WEEKLY WATCH number 225
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
A biotech lobbyist and Canadian government employee is using bullyboy tactics to try and censor the output of GM Watch and GM-free Ireland.
In a major assault on free speech, involving legal threats against third parties if they fail to disable our site, the GM Watch site has been taken down while claims of "defamation" are investigated.
The good news is that our lists and our lobbywatch site - with its in-depth profiles of the biotech brigade - currently remain fully available, and you can see all the latest news in the lobbywatch archive: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive.asp
For all the background, see the article, 'Canadian Government attacks GM-free Ireland campaign' (scroll down to 9th August) here:
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php
On another note, the menace to society that biolabs pose, particularly now that so much bio research is GM, is highlighted this week in two stories from the UK and the US (GM BIOHAZARDS).
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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GM BIOHAZARDS
EUROPE
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
BIOFUELS
DVD REVIEW
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY / CLONING / GENE THERAPY AUSTRALASIA
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GM BIOHAZARDS
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+ UK: LAB LIKELY SOURCE OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH
Scientists suspect that the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the UK came from Pirbright government animal laboratory near the infected farm. The strain of foot-and-mouth disease found on the farm is identical to one used at a research laboratory a few miles away. The department said the strain had not recently been seen in live animals.
NLPWessex comments: "a paper submitted to the Journal of General Virology 31 October 2000 by UK government scientists from the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright indicates that they had been working on a genetically engineered recombinant DNA vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease.
"In the trials described in the journal in which pigs were challenged with live virus, the recombinant DNA vaccine only provided protection for some of the animals tested and 'was not as effective as conventional virus vaccine'. The paper also states: 'A particularly serious problem is that several outbreaks in Europe have been attributed to incomplete inactivation of the virus or to the escape of live virus from vaccine production laboratories.'"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8174
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8181
+ INSIDER REVEALS LAX SECURITY AT BIO-LAB
A worker has raised concerns about bio-security at Pirbright, the state-owned lab complex where the foot and mouth outbreak is believed to have originated, says an article in the Sunday Times. The site is also home to Merial, a manufacturer of foot-and-mouth vaccine.
Percy Ravate, a contract worker, was struck down with life-threatening Legionnaires' disease, which he believes he caught while repairing pipework at the Pirbright complex in Surrey. He said basic health and safety procedures were flouted, he was allowed to roam around laboratories and security measures such as checking visitors were not enforced.
A reader commented on the Sunday Times website: "What a disasterous scenario, first spread the disease by allowing it to escape, and then sell everyone the vaccine to combat it."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8196
+ U.S.: BIOTECH OR BIOHAZARD?
From The Independent Weekly:
Smallpox could be coming to Butner [North Carolina]. Or anthrax. Or Rift Valley fever, which is passed from infected animals and biting insects to humans. It can cause its victims' brains to swell and their organs to hemorrhage. Then they die.
These are among the diseases that could be studied at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a new 520,000-square-foot federal laboratory designed to research and combat the world's deadliest germs and potential biological weapons. Umstead Research Farm near Butner, less than a half-hour from Durham and Raleigh, is among five finalist locations for the lab.
... at dozens of private and government labs operating at lower bio-security levels, such as at Texas A&M and Fort Detrick, Md., human error or negligence compromised the facilities' safety and security. Viruses or bacteria escaped. Employees got sick. Others were infected. Those are the accidents we know about.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8175
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EUROPE
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+ FINLAND: COMPANY FACES GM DEMO
A group of some 50 demonstrators gathered in Forssa in southern Finland to demonstrate against an earlier decision by LSO Foods to import GM soy protein to make pig feed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8184
+ EVIDENCE THAT GM FEED IS HARMFUL
There are some useful points and links to research in GM-free Ireland's response to the recent claim by the European Food Safety Authority that there's no evidence GM feed is harmful, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8172
A summary by Jeffrey Smith of research on GM foods and reproductive failures is at: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8194
+ TOMATO MONSTER TOURS BALKANS AND BULGARIA
A Tomato Monster from the Belgian branch of the Friends of the Earth is on tour of the Balkans this summer after completing a tour of Bulgaria. The tour is designed to raise awareness of GM foods and to have Bulgaria and Europe as a whole declared GM-free.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8198
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AFRICA
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+ ZAMBIA ADAMANT: NO GM
The Zambian government has rejected a call by a group of scientific, agricultural and nongovernmental organisations to use GM crops to reduce poverty and hunger, says an article for SciDev.net.
The group - consisting of AfricaBio, the Africa Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum, Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International, Biotechnology-Ecology Research and Outreach Consortium (BioEROC) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA) - released a joint press statement endorsing the use of GMOs, which was published in the Times of Zambia.
Responding to the statement, Zambian minister of agriculture and cooperatives, Ben Kapita, said, "We have always said that Zambia will not be used as a dumping place for GMO products."
GM Watch comment: What's fascinating about this article, and others that have emerged since Kofi Annan dismissed GM crops as a means of feeding Africa, is the array of comments supporting GM from apparently diverse groups and spokespeople, all of whom link to industry-backed lobby groups.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8167
More on industry's aggrieved response to Zambia's stance and to Kofi Annan's announcement:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8180
+ NEW GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA: TROJAN HORSE FOR GMOs?
Many GM and biosafety projects have been initiated in Africa under the guise of a second Green Revolution, with the aim of introducing GMOs into Africa's agricultural systems, says a new report by Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety. The report concludes that the Green and Gene revolutions are nothing more than red herrings to avoid sustainable development interventions that address historical inequalities and give farmers real choices within an ecologically sustainable framework built on people-centred and traditional and cultural value systems.
The report is entitled, "The New Green Revolution in Africa: Trojan Horse for GMOs?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8173
+ NON-GM DROUGHT-RESISTANT RICE IN PIPELINE
Japanese researchers have made progress in breeding non-GM drought-resistant rice, which is intended for planting in Africa and other dry regions. This and other stories are covered in the GM Freeze briefing, "Force-feeding: GM's impact on the global south", at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8165
+ SOUTH AFRICA REJECTS THIRD GM APPLICATION
The South African GM authority has refused the first ever application for experimentation of GM bulbs and flowers outside a laboratory. According to the applicant, Afriflowers, the authority was not satisfied that adequate safety information had been furnished to justify the approval.
This is the third "contained use" application turned down by the EC in the past year. Earlier, two contained use applications involving GM sorghum had been turned down on biosafety grounds. This year, ARC's application to field test GM cassava was turned down.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8201
+ SOUTH AFRICA NEEDS CAUTIOUS APPROACH TO GMOs - POLITICIAN
SA had to adopt a "cautious" approach to the use of GMOs to protect the public interest, Parliament's environmental and tourism committee chairman Langa Zita said. Zita opened the committee's public hearings on the safety of GMOs and the lack of mandatory labelling of GMO foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8173
+ KENYANS SHOULD BE WARY OF THOSE PUSHING GM
Biotech lobbyists are pushing GMOs on Kenya, but the country should be wary, according to an article by John Mbaria for The Nation. Kenyan politicians have been flown out to Makhatini to see the (failing) Bt cotton project there, and have returned determined to take Kenya down the same route.
Mbaria warns that the country's biosafety bill "is fashioned as if the question of whether or not the country ought to embrace GM foods is no longer a consideration" and that it is silent on biosafety issues.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8200
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THE AMERICAS
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+ U.S. GROCERY GIANT SWITCHES TO MILK FREE OF HORMONES
One of the nation's largest retail grocery chains has announced plans to switch to milk free of GM hormones. The announcement from Kroger Co. is another blow to Monsanto, which already had been reducing inventory of its GM milk production-boosting hormone rBGH as Starbucks and other retailers rejected it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8176
+ CHINA CHIDED, U.S. CONDUCTS BUSINESS AS USUAL
China has been in the news lately for its contaminated exports, but the US is also producing products that contain hazardous chemicals, reports New America Media.
"The criticism of China is well-based, but we need to listen to the facts that there are a wide range of hazardous chemicals in US products," said Dr Samuel S. Epstein, chair of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.
Epstein said that the foremost concern should be contaminated US beef and milk. Producers inject dairy cows with a Monsanto GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase milk production. One third of US herds are injected.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8191
+ MONSANTO SEEKS USD 100M FROM SANDOZ
Monsanto has said that it is seeking to recover in excess of USD 100 million in damages from Novartis AG's Sandoz subsidiary. Monsanto wants to recover damages it says were caused by Sandoz's inadequate quality assurance programme and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issuance of a warning letter to Sandoz's pharmaceutical facility in Kundl, Austria, which contracted to supply Monsanto's rBGH hormone.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8176
+ MONSANTO'S SMALL SPILL NOW A BIG PROBLEM
A University of West Florida (UWF) study has found potentially unsafe levels of PCBs in mullet and other fish in the Pensacola Bay System. The PCB "hotspot" is in upper Escambia Bay and the lower Escambia River. According the study, an industrial plant on the river - at the time it was Monsanto - discharged one to three gallons a day of PCBs during the late 1960s.
Interesting comment from Dick Snyder, associate director of UWF's Center for Diagnostics and Bioremediation and author of the study: "Every dead dolphin we find is subject to an autopsy to measure heavy metals and other contaminants. What we've found is that levels of PCB in male dolphins rise with age, but stay flat in females. The pups have high levels. Why? They [the females] are dumping their PCBs through their milk, which is full of fat [PCBs accumulate in fat], to their pups."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8177
+ LAWSUIT RAISES LID ON MONSANTO SCANDALS
A lawsuit filed by equity holders of Solutia, Monsanto's spun-off chemicals division that went bankrupt some years ago, objects to Solutia's motion for approval of the Monsanto retiree settlement. The lawsuit, which details some of the pollution scandals that Monsanto has caused, charges that
**Monsanto created Solutia as a vehicle to dump massive environmental liabilities generated decades before the spinoff; and that
**at the spinoff, Monsanto knew it was transferring billions in remediation costs and toxic tort liabilities to an undercapitalized Solutia
**Monsanto used the businesses that became Solutia as an ATM [cash machine], churning out dollars for biotech R&D.
Well, naturally. It's difficult to believe that the investors in Solutia were blind to motives that even at the time of the spin-off were as obvious as the fact that bears defecate in woods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8189
+ ROUNDUP READY ALFALFA CLAIMS DISPUTED
The biotech lobby has blamed "organic activists and environmental extremist groups" for the recent court ruling banning the planting of GM alfalfa in the US. But alfalfa's significance to the burgeoning organic industry points toward a different reality, says a reader's letter to The Prairie Star: "The organic food industry was worth $17 billion in 2006, and continues to grow by about 20 percent each year (compared to the conventional food industry's rate of 2 to 3 percent). Organic alfalfa is an essential component to this growth."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8178
+ BIOTECH AND THE FACADE OF U.S. ALTRUISM
Recent years have seen the rise of the bourgeois romantic, the type of person who thinks that the problems of poverty and hunger can be solved by the free market, says a good article by Jessica Long for Information Clearing House. "A bourgeois romantic," she writes, "is a hypocritical capitalist: one whose intentions are socialist but whose priorities are capitalist. They are the 'good intentioned' proponents of free trade."
However, "What they refuse to acknowledge is that free trade is anything but free. Although it allows the global North free market range, it leaves the global South in shackles." Read on at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8170
+ GMOs "A WOMEN'S ISSUE", INSISTS AUTHOR OF NEW BOOK
The stronger side of the US debate over GM food is driven by motives that are "blatantly economic, tossing aside safety," said Moira Gunn, National Public Radio host and author of a new book.
"I'm concerned about a society in which one can get a significant change - no matter how tiny this fragment is - into the American food supply without scientific testing," she said. "That's wrong."
Gunn's book is titled, "Welcome to Biotech Nation: My Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Small Molecules, Lean Genes and Big Ideas".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8202
+ CANADA: GREENPEACE CARVES QUESTION MARK ON GM CROP
Greenpeace activists cut a 61-metre-long question mark inside a crop circle in an Abbotsford, British Columbia, cornfield in protest of the absence of GM food labelling in Canada.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8184
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ASIA
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+ SIXTY-TWO PER CENT REVENUE DECLINE FOR MAHYCO-MONSANTO
In India, Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech reported a revenue decline of 62 percent in 2006/07. Monsanto India has seen revenues erode since 2004/05. India's hesitation to allow sale of GM food and cash crops other than cotton is cramping growth of the industry, analysts say.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8182
+ ASIA'S NOBEL PRIZE GOES TO JOURNALIST WHO HELPED EXPOSE BT COTTON SCANDAL
The Indian journalist Palagummi Sainath has been awarded the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award (often considered Asia's Nobel Prize) for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts.
In selecting P Sainath as the winner, the trustees recognized "his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India's consciousness, moving the nation to action."
Among the many stories about the plight of the rural poor that P Sainath brought to light is the "devastating" (his word) impact of multinationals like Monsanto on debt-burdened farmers in states like Maharashtra, where not just Monsanto but the state government has worked flat-out to promote Bt cotton. You can read his article on this topic, which GM Watch chose as "Best article of 2006", at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8171
+ GM COTTON CULTIVATION STARTS IN BENGAL
West Bengal has started Bt cotton field trials. The article reporting this development in United News of India comments, "The cultivation of Monsanto's Bt cotton in Vidarbha - the main cotton growing belt of Maharashtra - resulted in disaster. Literally hundreds of farmers committed suicide due to total failure of the Bt cotton crop and their resulting debts." Vidarbha farmers' suicide toll has now crossed the 550 mark.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8168
+ "STATE SHOULD OPT FOR ORGANIC FARMING" - TRADE ANALYST
Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma has advised Karnataka to reduce the cost of cultivation by switching to organic farming in a bid to put an end to the disturbing trend of farmers' suicides.
He also expressed concern that India was shy of using its native farm technologies, unlike other countries. Citing an example, Sharma said that the watershed model of Tamil Nadu had been adopted by Texas university, while Brazil had become a leading exporter of three Indian cow breeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8190
+ CHILD LABOUR IN BT COTTON FIELDS
In 2003 it emerged that around 17,000 children were being used by Monsanto and its Indian subsidiary Mahyco in hazardous forms of child labour in cotton seed production in India. Children were working 13 hours a day for less than 40 Eurocents (Rs. 20) and were exposed to poisonous pesticides. They were also getting no education.
More than 11,000 children were found to be working under similar conditions for the following multinationals: Syngenta (Swiss), Advanta (Dutch-British) and Proagro (owned by Bayer from Germany).
Studies showed that at the heart of the child labour problem was the low amount these multinationals were paying farmers for cultivation of their highly profitable cotton seed. The payments were so low that the farmers would make a net loss if they stopped using children and hired adults at the local minimum wage.
Monsanto claimed it would redress the situation. But an article for Times Now suggests the problem of child labour in Bt cotton fields may be slipping under the radar.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8193
+ SPILLED GM CANOLA IN JAPAN - NEW SURVEY
NO! GMO Campaign has published the findings of a survey of spilled GM canola found growing in Japan. A total of 1617 samples were tested and of these 37 showed up as GM positive. The samples were collected in ports where canola is imported, around factories where canola oil is extracted, along canola transportation routes, in urban areas, and on farmland.
Another finding, according to surveys led by Prof Masaharu Kawata (Yokkaichi University) in Mie prefecture between 2005 and 2007, is that GM canola is becoming perennial. According to Prof Kawata, "There are leaf mustard and conventional rapeseed growing around the spilled GM canola plants, so it is only a matter of time before they are crossed and contaminated by GMOs. Also, some other cruciferous vegetables like Japanese radish and Chinese cabbage are in danger of GM contamination."
The findings demonstrate how a GM crop can have a significant environmental impact even on a country where its cultivation is banned.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8179
+ LETHAL CONTAMINANT WAS DELIBERATELY ADDED TO PET FOOD
US investigators think that Chinese companies added melamine - a byproduct of coal burning that inflates protein levels in feed - to pet food to deceive buyers seeking higher-quality feed. The contamination was blamed for the illnesses and deaths of hundreds of pets in the US. The Chinese government portrayed the practice as the scheme of two rogue companies. But the idea actually may have been sparked by state-sponsored research.
In 2003, the Chinese academic journal Feed Review published an article with information on how to boost the protein content of animal feed by mixing in unconventional industrial ingredients such as melamine.
The article that reports this story also comments on GM contamination of rice in China.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8197
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BIOFUELS
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+ REVOLVING DOOR AND BIOFUELS
Helena Paul, author of Hungry Corporations, tells us that on 6 August, BBC Radio 4's You and Yours did a feature on GM and biofuels.
Contributors were Colin Merritt, Monsanto and director of North East Biofuels; Ian Shield, Agronomist at Rothamsted Research; Nick Vandervell, UK Petroleum Industry Association; and Bernie Bulkin, UK government adviser on sustainable development.
Bernie Bulkin is a former chief scientist at BP (from which he retired in 2003) and now chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) Steering Group on Climate Change.
"New Labour" consulted closely with BP and other large corporations prior to its election to government in 1997. Old friends have not been forgotten and Bernie now advises the government on sustainable development and chairs the SDC Steering Group on Climate Change, Energy and Transport. The SDC describes itself as "Government's independent watchdog on sustainable development".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8188
+ FEW DEFEND UC BERKELY LAB IN HEATED MEETING
Berkeley residents came to a meeting to share concerns about the agrofuels deal between UC Berkeley and BP, and by the time it had ended, only one voice (UCB professor David Chandler) had been raised in its unconditional defense. The harshest critiques were leveled at the $160 million Helios Energy Research Facility and its primary use as the designated home of the Energy Biosciences Institute, the alternative fuel research programme bankrolled by BP. Citizens' concerns centred around the environmental impact of the lab and of the science that would be conducted there.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8192
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DVD REVIEW
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+ HIDDEN DANGERS IN KIDS' MEALS - DVD
A GM Watch review of Jeffrey Smith's DVD, "Hidden Dangers in Kids' Meals", is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8186
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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY / CLONING / GENE THERAPY
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+ SYNBIO HYPE
Following the Synthetic Biology 3.0 conference in Zurich, Switzerland, Gregor Wolbring of Innovation Watch comments, "It ... appears that synbio is suffering from the hyperbole and sales pitches that plague so many scientific endeavours. With a multitude of new and emerging technologies in need of funding, researchers try to outdo each other in promising solutions to every problem that has some visibility."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8192
+ MORE ON GENE THERAPY DEATH
In the wake of yet another gene therapy death (previously reported by GM Watch) during an arthritis drug trial, questions are being asked as to why the FDA approved a clinical trial using a risky treatment to address a non-life threatening condition.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8192
+ S. KOREAN WOLF CLONING TEAM UNDER INVESTIGATION
South Korean scientists, disgraced for massive fraud in stem cell studies, are being investigated for possibly manipulating data in a paper on producing the world's first cloned wolves.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8192
+ STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGHS ALWAYS AROUND THE NEXT CORNER
Geron, the leading private firm trying to commercialize human embryonic stem cell products, has stated that clinical trials will occur "next year" - for the fourth year in a row. An article for the Biopolitical Times points out that in the field of stem cell research, the great breakthrough is always "just around the bend" - thus whipping up a constant supply of research funds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8192
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ FARMERS' GROUP SLAMS PRO-GM REPORT
The Network of Concerned Farmers has hit out at a new grains industry report which endorses the production of GM canola in Australia.
The report, by Single Vision Australia, says GM and conventional canola crops could be segregated and that pollination contamination would not lock growers out of conventional markets. It also says Canada is receiving better prices for GM canola than Australia is for non-GM varieties.
But network member Arthur Bowman refutes the findings. "Canada tried to segregate for the sake of their markets and they couldn't do it," he said. "Right now we can sell anywhere throughout the world.
"As was quoted by Kim Chance, last year we were selling at a premium to Canadian prices in 2006 and we have also had another report from Mark Martin from Market Ag saying that canola prices this year will again produce a premium because of the fact that we have a GM-free product."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8185
"No-one anywhere is shopping for GM foods so why would we grow them?" - Gene Ethics Director, Bob Phelps
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8195
+ TRANS-TASMAN RIFT OVER GM CORN
A split has emerged between New Zealand and Australia over the approval of a GM corn. The New Zealand Food Safety Minister has overridden the joint food authority's approval of the corn for human consumption.
New Zealand has deferred the approval of Monsanto's high lysine GM corn under its food safety guidelines. The corn is engineered to add weight to pigs and poultry but has been approved for human consumption by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8169