------------------------------------------------------------
From Claire Robinson, GMWATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,
The big news this month is the publication on July 10 of journalist Andy Rowell's new book, 'Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat'.
http://www.andyrowell.com/dont_worry_PR.htm
Rowell interviews scientists and government insiders, many of them whistle-blowers who were removed, sidelined or vilified when they refused to toe the government and industry line. He describes the inside stories behind the Pusztai and Chapela affairs and even avid readers of GM WATCH will find remarkable material that has never been disclosed before.
Rowell shows how our food crises - GM, BSE, Foot and Mouth - are not bolts from the blue but the inevitable outcome of policies that put secrecy, self-protection and the interests of big business before those of the public.
The publisher (Earthscan) has a 10% discount on all its agriculture titles at the moment, so order this one while stocks last!
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/agriculture.htm
'Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat' is one of the most important books I've ever read and I'll be making clear why in my forthcoming GM WATCH review. If you don't subscribe to our daily list, then you'll be able to find it in our new archive where you can view all the material that's gone out on our lists in 2003 and the latter half of 2002. This will eventually be developed into a comprehensive and fully searchable database of postings on the NGIN/GMWATCH lists over the past five years.
Check it out: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive.asp
Claire Robinson <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.ngin.org.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------
AMERICA'S WAR ON HUMANITY
ENVIRONMENT
FARMING
THIRD WORLD
RESISTANCE TO GM
COMPANY NEWS
FOOD SAFETY
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
MAN OF THE MONTH: MICHAEL MEACHER
HYPOCRITE OF THE MONTH: LORD SAINSBURY
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
JOKES OF THE MONTH
CAMPAIGNS OF THE MONTH
SUBSCRIPTIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMERICA'S WAR ON HUMANITY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Bush prepares for his mission to Africa with a mouth stuffed full of promises, it's important to remember the record to date in terms of both honesty and humanity.
USDA BREAKS RULES AGAINST TOBACCO AID
The US Departement of Agriculture (USDA) and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative are not only set on breaking down barriers to GM crops in the name of easing famine in parts of Africa, it's emerged that the USDA has also been busy helping Big Tobacco identify and get round weak tobacco control laws in Third World countries like Zimbabwe. It has also been supplying information to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to help it ease trade barriers to selling US tobacco products abroad. Under Congessional law the USDA and the office of the US Trade Representative are specifically forbidden from "promoting the sale or export of tobacco", ie exporting death and addiction.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60321-2003Jul1.html
US BEATS EGYPT WITH TRADE STICK...
The Financial Times reports that when President George W. Bush announced plans last month for a Middle East free trade area by 2013, Robert Zoellick, his trade representative, said Egypt would be the linchpin. "Egypt has for centuries been the heart of the Arab world." For the US, Egypt's participation in the WTO case was also critical to support its claim that the EU ban on GM cops is hurting poor countries. But now Egypt has decided not to join the US in a World Trade Organisation complaint against Europe's ban, Zoellick is reported to be furious and has now called off the free trade deal.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1021
US DUMPS ON OTHER ALLIES
Even countries who are supporting the US in its WTO complaint are feeling the heat. The US has just launched a WTO complaint against Mexico, one of its supposed allies, over its anti-dumping duties
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/business/story/918495p-6400128c.html
"ROGUE NATION"
At the same time as heavily subsidized US corn exports are driving Mexican campesinos off their land, exports for one of Mexico's main crops, sugar, are severely restricted by US quotas. Thus, Mexican sugar farmers, like West African cotton growers, who face similar American restrictions, face penury and hunger. A former Reagan advisor recently wrote, "It is these sorts of American inconsistencies and double standards, far more than envy of our success or hatred of our freedoms, that cause alienation from America and that make the United States appear to many abroad as a rogue nation."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26765-2003Jun6.html
IRAQ: EVERYONE NOW NEEDS FOOD AID
The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27 million dependent on food aid, leaders of aid programs say. The United Nations WFP (World Food Programme) chief representative in Baghdad Torben Due says the crisis is unprecedented.
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=19026
THE RAT IN THE GRAIN - DAN AMSTUTZ AND THE LOOTING OF IRAQI AGRICULTURE
According to the Associated Press, "a Bush administration appointee was dispatched to Baghdad, tasked with, among other things, figuring out whether genetically modified crops have a place in Iraq."
http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/062203/bus_062203080.shtml
Dan Amstutz was appointed as Iraq'a Ag Czar by U.S. Ag Secretary Ann Veneman who is keen to see U.S. agribusiness play a significant role in Iraq's future where "the opportunities are immense".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1005
In 2000, the biggest food companies in the world, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Cenex Harvest States Co-op, DuPont and Louis Dreyfus, got together to form Pradium Inc., a kind of secret, internal grain market that offered cash commodity exchanges for grains, oilseeds and ag by-products. It also offered ways to fix grain prices on a global scale. Iraq's new Ag Czar Amstutz served as chairman of Pradium Inc..
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07042003.html
EUROPEANS NOT AMUSED BY BUSH'S RHETORIC
EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has attacked US president Bush for accusing Europe of worsening starvation in Africa by opposing GM foods. "It is one thing to disagree," Lamy said. "It is another thing to use starvation to advance a position in this debate." Lamy said that US policy was being driven by farmers who feared they would no longer be able to dump surplus food on Africa in the form of food aid.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1004
The head of the European Parliament also dismissed US claims that that by blocking the import of US-produced GM foods, European countries are causing untold suffering among the Third World's starving poor. "The European Union and its member states today outspends the United States by a factor of three to one in official development aid policy. And we ... constitute the largest donor community of food and humanitarian aid in the world, bar none, including the USA. So we don't need to be lectured on humanitarian priorities."
EU blasts US "lectures" over GMOs and Africa
http://www.eubusiness.com/
BUSH - THE MAN POINTING THE FINGER OVER AFRICA - IS...
The world's stingiest aid donor
The US currently ranks 22nd in the percentage of its gross national income devoted to foreign aid - the lowest of any industrial nation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,13365,967654,00.html
His Aid Promises Are Misleading
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20030522/wl_oneworld
/118151053610546
He sank G8 plans to stop the West undercutting African farmers
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=411560
He and Blair have made Africa's scar angrier
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/columnist/story/0,9321,969259,00.html
Even hungry Ethiopia is waty of Bush's claims
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=992
BUSH DECLARES WAR ON NGO'S - NORTH AND SOUTH
It's official -- Bush doesn't like civil society. The American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think-tank close to the heart of the US administration, has issued a report on one of their conferences entitled "Non-Governmental Organisations: The growing power of an unelected few." The (unelected) AEI's message is simple: That NGOs are pursuing an "anti-corporate, liberal, internationalist" vision. And that this vision is "not congenial to the ideas of [the Bush] administration."
L. Muthoni Wanyeki, executive director of the African Women's Development and Communication Network (Femnet) in Kenya, comments, "NGOs no longer exist solely to plug the leaks in a boat of development policies gone wrong. They exist to constructively critique those policies. That's what the Americans - and the NGO critics here - will have to learn to live with."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1027
For more on Bush's anti-NGO initiative and the involvement of Monsanto's former head of Public Affairs, see 'Bush to NGOs: Watch Your Mouths'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=994
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENVIRONMENT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
STUDY TO EXAMINE IF GM CROPS RUIN FARM SOIL
Canada is investing nearly $600,000 to learn whether GM crops - already approved and grown for years on thousands of Canadian farms - are ruining farm soils. The question is whether GM crops are passing on their genes to the natural underground microbes that make soil productive by breaking down dead plants and helping live plants absorb vital nutrients. This has never been tested, even though GM corn, soy, canola and other crops have been approved for commercial growing across Canada.
Documents outlining the project came to light through an access to information request by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin. He told the government, "You put the cart before the horse. You didn't have a proper approval system if you didn't know what you were doing in environmental release. And now you're coming back and examining issues which you should have done (earlier)."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=940
GM CROPS WILL CREATE SUPERWEEDS, SAYS ENGLISH NATURE
GM farming will lead to a new generation of herbicide-resistant crops which could devastate the countryside, says English Nature. The Government's chief conservation agency says the inevitably far stronger weedkillers that would be needed would devastate hedgerows and verges and produce "superweeds" unless strict controls are imposed. The agency fears that farmers could turn to highly toxic and old-fashioned weedkillers such as Paraquat and 2,4-D because they will be faced with GM "superweeds" that can resist most modern weedkillers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1014
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FARMING
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORGANIC CHICKENS FED GM-CONTAMINATED FEED
A farmer was forced to dump more than 1,200 organic chickens after they were accidentally fed on feed contaminated with GM soya beans. It is the first time organic food has been stopped from going on sale in Britain because of GM contamination - alarming environmentalists and food safety groups. The affected batch was discovered in north Devon late last year. The farmer has lost his Soil Association licence.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=413445
MAJORITY OF UK FARMERS DON'T WANT GM CROPS
The majority of Britain's farmers - the supposed beneficiaries of GM crops - are opposed to GM crops being grown in the UK, according to a poll carried out to coincide with the launch of the UK's national debate on GM crops. A survey of farmers carried out 12 months ago showed a similar picture - 60% of respondents said they felt public concern about GM crops was justified.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=926
for the reality of farming with GMOs:
http://ngin.tripod.com/farming.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD WORLD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD AID
Why GM crops are particularly dangerous for Africa
Who is getting fed? Matt Mellen on the food aid crisis
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=946
A "MUST-READ" REPORT ON BIOTECH INDUSTRY PROPAGANDA OVER AFRICA
A readable and revelatory new report by Aaron deGrassi of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, asks whether GM crops are addressing the real causes of poverty and hunger in Africa.
After careful analysis of the actual results of the use of GM crops in Africa, deGrassi examines why the crops are attracting so much attention and "excitement" in this regard when the actual results are so unremarkable, "much lower than with either conventional breeding or agroecology-based techniques". He shows how biotech firms have eagerly used ostensibly philanthropic African projects for public relations purposes.
"Genetically Modified Crops and Sustainable Poverty Alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Assessment of Current Evidence" provides an ideal means of deconstructing biotech industry hype, eg that the GM sweet potato has doubled production in Kenya.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1016
Read the terrific section on the biotech industry's PR use of Africa:
http://wwwlobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1006
Some more GM WATCH excerpts from the report:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1007
Download the full report:
http://www.twnafrica.org/docs/GMCropsAfrica.pdf
Read the press release:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306240443.html
FOR LINKS TO A SERIES OF REPORTS ON GM CROPS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1035
See also: GM mirage will not help the poor by ActionAid's Alex Wijeratna
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,970123,00.html
NEW STUDY AND FILM SHOW FARMERS SUFFERED SEVERE LOSSES FROM GM COTTON
A new scientific study of GM (Bt) cotton production in Andhra Pradesh, India, together with a film, shows how farmers who planted Monsanto-Mayhco's Bt cotton in their fields suffered severe losses. A film to accompany the new study, made by women farmers, powerfully documents the traumatic season of Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=914
See also PV Satheesh's comments on the project, and a Vandana Shiva
article on the Failure of GMOs in India
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=920
GM PROTATO EXPOSED AS HOAX
A GM protein-enhanced potato touted as solving malnutrition in India has been exposed as a hoax. Devinder Sharma reports.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=937
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1010
"The director-general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr Mangla Rai has refuted the claims that the genetically modified (GM) potato developed in India contains 40 per cent more protein than the traditional varieties." And Dr SM Paul Khurana, Director of the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) has joined in the condemnation: "as per claims GM potato contains 2.8 per cent protein per 100 gram... it is evident that one cannot consume tonnes of potato per day to have a required level of nutritional intake."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1011
GENETICALLY MODIFIED REPORTING FROM PALLAB GHOSH
The BBC has come under fire for its biased reporting of the GM "protato" story. The BBC's Pallab Ghosh dutifully reported Ag Secretary Dr Manju Sharma's inflated claims about the protato. But these have been denied in the Indian press - see above and:
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=36215
Ghosh's story hung purely upon Manju Sharma's discredited claims and claims about the potential of GM crops made by the chief executive of Dupont in India. This is not the first time that Ghosh has launched a story of value to the GM lobby that fell seriously below the normal standards of BBC journalism.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=950
HOW THE WEST GOT RICH: NOT FREE TRADE BUT TRADE PROTECTION
An excellent analysis by George Monbiot on the theme, "The West became rich by ignoring patent rules and protecting its industries - poor countries should be allowed to do the same" is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=938
Telling quote from the article: "Only when Britain had established technological superiority in almost every aspect of manufacturing did it suddenly discover the virtues of free trade. It was not until the 1850s and 1860s that we opened most of our markets."
Also well worth reading is a Washington Post article by ex-Reagan advisor, Clyde Prestowitz. He points out in answer to Bush's claim that September 11 happened because other countries hate America's freedoms: "what irks foreigners most [about the US] is not our values or our achievements. Rather it is the fact that what we do is often at odds with what we preach... While there is no doubt that EU agriculture policies badly need reform, one of the main causes of hunger and poverty in Africa lies much closer to home -- U.S. subsidies for our own farmers."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=938
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESISTANCE TO GM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROTESTORS SWARM BIOTECH MEETING
Sacramento, CA: Thousands of protesters descended on city streets as agriculture ministers from around the world prepared for the USDA ministerial meeting where US officials gathered to push GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=971
Amigo Cantisano, who organised an exhibit there on organic farming, said, "We did not meet a single minister who was in support of GMO's; at most they were cautiously observing and withholding judgement at present. But they were absolutely fervent in their interest in and need for organic farming assistance... Ag ministers from many countries repeatedly asked us for immediate help from U.S. organic farmers to help them get off both the pesticide and the GMO treadmill, now."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1032
"RUSSIANS FORCED TO EAT GM FOOD"
Pravda (July 4 2003) reports under the above headline that food producers using GM components have launched a fight against public disclosure. Activists of the ecological movement "Be Aware of What You Buy!" in the Russian city of Volgograd have faced intimidation from a large food producer. Sergey Shavlak says he got several direct threats demanding that the movement cease "its useless activity"!
SUPERMARKETS TELL BLAIR: WE WON'T STOCK GM
Supermarkets have told Tony Blair they will refuse to stock GM foods. The British Retail Consortium, which represents 90 per cent of high-street shops, has sent an unequivocal warning to the Government that GM food is not commercially viable in the UK. It argues that, while consumer antipathy towards the biotech industry remains so entrenched, retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury's will resist any move to stock GM products. Their united stance threatens the Prime Minister with the embarrassing scenario where GM crops are commercialised, yet no major outlets will sell them.
David Southwell of the BRC said, 'The customer is where the real power lies. Supermarkets are not going to give shelf space to something that doesn't sell.' A spokesman for Sainsbury's, whose former chief Lord Sainsbury, the science minister, remains a staunch advocate of GM, said the supermarket giant had no choice but to continue rejecting the technology as long as customers 'made it clear' they did not want GM produce.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=916
NEW EU RULES ON LABELLING ARE TOUGHEST YET
"The European parliament in Strasbourg voted to bring in tight new rules on GM food labelling, and to allow restrictions on the growth of GM crops to protect organic and conventional farms from contamination. The move delighted consumer groups and environmental campaigners, but infuriated US trade officials... At the core of American anger is the fact that the new rules might allow Europe to become a GM-free zone simply through consumers choosing not to buy GM products (which are nearly all American), and through safety rules that would make it almost impossible to grow GM crops."
Americans angered by European curbs on GM, The Independent, 3 July 2003
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1034
BRIEFING: The European Union's new labelling rules for GM food and feed - Implications for the market of GMO and non-GMO products.
http://a520.g.akamai.net/7/520/1534/release1.0/greenpeace.org/multimedia/download/1/290191/0/eu_foodfeed.pdf
A GOOD RESOURCE ON RECENT LEGAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IS:
The Genetic Engineering Newsletter which can be downloaded here
http://www.biogene.org/pdf/43_pdf%20Juni_03-e.pdf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY NEWS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
BIOTECHS RUNNING OUT OF DOUGH
A precipitous falloff in financing for the biotech industry has left one-third of the nation's publicly traded companies with less than a year's worth of cash. Even if the industry turns around, no one expects a return to the high-flying days of 2000 when investors seemed to throw money at all things biotech, Ernst & Young's Buckley said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=945
BEGGING BOWLS OUT
"As always in Washington, the money is flowing both ways. Republican legislators, in particular, have benefited from large contributions from biotech companies in recent years. In return, critics say, the legislators have worked to weaken the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the industry. But analysts say that an increasingly cosy relationship with the government won't save the biotech industry's skin." Share slump brings biotech firms to government's door Nature 423, 908 (26 June 2003)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1008
MONSANTO'S CRIMES
For a comprehensive history of Monsanto's crimes against people and the environment, read the MASIPAG report "Selling Food, Health, Hope: The Real Story Behind Monsanto Corporation". Full text:
Part 1: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=988
Part 2: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=989
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD SAFETY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUSZTAI IN PARIS
A paper by Dr Arpad Pusztai summarising the problems with food safety testing of GM foods, "The digestive tract as the main target of GM food safety assessment: General considerations on the safety evaluation of GM foods", given at a Paris conference, is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1003
OUR SUMMARY OF THE INDEPENDENT SCIENCE PANEL CONFERENCE,
"GM Crops: Do we need them? Are they safe?" is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=921
Excerpts:
"Risk assessment is now applied to complex systems, often with no hard data. It is just computer modeling, and you can get any answer you want.
"Interactions in the ecosystem are non-linear, poorly predictable, and have irreversibilities...
"Risk assessment is the main tool used to impede the Precautionary Principle. It is presented as evidence that technologies are safe and accepted as hard 'proof' even when based on no data. There may be no methodology behind the opinions expressed in the risk assessment - and opinions are what they are - but they are taken as fact.
"What our regulators have is 'fact-free' risk assessment: there's little or no data, what relevant data that exist are simply ignored and dismissed, so they can conclude the risk is 'very, very low, effectively zero'."
"Gerald Guest of the US FDA pointed out possible problems with GM foods. But Monsanto's data all says 'low risk' or 'effectively zero'".
"An exposure assessment is needed; the doses of foods will be higher than with pharmaceuticals. Yet there is less testing on GM foods.
"American promoters of GM foods claim that Americans have been eating GM for a long time and there are no problems. But there is
* no baseline data
* no exposure data
* no human feeding trials
so it's an uncontrolled experiment! If GM foods are causing changes to common conditions (allergy, cancer, auto-immune disease) there is no way we could know."
"The lag time for cancers to develop can be 20 years, so if there were a risk from GM foods we would not know for about another 15 years.
- VYVYAN HOWARD, Medical toxi-pathologist at Liverpool University
"The known effects of the herbicide glufosinate ammonium [used with Bayer's GM crops] are sufficient to halt all field trials immediately...
"Glyphosate [used with Monsanto's GM crops] causes neurotoxicity and can cause complete paralysis. One man developed Parkinson's after just one exposure. The neurotoxicity tests originally done by Monsanto on glyphosate have been ruled invalid by US EPA. Glyphosate depresses the liver's ability to detoxify by interfering with enzymes. It also has neurotoxic effects and causes endocrine disorders, adrenal deficits, etc. It accumulates in the bone..."
"The thing that's dismayed me most is coming face-to-face with scientists who are not concerned about the truth." - MALCOLM HOOPER, Emeritus Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sunderland
FIND OUT MORE FROM THE INDEPENDENT SCIENCE PANEL WEBSITE
http://www.indsp.org/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPELA PROTEST
Dr Ignacio Chapela has been given a one-year extension on his contract with UC Berkeley but without the issue of tenure being resolved. Chapela was vilified and marginalized after he exposed GM contamination of native Mexican corn. Below is a link to the latest article about Chapela's protest at the lack of transparency in the review of his tenure.
Berkeley Professor Moves Office to Lawn
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2003/Ignacio-Chapela-Lawn1jul03.htm
It includes a couple of Paul Goettlich's photos of Chapela relaxing.
For articles on and by Ignacio Chapela
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2003/Ignacio-Chapela30jun03.htm
For the extraordinary lengths the biotech industry has gone in order to
try and discredit Chapela and his research
http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit3.html
http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit_index.html
Mexican scientist was threatened because he wanted to tell the truth --
Newsnight transcript on the Mexican Maize Scandal
http://ngin.tripod.com/080602d.htm
Prakash's AgBioView, which was at the heart of the hate attacks on Chapela reported above, has repsonded to his Berkeley tenure protest by running a piece in which Gordon Couger tells Chapela not to, "stupidly shoot off you (sic) moth (sic) in the intentional (sic) press and be proved wrong and expect a good outcome". Couger's verdict on the Chapela affair? "He could have been at Oklahoma and been fed to the hogs."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1024
*****HEAR IGNACIO CHAPELA SPEAKING IN THE UK*****
Corn Hall, St Nicholas Street, Diss, Norfolk, 8th July, 7:15pm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
MAN OF THE MONTH: MICHAEL MEACHER
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
With the sacking of environment minister Michael Meacher, Tony Blair's government has lost the last vestiges of pretence to environmental credibility. Meacher was reportedly given his marching orders after GM giant Bayer's Paul Rylott complained to Blair that the minister, remarkable for genuinely caring about the environment, stood in the way of GM commercialisation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=951
But Blair's loss is our gain, as Meacher has begun speaking out and writing about the risks of GM crops. See his brilliant article, "Are GM crops safe? Who can say? Not Blair"
(Independent on Sunday, 22 June 2003) at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=964
In the article, Meacher lists reports and findings which suggest that the full impact of GM technology is still dangerously unpredictable. Many of the health tests carried out are "scientifically vacuous", he points out.
In one of the most damning passages, he says: "The only human GM trial, commissioned ironically by the Food Standards Agency, found that genetically modified DNA did in fact transfer to bacteria in the human gut. Previously many scientists had denied that this was possible.
"But instead of this finding being regarded as a serious discovery which should be checked and re-checked, the spin was that this was nothing new and did not involve any health risk."
John Vidal wrote in the Guardian: "The first public step of the liberated Mr Meacher saw the backbencher in the Commons last week asking Tony Blair the sort of questions about GM food that the opposition has failed to ask in four years: 'Is the prime minister aware that there have been no human feeding trials in either the US or the UK to establish the health or biochemical effects of consuming GM foods? Does he agree that until such tests are carried out, an important option for the government when they are reaching a decision later this year is the exercise of the precautionary principle? Does he agree with that, and will he ensure it is taken on board very seriously?"" [Blair's reply, being mere waffle, is not worth repeating. And no, he doesn't know of any trials either.]
Meacher calls ACRE, the committee which advises the government on GM releases, "a body dominated by GM scientists. It should have scientists with a variety of views. It is not balanced at the moment."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=970
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=964
GM FOODS 'SAFE TO EAT'
Yet, according to the Evening Standard, 4th July 2003, 'Ministers are set to clear genetically modified food as safe to eat with no further tests on humans... If the Government's food watchdog - known as a strong supporter of GM - gives the food the all-clear, then ministers will not object or demand any further tests. The decision removes one of the two main hurdles standing in the way of GM crops being grown and sold in Britain.
The main watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, has carried out only one such study, with inconclusive results. It is not planning any more before the first decisions on whether to approve contracts to allow biotech companies to begin commercial crop cultivation are made. Asked whether he might order more research to reassure the public, even if the FSA deemed it unnecessary, Mr Morley said: "We would not feel the need to if the FSA was satisfied." '
http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/standard/article.html?in_article_id=187339&in_
page_id=194
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HYPOCRITE OF THE MONTH: LORD SAINSBURY
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY BUSINESS, CHARLIE!
Science minister Lord Sainsbury has launched an astonishing attack on Prince Charles, telling him he should keep his nose out of "politics". Lord Sainsbury hit out at Charles' interventions in public debates on GM foods, organic farming, the future of the countryside and nanotechnology. Sainsbury is a keen supporter of and investor in GM who has given multi-million pound donations to the Labour Party.
Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: "This is a rather strange perspective from an unelected politician sitting in the House of Lords who has continued to fund the party of Government while simultaneously being a member of the Government which elevated him to the peerage. He is not elected and he is only in office because he is a friend of the Prime Minister and is bankrolling the Labour Party. If Prince Charles should keep his nose out, so should Lord Sainsbury."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=952
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Having it grown in Canada, it's not an option. The costs are just too horrendous and it needs to be addressed."
- Adrian Measner, president and hief executive officer of the Canadian Wheat Board which is considering legal action to block GM wheat
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=985
The WTO case brought by the US has been described by Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute, as "far more than a food fight. In a very real sense, it's the same struggle recently demonstrated in Iraq."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=912
"President Bush is seeking legitimacy for his illegal activities, and one of his agendas is to push the genetically modified food on the African continent. Africa is not for sale."
- Motsoko Pheko, Pan Africanist Congress leader, who turned down an invitation to an official luncheon on July 9 in honour of US president George Bush. Pheko's reasons included that Bush had undermined the authority of the UN Security Council and waged an illegal war in Iraq, and was threatening other countries of the South. He had "falsified information about weapons of mass destruction" and displaced thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children in his unjustified war on that country, Pheko said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1037
Here's another African voice:
"Mr Bush does not sound at all like a philanthropist keen to deliver starving Africans from their misery; he sounds like a smooth-tongued salesman for American biotech. It is no secret that having invested billions of dollars in research, giant US food and biotechnology companies are increasingly frustrated that their products are not bringing in the projected financial returns... President Bush might be surprised to find that when it comes to such food, Africans do look a gift horse in the mouth!"
- One battle Bush won't win, Editorial, Daily Nation (Kenya), 25 June 2003
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=99
"Nobody has ever claimed that GM is the answer to world hunger."
- Tony Combes, Monsanto UK's director of corporate affairs, June 2003
http://www.sundayherald.com/34928
"We should encourage the spread of safe, effective biotechnology to win the fight against global hunger."
- George W. Bush, June 2003
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2974214
"As we stand on the edge of a new millennium, we dream of a tomorrow without hunger. Worrying about starving future generations won't feed them. Food biotechnology will."
- from Monsanto's European advertising campaign, 1998
"Biotechnology firms have been eager to use philanthropic African projects for public relations purposes. Such public legitimacy may be needed by companies in their attempts to reduce trade restrictions, biosafety controls and monopoly regulations."
- Aaron deGrassi in his new report on GM crops in Africa, quoted here:
http://www.sundayherald.com/34928
"An industry on the crutches of public subsidy for a quarter of a century, an industry that trembles in the face of the simplest token of precautionary research, is hardly an industry that deserves to carry the public trust, much less our best hope for recovery in a flagging economy. It would seem rational that our university - and the public - should strive to keep an independent source of advice on the wisdom of supporting such an industry. Rationality, however, must take a back seat when the university becomes grafted to a specific industry. Such has increasingly been the case at Berkeley and at other universities."
- Dr Ignacio Chapela, 26 June 2003
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1001
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
JOKES OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Meet Uncle Sam's very own GM INFORMATION MINISTER - code name:
Comical Praki - http://www.ngin.org.uk/comical_ali_animated.gif
Black propaganda, covert operations, Words of Mass Deception... Comical Praki's the man! For more on Comical Praki, see THE PANTS ON FIRE HOT SHOT: http://ngin.tripod.com/pantsoftheyearaward.htm
hmmm... knew we should have given this guy a pants award!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,969404,00.html
Go to http://www.google.com and type in "Weapons of Mass Destruction" on the search window. Click on the "I'm feeling lucky" tab instead of the Search tab. Read the error message!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CAMPAIGNS OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OPEN LETTER to George W. Bush - ADD YOUR NAME!
http://greens-efa.org/pdf/events/LabelGMFood/index_ENfinal.php/
In Europe: Join Friends of the Earth's CYBERACTION against Bush's attempt to bulldoze other countries' rights to reject GMOs. E-mail your US Ambassador here:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/global_trade/press_for_change/email_us_embass
y/
GIVE YOUR VIEW IN THE GM DEBATE (UK)
http://www.gmnation.org.uk/
You need to fill in the form on the site before 18 July 2003. Let them know what you think about growing GM crops in the UK.
IN THE UK? FAX YOUR MP
Encourage your Member of Parliament to sign the new Early Day Motion, already supported by a cross-party coalition of MPs, calling for an extension of the 18th July closing date public debate.
The EDM points out that while the government's public consultation on GM (www.gmnation.org.uk) is well underway (3rd June - 18th July) most of the evidence that would inform the debate is not yet published.
Don't forget you can fax them at http://www.faxyourmp.co.uk (please read the guidelines on that page). The EDM is number 1466.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBSCRIPTIONS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to the 'GMW daily' list
send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the message:
'subscribe GMW daily'
You'll receive up to 30 mails a week
To subscribe to the 'WEEKLY WATCH'
send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the message:
'subscribe WEEKLY WATCH'
You'll receive 1 mail a week with a news roundup
Those subscribed to the daily list will receive the WEEKLY WATCH
automatically
To subscribe to 'GMWATCH' (monthly)
send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the message:
'subscribe GMWATCH'
You'll receive 1 mail a month with a news roundup
Those subscribed to the daily bulletins and WEEKLY WATCH will receive
GMWATCH automatically
To unsubscribe to any of the these lists:
just mail us saying 'unsubscribe' and specifying which list
archived at:
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp
GMWATCH website:
http://www.ngin.org.uk
Donations made out to 'NGIN':
NGIN, 26 Pottergate, Norwich, NR2 1DX, United Kingdom
or e-mail for details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
