from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all:
Bayer's illegal GM rice - grown only in trials that ended in 2001 - continues to cause massive problems for the U.S. rice industry, withcontamination found across Europe. Meanwhile, a nutter in the Parliament of Western Australia is gagging to have GM trials. Fortunately, the government and others of sound mind have voted him and his Party down. (AUSTRALASIA)
And don't forget to read about Monsanto's "blood money" and the killing they've been making by exploiting poor farmers in India. (ASIA)
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
LEADING SCIENTISTS CONCERNED
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
LOBBYWATCH
MIDDLE EAST
BIOFUELS
RISK ASSESSMENT
------------------------------------------------------------
GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
------------------------------------------------------------
+ USDA TO RUBBER-STAMP CONTAMINATION OF FOOD WITH ILLEGAL GM RICE
The US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) has initiated fast-track market approval of Bayer's illegal GM rice variety - LL601 - that has contaminated long-grain rice, throwing rice markets into turmoil and potentially causing harm to consumers and the environment. Bayer field-tested LL601 from 1998-2001, but for unknown reasons never applied to USDA for market approval.
"Illegal, potentially hazardous rice [is] in grain bins, on supermarket shelves, in cereal, beer, baby foods, and all rice products. It should be a no-brainer - recall this stuff to make sure no one eats it," said Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety. "Instead, USDA plans to rush through 'market approval' of a GM rice that Bayer itself decided was unfit for commerce. Why? To free Bayer from liability." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7006
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7018
+ TELL USDA *NOT* TO APPROVE ILLEGAL GM RICE
Take action: http://ga3.org/campaign/LLRice
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has filed a legal petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that seeks to prevent the post hoc approval of an illegal genetically engineered rice recently found in the world's food supply.
"USDA's stamp of approval to genetically engineered rice after it has illegally contaminated the food supply would set a dangerous precedent, rewarding the biotech industry's negligence and thereby making similar contamination episodes more likely in the future," said Miyoko Sakashita, staff attorney at CFS. Links to legal petition and summary here: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7031
+ US SUPPLY CHAIN "SEVERELY DISRUPTED"
A statement by the major UK rice importer Tilda Rice says, "The US supply chain to Europe is now severely disrupted." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7008
+ GM RICE CONTAMINATION WIDESPREAD
The European Commission has confirmed that 33 out of 162 results of rice samples carried out by members of the European Federation of Rice Millers tested positive for the LL601 strain.
"Any consignments which tested positive have already been recalled or withheld from the market and the Federation's members have committed to continuing such withdrawals for any positive findings," the European Commission said. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7014
+ FOOD INDUSTRY ALARMED
The existence of unapproved GM rice in Europe has shaken the food industry, the Financial Times has reported.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7018
+ SWISS RETAILERS BLOCK SALE OF US RICE
In Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, the country's largest retailer, Migros, has confirmed finding traces of the rice. Both Migros and their rival Coop have suspended sales of long-grain rice from the US. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7025
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7020
+ TAINTED RICE IN GERMANY
Greenpeace tests revealed that the illegal rice has contaminated rice on the shelves of the supermarket Aldi in Germany. Aldi has pulled the rice in question from the shelves.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7012
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7018
+ ...AND IN FRANCE AND SWEDEN
France and Sweden have also discovered the illegal rice in imported US supplies. French tests revealed the banned GMO was in more than a third of samples tested (7 out of 19).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7019
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7031
+ PHILIPPINES AT RISK
The Philippines is at serious risk from illegal GM rice contamination. "In Southeast Asia rice is the staple diet. The Philippines is among the countries most at risk because we import rice and rice products from both the US and China," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia's Daniel Ocampo. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7020
+ USDA DON'T HAVE A CLUE
USDA has said it is too soon to determine how much of an unapproved GM rice strain has entered the food supply. USDA chief spokeswoman Terri Teuber admitted, "In terms of where it might be and where it might not be, I don't think USDA is equipped in any way to assess or predict where that might be." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7019
+ BAYER SEEKS EU APPROVAL FOR SIMILAR GM RICE
Bayer has applied for permission to market in the EU a Liberty herbicide-resistant rice similar to the banned contaminant LL601 rice. See open letter to the 25 EU Member States: Reject Bayer's application to import GM rice into the EU:
http://www.cbgnetwork.com/300.html
------------------------------------------------------------
LEADING SCIENTISTS CONCERNED OVER GM RICE
------------------------------------------------------------
+ POTENTIAL ALLERGENICITY OF GM RICE SPARKS CONCERN
In a statement 3 leading international scientists have expressed their concern about the unapproved experimental GM rice found in Europe in products from China. The GM rice contains a toxin with significant potential allergenicity, according to Professor Ian F.Pryme, Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, and Dr. Christian Velot.
The rice contains a gene for the Cry1Ac protein, or possibly for a fusion Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac protein with similar immunogenic properties to Cry1Ac3. Cry1Ac, the scientists point out, "has not been approved for human consumption in any food crop and there is concern over its potential allergenicity." Research into the gene for Cry1Ac has found that "the Cry1Ac protoxin is a potent immunogen."
"Studies following the steps recommended by the FAO/WHO expert consultation to evaluate allergenicity should be conducted by independent scientists, and their results published in peer-reviewed journals to allow evaluation of food safety. In addition, further studies into the potential allergenicity of Cry1Ac and other Bt proteins should be undertaken as a matter of the utmost urgency."
For full statement and references: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7023
------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ ANOTHER SUSTAINABLE AG ACTIVIST SLAIN IN PHILIPPINES
41-year-old Ka Victor Olaivar, a member of the Bohol farmers' network fighting against GMOs and palm oil plantations, was gunned down in cold blood on a bridge in Cantubod, Danao on September 7, 2006. Bohol was the first province in the Philippines to declare itself GMO-free.
His murder follows the slaying earlier this year of Ilagan City Mayor, Delfinito "Jojo" Albano, who supported peasant protests against the spread of GM crops in the Philippines. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7016
+ THAI ACTIVIST FACES POSSIBLE 5-YEAR PRISON SENTENCE
Thai Greenpeace activist Patwajee Srisuwan faces three criminal charges as a result of her campaign against GM papaya. The maximum penalty, if she is found guilty, is five years imprisonment.
Two years ago, Patwajee Srisuwan was one of a group of Greenpeace protesters who climbed over the barbed wire fence onto the experimental plot where GM papaya trees were planted at at Khon Kaen Agricultural Research Station, a unit of the Department of Agriculture (DOA). They harvested the fruit and dumped it into bins designated for toxic waste, sealed the containers, and left them at the entrance to the station.
Patwajee Srisuwan said, "Upon learning that virtually every day, some GM seeds have been leaked to the public from the KK station, we realised the problem must be handled immediately. One single papaya could give thousands of seeds and the spread would become exponential, and totally out of control. My lawyers compared it to warning the public that our house is now on fire.'' http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7027
+ GLOBALISATION AFTER 9/11
Devinder Sharma notes how post 9/11, with governments bending over backwards to side with the US, the US has used bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) to aggressively pursue its own interests, including the promotion of "agricultural biotechnology".
A classic example of this arose in FTA negotiations with Thailand, as became clear when the Thai Environment minister went public with objections to the US insisting Thailand grow GM crops as a condition of an FTA.
Just 2 months later, the Thai Prime Minister suddenly announced that Thailand's GM moratorium would be abandoned. Only a powerful campaign of opposition by Thai farmers, exporters and campaigners prevented this from happening.
Amongst the most vocal opponents were Thailand's leading rice exporters who described open-field trials of GM crops as "a big mistake which would jeopardise Thailand's rice markets overseas."
How right they were. But alarmingly, Devinder reports that "close to 200 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) - a misnomer for one-way trade - are being negotiated or have already been signed."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7013
+ PROTEST AGAINST BT BRINJAL FIELD TRIALS
This week eminent molecular biologist Dr Pushpa Bhargava, Greenpeace and representatives of the consumer coordination council came together in Delhi to protest against the proposed field trials of GM brinjal (aubergine/eggplant).
At a press conference, Dr Bhargava stressed the need for banning field trials of GM brinjal. He said given the appalling bio-safety risk assessment protocols in place today, there was no case for large-scale field trials. The veracity of these risk assessments was also not authentic, as these were carried out by the same companies that were marketing the crop.
Greenpeace India said the manipulated gene found to be tainting banned rice in China is the same one that is being introduced into the brinjal. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7003
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7017
+ EXPERT PANEL ON BT BRINJAL HAS CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
India's GM regulatory body, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), has set up an expert panel under the chairmanship of the vice-chancellor of Delhi University, Dr Deepak Pental, to review health and environmental concerns surrounding the Bt brinjal developed by Mahyco, Monsanto's partner in India.
But a group of NGOs has pointed out that Dr Deepak Penthal, who has been appointed chair of this committee, is a known biotech promoter and his university is undertaking the same system of biosafety testing as is currently present for Bt brinjal, GM mustard and other GM crops. Therefore, there is a serious conflict of interest in appointing him, given that that his own project's future would be determined by the committee's recommendations. In addition, this supposedly independent committee is loaded with members of the GEAC. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7024
+ FARMERS UPROOT WILTED BT COTTON
Farmers in Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh, who planted Bt cotton have started uprooting it, unable to watch the plants dying due to severe wilt.
Farmers complain that the plants are slowly dying because the root system is severely decomposed without any secondary and tertiary roots on the main root system. Even the bolls formed on these wilted plants did not bear any seeds.
Since the beginning of Bt cotton cultivation in AP, every year disasters have visited it. In the first year, it yielded 35% less than the non-Bt cotton while costing four times more. In the third year, new diseases spread for the soils and the plant. Cattle which grazed Bt cotton plants started dying. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7001
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7015
+ BLOOD MONEY - MONSANTO MAKES A KILLING
Business must be booming for Monsanto, judging by the recent payouts to its board of directors and top executives. Take Monsanto's chairman, president and chief executive officer, Hugh Grant. Although Grant's annual salary is $1.04 million, he's made more than double that in the past year in bonuses ($2.2 million), apart from another $12.5 million in stock option profits. Then there's what's termed "miscellaneous pay". All in all, the company has shelled out $16.1 million in total pay to Grant in the last year.
Muchof the company's revenue comes from maximising its returns on GM seeds and traits. And nowhere have those seeds and traits proved more popular than in the big Indian cotton growing state of Maharashtra, where farmers have bought into a bigger acreage of Bt cotton than anywhere else in India.
But the price paid for the hyping of expensive Bt cotton seeds to poor farmers has been a high one. A comparative study of cotton growing in Maharashtra shows 68% lower incomes for Bt cotton farmers.
The award-winning Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu newspaper, P. Sainath, was asked recently "about the presence of multinationals in agricultural inputs." This is what he said:
"...Firstly, Bt cotton technologies are themselves suspect in a number of ways. However, promoting them in a dry and un-irrigated area like Vidarbha was murderous. It was stupid, it was killing. ...Monsanto was making a royalty of Rs 1250. Coming back to the MNC's, their role in the crisis has been devastating. One, they have been able to corrupt and lobby government policy very significantly changing it in their favour and against the farmers."
As indebted Bt cotton farmers continue to take their lives, unable to repay the loans they took out to buy the expensive seeds, it's sobering to consider how much of the fat-cat payouts in St Louis are the result of aggressive marketing aimed at squeezing every last rupee out of farmers in places like Maharashtra. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7010
+ MONSANTO ANXIOUS OVER PRICING OF BT COTTON SEED
If you wondered what possible defence could be made of Monsanto's actions in India, here it is.
GM cotton seed, we're told in an article for The Hindu, has "revolutionised cotton cultivation in India", despite which, Monsanto's being forced to reduce the selling price "by effecting a substantial cut in its fee."
Substantial cut? Monsanto's dropped the price - under duress - by just 20 rupees (Rs)!
To put that reduction into context, on a pack of Bt cotton seeds that was retailing for Rs 1850 (3 x the price of non-GM cotton seeds), Monsanto's been making a royalty of Rs 1250! http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7029
------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ GM WHEAT STILL SHUNNED
There's been more coverage of Robert Wisner of the annual update by Robert Wisner of Iowa State University of his 2003 study "Market Risks of Genetically Modified Wheat."
Wisner found that introducing GM wheat would risk the loss of a quarter of US hard red spring and wheat durum export markets and would cut prices about one-third, as earlier reports have concluded.
Syngenta and others are continuing to develop GM wheat that would protect a crop from Fusarium head blight, or scab. But Todd Leake of Emerado, North Dakota, a commercial farmer and chairman of the DRC's Food Safety Task Force, called scab "yesterday's problem", noting the success of North Dakota State University's Alsen wheat variety with its "excellent Fusarium resistance." He said success of conventional techniques is something proponents of genetic modification "publicly ignore". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7007
+ CALIFORINA DEANS REAFFIRM SUPPORT FOR GM
Deans of three colleges of the University of California - Berkeley, Riverside and Davis - have reaffirmed their support for GM. They wrote a joint statement for the July-September issue of the university's publication California Agriculture.
UC Berkeley was, of course, party to the notorious Syngenta tie-up (or should that be buy-up) - a $25 million deal - not to mention the persecution of the deal's main opponent, Dr Ignacio Chapela.
UC Davis is also deeply involved with biotech interests with nearby Calgene (now owned by Monsanto) a "startup" project from UC Davis funding. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7030
+ MARKET BOOSTS ORGANIC WHILE GMOs WANE
An article in California's Arcata Eye says GM crops are being upstaged by organic farming in Humboldt, as biotech trends continue to be offset by economic and political forces.
The growing demand for organic products, particularly dairy products, is being met with an increase in local organic farming. With Humboldt's organic farming economy ascending, the use of GM crops is believed to be on the wane, as local dairies are increasingly switching from conventional to organic production.
And the local campaign to protect crop integrity through voter-approved legislation will soon re-emerge. The treasurer and co-chair of the Humboldt Green Genes coalition has said that a new anti-GMO ballot measure campaign will focus on the spring 2008 election.
That effort is still viable thanks to the recent rejection of Senate Bill 1056, the so-called "Monsanto law," named after its corporate sponsor, which would have blocked counties and cities from passing GMO bans. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6999
------------------------------------------------------------
AFRICA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ MORE ON FAILED GM CASSAVA PROJECT
A report in the East African press details the failure of the Danforth Center's GM cassava project in Africa. It also suggests the Center has been shifting direction to opening doors to growing GM cassava not to feed the hungry but for biofuels for the US market.
According to critics of the project, a senior scientist at Danforth Centre, Dr Claude Fauquet, admitted as much when he said in a briefing paper that the "acquisition of the cassava genome sequence will... [ultimately] position cassava as a valuable source of renewable bio-energy." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7011
+ MONSANTO BUILDS A MARKET AMONG SOUTH AFRICA'S POOR
In an effort to wean farmers onto its products and gain positive PR exposure, in South Africa, Monsanto is giving away Combi-Packs - hybrid or GM seed, herbicide and fertilizer boxed with pictograph instructions suited to small-scale growers.
It's worth remembering what's happened to small-scale growers in India, where expensive GM seeds - hyped by Monsanto and its Indian joint venture, Mahyco-Monsanto - have pushed costs way beyond many farmers' means. The result? Farmers have been drinking pesticides, hanging themselves or even burning themselves to death in unprecedented numbers. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7009
+ BILL AND MELINDA GATES DO AFRICAN AG.
Comments and coverage of the new Gates and Rockefeller Foundations' initiative on agriculture for Africa is at: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7026
------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
------------------------------------------------------------
+ WESTERN AUSTRALIA PARLIAMENT VOTES DOWN COMMERCIAL GM TRIALS
While legal and commercial mayhem has broken out in the US rice industry as a result of gene escape from GM trials several years back, the Liberal Party in Western Australia is apparently gagging to have commercial GM trials on the basis of pie in the sky about non-existent GM "frost-tolerant and salt-tolerant crops".
The opposition wants GM canola grown in a pilot program next year with a view to full commercial release. However, the government does not support lifting the moratorium on GM crops, saying WA farmers are able to attract higher prices for their crops because international markets have reservations about GM food. Now, the WA Liberal Party proposal to allow commercial trials of GM canola has been defeated in Parliament. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7028
------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
------------------------------------------------------------
+ "FRENCH FRIED REACTIONARY STILL HURTING POOR PEOPLE" - SAY MONSANTO'S LOBBYISTS
The Center for Consumer Freedom has reported French activist Jose Bove's latest anti-GM crop action as follows:
"As Bove's detractors (otherwise known as "scientists") point out, genetically modified foods - which grow faster and are more disease-resistant than their "natural" counterparts - have saved millions of people from starving to death."
But any scientists who made such claims would be out and out liars. There is no evidence that GM plants "grow faster", let alone that they've ever saved anybody from "starving to death"!
The claim about GM saving "millions" is justified via a quote about the Green Revolution. And whatever its merits or otherwise, the Green Revolution involved conventional breeding and had nothing to do with GM.
So who's behind this misinformation? Thanks to a whistle blower, it's known that one of the biggest funders of this garbage is Monsanto, which has given $200,000 to those behind the Center for Consumer Freedom, Berman & Company Inc. Berman & Co is a public relations firm based in Washington DC which aggressively targets groups seeking to promote controls relating to alcohol, tobacco, food safety, animal rights or the environment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=180
------------------------------------------------------------
MIDDLE EAST
------------------------------------------------------------
+ NEW NON-GM HYBRIDS DRIVE EGYPT'S WORLD-BEATING RICE YIELD
Egypt achieved the worlds highest national average rice yield in 2005, with production boosted by non-GM hybrids developed locally under an FAO-led project.
Whilst no GM crop variety has increased overall yield, non-GM techniques continue to do so, despite the fact that the biotech lobbyists keep saying conventional breeding has reached the end of the road and only GM offers a way forward! http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7004
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7021
------------------------------------------------------------
BIOFUELS
------------------------------------------------------------
+ ETHANOL COULD LEAVE THE WORLD HUNGRY
Syngenta hopes in 2008 to begin selling a GM corn designed to help convert itself into ethanol. But the growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food, says an article in Fortune Magazine.
EXCERPT:
We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources.
This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel.
The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year. If today's entire US grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of US demand.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7002
+ MONSANTO SAYS CONVENTIONAL BREEDING IS "QUICKER"
Monsanto says it wants to get into growing biofuel crops, but has rejected the use of GM. A spokesman says conventional breeding techniques are "quicker". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7021
------------------------------------------------------------
RISK ASSESSMENT
------------------------------------------------------------
+ NEW ANALYSIS NEEDED FOR GM FOOD RISK - SCIENTIST
A new approach to resolving GM trade conflict, one that drops the use of the word 'risk', is needed, according to new research.
The findings of the five-year study, which was carried out at the University of Sussex, suggest there are serious limits to using the idea of 'risk' to describe the potential problems associated with new developments in science and technology.
"Its all too easy to make the mistake of using quantitative risk assessment techniques to try to understand unknowns that are really uncertainties, when it is impossible for us to work out the probability that something will happen," said Dr Adrian Ely, a research fellow at the University of Sussex.
Ely argues that most policy problems - for example, climate change, GM crops or nanotechnology - involve a situation in which we don't have a full understanding of the science in question.
"There are so many complicated questions at play," said Ely. "Using a tool such as this [developed by professor Andy Stirling] helps us to break them down into manageable parts."
Find out more:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7022