MONTHLY REVIEW No. 84

GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 84

From Claire Robinson, Monthly Review editor
Website: http//www.gmwatch.org
”¨Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2”¨
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch”¨
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LATEST NEWS:
* LOBBYWATCH
* CONTAMINATION
* GM-FREE FOODS
* CORPORATE TAKEOVER
* GM SALMON
* GM INSECTS

REST OF THE MONTH’S NEW IN BRIEF:
* CLONING
* RESEARCH
* LOBBYWATCH
* CORPORATE CRIMES
* RESISTANCE
* GM APPROVAL/EXPANSION
* GM FAILURES
* GM CONTAMINATION
* FEEDING THE WORLD
* COMPANY NEWS

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LATEST NEWS
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ IS GENETIC ENGINEERING LIBERATING WOMEN?
In yet another example of the desperate "science" of Monsanto and Company, it is now being argued that Bt cotton has liberated Indian women in the region of Vidharbha, Maharashtra a region with the largest acreage of Bt cotton and highest rate of farmer suicides, reports Vandana Shiva. Monsanto-friendly researcher Matin Qaim and colleagues have published a paper which says that Bt cotton produces massive gains for women's employment in India. This is not the first paper Qaim - a pro-GM agricultural economist at the University of Göttingen - has authored that has attracted strong criticism for its highly limited perspective.
http://bit.ly/bJgRcY

Qaim argues that women have been empowered because of the introduction of Bt cotton, which frees up their men from crop spraying activities to do more housework(!). Shiva says, "men in the Bt cotton area are not becoming house husbands. They are committing suicide because of the high levels of indebtedness... High costs of [GM] seeds and pesticides lead to debt, debt leads to suicides, creating Bt cotton widows, not liberated 'housewives'".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12449

+ GREENWASHING BIOTECH
The Agricultural Biotechnology Industry Conference (ABIC: September 12-15) "Bridging Biology and Business" kicks off in Saskatoon, Canada with a "Flower Power Biodiesel Workshop" aimed at the public. This conference will undoubtedly generate media stories about how GM crops are needed to solve the major crises of our time, including the food and energy crisis. Conference sponsors include Bayer CropScience, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Genome British Columbia, Novozymes and Ag-West Bio Inc.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12448

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CONTAMINATION
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+ ILLEGAL GM POTATO FOUND IN SWEDEN
The European Commission has asked German chemicals company BASF to explain why an unauthorised GM potato has been planted in Sweden. The Swedish authorities discovered that the Amadea variety was planted in fields on 11 June even though it has not received authorisation for planting from the EU. The authorities have ordered the fields to be cleared.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12460

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GM-FREE FOODS
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+ GERMAN RETAILER OFFERS GM-FREE MILK
Germany's No. 1 retailer, EDEKA, has announced it will offer its customers the opportunity to select milk and other dairy products from cows reared on GM-free feed.
http://bit.ly/aRnyxJ

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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ WESTERN AUSTRALIA GOVT PARTNERS WITH MONSANTO
The Western Australia State Government's state cereal breeding company, InterGrain, has joined with Monsanto, which has acquired a 19.9 % minority interest. InterGrain says it intends to remain an independent provider of new grain varieties for all Australian farmers.

But Brian Whan of InterGrain admitted in a radio interview that the plan is to put GM traits into the best germplasm, thus making the best crop varieties GM and restricting access to non-GM versions of the same varieties. This has already happened in Canada with canola. InterGrain is targeting wheat and barley for its GM traits.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12445

+ AUSTRALIA: MONSANTO STEPS UP CAMPAIGN FOR ACCEPTANCE OF GM
Monsanto has begun an education and advocacy campaign to change the opposition many Australian consumers have to GM food. Monsanto's head in Australia, Peter O'Keefe, argued that organic and permaculture production was "not viable" on a large scale, and Australia was falling behind other countries in productivity improvements because of the reluctance to embrace GM technology.

He said something had to be done to turn around the poor global performance of wheat against other crops, which he said was caused partly by public opposition to GM crops and "crippling" government policies in Australia.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12446

+ AMERICAN GOVT AND BIOTECH INTEREST GROUPS TEACH RESEARCHERS HOW TO SPIN GM
Researchers in the Philippines have taken biosafety and biotech communication skills enhancement training, courtesy of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and US Dept of Agriculture in partnership with the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSP) II, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) Biotechnology Information Center.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12446

+ GETTING ROUND AFRICA'S GM REGULATIONS
Robert Paarlberg, advisor to Monsanto's CEO and to USAID, has "completed major studies of regional policy harmonization toward biotechnology in eastern and southern Africa, for the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) on the politics of accepting biofortified food crops in developing countries, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation."

Paarlberg's role as Monsanto CEO's Advisor would seem to tie in very neatly with the 2009 $5.4 million award by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the heavily Monsanto-funded Danforth Center. An article in the St Louis-Post Dispatch, Monsanto's home-town newspaper, baldly says that the Gates money will go towards getting round Africa's GM regulations: "The $5.4 million will go to developing the crops in the field, to safety assessments and overcoming regulatory hurdles" to the adoption of GM biofortified food crops in Africa.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12446

+ GATES FOUNDATION OPENS DOOR FOR CARGILL
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to grant US$8 million to develop a soy value chain in Africa, in partnership with US non-profit organisation TechnoServe and agricultural commodity trading giant Cargill. The project is meant to run for four years, commencing initially in Mozambique and Zambia where it is aimed at 37,000 small-scale farmers. The model will be replicated in other regions at a later time.

The ACB has released a report titled "The Gates Foundation and Cargill push Soya onto Africa" wherein it argues that the Gates project is aimed at enabling Cargill, to capture a hitherto untapped African soy market and eventually introduce GM soy onto the continent, where reception to GMOs remains chilly.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12452

+ NEW REPORT ON GATES FOUNDATION AND CARGILL
The African Centre for Biosafety comments on the Gates Foundation/Cargill deal in a new report: The Gates Foundation continues to back agricultural strategies that open new markets for strong corporate interests while assisting in the creation of policy environments to support foreign agribusiness’ interests. The programme will yoke African farmers into the soya value chain and open the door for major agribusiness players such as Cargill, while displacing African agricultural practices and traditional crops. In addition, there is a very real threat that this project could be a foot in the door for the introduction of genetically modified soya onto the Continent.
Download report on Gates Foundation and Cargill by African Centre for Biosafety:
http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/index.html/images/stories/dmdocuments/Soya_Push_in%20Africa.pdf

+ QUOTE ON THE SOY MODEL OF AGRICULTURE
"The soy model implies a war against the population, the emptying of the countryside, and the elimination of our collective memory in order to shoehorn people into towns and convert them into faithful consumers of whatever the market provides. The impacts of this model go beyond the borders of the new Soya Republics. The dehumanisation of agriculture and the depopulation of rural areas for the benefit of the corporations is increasing in the North and in the South." - Javiera Rulli in United Soya Republics: The Truth about Soya Production in Latin America

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GM SALMON
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+ US FDA CLEARS GM SALMON FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
A GM salmon which grows twice as fast as normal is safe for human consumption and poses little risk to the environment, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulatory body's verdict paves the way for GM animals to be produced commercially for food, probably later this month. Its developers, a Boston-based company called Aquabounty Technologies, say it could be on supermarket shelves within the next two years.

Scientists at the firm developed the patented AquAdvantage salmon by taking an Atlantic salmon and giving it a growth hormone gene from faster-growing Pacific chinook salmon together with DNA from a voracious eel-like creature called an ocean pout.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12459
GMWatch comment: This GM fish has higher levels of growth hormone in its bloodstream than non-GM fish. There's a well established link between growth hormone functioning and cancer. Didn't the FDA think it might be a good idea to require some research on at least this one factor?
http://bit.ly/c4Hr91

+ NO SAFETY TESTING ON GM SALMON
Aqua Bounty, the company that engineered the GM salmon, has submitted all the FDA-required data, said company Chief Executive Ronald Stotish, but has done no animal or human clinical trials. It has, however, conducted several taste tests, and Stotish says people like it "just fine".
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12450
Excellent interview about the GM salmon: http://t.co/Cr1ZXiE

+ US FDA RELEASES INCOMPLETE DATA ON GM SALMON
A broad coalition of consumer and environmental groups, along with commercial and recreational fisheries associations, chefs, and food retailers, declared the partial data release by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the GM salmon up for approval as a human food product insufficient and unacceptable.

"For the millions of consumers, fishermen, and stakeholders who will be affected by the FDA's decision, FDA's release of incomplete information today is simply too little, too late," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. "FDA's fundamentally flawed process flies directly in the face of President Obama's executive order for openness and transparency in government."

Materials just made available on FDA's website relate to an announcement by FDA officials on August 25 that the agency will potentially approve the long-shelved AquAdvantage transgenic salmon as the first GM animal for human consumption.

The data provided by FDA is rather scant given that the FDA has had 10 years to review the product. The study on changes in the morphology of the new GM salmon involved only 12 fish. The limited study on possible allergic reactions involved only 6 fertile GM fish and 6 infertile fish.

These small sample sizes are inadequate for a full review of the health and safety of these fish when they are raised in a commercial operation. Rather than tell the company to run new studies with adequate samples sizes, the FDA is recommending the fish not be raised in the US, but that the eggs be produced in Canada and the fish be grown in Panama and imported into the US.

While some materials released by the FDA relate to the transfer of the genes and DNA construct, and the chemistry of small samples of the flesh of the GM fish were compared to that of other farmed salmon, no data from long-term clinical feeding trials were required.

"Without the required testing and safety data we have no way to prove the transgenic salmon is safe to eat," said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/12457-fda-releases-incomplete-data-on-gm-salmon

+ TAKE ACTION ON GM SALMON:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september062010/ge-salmon-as.php

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GM INSECTS
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+ GM MOSQUITOES MAY BE RELEASED IN MALAYSIA
Malaysia's National Biosafety Board is assessing an application from the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) Malaysia to field release transgenic mosquitoes to combat the vector-borne dengue disease. The experiment involves releasing GM male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying a 'killer' gene to mate with wild female mosquitoes, that would lead to the death of their progeny.

The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) have called upon the director-general of biosafety to reject the application for the field release of GM mosquitoes and all related experiments, because the risks have not been properly assessed.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12458-gm-mosquitoes-may-be-released-in-malaysia

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REST OF THE MONTH’S NEWS IN BRIEF
For those who do not receive GMWatch's Weekly Watch
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CLONING
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+ MEAT FROM CLONE OFFSPRING ENTERS EUROPE'S FOOD CHAIN”¨
Britain's Food Standards Agency said it found meat from three offspring of a cloned cow had entered the food chain in Europe. But it could not state for certain whether milk from a cloned offspring had been sold.

The statement was made after an investigation sparked by a report last month in the International Herald Tribune. In the article, a British dairy farmer who insisted on anonymity said that he was using milk from a cow bred from a US-bred clone as part of his daily production. US authorities have declared food from cloned cattle and other cloned animals safe to eat.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/business/global/14clone.html?src=busln
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10942050
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12401
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12403

+ ADVERSE IMPACTS OF CLONING ON ANIMAL HEALTH: EXCELLENT REPORT
In studies on sheep, cows and mice clones, the following problems were detected:
*Placental abnormalities
*Foetal overgrowth, prolonged gestation
*Stillbirth, hypoxia, respiratory failure and circulatory problems, lack of post-natal vigour
*Increased body temperature at birth
*Malformations in the urogenital tract
*Malformations in liver and brain
*Immune dysfunction, a malformation of related organs
*Bacterial and viral infections
(Extracted from the TestBiotech report:
Cloned farm animals - a 'killing application'? (PDF)
http://bit.ly/a8y047 )

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RESEARCH
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+ ARGENTINA: VIOLENCE DENIES COMMUNITY ACCESS TO RESEARCH ON GLYPHOSATE HEALTH EFFECTS
Dr Andres Carrasco is an Argentine government scientist whose research findings that glyphosate causes birth defects in frogs even at very low concentrations were announced in 2009. On 7 August 2010 Carrasco was due to give a talk on his research in the Argentinian town of La Leonesa, which has become a centre for activism against glyphosate spraying of rice and GM soy crops. But a a violent organized mob attacked community activists, residents, and public officials who came to hear the talk and forced the event to be abandoned. Three people were seriously injured. Carrasco and his colleague shut themselves in a car and were surrounded by people making violent threats and beating the car for two hours. Witnesses implicated local officials in the attack, as well as a local rice producer. They believed the attack was motivated by powerful economic interests behind local agro-industry.

Amnesty International is asking people to write to Argentine government officials asking for an impartial investigation of the incident and for studies to be carried out on the health effects of the spraying on local people.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12418
More on Carrasco's research: http://bit.ly/ZsLBV

+ ALARMING EFFECTS IN GM WHEAT
Research by Swiss scientists shows alarming effects in GM wheat. The wheat grew normally and had better resistance to a certain fungal disease in the greenhouse, but the metabolism of the plants went out of control after being exposed to environmental conditions. The plants were severely affected by the extremely toxic fungal disease (ergot disease) and yield was lowered by up to 50 percent. Testbiotech is calling for GM plants to undergo comprehensive 'stress tests' before they are released into the environment.

Christoph Then from the German expert group Testbiotech said, "The results from Switzerland show a huge gap in the risk assessment of genetically engineered plants. So far, we don't know enough about how these plants behave under certain environmental conditions such as climate change. The technically inserted gene sequences are not under the control of the plants' genome regulation. Their stability needs to be tested systematically under various conditions.”
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12402

Interesting quote from media story on GM wheat for which Syngenta is main source: "Most in the industry don't expect to see a GM wheat on the market until 2024."
http://bit.ly/b3mH4F

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ GATES FOUNDATION BUYS SHARES IN GOLDMAN SACHS, MONSANTO
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took advantage of sagging stock prices in the second quarter to add Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to its portfolio. The Seattle-based charity endowment, set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, bought a half a million shares in Goldman Sachs during the quarter ended June 30.

Among the Gates Foundation's five biggest holdings are shares in McDonald's, CocaCola, and Waste Management Inc (major toxic waste site operator and polluter). These seem odd choices for a foundation that claims improving health as one of its main objectives. It has also been buying shares in Monsanto and Exxon Mobil.

NOTE: Banks such Goldman Sachs are making huge profits by gambling on the prices of key commodity crops such as coffee, cocoa and wheat, according to the World Development Movement's report, "The great hunger lottery: how banking speculation causes food crises". The report says that Goldman Sachs has not only exacerbated hunger but caused long-term damage to the fight against global poverty. Other banks involved in the trading are Bank of America, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan.
http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-speculation/great-hunger-lottery-how-banking-speculation-causes-food-crises
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12421
http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=104835

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ BIOTECH CANARIES: SICKENED WORKERS GET LITTLE RELIEF
David Bell, a former employee os Davis, California biotech firm AgraQuest developed a lung condition called histoplasmosis and other respiratory maladies while working at the firm. He blames his poor health on his exposure to bacteria, fungi and insects he handled while working for the firm in 1998.

But a workers' compensation judge disagreed, leaving Bell with staggering medical bills. "It's kind of freaky to live on limited income and get medical bills of $12,000 to $17,000," Bell explained.

He's just one of many injured biotech workers around the country who believe workplace-safety laws are not protecting them.

In the past dozen years, Bell has endured four sinus surgeries and submits to monthly hookups for intravenous transfusions of immunoglobulin to help strengthen his weakened immune system.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12414

+ MONSANTO RESTRICTS ACCESS TO NON-GM SOY SEED
Brazil exports non-GM soybeans and processed soy products to Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan. Many of the exports, particularly soybean meal, are used for animal feed. Ricardo Tatesuzi de Sousa, executive director of ABRANGE (the Brazilian Association of Non-Genetically Modified Grain Producers), said Brazil's non-GMO exports are growing and that the segregation process was not a problem: "We've been organizing all the logistics to guarantee segregation. It's easy for us to do that. It's a matter of organizing farmers, and having markets pay a premium to farmers."

The challenge is that Monsanto is abusing its power over the seed market by restricting access to non-GM soybean seeds. Tatesuzi de Sousa says the percentage of Brazil's non-GM soybean production has decreased in the past year from 45% to 40% due to the seed shortage.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12404

+ TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER BHOPAL
The Indian premier has agreed to ask for the extradition of former Union Carbide manager.
Article in German: http://tiny.cc/vwk4i

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RESISTANCE
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+ U.S.: VICTORY! JUDGE'S RULING UPROOTS USE OF GM SUGAR BEETS
A federal district judge for the Northern District of California has issued a ruling granting the request of the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club to repeal the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA’s) approval of GM "Roundup Ready" sugar beets. In September 2009, the Court had found that the USDA had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by approving the Monsanto-engineered GM crop without first preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. The crop was engineered to resist the effects of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which it sells to farmers together with the patented seed.

In the ruling, the Court officially "vacated" the USDA "deregulation" of Monsanto's biotech sugar beets and prohibited any future planting and sale pending the agency’s compliance with NEPA and all other relevant laws. USDA has estimated that an EIS may be ready by 2012.

Paul Achitoff of Earthjustice, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, commented: "Time and again, USDA has ignored the law and abdicated its duty to protect the environment and American agriculture from genetically engineered crops designed to sell toxic chemicals. Time and again, citizens speaking truth to power have taken USDA to court and won."

In his order, Judge Jeffrey White noted that USDA's "errors are not minor or insignificant", and voiced his "concern that Defendants are not taking this process seriously". He also pointed out that "despite the fact that the statutes at issue are designed to protect the environment," USDA and the sugar beet industry focused on the economic consequences to themselves, yet "failed to demonstrate that serious economic harm would be incurred pending a full economic review."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12417-judges-ruling-uproots-u se-of-gm-beets

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GM APPROVALS/EXPANSION
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+ PHILIPPINES: FARMERS PROTEST BT EGGPLANT TESTING
Farmers groups have protested the field testing of GM Bt eggplants (aubergine/brinjal) in the Philippines.
TAKE ACTION: Sign the petition to support the farmers: http://bit.ly/9tXwEe
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12413

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GM FAILURES
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+ MONSANTO ABANDONS GM CANOLA IN SOUTH AFRICA
Monsanto has withdrawn its application to conduct GM canola field trails in South Africa. The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) has welcomed the news. The ACB objected to Monsanto's field trial application in September 2009 on grounds of unacceptable environmental risks, including gene flow into wild populations. The South African biosafety authorities were of a similar opinion, and twice requested that Monsanto provide additional biosafety information. Monsanto's decision to withdraw its application shows it could not provide sufficient safety assurances.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12423

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GM CONTAMINATION
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+ GM CROP ESCAPES INTO AMERICAN WILD
Researchers in the US have found new evidence that GM crop plants can survive and thrive in the wild, possibly for decades.

A University of Arkansas team surveyed countryside in North Dakota for canola. Transgenes were present in 80% of the wild canola plants they found.

They suggest GM traits may help the plants survive weedkillers in the wild.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12408

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FEEDING THE WORLD
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Two media reports unwittingly expose the biotech industry lie about having to have GM - or even to produce vast amounts of extra food - to feed the world. It's clear that feeding the world is simply a matter of political will:

+ THE POOR STARVE AMIDST PLENTY
According to a recent study, over 40% of the food produced in America is wasted each year, and only 2% of this waste is composted. Food waste is now the second largest waste stream sent to landfills, where it produces methane, a deadly greenhouse gas that further impacts climate change. Climate change, in turn, is having a deadly impact on our food supply.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12415

+ INDIAN POOR STARVE WHILE GRAIN ROTS IN STORAGE
India is home to one quarter of the world's starving population and one third of its malnourished children, while at the same time maintaining a surplus of food grain in government storage areas.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12415

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COMPANY NEWS
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+ MONSANTO TO CUT PRICE PREMIUMS ON SEED
Monsanto will cut premiums on SmartStax corn seed by 67 percent versus 2010 prices and by 75 percent for Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seed, JP Morgan Chase & Co. said in a report. It's unclear whether this has anything to do with the Dept of Justice antitrust investigation into monopolistic pricing policies by Monsanto and other seed giant.
http://bit.ly/9rtFaf