from Claire Robinson, editor
============================================================

Dear all:

A new report reveals how Bt cotton is marketed in India on the basis of lies so blatant that they would be funny if they didn't have such tragic consequences (ASIA).

In Europe and Australia, a chorus of industry-generated propaganda is chanting the latest line on why we have to accept GM: it's too expensive to avoid it! If there is any truth in this claim, then the bill must be paid by those who caused the problem - the industry (AUSTRALASIA; LOBBYWATCH).

Finally, 'scientists' in America have managed to lose three bubonic plague-infected GM mice but - guess what? - there's no need to worry (THE OTHER TERRORISTS).

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASIA
LOBBYWATCH
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
WTO
THE OTHER TERRORISTS
RESEARCH
COMPANY NEWS
B-LIAR

------------------------------------------------------------
ASIA
------------------------------------------------------------

+ PHILIPPINES: FARMERS UPROOT BT CORN
Backed by the municipal government, 15 Philippines farmers have decontaminated a farm planted to GM Bt corn. The farmers were upholding a provincial ban on GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5735

+ INDIA: FARMERS DEMAND BAN ON BT COTTON
Leading farmers' organisations have demanded a ban on Bt cotton and a moratorium on any further approval of GM crops for commercial cultivation. Among the organisations to call for a ban is the farmers' organisation of the ruling Congress Party (BKS). http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5762

+ INDIA: BT COTTON MARKETED ON LIES
A new report, "The Marketing of Bt cotton in India: Aggressive, Unscrupulous and False", explodes Monsanto's claims that its achieving higher Bt cotton seed sales in India off the back of the success of its scientifically-based technology.

Investigations reveal a very different story. The report shows that Monsanto's Indian subsidiary, Monsanto-Mahyco, and its sub-licensee Bt Cotton seed companies, have been pulling every dirty trick in the PR book in order to lure India's poor farmers into using GM cotton.

Quite apart from chronicling the use of everything from Bollywood stars to dancing girls to hype Bt cotton, here are just a few of the outright lies the report exposes.

FAKE FARMERS: Posters in Madhya Pradesh featured a farmer who claimed to have gained great benefits from using Bt Cotton seed. He turned out to be a vendor of betel leaves and cigarettes who had never grown Bt cotton in his life!

FAKE YIELDS: Other posters featured Ravinder Narain, a farmer who was said to have obtained a yield of 20 quintals per acre of Bt Cotton. Investigations revealed Narain got only 5 quintals per acre. He is disgusted that the company is misusing the photos they took of him.

FAKE BENEFITS: A farmer called Pyarelal Patidaar is also unhappy with the fact his photo appears on posters extolling the virtues of Bt Cotton - "I said do not put my photo because I do not think that Bt Cotton is better than other varieties - however, they did not listen to me", he explains.

Another farmer was featured proudly displaying a tractor on a poster that suggested that he had been able to buy it after using Bt Cotton. He says that with the yields he got from Bt Cotton, "I would not be able to buy even two tractor tyres", let alone the tractor he bought with a private loan.

This picture appears on a poster called "TRUE STORIES OF FARMERS WHO HAVE SOWN BT COTTON"!

The report (incl. pics) can be downloaded online:
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/press/reports/marketing-of-bt-cotton-in-indi
For GM Watch's summary of the report, see:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5741

+ INDIA: OUTSOURCING RISK!
Dr Vandana Shiva points out how at a time when the negative experience with GM crops in India should be leading to a strengthening of biosafety regulation, the Government's strategy is calling for a total deregulation of biotechnology.

"This is a strategy to avoid risk assessment; and hence a strategy for deregulation of the biotechnology industry in India and outsourcing genetic pollution and health risks to India's ecosystem and the Indian public."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5764

+ HALT DANGEROUS GM RICE TRIAL, SAY SCIENTISTS
The Independent Science Panel has written a letter to the Niigata Prefecture in Japan in support of the concerns of the senior Japanese microbiologist Dr. Takahiro Kanagawa and of the legal action taken by 12 Japanese farmers seeking to halt the trial of GM rice producing anti-microbial peptides.

The ISP warns: "Anti-microbial peptides provide the first line of defence against invading microbes in both plants and animals... The evolution of resistance to antimicrobial peptides will severely compromise both the natural defence of the human immune system against disease and the possibilities of effective therapies emerging in the wake of the disaster of widespread antibiotic resistance. As versions of the peptides also provide defence against pathogens in other animals and plants, the ecological impact of resistant pathogens could be devastating."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5744

+ BRUTAL ATTACK ON PEASANT FARMERS BY INDONESIAN MILITARY
On 18 September, Indonesian police forces violently dispersed a peaceful gathering of about 1000 peasants in Tanah Awuk village in central Lombok, Indonesia. For a report on what occurred:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5759
While the gathering was not related to GM, it is a reminder of the extraordinary way in which Monsanto's GM seed was first brought into Indonesia with the Indonesian military riding shotgun for Monsanto.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOBBYWATCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ LEADER OF FDA QUITS - BIO ENTHUSES OVER REPLACEMENT
Lester M. Crawford, the commissioner of food and drugs, resigned abruptly on Friday, causing further upheaval at an agency that's already in turmoil.

The president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization immediately welcomed Bush's appointment of Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach as Crawfrord's successor, as an "excellent choice".

A pal of Bush's and an extreme techophile, von Eschenbach was largely unknown to the biomedical research community until his previous Bush-appointment as director of the National Cancer Institute.

What impact von Eschenbach has on the currently troubled FDA remains to be seen. "As currently configured," the FDA senior drug safety researcher, Dr. David Graham, said recently, "the FDA is not able to adequately protect the American public. It's more interested in protecting the interests of industry."

While head of the NCI, von Eschenbach faced accusations of "meeting behind closed doors with a representative of the drug industry to influence drug approval policy and to change the product liability laws" in a direction that did not safeguard the interests of patients.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5765

+ GROUPS ALIGNED WITH BIG BUSINESS ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND GMOS
The UK Independent has published an excellent article on the most influential "third-party" lobby groups on climate change, who, under the guise of seeming independence, try to cast doubt on the science confirming global warming and lobby governments to take no action. In fact, these groups have close ties to industry, which they often do not declare. The article features many groups which also lobby for GM, including the Scientific Alliance, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Congress Of Racial Equality, on all of whom GM WATCH carries detailed profiles.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5750

+ INDUSTRY-FUNDED REPORT SAYS GM AVOIDANCE TO BECOME MORE EXPENSIVE
A new report, which argues that "GM food avoidance policies" will become more expensive for farmers and the food industry, was commissioned by Agricultural Biotechnology in Europe (ABE), which is described by the report's authors as "a pan-European communications programme aimed at providing factual and science-based information about agricultural biotechnology". In fact, ABE is a biotech industry lobby group whose members include Bayer CropScience, BASF, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta.
More: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5760

+ ATTACK ON JOHN VIDAL AND THE GUARDIAN
Dean Kleckner, chairman of pro-industry lobby group Truth About Trade & Technology, has attacked Guardian columnist John Vidal on the lobby group's website. Kleckner writes: "Just when you thought the enemies of biotechnology couldn't sink any lower, they somehow manage to explore new depths of depravity... Mr. Vidal's words are a full-frontal attack on American agriculture."

Vidal's crime was to describe what he called Hurricane Katrina's "silver lining": that most GM soy and maize animal feed goes through New Orleans and Destrehan, and nothing was expected out for some time because of the hurricane. Vidal wrote: "This should cheer up anti-GM activists in Britain..."

Kleckner is asking all his pals to write in and complain to the Guardian about Vidal.

This is not the first time that Kleckner has sought to emote over a tragedy in order to exploit it. Kleckner once complained about having "to endure the agonizing experience of watching millions of Africans starve because their political leaders can't make reasonable and humane decisions."

The context of this remark was the refusal of some African leaders to accept GM grain as food aid. However, despite Kleckner's statement, there is no evidence that anyone has starved because of concern over GM contamination!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5731

------------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALASIA
------------------------------------------------------------

+ NO BENEFITS TO FARMERS IN GOING GM
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) has put out a ridiculous article called, "Transgenic crops: welfare implications for Australia", which has generated attention-grabbing headlines such as "GM crop bans to cost up to $6b: ABARE".

ABARE has deduced this massive loss by taking Australia's entire crop output (including wheat) and saying 5-10% of that figure is what is being lost by not going GM.

As the Network of Concerned Farmers points, it should be simple maths to calculate the fact that GM canola - the only GM crop under discussion - yields less in Australia, costs more and will cause market rejection. All of which adds up to a serious potential loss for Australia's farming industry if GM canola is introduced, rather than the claimed multi-billion dollar gain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5739

+ ERADICATE TRIAL SITES - STOP GM CONTAMINATION
Australia's National Variety Trials must be destroyed because genetic contamination has been discovered on 35 Australian farms involved in the canola trials, says JeremyTager of Greenpeace.

But in addition, Tager says, "we must deal with the underlying problems that have allowed this massive contamination to occur. It is unbelievable that seed companies and importers such as Cargill would allow distribution of seeds into GE free states without certifying that those seeds are free of GE, particularly when the seeds are sourced from the heavily contaminated seed markets of North America."

Tager's recommendations are: "Eradicate the trial sites, ensure no ongoing contamination and close the door to contaminated seed imports."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5748

------------------------------------------------------------
THE AMERICAS
------------------------------------------------------------

+ CANADIAN FARMERS CALL FOR END TO APPROVALS OF ROUNDUP READY CROPS
Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU) is calling for an immediate stop to approvals of glyphosate-resistant (Roundup Ready) crops, and a re-evaluation of those approvals of glyphosate-resistant varieties already on the market, in the light of research showing that glyphosate-resistant crops are contributing to the spread of a major fungal disease (fusarium head blight) which is costing western Canadian farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost yields and markets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5751

+ CANADIAN FARMERS' LEADER SAYS GMOs NOT SILVER BULLET
Danny Hendricken, district director of Canada's National Farmers Union, writes in The Charlottetown Guardian that "GMOs are not the silver bullet we are seeking to reverse or resolve the problems associated with industrial agriculture (soil degradation and unacceptable low farm incomes, to mention a few)."

Hendricken says it is important to remember that "no commercially grown crop has been genetically modified for higher yield" and that there is no evidence that GM seeds increase yields, either directly or indirectly.

Hendricken notes that in the U.S., the most recent look at the question of pesticide use finds that since 1996 "GE crops ... have increased corn, soybean, and cotton pesticide use by 122.4 million pounds, or about four per cent." Further, the rate of increase is increasing - peaking at over 16 per cent in 2004.

His conclusion? "We are turning control of our seed supply over to a tiny number of global transnationals, in return, it is implied, for the benefits of the seeds that they will produce. But since such benefits are nearly absent, we may want to reconsider our bargain."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5763

+ NO GMOs FOR U.S. MILITARY
Arcadia Biosciences has won a $2.9 million U.S. Department of Defense contract to develop tomatoes and lettuce for the military that can survive the rigors of long-distance sea shipping.

The Sac Bee reports, "Arcadia aims to break through without the controversies attendant to genetic engineering. 'It's non-GMO,' said Eric J. Rey, Arcadia president and chief executive officer."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5746

+ INVESTIGATION CONFIRMS GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT PIGWEED
Dr Stanley Culpepper, a University of Georgia weed scientist, and Monsanto have determined that Palmer amaranth (Palmer pigweed) at specific sites in central Georgia is resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup agricultural herbicides.

What's so significant about this admission from Monsanto is that pigweed is considered one of the toughest herbicide-resistant weeds to deal with, and palmer pigweed can be especially tough.

Up till now Monsanto's Roundup was seen as a particularly effective means of dealing with palmer pigweed. Indeed, this was one of the selling points of Roundup Ready crops.

In an article published two years ago, Delta Farm Press reported that for the Arkansas extension weed scientist, Ken Smith, who had just found marestail that was proving resistant to Roundup, resistant pigweed was "what really scares Smith."

Smith was quoted as saying that while resistant marestail "will be a real inconvenience and will cost extra money to manage", if pigweed ever became resistant, it would revolutionize how people farm.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5756

+ MORE ROUNDUP-RESISTANT PIGWEED
News has emerged from Monsanto's home state of Missouri of another type of pigweed proving resistant - common waterhemp.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5761

+ STARLINK FIASCO CONTINUES
This week saw the fifth anniversary of the Starlink fiasco when GM contamination led to a massive recall of over 300 food brands. 3 years after the fiasco started the US government was still finding the illegal GM corn variety in more than 1% of samples tested. And earlier this year StarLink was found contaminating food aid sent to Central America. For reflections on the lesions of the Starlink fiasco and recent incidents of GM contamination go to:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4916

+ "DON'T MESS WITH THE RICE"
Winona LaDuke, who was Ralph Nader's Green Party running mate during the 1996 presidential race, is an outspoken advocate of a ban on genetically modified wild rice in Minnesota. LaDuke heads the non-profit White Earth Land Recovery Project, an organization she formed in 1989 to help revive Ojibwe culture and buy back land for preservation and communal use.

"We're saying nobody has a right to destroy the genetic infrastructure, or the genetic makeup of a natural resource in the state of Minnesota, because the reality is if they plant a genetically engineered wild rice crop in a test field here over by Grand Rapids, it will contaminate," she said.

"We drew a line," LaDuke said, referring to the unified opposition among Ojibwe tribes to genetically modified wild rice. "Just don't mess with the rice."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5736

+ PLANTING GM COTTON IN BRAZIL STILL ILLEGAL - DESPITE THE HYPE!
Hyped as a major GM breakthrough for Monsanto in Brazil, the "legalisation" of GM cotton for the coming year turns out to be pure hype. According to an article for the Polaris Institute, "Monsanto confirmed the delay and declared: 'we are not going to be able to commercialize varieties adapted to Brazilian conditions for several years.'"

Lawyers are claiming that any importer which attempts to commercialize GM cotton in Brazil could be charged. Cotton producers that plant GM cotton would face similar criminal charges."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5753

+ MONSANTO, DOW ATTACK ACADEMICS AND PEER REVIEW
Monsanto is one of twenty of the biggest chemical companies in the US who have launched a campaign to discredit two historians who have studied the industry's efforts to conceal links between their products and cancer. Blanche Wiesen Cook, Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York calls the companies' actions in going after peer reviewers of the historians work: "harassment to silence independent research" and an effort to create "a chilling effect on folks who tell the truth."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5740

------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPE
------------------------------------------------------------

+ EU GOVERNMENTS BLOCK MONSANTO CORN
A committee of EU national experts blocked approval of a Monsanto GM corn variety for animal feed, passing the dossier on to ministers for further consideration. Monsanto's hybrid MON863 x MON810, altered to provide resistance to corn pests, failed to win over a majority of representatives from the EU's 25 governments.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5742

+ GREENPEACE 13 ACQUITTED IN GM TRIAL
A jury at Cardiff Crown Court has cleared 13 Greenpeace volunteers of causing a public nuisance after a two-week trial.

The 13 were tried on charges relating to a protest last June when Greenpeace blocked the ship MV Etoile from unloading its cargo in Bristol. The Etoile's huge consignment - GM animal feed from the US - was destined to be fed to British dairy cows to produce milk for the UK's biggest supermarkets. Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons all sell own-brand milk from cows fed on American GM feed.

Greenpeace can now reveal that tests on imports of American GM maize coming into Bristol contained unauthorised illegal GMOs. The varieties were banned in Europe, but were found by expert laboratory analysts in samples taken from ships over the last two years, both before and after the shipment that the 13 have been acquitted for blocking.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5734
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5732

+ FRENCH FARMER ON TRIAL FOR DESTROYING GM CROP
France's best-known farmer, Jose Bove, was greeted by applause as he and eight others entered a courthouse to stand trial for ripping up a field of GM corn. Bove and the other defendants face prison terms and fines if convicted of uprooting a crop in July 2004 that belonged to U.S. seed company which is a subsidiary of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DD).

Bove, as a repeat offender, faces a 10-year prison term and EUR150,000 fine. The eight other defendants each face five years in prison and a EUR75,000 fine.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5745

+ MONSANTO'S ILLEGAL GM ZUCCHINI IN GERMANY
Seminis, a vegetable seed company owned by Monsanto, has admitted that GMO zucchini (courgettes) have been planted in Germany. Apparently the company has destroyed the crop. Earlier this year Seminis was bought by Monsanto.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5738

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFRICA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ JEFFREY SMITH IN AFRICA
Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, is in South Africa on a mission to expose the dangers of GM food. "Laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven out of 40 died in two weeks. Despite this, the crop was approved without further testing," said Smith, warning that Africa's leaders should look critically at research presented by those in the biotech industry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5743

+ SOUTH AFRICA'S ATTITUDE TO GM FOODS "UNBELIEVABLE"
It was "simply unbelievable" that the South African government had allowed maize, a staple food, to be genetically modified to contain a poison. It was clear the government had no idea of the risk this posed to the population, author Jeffrey Smith is reported as saying.

"Maize has been genetically engineered with a poison designed to kill pests. What impact is there on human health from eating a pesticide? In the US it is simply assumed the pesticide is safe. But mice fed on it developed an immune response equivalent to that of cholera. And this is being put into mielie meal, which is a huge percentage of the diet here. In the US people get only 3% to 5% of their calorific intake from maize," Smith said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5755

+ SOUTH AFRICAN FARMERS USE MONSANTO'S GM CATTLE DRUG
While Monsanto's GM cattle drug rBST has been banned in Canada and the European Union, South African dairy farmers still use it, and about two million doses of the hormone are sold annually. The hormone rBST - known as "crack for cows" - is being injected into cattle whose milk could contain hormones responsible for cancerous cell growth in human tissue.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5757

+ UGANDAN FARMERS OPPOSE GMOs AND TERMINATOR
A network of Eastern Ugandan civil society organisations including farmers' organisations, community based organisations, and non-governmental organisations, called the Food Rights Network (FORINET), have stated their opposition to GMOs and sterile "Terminator" technology.
For more, and to TAKE ACTION to stop Terminator:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5758

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
WTO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ WTO BACKGROUNDER
In the next month, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is scheduled to rule on a highly anticipated case that will directly impact how countries around the world regulate GM crops and food. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has outlined the key issues in a new backgrounder on the trade dispute between the primary plaintiff, the United States (joined by Canada and Argentina), and the European Communities (EC). The backgrounder can be found at: www.iatp.org.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5729

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE OTHER TERRORISTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

+ "NO NEED TO WORRY" AS NEW JERSEY LAB LOSES THREE PLAGUE-RIDDEN MICE
Three mice infected with bubonic plague have been reported missing from a New Jersey bioterrorism research lab. David Perlin, president and scientific director of the institute said that the mice were probably eaten by their cagemates.

Their disappearance has triggered a federal investigation. Although what happened to the mice is not definitely known, officials said there was no reason for the public to worry about a spread of the disease that killed millions of people during the Middle Ages.

The GM mice were among 24 being used in a trial of an experimental plague vaccine at the Public Health Research Institute on the campus of the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5730
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5728

+ HOW BUSH'S BIOWEAPONS BUILDUP AFFECTS YOU
EXCERPT from excellent article:
News that a US company recently sent vials of a 1957 pandemic flu strain to laboratories across the world by accident is only the latest outrage from the billion-dollar boondoggle called the federal biological weapons program. As you might recall, the Bush administration started its "biodefense" spending spree following the September 2001 deadly anthrax attacks, and one of its first projects was to genetically engineer a super-resistant, even more deadly version of the anthrax virus.

Our leaders are nuts.

... In February 2003... the University of California at Davis (UCD) took a full ten days to inform nearby communities that a rhesus monkey had escaped from its primate-breeding facility. Coincidentally, UCD had been vying for government funds to set up its own "hot zone" biodefense lab which could use primates for biological weapons testing. If that monkey had been infected with ebola, or some other virus, it's unclear when or if the public would have been informed.

At roughly the same time that the monkey ditched UCD, the Pentagon unearthed over 2,000 tons of hazardous biological waste in Maryland, much of it undocumented leftovers of an abandoned germ warfare program. Nearby, the FBI was draining a pond for clues into 2001's anthrax attacks.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5728

+ HUNDREDS MORE GM PIGS IN US FOOD SUPPLY
The genetic engineer's garbage can: the US food supply. When nearly 400 pigs used in US bioengineering research apparently entered the food supply, the FDA said "it could not verify the researchers' claim [that the pigs weren't dangerous] because they failed to keep enough records..."

Here are some more missing GM pigs from the same report:

"One year ago, several genetically altered pigs ended up in Canadian poultry feed. Researchers at the University of Guelph in southern Ontario discovered 11 dead piglets were mistakenly sent to a rendering plant and ground into poultry feed."

The year before that we had:
"Tainted pork from genetically altered pigs stolen from the University of Florida showed up in sausage served at a funeral in High Springs, university police said. The stolen pigs were genetically engineered to develop a disorder similar to diabetic blindness in humans. University officials do not know what effect, if any, the treated meat could have on people who eat it.

"The pig incident is one in a series of missteps at the university's Animal Resources department which oversees the treatment of biomedical research animals."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5728

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

+ BT MAIZE HAS HIGH LEVELS OF LIGNIN
In November 1999 New Scientist reported that "Researchers in the US have found that Monsanto's herbicide-resistant soya beans are cracking up in the heat. When grown in hot climates, genetic alterations to the plant seem to cause the stems to split open causing crop losses of up to 40 per cent.... [Bill Vencill of the University of Georgia] suspects that the phenomenon is the result of changes in plant physiology caused by the addition of genes making the beans resistant to glyphosate, the herbicide marketed as Roundup by Monsanto. Plants carrying these genetic alterations have been shown to produce up to 20 per cent more lignin, the tough, woody form of cellulose."

Now new research has found that increased production of lignin also occurs in the stems of Bt GM maize plants, even though they incorporate a different genetic modification to Roundup Ready soya (Journal of Environmental Quality 34:1508-1518 (2005)).

Although such crops are claimed to be thoroughly tested before commercialisation and to be 'substantially equivalent' to non-GM varieties, the difference in lignin content reported here has only been discovered nearly a decade after commercialisation.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5733

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-LIAR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Blair prepares to bestride the stage of his party conference, even those who thanks to the GM debate and Iraq are all too nauseatingly familiar with Blair's mendacity and his toadying to the US and to powerful vested interests, may be taken aback by the two following stories. And if you want to know who Rupert Murdoch defers to - see 'Monsanto and Fox: Partners in Censorship'
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1998Q2/foxbgh.html
or get the DVD of The Corporation. www.thecorporation.com (or via Amazon)

+ BLAIR ATTACKS BBC - AGAIN
Tony Blair told theAustralian-born newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch that he believes the BBC's coverage of Hurricane Katrina was "full of hatred of America and gloating". Addressing a conference of media figures in the US, Murdoch said the Prime Minister had told him he had been shocked at the way the BBC had handled the disaster.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5737
For how Murdoch handles the news, see the film OUTFOXED.
http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle4495-mode=thread.html

+ BLAIR GAVE MURDOCH "VETO" OVER EU, SAYS AID
Tony Blair promised Murdoch that he would be consulted on any change to Britain's policy towards Europe, according to a diary kept by a former Downing Street press officer. But the original entry in The Spin Doctor's Diary was toned down on the orders of the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus McDonald. The original entry described the atmosphere in No 10 as "very edgy" after pro-euro comments by the then Secretary of State for Trade, Peter Mandelson "because we have promised News International we won't make any changes to our Europe policy without talking to them."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5737