MONTHLY REVIEW No. 67

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GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 67
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Dear all:

This month's Monthly Review has a different format, designed to make it easier for subscribers to our Weekly Watch to avoid having to re-read all the stories they've already read in Weekly Watch. You'll find the news that's already gone out in the Weekly Watches collected together at the end of this bulletin, under the title, "REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF".

There's lots of good news this month that suggests that the tide has well and truly turned against GM -- not only in Europe, but also in the homeland of GM, the United States.

Claire Robinson
Editor, Monthly Review
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
GM HYPE
OBAMA-WATCH
CATHOLIC CHURCH
GM FAILURES
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
FEEDING THE WORLD
REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GM SEED BILL SIDELINED AFTER PRIVATE DINNER WITH MONSANTO
A Montana Senate committee has buried a bill that sought standards for how biotech companies test crops for patent infringement after members attended a private dinner with Monsanto representatives. The bill would have required Monsanto and other companies to get permission from a farmer before taking a sample from their crops. Monsanto did not offer public testimony about the bill but did express its opposition in private at the dinner, according to the committee chairman. Five of nine committee members attended the dinner, paid for by another bill opponent, Growers for Biotechnology.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gE61B6LHmZRyYsT3HtZKRbJqoa0gD9 75IP981

+ GROOMING WHEAT GROWERS FOR MONSANTO
Al Skogen is chairman of Growers for Biotechnology, which picked up the tab for Monsanto's dinner with Monsanto lawmakers (above). He has written an article complaining that all the woes of America's wheat growers can be blamed on the absence of commercialized GM wheat varieties. The article is full of such misleading statements as "Farmers who plant biotech crops have enjoyed large increases in yield." There is abundant evidence that the opposite is the case. GM crops have often suffered yield drag and not one commercially available GM crop increases yield potential.
http://www.truthabouttrade.org/content/view/13595/lang,en/

+ "WHY WE NEED GM CROPS"
The Times' GM-loving science correspondent, Mark Henderson, has written yet another article hyping GM crops. The latest is called "Why we need GM crops" - indirect homage, we wonder, to the banGMfood.org document "10 reasons why we don't need GM crops"?

Henderson is close to pro-GM lobby groups like the Science Media Centre and Sense About Science, and in this article he draws repeatedly on SAS's recent GM guide - partly ghost written, as we now know thanks to detective work by the magazine Private Eye, by a former Monsanto director.

Here are just a few of the pro-GM headlines Henderson's articles have generated:
*GM Resistance Is 'Threatening Cheap Food'
*Europe's stand on GM crops 'hitting the poor'
*BBC incited eco-terror on GM drama website
*Scientists condemn 'ill-informed, negative' Prince over GM crops warning
*Blair condemns protesters who thwart science
*GM crops are the only way to solve Britons' diet failings, say scientists
*GM Tomato 'Reduces Risk of Disease'
*GM Potato Vaccine Found For Hepatitis B
*GM bean could help prevent heart attacks
*GM mosquito bred to destroy malaria
*Scientists aim to beat flu with GM chickens
*GM grass to put club golfers on par with the best
*Chief Scientist says atomic power and GM crops are the future
etc. ad infinitum.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/2009/mar.php

+ GM ON THE AGENDA AT G20 SUMMIT?
Here's an article on a new GM super-maize that will save the world from well, all its problems -- authored by Mark Henderson's close associate, Mark Handerson :) http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/2009/04/C2.html

+ POP SCIENCE AND PROPAGANDA
Good article for CommonDreams takes apart GM advocate Matt Ridley's latest pro-GM hype:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/26-4
Ridley is the disgraced ex-chairman of the first British bank to fail -- Northern Rock -- and an avid supporter of GM as well as a hyped up under-regulated banking sector.

+ MONSANTO BLOG ON INDIA'S FARMER SUICIDES
A Monsanto employee -- "Garrett" -- has posted a reassuring piece about Indian farmer suicides on the Monsanto blog. It concludes: "The bottom line: Bt cotton is making life better in India. Unfortunately, critics of biotech do not like these favorable statistics or news reports, so they rely on baseless smear campaigns to create a visceral reaction in those who are unfamiliar with the facts. Debt is the reason for Indian farmer suicide - but the economic benefits from Bt cotton may be the key to reversing the tragic statistics."
For GMWatch's comments on the study the Monsanto blogger refers to -- "Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicides: Reviewing the Evidence" (IFPRI) -- see:
http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1226402334-BtCottonAndSuicides.pdf
Responses to the blog are at: http://blog.monsantoblog.com/2009/03/26/indian-farmer-suicide-the-bottom-line/
More on Monsanto blog: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/9E5C776C165AC85586257586 0080C3FC?OpenDocument

+ MONSANTO MAN CALLS PERCY SCHMEISER A THIEF
Vincent Trevisanutto is a Monsanto employee who's been posting on OpEdNews for the last 3 weeks -- his contributions coincide with Monsanto's new social media campaign. Here's an extract from one of his comments:
"Percy Schmeiser the person that has been hailed as a hero, is nothing more than a common thief. His field wasn't contaminated, he 'contaminated' it and knew exactly what he was doing."
http://www.opednews.com/Poll/Should-OpEdNews-Publish-Ar-by-Rob-Kall-090322-222.h tml
See the response posted on OpEdNews and for anyone wanting to know why Percy Schmeiser is regarded as a hero, see his Right Livelihood Award (the "alternative Nobel Prize") citation here: http://www.rightlivelihood.org/schmeiser.html
A critical look at Monsanto's blog by blog expert Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is at http://tiny.cc/WdD4r

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GM HYPE
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+ MAGIC GM TREES WON'T SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING
The New York Times recently published a profile of the physicist Freeman Dyson which uncritically reported his idea for genetically engineered magic "carbon-eating" trees that would solve global warming. Science blogger Mike Mumford critiques the idea, with the NYT's failure to give it a reality check, at:
http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2009/03/co2_freeman_dyson_magic_trees.php
GMWatch comment: Mike Mumford is amazed that the NYT covered Dyson's idea that magic GM trees could fix global warming so uncritically, but a research study of the UK media's GM coverage by Prof Guy Cook showed that speculative claims of GM solutions to apparently intractable problems were lapped up uncritically on a regular basis, and that held even for publications with a sceptical editorial line on GM.

+ LET THEM EAT GM COTTON
Here's another techno-fix for world hunger from the GM proponents, this time from gene-bashers at Texas A&M University: GM cotton grown as a food crop, engineered not to contain the gossypol that makes it inedible for humans.
GMWatch comment: Cotton acreage has gone into decline in the US as (GM) Bt cotton fails to deal with the growing pest problem while (GM) Roundup Ready cotton has spawned herbicide resistant weeds that are wreaking havoc with Delta cotton production.

Roundup-resistant pigweed, for example, can "quickly grow more than 8 feet tall with a thick stalk and suck valuable nutrients from nearby plants. It can clog a cotton picker, too, making it hard to harvest the crop." (Resistant pigweed plagues central Georgia cotton)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5878

This one resistant weed alone, according to Stanley Culpepper, a University of Georgia weed specialist, is "a real threat to future cotton production" and it has exploded right across the South.

Here's an alternative suggestion to the insanity of GM cotton for human food: use the same acreage and a fraction of the money that's poured into ridiculous GM wheezes to produce normal food crops that don't need to be genetically engineered to make them edible. It's that simple.

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OBAMA-WATCH
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+ WILL OBAMA REGULATE GM?
Will Obama finally regulate the biggest food hazard of all time GM food? Jeffrey Smith addresses this question in an article for the Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/will-obamas-food-safety-t_b_178127.h tml

+ OBAMAS TURN WHITE HOUSE ORGANIC
The Obamas are avoiding exposing themselves to GM foods by converting the south lawn of the White House to an organic garden. An article for US News and World Report says: "The kitchen staff, inspired by the Obamas' organic focus, tweaked the menu and even the wine choices to highlight organic foods." White House food and beverage manager Daniel Shanks is quoted as saying, "I really got caught up in what they want to do so that at the last minute, I had to change my whole perspective. They talked to us about their vision ”¦ They are really excited about being able to show to the world that there's a better way in a positive, healthy manner. We need to eat better. We need to take care of the land.”
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/2/28/the-obamas-turn-the-wh ite-house-organic.html

Jeffrey Smith comment: The Bush family also had an organic kitchen policy. Laura Bush was "adamant" about it, but kept it all quiet. Even at Monsanto, many in-the-know employees won't consume the company's own GM creations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/will-obamas-food-safety-t_b_178127.h tml

More comment: Monsanto's CEO, Hugh Grant, admitted in an interview that he bought organic food. Tony Blair when Prime Minister claimed he fed his children GM foods but this seems to have been a lie. His wife Cherie subsequently admitted she made a point of feeding their children organic food, which seeks to exclude GM content. And Associated Press reported that China's political leaders ate all organic, with care being taken to source GM-free rice -- see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26874854/

+ OBAMAS' ORGANIC GARDEN MAKES CHEMICAL INDUSTRY "SHUDDER"
When pesticide industry lobby group, the Mid America Croplife Association, discovered that the new White House kitchen garden was to be managed organically, it sent a letter to First Lady Michelle Obama asking her to consider managing the garden "conventionally". The Association appears to believe that growing one's own food militates against progress: "If Americans were still required to farm to support their family's basic food and fiber needs, would the U.S. have been leaders in the advancement of science, communication, education, medicine, transportation and the arts?"

A leaked email between MACA members says, "Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's [sic] and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder."
http://tiny.cc/yAS9r

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CATHOLIC CHURCH
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+ GM CROPS BENEFIT RICH CORPORATIONS, NOT THE POOR
In the run-up to the May pro-GM conference at the Pontifical Academy, Vatican City, Fr Sean McDonagh cites evidence showing that GM crops make massive profits for biotech corporations but do nothing to help the poor.
http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/gm_crops_benefit_rich_corporations_not_poo r

+ PRO-GM BISHOP'S POSITION UNTENABLE
In mid-March the Pope published a working document for the Synod on Africa which is highly critical of GM firms. Fr Sean McDonagh, a Catholic priest who has spent years working in the developing world, writes that the document must have put pressure on Bishop Sanchez, the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, who is an enthusiastic supporter of GM crops.
http://www.imu.ie/index.php/community-forums/groups/viewdiscussion?groupid=36&to picid=16
Full text of the Pope’s working document: http://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-25422

+ PONTIFICAL ACADEMY CONTINUES FOOLHARDY BIOTECH ADVOCACY
The official policy of the Vatican is at odds with the continuing advocacy by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for biotechnology as a solution to development issues and for world hunger, says an article by David Andrews of the Columbans. Andrews concludes, “It is strange that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is allowing itself to be used in this way, contrary to the official policies of the Holy See on agriculture, poverty and hunger in light of a development agenda. It is indeed, a sad state of affairs.”
http://www.columban.com/biotechnolocy_advocacy.html

+ PONTIFICAL ACADEMY TRIES TO SAVE GM FOODS
The May GM conference at the Pontifical Academy "appears to be a PR exercise by the biotech companies", says Rev. Charles Rue in an article, "Vatican Academy to help save GM Foods". The Rev. Rue says the conference is part of the industry's "campaign to destroy processes of regulations for the breeding, testing and labeling of transgenic foods".
http://www.columban.org.au/assets/files/cmi/03%20Opinion%20GM%20Vatican%204%20Fe b%2009%20_2_.pdf

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GM FAILURES
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+ GM MAIZE FAILS IN SOUTH AFRICA
South African farmers have suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of GM corn (maize) failed, producing hardly any seeds. GM maize is touted by the government as an effective way to boost production. Monsanto will compensate farmers who suffered losses, but the company denied the problem was related to genetic modification.
http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=964062
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/270101

+ SUPERB ARTICLE ON GM SCENE IN INDIA
An article on the GM scene in India takes a clear-eyed look at the reality behind claims that Bt cotton has performed some sort of miracle in states like Gujarat, and sets India’s experiences with GM in a global context.
http://www.india-seminar.com/2009/595/595_kavitha_kuruganti.htm

+ U.S DRUG FIRM DUMPS GM PHARMA INSULIN
A Los Angeles-area drug company that paid for a year-long option to license the rights to a Calgary firm's GM plant-produced insulin has let the option lapse. MannKind Corp.'s option on SemBioSys Genetics' insulin product, produced in GM safflower plants, expired "without action", SemBioSys said.
http://www.country-guide.ca/west/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=98280&issue=04022009&st ory_id=&PC=FBC

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RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
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+ EU WARY OF FORCING FRANCE TO LIFT GM BAN
European Union regulators may be dragging their heels with their proposal to order France to end its ban on growing GM maize MON810, fearing another rebuff by other EU states, officials said.

The EU executive has already tried once, presenting a draft order to a panel of EU experts last month for France to scrap the ban. It wasn't approved, meaning that the Commission would now usually escalate the paperwork to EU ministers.

But it has not yet done so, which has raised some eyebrows in Brussels and elsewhere. Part of the reason, diplomats say, is the resounding defeat endured by the Commission in early March when an overwhelming majority of EU countries rejected its proposals for Austria and Hungary to end similar GM maize bans.
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL156591320090401

+ GROWING EU CONSENSUS FOR LETTING EACH COUNTRY DECIDE ON GMOs
A growing consensus has emerged among EU member states in favour of allowing each nation to decide on its GM cultivation policy.

The Czech presidency said that a "surprising" number of countries reacted positively to a paper from the Dutch government proposing that the choice of whether to cultivate GMOs should be left to individual member states.

In a paper put forward to the Council, the Netherlands suggests that a possible solution to GMO approval issues would be for internal market rules to apply on the import of products -- with a decision at EU level. But for cultivation it could be left to each member state.
http://www.agra-net.com/portal/

+ LUXEMBOURG LATEST COUNTRY TO BAN GM CORN
The number of European Union (EU) member states opposing the EU Commission's pro-GM stance is increasing. Just three weeks after the EU Council of Ministers has rejected the EU Commission's proposal to waive the bans of Austria and Hungary on Monsanto's MON810, Luxembourg has now announced a ban on the GM corn. A similar decision is expected from Germany.
http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/letzebuerg/artikel/11755/luxemburg-verbietet-genmais -mon810.php

+ GERMANY OFFICIAL REPORT WARNS AGAINST RISKS OF GM
The Federal Office for Nature Conservation (BfN) has published an official report warning against the risks of GM. According to the president of BfN, Prof Dr Beate Jessel, "The cultivation of transgenic plants is highly controversial and sustainable use has not yet been proven. Alternative acceptable solutions are already widely. Support for them must be promoted in research, education and politics."
Article in German: http://www.bonn.de/rat_verwaltung_buergerdienste/presseportal/pressemitteilungen /06534/index.html

+ GM VS CONVENTIONAL BREEDING DEBATE IN SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
An intelligent debate on GM versus conventional breeding recently took place in the Scottish Parliament. Bill Wilson, Scottish National Party, said: “The first generation of GM crops has failed to produce higher yields. It is a case of no jam today. What about jam tomorrow? GM scientists are working on ideas such as carbon 3 to carbon 4 conversion, GM nitrogen-fixing crops, drought-tolerant crops and saline-tolerant crops. However, despite two decades of research that has cost billions of pounds, their work has produced no results. As with the Queen of Hearts, if we are looking for jam, today never comes. By contrast, traditional plant breeding has produced a sustained rise in yields the world over.”
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or -09/sor0401-02.htm#Col16411

+ NO PLANS TO COMMERCIALISE GM BRINJAL IN INDIA
Aruna Rodrigues, who led the public interest lawsuit against GM commercialization in India, tells us that the latest news from the Supreme Court is that according to the Inidan government, there are no immediate plans to commercialise Bt brinjal.
Update on the Supreme Court case: http://tiny.cc/ZYgDA

+ PROTEST IN INDIA AGAINST GM TRIAL
Hundreds of farmers from across Maharashtra traveled to Kolhapur to protest against an open-air trial of Monsanto’s GM corn at the Maharishi Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) University. Subsequently, Dr Rajaram Deshmukh, Vice Chancellor of the university, said that the trial would be stopped soon and all material from the trial plot would be destroyed. He added that the university would not undertake any more transgenic trials.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gm-corn-trials-in-kolhapur-stopped/442350/

+ MASS ARRESTS AT GM FOOD PROTEST IN INDIA
In Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, over 70 protestors were arrested by the police for staging an active protest against the field trial of a GM corn inside the premises of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). The protestors, under the umbrella organization of the Safe Food Alliance, had come together to demand immediate destruction of the field where trial of Bt corn was being carried out in secrecy for the last 3 months.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/03/stories/2009040351880600.htm
http://www.netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=1215660&cat=India&head=62+held+for +protest+on+GM+crop

+ GM RICE A THREAT TO FOOD SAFETY IN BRAZIL STATE RESEARCH BODY
For the first time in Brazil, the Brazilian state research institute on agriculture (Embrapa) has raised its voice against the cultivation of a GM variety. At a public hearing about the GM rice "Liberty Link", produced by Bayer, Embrapa classified the approval of this seed as a "threat to the food safety in Brazil" and recommended to the National Technical Commission of Biosafety (CTNBio) to "analyze carefully the introduction of genes" of resistance to herbicides based on ammonium glufosinate. It said that "transgenic red rice would become dominant with the use of this herbicide (glufosinate) and could harm the Brazilian wild rice varieties."
http://www.valoronline.com.br
http://tiny.cc/FJH73
http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1237978142-EmbrapaGERice.pdf

+ U.S. FEDERAL JUDGE SAYS NO TO GM CROPS ON REFUGE LAND
A US federal judge has ruled that the US Fish and Wildlife should not have permitted farming with GM crops on a national wildlife refuge. US District Judge Gregory Sleet wrote that the Fish and Wildlife agency erred by failing to conduct environmental studies to determine whether farming with GM crops at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware was compatible with conservation and habitat preservation.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/nation/story/70525F9F8A10BF988 62575830078B4FD?OpenDocument

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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ U.S. BILL TO MANDATE GM RESEARCH FOR AFRICA, ASIA PASSES
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has unanimously approved S384, the Global Food Security Act of 2009, which reportedly specifies that the U.S. MUST fund GMOs and biotechnology. The bill authorizes $500 million for 2010 and it calls for the creation of a Special Coordinator for Food Security (Global Hunger Czar?) to advise the Obama on international food security issues. It also calls for partnerships between US universities and their counterparts in the developing world, or food aid to hungry people in other countries.
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=1338
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=1273
TAKE ACTION (U.S.): Write your Senators NOW opposing the bill.

+ PLUNDER OF IRAQ’S AGRICULTURE
An incisive article on the takeover of Iraqi agriculture by US-based multinationals via the infamous Order 81, imposed in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq, is at
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=353518

+ THE REAL AGENDA BEHIND AGRICULTURAL RECONSTRUCTION
A GRAIN briefing looks at how the US's agricultural reconstruction work in Afghanistan and Iraq not only gives easy entry to US agribusiness and pushes neoliberal policies but is also an intrinsic part of the US military campaign in these countries and the surrounding regions.

It tells how soy cultivation has been introduced for the first time into Afghanistan via the USAID-funded Nutrition and Education International (NEI) project, set up by Nestle, to teach Afghans to sow and eat soybeans. NEI is linked to the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health, which was founded by the biotech industry backed American Soybean Association.

In Afghanistan NEI works with Stine Seed Company, Iowa, and Gateway Seed Company, Illinois, both of which supply it with GM Roundup-Ready soy and Roundup herbicide to be sold on to the farmers.

According to NEI, it distributed two tonnes of GM soya seed in Afghanistan in 2005.
http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=217

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FEEDING THE WORLD
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+ HUNGRY OR NOT, DON'T FORCE GM DOWN OUR THROATS
The biotech industry is using the increase in global hunger as a tool to win support for GM crops, winning favour with the misguided philanthropic community, writes Arunadha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute. Mittal cites the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-led Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra), which has given $5.4 million to secure the approval of African governments to allow field-testing of GM crops. Meanwhile, sustainable and organic solutions that have been shown to massively increase yield in Africa are ignored.
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/549204/-/rjjeryz/-/index.html

+ CUT DOWN ON PEOPLE, GROW GM CROPS FEDEROFF
US state department science advisor Dr Nina Federoff has told the BBC in an interview that there are too many people on the planet and that GM crops should be used to feed the existing population.
http://www.newsroomamerica.com/usa/story.php?id=450010

COMMENT from GM-free Ireland: The problem isn't the number of people, but our level of resource consumption and waste production. 20% of the population (in the rich countries) consumes 80% of the world's resource, and produce most of the wastes.

The solution advocated by Nina Federoff - GM crops - is unsustainable, since it relies on dwindling supplies of fossil fuel to produce the chemical fertilisers and pesticides which prop up the outdated chemical agribusiness paradigm.

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CLONING
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+ BEN & JERRY'S STUNT HIGHLIGHTS CLONE WORRIES
Ben & Jerry's created a website for a fictitious company selling cloned milk as a publicity stunt, as campaigners believe that the offspring of cloned animals have already entered the food chain.
http://tiny.cc/zTpzc

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REST OF THE MONTH'S NEWS IN BRIEF
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Subscribers to our Weekly Watch will be familiar with the following stories, summarized here for those who do not receive it.

+ MAJOR GM-FREE ANIMAL FEED BREAKTHROUGH IN GERMANY
Germany's No.2 poultry producer, Gebr. Stolle GmbH & Co. KG, is the first major supplier of animal products in Germany to commit to using the new “GM-free” label as a guarantee that no GM animal feed has been used in producing its products, putting pressure on other big companies to follow suit.
http://www.hna.de/breakingnews/00_20090319144800_Grillhaehnchen_ohne_Gentechnik. html

+ GERMAN FARM MINISTER WANTS GM-FREE ZONES
German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner is aiming to shift decisions about the cultivation of GM crops from federal level to the country's regional governments. She also wants to explore whether it is possible within national law to define GM-free regions.
http://www.agra-net.com/portal (requires subscription)

+MONSANTO'S UPHILL BATTLE IN GERMANY
In Germany, an alliance of beekeepers, protestors and politicians are in the process of chasing Monsanto and its GM crops out of the country, says an interesting article in Der Spiegel that's worth reading in full.
http://greenbio.checkbiotech.org/news/monsantos_uphill_battle_germany

+ FARMERS ON HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST GMOs IN POLAND
Two women farmers have started a hunger strike against GMO cultivation in front of Ministry of Agriculture, Warsaw, Poland. See photos http://icppc.pl/pl/gmo/index.php?id=470

+ MORE ON PRO-GM CONFERENCE AT THE VATICAN
http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v27/n3/full/nbt0309-214a.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5939789.ece
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0901274.htm
More on Peter Raven, a key figure in the Vatican GM push: http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=191&page=R

+ MONSANTO SCIENTIST HELPED AUTHOR GM GUIDE
The pro-GM lobby group Sense About Science (SAS) has been caught with its pants down by Private Eye. The famous satirical magazine has obtained a confidential draft copy of SAS's recently published GM guide which shows it had a "ghost writer" that SAS failed to declare Monsanto former employee Andrew Cockburn.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/archives/61-Monsanto-scientist-helped-author-GM-guide.html

For the Times Higher Education article which originally reported on the failure to disclose the vested interests of the authors of Making Sense of GM, see
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=405427

+ BIGGEST BRAZIL SOY STATE LOSES TASTE FOR GMOs
Farmers in Brazil's Mato Grosso, the country's top soy state, are shunning GM soy varieties in favor of conventional seeds after the hi-tech type showed poor yields. http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_BehindTheScenes_MOLT/idU STRE52C5AB20090313

+ GM CORN GETS GREEN LIGHT IN MEXICO
Mexico has revised its biosafety law to reverse a nationwide ban on GM corn, the country's most important crop and the centerpiece of the Mexican diet, and allow the varieties to be used in experiments.
http://www.latinamericapress.org/articles.asp?art=5814
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46121
GMWatch comment: For what's really happening in Mexico, see the video of the interview with Silvia Ribeiro:
http://www.grain.org/videos/?id=195
and the article, 'Fighting GMO contamination around the world'
http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=575

+ USDA ANNOUNCES MEETINGS ON GM REGULATION
The USDA has invited interested parties to take part in a scoping session on the agenda for meetings discussing a proposed rule for GMOs in April.
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2 008-0023

+ U.S.: BIOTECH COMPANIES LIMITING INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS OF GM
Twenty-four leading corn insect scientists working at public research institutions in 17 corn-producing states have sent a statement to the Environmental Protection Agency about how biotech corporations are restricting independent research on GM crops.
http://tiny.cc/7Pkwn

+ HARD CHOICE ON GM CORN
Syngenta has developed a new GM corn for ethanol but companies that turn cornstarch into food ingredients fear the Syngenta corn could get into their grain supplies inadvertently. They've asked the US Dept of Agriculture to delay approving the corn. http://www.desmoinesregister.com:80/article/20090215/BUSINESS01/902150322/1029/B USINESS

+ BERKELEY AGROFUEL RESEARCH HITS ROADBLOCKS
http://tiny.cc/hW5ql

+ 70 PERCENT MORE ENERGY REQUIRED TO MAKE ETHANOL THAN IT PRODUCES
"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, David Pimentel. About 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17166.cfm

+ END OF THE ROAD FOR AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS?
The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a final appeal by Vietnamese plaintiffs against Dow and Monsanto. The Vietnamese plaintiffs and the Vietnamese government want compensation for birth defects suffered as a result of the US government’s spraying of their country with Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant manufactured by Dow and Monsanto.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46112
Comment from Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society: http://www.rinf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8489
UK Early Day Motion on this topic: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37421&SESSION=899

+ COLOMBIA'S DESERT WAR
An article in the Guardian reports on the horrifying effects of the US's 'war on drugs’ in Colombia, where pesticides, in particular glyphosate, are aerially sprayed over vast areas to kill coca crops.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/12/colombia-drug-war
GMWatch comment: Monsanto has received millions from the US government for providing a glyphosate formulation for the US spraying campaign in Colombia. Not mentioned in this article is the study showing that aerial spraying of Roundup on the border of Colombia and Ecuador has caused a high degree of DNA damage in Ecuadorian people.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7899

+ GOLDEN RICE BOARD ADMITS TO HUMAN FEEDING TRIALS
The Golden Rice Project has admitted on its website that it was involved in a number of projects involving the feeding of unauthorized GM rice to both adults and children in China and the USA. The admission was made following a formal protest against the trials from a group of scientists.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/goldenRiceScandal.php

+ IMPORTING U.S. FOOD SYSTEM INJURIOUS TO INDIA'S HEALTH
An agricultural partnership launched during the Bush regime, the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA), is seeking to replicate US food regulatory policies in India - and India should be worried, says an article in Business Standard.
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/latha-jishnu-unwholesome-regulations food/351734/

+ NIGERIA DOES NOT NEED GM CASSAVA
Civil society groups have condemned the Nigerian Biosafety Committee's approval for the Nigerian National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), in collaboration with the US-based and Monsanto-backed Danforth Center, to conduct "contained" field trials of GM cassava.
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=20380

+ LAWSUIT FILED OVER GM ANIMALS IN NEW ZEALAND
GE Free NZ in food and environment has filed a lawsuit after AgResearch made four applications that seek to develop, import and commercialise GM animals from nine species of animals.
http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?l=1&t=103&id=34182