from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all,
Heinz Mueller, chemicals analyst at DZ Bank AG in Frankfurt was recently quoted as saying, "At the moment, people think [GM] products are about as attractive as an atom bomb." (See QUOTES OF THE WEEK)
And no wonder. This week's explosive news has been the secret documents leaked to the French newspaper, Le Monde, revealing the serious health effects on rats of a Monsanto GM maize which was approved for release by the European Food Safety Authority against the advice of French genetic engineering experts. (REVEALED - THE HEALTH DANGERS OF GM MAIZE)
We heard too that a GM maize that has been widely grown in Spain has suddenly been withdrawn. Concerns have been cited about its antibiotic resistant gene. But Dr Maewan Ho has pointed out that this is the same maize that was fed to the 12 cows in Germany which mysteriously died; other cows became so sick that they had to be destroyed. The farmer called for a proper investigation, which does not appear to have been carried out.
This and many of our other stories this week all lead to one conclusion. All of the data on GMOs headed for the market, most of which is currently kept under wraps as "commercially confidential", must be published and put into the public domain. That way, we would be able to see for ourselves both the quality of the data and any omissions. How long would the industry last under the glaring light of truth? My contention is, about a tenth as long as a GM-fed cow. Let it prove me wrong if it can.
I'd be delighted if the large and small NGOs, together with concerned politicians and scientists, could band together and make this single demand in one voice. Industry must put up - or shut up and clear out. How about it, folks?
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.ngin.org.uk / www.gmwatch.org
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CONTENTS
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*REVEALED - THE HEALTH DANGERS OF GM MAIZE
*OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL
*ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: Science corrupted
*LOBBY WATCH
*COMPANY NEWS: Sell those shares says leading analyst
*CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK: Support Chapela
*DON'T MISS JEFFREY SMITH'S UK TOUR
*QUOTES OF THE WEEK
*DONATIONS - We need them!
*HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
*SUBSCRIPTIONS
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REVEALED - THE HEALTH DANGERS OF GM MAIZE
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+ FRENCH EXPERTS VERY DISTURBED BY HEALTH EFFECTS OF MONSANTO GM MAIZE
French newspaper Le Monde has run a sensational article exposing the total subjectivity of GMO approval decisions. The article explains, on the basis of documents Le Monde has seen and which would not normally have been made public, that one group of leading experts says the health effects on rats of this Monsanto GM maize are very disturbing, while another group has given this GM maize a "green light" for marketing in the EU!
The article shows how the current regulatory system in Europe is wide open to challenge because judgments are being made, in the words of one leading expert, on the basis of little more than wishful thinking and with no credible scientific evidence. The regulatory situation in the US is still more lax.
EXCERPTS from my unofficial translation of Le Monde's article:
The French commission for genetic engineering, which delivers an opinion on GMOs, has become worried about the marketing of a GM maize after studying the results of an experiment on rats.
The European scientific committee, however, gave the GMO the green light on 19 April. The maize, produced by Monsanto company, MY 863, received on April 19 the go-ahead for marketing from the European scientific committee. This maize, in the experts' view, does not affect the health of animals, or, moreover, that of humans.
Though the opinion is public, official reports of meetings of this scientific committee, the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), are confidential. As are the debates of the committees of the Member States, including those of the French commission for genetic engineering (CGB).
However the CGB, on the contrary, put out on October 28, 2003 an unfavourable report. It was very disturbed by the malformations observed in a sample of rats fed on MY 863 maize.
No one would ever have known anything of it if an association, the committee for research and of information on genetic engineering (Crii-Gen)... had not forced the door of the CGB while obtaining - thanks to the commission of access to administrative documents (CADA) - these official reports, of which Le Monde was made aware.
The opinion of the CGB is clear: the commission "is not able to show the absence of health risks to animals with regard to MY 863 maize."
...German experts immediately expressed reservations on MY 863, giving the reason that it integrates an antibiotic resistance gene ... but it is not the antibiotic which posed a problem for the French experts who are concerned with the effect on rats - the usual test to evaluate the harmlessness (or otherwise) of GMOs. One feeds GM food to a group of animals, which one compares at the end of 90 days with a control group of rats fed with the same maize, but not genetically modified. The biological examination of tens of indicators on all the rats makes it possible for toxicologists to judge if there is a significant variation.
However, the French commission for genetic engineering (CGB) worried about many biological effects: "significant increase in the white blood cells and the lymphocytes in the males" of the batch fed with the MY 863; "reduced levels of reticulocytes" (immature red blood cells) in the females; "significant increase in blood sugar in the females"; "higher frequency of anomalies (inflammation, regeneration)" in kidneys of the males. After a long debate, the CGB said, in "the absence of satisfactory interpretation of some of the significant differences observed", that it was not "able to show the absence of health risks to animals".
... However, a few days later, November 6, 2003, another French commission, the French Agency of health safety of food (Afssa), returned, on the basis of the same file, an opposite opinion: the differences observed, determined the agency, "are without biological significance", and it says that MY 863 "does not present a nutritional risk".
... But the CGB will not budge an inch. Gerard Pascal, director of research at the National Institute of agronomic research (INRA), a rapporteur of the file on MY 863 with the CGB... maintains his doubts. "I hear the argument of natural variability, but what struck me in this file is the number of anomalies. There are too many elements here where significant variations are observed. I never saw that in another file. It will have to be done again."
... There also exist, in other files, details of effects on animals: on the four GMOs examined by the CGB in 2003, which led to nutritional tests on rats, anomalies were raised. For oilseed rape WP 73, "significant effects" were observed on the liver and the kidneys of the animals, but they were related to a parameter which has since been rectified.
However, the tests on the rats were not carried out during 90 days as is usual, but only for 28. The commission also regrets that "the idea of asking for a test on dairy cows" was not retained and that follow-up data after the marketing in Canada are not available.
On the maize T 1507, the commission observes "a significant difference in food consumption" of the rats which ate the GMO. For maize NK 603, "significant differences" in 50 statistical comparisons out of 1200 were found, but they "do not have toxicological significance".
A Member of the Commission is worried about allergies to this product, and says that "it is not possible to conclude in such a final manner as to the absence of such a risk ". In spite of internal dissent, these files however received a favourable opinion from the commission, then of the EFSA. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3308
For the article in the original French (Herve Kempf, "L'expertise confidentielle sur un inquietant maӢs transgenique", Le Monde 22 April 2004) see http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3226,36-362061,0.html
+ SPAIN WITHDRAWS GM MAIZE!
Spain has withdrawn a GM maize from the market at the request of the EU. The reason given is that Syngenta's (GM) Bt176 maize could generate resistance to antibiotics. The withdrawal follows a report from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) calling for an end to cultivation of several GM maize varieties. Cultivation of Bt176 maize (maize) occupied 20,000 hectares in Spain, the only member state of the EU with significant commercial GM crop acreage.
Syngenta wants to replace the withdrawn Bt176 with Bt11 maize, but Bt11 has not yet received authorisation in the EU. In fact, the French and Belgium expert committees have both refused Syngenta's Bt11 maize the green light, saying that Syngenta has not performed sufficient toxicological tests with the actual GMO but mainly provided the results with a Bt11 fodder maize. Both expert committees have demanded full toxicological studies with the GMO for which the approval is requested.
These problems are of wider significance as Syngenta is trying to gain approval for its maize elsewhere in the world and is likely to support its applications with the same "evidence" which has been rejected by the French and Belgian scientists. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3344
+ KILLER MAIZE?
Thanks to Dr Maewan Ho for pointing out that THIS WITHDRAWN MAIZE IS THE SAME ONE THAT APPARENTLY KILLED 12 COWS ON A FARM IN HESSE, GERMANY http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?ArcId=1890
This episode will not be talked about publicly in relation to the withdrawal of this maize - but you can bet that it has come up in behind-closed-doors discussions. This is yet another piece of evidence in support of the necessity of making public the details of all GM research carried out by industry. Only then will we be able to inspect the quality of what's been done and the extent of the omissions.
+ MEACHER CALLS FOR GM INQUIRY
Former environment minister Michael Meacher has called for a new, full-scale expert GM inquiry in the UK. At a special parliamentary briefing organised by the Independent Science Panel and chaired by Alan Simpson MP in the House of Commons on April 29, Mr Meacher said that the farm-scale trials had been extremely narrow and that a new inquiry was needed.
This inquiry should systematically and rigorously test the impact of GM crops and foodstuffs on the environment and on human health, said Mr Meacher. Mr Meacher also called for a more open scientific process than what is currently permitted in the UK, where dissenting voices in the scientific community have been suppressed.
Finally, he argued that the UK needs decision making which is not influenced by the biotechnology industry. "No scientist related to the biotechnology industry should be allowed to take part in advisory bodies, and the full-scale GM inquiry we need should be fully funded by public means," Mr Meacher said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3361
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3341
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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL
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+ US SEEKS GBP1BN FROM EUROPE OVER GM BAN
The US has demanded that the EU abandon its ban on the growing of GM crops and pay at least $1.8bn (GBP1bn) in compensation for loss of exports over the past six years. The challenge is outlined in papers filed to the World Trade Organisation and leaked to the Guardian newspaper.
The papers accuse the EU of imposing a moratorium on GM products in 1998 without any scientific evidence and in defiance of WTO free trade rules. The EU has until the end of May to reply before a WTO panel meets in June to adjudicate.
If it finds in favour of the US, the body will decide what trade sanctions can be imposed to force Europe to fall in line. The US has said it has lost $300m a year as a result of lost maize imports and would expect sanctions against the EU to help recoup the sums.
The affair has worldwide significance because if the US can force the EU into submission, then no country will be able to keep GM out without facing trade sanctions. But there is strong consumer resistance to GM in Europe and several countries have introduced rules banning imports of individual GMs, either for growing or in food. These countries, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and Greece, are all cited by the US in the case presented to the WTO. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3331
+ US MAY ALSO USE WTO TO ATTACK AUSTRALIA
Western Australia was declared GM free last month but WA Farmers president Trevor De Landgrafft predicts the US may mount a legal case to push the issue in Australia. The WA government says it is not worried about a complaint to the WTO about bans on genetically modified crops.
Agriculture Minister Kim Chance says he does not believe the US will succeed. "I think the grounds on which they have attacked the European Union's import processes are spurious and the WTO appellant body will find them so," he said. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3356
+ AUSTRALIA: PRO-GM FARMERS' LEADER "OUT OF STEP" WITH OTHER FARMERS
When the Australian states rejected GM they came under a barrage of criticism. Victoria was accused of giving in to "the growing Green religion" which was "making Australians poorer and sillier".
Foremost of those firing flack were the Institute of Public Affairs (the right-wing Australian 'think tank' that has Monsanto amongst its funders) and the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, Paul Weller.
Now, Victoria's Minister for Agriculture Bob Cameron has replied in the press to Weller, telling the Federation leader his views are out of line with farmers in Victoria: "I can tell him how many of the calls to my electorate office concerning GM support the VFF leaderships position. The answer is none - not one." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3359
+ NZ: PUBLIC MISLED OVER GM MORATORIUM END
New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority has upheld a complaint by Jon Carapiet of GE Free NZ that TVNZ had breached the Broadcasting Act on grounds of accuracy and fairness.
The breach came in a debate on TVNZ broadcaster Paul Holmes' programme 'Holmes'. The debate, between Carapiet and environment minister Marian Hobbs, was about the government's decision to end the moratorium on GM releases. The decision to end the moratorium prompted the largest demonstrations in New Zealand for decades, but the government refused to extend the moratorium, claiming scientific and other research backed their move.
During the 'Holmes' interview, one such research report was cited as proving the government's decision was correct, and described as showing European markets were unconcerned by GE release in New Zealand. In what appears to have been a prior agreed plan, Holmes and the Minister both focussed on the report by the Otago University Business School, "Trust and Country Image."
"They seemed to be spinning the report's findings along similar lines, and attacking me for pointing out the report's actual recommendations. Mr Holmes said the study showed European importers didn't care about GM which is simply not true. In referring to the Otago Report Marian Hobbs even dismissed our 'clean green image' as unimportant, claiming it was only hygiene and proper regulation that really benefited New Zealand exports.
"The Otago Report is deeply flawed and its methodology suspect. The researchers seem to have deliberately set out to find evidence to counter claims that exports to Europe could be undermined by GE release, which is hardly an objective approach. No wonder the Minister seized upon it," says Mr Carapiet. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3323
NB: Paul Holmes has previously been in hot water for calling UN secretary general Kofi Annan a "cheeky darkie" during a rant against the UN.
+ IRISH FARMERS ASSOCIATION OPPOSES GM
Speaking at the GM-free Ireland workshop at the Convergence Festival in Dublin on Monday, Irish Farmers Association deputy president Ruaidhri Deasy said, "The IFA's stance on GMOs is: Keep GM products out of Ireland. We don't need them. We certainly can't pay for them. And our customers don't want them."
Pointing out his role to protect and speak for the 85,000 farmers of Ireland, Mr Deasy said that he had seen multinationals corporations like Monsanto in operation in the developing world. "They don't care; they sit in their plush boardrooms but they don't give a hoot. All they care for is profits. The last thing Monsanto did was to put in the Terminator gene which wipes out the plant's ability to reproduce. That enslaves farmers the world over." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3361
+ ANGOLAN GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS FOOD AID REJECTION
There are sound scientific reasons for Angola's rejection of GM American maize food aid. A high-ranking civil servant in Luanda noted that it is not an outright ban, but a request for the seed to be milled so it cannot accidentally cross-contaminate their own crops, which might result in struggling peasant farmers being sued by a giant agro-business such as Monsanto.
Angola faces severe food shortages but has aligned itself with four southern African nations - Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe - which have banned imports of GM food. Gilberto Buta Lutucuta, Angola's minister of agriculture, said the food was rejected "because so far we don't know for sure what impact these products might have on either human or animal health." However, Zambia has recovered so well that it is exporting its maize surplus to Angola.
Guy Scott, a former Zambian agriculture minister, has said that if the aid agencies had cash rather than maize they could resolve the crisis without touching GM. "But it is the official policy of USAID to promote GM." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3313
+ SUDAN EXTENDS WAIVER ON GM BAN UNDER US PRESSURE
On March 7, USAID stopped all humanitarian food aid shipments to Port Sudan because the government of Sudan had asked that US commodities be certified free of GMOs. USAID, which provides some 70% of the World Food Program's total food aid for the country, consistently refused to provide any certification and pressed Sudan to back down. Now, because the situation in Sudan is so serious and as a result of US pressure, the government has extended its waiver on banning GM food imports to January 2005. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3328
+ THE US IS THE WORLD'S STINGIEST DONOR
The world's biggest economy is also the world's stingiest aid donor. Washington still only devotes 0.12% of its national income to overseas aid. Europe provides twice as much as America in development cash.
Washington's aid programmes are still not driven by humanitarian imperatives. Rather they are sometimes used to break open new markets for US corporations. How else to explain why Ethiopia, where 15 million are threatened by famine, receives about the same level of food aid as Peru, where American agribusiness dumps dairy surpluses.
The Centre for Global Development recently put America second from bottom in its ranking of how effectively developed nation's policies help the poor. From a Guardian leader, May 31 2003
+ US: APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT $780,000 MONSANTO AWARD IN DISPUTE WITH FARMER
In St Louis, an appeals court has thrown out the $780,000 in damages a Mississippi farmer was ordered to pay Monsanto in a seed-patent dispute, calling the agriculture biotechnology giant's formula for calculating such damages "unenforceable" under Missouri law.
In November 2002, the St Louis-based US District Court for Missouri's eastern district ruled that the farmer, Homan McFarling, violated a Monsanto-held seed patent and ordered him to pay the company $780,000 in damages, given his admission that he saved seeds after harvesting crops grown from Monsanto's patented Roundup Ready soybean seed.
But in its ruling this month, the federal appeals court declared the sum "not a reasonable estimate of the harm that would be anticipated to flow from breach of the prohibition prohibiting replanting seed."
In a similar case a year ago, a Tennessee farmer opposed to Monsanto's seed licensing practices was sentenced in a St Louis federal court to eight months in prison for lying about a truckload of cotton seed he hid for a friend. Kem Ralph's prison term for conspiracy to commit fraud was believed to be the first criminal prosecution linked to Monsanto's crackdown on farmers it claims have been violating agreements on using GM seeds. Ralph has been ordered to pay Monsanto more than $1.7 million. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3357
+ US'S FIRST GMO LABELING LAW PASSED
Vermont has become the first state to require manufacturers of GM seeds to label and register their products. Under the bill, GM seeds must be labeled as such after October 1. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3356
+ CANADA: FARMERS' UNION WANTS MANDATORY LABELLING
Quebec's largest farmers union wants to see mandatory labelling of GMOs and is asking farmers to voluntarily label produce because customers want to know what they are buying. The Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UPA) president Laurent Pellerin said the federal government has shown no interest in making produce labelling mandatory, but that could change if enough farmers volunteer. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3334
+ GM NON-FOOD CROPS WILL CONTAMINATE FOOD AND NATURE
A new GeneWatch UK report reveals how the production of GM crops intended for non-food uses could contaminate food crops and wild species. The report considers the current development of GM crops intended for non-food use: grasses, flowers, trees, crops such as cotton used for fibre, and crops being modified for industrial production of oils, starches and plastics.
The report reveals:
*how the biotech industry is pursuing GM in non-food crops in the hope of side-stepping public concerns over GM foods
*that GM grasses for use in lawns and golf courses may be commercialised in the US soon and raise serious environmental concerns because they are perennial, wind pollinating, and spread via underground shoots
*how GM trees for use in intensive plantations may pose serious environmental threats because trees are long-lived and their seed and pollen can move long distances
*how the use of GM food crops, like oilseed rape, for non-food uses such as the production of biofuels and plastics, could create contamination of non-GM and organic food crops.
GM cotton and flowers are the first commercialised non-food GM crops being grown commercially outside Europe. GM potatoes modified for industrial starch production could be given approval for growing in Europe in 2004. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3314
The full report can be downloaded as a pdf file from www.genewatch.org/CropsAndFood/Reports/non-food_crops_part2.pdf
+ SPANISH GM SOYA BLOCKED
A ship importing thousands of tons of GM soya into Spain was prevented from unloading by protesters from Greenpeace, who are demanding an end to GMO contamination of conventional food. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3356
+ FIRST OIL, NOW GMOS
Following our report that Venezuela's president Chavez has banned GM plantings in his country, NLP Wessex's Mark Griffiths draws our attention to reports that the US has been trying to topple Chavez for some time because of his influence over the Venezuelan oil industry. Venezuela is the largest supplier of oil to the US outside of the Muslim world other than Canada. Chavez's brave stance on GMOs will add to the US's enthusiasm for "regime change" in this democratic country. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3315
+ GMOS ARE DEAD: SMART BREEDING IS THE WAY OF THE FUTURE
The excerpt below is from an interesting article that confirms an earlier comment by Robert Goodman, the former head scientist at Calgene who now works with the McKnight Foundation, overseeing a $50 million program that funds genomics research in the developing world: "The public argument about genetically modified organisms, I think, will soon be a thing of the past. The science has moved on."
Excerpt:
Researchers are beginning to understand plants so precisely that they no longer need transgenics to achieve traits like drought resistance, durability, or increased nutritional value. Over the past decade, scientists have discovered that our crops are chock-full of dormant characteristics. Rather than inserting, say, a bacteria gene to ward off pests, it's often possible to simply turn on a plant's innate ability.
The result: Smart breeding holds the promise of remaking agriculture through methods that are largely uncontroversial and unpatentable. Think about the crossbreeding and hybridization that farmers have been doing for hundreds of years, relying on instinct, trial and error, and luck to bring us things like tangelos, giant pumpkins, and burpless cucumbers. Now replace those fuzzy factors with precise information about the role each gene plays in a plant's makeup. Today, scientists can tease out desired traits on the fly - something that used to take a decade or more to accomplish.
Even better, they can develop plants that were never thought possible without the help of transgenics. Look closely at the edge of food science and you'll see the beginnings of fruits and vegetables that are both natural and supernatural. Call them Superorganics - nutritious, delicious, safe, abundant crops that require less pesticide, fertilizer, and irrigation - a new generation of food that will please the consumer, the producer, the activist, and the FDA. - Richard Manning, "Super Organics" at
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/food.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3340
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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
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+ THE HONESTY OF SCIENCE IS BEING COMPROMISED AT EVERY TURN
A brilliant essay with the above title has been published in the New Statesman (26 April 2004) by Dr Colin Tudge, Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and a three-time winner of the Glaxo/ABSW Science Writer of the Year Award, as well as former features editor of New Scientist. The essay is well worth reading in full at http://www.newstatesman.com/site.php3?newTemplate=NSArticle_People&newDisplayURN=200404260019
Tudge concludes that unless drastic action is taken to challenge the current corporate take over of science, "the future life of humanity is going to be both more brutal and far shorter" than it need be.
Excerpts:
Last year in the Lancet, Dr Bernard Dixon asked whether Sars might be treated by the well-tried, century-old technique of "passive immunity" - injecting antibodies originally derived from infected patients and multiplied in some neutral organism. This method can be greatly improved by modern biotechnology. Would it not work? Later a drug company executive told him: "Of course it would. But we've looked at it and there's no money in it." Goodness me.
I have seen what I think comes close to perjury many a time - and often on public platforms - in the name of corporate science. What makes it worse is the piety that envelops it: the appeal to "evidence", which for scientists is the sine qua non. Detractors are not simply derided, but shamed for their sloppy-mindedness. However, the "evidence" typically presented is anything but. There are graphs and statistics - the trappings of science - yet often they signify nothing.
I remember a recent defence of golden rice, genetically engineered to be rich in Vitamin A, and hence to save the lives and sight of millions in the developing world. There were pictures of molecules and of poor blind children, and rows of figures to show how many could be helped, were it not for the tiresome non-governmental organisations. But the speaker did not point out that Vitamin A is, in effect, carotene, one of the commonest molecules in nature. It is the yellow pigment that is present (masked by the chlorophyll) in green leaves, and in yellow roots such as carrots and cassava as well as fruits such as papaya and mango. If people practise horticulture, they have Vitamin A aplenty, and traditional farming always included horticulture. Problems start when traditional mixed farms are replaced by monocultural commodity crops for export to make cash for the owners of the new estates. Golden rice is not the antidote to old-fashioned inadequacy, as the speaker implied. It merely solves (partially) a problem created by modernity.
...Often the "evidence" presented in defence of, say, GM crops runs to thousands of pages, apparently covering many hundreds of trials, all of them carefully designed at great expense in the public interest. When Saddam Hussein presented the UN with a 10,000-page apologia for the weapons he apparently did not have, he was greeted with scepticism. The plausibility, diplomats felt, was inversely related to the bulk. Indeed so."
...rationality is increasingly equated with expediency, and expediency with profit. So it is "rational" to seek to make as much money as possible out of farming, say, and "irrational" to bang on about employment, and ways of life, and autonomy, and suchlike abstractions. As the coup de grace, policy is increasingly decided on the basis of what is "rational", which is equated both with what is commercially expedient and with what science says should happen. So it is that GM crops are being wished upon us on the grounds that there are no "scientific" reasons for not growing them. Anyone who cares about science - as well as anyone who cares about humanity, and good thinking - should be appalled by such nonsense. But it has become the norm, and is presented with all the pompous piety for which we deride the worst of clerics. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3360
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ THE NEO-CONSERVATIVE EXTREMISTS ARE OUT
From Eco sounding by John Vidal, The Guardian, April 28, 2004
Anger management:
The neo-conservative extremists are out. Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, last week accused the green movement of being "anti-science, anti-technology, and anti-human"; Paul Driessen, of the Centre for the Defence of Free Enterprise, accused Europe of causing millions of deaths in Africa through its bans on GM foods; and dear Roger Bate, of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, chipped in to accuse the UN of killing the poor. Steady on.
Agony uncle:
Botanist, ecologist and biotech supporter Klaus Amman is head of the Bern botanical gardens, and is preparing a proposal for a European biotech manifesto to help the European public to understand the benefits of the technology. He has been describing how to handle opponents: "Avoid eco-Stalinists like Greenpeace ... you can talk to the WWF and the World Conservation Union and many organic farmers, and - to a much lesser degree - Friends of Earth."
Not in our backyard:
But Amman may have trouble persuading anyone, so rapidly is opposition to the genetically modified crops mounting. Friends of the Earth Europe has found more than 1,000 French town mayors who support GM-free zones, as well as 500 Italian cities, half of all Greek prefectures and nine out of 10 regions of Austria that are all requesting bans in their areas. In Britain, 12 county councils, nine unitary authorities, two metropolitan districts, one London borough, 13 district councils, two national park authorities, and 35 Welsh councils have voted against the crops. That means that about 14million people in Britain are living in areas with a GM-free policy. http://society.guardian.co.uk/environment/news/0,14129,1204436,00.html
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COMPANY NEWS
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+ SYNGENTA: "SELL"
Analyst Dr Heinz Mueller of DZ Bank is advising Syngenta shareholders to sell despite growth in the first quarter because "These trends are not likely to continue, and DZ Bank expects the company's sales to decline in Q2. There is lack of visibility into the license scenario for genetically engineered plants in Europe, the analyst states."
Lack of "visibility into the license scenario for genetically engineered plants in Europe" roughly translates as no-one wants GM plants so this may not be a good business to invest in. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3358
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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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+ SIGN CHAPELA INQUIRY LETTER
Following the denial of tenure by UC Berkeley to biotech critic Prof Ignacio Chapela, a public letter is circulating and collecting endorsements. The letter calls for an independent investigation, a continuation of Chapela's term in the meantime, and a public question-and-answer session with Chancellor Berdahl. Please sign the letter at http://www.chapelatenure.org/index.asp?action=sign]
We must act promptly. Prof Chapela has announced that there will be an investigation by the Committee on Privilege and Tenure of the Academic Senate, and that his term will be extended to December 31, 2004. The University administration, perhaps anticipating the sort of scrutiny and pressure this sign-on letter provides, has made some concessions. However, as Prof Chapela has made clear, this letter remains important. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3333
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DON'T MISS...
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+ JEFFREY SMITH'S UK TOUR
The author of the brilliant book on GM, Seeds of Deception, is coming to Britain for a lecture tour. Dates/venues are at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3335
"What is so exciting about this book is that it is no dry text of scientific exegesis - it positively fizzes with the human drama of the cabals and conspiracies behind the scenes which have littered the history of Big Biotech in its frantic efforts to get itself accepted. It is meticulously documented and powerfully written, somewhere between a documentary and a thriller." - Ex-environment minister Michael Meacher in his foreword to Seeds of Deception
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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"At the moment, people think [GM] products are about as attractive as an atom bomb." - Heinz Mueller, chemicals analyst at DZ Bank AG in Frankfurt (Syngenta, Monsanto Test EU's Ban on Gene-Altered Food, Bloomberg.com, April 23)
"Once upon a technologically optimistic time, the founders of a swaggering biotech startup called Calgene bet the farm on a tomato. It wasn't just any old tomato. It was the Flavr Savr, a genetically engineered fruit designed to solve a problem of modernity. [It bombed!]
"...[According to] Robert Goodman, the former head scientist at Calgene who now works with the McKnight Foundation, overseeing a $50 million program that funds genomics research in the developing world, 'The public argument about genetically modified organisms, I think, will soon be a thing of the past. The science has moved on.'"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3340
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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the GMWATCH archive
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29/4/2004 Appeals court sets aside $780,000 Monsanto award in dispute with farmer
29/4/2004 Pro-GM farmers' leader "out of step" with other farmers
29/4/2004 Protest at Bayer's AGM / approval sought for another Monsanto maize
29/4/2004 Spanish GM soya blocked / US's first GMO labeling law / Oz farmers warn of US GM push
28/4/2004 Evidence from the Soil Association to EFRA inquiry
28/4/2004 GMOS are dead - "The science has moved on"
28/4/2004 Neo-conservative extremists / Klaus Ammann / GM-free all over
28/4/2004 Scientists Call for Enquiry into GM Food Safety
28/4/2004 Spain withdraws GM maize!
27/4/2004 Attack of the gene giants
27/4/2004 Quebec's largest farmers union wants mandatory GM labels
27/4/2004 Seeds of Deception - UK tour
27/4/2004 Sign Chapela inquiry letter/latest news on tenure case
27/4/2004 Skipper arrested in dramatic blockade of GM soy ship
27/4/2004 US seeks a Billion Pounds from Europe over GM ban
26/4/2004 CGIAR turns to outsourcing for multinationals
26/4/2004 Greenpeace blocks GM shipment / Protests GM maize / 50% of Chinese consumers dislike GMOs
26/4/2004 Guilty! Public misled over end of GM moratorium in NZ
26/4/2004 No go for GMO, say Europe's farm ministers
26/4/2004 Sudan extends waiver on GM ban under US pressure
25/4/2004 Biotech Sentries - Genetic State
25/4/2004 Wide support at African conference for refusing GM maize
24/4/2004 Corporations Waging War on Biotech Critics, Independent Science
24/4/2004 Dirty tricks, corruption and empty promises - GM crops in Indonesia
24/4/2004 French experts very disturbed by health effects of Monsanto GM maize
24/4/2004 Health fears over GM maize as Britain backs US imports
24/4/2004 New reports of health problems in Philippines
23/4/2004 Famine and death in Africa the result of bans on GMOs
23/4/2004 First oil, now GMOs
23/4/2004 GM non-food crops will bring contamination
23/4/2004 Needless Tragedy In Angola - US exploiting GM food aid
23/4/2004 WEEKLY WATCH number 69
FOR THE COMPLETE GMWATCH ARCHIVE: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp