GMWatch News Review archive

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WEEKLY WATCH number 251
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

We have a bumper issue of Weekly Watch for you this week as we are still catching up with news we could not put out when our website and lists were forced offline.

The pro-GM lobby has been busy selling GM as the answer to the current food crisis. The joke is that while USAID is boasting that 'The United States is uniquely positioned both scientifically and politically to apply agricultural biotechnology as a tool in building global food security', there's growing evidence that food insecurity in the United States itself is exploding*.

Of course it would be absurd to blame that on GM crops, but that doesn't stop the biotech industry, the Bush administration and their various supporters promoting the view that if only GM crops were adopted as in the US, they would provide us all with a magic solution for food insecurity!

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

* http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-18-foodstamps_N.htm

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CONTENTS
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FOOD CRISIS
FOOD CRISIS/POVERTY QUOTES OF THE WEEK
CLIMATE CHANGE
AFRICA
CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (COP9)
BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL (MOP 4)
AGROFUELS
TERMINATOR
EUROPE
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
THE AMERICAS
CORPORATE CRIMES
COMPANY NEWS
FILMS
NANOTECHNOLOGY
HUMAN GENETICS
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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FOOD CRISIS
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+ MONSANTO MAKES MILLIONS OFF FARMERS' BACKS
From the Organisation for Competitive Markets: Hugh Grant, Monsanto chairman, CEO, and president probably won't notice the increased price of a loaf of bread. And if he does it will be with a smile. Grant is $13,000,000 and some change wealthier today than he was on Monday, as he chose to exercise stock options -- 116,000 shares worth -- that netted him a profit of over $114 PER SHARE. Like many of us, I wouldn't mind paying the extra dollar per loaf of bread if I knew the majority of that dollar was going back into the hands of farmers. Instead, the higher prices at the checkout line are funneled to the agri-giants like Monsanto and Cargill, companies making record profits....
http://www.competitivemarkets.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136& Itemid=20

+ FOOD PROFITEERING
Hungry people from Bangladesh to Haiti, from Egypt to Somalia to Senegal have been taking to the streets to protest rapidly rising food prices. Meanwhile, here are the profit figures for just the first three months of this year for a couple of the key monopoly or near-monopoly buyers and sellers of agricultural products around the world:
*Archer Daniels Midland (ADM): Gross profit $1.15 billion, up 55% from last year
*Monsanto: Gross profit $2.23 billion, up 54%.

The biggest part of Monsanto's seed profit is coming from corn seeds, and corn is the key to why food prices have spiked. In 2005 the Bush administration, under pressure from agribiz interests, suddenly made their corn-ethanol subsidies a lot more generous, which meant a lot more American corn started going to ethanol -- something like a third of the total crop. And that proved the catalyst for the price of corn to start rocketing, and then later the price of other crops like soya and wheat took off as farmers had cultivated less thanks to the switch to corn. An article for Grist gives a clear account of how ethanol has always been about the interests of big agribiz and has never had anything to do with the mythical environmental benefits of 'biofuels':
http://grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/06/ADM/

+ BLAME BIOFUELS
A switch from fossil fuels to ethanol and its kin diverts resources from food production, leading to hunger and destabilization of farming, says an article for Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080519_024493_page_2. htm

+ MONSANTO'S BUSINESS MODEL SUITS ERA OF DEPRIVATION AND LOSS OF CIVIL RIGHTS
Max Keiser, a former stock broker who co-hosts the radio show, 'The truth about markets', has been tracking "the performance of stocks that would go up in an economic environment of deprivation and loss of civil rights" and notes that Monsanto's performance is particularly notable with its shares skyrocketing over the past 12 months. Keiser says the company's success lies in converting the globe's naturally occurring crops that reproduce for free into ones where farmers are forced to buy 'seeds every year at higher prices thanks to what amounts to a price fixing scheme by Monsanto'.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-keiser/eunuchs-zombies-for-your_b_99932.html

+ PREDATORY AGRIBUSINESSES
As food prices continue to rise, the big winners in the crisis are also the winners in the promotion of agrofuels: the corporations that dominate grain, seeds and agrochemicals, says Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group in an article called 'Predatory Agribusinesses'. Slvia says Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, ConAgra, Bunge, and Dreyfus 'have profited quite shamelessly from food shortages, the encouragement and subsidy of biofuels and the increase in oil prices (agro-toxins are petro-chemicals)'.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17675

+ FOOD CRISIS MADE WORSE BY GM VESTED INTERESTS
ICSA (Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association) president Malcolm Thompson has said the current food crisis will be exacerbated by the vested interests of global GM companies. Thompson quotes Olivier de Schutter, UN food envoy, as criticizing the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few multinational companies that provide seeds and fertilizer, process food and distribute it.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

+ THE REAL VILLAIN IN THE FOOD CRISIS
It's time to ask hard questions about why we have abandoned publicly funded and accountable agricultural policy mechanisms for the long-discredited concept that privatization of research and market fundamentalism will feed the world, says the Sierra Club's Carl Pope in the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/the-real-villain-in-the-w_b_102489.html

+ FAIRY TALES ABOUT GM CROPS
The current food crisis, for which the Bush administration bears a heavy responsibility, is being used to peddle fairy tales about GM crops. Here's the latest example, from USAID: 'The United States is uniquely positioned both scientifically and politically to apply agricultural biotechnology as a tool in building global food security. As we have seen with corn and cotton already, biotech crops that are resistant to pest and disease can boost productivity in developing countries.' -- Henrietta H. Fore, director of US foreign assistance and administrator, USAID (in her testimony before the committee on foreign relations, US Senate, May 14 2008) So where is there a single GM corn or cotton crop that is resistant to disease????
http://www.usaid.gov/press/speeches/2008/ty080514.html

+ MORE FAIRY TALES ABOUT GM CROPS
An article in Investor's Daily combines all the fairy tales about GM crops. It's claimed they 'sharply raise yields', 'slash growing costs', are 'hardier', 'can be made to grow on less fertilizer and water with less pollution', etc. A GM proponent is quoted as saying, 'It floors me how many people are opposed to agricultural biotechnology without producing any rationale for why they're against it.'
GM Watch comment: One is tempted to reply, 'It floors me how many people are promoting agricultural biotechnology without producing any evidence for why we should support it.'
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&issue=20080520

+ FARMERS NOT TO BLAME FOR FOOD CRISIS
Many US media reports are citing the increased revenues that farmers have recently been receiving for their crops, without mentioning the corresponding rapid increase in their production costs, or the low prices that farmers have received for much of the past decade, says an article in The Capital Times. Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold told the Senate foreign relations committee, 'I hope we can all agree that America's small and medium-sized farms aren't to blame for the current problems.'

The article fingers the real culprits: 'The global food system was designed by US-based agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced into place by the US government and its allies at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. The system has planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow healthy food for local consumption and regional stability.
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/287188

+ GM CROPS ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO WORLD HUNGER
The current industrial agricultural system, which has been in place for around 60 years, is wholly reliant on oil- and gas-intensive inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides, points out Emma Hockridge in an article for China Dialogue. She notes that the recent spate of media attention has given the pro-GM lobby 'an opportunity to hijack the debate and attempt to persuade people that there is some mileage in this outdated debate.'

However, she writes, 'Although the GM industry has been promising huge benefits as a result of this technology for many years, the truth is that none of these claimed benefits have come to fruition. GM crops do not produce higher yields, use fewer pesticides, or do anything to assist people in developing countries.'
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2026-GM-crops-are-not-the-an swer-to-world-hunger-

+ THE HUNGRY WON'T LIVE IF FARMS DIE
As food riots break out from Egypt to Haiti to Bangladesh and over 100 million people across the globe stand on the brink of being hurled deeper into poverty and hunger, there is one possible ingredient to the emerging human tragedy that we appear far less inclined to discuss -- industrial agriculture, says an article for China Daily. The article echoes the IAASTD report in naming the solution as 'more natural fertilizers, small-scale farming and agroecological methods.'
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2008-05/23/content_6706828.htm

+ NEW BREED OF AMERICAN EMERGES IN NEED OF FOOD
The latest US government data show that 10.9% of households are 'food insecure'. Average enrolment in the welfare food stamps programme has surpassed the record set in 1994. Causes are said to include among other things soaring food prices.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-18-foodstamps_N.htm

+ GM FOODS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42480

+ NEW BOOK: STUFFED AND STARVED
Global food distribution is suddenly big news, as poor populations riot over dramatic price increases in rice and other staples. The predictably superficial media discussion of this rioting leaves a vacuum, which Raj Patel's new book Stuffed and Starved fills nicely, says a book review for OhMyNews.com.

Patel shows how companies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland pushed policies that created an enormous surplus of corn, which ADM and others turned into high fructose corn syrup, a key contributor to the obesity epidemic plaguing the US. Today, that corn surplus is feeding government-subsidized ethanol, which takes more energy to produce than it releases and produces more CO2 than it saves.

Patel also notes that the danger of crops such as Golden Rice is not merely that they are ineffective publicity stunts, but that 'They actively prevent the serious discussion of ways to tackle systemic poverty.'
Read on: http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=382604&r el_no=1&back_url=

+ NEW BOOK: THE SHOCK DOCTRINE
Naomi Klein wrote the bestseller No Logo, which raised awareness of globalisation. Her new book, The Shock Doctrine, argues Western capitalists have exploited global crises -- from wars to natural disasters -- for their own economic benefit. The book documents how, over the past 35 years, radical pro-corporate policies have required large-scale crises to advance.
http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/interviews/article.html?in_article_id=148518&in_page _id=11
'Biotech Companies Using Food Crisis as Opportunity for More GMO Crops' -- Naomi Klein
http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/resources/disaster-capitalism-news

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FOOD CRISIS/POVERTY QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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+ POVERTY EXACERBATED BY GM SEEDS - UN COMMITTEE
'The Committee is deeply concerned that the extreme hardship being experienced by farmers has led to an increasing incidence of suicides by farmers over the past decade. The Committee is particularly concerned that the extreme poverty among small-hold farmers caused by the lack of land, access to credit and adequate rural infrastructures, has been exacerbated by the introduction of genetically modified seeds by multinational corporations and the ensuing escalation of prices of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, particularly in the cotton industry... [India is asked to] enable farmers to purchase generic seeds which they are able to re-use, with a view to eliminating their dependency on multinational corporations.' -- The UN committee on economic, social and cultural rights, 40th session, May 2008, following representations by Indian civil society groups
http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=5156
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/cescrs40.htm

+ IT'S CARS VERSUS PEOPLE
'The stage is now set [by agrofuels] for direct competition for grain between the 800 million people who own automobiles and the world's 2 billion poorest people.' -- Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2008/tc20080519_024493_page_2. htm

+ THE SEED STRUGGLE
'Loic Dewavrin, an organic grain grower in Les Cedres, plants non-GM seeds on the 600-hectare farm he shares with his two brothers. His fear is that seed companies will stop producing conventional seeds, which have gradually been disappearing from seed catalogues. "These companies are all-powerful," he says.' -- Marian Scott, 'The seed struggle: Small farmers fight multinational business for control of the planet's food supply', The Vancouver Sun, 24 May 2008
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a9c45a8b-59a4-41e1-a055-a7 0036cc36af
More on seed: how biochemical industry giants are making seed saving impossible:
http://www.stockhouse.com/News/FinancialNewsDetailFeeds.aspx?n=10837654

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CLIMATE CHANGE
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+ SEED GIANTS SEE GOLD IN CLIMATE CHANGE
After failing to convince the public to accept GM foods, biotech companies see a silver lining in climate change, writes ETC Group's Hope Shand in an article for Asia Times: 'They are now asserting that farmers cannot win the war against climate change without genetic engineering.' Monsanto, BASF, DuPont, Syngenta, Bayer and Dow are stockpiling hundreds of patents and patent applications on crop genes related to environmental stress tolerance.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JE15Dj02.html

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AFRICA
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+ SOUTH AFRICA: BIOWATCH TO APPEAL OVER MONSANTO COSTS ORDER
Biowatch will apply for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the order that it pay the costs of Monsanto South Africa. The option of appealing to the Constitutional Court has been opened by a dissenting judgment from one of the three judges who heard Biowatch's appeal in April 2007. In his judgment handed down this month, Judge Justice Poswa says the costs order in favour of Monsanto should be reversed. Judge Poswa also says that South Africa's statutory bodies responsible for regulating GM crops should pay Biowatch's legal costs. These are the minister of agriculture, the GMO executive council and the GMO registrar.
http://www.biowatch.org.za/main.asp?show=61

+ SEED AID TO AFRICAN FARMERS NOT MEETING LOCAL NEEDS
Analysts participating in an international meeting of agriculture and development experts in the Norwegian capital Oslo have called for alternatives to 'seed aid', handouts of seeds to crisis-stricken African farmers. Seed aid, they said, can prevent the recovery of local markets.
http://tinyurl.com/5juy6b

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CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY (COP9)
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+ INTRODUCTION TO COP9
For an intro to what's currently happening at the ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn, Germany see:
http://www.iisd.ca/vol09/enb09442e.html

Among the concerns being raised at COP9 are the promotion of false 'solutions' such as agrofuels, GM trees, and climate technology 'fixes' such as ocean fertilization.

Organisations like La Via Campesina have also been drawing attention to the causes underpinning the current food crisis and calling for the COP to recognize farmers' rights to seeds and to prohibit GM crops and industrial agrofuels.
http://biotech.indymedia.org/or/2008/05/7320.shtml

Find out more about COP9 at Undercover COP
http://www.undercovercop.org/tiki-index.php
For more about mobilisations and actions at COP9
http://biotech.indymedia.org/

+ PRRI WINS CAPTAIN HOOK AWARD
At COP9, the PRRI (the Public Research and Regulation Initiative) won the Captain Hook Award for the 'worst smokescreen' for pretending to be 'public researchers when they are closely tied to industry and invariably lobby for the industry's agenda.
You can watch the PRRI part of the award ceremony here
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=8gDzI45mI34
More about the Captain Hook awards for biopiracy etc. here:
http://www.captainhookawards.org
A peek at PRRI: http://www.undercovercop.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=3

+ GROUPS, SCIENTISTS CALL FOR END TO GM TREES
At COP9, organizations and scientists from around the world demanded that governments at the UN agree to suspend all releases of GM trees into the environment, due to their extreme ecological and social threats.
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/05/17/02352.html
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/stopgetrees_news.php?ID=132

+ AFRICA: COMPANIES FLOUT RULES
Biochemical companies are either trying to boycott tougher international regulations against GMOs, or ignoring rules on intellectual property rights in order to profit from traditional knowledge in developing countries, according to delegates at COP9. The South African government says patents on an extract of the South African geranium owned by the German pharmaceuticals company Spitzner are illegitimate because they are based on a genetic resource and traditional knowledge from southern Africa.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200805140853.html


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BIOSAFETY PROTOCOL (MOP4)
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The current COP9 negotiations in Bonn (see above) were proceeded by the the 4th Meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety - MOP 4.

+ JAPAN AND BRAZIL BLOCK TALKS
At the United Nations Biosafety Protocol negotiations, more than 140 countries met with the aim of achieving an agreement on who should be liable for damage derived from GMOs. An agreement in principle was reached. But the Japanese and Brazilian governments stand accused of blocking a legally binding agreement.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/205980,un-biosafety-conference-agrees-in -principle-on-liability-deal.html

+ AUSTRALIA PLAYS BIOTECH COWBOY
In the global biotech arena, Australia has once again taken on the cowboy role by refusing to participate in the United Nations Biosafety Protocol negotiations, says an article for Online Opinion. By standing outside the negotiations, Australia has joined the minority group of pro-GM countries, the US, Canada and Argentina. These countries refuse to be bound by the Cartagena Protocol on Biodiversity, yet profit most from the trade. If their products are safe, why not stand behind them?
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7370

+ INDIA'S 'SILENCE' SLAMMED
India's role in the discussions at the Biosafety Protocol negotiations about liability for GM contamination has been severely criticised by Gene Campaign, which participated in the event. Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign, who participated as an 'accredited NGO', was disappointed that India played 'no role' at this crucial meeting. She charged India with falsely attempting to claim that it had fully complied with the requirements of the Biosafety Protocol on compulsory compliance standards for dealing with GMOs.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/23/stories/2008052362121600.htm

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AGROFUELS
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+ AGROFUELS WILL DEPLETE SOIL
An interesting article on so-called 2nd generation agrofuels notes that the burning of any kind of biomass will destroy nutrients that should be returned to the soil, resulting in further depletion of valuable topsoil.
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5192

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TERMINATOR
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+ TERMINATOR BAN UNDER THREAT
A global ban on terminator technology struck eight years ago is under threat from a powerful alliance of biotech companies and countries with vested interests, reports the Catholic sustainable development body Progressio. They argue terminator technology should be considered on a case-by-case basis, thereby undermining the blanket moratorium. Biotech companies' claims that terminator technology will prevent contamination between GM and non-GM crops are hotly contested, yet the EU and, by implication, British taxpayers are contributing to the development of the technology through a GBP3.4m EU research project investigating ways that seeds can be brought back to life with chemicals.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/22/food
For Progressio's press release on Terminator see http://www.progressio.org.uk/progressio/internal/96160/ban_on_terminator_technol ogy_under_threat/
Read their full report at
http://www.progressio.org.uk/shared_asp_files/GFSR.asp?NodeID=96159

+ TERMINATOR 'GROSSLY IMMORAL' - THEOLOGIANS
Three widely respected theologians have condemned Terminator technology -- which produces GM plants with sterile seeds -- as 'grossly immoral'. Writing in a new publication commissioned by Progressio, Jesuit Priest Roland Lesseps, Father Sean McDonagh and Father Donal Dorr say the controversial GM technology, which is currently restricted by a temporary UN ban, offers 'no benefit for farmers and consumers' and would have 'long-term consequences for the environment'.
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/seeds321.html

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EUROPE
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+ GERMAN UNIVERSITIES BOW TO PUBLIC PRESSURE OVER GM CROPS
Two German universities have pulled the plug on field trials of GM crops. The science journal Nature quotes CropGen's Vivian Moses as saying that the decision is a 'disgraceful' interference with scientists' freedom to research.

Stefan Hormuth, president of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Hesse, said, 'Unfortunately, we were no longer able to deal with the massive opposition from politicians and the general public. The university has a reputation in the region that we cannot risk losing.'

Andreas Schier of Nürtigen-Geislingen University had to stop his field trials of GM maize. Last month, the university announced that it would stop its planned cultivation of GM maize in Gross-Gerau after activists occupied the field. Another local field trial of GM maize was also stopped because of massive protests from the public and local politicians.

Nature cites Heinz Saedler, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, as saying, 'The incidents reveal a new level of public hostility to plant genetic engineering in Germany.' The Max Planck Institute is also not cultivating GM crops this year.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080514/full/453263a.html

+ SWISS CABINET CALLS FOR GM-FREE AGRICULTURE
The Swiss government has come out in favour of extending a ban on GMO in agriculture until 2013. The federal environment office said the current moratorium had had no adverse impact on farming or research in Switzerland, and Swiss agriculture could benefit from its GM-free status.
http://tinyurl.com/63kqd4

+ FRANCE: ORGANIC MAIZE CONTAMINATED FROM 35 KM AWAY
Organic maize grown near Deux-Sevres, France has been contaminated with genes from GM maize, although the closest plots of GM maize are over 35 km distant from the fields.
Article in French:
http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2008/05/12/dans-les-deux-sevres-du-ma

+ FRENCH LAWMAKERS PASS GM BILL
French legislators passed a bill to regulate the cultivation of GM crops after blocking the same text by a single vote last week. The bill stirs strong passions in France. At one point on the day of the vote, clerks had to intervene to stop deputies coming to blows. Pro-GM members see the bill as too restrictive and opponents call it overly lax.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL2082830320080520

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: REGULATOR LIED ABOUT BT COTTON TOXICITY
While Bt brinjal (eggplant) is at an advanced stage of being cleared for commercial cultivation, a Supreme Court nominee to the regulatory body has come up with a 'major argument' to suspend the existing cultivation of Bt cotton due to biosafety concerns about GM crops.

Molecular scientist P M Bhargava, appointed by the Supreme Court as a special invitee to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), found that the regulator ignored evidence of toxicity in Bt cotton leading to the death of hundreds of sheep in Andhra Pradesh.

Bhargava said that the three documents relied upon by the regulator 'contradict ... unequivocally' its own claim that the mortality of sheep might be due to pesticide residues rather than Bt toxin.

According to the minutes of a GEAC meeting, other members told Bhargava that studies commissioned by them 'indicate that the sheep deaths might be due to high content of nitrates/nitrites, residues of hydrocyanide (HCN) and organophosphates which are common ingredients of pesticides used during cotton cultivation and not those of Bt toxin'.

But the three documents given to Bhargava subsequently, in a bid to justify GEAC's clean chit to Bt cotton, have turned out to be evidence suggesting 'the possibility or even the probability' of Bt cotton causing the death of sheep which had grazed on that crop.

The department of animal husbandry in Andhra Pradesh admitted in a letter that biosafety 'trials did not include continuous grazing/feeding of complete Bt cotton plants to animals'. It also said that the samples were 'negative for HCN, nitrates, nitrites, alkaloids and glycocides'. The state government therefore advised shepherds 'not to graze their animals in harvested Bt cotton fields till the definite cause is established'.

In the light of the Bt cotton revelations, Bhargava said of Bt brinjal, 'The two experiments done to check allergenicity and toxicity for Bt brinjal are grossly inadequate.'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Panel_ignored_Bt_cotton_toxicity_eviden ce/articleshow/3049910.cms
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/is-india-ready-for-genetically-modified-food/65538-1 9.html

+ BIOSAFETY NORMS NOT FOLLOWED ON BT BRINJAL
In September 2006, the former chief justice of India, Mr Sabharval, passed an order that the issue of GM crops should be examined by 'competent, knowledgeable and committed independent scientists'. In response, a five-member independent expert committee was set up in mid-September 2006.The expert committee found several instances where biosafety norms prescribed by the department of biotechnology were not followed. Data on field trial results were not properly and statistically analysed. The committee recommended that the question of Bt brinjal should be re-examined. Such a re-examination never took place, and Bt brinjal trials continued.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/05/22/stories/2008052250440800.htm

+ BUFFER ZONES CANNOT PREVENT GM CONTAMINATION
A research study conducted in Hokkaido, Japan shows that even generous buffer zones between GM and non-GM crops fail to prevent GM contamination.

In Hokkaido, a special ordinance stipulates large buffer zone distances of at least twice those set in MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan) guidelines. For rice, for example, the MAFF guideline buffer zone distance is 30m, but under Hokkaido's ordinance it is 300m.

In the case of rice, cross-fertilization had occurred during a 2006 trial at the maximum distance stipulated in the ordinance, 300 m. So the 2007 study was carried out using the distances of 450m and 600m. Cross-fertilization occurred even at 600m. Cross-fertilization was also found to occur for maize at the maximum distance of 1200m, and at 990m for sugar beet.
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~cbic/english/2008/journal0805.html

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ PREMIER BRUMBY SET TO BENEFIT FROM TRASHING VICTORIA'S GM-FREE STATUS
The office of the premier of Victoria and his government are both members of the Global Biotechnology Industry Organisation based in Washington DC, USA that promotes the interests of GM companies like Monsanto and Bayer, says Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps. Brumby's government recently ended Victoria's moratorium on GM plantings. Phelps says, 'There is a clear conflict of interest with the government being a full member of a corporate industry organization.

'Brumby said that Victoria would benefit by just $15 million a year when he announced the state's GM ban would end. But Canadian experience shows that over 90% of the income from GM canola will go into the coffers of GM giants as higher seed costs, technology use fees and end point royalties, while farmers will reap little and the price of food will not fall at all.

"Our community will bear the extra costs, risks and hazards of GM crops and foods while GM companies laugh all the way to the bank."
Biotechnology Industry Organisation's Australian Members
http://www.bio.org/members/biomembers.asp?list=Australia

+ ANTI-GM PROTEST IN MELBOURNE
Over 200 anti-GM protesters marched on the streets of Melbourne, Australia on 21 May to protest about the lack of scientific testing and labeling of GM food.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/752/38890

+ TASMANIANS URGED TO GO ORGANIC
The Tasmanian government wants to expand the state's organic farming industry. Primary industries minister David Llewellyn says it wants to brand the state with clean and natural practices. Llewellyn says organic produce commands premium prices in national and international markets.
http://www.foodweek.com.au/main-features-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&artic leId=1950

+ TOP CHEFS COOK UP PLAN TO BOYCOTT GM DINING
The head chef of one of Melbourne's best-known restaurants has called on consumers to boycott establishments that don't commit to being GM-free. Geraud Fabre, head chef of France-Soir restaurant in South Yarra, is one of a number of top chefs nationally who have signed an anti-GM chefs' charter designed to pressure state and federal governments to prevent the introduction of GM crops into Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/top-chefs-cook-up-plan-to-boycott-gm-dini ng/2008/05/23/1211183108492.html

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS
John Vidal and David Adam write in the UK Guardian about the activities of Frank Furedi's LM sect (formerly 'Living Marxism') whose members specialise in infiltrating organisations, and aligning themselves with individuals, who help them promote their extreme libertarian pro-GMOs, pro-cloning, pro-nukes, and generally anti-environmental agenda:

'When you see the words "progress" or "reason" in a book title, you can bet it has been written by an extreme libertarian arguing for the right to pollute, or an ageing Living Marxism cell member -- or both. So it is with The Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability, a book by Austin Williams that argues, very roughly, that planning is bad, all development is good, and sod the lot of you. Judge for yourself how batty it is with this endorsement from former Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson: "A much-needed diagnosis of the bleak anti-human pathology described as environmentalism."'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/21/ecosoundings
More on the LMers and the Science Media Centre, which has a notorious LMer as its director:
http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/4589/29/
http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_watch.html

+ BOGUS STORY ABOUT VATICAN APPROVAL OF GM CROPS REAPPEARS
A story has appeared in the Catholic news source Cath News claiming that the Pope is about to give his official blessing to GM food. The story, however, is bogus. CathNews attributes the story to the pro-GM lobby group Truth About Trade. But if you follow its link to the Truth About Trade article ('Vatican says GM food is a blessing'), you'll find that although the article is dated 20 May 2008, it is identical to a piece published by The (London) Times five years earlier: 'Vatican says GM food is a Blessing', by Richard Owen, The Times, August 5 2003. The story, of course, wasn't true the first time around, either!!
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=7254
http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/religion/blessing.html

+ PEER REVIEW UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
For years, the pro-GM science establishment has operated a double standard regarding peer review, the process by which a scientific paper is sent for comment by other scientists, who then recommend for or against publication of the paper. The pro-GM lobby exploits unpublished and peer-reviewed findings or even unsupported opinions that are in favour of GM. On the other hand, it dismisses findings that raise questions over the safety of GM if they have not been peer-reviewed.

In an article for ISIS, Prof Peter Saunders lays bare this double standard and argues that in times of corporate corruption of science, what matters most is the lack of public scrutiny rather than the lack of peer review. Companies often use commercial confidentiality as an excuse to keep information secret not from competitors, but from the public. An example is the TGN1412 GM drug trial that went disastrously wrong, causing organ failure in previously healthy men. Though it was clear that the drug would never be developed further, the medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA) still refused to release details of the test protocol on the grounds of commercial confidentiality.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk:80/peerReviewUnderTheSpotlight.php

+ BIASED ONLINE POLL ON GM CROPS AND HUNGER
In the days running up to the important 7 May meeting of European Union Commissioners to discuss the approval of a number of GMOs, an online poll appeared on the website of GMO Compass.

Simultaneously a number of pro-GM lobby groups e-mailed their supporters telling them to complete the poll ahead of the meeting. Here, for example, is what the European Federation of Biotechnology told its members:

'A pro-biotech internet survey will be launched on the www.GMO-compass.org website in the coming 2 days and would encourage you to answer the few questions and circulate this email encouraging other people to log on and answer the yes/no questions asap and certainly before midday on May 6th.'

The pro-GM lobbyist Klaus Ammann was even more explicit about the purpose of the poll on his listserv:

'I am sure you have been alerted through several channels about a poll, which is of political importance. it has been distributed since last Wednesday: the pro-biotech survey is now on line at www.gmo-compass.org and needs your input please! ...

'The objective is to get as many positive answers as possible by next Tuesday evening before the College of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday but also to continue collecting positive votes at least until the day before the 27 EU Ministers for the environment meet to discuss GMOs as well on June 5th.'

The questions in the poll are outrageously skewed and designed to elicit a 'yes' to GM, e.g. 'Should European agriculture make use of the best available technologies, including biotechnology and genetic engineering, to minimise negative effects on the environment and to optimise the global food supply?'

What makes this shocking is that GMO Compass is funded with EU money and claims not to be 'decidedly "for" or "against" genetic engineering. The website does not seek to discourage the use of genetic engineering in food and agriculture, nor does it seek to promote it.'

The poll was subsequently claimed to have shown 90% support for GMOs. By contrast, the Commission's own 2008 Eurobarometer poll on GMOs showed just 21 per cent of EU citizens in favour of GM and 58 per cent against.

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THE AMERICAS
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+ GROUPS URGE USDA TO REINSTATE PESTICIDE REPORTING PROGRAM
The day before the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) released its scaled-back annual report on 2007 pesticide use, a coalition of 44 environmental, sustainable farming, and health advocacy organizations called on USDA to reverse its plan to eliminate its pesticide reporting program in 2008. USDA claims it lacks funding to continue the program.

'Without USDA's data, we will no longer be able to reliably track trends in pesticide use, such as the substantial spike in the use of herbicides over the past six years,' said Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety.

Freese notes that herbicides comprise nearly two-thirds of pesticides applied in the US, and that the use of weed killers has been on the rise -- since 2002 on soybeans and cotton, and since 2003 on corn.

Charles Benbrook, a senior scientist with the Organic Center, is quoted in a newspaper report as saying he finds the USDA's actions curious at a time when herbicide use on Roundup Ready crops has increased: 'The 2007 data would have shown an enormous increase in the pounds of herbicides applied on Roundup Ready crops, especially soybeans. The farm media has been full of stories over the past few years of the problems farmers are facing as weeds become resistant to glyphosate and other herbicides. I find it curious that at the time of peak interest and need for solid information on pesticide use in soybeans that the Department of Agriculture has decided to stop collecting the data. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some quiet lobbying done by Monsanto to let the program lapse.'

A USDA official said consumers can find similar data from private sources -- but prominent among these would be the enormously deceptive reports from biotech-pesticide industry front groups like National Center for Food and Agriculture Policy (NCFAP).
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/USDA_NASS_PR5_20_08.cfm
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/pesticide-data-program-cut-44052 108

+ STUCK IN THE SLUDGE
It's regularly claimed by American pro-GM commentators that the US enjoys the safest food system in the world, but an editorial in the journal Nature about the use of sewage sludge on farmland suggests a regulatory laxity that's almost stupefying.

EXTRACT: It is possible that the millions of tonnes of sludge being spread across the rural landscape contain no significant levels of toxic chemicals, heavy metals or disease-causing organisms. It may all be perfectly benign. The disturbing fact is that no one knows.

...there has been no systematic monitoring programme to test what is in the sludge. Nor has there been much analysis of the potential health effects among local residents - even though anecdotal evidence suggests ample cause for concern.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7193/full/453258a.html

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ BAYER: HISTORY OF PROFIT THROUGH SUFFERING
An article chronicling Bayer's hundred-year history of 'profiteering, malpractice and denial' of harm done by their products is at
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/3645/Bayer_A_History_of_Profit_from_Suffering

+ MASS DEATH OF BEES IN GERMANY: PESTICIDE APPROVALS SUSPENDED
The German office for consumer protection and food safety (BVL) has ordered the immediate suspension of approval for eight seed treatment products due to the mass death of bees in Germany's Baden-Wuerttemberg state. The suspended products are the following nicotinoid pesticides: Antarc, Chinook, Elado, Mesuro, Poncho, and Faibel, all made by Bayer; and Cruiser, made by Syngenta. According to the German Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, 29 out of 30 dead bees it had examined had been killed by contact with clothianidin, a nicotinoid pesticide. Also wild bees and other insects are suffering from a significant loss of population.
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2517.html

+ MONSANTO: HISTORY OF CONTAMINATION AND COVER-UP
http://www.naturalnews.com/023254.html

+ U.S. PRESSURED FOR AGENT ORANGE COMPENSATION
American congressmen, war veterans, lawyers and scientists continue to pressure the US government to compensate the victims of Agent Orange. But a representative of the US administration at a hearing before a subcommittee of the House foreign affairs committee in Washington DC rejected any 'legal liability for damages', citing a lack of scientific evidence.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/?catid=1&newsid=38625

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ BAYER RICE CONTAMINATION SUITS SHOULD BE COMBINED, LAWYERS SAY
Bayer AG's agricultural units contaminated US crops with GM rice and farmers in five states should be allowed to pursue negligence claims against the company as group actions, their lawyer said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=au7CXdzWKZ4c&refer=germany

+ SYNGENTA AND MONSANTO END LEGAL DISPUTE
Syngenta said it has resolved a legal dispute with Monsanto over their respective corn and soybean businesses. Syngenta said it will withdraw antitrust and infringement cases related to Monsanto's use of herbicide-tolerant and insect-protected corn technologies, and herbicide-tolerant soybean technology. In return, Monsanto will license Syngenta's technology for making crops resistant to the herbicide Dicamba. Syngenta will also license one of Monsanto's Roundup Ready technologies for increasing soybean yield.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/23/business/EU-FIN-COM-Switzerland-Syngen ta-Monsanto.php

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FILMS
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+ CANADIAN PRESS COVERAGE OF MONSANTO MOVIE
Marie-Monique Robin, the French director who made the damning documentary 'The World According to Monsanto', is interviewed for a Canadian newspaper at http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/052208/film1.html
And positive reviews of her film are at
http://www.hour.ca/film/film.aspx?iIDArticle=14691
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/arts/story.html?id=3f87922f-20eb-4493 -8a29-a60a11dea213

+ FILM ABOUT 'BIOTERRORISM' CHARGES AGAINST ARTIST
Lynn Hershman Leeson has made a docudrama called Strange Culture about the arrest and criminal charges against bio-artist Steve Kurtz. In 2004 when Kurtz's wife died of heart failure while sleeping, police deemed Kurtz's art, which then examined the risks of GM foods, as suspicious and notified the FBI. Within hours he was detained as a suspected bioterrorist.
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_264/artoftheartificial.html

+ THE FUTURE OF FOOD
A review of Deborah Koons Garcia's film expose of GM food, The Future of Food, is at
http://www.dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1036370

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NANOTECHNOLOGY
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+ NANOTECHNOLOGY IN OUR FOOD
Untested nanotechnology is being used in more than 100 food products, food packaging and contact materials currently on the shelf, without warning or new FDA testing, according to a report by Friends of the Earth.

The report, 'Out of the Laboratory and onto Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture', found nanomaterials in popular products and packaging including Miller Light beer, Cadbury Chocolate packaging and ToddlerHealth, a nutritional drink powder for infants sold extensively at health food stores including Whole Foods.

'Nanotech food was put on our plates without FDA testing for consumer safety,' said Ian Illuminato, Friends of the Earth Health and Environment Campaigner. 'Consumers have a right to know if they are taste-testing a dangerous new technology.'

Existing regulations require no new testing or labeling for nanomaterials when they are created from existing approved chemicals, despite major differences in potential toxicity. The report reveals toxicity risks of nanomaterials such as organ damage and decreased immune system response.
http://action.foe.org/pressRelease.jsp?press_release_KEY=343

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HUMAN GENETICS
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+ ANIMAL-HUMAN HYBRIDS AND 'SAVIOUR SIBLINGS'
British MPs have backed controversial reforms which will allow the use of animal-human hybrid embryos for stem cell research and the selection of 'saviour siblings' through preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

Both measures have been sold to MPs as of vital importance to saving lives but interestingly the Telegraph has reported the assisted reproduction pioneer Lord Robert Winston as stating:

'I'm really worried about saying this to you, because I know I shall get stick from my colleagues. But if the hybrid embryo thing doesn't go through, it in no way shakes the body of science... if we don't have that resource, it won't fundamentally alter the science of stem cell biology.'

Lord Winston is also reported as saying he has grave reservations about another disputed clause. 'I'm very unhappy about "saviour siblings".'

According to the Telegraph: 'his concern is that children selected to provide treatment for a sick brother or sister may be put under undue pressure to give bone marrow or organs. So it wouldn't break his heart if the measure was voted down? "Absolutely not," he says.'

Dr David King, a former geneticist and founder of Human Genetics Alert, opposes the Bill currently going through parliament. Here's his view as given in a UK newspaper: 'The potential of hybrid embryos has been massively overhyped. I think they are very poor science, and I have put my case to three Nobel winning scientists and not one of them has disagreed with my scientific arguments.

'There will be so many biodefects in these embryos it's very unlikely they will develop very far at all. And if they did, they would be so abnormal they would be more likely to mislead scientists than provide the solutions we're being promised.'
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org:80/article.php?id=4072
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/article1186393.ece

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GENETIC CROSSROADS
News and Views from the Center for Genetics and Society
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+ UK'S PRIME MINISTER BROWN VS. SCIENTISTS
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
Like so many writings advocating cloning-based stem cell research, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent op ed drifts to distortion and hyperbole.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4094

+ MAYBE NEXT YEAR?
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
It now looks like the CEO of Geron will like assure us once again the trials will begin "next year" - just as he's done since at least 2004.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4084

+ RED FLAGS OVER CONSUMER GENETICS
by Marcy Darnovsky, The San Diego Union Tribune
GINA is a welcome step, and a long overdue one. But even assuming it's effectively enforced, we're at the beginning of a long and bumpy road.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4093

+ CROSSING AN ETHICAL BOUNDARY
by Marcy Darnovsky, The Journal of Life Sciences
When scientists fail to appreciate public concerns they can easily undermine public trust.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4087

+ MPs REJECT 'SAVIOUR SIBLING' BAN
BBC News
A bid to stop parents having "saviour siblings" - babies selected to provide genetic material for seriously ill relatives - has been defeated
by the United Kingdom Parliament.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4097

+ LEGISLATOR PROPOSES ETHICAL OVERSIGHT ROLE FOR NIH
by Monya Baker, Nature Reports Stem Cells
A proposed federal stem-cell policy could the lift federal funding restrictions and implement oversight
by the National Institutes of Health
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4095

+ BUSH SIGNS ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BILL
by Ben Feller, Associated Press
President Bush signed legislation to protect people from losing their jobs or health insurance when genetic testing reveals they are susceptible to costly diseases.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4096

+ COMPANY OFFERS TO CLONE DOGS OF HIGHEST BIDDERS IN AUCTION
by Marcus Wohlsen, Associated Press
Commercial dog cloning
by Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the international scientific community in 2005.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4096

+ SOUTH KOREAN PARLIAMENT PASSES LAW BANNING TYPE OF CLONING
Agence France-Presse
South Korea's Parliament on Friday passed a law that bans animal-human hybrid embryos in stem cell research.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4098