that they replanted Monsanto's patented "Roundup Ready" seeds saved from the prior year's crop, in violation of a purchase agreement. Monsanto officials said that most of those suits have settled for an average of $88,500, with eight lawsuits remaining in Missouri, Mississippi and Alabama.
[Attorney Joseph Mendelsen III, legal director for the Center for Food and Safety] criticized Monsanto's investigative tactics, which include hiring private investigators to spy on farmers and taking anonymous tips on a hotline.
"Farmers used to be neighbors with one another. Now they're asked to...rat out their neighbor if they think they're replanting that seed," Mendelsen said. Mendelsen accused Monsanto of intimidating and scaring farmers with expensive lawsuits, forcing them to settle rather than fight it out in court.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5431
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AFRICA
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+ BRINGING DEATH TO MILLIONS: THE G8
In an excellent article for the New Statesman, John Pilger explains why Tony Blair's "vision for Africa" is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added).
EXCERPT:
In summit after summit, not one significant "promise" of the G8 has been kept, and the "victory for millions" is no different. It is a fraud - actually a setback to reducing poverty in Africa. Entirely conditional on vicious, discredited economic programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF, the "package" will ensure that the "chosen" countries slip deeper into poverty.
...There is no conspiracy; the goal is no secret. [UK Chancellor] Gordon Brown spells it out in speech after speech, which liberal journalists choose to ignore, preferring the Treasury spun version. The G8 communique announcing the "victory for millions" is unequivocal. Under the section headline "G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation", it says that debt relief will be granted to poor countries only if they are shown to be "adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given": in other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing. Paragraph two states that "it is essential" that poor countries "boost private sector development" and ensure "the elimination of impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5409
+ AFRICAN CONSUMERS NEED FOOD SECURITY, NOT GM
In the run-up to the G8 meeting (6-8 July 2005) Consumers International (CI) is calling for food security in Africa, not GM food. Biotech corporations and some governments are trying to promote GM crops as miracle solutions to world hunger and malnutrition. However, there is no evidence that GM crops will solve world hunger and the claims made by biotech companies are detracting attention from real causes of hunger in Africa.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5433
+ AFRICA AND THE G8 - IMPORTANT SIGN-ON STATEMENT
A coalition of grassroots African NGOs have written a statement to the leaders of the G8 requesting that world leaders and development partners take actions that will genuinely help the people of Africa. YOU CAN SIGN-ON TO THIS STATEMENT at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5422
EXCERPT:
We see that the real hope for Africa lies in a model of development that involves the grassroots in decision-making, that strengthens local capacity to feed ourselves, and that recognises the environment as critical to our livelihoods, culture and our future.
+ "BIOSAFETY" LAWS USED AS LICENCE TO POLLUTE
Non-profit organization Gaia notes a disturbing trend that is gathering pace across Africa: "While policymakers rightly call for Biosafety laws to be put into place, this is more and more being seen as a preliminary to GM acceptance, rather than an actual means to regulate GM crops and prevent risks. Of course with many countries getting their Biosafety advice and funding from USAID (an organization whose mission is to push for worldwide acceptance of GMOs), this is hardly surprising."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5433
+ WEST AFRICAN GROUPS DENOUNCE LACK OF SAFEGUARDS ON GM
Peasants' organisations, consumers' associations, the Mali Coalition for the Protection of Genetic Heritage and the Francophone African Coalition for the Protection of Genetic Heritage have expressed their reservations about genetic modification in a statement at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5428
Objections include patenting of life and absence of labelling and traceability.
+ HUNGRY FOR AN ALTERNATIVE - TEWOLDE INTERVIEW
In an interview with the UK Independent newspaper, Ethiopia's environment minister Tewolde Berhan says that organic farming is the only real solution to famine in Africa.
EXCERPT:
[Tewolde] has persuaded the Ethiopian government to let him demonstrate his ideas in the Axum area of Ethiopia. Old field-management techniques have been resurrected, while methods new to the area, like compost-making, have been successful.
Those who think organic farming means low yields will be surprised by Berhan's evidence. "When well managed, and as fertility builds over years, organic agriculture isn't inferior in yield. Now, farmers don't want chemical fertilisers. They say, 'Why should we pay for something we can get for free?'"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5416
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EUROPE
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+ POLAND SAYS NO TO GMO
Over 80% of Poland has declared itself a GMO free zone.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5423
+ EU MINISTERS VOTE TO KEEP GM FOOD BANS
Environment ministers from across Europe on 24 June voted by a big majority to allow countries to keep their safety bans on GM foods. The ministers rejected all the proposals by the European Commission to lift the bans in Austria, Luxembourg, France, Greece and Germany.
The ministers however only voted by a simple majority to prevent approval of the GM maize - MON 863 - which caused unexplained kidney damage to rats, according to research conducted by the manufacturer, Monsanto. Monsanto refused to release all the results of its own test on this GM food until a German court recently forced it to do so. The ministers failure to reach the (larger) "qualified majority" leaves it open to the European Commission to approve the maize regardless of majority opposition.
Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth said: "The European Commission asked for more guidance from the member states and they got it. Countries today have demanded the sovereign right to ban GM crops if there are questions over their safety. The Commission now faces a test of credibility - will it listen to national governments and the public, or carry on with its unpopular policy of pushing GM foods and crops into Europe?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5412
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5414
+ COMMISSION RETHINK NECESSARY
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is among those who believe the Commission may be forced to rethink its stance on biotech crops and foods after their humiliating defeat.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5434
+ UK TRIED TO BLOCK GM BANS
The UK environment minister Elliot Morley has been widely condemned for backing the Commission, i.e. opposing the nations' right to ban GMOs (see above)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5409
+ "ORGANIC FOOD IS A CON" - ECONOMIST DEBATE
On Midsummer's Eve there was an Economist Debate in London - "Organic food is a con".
Speaking for the motion were Lord Dick Taverne, the Chair of the lobby group Sense about Science, and Julian Morris, the Director of the International Policy Network, who, we hear, got roundly booed!
We have published the excellent presentations of those speaking against the motion - Simon Wright, founder of the 'Organic and Fair' consultancy, and Craig Sams, Chair of the Soil Association.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5407
Simon makes interesting points about the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The ASA, he notes, has been extensively lobbied by anti-organic interests in order to limit what claims can be made for organic food. What is less well known is that as a result of its stringent evaluation of the evidence, the ASA recognises the validity of a series of important claims that can be made for organic food.
These include, for instance, the fact that no food has higher amounts of beneficial minerals, essential amino acids and vitamins than organic food.
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ SCRAP BAN ON GM CROPS, OZ FEDERAL GOVT TELLS STATES
The federal government is stepping up pressure on the states to lift their bans on the cultivation of GM food crops. Federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss believes the bans are "unscientific" and has called for them to be scrapped.
Truss asks, "How much longer can Australian farmers match overseas competitors if unscientific state bans on genetically-modified organisms deny them access to higher-yielding, pest and disease resistant, drought-tolerant plant varieties?"
The bans he's objecting to are on *herbicide tolerant* GM canola! And the one thing that's missing from his list of largely non-existent GM wonders is herbicide tolerance.
Meanwhile Canadian GM canola growers anxiously await hearing whether they've now lost their principal export market because of the problems GM canola has been causing.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5427
Julie Newman of the Network of Concerned Farmers replied to Truss, saying there is already evidence of market restrictions being imposed on countries that grow GM crops. "He only needs to open his eyes, even with wheat there's no customer that wants GM wheat," she said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5436
+ NZ TO DEVELOP GM COWS FOR PROTEIN
New Zealand government scientists have signed a partnership with Dutch investors to develop GM cows producing human lactoferrin in their milk. The government's biggest research institute, Agresearch, will work with Pharming (CRRCT) Group NV based in the Netherlands to produce the lactoferrin in New Zealand, which will be sold as a "health product"! Lactoferrin is an immune-boosting protein naturally found in cow's milk and human breast milk.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5436
+ GM RESEARCHER SPEAKS OUT
We've published a telling letter to New Zealand ministers from Dr Elvira Dommisse, a former GM researcher at New Zealand's Crop & Food research institute (1985-1993) at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5410
Dr Dommisse's letter points out how the NZ government has narrowly focused on commercial GM research projects at the expense of risk assessment work and more strategically intelligent approaches, like Marker-Asssisted Breeding, in the hope of cashing in on biotech crops.
Dr Dommisse has previously pointed to the unease among GM researchers, who she keeps in touch with. They express their concerns only privately through fear of losing their jobs.
Dr Dommisse writes: "What scares me is normally there are long-term tests but everything is being fast-tracked and hush-hushed."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5410
+ LABOUR WILL RUIN NZ'S "CLEAN GREEN" IMAGE
GE Free NZ says that Labour party policy will undermine New Zealand's "Clean Green" Brand unless they recognise the huge public support for environmental sustainability as part of New Zealand's future.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5418
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GENETICALLY MODIFIED LANGUAGE - NEW BOOK
Guy Cook, Professor in Language and Education at the Open University (OU) has written a must-read book, Genetically Modified Language, which critically analyses the war of words waged by those arguing for GM crops.
EXCERPT from review by GM WATCH founder Jonathan Matthews: Cook investigates the type of language deployed by major players in the GM debate - politicians, journalists, scientists and corporations. He also has a chapter on the views of "the spoken to" - the public; plus a section on the arguments and language commonly deployed in the debate, including such key words and phrases as "sound science", "Luddites", "Frankenstein foods", and "interfering with nature". But it's Cook's systematic analysis of the language used by pro-GM scientists that I found most compelling because of the extraordinary insights it provides into their underlying mindset.
Prior to his post at the OU, Cook held the Chair of Applied Linguistics at Reading - a university which has more than its share of GM researchers. And it was here that Cook first decided to research how such scientists presented GM crop research to non-specialists. In his book, Cook details the findings from that research in conjunction with a detailed analysis of a speech by one of Britain's leading pro-GM scientists - Lord May, the President of the Royal Society.
Cook shows how Lord May uses his carefully prepared 2002 presidential address to link opponents of GM within Britain with "outsiders and enemies of the British nation, such as Hitler, Mao and the Taliban". May does this by portraying them all as driven by "closed Fundamentalist belief systems".
Cook notes that May's "choice of the word 'fundamentalism' in the political climate of 2002, was a highly loaded one... It suggests, like the mention of the Taliban, anti-Western fanatics prepared to resort to violence and terror to achieve their ends". May is unlikely, Cook suggests, to have been unaware of the unstated associations his choice of words would carry.
In his speech May contrasts fundamentalism (as epitomised by GM opponents, the Taliban etc.) with the "rational, humane, questioning" values that May says gave birth to the Royal Society and much of what is best in world civilisation. What May is seeking to do by this, Cook explains, is to present his listeners "with a binary choice: either be for GM or join the forces of mindless ignorance and violent intolerance." But May achieves this dichotomy, Cook argues, only via linguistic "sleights of hand... which contradict in practice what is being championed in principle."
And Cook's research shows May's perspective is completely in accord with that of other pro-GM scientists.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5430
+ INDIA SHOULD OPT FOR GM CROPS - LOBBYIST
India will stand to lose if it does not follow Brazil in encouraging development and cultivation of GM crops, said Dr Clive James, the chair of industry body the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).
With New Zealand, Brazil played a wrecking role at the Biosafety Protocol (MOP-2) negotiations in Montreal. As journalist Ashok Sharma notes, "Brazil is slated to host MOP-3 at Curitiba, nine months later and also to take up the leadership of the like-minded megadiverse countries (LMMCs) from India [the current chairman]." As Sharma says, "Brazil's future roles can easily be predicted in this context."
Funders of ISAAA have included Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Pioneer Hi-Bred. In a report on ISAAA's activities in Asia, GRAIN concluded that its role was one of "promoting corporate profit in the name of the poor."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5417
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BIODEMOCRACY 2005 REPORT
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Ecerpt from: Biodemocracy 2005
Philadelphia, June 18 21
A personal account by Pete Shanks
[Dr Ricarda Steinbrecher's] a geneticist, who was working on gene therapy in the early 1990s. Because of the "tunnel vision" of science, she had not followed the work with crops and when she heard about it, in the mid-90s, she thought they must have moved ahead -- solved the insertion, promotion and regulation problems that were so intractable in human gene work. So she read the literature, and found no more knowledge, just "less caring" and less of a demand for accuracy. So she decided to put aside here own work and spend a couple of years educating the public ... and ten years later, she is still at it.
She also spoke about the inhibiting effect of patents on scientific discourse, about the breast cancer patent issue, about competition for funding. Scientists, she said, are in service, to the public, to biodiversity, to nature, and need to hold interests above their own, above Nobel Prizes, above money ... but many scientists operate the other way round. And some are even calling for "down-regulating" requirements for safety!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5437