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GMWatch Monthly Review No. 111

Dear all

The GMWatch website has been under sustained attack since the publication of the Seralini study. Apologies to those who have at times found the site difficult to access. We're working as hard as we can to keep our site up and running.

The time has come around when we need to ask for your help once again to keep our news and information service going. We rely on your support and every penny goes towards opposing and exposing the multi-billion-dollar GM juggernaut. Please donate generously by Paypal or by sending a cheque (to 'NGIN') to the address given here: http://gmwatch.org/donations. If you have trouble accessing the site, please try again later!

Thanks to all GMWatch subscribers for your ongoing support and your work to safeguard public health and the environment. And have a very happy and healthy holiday season!

Claire Robinson, Monthly Review editor
Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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CONTENTS
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SMELLING A CORPORATE RAT
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
CHRISTMAS SUPERMARKET ACTION - UK
EUROPE
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
HUMAN GM

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SMELLING A CORPORATE RAT
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All you need to know on who's behind the campaign to get the Seralini study on GM maize and Roundup retracted is in a new article by GMWatch's Jonathan Matthews for Spinwatch. The article includes a breakdown of the role played by the Science Media Centre and industry linked players.
http://bit.ly/TOZ3Fo

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ASIA
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+ CHINA SACKS OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN GM GOLDEN RICE EXPERIMENT
Three officials who approved and conducted a controversial test of GM rice on schoolchildren in China's Hunan Province have been sacked. The officials were punished for "violating relevant regulations, scientific ethics and academic integrity". The research team had informed parents of the tested children about the experiment but withheld the fact that GM rice would be used. The Chinese government has paid $12,800 compensation to each family affected. One 11-year-old girl developed dizziness and fever shortly after the test. Her mother, Xie Xiaohua, said, "We were not told before the test by relevant authorities that it was genetically modified rice. We were only asked to sign names and we thought it was a nutrition program."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14501
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14503

+ DISCREPANCIES OVER GOLDEN RICE TRIAL
A report for Nature News - the news service of the journal Nature - on the sackings in China of the Golden Rice researchers, notes that serious discrepancies remain over the details of the GM rice trial. For instance, the CDC's investigation revealed that the children ate Golden Rice just once during the research - and not for lunch every day during the three-week study as the paper states. "How much Golden Rice did the children have exactly?" asks Wang Zheng, a policy researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Policy and Management in Beijing. "Either the researchers are lying about this now or they lied about it in their paper. It's a serious offence either way."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14512

+ RESISTANCE SPROUTS AGAINST BT MAIZE IN INDIA
The Punjab government is keen to introduce Bt maize in the state of Maharashtra by giving the go-ahead to Monsanto to set up a research and development centre for the crop. But environmental and farmer organisations are grouping for an agitation against it. Said Umendera Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission, an environmental organization: "No state in the country has given a go-ahead to Bt maize as it's a detrimental impact on health, if it enters the food chain; it is well documented. The state government's logic that a private company will help the government work towards food safety and security is flawed as corporate firms are interested only in profits."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14489

+ BT COTTON HIT BY 40% YIELD FAILURE, MAHARASHTRA GOVERNMENT ADMITS
For the first time, the Maharashtra government has officially admitted that cotton yield is likely to reduce by nearly 40%, causing massive economic loss to cotton farmers. Farmers and activists say the rise in the prices of Bt cotton seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and labour since last year has had a huge impact. The National Crime Records Bureau reveals that the number of farmer suicides in Maharashtra are likely to cross 5,000 this year in comparison to the 3,500 last year. The figures last year were the highest among all states in India. This is the third year in a row that Bt cotton failure is being reported in Mahahrashtra. Unlike earlier when dry land farmers were affected, even areas with adequate irrigation are facing a crop loss this year.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14479
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14482
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14489

+ GROWING DOUBT OVER GM CROPS IN INDIA
Real long-term sustainable solutions to India's agriculture crisis are a blur because the agribiz lobby and its friends in government use every opportunity to push through false solutions that are only profitable to the companies and not the farmer, writes Neha Saigal of Greenpeace India. One such delusional solution is GM crops.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14500

+ INDIAN FARMERS RETURN TO INDIGENOUS COTTON
Cotton growers in India are turning their backs on GM Bt cotton and returning to indigenous varieties.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14500

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GM INDUSTRY FUNDS UK PARLIAMENTARY GROUP TO PUSH GM
GeneWatch UK has warned that the GM industry is funding a major push to return GM crops to return GM crops to Britain by promoting misleading claims in parliament that they are needed to "feed the world". George Freeman MP's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture is being used by Monsanto and other GM companies to lobby on behalf of their business interests.

Funders of the APPG include the industry body the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), which represents the major GM crop companies (BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer (DuPont), Monsanto and Syngenta). Other funders include the National Farmers Union (NFU) and the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (ADHB). The funding is provided via Front Foot Communications, which is run by the Secretary of SCIMAC, a grouping of industry organisations along the UK farm supply chain, established in 1998 to support the introduction of GM crops in the UK.

"Lobbyists from the GM industry have infiltrated parliament and are promoting GM crops to government as a way to "feed the world"," said Dr Helen Wallace, Director of GeneWatch UK. "But the sad truth is they only want to expand the market for their products and lock farmers into a treadmill where they continually pay more for patented GM seeds and expensive chemicals."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14483

+ UK ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY BACKS GM FOOD
The UK government's environment secretary Owen Paterson has backed the idea of growing and marketing GM crops in the UK, claiming (unspecified!) "real environmental benefits". He dismissed concerns about impacts on human health as "complete nonsense" and expressed contempt for the public who oppose GM and yet unknowingly eat products from GM-fed livestock. Perhaps fatally, he also attacked Alan Titchmarsh, the much-loved TV gardener, calling him a "complete muppet" after Titchmarsh criticised the Government's policies on the countryside and ash tree dieback disease.

Paterson's ill-advised outburst comes amid speculation that ministers are ready to relax control on the cultivation of GM crops. To date no GM crops have been grown commercially in the British countryside, though legally this would be permitted.

Commenting, Pete Riley of GM Freeze said: "Mr Paterson seems to be formulating policy from an evidence base provided by the agri-biotech industry and ignoring the Government's own data showing GM harms wildlife. He needs to consult more widely with people who understand the evidence."

Friends of the Earth's Clare Oxborrow said: "Owen Paterson's claims that we need GM crops simply don't stack up – the industrial farming system, which GM aggravates, has been instrumental in causing the global food crisis we currently face.

"The Government should focus on funding cheaper, simpler and safer agricultural solutions which can deliver real benefits for consumers, farmers and the environment, rather than gambling on GM."

Peter Melchett, Policy Director, Soil Association said: "Owen Paterson is wrong to claim that GM crops are good for the environment. The UK Government's own farm scale experiment showed that overall the GM crops were worse for British wildlife. US Government figures show that overall pesticide use has increased since GM crops have been grown there, because as scientists opposed to GM predicted, superweeds and resistant insects have multiplied.

"The recent British Science Association survey showed that public concern has not changed, and the number of people saying that GM food 'should be encouraged' dropped from 46% in 2002 to 27% in 2012. Owen Patterson says that people are eating meat from animals fed of GM feed without realising it. That is because the British Government has consistently opposed moves to label to give consumers accurate information, and he should put that right by immediately introducing compulsory labelling of meat and milk from animals fed on GM feed."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14506
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14507
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14508

+ WHO IS OWEN PATERSON?
UK environment secretary Owen Paterson has campaigned against wind farms, called for all alternative energy subsidies to be stopped, wants fracking projects accelerated, has branded anti-hunt protesters "Nazis", and wants airport expansion urgently investigated.
Guardian columnist George Monbiot commented that his appointment as environment secretary was "a declaration of war on the environment, and another sign that the right of the party – fiercely opposed to anything that prevents business from doing as it wishes – has won."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14506

+ GM LOBBY CONTINUES SERALINI PAPER RETRACTION CAMPAIGN
An article in New Scientist reports continued attempts to get the journal that published Seralini's paper to retract it. piece, The article, though biased in favour of the GM lobby, does - to its credit - refer to the allegation that biotech interests are hidden behind "the cohort of academic titles" wielded by many of Seralini's critics.

Ironically, the article itself provides unintentional support for such a view. It quotes Cathie Martin of the John Innes Centre, which is heavily reliant on GM industry funding, and Prof Maurice Moloney, who famously drives a Porsche with a 'GMO' number plate and has a CV to match. It is Moloney's GM research that lies behind Monsanto's GM canola (oilseed rape). He also launched his own GM company in which Dow AgroSciences was an investor. In other words, Moloney's career and business activities are heavily dependent on the public acceptance of GM.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14492

+ STOP WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY ON PR FOR GM CROPS
In its submission to a Government consultation on agricultural research and technology, GeneWatch UK argues that decisions on what research to fund should be more open and accountable. GeneWatch highlights that lobbying by the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, which represents the major GM crop companies, has led to an agreement in which taxpayer-funded researchers promote the industry's agenda to try to encourage more rapid approval of the companies' GM crops in the EU. As a result, UK taxpayer-funded research institutions are acting as the PR wing of the large multinational companies which market GM seeds. They are paid not to produce anything useful but to go on the media and claim that they will produce something useful using GM at some point in the future: and that therefore GM regulations must be weakened and retailers must put GM foods back on their shelves.

"Agricultural research is critical to tackling many problems that we face in Britain and around the world," said GeneWatch UK's Director, Dr Helen Wallace. "These decisions are too important to be made in dodgy deals behind closed doors. Taxpayers' money should not be wasted on unfulfilled promises and hype about GM, rather than accepting reality and funding things that work. We need research that helps farmers and consumers and provides genuine solutions to problems with our food supply, environment and diets."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/51-2012/14473

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CHRISTMAS SUPERMARKET ACTION - UK
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+ TELL MORRISONS IT'S A GM TURKEY
Earlier this year the British supermarket chain Morrisons dropped its GM free feed policy. That means its Christmas turkeys are GM fed. Let Morrisons know that this is unacceptable and that you will not be buying their turkeys or shopping there this Christmas. Tell them to re-instate their non GM feed policy. Remind them of the recent Seralini study.

Here is Morrisons' Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/Morrisons

Here is how you can write to Morrisons:
https://www.morrisons.co.uk/Help-and-information/Contact-Us/

And here is how you can avoid GM fed meat and dairy:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/why-freeze/unwanted/where-buy-non-gm-fed/

Find out more about the problem of GM feed:
http://www.bangmfood.org/stealth-gmos

Don't forget to let others know; use social media, twitter, etc.

+ NOT EVERYONE WANTS PROPER TOXICOLOGICAL TESTING OF GM FOODS
A comment in sculpture on UK supermarkets' ill-fated flirtation with GMOs in the 1990s.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14505

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EUROPE
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+ EFSA, COMMISSION TURN BLIND EYE TO GM DANGERS
After a preliminary negative opinion, EFSA has now rejected once more the conclusions of the Seralini et al. study on the long term health impacts of GM maize NK603 and its associated herbicide, Roundup. This new opinion does not change or add anything to the preliminary one and is nothing more than a compilation of all the critiques from pro-GMO scientists and national agencies that had given a green light to unsatisfactory and secret industry data for risk assessments of this GMO.

EFSA does not even recognise the need for long term health risk assessments of GMOs that the Seralini et al. study highlighted, even though the two French agencies that reviewed the study stated that such long term studies had never been performed.

In its final review, EFSA simply ignored Seralini's team's answers to critics, published in the same journal that published his original research study. EFSA's final review was titled "Seralini et al. study conclusions not supported by data, says EU risk assessment community". But Dr Brian John of GM Free Cymru said the so-called "EU risk assessment community" was nothing of the sort - it was a self-appointed kangaroo court which had no mandate to advertise itself in that way, and no mandate to speak on behalf of the EU or the member states.

Corporate Europe Observatory wrote: "EFSA has chosen to fan the flames of public controversy by publishing a radically one-sided assessment putting the entire blame on Seralini, applying a level of scientific standards never reached by the Monsanto study on NK603 it accepted for its EU authorisation and ignoring some national agencies' calls to more research and a review of GMOs and pesticides' risk assessment guidelines."

Meanwhile the Commission is planning to adopt a new Regulation that would seriously water down the risk assessment for GMOs. It's unclear whether the adoption will be affected by Seralini's findings. Health Commissioner Sefcovic's reply to a parliamentary question from Earth Open Source suggested that the Commission is ignoring Seralini's findings under the pretence that the Regulation will "strengthen the protection of human and animal health and the environment in the EU".

On the other hand, Eric Poudelet, speaking for the Commission in the EU Petitions Committee, confirmed that there was currently a freeze or "reflective phase" with regard to the Draft Implementing Regulation, while the Commission consulted further on the implications of the Seralini study.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14490
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14493
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14496

+ EFSA'S INTEGRITY QUESTIONED IN EU PETITIONS COMMITTEE
Serious questions were raised at a meeting of the EU Parliamentary Committee about the integrity of EFSA (the European Food Safety Agency) and the manner in which it deals with GM crops and foods.

At the Committee meeting in Brussels on 3 December the Petitions Committee heard two presentations from petitioner Dr Brian John, who claimed that his rights as a citizen to safe food and a healthy lifestyle were being directly threatened by EFSA's ongoing support for GM products in the food chain. Dr John also claimed that EFSA was involved in a conspiracy with other interested parties to "bury" a recent research study (by Prof GE Seralini and colleagues) showing that rats that ate GM maize and tiny amounts of Roundup herbicide incorporated in their food supplies suffered severe toxic effects, including cancerous growths.

In a second petition submitted on behalf of 15 European scientists, Dr John examined a Draft Implementing Regulation on GMOs which the EC is about to bring into law without proper scrutiny from Parliament. He accused EFSA of reducing the requirements placed on applicants for GMO consents while maintaining the cynical pretence that the regulatory regime was being tightened up in the interests of food safety.

In the meeting, Eric Poudelet, speaking for the Commission, confirmed that there was currently a freeze or "reflective phase" with regard to the Draft Implementing Regulation, while the Commission consulted further on the implications of the Seralini study.

Dr John said MEPs who spoke during the Committee deliberations were "universally hostile towards EFSA and the Commission on these issues" and supportive of the points made in the petitions.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14496

+ MEPs UNHAPPY WITH EFSA ASSESSMENT OF SERALINI STUDY
MEPs have decided to invite Prof Seralini and European Food Safety Authority officials to the Parliament to debate Prof Seralini's findings. Several MEPs, including Richard Seeber, a coordinator for food for the centre-right EPP political group, said they were not satisfied with the EFSA assessment of the Seralini study.

Mr Seeber, who is in the largest political group, said EFSA rules on independence needed to be tightened and that it should be more transparent. Industry had too much influence over the Authority, he argued. He and other MEPs said EFSA had reached its conclusions too quickly and that the Seralini work, which claimed NK603 caused cancer in rats, needed to be looked at by independent people in a more detailed way.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14509

+ FRENCH PROTESTERS DESTROY IMPORTED GM SOY
Environmental activists destroyed a cargo of GM soy in the French port of Lorient, hoping to highlight the presence of GM products in the food chain. Also, anti-GM campaigners stuck hundreds of posters on newsagents' billboards across Brittany under the headings of the papers Ouest-France and Le Telegramme: "Brittany imports 3,000,000 tonnes of GM soya a year - did you know?", "Calfs, cows, and pigs force-fed with GMOs", "Jobs: wanted human guinea pigs", and "Who will have the first GM cancer?"
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14480

+ VETO GMOs IN POLAND
The political heat is rising fast in Poland. The pro-GMO Seeds Act is at the President's door. He can sign – and cast Poland into a GM corporate wasteland – or he can veto the Act and give his country the chance to proudly proclaim "GMO free zone" status. Please write to the President asking him to veto the Act:
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14486

+ GMO-FREE ZONE IN NETHERLANDS
After declaring itself GM-free in 2011, the Dutch city of Nijmegen has moved on and incorporated the GM-free status in the zoning plan of one its quarters with farmland. This means that GM crops are now legally forbidden in this quarter of the city. Other Dutch cities and provinces are interested in following suit.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14486

+ INDUSTRY TESTS ON GLYPHOSATE SHOW EVIDENCE OF CARCINOGENICITY
The industry tests carried out to support the approval of glyphosate show evidence of carcinogenicity which was dismissed by regulators. The findings, if verified, support those of Seralini.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14475

+ DOCTOR SPEAKS ON SERALINI, GM SAFETY, AND INDUSTRY "SCIENCE"
American public health physician John Day MD explains how industry designs its "safety" studies on GMOs and pesticides to avoid finding harm.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14468

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AFRICA
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+ 400 AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS CALL FOR BAN ON GM CROPS
An urgent appeal has been made to the African Union (AU) to discuss a ban on the cultivation, import and export of GM crops in Africa at the next AU summit, to be held in January 2013. An African Civil Society Statement, signed by over 400 African organisations representing small-scale farmers, faith-based organisations, social movements, non-governmental organisations, organic producers, consumers, business people and ordinary citizens, has been sent to the Permanent Representative Council (PRC) of the AU. The statement was supported by a substantive document detailing the failure of GM technology to deliver any of its promised benefits since its global introduction some 16 years ago.

The group pointed to a lack of safety data on GM foods and condemned the patenting of life and the privatisation of agriculture that is threatening to dispossess African food producers of control over their production systems.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14481

+ IS THE UK SETTING UP A POVERTY TRAP FOR AFRICAN FARMERS?
The Africa Centre for Biosafety (ACB), supported by Food & Water Europe and the Gaia Foundation, has written to UK Ministers for International Development, Business and Environment asking for evidence for the basis of UK overseas aid policy.

ACB recently published a searing critique of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (known as AGRA, supported by agribusiness multinationals and the Gates Foundation). The study finds the scheme is ultimately not about developing lasting solutions to hunger, but imposing a cash economy on African agriculture that will inevitably result in farmers becoming dependent on the multinational corporations profiting from the hardship that will follow.

ACB Director Mariam Mayet said: "Forcing whole countries into a cycle of providing agricultural commodities for others in order to buy inputs to produce yet more exports for the profit of external corporations smacks of recolonisation. It's a very dangerous game to play."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14491

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THE AMERICAS
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+ MONSANTO WARNS AGAINST ANIMALS GRAZING ROUNDUP READY CANOLA
In its 2008 US user agreement, Monsanto warns farmers not to allow their livestock to graze its Roundup Ready winter canola because "insufficient information exists to allow safe and proper grazing recommendations".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14477

+ BUGS OUTSMART GM PESTICIDAL CROPS
As rootworms feed on the GM corn engineered to kill the pest, farmers are using more pesticides. Also, to combat herbicide resistant superweeds, the GM industry is preparing to roll out crops resistant to older and more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D and to multiple herbicides. Washington State University agronomist Charles Benbrook says, "It makes about as much sense as pouring gas on a fire to put it out. It is going to lead to the exact same problem and a substantial increase in much less benign herbicides."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14478

+ DID PROP37 REALLY LOSE IN CALIFORNIA?
It seems plausible that the California GMO labelling ballot initiative Prop37 lost the vote because Big Food and Big Ag lied and spent its way to victory. But new developments are casting this result into question. On Dec 4, Prop 37 hit over 6 million votes on the California Secretary of State's website. But this tally was changed to the previous day's numbers below 6 million within an hour of being publicized by Food Democracy Now! Also, statisticians are saying that they've detected "anomalies" in some voting regions. The election results won't be verified until 14 December.
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/prop_37_demand_transparency/?ak_proof=1&akid=.220113.0e2vr5&rd=1&t=5

+ GM 2,4-D-TOLERANT CROPS WILL ACCELERATE PESTICIDE USE
Canada has given regulatory approval to the first corn and soy crop plants genetically engineered to tolerate doses of the herbicide 2,4-D. The move was denounced by physician and civil society groups, which say that the new GM crops, developed Dow AgroSciences, will lead to increased herbicide use, with more toxic pesticides in the environment and our food.

"The federal government has recklessly approved a GM food crop that is tolerant to yet another toxic pesticide, even though earlier GM glyphosate-tolerant crops already created superweeds and increased pesticide use. These same problems will be recreated by 2,4-D crops," said Dr Warren Bell MD of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. "Our environment, food, and population will be increasingly exposed to another hazardous product."

"This century's epidemiological research of 2,4-D formulations continues to show elevated risks of cancers, particularly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," said Dr Meg Sears PhD of Prevent Cancer Now. Research has shown 2,4-D to be an endocrine disruptor, and and has linked exposure to cancers, neurological impairment and reproductive problems. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have banned 2,4-D.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14459

+ DUPONT SENDS IN FORMER COPS TO ENFORCE SEED PATENTS
DuPont is sending dozens of former police officers across North America to prevent farmers from saving its GM soybean seed for replanting next season. DuPont is inspecting Canadian fields and will begin in the US next year.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14487
For an insight into what it's like to be on the receiving end of the seed police - the shadowy army of investigators deployed by the GM industry against famers - see the special investigation "Monsanto's Harvest of Fear" by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, one of the most widely acclaimed investigative reporting teams in American journalism and twice winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
See also the report "Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers":
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/pubs/CFSMOnsantovsFarmerReport1.13.05.pdf

+ U.S.: ILLEGAL GM SUGAR BEET PLANTINGS IN OREGON
GM Roundup Ready sugar beets are being grown in Oregon, USA in close proximity to producers of organic crops. Last February, Chris Hardy, owner of Village Farm in Ashland, Oregon, discovered that a neighbour was growing Syngenta GM sugar beet seeds just a quarter of a mile from his organic farm. The GM plantings violated US Department of Agriculture requirements, which call for a 4-mile separation distance between GM beets and related non-GM seeds. Hardy contacted the USDA, which did nothing. So residents of Jackson County, Oregon have organized their own an initiative to ban the production of GM plants in the county.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14498

+ LONG MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO IN COSTA RICA
A long "March in Defence of our Corn" involving over 30 Costa Rican organizations has begun, with the aim of warning Costa Rican communities about Monsanto's intention to plant GM corn in the Central American state. The School of Biology in the University of Costa Rica has advised the government to declare a moratorium on the introduction of GM corn in Costa Rica, until ecological and socioeconomic studies can guarantee the future integrity of the country's existing corn varieties.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14499

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HUMAN GENETICS
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+ UK: ALTERING THE GENES WE PASS ON TO OUR CHILDREN. DO YOU WANT A SAY?
A small team of British scientists is calling for the legalisation of a technique for creating babies with altered genes, but there is no good medical argument for doing this, says Dr David King of Human Genetics Alert (HGA). The technique, mitochondrial replacement, would forever alter the genes we pass on to our children - in other words, the genetic changes will be passed on down the generations. Alteration of the human germline is rejected as unethical and risky by most governments and many scientists. But according to HGA, the UK is the weak link in the otherwise strong consensus against human germline genetic tinkering.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14494

+ WHO WANTS HUMAN GM?
In the UK there's an entire lobby devoted to pushing human genetic engineering, spearheaded by the Science Media Centre, its corporate funder AstraZeneca, and groups and individuals with links to the pro-corporate technophile cult, Living Marxism. New material added to Powerbase:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Category:Human_Genetics