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MONTHLY REVIEW number 85
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from Claire Robinson, MONTHLY REVIEW editor
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Dear all:
A new report collecting over a hundred peer reviewed studies challenges commercial claims that GM Roundup Ready soy is sustainable. On the contrary, the report shows that GM soy and the glyphosate herbicide it's sprayed with pose serious health and environmental hazards (GM ROUNDUP READY SOY: TOXIC, DANGEROUS, UNSUSTAINABLE).
The report is backed by interviews with Argentine people whose lives have been affected by glyphosate spraying on GM soy. These are well worth reading in full. It's hard to imagine that this human rights tragedy would be allowed to continue if it weren't happening a long way away and largely ignored in the media.
Attempts by the GM lobby to sneak GM Bt brinjal into commercialisation in India have backfired as a pro-GM report by various science academies turns out to be partly plagiarised from a pro-biotech newsletter (PLAGIARISM AND LOBBYING BY SCIENCE ACADEMIES: INDIA'S BT BRINJAL SCANDAL)!
Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX
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CONTENTS
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GM ROUNDUP READY SOY: TOXIC, DANGEROUS, UNSUSTAINABLE
PLAGIARISM AND LOBBYING BY SCIENCE ACADEMIES: INDIA'S BT BRINJAL SCANDAL
RESEARCH
CONTAMINATION
GM FAILURES
LOBBYWATCH
GM INSECTS
RESISTANCE
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
ENERGY
GM SALMON
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GM ROUNDUP READY SOY: TOXIC, DANGEROUS, UNSUSTAINABLE
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+ GM SOY UNSUSTAINABLE - NEW REPORT
A group of international scientists has released a report detailing health and environmental hazards from the cultivation of GM Roundup Ready (GM RR) soy and the use of glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide. The report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?, collects over one hundred peer reviewed studies and is the first comprehensive scientific review on the issue. Studies summarised in the report also show that GM RR soy is unsustainable for farmers, economically non-viable in the longer term, and socially irresponsible.
The report highlights new research by Argentine government scientist, Professor Andres Carrasco, which found that glyphosate causes malformations in frog and chicken embryos at doses far lower than those used in agricultural spraying. Carrasco said the malformations are compatible with those seen in humans who have been exposed to glyphosate in GM soy-growing areas.
Carrasco, director of the Laboratory of Molecular Embryology, University of Buenos Aires Medical School and lead researcher of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Argentina, is a co-author of the new report.
The report is released with testimonies of Argentine villagers whose lives have been radically disrupted by the cultivation of GM soy.
In Argentina and Paraguay, doctors and residents living in GM soy producing areas have reported serious health effects from glyphosate spraying, including high rates of birth defects as well as infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages, and cancers. Scientific studies collected in the new report confirm links between exposure to glyphosate and premature births, miscarriages, cancer, and damage to DNA and reproductive organ cells.
Carrasco said people living in soy-producing areas of Argentina began reporting problems in 2002, two years after the first big harvests of GM Roundup Ready soy. He said, "I suspect the toxicity classification of glyphosate is too low ... in some cases this can be a powerful poison."
Residents have also reported environmental damage from glyphosate, including damage to food crops and streams strewn with dead fish. These accounts are backed by studies in the report that show glyphosate is toxic to the environment.
Scientists and others who speak out against Argentina's GM soy agricultural model report censorship and harassment. In August 2010 Amnesty International called for an investigation into a violent attack by an organized mob on an audience assembled to hear Carrasco talk about his research in the agricultural town of La Leonesa.
Donwload full report in English:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/files/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_FULL_ENG_v9.pdf
Download summary in English:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/files/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_SUMMARY_ENG_v6.pdf
Download full report in Portuguese:
http://www.gmwatch.org/files/GMsoy_Sust_Respons_FULL_POR_v2.pdf
The report will also be available in French, German, and Spanish, as translations are completed.
http://bit.ly/9D9J2k
+ ROUND TABLE ON IR-RESPONSIBLE SOY
GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible? challenges commercial claims that GM soy cultivation is sustainable and that the glyphosate herbicide it is sprayed with is safe. In 2011 the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), a multi-stakeholder forum on sustainable soy production, will launch a voluntary label for "responsible" soy that will reassure ethically minded traders and consumers that the soy was produced with consideration for people and the environment. It will label GM soy sprayed with glyphosate as responsible.
RTRS members include multinational companies such as ADM, BP, Bunge, Cargill, Monsanto, Shell, and Syngenta, and NGOs such as WWF and the Dutch church-based organisation Solidaridad.
Claire Robinson of GMWatch said, "It is a cruel farce to call the GM soy with glyphosate farming model sustainable and responsible.
"The RTRS criteria are so weak that they don't protect people from the known health hazards of GM soy and glyphosate shown in the new report.
"The RTRS also ignores serious social problems caused by GM soy monocultures. Livelihoods and food security have been lost as land that used to grow food for people to eat is given over to toxic GM soy monocultures.
"Over 200 civil society organizations have condemned the RTRS criteria as corporate greenwash. It’s time for responsible members of the RTRS to abandon this discredited body."
Europe imports around 38 million tons of soy per year, which mostly goes into animal feed. Food products from GM-fed animals do not have to carry a GM label.
The maximum glyphosate residue limit allowed in soy in the EU is 20 mg/kg. Carrasco found malformations in embryos injected with 2.03 mg/kg glyphosate, nearly 10 times lower. Soybeans have been found to contain glyphosate residues at levels up to 17mg/kg.
More on the RTRS: http://bit.ly/aegWCx
+ INTERVIEWS WITH PEOPLE AFFECTED BY GLYPHOSATE SPRAYING ON GM SOY
GMWatch has released a series of interviews with Argentine people whose lives have been seriously affected by glyphosate spraying on GM soy. Here are excerpts from the interviews, which are well worth reading in full.
***Dr Dario Gianfelici, Argentine family physician:
"Our town experienced drastic changes before and after soy. I've seen people die from cancer at age 30. I have witnessed pregnancy problems and a significant increase in fertility problems. I have seen an increase in respiratory diseases, as has never been seen before”¦ GM soy has been a death sentence for humans and for the environment. No money can compensate for the damage that has been caused the contamination, the deaths, the cases of cancer and malformations."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12484:reports-dario-gianfelici-interview
***Angel Strapazzon, member of Argentine peasant farmer organisation and educator:
"Agribusiness companies have a lot of power and most of the media at their service. Sometimes we hear their lies and we laugh. They say it is "sustainable and responsible" but actually it is only sustainable for their pockets. The model they hold is a model of death, of exclusion, of denial of future generations, of hunger, of plundering of our natural resources. It is a model of wealth monopoly, manipulation of nature, and violation of Mother Earth’s rights. This model is all about impositions, wires, dispossession, and subjugation."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12483:reports-angel-strapazzon-interview
***Viviana Peralta, Argentine housewife whose family was hospitalized after glyphosate/agrochemicals spraying on GM RR soy, and who won a landmark lawsuit banning the spraying of glyphosate and other agrochemicals near houses:
"I do not understand chemistry, I did not go to university, but I know what my family suffered. To people who are not familiar with this agricultural model, I say, 'Do not believe the companies. Reject agrochemicals. Do it for the life of your children.'"
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12486:reports-viviana-peralta-interview
Finally, here's what the scientists say.
***Professor Andres Carrasco, whose research found that glyphosate caused malformations in frog and chicken embryos:
"I didn't discover anything new. I just confirmed what other scientists discovered. In spite of the evidence, they still tried to run down 30 years of my reputation as a scientist. They are hypocrites, lackeys of the big corporations, but they are afraid.
"The provinces are full of victims of pesticides, but the newspapers do not want to reach out there to the communities, much less the responsible companies. I do not understand why my story is more important than that of the Mothers of Ituzaingó (activist group fighting agrochemicals spraying on GM soy, based in Cordoba province). Why? In no way, am I more important."
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12509-interview-with-prof-andres-carrasco-on-his-research-showing-roundup-link-with-birth-defects
***From the new report, GM Soy: Sustainable? Responsible?:
"The cultivation of GM RR soy endangers human and animal health, increases herbicide use, damages the environment, reduces biodiversity, and has negative impacts on rural populations. The monopolistic control by agribusiness companies over GM RR soy technology and production endangers markets, compromises the economic viability of farming, and threatens food security."
http://bit.ly/9D9J2k
+ GMWATCH ON U.S. RADIO
Here's Claire of GMWatch on the Gary Null Show, discussing GM soy, Roundup, and birth defects:
http://bit.ly/dafA85 09/27/10 starts 42:00 mins
And here's Claire on the same topic - plus growing stuff without herbicides - on the Dr Katherine Albrecht show:
http://media.katherinealbrecht.com/archives/1009/20100930_Thu_Albrecht2.mp3
+ MONSANTO SHARES FALL AS ROUNDUP/BIRTH DEFECTS STORY HITS
http://www.streetinsider.com/Rumors/Study+Shows+Round-Up+Could+Be+Linked+to+Animal+Birth+Defects%3B+Monsanto+%28MON%29+Shares+Falling/6006292.html
(You need a subscription to access the full article)
http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowatchtoday/2010/09/30/monsantos-tough-week-now-its-birth-defects/?mod=rss_BOLBlog
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PLAGIARISM AND LOBBYING BY SCIENCE ACADEMIES: INDIA'S BT BRINJAL SCANDAL
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+ INDIA: ACADEMIES COPIED MATERIAL FROM INDUSTRY LOBBY REPORT TO PUSH BT BRINJAL
India's top science academies have done the unthinkable. They have copied and quoted extensively from an industry lobby report to give a clean chit to GM Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant).
Key portions and data in the much touted Inter-Academy Report on Genetically Modified Crops have been lifted straight from a report of a lobbying group funded by seed companies, including Monsanto and Mahyco.
In March, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had asked the six science academies - the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (India) - to give an unbiased scientific assessment on the feasibility of transgenic crops and the proposed regulatory mechanism for GM food. They submitted the report to Ramesh this week, recommending the commercial release of Bt brinjal.
But it turns out that the academies have relied heavily on data generated by US-based GM lobby International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). They have recommended the commercial release of Bt brinjal and the lifting of the moratorium imposed on it by Ramesh.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12513
+ INDIA'S ENVIRONMENT MINISTER TRASHES ACADEMIES' REPORT
Virtually trashing the report by six top academies which favoured "limited release" of GM brinjal, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said it does not give a larger scientific view and focused only on the view of one scientist.
That scientist is P. Anand Kumar, director of National Research Centre for Plant Biology and a member of the GEAC that had first passed Bt brinjal before the environment ministry put a moratorium on its commercial introduction. Kumar had stated his opinion in a non-peer reviewed article written in a pro-GM newsletter of the department of biotechnology called Biotech News in December 2009.
Kumar's views had apparently been copied and pasted into the academies' report. One section claimed, "Bt brinjal Event EE-1 has been subjected to a rigorous biosafety regulatory process encompassing all aspects of toxicity, allergenicity, environmental safety, socio-economic assessment etc."
Endorsing views of an advocacy group that alleged that the academies' report was plagiarised, Ramesh said, "I had asked the academics to give the broader scientific view. But it is nothing else but the views of one scientist (Anand Kumar) which I had already known much before the moratorium was placed on the release of the Bt brinjal."
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12520
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12526
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12528
+ ACADEMY DISOWNS PLAGIARISED REPORT
The National Academy of Medical Sciences has distanced itself from the controversial pro Bt-brinjal report that it co-authored with five other premier national science academies. It also pushed for a fresh report with scientific rigour and not just a reiteration of the existing report with referencing of sourced information. The move came after the NAMS council met to discuss the issue after it was highlighted that important sections had been copied from a pro-GM newsletter.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12526
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12528
+ JOURNAL NATURE ON PLAGIARISM SCANDAL
Very clear overview.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12528
+ NO QUESTION OF LIFTING MORATORIUM ON BT BRINJAL - ENVIRONMENT MINISTER
India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh said the academies' report did not reflect the views of the larger scientific community. He also said that none of India's states wanted GM crops: "Since February I have not heard from even one state wanting to revoke moratorium on Bt brinjal. Even the most aggressive anti-NGO state in India, Gujarat, did not want Bt brinjal."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12522
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RESEARCH
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+ BT MAIZE HAS "POLLUTED RIVERS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES"
Bt insecticidal toxins from GM Bt maize have leached into the water of the surrounding environment and polluted rivers across the US, reports new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers found Bt toxin in almost 25 percent of streams they tested, and all the streams that tested positive were within 1,500 feet from a cornfield. Bt toxin gets into streams and rivers by leaching out of crop debris left on fields through the now-ubiquitous industrial "no-till" farming technique, in which fields aren't ploughed after harvest so as to prevent soil erosion. As a result, leaves and stalks get washed into streams through irrigation canals.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12523
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12534
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CONTAMINATION
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+ AUSTRALIA: BABY FORMULA CONTAMINATED WITH GM SOY - AND NOT LABELLED
Tests on one of the most popular baby formulas on the market - S-26 Soy - show it contains GM ingredients. Authorities say the product, made by the Pfizer-owned company Wyeth Nutrition, is safe to sell without labels revealing its GM levels, despite an absence of research on their long-term effects on infants. Greenpeace spokeswoman Julie Macken said, "I reckon most mums are going to hit the roof when they find out how they've been hoodwinked with this stuff. Our main issue with this is that we think parents have a right to know, and companies are exploiting the labelling laws in Australia. "Transnational companies such as Pfizer and others love Australia, because we've got labelling laws you can drive a truck through, which is great for their bottom line and bad for our babies."
http://bit.ly/cu3taF
http://bit.ly/9piobV
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12517
+ CAMPAIGNERS ARRESTED IN BABY FORMULA PROTEST
Six female Greenpeace campaigners were arrested after they were accused of trespassing while staging a supermarket protest against the GM-contaminated baby formula in Sydney.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12517
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GM FAILURES
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+ GM MAIZE FARMERS FACE RUIN IN SOUTH AFRICA
Monsanto and its supporters are forever promoting the idea that GM crop adoption is the way to greater farm productivity and profitability, but the experience of farmers growing GM maize in South Africa point to a more complex and disturbing reality. Just a year ago, the talk was of South African farmers suffering millions of dollars in lost income after some 82,000 hectares of GM maize failed to produce seeds. And Monsanto was left rushing to compensate the farmers in an effort to hush up the disaster.
http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2504
A year on, nearly a third of South Africa's maize farmers are again threatened with financial ruin - this time because of a glut in maize production. The knock-on effects of the current crisis on rural South African communities could be catastrophic, reports the African Centre for Biosafety in a new report.
Download the report here:
http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/index.html/images/stories/dmdocuments/SA_GM_farmers_in_crisis.pdf
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12470
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ MONSANTO HIRED BLACKWATER TO SPY ON ACTIVIST WEBSITES
Internal company documents show Monsanto paid an entity of private security firm Blackwater, Total Intelligence, over $200,000 to scan "activist blogs and websites". The documents also suggest that the issue of infiltration by Total Intelligence was discussed. Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the "intel arm" of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm. The new evidence sheds light on the key roles of several former top CIA officials who went on to work for Blackwater. The coordinator of Blackwater's covert CIA business, former CIA paramilitary officer Enrique "Ric" Prado, set up a global network of foreign operatives, offering their "deniability" as a "big plus" for potential Blackwater customers, according to company documents. In other words, the US and the CIA could plausibly deny involvement in any activities contracted out to Blackwater.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12490
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12495
Blackwater attracted controversy during the war in Iraq, flooding the country with armed contractors at the invitation of the Bush administration. It quickly became involved in a long string of violent incidents, including the killing of 17 unarmed civilians in 2007.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12495
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Blackwater_USA
+ EFSA CHAIR IN CONFLICT OF INTEREST SCANDAL
French Green MEP Jose Bove has called for the resignation of the chair of the board of European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), Diana Banati, over a conflict of interest scandal. The EFSA is responsible for assessing GMOs as part of the EU approval process, for which it has been frequently criticised. According to the information uncovered by Jose Bove, Ms Banati was a member of the board of the International Life Science Institute, an organisation representing a myriad of businesses, including Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont, Nestlé and Kraft, among others, which has a history of lobbying for the interests of the food industry. The World Health Organization has harshly criticized ILSI over its lobbying activities and restricted its WHO access.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12527
+ AUSTRALIA: FALSE PROMISES OF GM RICE RESEARCH
Australia's Centre for Plant Functional Genomics claims its GM salt-tolerant rice "offers hope for the global food supply" - yet it has not yet applied to the regulator for a licence to trial the crop. Gene Ethics director Bob Phelps said, "The reality of hot air claims by GM scientists who dip into the public purse must be checked to stop the waste of scarce public research funds on failed GM projects. No GM rice has passed any safety tests or public health hurdles anywhere and it is not grown commercially. Phelps said these researchers were on recent record as agreeing that reviving our soils is a valid response to salty farmlands. But they dismissed the soil management option as too hard, without discussion, and advocated for the expensive, patentable, high-tech, GM option.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12476
+ UK: FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY ABANDONS PRO-GM DIALOGUE
The Food Standards Agency has announced that its planned GM Dialogue will be abandoned. The Dialogue was being planned at the bequest of the previous government in collaboration with ScienceWise and the Central Office of Information. The planning of the dialogue ran into problems in May 2010 when two members of the independent steering committee, Professor Brian Wynne and Dr Helen Wallace, resigned over concerns about its pro-GM bias. Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director said: "The last Government tried persistently to peddle GM food to a sceptical public. It was outrageous that the FSA allowed themselves to be used to try and push GM food on the British people, and in doing so they once again departed from what is meant to be their role of defending the interests of consumers."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12494
+ UK: LORD SAINSBURY PUSHING GM CROPS AGAIN
Just after the FSA's GM Dialogue was abandoned, former UK science minister Lord David Sainsbury asked for the GM debate to be re-opened, with the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences in charge. It's hard to think of two institutions with a worse track record (or more senior players with powerful vested interests) in relation to GM.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Peter_Lachmann
David Sainsbury's own record of undue influence is equally disturbing. And now that all the leverage he bought from Blair and New Labour is spent, there's no reason for his undue influence to continue, despite his massive wealth and his investments - both "charitable" and entrepreneurial - in GM.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=David_Sainsbury
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12488
+ ROMANIA: NGOs CALL FOR MINISTER TO BE SACKED FOR GM LINKS
Over 70 environmental NGOs, including WWF, have called for the sacking of Romania's new agriculture minister, Valeriu Tabara, for his links to the GM industry. Tabara told the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei that he had indeed worked for Monsanto.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12461
+ ROMANIA: LARGE UNIONS NEGOTIATE GM CONTAMINATION OF AGRICULTURE
Romania's large farming unions FNPAR and AGROSTAR are promoting GMOs in Romanian agriculture. FNPAR and AGROSTAR called for Romanian farmers to participate in demonstrations in Bucharest on 2 September. In the official document that states the list of demands of the two unions, the seventh demand is "The introduction of cultivation of genetically modified plants, especially genetically modified corn and soy."
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12461
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GM INSECTS
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+ RELEASE OF GM MOSQUITOES ILL ADVISED
The proposed release of GM mosquitoes by Malaysia's Institute for Medical Research is ill advised, writes the executive director of Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) in a formal objection. PAN AP says genetically engineering a mosquito, which is a vector of disease, may give rise to unexpected negative impacts on human and animal health. For example, the insect may become more virulent, aggressive or its bite might have different effects on the host. The release plan includes spraying with the pesticide resigen.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12472
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RESISTANCE
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+ USDA SUED OVER SIDESTEPPING GM BEET BAN
On August 13, 2010, Judge Jeffrey White vacated the deregulation by the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of GM Roundup Ready sugar beet, making it illegal to plant. The court found that APHIS had ignored the requirements for assessing the crop’s environmental impacts and required APHIS to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. However, APHIS willfully disregarded the ruling and simply issued permits purporting to allow the immediate planting of the GM sugar beets. Now the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club have filed a lawsuit in federal district court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, challenging the issuance of the permits.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12473
+ ILLEGAL GM MAIZE DESTROYED IN PARAGUAY
The Paraguay government's destruction of over 100 acres of illegal GM maize has re-ignited the debate about GM crops. Paraguay is at the heart of what has been dubbed "The Soy Wars", where transnational giants like Cargill and Monsanto have held virtually unchallenged political influence for years, and vast stretches of the countryside have been bulldozed to create Roundup-ready empires. Paraguay has become the world's fourth largest producer of soy, and those campesinos and indigenous people who have tried to hold out against the pressure to sell their land have found their subsistence lifestyles and even their very lives under attack from aerial sprayings of "agrotoxins", and from roving thugs who have tried to repress dissent by targeting community leaders for harassment and even, in one extreme case, assassination. That war has taken a new turn with the entrance of the first left-leaning government in Paraguay's history. In April 2008, former Catholic bishop-turned-politician
Fernando Lugo came into office on promises to implement a long-denied land reform and to recover national sovereignty from foreign governments and transnationals. That shift has been most visible in the dramatic "intervention" staged recently in which government officials destroyed 44 hectares of transgenic corn.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12475
+ CALL FOR PHILIPPINES TO ABANDON GM EGGPLANT
Greenpeace and other members of the Network Opposed to Genetically Modified Organisms (NO2GMOs) have called on the Philippines government to stop all field trials of GM Bt eggplant and follow the example of the Indian government, which has declared a moratorium on the commercialisation of the vegetable.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12530
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CORPORATE TAKEOVER
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+ DAY OF ACTION AGAINST AGRIBUSINESS AND MONSANTO - OCTOBER 16
La Via Campesina is calling for a day of action around the world on October 16, 2010 to denounce the role of agribusinesses such as Monsanto and their destruction and corporatization of biodiversity and life.
http://gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12535
+ BP-BERKELEY DEAL LOOKS WORSE POST-SPILL
In 2007, British Petroleum donated $500 million in research funds to UC Berkeley and partners to develop new sources of energy - primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops. Robert A. Malone, chairman and president of BP America Inc., proclaimed BP was "joining some of the world's best science and engineering talent for "improving and expanding the production of clean, renewable energy through the development of better crops". With what for BP was a relatively small investment, UC Berkeley's academic expertise, built over decades of public support, was recruited into a corporate partnership at the service of private interests. But all this public recruited talent did not help BP in preventing or containing the oil spill that gushed more than 90 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days, constituting the worst ecological disaster in US history. in an article for the Daily Californian, Miguel Altieri asks: How can UC Berkeley justify its association with BP
in front of California's civil society?
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12478
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ENERGY
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+ VENTER'S ONE-MAN ALGAE FUELS BUBBLE
J. Craig Venter has been boasting about his plans to "replace the entire petrochemical industry" by creating fuel-creating synthetic algae. However, it seems that fuel-creating algae is yet another biotechnology "bubble" that promises more than it delivers.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12478
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GM SALMON
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+ HIGHER LEVELS OF IGF-1 IN GM SALMON
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a decision that GM salmon as safe for human consumption but it contains elevated levels of a growth factor, IGF-1, that has links to cancer. An article in the UK's Guardian comments, "This isn't the first time we've had to worry about IGF-1. In the 1990s, the FDA approved the use of genetically engineered recombinant bovine-growth hormone (rBGH, also known as rBST) to induce cows to produce more milk." An image caption accompanying the article asks, "If salmon and milk and a whole range of edible food-like substances yet to come contain elevated levels of IGF-1, when, exactly, are we supposed to start worrying?"
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12469
+ GM SALMON NOT JUST A U.S. ISSUE
The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) has joined 30 US consumer, animal welfare and environmental groups, fisheries associations and food retailers, in demanding that the FDA deny approval to GM salmon. The CBAN says the GM salmon issue has global implications as it involves the cross-border movement of Living Modified Organisms. Aqua Bounty - the company producing the GM salmon - has submitted an environmental assessment to the FDA that relies on the scenario of producing eggs in Canada and shipping them to Panama for growing and processing, before shipping the processed fish to the US. And while the company claims their GM fish will be sterile, it turns out that something like 5% of the eggs aren't sterile, so the potential for accidents is there.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12471
+ CHEFS WILL NOT SERVE GM SALMON
Producers of GM salmon might have difficulty finding acceptance in restaurants, says an article for Food & Drink Digital, as some chefs have said their customers would not approve.
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12477
+ EVEN IF FDA APPROVED, GM SALMON STILL NEEDS CANADIAN OK
http://bit.ly/9t6SHf
+ VIDEOS ON GM SALMON
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/34-gm-animals
+ TAKE ACTION ON GM SALMON
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september062010/ge-salmon-as.php