WEEKLY WATCH number 281
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
Dear all:
Growing GMOs makes no economic sense, shows a report by agronomist Dr Charles Benbrook of the US Organic Center. Farmers are better off growing conventional or organic seed (GM SEED PRICE HIKES) and still the price of GM seed continues to rise. Also, a new report shows that GM farming has no contribution to make to one of the most serious pollution issues of our time nitrogen pollution (RESEARCH).
If you’re depressed by the debate on climate change, read the articles in our CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE section. The real solutions to the climate problem are cheap and readily available. But as they benefit individuals and the environment rather than big business, they are ignored in favour of illusory but potentially profitable techno-fixes. And please make sure you vote against Monsanto and its demands for climate subsidies for environmentally devastating GM soy monocultures. Vote against false climate solutions: http://www.angrymermaid.org/vote#nominees
Finally, don’t miss the incredible disappearing cows in the latest GM research study touted as proof that GM feed is safe (RESEARCH).
Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org
Follow GMWatch on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
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CONTENTS
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GM SEED PRICE HIKES
BEES
THE AMERICAS
GM-FREE EATING
RESEARCH
CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
LOBBYWATCH
EUROPE
ASIA
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GM SEED PRICE HIKES
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+ HUGE PRICE RISES FOR GM SEEDS - NEW REPORT
Against a background of continuing calls from the GM lobby for the Government to back the growing of GM crops in the UK, a new report shows that GM seed prices in America have increased dramatically, compared to non-GM and organic seeds, cutting average farm incomes for US farmers growing GM crops.
The report is by Dr Charles Benbrook, Chief Scientist at the US Organic Center.
The report shows that in the 25 years from 1975 through 2000, soybean seed prices rose a modest 63%. Over the next ten years, as GM soybeans came to dominate the market, the price rose an additional 230%. The $70 per bag price set for RR 2 soybeans in 2010 is twice the cost of conventional seed and reflects a 143% increase in the price of GM seed since 2001.
The organic soybean seed price premium, compared to conventional seed, is much smaller and will stand at about 33.4% in 2010. The GM seed price premium is projected at 63.5%. Accordingly, the biotech seed price premium exceeds the organic seed price premium by 1.9-fold.
Maize (corn) growers planting the new GM variety ‘SmartStax’, will pay more than twice as much as farmers planting conventional non-GM seeds. This is almost four times more than conventional farmers paid just ten years earlier. Organic corn seed is much cheaper than GM seed, with the 2010 organic price premium at about 11%, as in the case of organic soybeans. The biotech seed price premium is 6.9-times bigger than the organic seed price premium in the case of corn hybrids.
Today, GM cotton seed costs $700, a staggering six times the price of non-GM cotton seed. From 1975 to 1996, the price of cotton seed only doubled, but in the GM cotton era, it has risen from $73 to $589.
In a recent speech Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said the company’s goal was to double gross profits in 2012, from 2007 levels. He said that increases in the price of new GM RR 2 soybeans and GM ‘SmartStax’ maize hybrids will create about one-third of the company’s gross profit growth in 2012.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said: “This new data on the massive rises in the costs of GM seeds for those US farmers who now have no alternatives, coupled with steep increases in pesticide use, should serve as a stark warning to UK farmers. If GM crops are allowed here, UK farmers could find themselves contributing to another doubling of Monsanto’s profits.”
The Organic Center’s report concludes: “At the present time there is a massive disconnect between the sometimes lofty rhetoric from those championing biotechnology as the proven path toward global food security and what is actually happening on farms in the U.S. that have grown dependent on GM seeds and are now dealing with the consequences.”
“The Magnitude and Impacts of the Biotech and Organic Seed Price Premium” by Dr Charles Benbrook - the full report can be downloaded here
http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/Seeds_Final_11-30-09.pdf
Summary of report by GMWatch: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11799:new-evidence-shows-huge-price-rises-for-gm-seed-summary-by-gmwatch
http://bit.ly/6nKROZ
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BEES
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+ HONEYBEES IN PERIL
Agronomist Chuck Benbrook identifies nicotinoid pesticides as the most likely culprit in bee colony collapse disorder in his Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture. Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides that pervade the plant for its entire lifetime, meaning that their environmental impact is far greater than that of older pesticides that were sprayed and left to break down. GM Bt plants are systemic pesticides in themselves.
Systemic pesticides extend the exposure of pests - as well as beneficial insects like bees - to pesticidal toxins. This encourages the development of resistant pests and exposes beneficial insects to a constant supply of toxins making the bad guys stronger and killing the good guys.
Benbrook points out that systemic pesticide use is increasing on conventional farms in order to keep pace with pest resistance. In contrast, farmers who use organic or integrated pest management methods have fewer problems with pest damage.
Summary points worth reading in full:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11774:honey-bees-in-peril
http://bit.ly/8pbXSt
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THE AMERICAS
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+ $2 MILLION VERDICT AGAINST BAYER FOR GM CONTAMINATION OF RICE
Bayer CropScience must pay about $2 million for losses sustained by two Missouri farmers when an experimental G rice the company was testing cross-bred with their crops, a federal jury ruled. In the first two cases to go to trial, a St. Louis jury awarded two Missouri farmers almost $2 million in compensatory damages, which, according to plaintiffs lawyer Adam Levitt, was almost all the farmers claimed
Farmers from Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have filed more than 1,000 similar cases against Bayer since the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in August 2006 that trace amounts of GM LibertyLink rice were found in US long-grain rice stocks. The rice had only been grown experimentally but contaminated more than 30 percent of US ricelands.
Plaintiffs' lawyer Levitt said if the compensatory awards in these initial cases are any indication, Bayer faces "certainly hundreds of millions" in liability for rice crop contamination.
Bayer verdict shows why GM trials must be stopped Greenpeace:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11792:bayer-verdict-shows-gm-trials-must-be-stopped
http://bit.ly/8VIwhI
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GM-FREE EATING
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+ NEW WEBSITE HELPS SHOPPERS AVOID GMOs
The US group Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT) has launched a new website for consumers who want to avoid buying products containing GMOs.
http://www.nongmoshoppingguide.com
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RESEARCH
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+ THREE GMOs APPROVED FOR FOOD AND FEED FOUND UNSAFE
In what is being described as the first ever and most comprehensive study of three major GMOs to assess the effects on mammalian health, researchers from CRIIGEN and Universities of Caen and Rouen have highlighted a number of new sex- and often dose-dependent side effects linked with their consumption. Their study of the 90-day feeding trials data of insecticide producing Mon 810, Mon 863 and Roundup herbicide absorbing NK 603 varieties of GM maize clearly underlines adverse impacts on kidneys and liver, the dietary detoxifying organs, as well as different levels of damages to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and haematopoietic system. Ironically, the confidential raw data of Monsanto about feeding trials on rats that these researchers have analyzed allowed the international authorization of these three commercialized GMOs in different parts of the world.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11800:three-approved-gmos-found-unsafe
http://bit.ly/4WDyBg
Read the paper here: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm
+ EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS DISAPPEAR WITHOUT EXPLANATION FROM GM FEEDING TRIAL
Recent work in Germany, flagged up as the "the most detailed and most precise study ever conducted worldwide" and involving MON810 fed to cattle over a period of 25 months, has been shown to be worthless. The results were promoted to the media as showing "that feeding with transgenic maize does not have any impact on the food chain" and that "transgenic maize has no impact on lactating cows." The study has also been cited in the course of a German dairy industry campaign in support of GM components in soy-based and Bt corn-based feed.
In an English-language paper (Steinke et al, 2009) it was claimed that "Feeding Bt maize over a period of 25 months had no effects on the performance and metabolic parameters in this study. The statistical differences between isogenic and transgenic fed dairy cows (milk protein, milk fat and glucose) in the first lactation were not confirmed in the second lactation and are probably due to individual or physiological differences between animals."
However, a close examination by Greenpeace and Testbiotech of the original German-language study revealed that the conclusions arising from the research had effectively been announced before it had even commenced! Also, during the feeding trial, the researchers changed or ignored their original protocols in a number of ways that must have corrupted their results. For example, only 18 of the 54 cows used in the trial were fed for the full 25 months; the rest were changed at unspecified times and for unspecified reasons, without this being revealed in the English-language paper published afterwards. Only nine of the cows were kept on the GM diet for the full research period. The data relating to the cows that survived the whole trial were aggregated with data for replacement animals. The exact reasons for the removal of other animals were not given.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11797:german-mon810-feeding-trial-results-are-worthless
http://bit.ly/4zGTyW
+ GM “NO SURE FIX” FOR NITROGEN OVERLOAD
After more than a decade of effort, the biotechnology industry has yet to produce any commercial crops engineered to reduce nitrogen fertilizer pollution, while traditional breeding and other methods have improved the nitrogen use efficiency of wheat, rice, and corn by about 20 percent to 40 percent, according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
"Nitrogen pollution is among the world's worst environmental problems," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a senior scientist in UCS's Food and Environment program and author of the report. "A number of very promising solutions have begun addressing the problem, but so far genetic engineering has yet to make a contribution."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11798:gm-no-sure-fix-for-nitrogen-fertilizer-overload
http://bit.ly/5krm1y
For FAQs and to download the new report
'No Sure Fix: Prospects for Reducing Nitrogen Fertilizer Pollution through Genetic Engineering', go to: http://bit.ly/5iraTl
+ LARGE CONCENTRATIONS OF GM DNA FOUND IN SOIL FOOD WEB
A new study examined soil invertebrates in a Roundup Ready cornï¬eld for the presence and quantity of transgenic corn genes with the goal of identifying the location of the transgenes in the soil food web. The study tested macroarthropods, microarthropods, nematodes, and earthworms.
It found evidence for large concentrations of transgenic DNA in animals from the food web associated with RoundUp Ready corn. This indicates that the transgene does not signiï¬cantly degrade within the food web. Further, the guts of these animals may provide opportunity for genetic transformation into native soil bacteria.
The study’s authors comment: "This movement poses a THREAT of horizontal gene transfer and possible proliferation of genetically modified DNA into the general environment... It remains to be tested whether this DNA was still within the plant residues, present as free, extracellular DNA or had already undergone genetic transformation into competent bacterial cells. These results are the first to demonstrate the persistence of transgenic crop DNA residues within a food web.”
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11784:large-concentrations-of-gm-dna-in-soil-food-web
http://bit.ly/4GMGhX
Study available as PDF at http://bit.ly/6gauyk
Comment from GM-free Ireland:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11790:new-research-shows-gm-must-be-stopped
http://bit.ly/62yJdF
+ SCIENTIST CONFIRMS GM MAIZE UNSAFE
In November 2008 the Austrian Ministry of Health publicly released the results of a study it had commissioned to investigate long-term reproductive effects in mice following dietary exposure to a GM stacked maize NK603xMON810. The study showed reduced fertility in the GM-fed mice. The study has predictably been criticised by GM proponents, including the 'regulators' EFSA and FSANZ. One of the researchers who did the study, Dr Alberta Velimirov, responds to the criticism here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11787:austrian-scientist-confirms-gmo-maize-unsafe
http://bit.ly/7PkVwX
+ AWARD FOR PUSZTAI AND BARDOCZ
Dr Arpad Pusztai and Dr Susan Bardocz will be presented with this year's Stuttgart Peace Prize. The award is for their tireless advocacy for independent risk research. Both have made an essential contribution to a broader understanding of the dangers of genetic manipulation. The award also honours their courage and scientific integrity as well as their undaunted insistence on the public's right to know.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11801:pusztai-to-receive-stuttgart-peace-prize-
http://bit.ly/7cgb4i
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CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
Stories relating to the UN Climate Change Conference 7-18 December, Copenhagen
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+ COPENHAGEN: LET’S LOOK BEFORE WE LEAP!
Some corporations, individuals and even governments are fostering panic and helplessness to push for untested and unproven technologies as “our only option”. But, says ETC Group, we do not wish to see a proliferation of unproven technologies without due consideration of their ecological and social consequences. Some technologies being promoted for their capacity to store carbon or to manipulate natural systems may have disastrous ecological or social consequences.
Potentially disastrous ‘techno-fixes’ include GM crops and trees, nuclear power, spraying chemicals into the sky to change the weather, ocean fertilization, and biochar. ETC Group is calling for all such technologies to be carefully assessed for potential effects before they are rolled out.
To add your organisation's signature to ETC Group’s call for technology assessment, send email with subject line: Look Before You Leap to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11782:copenhagen-lets-look-before-we-leap
http://bit.ly/53Xcsp
+ BUILDING A NEW CLIMATE AND FOOD FUTURE
Adopting ecological, organic agriculture systems is a low-cost pathway to reach major reduction targets, says a good article for Cool Foods Campaign.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11795:building-a-new-climate-and-food-future
http://bit.ly/5TIJxJ
+ ANGRY MERMAID BANNED FROM CLIMATE TALKS
The Angry Mermaid, the symbol for a competition organized by a coalition of environmental and public interest citizen groups to draw attention to dishonest lobbying on climate change, has been banned from entering the climate talks in Copenhagen.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11796:angry-mermaid-banned-from-talks
http://bit.ly/5UJPAz
PLEASE VOTE against Monsanto and its demands for climate subsidies for environmentally devastating GM soy monocultures. Vote against false climate solutions: http://www.angrymermaid.org/vote#nominees
+ FIND OUT MORE ABOUT LOBBYING IN COPENHAGEN
http://www.robedwards.com/2009/12/copenhagen-the-country-fossils-and-corporate-lobbyists.html
http://www.corporateeurope.org/climate-and-energy/content/2009/12/corporate-lobbies-copenhagen
+ AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE: REAL PROBLEMS, FALSE SOLUTIONS
Excellent report from Econexus. Download PDF from http://www.econexus.info/
+ THE REAL CLIMATE/ENERGY SOLUTION
The solution to the energy crisis and climate change is actually simple and cheap and consumers welcome it:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Faith_Hope_Climate_Chaos.php
+ ORGANIC AGRICULTURE COULD SEQUESTER 40% OF CURRENT CARBON EMISSIONS
Studies have found that organic farming requires only about half the amount of energy required by non-organic farming to produce the same amount of food, because it uses organic matter for crop nutrition instead of energy-intensive synthetic fertilizers.
Also, because one of the main principles of organic production is increasing the levels of organic matter in the soil, carbon sequestration takes place, locking carbon back into the soil and reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Research findings from the Rodale Institute in the USA indicate that a concerted effort to convert to organic farming could have a massive beneficial impact on reducing greenhouse gases. A nearly 30 year trial conducted by the Rodale Institute as reported last year has found that practical organic agriculture, if adopted for the planet's 3.5 billion tillable acres, could sequester nearly 40 percent of current CO2 emissions.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11779:carbon-sequestration-and-peak-soil
http://bit.ly/8Ds4pu
+ PEAK SOIL HAS A SIMPLE FIX
At the Carbon Farming conference in Australia earlier this month, speakers pointed to a problem that has worried environmentalists for about a decade: peak soil.
China is losing soil 57 times faster than nature can replace it, according to John Crawford, a professor at the University of Sydney’s Institute of Soil Sciences. In the United States, conservation practices have helped reduce soil loss, but top soil is still being eroded 10 times faster than it can be replaced, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
This is a concern, not only because it limits the amount of food-producing land, but also because soil and the crops that grow in it can help sequester carbon, so the more of it we lose, the more carbon we leave out in the atmosphere.
The cause of all this soil loss? Industrial agriculture is partly to blame, particularly the practices of monoculture, overgrazing, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and a lack of cover crops. The solution? Organic agriculture, of course.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11779:carbon-sequestration-and-peak-soil
http://bit.ly/8Ds4pu
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ IOWA LAW FIRM FILES AS MONSANTO LOBBYIST
As the US Depts of Justice and Agriculture gear up for an unprecedented series of investigative workshops on agricultural competition and regulatory issues, a Des Moines law firm with deep political ties to the US Secretary of Agriculture has signed on to represent Monsanto.
In several key agricultural sectors, farmers and producers have long complained that their revenue seems to bear little relation to the prices consumers pay for their products or the prices that dominant companies make for ultimately selling to them. For example, as dairy farmers have struggled through recent volatile price markets, some producers have pointed to evidence of corruption and soaring profits for processors, who sit between producers and consumers in the distribution chain.
The workshop, which will serve as an introduction to the entire series, will focus primarily on seeds - a market that is dominated by Monsanto. The company now controls nearly all GM cotton, soy and corn seeds. In fact, it is estimated that more than 80 percent of all corn and more than 90 percent of all soybeans in Iowa are grown from GM seeds on which Monsanto holds a government patent.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11783:iowa-law-firm-files-as-monsanto-lobbyist
http://bit.ly/8Codea
+ MODIFIED OPINIONS
A debate on GMOs at the illustrious Royal Society of Chemistry HQ in London had the opposite effect than the one intended, reports an editorial in The Guardian: “Afterwards the feeling was that it was a win on points for the GM sceptics. This is not what was meant to happen”¦ The winning argument ”¦ was not really about science at all, but about the ethics of a method of increasing yields that delivers such power into the hands of the multinationals.”
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11780:food-sustainability-modified-opinions
http://bit.ly/5paiym
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EUROPE
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+ POLAND UNDER THREAT
The Polish parliament has chosen 15 December 2009 just 10 days before Christmas for a debate and vote on the new GMO Act that, if passed, will open the door for planting GM crops on Polish soil.
In spite of more than two years of public campaigning, the Tusk government has failed to introduce a ban on the controversial GM maize MON810 which has now been banned in 7 EU Countries, including Germany and France. It has also refused to maintain the previous government’s ban of all import and trading of GM seeds and plants.
TAKE ACTION: Please email the chairman of the Polish Parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., cc.ing or bcc.ing your e-mail to the Polish campaign group ICPPC This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and ask him to respect the wishes of 70% of Polish citizens and the majority of Polish farmers by vetoing the new GMO Act and banning both Monsanto's GM maize MON 810 (as France and Germany have done) and any future GM seeds and plants that the EU may decide to authorize. Please note: for anyone who tried and failed to send an email to the previous address we supplied, please re-send to this alternative address.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11789:take-action-poland-under-threat
http://bit.ly/8K1evQ
+ UK: TORIES WOULD STOP SHORT OF EMBRACING GM FOODS
The Conservative Party, which is tipped to win power in the UK next year, would not embrace GM crops, its top agriculture spokesman said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11791:tories-wont-embrace-gm-foods
http://bit.ly/4AzB2a
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ASIA
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+ NECESSARY TESTS ON BT BRINJAL NOT DONE
Must-see video of an exclusive news report that the Indian TV channel CNN-IBN put out on the "rigged" recommendation for approval of Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant) by the Expert Committee (ECII).
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/106477/bt-brinjal-tests-inadequate-how-safe-is-it.html
http://bit.ly/6z1Wca
The Chair of the expert committee, who previously admitted the immense pressure he'd been under from Government and industry, admits in this report that the necessary tests on Bt brinjal simply were not done. He also admits, "The damage it will do, we do not know at this stage".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11786:admission-necessary-tests-on-bt-brinjal-not-done-
http://bit.ly/4veYHo
+ BT COTTON EXACERBATES SOIL HEALTH CRISIS IN INDIA’S SUICIDE BELT
A shocking article in the Indian press about farmer suicides in India’s cotton belt documents the degradation of soil exacerbated by Bt cotton that has led to a devastating cotton crop disease, lalya. The result: tiny crop yields, farmer debt, and suicides.
According to the article, "The Maharashtra government has been compensating farmers in the region for 'lalya' almost every year since the Bt seeds came in. Agriculture scientists say 'lalya' points to a lack of micronutrients and moisture content in soils, which are fast degrading."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11785:bt-cotton-exacerbating-soil-health-crisis-in-indias-farm-suicide-belt
http://bit.ly/8JOiyD
+ JAPAN BUYS MORE NON-GM SOYBEANS
Sales of non-GM soybeans will gain to 200,000 metric tons in 2012 from 120,000 tons this year to meet demand in countries including Japan, South Korea and Spain.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ajrskqBtk_xI