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Dear all:
This week saw a lawyers' bonanza as rows over GM crops escalate. Monsanto has been suing European importers of Argentine GM soy for royalties it has been unable to collect in Argentina on its Roundup Ready technology. The WTO has delayed its ruling on the EU's GM embargo yet again (EUROPE). And India's monopolies commission has issued notices to Monsanto to cease charging exorbitant royalties on its Bt trait (ASIA).
Meanwhile, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, acting as pawns of the US, have been instrumental in helping to undermine the international ban on Terminator technology (TERMINATOR). And Missouri is spending huge amounts of public money on avoiding "unpleasant surprises and controversies" for biotech companies wanting to set up home there (THE AMERICAS).
Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
AUSTRALASIA
EUROPE
TERMINATOR
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ASIA
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+ ORGANIC FARMING COULD REDUCE RURAL POVERTY - U.N. STUDY
Organic food production could offer a way out of poverty for many small farmers in developing countries but needs government support, says a largely overlooked UN study conducted in India and China.
South Asian farmers who have switched over from using synthetic fertiliser to more eco-friendly, traditional forms of organic farming have earned more and achieved a higher standard of living, says a study by the United Nations. However, small farmers are often excluded from supportive government reform programmes that encourage organic farming, says the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
"In China and India, organic production is growing steadily," said the report. The study looked at the role of organic agriculture in rural poverty reduction.
In addition to bringing about higher prices for agricultural produce, lower unemployment and less rural migration, "organic farming reduces the health risks posed by the use of toxic chemicals, as well as the high costs of chemical pesticides and fertilisers. (Also), the environment benefits from improved soil management and less polluting techniques," said the IFAD.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6188
+ INDIA: FLEECING THE RURAL POOR
In the urban world, if you buy a car or a hi-fi system, Devinder Sharma points out in an article for the Deccan Herald, the manufacturer "not only provides a guarantee but often orders the withdrawal of a particular batch of faulty product line".
But the reality of rural life, Sharma says, is very different. Even with India's Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, admitting in parliament that Bt cotton had failed in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, and with India's regulatory body refusing to renew permission for the cultivation of three Mahyco-Monsanto Bt cotton varieties, the company has successfully refused to provide a single rupee in compensation to the farmers who believed its promises.
In fact, around the world the agbiotech industry refuses to accept any liability for the impact of its products. Even the deaths of indebted farmers - fooled by aggressive marketing into buying the company's expensive seed - count for nothing. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6196
+ SCIENTIST TAKES APART BT COTTON CLAIMS
Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman has sent us an interesting commentary on an article published recently in the Indian press - "In defence of Bt cotton". The article claims bumper yields from Bt cotton - in spite of reports of widespread failure of the crop. It also claims higher income for farmers, in spite of reports of farmer indebtedness and suicides that place the blame squarely on Bt cotton.
Dr Gurian-Sherman exposes the falseness of these claims and concludes that the kind of spin to be found in the article "is typical of proponents of GE crops, who don't seem to have enough confidence in their technology to make accurate and realistic arguments."
Dr Gurian-Sherman is senior scientist at the Center for Food Safety in Washington, DC, and was formerly with the US Environmental Protection Agency, where he was responsible for assessing human health and environmental risks from GM plants and microorganisms.
R K Sinha & Bhagirath Choudhary, the authors of the article Gurian-Sherman takes apart, are from the biotech industry-backed ISAAA and the All-India Crop Biotechnology Association (AICBA).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6194
+ OUTRAGE AT INDIAN WELCOME TO MONSANTO MAN
The visit of Hugh Grant, CEO of Monsanto, to India and his scheduled meeting with government officials has raised alarm among activists. Members of SAGE (South Against Genetic Engineering) wrote to the prime minister and president of India as well as chief minister and agriculture minister of Andhra Pradesh voicing their objections and requesting the prime minister to stand by the millions of Indian farmers who have been destroyed in the process of using GM seeds. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6188
+ SOUTH KOREA: BLAST FROM A DARK PAST
Survivors of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the US during the Vietnam War, have won a historic class suit brought in South Korea against Monsanto. The Seoul Supreme Court charged that Monsanto and Dow Chemical were not immune from being responsible for the lethal effects of the chemical spray upon humans, both combatants and civilians, at the height of the controversial war.
In the wake of Agent Orange, more than 20,000 South Koreans sued for damages. The high court ordered the two companies to pay $62 million in medical damages to 6,800 people. Monsanto is expected to appeal the court's decision.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6182
+ PHILIPPINES: BT CORN CAUSING ILLNESS
From Vietnam to Socsargen in the Philippines, old practices die hard, says the Mindanao Daily Mirror, a Philippines daily newspaper that sees parallels betwen the impact of Monsanto's Agent Orange and the impact of GM crops.
Monsanto has been field-testing GM corn in the South Cotabato-Sarangani-General Santos (Socsargen) area of the Philippines. Activists have asked the country's legislators to stop Monsanto from testing the GM Bt corn. But despite the protests, commercial planting of the crop has expanded since 2003 to now cover some 70,000 hectares. Tribal residents in Polomolok, South Cotabato living within a hundred metres of the test site have complained of ailments that range from headaches, flu and vomiting to skin allergies. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6182
+ INDIA-U.S. FARM PACT TO HELP RESEARCH, CROP TRIALS
A knowledge initiative for agriculture has been signed between the ministries of agriculture of India and the US, said Madelyn E Spirnak of the US department of state. Under the initiative, the US agency for international development and Indian institutes will undertake research and develop GM crops. Spirnak said work was underway to develop a pest-resistant brinjal, virus-resistant groundnut, drought-resistant rice and fungus-resistant potato.
Oddly enough, the Indian press article reporting this story quotes Spirnak as saying that when it comes to GM crops, "India has lagged behind the world". Yet for the past 3 years the US-based pro-GM lobby group, ISAAA, has been proclaiming "India a key GM crop cultivator" - to quote a headline in the Times of India in January 2005. The article proclaimed, "India has made it to the list of top ten transgenic crop-growing nations." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6197
+ GM CROPS A LOSING PROPOSITION
In an article for the Times of India, Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign notes the Prime Minister's call for a second green revolution with a focus on the needs of small and marginal farmers. The biotech industry has seized the chance to publish a wish-list on which it wants speedy action, including rapid adoption of herbicide-tolerant crops. But Sahai argues that this will take away wage labour and bring in an expensive technology. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6189
+ INDIA: MONSANTO GETS NOTICE OVER "EXORBITANT" ROYALTY
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has issued notices to Monsanto and its Indian affiliates in the wake of allegations made by the Andhra Pradesh government on Bt cotton seed. The state, which has seen a spate of suicides among cotton farmers in recent years, is accusing the multinational of collecting "exorbitant" royalty from farmers, taking undue advantage of its monopoly on GM hybrid cotton seed.
In an unprecedented move, Andhra Pradesh has asked MRTPC to restrain Monsanto from charging a royalty of Rs 1,250 on each 450 gm packet of Bt cotton seed. It alleges that the royalty charged by Monsanto for similar hybrids in the US works out to no more than Rs 108. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6186
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AFRICA
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+ AFRICAN SCIENCE MUST REGAIN CONTROL OF LOCAL RESOURCES
In an excellent article for SciDev.Net, Kazhila Chinsembu, lecturer in the department of biology at the University of Namibia, says Africa risks being "enslaved" by GM technology it doesn't own and urges African nations to regain control over their biological resources and indigenous knowledge.
He points out that although African scientists can earn lucrative consultancy fees for developing and promoting GM crops, they need to alert their governments to the implications of who owns the technology.
EXCERPT:
What about African agriculture? It used to be based on multi-cropping ecosystems where crops such as cassava, maize and beans grew together. There were no chemical fertilisers - we used manure as compost instead. But "monocultures" of single crops, combined with chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilisers - produced mainly by multinational corporations - have replaced our environmentally friendly traditions.
And as the companies' profits grow, so does the reliance of African farmers on their technologies. Seeds produced by new hybrid crop varieties cannot, for instance, be saved for planting the following season as they do not share their parents' genetic vigour.
But it seems Africans have not learnt their lessons. If we did, we might not be so excited about genetically-modified (GM) crops. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6195
+ AFRICAN FARMERS SAY GM CROPS ARE NOT THE WAY FORWARD
Cotton-growers and other farmers have voted against introducing GM crops in a "citizens jury" in Mali. Instead, the jurors proposed recommendations to strengthen traditional agricultural practice and support local farmers.
The five-day event (25-29 January) took place in Sikasso in the south of the West African country, where two-thirds of the country's cotton is produced. Mali is the largest producer of cotton in sub-Saharan Africa. The crop is largely grown by smallholder farmers. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6183
+ DROUGHT-RESISTANT GM SEEDS WON'T BE AVAILABLE FOR KENYA FOR 10 YEARS
There's been so much hype about salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant crops courtesy of GM that it seemed refreshingly truthful when a Monsanto spokesman was quoted in an article this week admitting that "miracle crops" with drought-tolerance might be at least 8-10 years away from benefitting farmers in Africa.
In fact, that is almost certainly a massive understatement. That's certainly the view of Professor Tim Flowers of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sussex:
"Evaluation of claims that biotechnology can produce salt-tolerant crops reveals that, after ten years of research using transgenic plants to alter salt tolerance, the value of this approach has yet to be established in the field. Biotechnologists have reasons for exaggerating their abilities to manipulate plants
If 'biotechnology' is to contribute tolerant crops, these crops may still be decades from commercial availability. The generation of drought tolerant crops is likely to have a similar period of development."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6190
+ SOUTH AFRICAN RESEARCHERS FIND GM CONTAMINATION IN LOCAL MAIZE
Traces of GMOs can be found in nearly three-quarters of locally sold maize and soya products that claim to be free of these ingredients, researchers at the University of the Free State have found.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6177
+ GMOs THREATEN SEED INDUSTRY
The Centre for Development Initiatives (CDI) of the African Biodiversity Network of South Africa has expressed concern about the likely extinction of the indigenous seeds if the country adopts GMOs. "There is a risk of contaminating our indigenous crops from fields planted with GMOs through cross-pollination. We may lose our indigenous seed security through contamination with GMO genes," said Bridget Nabikolo, the CDI programme coordinator.
Nabikolo said GMOs would bring high costs to farmers. "Patented seeds mean that seed saving is forbidden and we must buy new seeds each season," she said. "Many small-scale farmers will be unable to bear the additional cost of buying expensive patented seed each season," added Nabikolo. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6177
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THE AMERICAS
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+ RESEARCH CASH FAILS TO SPAWN NEW BUSINESS
A report for Associated Press says a lot of money goes into biotech research in Missouri, but not much comes out. That's what Gov. Matt Blunt heard during a meeting with his Advisory Council on Plant Biotechnology. Blunt appointed the council last spring to help Missouri foster more high-tech companies in the state, and he said that the group already helped lay the groundwork for a $300 million spending proposal to enable this.
Missouri does a worse job than most states at turning research dollars into new businesses or patented products, said Mike Mills, deputy director of the Missouri Dept of Economic Development.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6180
But Missouri is hardly alone in not benefitting from biotech. "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable," says Joseph Cortright, a US economist who co-wrote a report on the subject. "This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3772
Roger Beachy, the founding president of the Danforth Plant Science Center, which was established by Monsanto and academic partners, who is chair of Blunt's Advisory Council on Plant Biotechnology, says the idea is to avoid unpleasant surprises and controversies that could derail the plans of biotech companies to set up shop or move to Missouri.
A recent example is Ventria Bioscience, a , pharma crop company which wanted to move to Missouri but which ran into the opposition of farmers and Anheuser-Busch Cos. who opposed its plan to grow GM pharma rice. The 11th-hour controversy delayed Ventria's plans and a lack of state funding for a production facility helped scrap Ventria's intentions to build its headquarters in Maryville.
Now Gov. Blunt and his Advisory Council want to spend more than $186 million of taxpayers' money on infrastructure to house life-science industry and research statewide. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6180
+ COSY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITIES AND INDUSTRY HURTS SCIENCE - SUZUKI
Geneticist David Suzuki told students at the University of Manitoba that the cosy relationship between researchers and industry giants is compromising science and environmental security. Suzuki said, "The vast majority of this science is being applied in sheer ignorance. It becomes downright dangerous."
Suzuki spoke about the dangers of genetic modification before the screening of a video on GM crops that has created a controversy at the University of Manitoba. Environmental studies professor Stephane McLachlan and his graduate student Ian Mauro created the documentary on farmers' experiences with GM crops. The release of the video was stalled for years after the researchers accused the university of blocking them from distributing results of their publicly funded research.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6174
+ CONFLICT OVER MICHIGAN'S FARM BILL
A row has broken out over Michigan's plan to pass legislation to prevent local bans on growing GM crops. Five California counties and cities have restricted growing GMOs since 2004. Fourteen states have since passed laws pre-empting similar measures in their backyards, prodded by large seed companies and farmers who plant their GM products.
One big concern is government oversight. Douglas Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, says the US Food and Drug Administration lets the biotech industry decide how best to test the safety of GM seeds.
"It is a classic case of the fox guarding the hen house," said Gurian-Sherman, a former Environmental Protection Agency scientist who recently testified before a Senate panel in Lansing. Since there are few federal regulations, he says, "the state and local jurisdictions are necessary to protect the public and send a message to Washington that they need to do a better job." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6181
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ JAPANESE PAY PREMIUM FOR GM-FREE CANOLA
Grain growers on Kangaroo Island, Australia are receiving a premium price for their GM-free canola after signing a deal with a Japanese company. Derrick Johnson from the Kangaroo Island Canola Company says the Japanese approached growers because of the island's GM-free status. "The idea is that the canola be GM-free which flies in the face of all GM proponents who say there's no premium for non-GMO products," he said.
According to an economic study of GM crops by Australia's Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), "the US share of the EU's maize imports has fallen to virtually zero (from around 2/3 in the mid-1990s), as has Canada's share of EU canola imports (from 54% in the mid-1990s). GM-adopting countries have lost market share to GM-free suppliers".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6191
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EUROPE
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+ GREECE EXTENDS BAN ON MONSANTO CORN DESPITE E.U. RULING
Greece has extended its ban on a variety of GM corn seed developed by Monsanto, despite an EU order earlier this month to lift the ban. Deputy agriculture minister Alexandros Kondos signed a decision prohibiting the sale in Greece, over the next 18 months, of 31 strains of the MON810 seed type. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6185
+ ARGENTINA TARGETS MONSANTO SOY LAWSUITS IN EUROPE
Argentina will formally ask to participate in patent infringement lawsuits filed by Monsanto in Europe, charging that the company's efforts to extract royalty fees on Argentine soy grown with Monsanto technology harms the entire sector.
Last June, Monsanto sued importers of Argentine soy in Denmark and the Netherlands to enforce patents in those countries on its Roundup Ready gene technology. And this week, the company stopped two boatloads of Argentine soymeal in Spanish ports, threatening to sue there as well. Europe is the top market for Argentina's soymeal.
In Argentina, by law, farmers are allowed to reuse GM seeds without paying royalties, so Monsanto is targeting the importing countries in an effort to make up the shortfall.
"If the company has decided to take legal action and harm Argentine exports, the Argentine government is not going to turn a blind eye," Gustavo Idigoras, Argentina's agricultural attache in Brussels, said. Idigoras said the government may also sue Monsanto directly in European courts, citing economic harm to Argentine exports.
In its bid to participate as a third party in the Danish and Dutch suits, Idigoras said Argentina argues that Monsanto's actions have inflicted economic damage on both the state and Argentine farmers and exporters. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6186
+ WTO DELAYS RULING - AGAIN
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has again delayed a ruling, due 1 February, in a dispute over the European Union's moratorium on GM foods and crops. The preliminary decision in a row pitting the EU against the US, Canada and Argentina is now expected on February 7.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6186
+ U.S. EXPOSES ITS OWN LIE ON WTO RULING
Note the contrasting comments:
"The United States is not telling European consumers what products to eat... European consumers have the decision whether or not to buy them" - US official
"A WTO decision in favor of the United States would allow [GM producing] countries to sell large amounts of processed foods containing biotech ingredients to EU countries, the official said."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6184
+ U.S. TO TARGET E.U. LABELLING?
A statement from the Office of the US trade representative is suggestive as to the US's next WTO challenge: "The labeling requirements include an obligation to label appropriate products genetically modified... these burdensome directives have already severely restricted market access for US food suppliers... The Directives generally are anticipated to have a negative impact on a wide range of US exports, including processed food exports."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6184
+ PLAN FOR TRIAL OF GM POTATOES AROUSES IRISH ANGER
A plan by BASF, the chemicals and biotech company, for a field trial in Ireland GM potatoes looks likely to run into trouble from protesters. BASF has submitted an application to the country's Environmental Protection Agency to conduct field trials of GM blight-resistant potatoes. The field trials are set to take place on a farm in County Meath.
Both the Irish Green party and the Sinn Fein party have objected to the plan. Martin Ferris, Sinn Fein spokesman on agriculture, said: "If GM crops are grown here, they will inevitably contaminate traditional and organic crops ... the introduction of GM here will benefit no one other than the companies which are attempting to control the food system."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6176
+ GM POTATO TRIALS "FOOLHARDY", SAYS GENETICIST
Geneticist Prof Joe Cummins has condemned BASF's proposed GM potato trials in Ireland as "foolhardy". He writes: "the considerations of human and environmental safety seem primarily based on wishful thinking not on serious efforts to gather or obtain factual information on the safety of the GM constructs. Monitoring also seems based on wishful thinking rather than serious efforts to detect negative impacts."
Prof Cummins notes that BASF has petitioned for field tests of GM potatoes in the Netherlands and that the "notice of petition indicated that the GM potato would be released in Germany, United Kingdom and Sweden." Cummins concludes, "The suggestion that NBS-LRR genes must be assumed safe until proven hazardous certainly appeals to greedy promoters of GM crops but does not serve the public good."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6199
+ ORGANIC SHOULD NOT CONTAIN GMOs
A group of NGOs in the UK has written to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Margaret Beckett, to protest against the European Commission's proposal to allow 0.9% GM contamination of organic products. The letter says, "Organic production must be given the means to be and stay GMO-free, that is to say, to contain no trace of GMOs. This is what European Union consumers want. The organic sector is prepared to take its part of the responsibility, but the political institutions of the European Union also need to fulfill theirs."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6192
+ COMPLAINT ABOUT BT10 AND FSA
Ian Panton of GM-free Cymru has written to Patricia Hewitt, UK secretary of state for health, complaining about the failure of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to protect British consumers from Syngenta's illegal Bt10 maize. The letter points out that rather than acting in a responsible manner regarding the exceptional (and internally recognized) hazard posed by Bt10, both FSA and Dept of the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) decided to diminish the significance of the incident and to craft carefully worded statements in a "public reassurance exercise."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6193
+ HUNGARIANS PROTEST AGAINST RELAXING GM CROPS BAN
In Budapest, hundreds of people protested against allowing production of GM crops in Hungary in a demonstration in front of Parliament. Demonstrators called for the government to keep all bans on GM crops in place until testing on health hazards is completed, said Peter Kajner of the green party Live Chain (Elolanc). Parliament is preparing to lift some of the current restrictions on GM crop farming.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6178
+ PROSPECTS OF GM CROPS IN SOUTHERN BAVARIA
Officials in southern Bavaria appear to have been more receptive to demands of growers and industry to allow GM crops than has been the norm in the rest of Germany. The township of the Bavarian town of Deggendorf has the largest surface area of any German township reserved for the planting of GM crops.
Since the area reserved for the enhanced crops lies near the border with Upper Austria, a GM-free zone, the farmers on the Austrian side of the border are up in arms. They fear contamination of their conventional fields by GM crops. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6178
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TERMINATOR
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For a leaflet on Terminator go to: http://www.progressio.org.uk/Templates/AssociatesHome2.asp?NodeID=91487
+ U.N. MEETING UNDERMINES MORATORIUM ON TERMINATOR
Indigenous peoples were betrayed and farmers' rights trampled at a UN meeting when the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments - guided by the US government and the biotech industry - sought to undermine the existing moratorium on Terminator technology (plants genetically modified to produce sterile seeds at harvest). The damaging recommendations from the meeting in Granada, Spain, now go to the upcoming 8th biennial meeting of the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20-31.
The CBD's "Working Group on Article 8(j)" that met in Granada was established to protect the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and peasant farmers. Civil society groups and indigenous peoples watched in disbelief, however, as governments ignored the negative social, economic and environmental impacts of "suicide seeds" highlighted in numerous CBD studies as well as in official submissions from indigenous peoples and farmers' organizations. The outcome now threatens biodiversity and the future of seed-saving and locally adapted agriculture worldwide.
Although the meeting "reaffirmed" the fragile UN moratorium on Terminator, new recommendations adopted in Granada now may be used to block the CBD's precautionary approach when governments meet in March in Brazil. Not only did the meeting fail to condemn Terminator as immoral and anti-farmer, Australia and the US falsely claimed that Terminator, which creates sterility, would "increase productivity."[!!!]
With a US government official consulting at her side, the Australian negotiator insisted on deleting reference to the "precautionary approach" and used this as a bargaining chip to win controversial wording for a "case-by-case risk assessment" of Terminator. "The new reference to case-by-case assessment is shocking and extremely damaging because it suggests that national regulatory review of Terminator is possible - it undermines the CBD moratorium, opening the door to Terminator approval," warns Hope Shand of ETC Group.
The majority of governments at the meeting remain solidly opposed to Terminator technology and committed to the existing moratorium. But Australia's extreme position and its determination to block consensus left governments little room to negotiate.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6179
+ SUICIDE SEEDS COULD SPELL DEATH OF PEASANT AGRICULTURE, U.N. MEETING TOLD
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6179
+ CANADIAN AND U.S. FARMER GROUPS CONCERNED
The National Farmers Union (NFU) of Canada, the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) in the US, and other organizations have spoken out against Australia, New Zealand and Canada's instrumental role in forcing the change in policy on Terminator at the UN forum.
Terry Boehm, NFU Vice-President and Chair of the Ban Terminator campaign in Canada, said officials from the Canadian Department of Environment tried to accomplish this objective last year at a similar meeting in Bangkok, but backed off following strong public opposition in Canada and worldwide.
"This time around, the Canadian delegation is involved in a supporting role, with the governments of Australia and New Zealand taking the lead in destroying the consensus against Terminator," said Boehm. "This flies in the face of any regard for farmers, citizens and the world's biosphere. Why would Canada help to unleash something as dangerous as Terminator on the world?" http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6179
+ NGOs HIT OUT AT AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND FOR OPENING DOOR TO TERMINATOR
An alliance of leading environment and development organisations has condemned Australia, Canada and New Zealand for attempting to open the door to Terminator technology. The alliance, the UK Campaigning Group on Terminator technology, has sent letters of protest to the High Commissioners of all three countries to raise concerns over proposals to weaken the global moratorium on Terminator technology, which would effectively give Terminator the green light. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6198