WEEKLY WATCH number 292

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WEEKLY WATCH number 292
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

Dear all:

Biotech lobbyists are busy bending the ear of EU policy makers (LOBBYWATCH). And a great article, researched with the support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has been published on Bt cotton and farmer suicides in India. This is one of three must read ARTICLES OF THE WEEK.

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Website: http//www.gmwatch.org
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CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
EUROPE
GM ANIMALS
HEALTH RISKS
ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
AGROFUELS AND BIOMASS
THE AMERICAS
GLYPHOSATE

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ POLLUTED BY PROFIT - THE BIG ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
Groups such as Conservation International (CI) and the Nature Conservancy (TNC) are among the most trusted "brands" in the world, pledged to protect and defend nature. Yet as we confront the biggest ecological crisis in human history, many of the green organisations meant to be leading the fight are busy shovelling up cash from the world's worst polluters - and simultaneously burying science-based environmentali’;;[[m, says an excellent article by Johann Hari in The Independent.
http://bit.ly/dj8mbj

+ BIOTECH COMPANIES GIVEN PRIVILEGED ACCESS TO EUROPE'S POLICY MAKERS
Leading biotech companies have been granted privileged access to the European Union's policy makers as part of their efforts to speed up the approval of new GM crops. With opposition to GM foods high across this continent, the biotech industry has long been frustrated with the obstacles it has encountered in placing its products on the market. In a confidential 2006 letter, the trade association EuropaBio warned Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, that the political situation "might greatly diminish" its ability to prove its theory that cultivating GM crops is in the public interest. Following that letter, EU officials agreed that a series of meetings should be held with EuropaBio on issues relating to new GM crops. Known as "tripartite meetings", the process also includes the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the body tasked with assessing whether releasing GM seeds into the environment poses a risk to human health. While Monsanto, Dow, DuPont and BASF have
been represented at these talks, no comparable access to decision-makers has been granted to critics of the biotech industry. "There are strong indications that the European Commission puts its relationship with industry before its relationship with people standing up for nature and people's rights," Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth said. Internal documents obtained by IPS News reveal that EU officials have been providing private advice to the biotech industry.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12220

+ BRUCE CHASSY COMMENTS ON BIOTECH CONTROVERSIES
Bruce Chassy is the pro-GM scientist who, with David Tribe, runs the Academics Review website. Academics Review poses as providing an objective and non-partisan assessment of the scientific evidence on GM food research, although its actual function appears to be to try to discredit Jeffrey Smith, the author of two books foregrounding science critical of GMOs. Chassy shows how non-partisan he really is in a recent interview where he claims GMOs “are probably safer than any [other products]. There is no scientific controversy or doubt about the real-world outcomes. They are ALL positive, good for consumers, farmers, the environment.” [emphasis added] And as this raises the problem of why in that case GMOs are facing worldwide opposition, Chassy explains this away as the work of a tiny group of conspirators in the pay of the organic food industry!
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12218

+ PAMELA RONALD'S "GENETICALLY ENGINEERED DISTORTIONS"
Professor of plant pathology Pamela Ronald presents herself as a fresh voice in the GM debate, arguing that organic farming should embrace GMOs and that GM crops are needed by developing countries. But Phil Bereano, a long-time participant in the meetings relating to the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, says poor countries (especially in Africa) have been the most critical of GM technology and the attempts of multinational corporations and governments (such as that of the US) to pressure them into adopting it. Isn't it time, asks Prof. Bereano in response to a New York Times Op-Ed co-authored by Ronald, that "white people in wealthy countries stop telling people of color in poor nations how they should live their lives, denying any recognition of agency on the part of these 'others'?"
http://bit.ly/asjAvn

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EUROPE    
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+ BLOCKADE OF MONSANTO IN THE NETHERLANDS
Forty members of the action group Roundup Monsanto blockaded the gates of the Monsanto seed company De Ruiter Seeds, near Rotterdam in the Netherlands, successfully shutting the plant down for the day. Roundup Monsanto wants Monsanto to back out of the seed market and an end to patents on seeds and living organisms. Monsanto and other agrochemical multinationals are lobbying the Dutch government and the EU for legislative changes that would make it easier for large companies to take control of the seed market and food production.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12217
Watch the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7NFz7VEvE&feature=player_embedded

+ FRENCH WINE TO BE GENETICALLY MODIFIED
The French Ministry of Agriculture announced on May 18 that it would authorize a GM vineyard in Alsace for experimentation. European member of Parliament and sustainable development activist Jose Bove considered the decision to be heading in the wrong direction. "I think it is a bad decision. In the whole wine-growing industry no one wants the GM yards. It is therefore a very bad idea to authorize field-testing in Alsace," quoted Le Figaro newspaper.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/35781/

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GM ANIMALS
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+ INDUSTRY WARY ABOUT ENVIROPIG
The Enviropig is now up for approval by Canadian and US safety agencies after more than a decade of development, but pig industry experts are still lukewarm at best about the creature, says a report for Canadian agriculture outlet Producer.com. Enviropig is a GM pig that expels lower amounts of phosphorus than traditional pigs and theoretically reduces phosphorus pollution from intensive pig operations. Laurie Connor, the head of animal science at the University of Manitoba, said, “There’s not a big push within the industry to embrace that particular direction.” Connor said supplements like phytase and research into balanced feed rations are allowing producers to increase phosphorus digestion and limit phosphorus extrusion.
http://www.producer.com/Livestock/Article.aspx?aid=22577

+ NEW ZEALAND: AGRESEARCH PUSHES ON WITH GM ANIMALS
AgResearch says it will continue its GM animal research at Ruakura, as it awaits the outcome of two court challenges. By seeking a judicial review in the High Court, GE-Free New Zealand campaigners are challenging the Environmental Risk Management Authority's recent approval for AgResearch to continue its GM work for another 20 years.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2010/05/20/1248045bb3a2

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HEALTH RISKS
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+ GM FOOD - AN EXPERIMENT ON YOU
An excellent and courageous article for the Canadian publication, the Watershed Sentinel, examines the proven and potential health risks of GM foods.
http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/125-watershed-sentinel-1

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ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
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+ THE SUICIDE BELT: GM COTTON IN INDIA
A superb article on the Bt cotton and farmer suicide crisis in India has been published in the Columbia City Paper. The article, written by a journalist who actually traveled to affected areas, notes, “Monsanto has funded three studies attempting to prove the company isn’t responsible for the suicides. ”¦ Despite the Monsanto-funded studies, it's clear from the ground level that had India not moved its cotton industry to genetically modified seeds so quickly, and instead confined the technology to the larger, irrigated fields for which it was designed, the agrarian suicide crisis wouldn't exist at the level it does today. Critics of Monsanto in India allege this imprudent agrarian policy is the result of government corruption and the U.S. company's gaming of the system.”
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12221
BBC video report on GM cotton, farmer suicides and experimental GM food crops in India:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8696203.stm

+ GM AND PUBLIC OWNERSHIP IN ASIA
The governments of India and China appear to want GM seeds while wanting their own public institutions to be involved in their development to safeguard the national interest. But it's a hollow argument, given how "public" research is in bed with corporate interests and how removed GM agriculture is from the needs of Asia's farmers, says an excellent article from GRAIN. Highly recommended
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12228

+ GM CROPS DON'T HAVE WIDE ACCEPTANCE IN LATIN AMERICA
In Brazil and Argentina - among the world's top producers of GM crops - growth in GM crop production has guaranteed neither wide-scale social acceptance of the technology nor benefits for small-scale farmers, say researchers in a fascinating article for SciDev.net.
http://bit.ly/bgJABp

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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
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+ SYN-BIO ORGANISMS NEED PUBLIC SCRUTINY AND CONTROLS
The announcement from the Craig Venter Institute that it has successfully genetically engineered an entirely artificial organism that can replicate itself raises many ethical, scientific, economic and safety issues.  The new "breakthrough" in genetic engineering, published in the journal Science, is the creation of a simple bacterium with an entirely synthetic genome. Backers of synthetic biology claim that the technology will be able to create new organisms to produce synthetic fuels and chemicals by digesting plant materials. In other words, it was created for the “biofuels” industry. GM Freeze says the new technology has progressed to the point of creating a new life form without adequate regulation or public oversight and is highly irresponsible.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12229

+ SYN-BIO ORGANISMS NEED PUBLIC SCRUTINY AND CONTROLS
Craig Venter is not just a flamboyant US molecular biologist but an entrepreneur. It's worth remembering that while the Human Genome Project first brought Venter to public prominence, it was as the head of a private company - Celera Genomics. This initiative had a completely different raison d'etre to that behind the public project, which wanted the sequenced human genome to be made available free of charge to any researcher who wanted it. Celera Genomics, by contrast, was ready to begin patenting anything and everything of interest that looked like it had commercial potential. Venter's current company, Synthetic Genomics, has teamed up with pharma giant Novartis and oil giant Exxon Mobil, which has poured in hundreds of thousands of dollars. BP is also massively investing in synthetic biology (via UC Berkeley). The involvement of such companies is not exactly a good omen in terms of planetary care.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/12231

+ EXCELLENT ROUNDUP OF REACTIONS TO VENTER’S ANNOUNCEMENT
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=5220

+ NEW FACEBOOK PAGE LAUNCHED TO STOP SYNTHETIC LIFE
http://bit.ly/9AXY4L

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AGROFUELS AND BIOMASS
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+ BIOMASS ENERGY JUGGERNAUT THREATENS HUMAN AND FOREST HEALTH
A bill that would allow wood biomass energy to be labeled as renewable and carbon neutral poses a real threat to our forest ecosystem, human health, and global planetary climate, says an article for NewWest community blog.
http://bit.ly/ducmug

+ BIOFUELS AND THE FOOD CRISIS
http://bit.ly/cFGTnB

+ NEW FACEBOOK PAGE ON BIOFUELS
Dethrone King Corn: End Subsidies to Dirty Biofuels
http://bit.ly/9KS5C4

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THE AMERICAS
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+ QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT LONG-TERM IMPACT OF GM CROPS
More questions are being raised about the long-term impact of these crops on the environment, says an article for Common Dreams. The Supreme Court is expected to announce a verdict this summer after it heard a case in which farmers are trying to block approval of GM alfalfa.
http://bit.ly/coglOM

+ CONTROVERSY OVER MONSANTO "GIFT" TO HAITI
Monsanto has donated $4 million in seeds to Haiti, sending 60 tons of conventional hybrid corn and vegetable seed, followed by 70 more tons of corn seed last week with an additional 345 tons of corn seed to come during the next year. Yet the number one recommendation of a recent report by Catholic Relief Services on post-earthquake Haiti is to focus on local seed fairs and not to introduce new or "improved" varieties at this time. The company says in a press release that its hybrid seeds will be distributed to Haitian farmers via the WINNER project. The director of this USAID backed project is Jean Robert Estime, formerly a key player in the infamous Duvalier dictatorship of Papa and Baby Doc, and at one time the subject of an international arrest warrant for grand larceny.
http://bit.ly/9Sqywz

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GLYPHOSATE
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+ SCIENTISTS REVEAL GLYPHOSATE POISONS CROPS AND SOIL
Great overview: http://bit.ly/avjveE

+ ROUNDUP SPRAYING HALTED BY RESIDENTS IN THE BRONX
In Riverdale, the Bronx, New York, citizen whistleblowers stopped the Department of Parks and Recreation from coating a park with a layer of Roundup herbicide. NB: A spokesperson from the Parks Dept said it will instead employ weed whacking, an alternative method to control the growth of weeds. So the alternatives are that simple.
http://bit.ly/d70AGt
GMWatch comment: In the UK, spraying of Roundup and other toxic herbicides is common on verges, city roads and pavements, schools, and parks. One trigger-happy Council sprayer of moss killer was hospitalized after he was found “wandering around Bollington Recreation Ground, after his wife reported him missing.”
http://bit.ly/9KcJVO