from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
The big story this week is the discovery of illegal GM rice contaminating the U.S. rice crop (GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL). This rice was never grown commercially, only in field trials which stopped in 2001, which shows the extent to which GM contamination is uncontrollable.
With an arrogance typical of the industry, at the same time that the rice contamination scandal broke, BASF applied to trial GM potatoes in the UK (EUROPE).
Claire
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS}
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THE AMERICAS
GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
EUROPE
ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
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THE AMERICAS
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+ U.S. MAINSTREAM MEDIA TURNS ON REGULATORS
Even before the latest incident with GM rice, the U.S. media had begun to give federal regulators a pounding for their abysmal failure to control GM crops.
EXCERPTS FROM THE US PRESS:
*Denver Post: Given the recent revelations of blunders, we think federal regulators ought to re-evaluate the regulatory process and monitoring safeguards. While tomatoes run amok might be the stuff of Hollywood, the risks from sloppy handling of gene-altered crops is all too real.
*Hartford Courant: The judge called USDA's regulatory heedlessness "arbitrary and capricious" and "an unequivocal violation of a clear congressional mandate."
Those findings recall similar conclusions reached by the USDA's own auditors last year.
Unless the USDA can prove capable of doing a far better job of regulating crops, the courts and Congress should consider imposing a moratorium on new permits. Mother Nature shouldn't be used as a laboratory for some uncontrolled genetic experiment.
*Minneapolis Star Tribune: ...it's a nightmare scenario for Oregon's seed producers. If the resistance gene shows up in their grasses, it could kill exports to the many countries that ban genetically modified plants. If it shows up in noxious grasses, their weed-control problems will multiply...
For the full articles: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6920
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ ILLEGAL GM RICE IN U.S. FOOD SUPPLY - FDA/USDA
Late on Friday 18th it was announced that an unapproved GM rice (LLRice 601) grown only in Bayer field trials had been found contaminating US long-grain rice. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6908
+ JAPAN SUSPENDS U.S. LONG-GRAIN RICE IMPORTS
Japan quickly suspended imports of all US long-grain rice. Japan has a zero-tolerance policy on imports of unapproved GMO crops, and importers of crops tainted with unapproved GMOs must destroy them or ship them back to exporting countries. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6910
+ JAPAN MAY TEST EVEN NON-LONG GRAIN RICE
Japan is considering testing even short- and medium-grain rice from the United States because it cannot rule out the possibility that U.S. rice cargoes arriving in Japan might contain LLRice 601. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=25794&sid=9581586&con_type=1
+ US RICE PRICE DIVES BECAUSE OF TAINTED RICE
Rice prices tumbled to their lowest level in months after the discovery of U.S. rice supplies tainted with unapproved GM rice. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6922
+ JAPAN RICE BAN WORRIES RICE FARMERS
The Japanese ban of long-grain rice from the US set off alarm among farmers and added fuel to a debate over GM rice. Even in California, where they don't grow long-grain rice, farmers are worried that contamination is a near certainty in a state where hundreds of crops are grown in close proximity.
"Biotech does not recognize a fence line where one farmer's property ends and another begins," said Bryce Lundberg, a rice grower with Lundberg Family Farms.
The farm, based near Chico in the northern Sacramento Valley, supports keeping California free of GMOs. Lundberg said the situation surrounding the Japanese rice ban "points at the heart of the reason the farm opposes them." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6921
+ INDIA MAY MOVE IN ON JAPANESE RICE MARKET
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6921
+ BAN CALL IN WEST AFRICA
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6918
+ EU CLAMPS DOWN ON GM RICE
The emergency measures announced on 23 August by the European Commission will mean that - with immediate effect - consignments of US long grain rice will not be allowed into the EU unless they have been tested by an accredited laboratory using a validated testing method and are accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence of LL Rice 601. The Commission also declared that Member States should carry out controls on products already on the EU market, to ensure that they are free from the unauthorised GM rice.
Friends of the Earth Europe welcomed the announcement but stressed that this incident highlights the need for new, tighter EU measures including routine testing to prevent future contamination incidents from occurring. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6924
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6919
+ GM RICE SAFETY UNCERTAIN - EU COMMISSION
Responding to US assurances of the safety of LL601, the European Commission, which says it needs much more data about the case, was not so sure. A senior Commission official said, "For the moment, we do not share the view of the US that there is no risk."
The EU executive says it still has no idea about possible volumes of LL Rice 601 that may have entered Europe, nor the countries that may have received cargoes with the strain. They are also unhappy about US information policy that caused a near 3-week delay in telling Brussels that traces of the unauthorised GMO were found in the commercial rice. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6925
+ FORMER EPA SCIENTIST ON CLAIMS FOR SAFETY OF ILLEGAL RICE
When news broke about Bayer's unapproved GM rice contaminating long grain rice, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns released a statement saying that the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had concluded there were "no human health, food safety, or environmental concerns associated with this GE rice." They had reached this conclusion, he claimed, after they reviewed "the available scientific data." But the key word here is "available".
As Bill Freese of Friends of the Earth (USA) points out, US regulators don't do any independent tests of their own, so any "available data" would typically come entirely from the company in question: "USDA and FDA are relying completely on Bayer's assessment. This is what they do even for formal approvals, of course, but here it's even worse because public interest groups and independent scientists haven't had a chance to look at whatever info Bayer may have shared with FDA-USDA."
Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman - a former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) biotech specialist and now a Senior Scientist with the Center for Food Safety - explains that there are a number of reasons for serious concern raised by this latest contamination incident, quite apart from the reliance on the industry's testing and data on safety.
Dr Gurian-Sherman notes, in particular, that no one has any idea of the real extent to which surrounding crops or the US food supply are being contaminated by experimental genes from field trials. This is because no testing occurs to assess this despite the huge number of trials taking place across the US.
As he notes, "There are roughly 1000 field permits or notifications approved by USDA every year, often with several test sites per approval, for many crops and many genes." Some of these trials, of course, even involve the production of industrial and pharmaceutical products in food crops. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6914
+ U.S. RUSHES TEST FOR GM RICE
US government scientists are rushing to certify a test that would identify the unapproved GM rice that has slipped into commercial supplies. But not everyone believes that the testing will be done in good faith.
Dr Brian John, who monitored the handling of the Bt10 maize contamination fiasco, tells us, "I am increasingly convinced that [Bayer's rogue GM rice] LL601 was unstable and non-uniform (and also yielded very poorly), which is why it was discontinued five years ago. The same scenario as Bt10. Expect similar skulduggery when it comes to the establishment of a test for identifying it in imports." Brian believes there is evidence that the test for Bt10, designed with the help of Syngenta, produced false negatives.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6921
+ GM FREE CYRU COMMENT ON GM RICE CONTAMINATION
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6925
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6911
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EUROPE
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+ BASF APPLIES FOR GM SPUD TRIALS IN UK
At the moment there are no GM field trials taking place anywhere in the UK. But the German chemicals giant BASF wants to change that. The company has applied to begin UK field trials of GM potatoes in Derbyshire and Cambridge as early as April.
According to one report, "Barry Stickings of BASF said he did not expect too much opposition to the application".
What planet's he on?
The report fails to mention that BASF already tried to pull the same trick in Ireland, where it was met by a storm of protest and ended up pulling out.
BASF is proposing to grow potatoes that have been genetically modified to give them resistance to late blight, a fungal disease. No account seems to have been taken of the fact that there are plenty of non-GM potato strains that are naturally resistant to blight, as any veg gardener or organic farmer will confirm.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6923
+ GM SPUDS REJECTED EVEN IN US!
Land agent Mark Griffiths points out, "Monsanto tried to introduce GM potatoes several years ago in the US. However, the consumer food market rejected them and they were withdrawn (yes, even in the US - it's a big jump from crops like GM soya and corn that go mainly into animal feed, to GM crops which are directly eaten by humans)." See Wall St Journal, 22 March 2001
http://www.genet-info.org/genet/2001/Mar/msg00058.html
+ FRIENDS OF THE EARTH COMMENTS ON GM SPUD APPLICATION
Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner Liz Wright said about BASF's GM potato application:
"Consumers in the UK and Europe have made it clear that they do not want to eat GM food. Rather than wasting money on GM crops that will have no market in Europe, the industry should be looking for more sustainable ways to solve problems in farming.
"The US rice contamination scandal, where an experimental crop not approved for human consumption was able to contaminate food supplies, shows that the biotech industry cannot be trusted to keep their experimental GM crops out of our food. The Government must reject this application and prevent any GM crops from being grown in the UK until it can guarantee that they won't contaminate our food, farming and environment."
The UK Government is currently holding a public consultation to determine what rules will be needed to grow GM crops commercially in England. It is not proposing any separation distances for potatoes and any measures to prevent GM contamination will be left to a voluntary code of practice. Friends of the Earth is urging people to respond to the Government's consultation at www.stopgmcontamination.org
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6926
+ PROTEST AGAINST GM SPUD TRIALS
Please lobby the British Potato Council - the main promoter of the UK potato industry - and maybe threaten to avoid buying all UK potatoes if trials go ahead. Names and addresses are at:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6926
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ASIA
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+ FIELD TRIAL OF BT BRINJAL HANGS IN BALANCE
The fate of proposed large scale field trials of Bt brinjal hangs in the balance as the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is yet to resolve the issue of the reported cases of sheep mortality on account of grazing over Bt cotton fields in Warangal district in Andhra Pradesh.
An official of the GEAC, which met recently, said, "We could not resolve the issue as factual reports and post-mortem studies from the state government are awaited. We have also asked the department of biotechnology to conduct animal toxicity study for Bt cotton leaves and seeds."
The shepherds and the shepherds' union leaders have recorded their testimony which shows that sheep mortality was due to grazing over Bt cotton fields. The local veterinary surgeon has found that 11 out of 45 mortality cases between January and April were linked to grazing over Bt cotton fields and Bt poisoning.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6909
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ JENNIFER THOMSON JOINS NUKES FIRM'S BOARD
Jennifer Thomson, darling of the GM-industry-supported lobby group AfricaBio, University of Cape Town microbiology professor, and zealous advocate of GMOs, has just joined the board of the South African nukes firm, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Company.
Dr David Fig, a South African sociologist, author of the book 'Uranium Road: Questioning South Africa's Nuclear Direction', and chairperson of Biowatch South Africa said, "Thomson's appointment comes as no surprise to anti-GM and anti-nuclear campaigners, who see strong similarities in the way the respective unsustainable technologies have been adopted in South Africa. Both technologies represent false paths for development here and further afield. Yet both technologies are supported by government which believes that they are integral to our economic growth. Both technologies are likely to leave a legacy of social misery and environmental degradation in their wake. They feed into corporate greed and abuse of our natural resources for narrow private gain at the expense of jobs and environmental security. Nuclear expansion in particular brings back the need for a "security state" which we thought we had jettisoned after apartheid.
"Thomson's acceptance of a position on the PBMR Co board is a further nail in the coffin of her scientific reputation. When asked why she felt the need to do this she responded, "anything to infuriate the greenies". Little does Thomson realise her own naivete will count against her in the long run, as even broader constituencies take note of her slavish support for technologies which rupture the path towards broad social and ecological justice."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6906
For more on Thomson see: 'Jennifer Thomson lying Down Under'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6859