GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 90
From Claire Robinson, Monthly Review editor
Website: http//www.gmwatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX
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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LATEST NEWS:
* RESISTANCE
* CORPORATE CRIMES
* LOBBYWATCH
* CLONING
* GM APPROVALS/EXPANSION
* RESEARCH
* LABELLING
* CONTAMINATION
* VIDEOS: BIOFUELS
REST OF THE MONTH'S NEW IN BRIEF:
* U.S. GM APPROVALS
* CORPORATE CRIMES
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LATEST NEWS
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RESISTANCE
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+ ARGENTINA: LANDMARK LEGAL DECISION BANS GLYPHOSATE/AGROTOXICS SPRAYING
In a landmark legal decision, the court of Santa Fe province in Argentina has completely banned the spraying of agrochemicals (including glyphosate) in the vicinity of urban areas. We understand that a previous court ban in the region only had temporary and local force. The area's main crop is GM soy. The case sets a precedent for judges elsewhere in the country and establishes a legal basis for questioning the GM soy/agrochemical-spray agricultural model. The earlier Argentine ruling restricting the spraying of glyphosate and other agrochemicals took into consideration the independent scientific literature on glyphosate - not just industry studies, as is the practice of 'regulatory' agencies worldwide. The ruling recognized that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor (disrupting hormone function). More in English - a summary based on a rough translation:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12926
NOTE: Can any Spanish-speaking reader please provide an English translation of the original Spanish articles?
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-163087-2011-02-26.html
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/subnotas/163087-52229-2011-02-26.html
+ CHINA TO KEEP GM CROPS AT BAY FOR AT LEAST FIVE YEARS
China is publicly backing off GM crops, citing people's apprehension about the health aspects of GM food and the lengthy approval process. China said it would focus on developing high-yielding non-GM, hybrid seeds and would also set up large seed companies and reservoirs to ensure food security in the coming decades.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12922
GMWatch comment: China's GM crop area actually declined last year, as did Europe's. China's pronouncements undermine the GM lobby's attempts to push other countries into adopting GM crops by creating a sense of competition with China. Lobbyists constantly cite China when they claim that the biotech train's leaving and that any country that's not on it, will be left behind. Clearly, this is not true. Public concern about GMOs in China is real and growing. Americans may be interested to note that the government of China seems to pay considerably more heed to what people think than the USDA and Obama, who just ignored 200,000 or more objections to GM alfalfa.
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/february2011/usdaapprovesgmalfalfa.php
+ INDIAN ACTIVISTS HELP FILIPINOS DECONTAMINATE GM EGGPLANT FIELD TRIAL SITE
Activists in the Philippines helped by Indian activists and provincial governments of the Philippines, removed crops of Bt eggplant (talong, brinjal, aubergine) from a field trial site in Laguna. This action was a follow up to calls made by concerned sections of society to put a stop to the field trials.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12896
+ INDIAN FARMERS VOW TO DESTROY ALL GM FIELD TRIALS
A two-day South Asia Conference of the Federation of Farmers' Associations resolved to destroy all trials of GM seeds on agriculture fields wherever they took place in India. To protest the anti-farmer policies of the central Government, the All India Federation of Farmers' Associations will also stage a demonstration in New Delhi on March the 9th.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12897
+ FRANCE: TRIAL POSTPONED OF 58 WHISTLEBLOWERS
A long-awaited trial of 58 anti-GM activists in France has been postponed. The reason: The judiciary are on strike!
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12913
+ STOP GM IN THE UK!
Here's a new campaign to *Stop GM* in the UK, with a great website (accessible for those new to the issue as well as the old guard):
http://www.stopgm.org.uk/take-action.html#group
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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ TAKE ACTION: SOLIDARITY FOR PARAGUAYAN BOY KILLED BY PESTICIDE SPRAYING ON GM SOY
Eight years ago Silvino Talavera, an 11-year-old boy from southern Paraguay, died after glyphosate and other pesticides were sprayed on GM soy near his home. Glyphosate was one of the chemicals found in his blood. Silvino's mother, Petrona Villasboa, took her case to the Paraguayan courts. Two soy producers were found guilty of Silvino's death in 2004. Eight years after his death, neither has been imprisoned or paid their fines. In 2010 Petrona launched a new campaign to get justice. Take action here (it's quick and easy):
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/fair_future/press_for_change/silvino_talavera_26818.html
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12867
+ MONSANTO AGREES TO HELP CLEAN UP TOXIC UK QUARRY
Monsanto has agreed to help clean-up a quarry in South Wales it is accused of polluting with a cocktail of toxic substances despite consistently refusing to accept liability. But the taxpayer could still end up meeting the estimated GBP2 million cleanup bill.
Waste from a Monsanto-owned plant in Newport was dumped at the Brofiscin quarry in the 1960s and 70s. Investigations since have revealed the site is heavily polluted with dangerous toxins leaking from corroding waste containers buried underground.
There are fears a major underground aquifer, which could in future supply nearby Cardiff, may be at risk of pollution from chemicals leaching from the waste.
The Environment Agency took over responsibility for cleaning up the site in 2005 but has been accused of failing to pursue Monsanto for its role in the pollution. In an otherwise unpublicised statement published on its website recently it now says Monsanto has been identified as one of those companies that "should be held responsible under the contaminated land laws and be held liable for the cost of remediating Brofiscin Quarry".
It says if the company fails to cooperate in the cleanup, the Environment Agency will cover the costs itself and attempt to recover them from the company.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12898
+ GERMAN TV REPORT ON TOXIC GM SOY IN ANIMAL FEED
A superb report has been broadcast on the German TV consumer series 'plus minus' about GM soy in animal feed and the terrible human consequences of glyphosate spraying on GM soy in South America. The report has been subtitled in English and Dutch.
The report includes interviews with:
*Prof Andres Carrasco, whose research found that glyphosate and Roundup causes birth defects in very low doses
*Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini, whose research has shown serious risks to health from glyphosate and Roundup
*Prof Walter Pengue, whose research shows the devastating effects of GM soy cultivation on the environment in South America.
See
http://www.toxicsoy.org for English
http://www.gifsoja.nl for Dutch
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12890
+ INDIA: HALF OF MONSANTO COTTONSEED WORKERS ARE CHILDREN
On Monsanto cottonseed plantations in India, over half the labor force of Monsanto cottonseed suppliers are children, many of whom are under 14. In the years since Monsanto began a programme to reduce child labor at cottonseed supplier plantations, child labor has actually increased.
http://bit.ly/fEc44m
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GM STILL TINY PART OF WORLD AGRICULTURE AS EU FARMERS DITCH GM CROPS
The Annual ISAAA report on the status of GM crops around the world show a total area of 148 million hectares, which represents just 3% of all the world's agricultural land. Seventy percent of the increase in 2010 is accounted for by expansion in three countries already committed to GM crops - USA, Brazil and Argentina.
In five countries, the area under GM crops fell last year - China, Spain, Portugal, Romania and the Czech Republic. Spain's reduction of 10.9% in 2010 in GM cropping is part of an overall decline in EU of 23% in the last two years. In 2010, the GM maize cultivation acreage in the EU declined by 13% compared to the previous year.
GM cropping is dominated by just two traits: herbicide tolerance and insect resistance or a combination of the two. Weed and pest resistance have emerged in countries where farmers have become reliant on GM seeds, such as the USA and Argentina.
Commenting, Pete Riley of GM Freeze said: "These data are hardly earth shattering and show that the vast majority of the food grown to directly feed people is not GM. GM soya and maize are wastefully used to feed livestock and poultry in intensive units and for bio-ethanol and bio-diesel production.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12918
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12911
+ THE LAST THING OUR HUNGRY WORLD NEEDS IS MORE FOOD SCIENCE WRITER
The UK government's Dept for Business Innovation and Skills recently published the Foresight report, which pushed intensive agriculture and GM as solutions to hunger. Government chief scientist John Beddington cited the "perfect storm" of rising population and climate change as a reason to push Western corporate agriculture and seeds onto developing countries.
The real agenda of Foresight was to counter the findings of the authoritative IAASTD report on the future of food production. IAASTD advocated agroecological farming as the route to food security and did not endorse GM crops.
Fred Pearce, acclaimed science writer, rebutted Foresight and Beddington's approach in the Daily Mail. Pearce wrote: "There are plenty of things wrong with the world's food system. But the amount of food it produces isn't one of them. We already grow enough food to nourish nine billion people, probably 15 billion people, in fact, for we eat only about one third of those crops. Much of the global harvest feeds livestock - an inefficient route for delivering our nutrition, since it takes eight calories of grain to produce one calorie of meat.
"Plenty more is diverted to make biofuels. An African could live for a year on the corn needed to fill one gas-guzzling SUV fuel tank with ethanol."
Pearce concluded that Beddington's "perfect storm" is simply "the operation of a perfect market".
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12863
+ MONSANTO AMONG THE TEN WORST CORPORATE LOBBYISTS
The Obama administration is littered with former Monsanto employees who are now in positions of power, notes an article for The New Internationalist that names Monsanto as one of the ten worst corporate lobbyists. Regardless of these insiders, Monsanto still feels the need to be heard, investing more than $6.5 million on lobbying the US administration in 2010.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12912
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CLONING
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+ UK: MILK FROM CLONED COWS GIVEN GREEN LIGHT BY DEFRA
Milk and meat from the offspring of cloned animals should be allowed to go on sale, according to Jim Paice, the UK food and farming minister. The comments are the clearest sign that the Government will give the official green light to farmers and food companies who want to supply butchers and supermarkets with the controversial products.
Currently the UK Food Standards Agency believes that any food company attempting to sell food from not just a cloned animal but crucially, also the offspring of a cloned animal needs to apply for a so-called "novel food" licence.
Paice pointed out that the Europe Commission interpreted the current food legislation differently from the FSA: the Commission believes the rules apply only to food from cloned animals themselves, not their offspring. He added: "For the future, the Government shares the Commission's view that there should be no restrictions on the use of offspring of cloned animals."
Emma Hockridge, head of policy at the Soil Association, said: "It is unacceptable that the Government has come to this conclusion without adequate evidence. The impact of cloned foodstuffs on human health cannot at this point be adequately assessed on the basis of existing scientific data."
A report from New Zealand suggested that just one in ten cloned animals survived into adulthood.
Read the Soil Association response here:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12919
+ CALL FOR UK LEGISLATION TO CONTROL CLONED PRODUCTS
In response to a Food Standards Agency (FSA) consultation, GM Freeze has called for interim legislation to bring the current presence of the offspring of clones in the UK under regulatory control. Last August it was revealed that meat from the offspring of a cloned cow had already entered the food chain, and that there were at least 96 calves with cloned parents alive in the UK, which could produce milk or meat in the future. At their December meeting the FSA Board recommended that meat and milk from the offspring of clones should not be required to gain approval under the Novel Foods Regulations before appearing on supermarket shelves a reversal of the FSA's stated policy in August.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12866
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GM APPROVALS/EXPANSION
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+ UNAPPROVED GM CROPS TO BE ALLOWED IN EUROPE'S ANIMAL FEED
Unapproved GM crops will be allowed in European animal feed imports without the need for regulatory clearance for the first time. The move, which came after intense lobbying by the US government and animal feed companies, ends the EU policy of zero tolerance to unapproved GMOs.
Any feed shipment contaminated by unauthorised GM crops was until now refused entry to the European market. But the new rules, expected to come into force in early summer 2011, will allow contamination of up to 0.1% by crops that have not undergone safety testing in Europe.
GM Freeze said the change of policy was unnecessary because only 0.2% of all EU soya imports have ever been rejected for containing unapproved GMOs (all of which came from the US), and none at all since June 2009 - 99.8% shipments entered the EU market without any problems.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12916
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12864
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12868
+ KEEP IRELAND GM-FREE
In Ireland, leading chef and TV presenter Clodagh McKenna joined people from the food, farming, conservation and human rights sectors in Dublin to raise awareness about the dangers of ending the UE zero tolerance policy for unapproved GMOs.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12921
+ CONTAMINATION WITH UNAPPROVED GMOs ILLEGAL IN THE U.S. - BUT EUROPE ACCEPTS IT
In a group of cases brought by rice farmers who lost markets due to contamination by unapproved GM rice varieties, a federal court has ruled that the low level presence of unapproved GMOs is illegal in the US. This means that when the US pushed for the EU to allow low level presence of unapproved GMOs in Europe, they were pressuring the EU to do something that even the US is unwilling to do.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12879
+ U.S. APPROVES CORN MODIFIED FOR ETHANOL
A type of corn that is genetically engineered to make it easier to convert into ethanol was approved for commercial growing by the US Department of Agriculture.
The decision came in the face of objections from corn millers and others in the food industry, who warned that if the industrial corn cross-pollinated with or were mixed with corn used for food, it could lead to crumbly corn chips, soggy cereal, loaves of bread with soupy centers and corn dogs with inadequate coatings.
"If this corn is comingled with other corn, it will have significant adverse impacts on food product quality and performance," the North American Millers' Association said.
The corn, developed by Syngenta, contains a microbial gene that causes it to produce an enzyme that breaks down corn starch into sugar, the first step toward making ethanol. Ethanol manufacturers now buy this enzyme, called alpha amylase, in liquid form and add it to the corn at the start of their production process.
Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety, said, "The USDA has once again put the special interests of the biotechnology and biofuels industries above the clear risks to our nation's food system. The Obama Administration is well aware of the costly effects that Starlink corn contamination had on farmers and the food industry, and now it is poised to repeat the same mistake."
Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, said, "Syngenta's biofuels corn will inevitably contaminate food-grade corn, and could well trigger substantial rejection in our corn export markets, hurting farmers."
GMWatch comment: This is the third controversial GM variety approved by USDA in just a couple of weeks (the first two are GM alfalfa and sugar beet).
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12881
+ U.S.: "GM ALFALFA WILL BE EVERYWHERE"
Commenting on the USDA's recent deregulation of GM alfalfa, Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for the Center for Food Safety, said, "USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision comes despite increasing evidence that GM alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment."
For an excellent analysis of the GM alfalfa decision published in the Non-GMO Report, see
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12882
+ U.S.: MONSANTO'S GM SEEDS ARE UNDEMOCRATIC
while America seems allergic to public servants with no profit motive in mind controlling anything these days, a knee-jerk faith in the "free market" has led to overwhelming centralized control of nearly all our food, from farm to fork, says an article in the Christian Science Monitor. The Obama administration's recent decision to radically expand GM food approving unrestricted production of agribusiness biotech company Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" alfalfa and sugar beets marks a profound deepening of this centralization of food production in the hands of just a few corporations, with little but the profit motive to guide them.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12927
+ CANADA: GM SALMON COULD HARM FISH STOCKS
There's a risk Canadian fish stocks could be harmed if the world's first GM salmon is approved for commercialization, federal scientists suggest. Leaked internal records also indicate experts from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) are concerned about "limited" and possibly "constrained" regulatory powers around the approvals for GM fish. The analysis, from senior scientists specializing in biotechnology and aquaculture, comes as a company called AquaBounty Technologies works to bring GM salmon to the dinner plate.
In August 2010, the US Food and Drug Administration's preliminary analysis concluded that the salmon, engineered in Atlantic Canada to grow twice as fast as normal fish, are safe to eat and not expected to have a significant impact on the environment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12920
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RESEARCH
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+ NO SEEDS, NO INDEPENDENT RESEARCH
We don't have the full picture on GM safety because GM firms have restricted independent research on their patented GM crops, writes Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman in an article for the LA Times. Companies have often refused to provide independent scientists with seeds, or set restrictive conditions that severely limit research options. In 2009, 26 university scientists wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency protesting restricted access to seeds.
Afterwards, Monsanto reached an agreement with the USDA that gives the agency's agricultural scientists access to its GM seeds for a range of research, and the company has also had limited agreements with some universities. But Gurian-Sherman says the deals don't go far enough: "For one thing, the deals and the trade association rules are not binding. The companies can back out of them. They are also opaque; the public really has no idea how far these deals go or how common they are. And what about scientists at the universities and research institutions that aren't party to one of the voluntary agreements? They're still out in the cold."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12880
+ GM INDUSTRY "SOLUTION" TO GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEEDS - 2,4-D-TOLERANT CROPS
Chemical/GM company Dow has come up with a "solution" to the problem of glyphosate-resistant weeds, which are fast making GM Roundup Ready technology redundant. The company has identified a gene that, when engineered into maize plants, makes them tolerate being doused with 2,4-D and related herbicides, as detailed in a study by Dow employees. This is touted as an important advance that "can help preserve the productivity and environmental benefits of herbicide-resistant crops". The authors claim in their study that 2,4-D is safe - citing two non-peer reviewed sources.
Independent chemical risk consultant Tony Tweedale pointed out that an assessment of 2,4-D by the USDA Forest Service came up with less reassuring conclusions. The USDA paper states: "Based on recent studies published in the open literature, 2,4-D is toxic to the immune system and developing immune system, especially when used in combination with other herbicides. The mechanism of action of 2,4-D toxicity is cell membrane disruption and cellular metabolic processes. The molecular basis for 2,4-D toxicity to human lymphocytes and nerve tissue is likely the induction of programmed cellular death known as apoptosis."
The biggest irony here is that Dow's "solution" to glyphosate-resistance has already failed. Weed species resistant to 2,4-D already exist, according to the pesticide industry-financed website weedscience.org.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12887
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12888
+ LINK BETWEEN ROUNDUP OR ROUNDUP READY CROPS AND ANIMAL MISCARRIAGES?
Dr Don Huber, plant pathologist and professor emeritus at Purdue University, has written an open letter to US ag secretary Tom Vilsack, presenting a finding of a correlation between either glyphosate or Roundup Ready crops and a new, previously unknown organism that may cause plant diseases as well as animal miscarriages and infertility. He said the pathogen appears to be connected to the use of glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12899
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12925
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LABELLING
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+ U.S.: WHY AREN"T GM FOODS LABELLED
New York Times writer Mark Bittman kicks up a storm by asking the obvious question.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12928
+ U.S.: DO-IT-YOURSELF GM LABELS
As GM foods are not labelled in the US, the Millions Against Monsanto Truth-in-Labeling Campaign has taken matters into their own hands. They're sticking "Oh No! Is It GMO?" labels on non-organic foods likely to contain GMOs as well as non-organic meat, dairy, and eggs coming from animals raised in CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations), where they are fed GM grains. And they're supplying a ready-to-print set of labels so that you can do the same. If you're not comfortable "guerilla-stickering" in your local store, you can find a suspect GM-containing product in your pantry, label it, take a picture, and send it to the grocer you got it from.
Here are the tools you need:
1. The Non-GMO Shopping Guide http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com/
2. "Oh No! Is It GMO?" stickers http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/oh-no-gmo-labels.pdf (prints on Avery #5160 address labels)
3. The Millions Against Monsanto petitions
To Whole Foods: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22495.cfm
To Trader Joe's: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22497.cfm
To the top six food retailers: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22309.cfm
4. Organic Consumers Association's Activist Photo Album http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/picturepages.tt
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12894
+ NO COST INCREASES FROM GM LABELLING
"There has never been a documented report that genetic modification labelling has led to a cost increase in food anywhere," writes Prof Chris Viljoen who heads the GMO Testing Laboratory at the University of the Free State in South Africa.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12871
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CONTAMINATION
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+ EU BEEKEEPERS MAY BE ENTITLED TO DAMAGES FROM GM CROP FIRMS
The EU's highest court may classify honey containing traces of GM material as "food produced" from modified plants. Such a ruling may enable beekeepers with hives close to GM crops to seek damages. Beekeepers with hives close to fields of Monsanto GM maize can't sell their honey in the European Union without regulatory approval, an adviser to the European Court of Justice has said. The presence in honey "even of a minute quantity of pollen" from the maize is reason enough to restrict its sale, Advocate General Yves Bot said.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12893
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VIDEOS: BIOFUELS
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Here are a couple of recent videos we've added to our collection on GM and related issues. We're always adding new videos - check them out at:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12211:videos-introduction
+ WHY BIOFUELS ARE A BAD IDEA
If you think biofuels are a good thing, you need to see this short film. Growing plants to turn into our petrol is taking food away from people in poor countries. And it's no better for the environment than using fossil fuels. Biofuels are already mixed into the petrol we buy. Get the facts from this short film and then take action to stop governments supporting biofuels.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/29-myth-of-biofuels/12149
+ IMPACTS OF BIOFUELS ON THE GLOBAL SOUTH
Dr Ricardo Navarro, president of Friends of the Earth El Salvador (CESTA), discusses the impacts of biofuel production and policy on the Global South.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/29-myth-of-biofuels/12226
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REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
For those who do not receive GMWatch's Weekly Watch
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U.S. GM APPROVALS
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+ GM ALFALFA - BAD SOLUTION TO PROBLEM THAT DOESN'T EXIST
Following the US Dept of Agriculture's announcement that it has de-regulated Monsanto's GM Roundup Ready alfalfa, sustainable food systems advocate and author Michael Pollan commented, "93 percent of alfalfa hay is grown without any herbicide at all", which means that the GM RR alfalfa "is a bad solution to a problem that doesn't exist".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12844
+ ROUNDUP - THE PESTICIDE POISED TO "PUSH US OFF THE CLIFF"
The USDA's approval of yet another crop (GM alfalfa) dependent on dousings with Roundup raises serious human health concerns involving the pesticide, says an article from the Rodale Institute. You can't wash it off your fruit and veg because it builds up in the plant. And the Roundup Ready system means there's much more of it in the food supply than ever before. Plant pathologist Dr Don Huber, professor emeritus of Purdue University, says, "It's the most abused chemical we've ever had in agriculture. We're using chemical quantities we never would have imagined in the past."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12853
+ OPPONENTS OF GM ALFALFA BRACE FOR LEGAL FIGHT
The Center for Food Safety will sue the USDA for its "improper and illegal approval" of GM alfalfa. You can contribute to CFS's legal fighting fund here:
http://bit.ly/hBCShc
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12844
+ USDA ALLOWS PLANTING OF GM SUGAR BEETS DESPITE COURT ORDER
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has defied a court order and issued a new decision to allow the US sugar beet industry to continue growing Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM sugar beets. The decision will be immediately challenged in court by a coalition of farmers and conservation groups: the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club. This is the same coalition that in August last year had APHIS's previous decision to allow planting thrown out because it violated environmental laws. The coalition declared the new decision unlawful as well, and vowed to overturn it.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12861
http://bit.ly/gH9Lir
http://bit.ly/gH9Lir
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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ ARGENTINA: ANOTHER RTRS COMPANY CHARGED WITH SLAVE-LIKE TREATMENT OF WORKERS
Argentine authorities have charged agribusiness company Pioneer SA, a subsidiary of GM/chemical company DuPont, with human trafficking, keeping workers in slave-labour conditions in its facility in Cordoba, and tax evasion, according to an article in an Argentine newspaper. Pioneer and DuPont are members of the soy producers' association AAPRESID (members include Monsanto, BASF, Bunge, Bayer, and Syngenta), which in turn is a member of the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS). RTRS will launch its "responsible soy" greenwash label this spring. This report follows a similar case of GM seed company and RTRS member Nidera being accused by the authorities of keeping workers in slave-like conditions and tax evasion. Nidera was reportedly fined, though it is unclear on which particular charge.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12845
+ EUROPE: DUTCH NGOs CRITICIZED FOR SUPPORTING "RESPONSIBLE" SOY LABEL
Nine Belgian environmental and North/South organisations have expressed their concern about a "responsible" label on toxic soy, much of which will be GM. The letter has been sent to their colleagues in the Dutch NGOs Solidaridad, WWF, IUCN, Both Ends, ICCO and SNM. These organisations have backed the RTRS by writing to retailers and asking them to buy "responsible" soy.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12860