MONTHLY REVIEW No. 56

Print
Details
=====================================================
GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 56
=====================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------
FROM REVIEW EDITOR, CLAIRE ROBINSON
------------------------------------------------------------

The Bush inspired "biofuel" boom has helped send grain prices skyrocketing, as well as triggering possible shortages that could expose billions to hunger worldwide, while leaving Monsanto and the agribiz giants laughing all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, GM promoters have seized on the crisis to talk up GM as the solution to all our woes. (LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL: HUNGER AND THE FOOD CRISIS)

Look out for some great QUOTES OF THE MONTH.

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org/www.lobbywatch.org

-----------------------------------------------------------
MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------

ATTACKS ON GM WATCH
SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS?
NEW LIST FOR GERMAN SPEAKERS
LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL: HUNGER AND THE FOOD CRISIS
HUNGER QUOTES OF THE MONTH
MORE QUOTES OF THE MONTH
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
ACTIONS OF THE MONTH
ROUNDUP
RESEARCH
HEALTH
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
GENETIC CROSSROADS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTACKS ON GM WATCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As many of you will know by now, the GM Watch website was recently targeted in a massive cyber attack that drove our site and our lists offline. This was just the latest in a series of damaging attacks that have been sustained against us for over a year. As a result, we have been forced to relocate our site and lists, which is what we are in the process of doing now.

We're already starting to get our lists going again - with some teething problems, see below - and have established a temporary website - www.gmwatch.eu, while we try to recover the GM Watch site.

The good news for the moment at least is that the LobbyWatch site is still up and running (with only its home page deleted in the attack) and you can access any gmwatch.org page (apart from those deleted in the attack!) by substituting 'lobby' for 'gm', eg you can find:
*the total gmwatch archive up to the attack at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive.asp
*the biotech brigade profiles at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile.asp?page=
*even the gmwatch home page
http://www.lobbywatch.org/default.html

We hope to provide more information about the attacks on GM Watch in the near future.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBSCRIPTION PROBLEMS?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the attacks on GM Watch, we've moved our activities to another web host with a strict anti-spam policy. As a result, we've had to ask all our subscribers to re-subscribe to our email lists. If you're reading this and have not already re-subscribed or would like to subscribe to any of our lists, please do as follows:

1. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. specifying which list you would like to subscribe to: daily (the busy one), weekly, monthly, or German-speaking.

2. You will be sent a Subscription Verification email. YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE LINK PROVIDED IN THAT EMAIL TO ACTIVATE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. If you do not do this, you will not receive our mails.

Unfortunately, we are finding that a number of people who want to subscribe are doing step 1 correctly and then not following up with step 2. We assume that this is because their web server spam filter or their own email spam filter is preventing the Subscription Verification email from reaching them. To avoid this, please whitelist the following GM Watch addresses in your email program: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In addition, please check your Junk or Spam Mailbox for our Subscription Verification email.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW LIST FOR GERMAN SPEAKERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

We now have a dedicated email list for German speakers to subscribe to. Subscribers will receive a German translation of our Monthly Review each month. To subscribe, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. specifying 'German-speaking' list.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL: HUNGER AND THE FOOD CRISIS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM FANTASISTS IN FULL SWING
No GM crops have been successfully engineered for increased yield, and the evidence points to reduced yields with GM crops - but the claim that GM is the answer to the current food crisis is being made constantly at the moment by GM supporters. Here is Simon Jenkins in The (London) Guardian last week, 'increased food productivity is so patently a good thing that to ban GM from European imports, and thus from Africa, is beyond perverse.' Jenkins also described GM as 'the swiftest path to higher productivity.' And here's Bill Emmott telling Telegraph readers that with GM, 'The era of cheap food does not have to be over. We have it within our power to bring it back'. He also claimed that GM cut down fertilizer use!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9006

+ EXPOSED: THE GREAT GM CROPS MYTH
A major new study shows that GM soya produces 10% less food than its conventional equivalent, undermining recent claims by the pro-GM lobby that a switch to the technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis brought on by agrofuels. The study - carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas - has found that Monsanto's GM soya produces about 10% less than its conventional equivalent. The new study confirms earlier research at the University of Nebraska. Both studies suggest it is probably the process of GM itself that suppresses productivity.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/exposed-the-great-gm-crops -myth-812179.html

+ THE CRAZY WORLD OF GM AND AGROFUELS
Who is to blame for the agrofuels fiasco and the calamitous resulting hike in the price of food? A number of opinion pieces have appeared that attempt to pin the blame on environmentalists. For example, an article in the Washington Post begins, 'George Bush and the greens, usually foes, have joined forces to create a food shortage that today threatens millions in poor countries with hunger and starvation. Greens have long demonized the consumption of petroleum and genetically modified foods, and crusaded against carbon.' In fact, the environmental movement warned against agrofuels and predicted the consequences of their widespread planting from the very start. GM Watch was publishing warnings about the dangers of the GM industry's promotion of so-called 'biofuels' as far back as 2005.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9005
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9002

+ 400 SCIENTISTS SAY GM CROPS NO ANSWER FOR HUNGER
The biggest study of its kind ever conducted - the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) - has concluded that GM is not the answer to world hunger. The IAASTD report was authored by over 400 scientists and signed onto by 60 governments. The lack of specific support for GM crops was based on a rigorous and peer-reviewed analysis of the empirical evidence. The report concluded: 'Assessment of the technology lags behind its development, information is anecdotal and contradictory, and uncertainty about possible benefits and damage is unavoidable'.

The report adds that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatens to increase worldwide malnutrition. The report also emphasises the importance for poor farmers of sustainable agriculture that is biodiversity-based, including agro-ecology and organic farming. The US, Canada and Australia refused to sign the report, despite being among the stakeholders who selected the report's authors. Although the UK has not yet signed, Bob Watson - Defra's chief scientist who has also independently chaired the IAASTD assessment process - seems confident it will.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8998
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8999
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9001
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9003
Key points in the report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/15/food.unitednations

+ ZAMBIAN GM-GENOCIDE MYTH RIDES AGAIN
An article in India's Financial Express resurrects the Zambian-GM-genocide urban myth, according to which rejection of GM food aid by the Zambian government in 2002 resulted in starvation. In fact, nobody died in Zambia when it rejected GM food. Non-GM food, which was readily available in the region, was provided instead. The Zambian Red Cross is unequivocal: 'We didn't record a single death arising out of hunger.' This article says millions died!!!
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Genes-as-the-solution/301640/

+ THE ANGRY HUNGRY   
A good article by Raj Patel says the food crisis is no 'silent tsunami' (as claimed by Josette Sheeran, head of the United Nations World Food Programme): the world's poor have been making a noise for decades, but the development industry hasn't been listening.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/raj_patel/2008/04/the_angry_hungry.html

+ GM LIVESTOCK FEED CON
According to GM promoters, livestock farmers in the EU are suffering high prices for livestock feed because of the EU's slow rate of GM approvals. It's curious then that US livestock farmers are also suffering the same price problems, including livestock farmers in Monsanto's home state of Missouri. The latter are complaining that a 10% ethanol target is triggering a 'livestock industry meltdown' by leading to higher feed prices.

And they're not just having problems in Missouri, Tyson's Foods - the huge US broiler conglomerate - has just announced a loss that's being blamed in part on high feed prices, while the USDA estimates that corn feed price increases added nearly 9 percent to the price of US beef last year. All of which shows, as British Green member of the European Parliament Caroline Lucas notes, that the attempt to establish a link between the rise in feed and EU rules on GMOs is 'completely false and disingenuous'.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/28/business/28tysons.php
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/042708/opinion_2008042700877.shtml   
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/04/27/analysis/

-----------------------------------------------------------
HUNGER QUOTES OF THE MONTH
-----------------------------------------------------------

'So, they finally figured out, after all these years of pushing globalization and genetically modified seeds, that instead of feeding the world we've created a food system that leaves more people hungry. If they'd listened to farmers instead of corporations, they would've known this was going to happen.'
- Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman, cited by John Nichols, 'The global food system feeds gluttonous corporations first', Philadelphia Enquirer
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20080427_The_global_food_system_feeds_gl uttonous_corporations_first.html

'The current global food system, designed by US-based agribusiness conglomerates like Cargill, Monsanto and ADM and forced into place by the U.S. government and its allies at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, has planted the seeds of disaster by pressuring farmers here and abroad to produce cash crops for export and alternative fuels rather than grow healthy food for local consumption and regional stability.'
- John Nichols, 'The global food system feeds gluttonous corporations first', Philadelphia Enquirer
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20080427_The_global_food_system_feeds_gl uttonous_corporations_first.html

'The IAASTD last week concluded that "data on some GM crops indicate highly variable yield gains in some places and declines in others". The door was left open, on the basis that it would be unwise to rule out GM crops for the future, but as the charity Practical Action commented, "the report rightly concludes that small-scale farmers and ecological methods provide the way forward to avert the current food crisis". It's time many science policy-makers started eating GM humble pie, and urgent questions must now be raised about the lessons they have drawn from the GMO debate.'
- Dr. Tom Wakeford, 'The public is proved right: GM crops are no panacea', The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/30/gmcrops.food

'We've had 10 years and, I suspect, tens of millions of pounds, promoting transgenic crops as a solution for world hunger and sustainable agriculture - in the face of the balance of scientific evidence.
...I wonder how many hunger-related deaths in developing countries could have been avoided if science policy-makers had applied this philosophy [of taking public concern seriously] to GM crops 10 years ago?'
- Dr. Tom Wakeford, 'The public is proved right: GM crops are no panacea', The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/30/gmcrops.food

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MORE QUOTES OF THE MONTH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

'There are still a disquieting number of contemporary voices suggesting that all is is not well with science journalism. "Science in the daily media is too often reported in the same deferential way as political journalists used to report politics in the 1950s," says Jonathan Leake, science and environment editor at the Sunday Times. "Many of the tensions, rows and skulduggery in the science community get far less attention than they would in business or politics."'
- Iain Hollingshead, 'Science friction', The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/28/dailytelegraph.pressandpublishing

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORPORATE TAKEOVER
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ MONSANTO'S HARVEST OF FEAR
An excellent article in Vanity Fair examines Monsanto's persecution of small farmers through ruthless legal battles, as well as its decades-long history of toxic contamination. The article looks at the shocking case of store-owner Gary Rinehart, who was threatened in front of his customers by an aggressive private snoop working for Monsanto. The snoop claimed Rinehart had planted Monsanto's GM soybeans in violation of the company's patent. Better come clean and settle with Monsanto, the man reportedly told Rinehart - or face the consequences. The problem was that Rinehart was not a farmer and had not planted any soybeans! The article also tells the stories of other farmers who were pursued through the courts by Monsanto. It should be required reading for all politicians who claim GMOs give farmers 'choice'._
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8955

+ MONSANTO HARRASSES FARMERS, SEED CLEANER
David and Dawn Runyon of Indiana are the some of the latest farmers to be sued by Monsanto for alleged patent infringement - in spite of the fact that they say they've never planted Monsanto's GM crops or signed any agreement with the company. Monsanto has since stopped its legal action against the Runyons, but 74-year-old seed cleaner Mo Parr was not so lucky. Monsanto sued him, claiming he was 'aiding and abetting' farmers, helping them to violate the patent. 'There's no way that I could be held responsible,' Parr said. 'There's no way that I could look at a soy bean and tell you if it's Round-up Ready.' The company subpoenaed Parr's bank records, without his knowledge, and found his customers. After receiving calls from Monsanto, some of them stopped talking to him. 'It really broke my heart,' Parr said. 'You know, I could hardly hold a cup of coffee that morning.'
http://www.mail-gateway.co.uk:32000/mail/

+ FARM BROADCASTER OUSTED AFTER RIPPING MONSANTO'S GOONS
Learfield Communications, The Jefferson City, Missouri based broadcaster whose news programming is heard throughout the farm belt has parted company with one of its co-founders, Derry Brownfield and his daily call-in show called The Common Sense Coalition. Monsanto happens to be a big advertiser of the Learfield news division - to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Brownfield happens to detest the company's policies of enforcing its seed patents against farmers. Prior to losing his show Brownfield quoted from a newly published Vanity Fair article, see above, which reports the experience of US farmers at the hands of what they call the 'seed police', using words such as 'Gestapo' and 'Mafia' to describe their tactics. The co-founder of Learfield Communications admits that it was the Monsanto that led to Brownfield being pushed out.
http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/monsanto043008.htm

+ MONSANTO DOUBLES THE PRICE OF ROUNDUP
A decade after Monsanto introduced GM seed that made crops immune to Roundup, the price of the herbicide has doubled in the last year. Monsanto's profit on corn seed has also doubled.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8957

+ WHAT DRIVES MONSANTO' S PROFITS?
GM Watch comment: Monsanto is still massively benefiting from the US's ethanol corn boom, triggered by George W. Bush's programme of subsidies for ethanol production, and its knock-on effects. And as corn seed sales have boomed so has the demand for the herbicide Roundup, heavily used on all Monsanto's Roundup Ready varieties. On top of the increased sales has come massive price hikes from Monsanto to exploit not just the rising demand but the rising price of corn and other commodities triggered by the diversion of crops to ethanol/'biofuel' production, which has dramatically depleted global stockpiles. This has hit food production, pushing food prices to record highs with potentially disastrous consequences for the world's poor. When you add on to that the environmentally damaging impacts of most agrofuels, including ethanol, then it becomes clear what Monsanto's record profits are built on - subsidies, environmental devastation and pushing the poor to the wall.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8957
Craig Sams' comment: Prof Neil Harl predicted every detail of this unfolding legalised robbery way back in 1998 ... He was explaining why companies like Monsanto were paying silly prices, several times over market value, to get control of key seed companies and their germplasm - it was to be in the monopoly position now where, as soon as corn prices go up, they raise the price of Roundup (and seed no doubt) in order to capture a larger share of the increased value. My cousin was one of the last holdouts against GM seed in his part of Iowa but eventually gave in as non-GM varieties were no longer available.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8960

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESISTANCE / BANS ON GM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ INDIA: FARMERS CONCLUDE 4000 KM MARCH AGAINST GM SEEDS
Nearly 150 farmers ended a rally in New Delhi after marching through five states opposing the government policy on GM seeds and seeking attention for the plight of peasant farmers in the country. The non-violent seed march started from Champaran in Bihar on 26 March and moved though Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

+ MASS PROTESTS IN INDIA AGAINST GM CROPS
In India, farmers' unions, consumer organizations, environmental groups, development organizations and concerned scientists have stepped up their protests against Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine), which is in its last year of trials before the expected commercial approval. An anti-GM protest is planned for Delhi on 6 May.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/gmProtestsIndia.php

+ PROTEST IN TAMIL NADU
Farmers staged a protest against GM field trials of Bt brinjal being conducted at Tamil Nadu Agriculture University in Coimbatore.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

+ INDIA: SUPREME COURT ORDER ON GM FOOD ITEMS 'A BREAKTHROUGH'
The interim order issued by the Supreme Court directing the government to publicise the results of trials on the safety of GM food items represents a breakthrough in the campaign for biosafety regulations in India, says geneticist Dr Suman Sahai.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

+ INDIA: ORDER ON GM FOOD IMPORTS DEFERRED
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has deferred a notification issued in August 2007 that allows the import of GM foods into India without its prior permission. The notification is significant in view of the opposition expressed against the import of GM foods whose biosafety is unproven.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

+ GM CROP BAN EXTENDED INDEFINIELY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9014

+ GREATER BENDIGO CITY DEFIES VICTORIA STATE GOVT - DECLARES ITSELF GM-FREE
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9014

+ GM CANOLA APPROVAL PROCESS CORRUPT
Greenpeace is calling on the Independent Commission Against Corruption to conduct an inquiry into the process behind the approval of growing GM canola in New South Wales. The call comes after it emerged that the committee set up to investigate whether GM canola should be grown in NSW was stacked with pro-GM advocates.
Take action: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8962

+ FARMERS MAY TAKE LEGAL ACTION OVER GM CANOLA_
The Network of Concerned Farmers is distributing letters to pro-GM farmers, warning them they'll face personal legal action to recover any losses caused by the introduction of GM seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8958

+ NEW ZEALAND: EUTHANIZE GM ANIMALS, DON'T CREATE MORE!
An application by AgResearch to trial many different GM animal types in its laboratories and farms is an ugly step in the wrong direction for brand New Zealand's clean green image, according to the Soil & Health Association. 'Kiwis don't want GE. Our export markets don't want GE. The GE trials we have already are being mismanaged. It is time to euthanize AgResearch's current GE cattle, not add a macabre zoo to their unnatural and unwanted experiment,' says Soil & Health spokesperson Steffan Browning.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8994

+ PORTUGUESE JUDICIAL POLICE CLASSIFY ANTI-GM ACTION AS TERRORIST ACT
The Portuguese judicial police have stated in their contribution to the 'EU terrorism situation and trend report' of Europol that last summer's partial destruction of a GM field in south Portugal is classified as an act of terrorism. No other European government has classified such actions in this way.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8992

+ FRANCE: 25,000 PROTESTERS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST GMOs_
Numerous demonstrations were held in cities across France prior to the opening of the debate in the French parliament on draft GM legislation. Around 25,000 people protested against GMOs in Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Avignon, Nancy and Lille.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8947

+ FRANCE: PRO-GM POLITICIANS 'CONTROLLED' BY MONSANTO
According to a leading member of the French parliament, Jean-Francois Legrand of the main political party in the National Assembly - the UMP, 'The power of Monsanto and other seed companies is phenomenal. You should have seen the violent reactions of Bernard Accoyer [president of the National Assembly] and others on the day after the opinion delivered by the Prefiguration Committee [which expressed 'serious doubts' about MON810 maize]. You only have to compare the arguments of both sides [pro-GM politicians and seed companies] - they're identical - to understand the origin of their anger. They are controlled. I have been approached by Monsanto, and I refused to talk to them. I want to remain free.'
Article in French:
http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences-et-environnement/article/2008/04/01/un-senateur-u mp-estime-que-des-parlementaires-pro-ogm-sont-actionnes-par-les-semenciers_10296 23_3244.html

+ 'MONSANTO GOLD' AWARD FOR IMBECILIC DEVOTION TO GM
French National Assembly member Bernard Debre has been awarded a 'Monsanto d'Or' by Greenpeace for all the stupid things he's said in support of GMOs.
http://www.greenpeace.org/france/news/greenpeace-remet-un-monsanto-d

+ BASF READY FOR LAWSUIT AGAINST EU
German chemical company BASF says it may take legal action against the European Commission if approval of its GM potato is not issued soon.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9009

+ GREECE EXTENDS GM BAN
Greece has renewed its ban on GM maize produced by Monsanto, expanding it to include 70 types of seed.

+ NETWORK FOR GM-FREE SWEDEN
A new website has been set up for people all over Sweden to exchange information and encourage communities to join the European Network for GM-free regions.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8946

+ THE BATTLE OVER GM CORN IN MEXICO
For over a year, farmers, scientists, and activists across Mexico have been mobilizing under the banner 'Without corn, there is no country'. The campaign has been organizing protests against the import of GM corn and in support of native varieties. Campesino and indigenous activists all over Mexico have vowed to keep fighting to do what no one else will: protect Mexico's corn, farmers, and indigenous peoples. 'Better to die fighting,' says indigenous-rights activist Don Serdan with tears in his eyes, 'than on our knees, begging for the food that we ourselves can produce.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8953

+ MONTVILLE: FIRST U.S. TOWN OUTSIDE OF OF CALIFORNIA TO BAN GM CROPS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8946

+ U.S.: FAMILY FARMERS RALLY IN THE STATE OF MONSANTO
One hundred and fifty family farmers gathered at Missouri's capitol to protect the rights of consumers to know how their food is produced. House and Senate Bill SB 1279 would ban labeling that enables consumers to know if their dairy products were produced using rBGH, a GM hormone that makes cows produce more milk. The bill is anti-farmer, anti-consumer and anti-business, said Rhonda Perry, a livestock and grain farmer from Howard County: 'Consumers have a right to know how their food is produced, and farmers have a right to tell them.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8951
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8956

+ U.S.: MONSANTO'S PLAN TO DENY CONSUMER CHOICE
Monsanto and its supporters are seeking to create a patchwork of state laws to prevent dairy manufacturers from labeling dairy products as free of rBGH. In fact, they want exactly the kind of patchwork of laws they previously said was totally unacceptable when they forced through legislation to pre-empt initiatives by local cities and counties to declare themselves GMO-free, says Ken Roseboro in The Organic & Non-GMO Report.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8956

+ GM-HORMONE-FREE DAIRY MAP_
http://www.sustainabletable.org/shop/dairymap/

+ COURT THROWS OUT GM GRASS APPEAL
A Federal Court of Appeals has tossed out the appeal of Scotts Grass Company, ending a long-running dispute over the US Dept of Agriculture's (USDA) approval of the open-air field testing of GM Roundup Ready grasses without assessing any potential environmental impacts. The GM grasses are owned by Scotts Grass Company using patents owned by Monsanto. In 2007 a federal district court ruled that the USDA's approvals of the tests were illegal because they did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), but Scotts appealed the decision.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/bentgrassPR3_19_08.cfm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACTIONS OF THE MONTH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ ASK EU COMMISSIONERS TO SAY NO TO GM POTATO AND PESTICIDAL MAIZE
Greenpeace International alerts us to an important vote on GMOs that is due to take place on 7 May in Brussels. The agrochemical industry wants to get EU permission to grow pesticide-producing maize plants and a GM potato. We want EU Commissioners to say NO when they discuss the applications on 7 May. Please write to all the European Commissioners this week:
http://www.email.greenpeace.org/wrdddppq_kssskmb.html?RECIPID=888904

+ LAST CHANCE TO SHUT THE DOOR ON GM HUMANS - PLEASE TAKE ACTION
British MPs will soon decide whether to allow scientists to start research on the ultimate step in genetic engineering: the creation of GM 'designer' human beings. In the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, now going through Parliament, the government wants to allow the creation of GM human embryos, as the first step towards developing safe technology for creating GM babies. The creation of GM babies is not just a hypothetical scenario: leading British scientists, such as Robert Winston and Ian Wilmut, have already patented techniques for doing this, including patenting human semen and embryos. If you care about the impact of GM on food and the environment, it makes no sense to be quiet about this.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
The bill is likely to be debated in the House of Commons in mid-May.
*Write to your MP letting them know your views on the government's plans. It's best to use your own words, but there is a sample letter at http://www.hgalert.org/Sample_letter.html
Please send copies of your messages to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
*Write to the minister responsible for the legislation: Dawn Primarolo MP, Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
*Support Human Genetic Alert's (http://www.hgalert.org) campaign: tell them what you have done, and, if possible, send a donation to help with the campaign.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9008

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ROUNDUP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ BEHIND THE LABEL - ROUNDUP
An excellent article in The Ecologist points out that when you buy a product such as Roundup you are buying into a host of other issues you may never had dreamed of - worldwide pesticide contamination, loss of biodiversity, increases in ill health and the support of GM crops.
EXCERPT: In 2002, French scientists found that Roundup activates one of the key stages of cellular division that can potentially lead to cancer. There is also research that shows that even brief exposure to glyphosate causes liver damage in rats. The research indicated that glyphosate acted in synergy with the surfactant used in Roundup to increase damage to the liver. The label of Fast Action Roundup weedkiller claims it biodegrades leaving no soil residues. What actually happens is that glyphosate attaches itself, rather like a magnet, to minerals in the soil and remains more or less in situ until the soil is moved - by heavy rain, for instance. That is when the glyphosate can move into water supplies and have a more widespread environmental impact. In April 2005, work by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh, US, suggested that Roundup is lethal to lifeforms other than plants - in this case amphibians. In an extensive study on the effects of pesticides on these 'non-target' organisms in a natural setting, the researchers found that Roundup caused a 70 per cent decline in amphibian biodiversity and an 86 per cent decline in the total mass of tadpoles. Leopard frog tadpoles and gray tree frog tadpoles were nearly eliminated by exposure to the herbicide.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9007

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESEARCH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ GM SEEDS CAN 'LAST FOR 10 YEARS'
Seeds of some GM crops can persist in soil for at least 10 years, scientists have discovered. Researchers in Sweden examined a field that had been planted with experimental oilseed rape (canola) a decade ago, and found transgenic specimens were still growing there. This was despite intensive efforts in the intervening years to remove seeds. Prof Mark Westoby, a plant ecologist from Macquarie University in Australia, said, 'This study confirms that GM crops are difficult to confine. We should assume that GM organisms cannot be confined, and ask instead what will become of them when they escape.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8950

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEALTH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ ILL EFFECTS OF BT COTTON
Reports have emerged in India that over the last 4-5 years, milk from farm animals fed on Bt cotton seeds has proved toxic for humans as well as the farm animals. Dr Sudhir Kumar Kaura, a biotechnologist and coordinator of farmers' group Kisan Bachao Andolan, led a team that conducted extensive scientific field studies. The team told the press that ill effects of Bt cotton on human and farm animal health can now be seen in rural as well as urban areas. Bt cotton is said to have caused untimely deaths, decline in milk quantity and quality, serious reproductive failures and pseudo-pregnancy in thousands of farm animals.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9000

+ NEW PAMPHLET ON GM HEALTH RISKS
The Institute for Responsible Technology has produced a simple and accessible pamphlet on the health risks of GMOs. To view a pdf, go to:
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showDocumentFile?objectID=140

+ MORGELLONS DISEASE MAY BE LINKED TO GM FOOD
http://www.naturalnews.com/023004.html
'Agrobacterium and Morgellons Disease, A GM Connection?'
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/agrobacteriumAndMorgellons.php
Centers for Disease Control opens investigation into Morgellon's:
http://www.cdc.gov/unexplaineddermopathy/general_info.html

+ CALIFORNIANS TO BE SPRAYED WITH INSECTICIDE
Over the years, GM Watch has often reported cases of people - often in developing countries out of the sight of the affluent world - suffering ill health from the aerial spraying of pesticides. Now, some of our subscribers in the US have alerted us to the State of California's plan to spray 7.5 million Californians with a toxic mist over 9 months of the year for the next 3 to 10 years - at a cost of USD74 million. The spray programme is aimed at eradicating the light brown apple moth, a pest that has long been controlled in New Zealand by low-tech integrated pest management methods. The first spraying in California in 2007 of Suterra's 'CheckMate', a synthetic pheromone mixed with so-called 'inert' ingredients that include an isocyanate, led to 643 reports of illness. But media reports allegedly ignored the problem of health effects.
http://www.stopthespraymarin.org/lbam.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ NEW WEBSITE LAYS BARE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF GM
The Nature Institute has unveiled a new website designed to set the public debate about GM upon a more accessible scientific foundation. Distilling a voluminous technical literature, the website gathers together information about both the intended and unintended consequences of transgenic experiments. The website is at http://nontarget.org
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=9012

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENETIC CROSSROADS
Center for Genetics and Society
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ FIRST BRITISH HUMAN-ANIMAL HYBRID EMBRYOS CREATED BY SCIENTISTS
Cloning techniques using animal eggs produce 32-cell embryos.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4003

+ SHOULD BIOTECH PIGGY GO TO MARKET?
Consumer advocates worry that the FDA is throwing open the barn door too quickly to GM animals.
http://geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3997

+ SO YOU THINK YOU OWN YOUR BODY?
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
"No human should ever be reduced to the sum of their body parts."
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4057

+ CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ON FEDERAL STEM CELL COMMITTEE
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
Almost half the members of the federal government's panel that develops recommendations regarding blood stem cells have conflicts of interest.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4054

+ SEX SELECTION: ON SALE HERE
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
A discount offer - on an ethically sketchy and unnecessary invasive procedure.
http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4052

+ STATE PROBES 6 ONLINE DNA-TESTING FIRMS
by Victoria Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle
The California Department of Public Health is investigating consumer complaints against at least six online companies that conduct direct-to-consumer genetic testing.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4051