WEEKLY WATCH number 232
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all:
There's good news from Europe, as France confirms its ban on Monsanto's toxic GM maize, and Austria has yet again fought off attempts by the European Commission to force it to overturn its ban on GM crops - for now at least. And a big new research project is pointing so strongly to organic food being more nutritious that even the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times featured the story on its front page.
Don't miss our feature on the 'new eugenics' of GM-supporter and Nobel Laureate James Watson, confirming Ignacio Chapela's point that eugenics didn't die with Hitler.
And watch out for 2 important ACTIONS OF THE WEEK.
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
ASIA
FOOD SAFETY
ORGANICS
EUGENICS
ACTIONS OF THE WEEK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ CLAIMS OF GM BENEFITS 'LUNATIC'
Not all politicians are a pushover for corporate lobbying. Kim Chance, the Western Australian Agriculture Minister, said in Parliament last week: '... I am aware of an article in The West Australian today that purported to represent the Prime Minister's position as being that we would all be happier and healthier if we were eating GM food. I think that was the gist of it. Do I think that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Kevin Rudd, would have the same lunatic view of life? No.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8432
The Minister has also pointed out, 'We are heavily reliant on our export markets and yet the Prime Minister wants us to switch to GM foods that are rejected by discerning consumers worldwide. This will damage Australia's international reputation as a source of reliable, safe quality food.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8416
+ CONSUMERS AND FARMERS DON'T LIKE GMOs
The annual survey from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne has revealed only 30% of Australians are comfortable with GM plants for food, while only 19% reported some level of comfort with GM animals for food. The new survey of public attitudes comes hard on the heel of a survey showing only 27.6% of farmers want to see GM grain crops introduced into Australia, with a clear majority of farmers opposed to their introduction.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8421
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ CORPORATE MURDER: SYNGENTA MUST LEAVE BRAZIL
In the Brazilian state of Parana, Valmir Mota de Oliveira of Via Campesina, an international peasant organization, was shot twice in the chest at point blank range by armed gunmen on an experimental farm of Syngenta Seeds. The cold-blooded murder took place on October 21 after Via Campesina had occupied the site because of Syngenta's illegal development of GM seeds. Via Campesina and the Movement of the Landless Rural Workers (MST), the main Brazilian organization involved in Via Campesina's actions, are calling the murder an execution, declaring, 'Syngenta used the services of an armed militia.'
In July of this year, the Via Campesina was evicted from the site, re-locating to the MST's Olga Benario settlement, located next to Syngenta. The de-occupation occurred in conjunction with a peaceful march by the movements. Control of the property was returned to Syngenta, and it was then that the corporation hired the private NF Security company to guard the site. The owner of NF Security, Nerci Freitas, has been arrested and charged with homicide and formation of gangs. No one has claimed that the Via Campesina/MST occupants were armed. The organizations are demanding that Syngenta leave Brazil immediately, declaring, 'Syngenta Seeds should be held responsible for what occurred.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8431
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8433
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8402
+ LOBBYISTS TRY TO SPIN CORPORATE MURDER
The Hudson Institute's Dennis and Alex Avery and the Center for Consumer Freedom, both of which have Monsanto amongst their funders, have produced articles in which they try to distract readers from the murder of the Brazilian activist by the Syngenta militia (above) with ludicrous claims that activists resisting GM crops around the world are causing the deaths of 'millions'. They also quote Lord Taverne of Sense About Science to this effect. Sickening.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8442
More on the Center for Consumer Freedom
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=180
More on Dennis Avery
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=15
More on Alex Avery
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=14
More on Taverne
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=127
+ U.S.: MONSANTO LOBBYISTS PREPARE FOR POST-BUSH FUTURE
Presidential nomination candidate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton recently held an event in Washington DC called 'Rural Americans for Hillary'. The event entailed a briefing by members of Congress and senior campaign staff. It was held in the offices of Troutman Sanders, a lobbying firm heavily relied upon by Monsanto. As an editorial in the Daily Iowan points out, people might be forgiven for thinking this event has little to do with issues concerning rural voters and much to do with getting agribiz lobbyists behind Rodham Clinton's campaign.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8426
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ DIMAS CALLS FOR GM MAIZE BAN
EU Environment Commissioner Dimas is proposing to ban two types of genetically modified (GM) maize because of the risks they pose to the environment.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8422
Support Dimas - see ACTIONS OF THE WEEK
+ GM BAN IN FRANCE CONFIRMED
France has announced a ban on MON810 (Bt) corn, the only GM crop being grown in France. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would suspend the planting of GM pest-resistant crops until the results of an appraisal of the issue later this year or early in 2008. A campaigner from the group NO GMO tells us that there's good reason to think this MON810 ban may last forever because a truly independent toxicological study will be carried out. Another reason why other GM plants may not be grown in France in future is that the new law will force producers to carry out toxicological tests before marketing, which will prove economically non-viable.
When announcing the ban on planting GM crops in France, President Sarkozy said he doubted the value of pesticidal-GMOs, like Bt corn; he doubted the controllability of GMO dissemination; and he doubted both the health and environmental benefits claimed for GMOs. Some point out that France's policy shift on GMOs will also have implications for the rest of the EU. Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth Europe says, 'Earlier the government was under pressure from industry groups to be pro-GMO. So the precautionary shift now in Sarkozy's tone is a seismic one.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8424
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8429
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8437
+ TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY AND THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Adrian Bebb has produced a report on EuropaBio, one of the main lobby groups on GM food and crops at the EU level. EuropaBio boasts of its 'excellent working relations' with the European Commission and the report shows a disturbingly close relationship with Commissioners repeatedly singing from EuropaBio's hymn sheet. Download the report here: http://www.foeeurope.org/corporates/pdf/too_close_for_comfort.pdf
+ AUSTRIA DEFEATS EU IN GM WAR
The EU has failed to persuade enough member states to lift an Austrian ban on two types of GM maize, leaving a final decision to its executive arm, the Commission. EU environment ministers meeting in Luxembourg had been asked by Brussels to drop the ban on the import and processing in Austria of MON810 and T25, two varieties of GM maize produced by Monsanto and Bayer.A proposal by the Commission to end Austria's moratorium failed to gain the necessary qualified majority, with Germany, France and Italy among the countries backing Vienna on this issue. According to Daniel Kapp from the Austrian environment ministry, the green light for cultivation of GM products would damage GM-free agricultural production. 'When it comes to smoking, we protect non-smokers against those who smoke,' Mr Kapp said, adding, 'the same concept should be applied to cultivation of GMOs.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8435
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8436
+ UK: DOCUMENTS REVEAL COLLUSION BETWEEN GOVT AND BIOTECH INDUSTRY ON GM SPUDS
From the Independent on Sunday:
Ministers are trying to secretly ease the way for GM crops in Britain, while professing to be impartial on the technology, startling internal documents reveal. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show that the government colluded with a biotech company in setting conditions for testing GM potatoes, and gives tens of millions of pounds a year to boost research into modified crops and foods.
The information on funding proved extraordinarily difficult to get, requiring three months of investigation by an environmental pressure group, a series of parliamentary questions, and three applications for the information... the documents show that ministers have been far from even-handed. One set, obtained by the campaigning group GM Freeze, clearly demonstrate that the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) allowed the biotech giant BASF to help to set the conditions for field trials it has conducted on modified potatoes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8427
Details of incriminating email exchanges between government and BASF obtained by GM Freeze: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8438
+ TIME FOR A FRESH START ON GM - UK INDEPENDENT
The UK's Independent newspaper has published an excellent article pointing out that one of the new prime minister Gordon Brown's many chances for a fresh start is the government's policy on GM food.
EXCERPT: In truth, the battle is already over. Those who urged caution, including this newspaper which launched a campaign against GM food in 1999, have won. Those who advocated a rush towards the white heat of a biotechnological future, including Tony Blair, have lost. What is required now is for Mr Brown to accept that outcome and to take the debate on to more level ground. ...
So: people do not want it; the great predicted benefits have failed to materialise; the GM juggernaut has stalled. Campaigners for GM have not given up, however. Dick Taverne, a member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, writes (again) in next month's Prospect about how 'moralizing' about GM in the West is costing millions of lives in the poor world. But his argument is unconvincing. Development charities, who know better than most how things work in the often complex Third World grassroots, oppose the technology because it increases, rather than reduces, hunger. Yet the Blairite mission seems to be carried on by inertia, even after the former Prime Minister and David Sainsbury, his science minister and biotech cheerleader, have gone.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8428
+ MONSANTO LETTER 'FULL OF LIES'
Patrick O'Reilly of Monsanto Ireland has published a letter in the Irish Independent claiming that 'millions of farmers around the globe, including within the EU, are annually reaping the benefits of the [GM] technology' and saying that Roundup is 'extremely safe'. But GM-Free Ireland points out that 'Monsanto's letter is full of lies', and takes O'Reilly's claims apart one by one at:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8441
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ INDIA'S SUPREME COURT ISSUES CONTEMPT NOTICE TO REGULATORS
The Supreme Court bench hearing the GMOs moratorium public interest lawsuit (PIL) filed by Aruna Rodrigues and others has issued a contempt notice to GEAC (India's GM regulatory body), giving them four weeks to respond. On September 13, the petitioners had filed for contempt of court against three persons of the GEAC for wilfully and deliberately disobeying the orders of the Supreme Court. In their petition, the petitioners argued that flowing from the September 2006 and subsequent orders, there is an injunction on large-scale trials of Bt brinjal along with an injunction on new events/new products of GM food crops as well as Bt cotton and on all new approvals. However, blatantly disregarding this, the GEAC has allowed large-scale field trials of Bt brinjal, and field trials of other GM food crops including Bt rice, Bt tomato, Bt okra, GM groundnut, etc.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8423
+ NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE BEFORE INDIA'S SUPREME COURT
The petitioners in the PIL (see above) have filed with the Supreme Court a challenge to India's MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) refusal to regulate imported GM foods. The petitioners point out that MoEF, despite its claim to the contrary, is responsible and accountable for the health impacts of GM Foods on the citizens of India.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8439
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOD SAFETY
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ JEFFREY SMITH INTERVIEW: 'TRUTH TRIUMPHS'
There's a good interview with Jeffrey Smith, author of Genetic Roulette, on the health dangers of GM foods, at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8440
- and a new article by Jeffrey Smith c/o the bio-business site Genetic Engineering News at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8443
To post comments on the article go to http://www.genengnews.com/blog/item.aspx?id=93
+ PUSZTAI AND SCHUBERT ON GM SAFETY
'The reason for the concern about the ability of GE plants to produce toxins, carcinogens, and compounds that cause birth defects (teratogens) is the result of the uncontrolled events that occur in the steps required to make a GE plant. ...I believe that the potential negative impact on nutritional content and the increase in dangerous metabolites (chemicals) are the major hazards associated with highly mutagenic plant GM techniques.' - Dr Dave Schubert of the Salk Institute
'The capacity of various A-B toxin-lectins, including Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) Cry1Ac protoxin to stimulate and modulate both the systemic and mucosal immune systems is now firmly established.' - Dr Arpad Pusztai, the world's leading specialist in the science of lectins (and the Cry genes in GM (Bt) crops are lectins)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8439
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORGANICS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ OFFICIAL: ORGANIC REALLY IS BETTER
From the UK's Sunday Times:
The biggest study into organic food has found that it is more nutritious than ordinary produce and may help to lengthen people's lives. The evidence from the GBP12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn UK government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice... the evidence of the nutritional differences has been mounting. Last summer a 10-year study by the University of California comparing organic tomatoes with those grown conventionally found double the level of flavonoids - a type of antioxidant thought to reduce the risk of heart disease. Other studies show milk having higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, thought to boost health.
GM Watch comment: The Food Standards Agency, which, since its inception under John Krebs, has been vigorously pro-GM and anti-organic, is still trying its damnedest not to admit that organic is better. Andrew Wadge, the FSA's chief scientist, said the agency had now ordered a review of the evidence on differences between conventional and organic food, but said that even if the review found significant differences, the government would still need to assess any possible impact on health. In a letter to the journalist who reported this story, the FSA refused to release details on how they arrive at their policy on organic food: 'the balance of the public interest test favours non-disclosure'!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8430
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EUGENICS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ WATSON'S LEGACY: THE NEW EUGENICS
Monsanto and the pro-GM lobby have traded heavily on the support for GM crops of Nobel Laureate, James Watson. But GM crops were far from the only dubious use of genetics that won Watson's support. The Newsletter of the Center for Genetics and Society carries a telling article about Watson's support for the new eugenics.
EXTRACT: The new eugenics crowd is hardly coy. Various among them have explicitly endorsed 'seizing control of our [human] evolutionary future' and ''engineering the human germline.' Back in 1998 they held a high-profile conference - covered on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington Post - to plan how to make this high-tech eugenics 'acceptable' to the American public.__At that event, Watson called for 'mak[ing] better human beings' by 'add[ing] genes.' A few years later, he wrote that 'Hitler's use of the term Master Race' should not make us 'feel the need to say that we never want to use genetics to make humans more capable than they are today.'
More Watsonisms at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8444
+ CHAPELA ON WATSON AND EUGENICS
Geneticist James Watson recently made comments claiming that black people are less intelligent than whites. Now Dr. Ignacio Chapela has written a letter to the New York Times detailing the history of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, of which Watson was chancellor until his comments hit the headlines. Watson has now been suspended by the institution.
Chapela writes:
James Watson's shameful comments in England are not out of character, unusual or accidental. We at Berkeley have too often been regaled with his gratuitous statements spuriously connecting intelligence with race, body weight or gender. But beyond his personal behaviour, he also represents the mainstream of a powerful, uninterrupted history of eugenic practice that has inflicted, by concept and by practice, much human suffering past and present, including the worst of Nazi atrocities. This connection is amply documented by Edwin Black who states: 'After the world recoiled from Nazi atrocities, the American eugenics movement - its institutions and leading scientists - renamed and regrouped under the banner of an enlightened science called human genetics.' In this enterprise, Chancellor [James] Watson occupies the very position held by the founder and first director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Dr Charles B. Davenport, undeniably an unrepenting mainstay of support for Nazi eugenics.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8380
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACTIONS OF THE WEEK
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ TAKE ACTION - SUPPORT GM MAIZE BAN
European Environment Commissioner, Dimas, is reported to be opposing the cultivation in Europe of 2 new GM maize crops (both Bt) Syngenta's Bt11 and Pioneer/Dow’s 1507 because of the risk posed to the environment:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/proposed_gm_maize_ban_in_e_25102007.html.
Both crops are already approved for import. There is likely to be a lot opposition from other parts of the Commission (eg Agriculture, Industry) before the final Commission proposal is agreed. We need to make sure that protecting the environment comes before industry interests and that the Commission agrees a strong position against the cultivation of these two crops.
TAKE ACTION! Greenpeace international have set up an email action http://www.greenpeace.org/international/getinvolved/support-dimas-on-maize
Please take action and forward to all your networks. If you have time, please send a personal letter to the relevant Commissioners (President Barroso; Dimas Environment; Kyprianou Health and Consumer protection; Fisher Boel Agriculture) from you/your organisation.
+ NEW INTERNATIONAL PETITION ON BP-BERKELEY DEAL
With BP in the news for all the wrong reasons, the Stop BP Berkley campaign requests that people sign their petition against the proposed University of California Berkley - BP deal. This would be a $500 million deal for an Energy Biosciences Institute to develop cellulosic ethanol based on genetic manipulation.
You can sign here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/international-petition-on-bps-500m-project-to-genetically-engineer-biofuels
For more info: http://www.stopbp-berkeley.org/