from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
This week we have a shocking report on an investigation into the deaths in sheep that grazed in Bt cotton fields in India (BT COTTON DEATHS). The investigation, typically, was carried out not by the Indian government, but by India's formidable NGOs and independent scientists.
With willful blindness, governments around the world are ignoring the evidence of harm and persisting with pushing new GM foods and crops onto the market (EUROPE, AUSTRALASIA, FOOD SAFETY).
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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BT COTTON DEATHS
FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
EUROPE
THE AMERICAS
AUSTRALASIA
VIDEO ONLINE
NANOTECHNOLOGY
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BT COTTON DEATHS
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+ INDIA: 1600 SHEEP DIE AFTER GRAZING IN BT COTTON FIELD
Sixteen hundred sheep died in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh after grazing in fields from which Bt cotton had been harvested. A survey conducted by a seven-member team of Centre for Sustainable agriculture working in Bt cotton issues found that the sheep started dying after continuously grazing on the leaves and pods of Bt cotton plant residues in the fields for seven days.
The symptoms did not correlate to any of the diseases occurring during the season, the study said. The team urged the government to carry out an exhaustive study of the impact of Bt toxin on livestock.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6499
+ REPORT ON DEATHS OF SHEEP AFTER GRAZING IN BT COTTON FIELDS
Following the high number of deaths in sheep that grazed in Bt cotton fields in Andhra Pradesh, India, a fact-finding team has compiled an excellent report, available at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494
As usual, the Indian government has done nothing about this scandal, and the fact-finding team was organized by AP Shepherds Union. The team included a veterinary scientist and two scientists from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
EXCERPT:
The mortality started to occur within a week of continuously grazing on Bt cotton crops-residue. The sheep grazed on the leaves (tender leaves) and pods of the Bt cotton plant residue in the fields. Mr J. Parmesh (20) suffered diarrhoea after consuming the affected sheep's meat.
The major symptoms as reported by the shepherds were:
1. Sheep became dull/depressed after 2-3 days post grazing 2. Cough with nasal discharge 3. Reddish and erosive lesions in the mouth 4. Bloat 5. Blackish diarrhoea 6. Sometimes red coloured urine 7. Death within 5-7 days of grazing on the Bt cotton fields.
Age affected: Within the flock the young lambs aged 3-4 months, as also the adults in the age group of 1.5-2 years were affected. ...
Some shepherds had also conducted their own post-mortems on the dead sheep (as is often the practice of shepherds in Andhra Pradesh). They observed black patches in the intestine and enlarged bile duct and black patches on the liver. The shepherds said that the Assistant Director, Animal Health Centre, Warangal, told them that these deaths appeared to be due to grazing of Bt cotton fields as she has earlier seen such cases.
READ THE FULL REPORT.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6494
Dr Maewan Ho comments on the story and points out that the Institute of Science in Society reported similar illnesses and deaths among villagers in the Philippines linked to exposure to Bt maize since 2003:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6505
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ GM FOOD ALERT AS MORE ILLNESSES LINKED TO BT CROPS
New data on illnesses caused by GM crops (see above) are a warning that applications for GM foods must be rejected by Foods Standards Austraila New Zealand Authority (FSANZ).
GE Free NZ is concerned that new GM food applications keep flooding in whilst the evidence of harm is being ignored. Right now applications are being made for GM lucerne and high-lysine soy for introduction as animal and human health foods.
Recent studies have found that ingestion of GM corn cause immune system reaction, diarrhoea and vomiting. Pollen from GM corn has caused severe allergic reactions in people living close to the fields. Workers picking GM cotton have suffered rashes and blisters, leaving black discolouration on the skin. Research by the Australian CSIRO on GM peas also revealed unexpected effects: food supposed to be harmless caused a severe lung reaction in mice.
The complex risks being ignored by authorities were also revealed by the recent test of a bio-pharmaceutical drug which lead to life threatening reactions in volunteers and caused organ shutdown. A previously healthy New Zealander lost his fingers and toes and remains in treatment months later.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6499
+ ALARM BELLS OVER GM FOOD APPROVAL: PART ONE
In two excellent articles, two Canterbury University (New Zealand) scientists outline their concerns about GM foods.
The first is by Victoria Metcalf, geneticist and affiliate of the Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety, University of Canterbury, who details some of the gaps in our understanding of what GM foodstuffs might mean for our health.
EXCERPTS:
How do we ensure public health and safety over the consumption of GM food? Scientists rely on a peer-review publication process to ensure both the accuracy of and to instil confidence in the results of their studies. [Judy Carman, director of the Institute of Health and Environmental Research,] found in a review of 28 GM plants produced as commercial crops that their safety testing was rarely published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. In fact, the information had to be extracted from documents of Food Standards Australia New Zealand - FSANZ.
In nearly all cases, the safety testing was not performed by independent scientists in the way we might expect but came from the very producers of GM foods, such as Monsanto and Bayer.
What was of even more concern was the low number of tests for each type or variety of the GM plant. For example, just two reports were submitted to cover four different GM soy plants, with testing not performed on all varieties.
In addition, low sample sizes in many of the reports reduce their statistical validity. One report for a GM corn variety from Monsanto stated that it was substantially equivalent to non-GM corn despite a 44% difference in amino acid composition. Yet this particular variety was declared safe for human consumption by FSANZ.
The types of analyses performed are also of concern. Some of the GM plants have had animal studies performed by the companies that produce them, but animal feeding studies are generally not required by FSANZ. ...
Animal toxicity tests often only assessed the effects of feeding a substitute source of the GM products, not the GM plant itself, for just 7 to 14 days. Carman says if cigarettes were examined under the same system they would be deemed safe. Despite this, adverse effects have still occasionally been found. And yet in no cases have tests been performed on humans. These GM plants, however, all still got the green light from FSANZ
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6514
+ ALARM BELLS OVER GM FOOD APPROVAL: PART TWO
Jack Heinemann, associate professor at the Centre for Integrated Research in Biosafety at the University of Canterbury, writes that plans to introduce a new GM corn to New Zealand are troubling.
EXCERPT:
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is considering recommending that the Food Code be changed to include a GM variety of corn called LY038, high lysine corn. This product differs in substantial ways from non-GM corn because it, at the very least, accumulates high levels of an amino acid called lysine, a normal constituent of protein. While the lysine concentration is not above that found in other foods, such as red meat, eggs and cheese, it is about 50 per cent above the normal concentration of lysine found in non-GM corn. And the level of free lysine - that not incorporated into protein - is 50 times greater than that found in ordinary corn.
It is not the absolute amount of lysine that is concerning here, but the unusually high concentration of lysine in the same place as all the sugars that are found in corn.
Lysine as an amino acid or as a normal component of protein can react with sugars to form what are called advanced glycoxidation end-products (AGEs). Dietary AGEs have been implicated in causing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes (and related autoimmunity), kidney disease and with ageing. In Western societies, these diseases are more frequently called epidemics.
While AGE content is a general concern of food safety, doubling the concentration of lysine in the corn we eat should be viewed with particular concern, at least until detrimental AGE effects can be ruled out. ...
New studies demonstrate that AGEs may also cause allergic reactions, which are increasingly common health complaints. The incidence of coeliac disease, an allergic reaction to components of wheat, barley, rye and oats, is estimated at 1 in 300. Studies in Australia and New Zealand have confirmed equal or greater rates in local populations; adult prevalence is as high as 1 in 83 in the Christchurch area.
Another danger for coeliac sufferers would develop if they became sensitised to AGEs in high-lysine corn that made them allergic to all corn, effectively removing this important food source from their already limited diets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6515
+ NEW REPORT - BIOTECH CROPS AND FOODS: THE RISKS AND ALTERNATIVES
A superb report for the Oakland Institute from Carmelo Ruiz, based on his forthcoming book, Transgenic Ballad: Biotechnology, Globalization and the Clash of Paradigms (Balada Transgenica: Biotecnologia, Globalizacion y el Choque de Paradigmas), is at
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/?q=node/view/336
It can also be downloaded as a PDF
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/RTC2006/BIOTECH_CROPS_AND_FOODS.pdf
It provides an excellent summary of:
***worrying food safety research findings on GM foods to date ***contamination problems thus far ***field trial fiascos ***harassment by Monsanto of farmers whose crops have become GM-contaminated
- and much more.
EXCERPT:
"Seeds will be our only recourse if the prevailing belief in the safety of genetic engineering proves wrong," advises the Union of Concerned Scientists. "Heedlessly allowing the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level. Unless some part of our seed supply is preserved free of genetically engineered sequences, our ability to change course if genetic engineering goes awry will be severely hampered."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6516
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ASIA
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+ GEAC SHOULD ACT IMMEDIATELY TO PROTECT INDIA'S BIOSAFEY
Prominent farmers' unions and NGOs working on environmental and sustainable agriculture issues have written to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to ask it to act immediately to protect India's biosafety from GM technology in agriculture. The GEAC, which received complaints nearly four months ago on serious irregularities in field trials of GM crops including GM food crops, has failed to investigate the matter properly.
Meanwhile, the Department of Biotechnology as well as the GEAC are giving more and more permissions for trials in farmers' fields without ensuring that the most basic institutional mechanisms are in place. This is a clear violation of the Environment Protection Act. In 2005, numerous trials of brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, corn, groundnut, mustard, okra, pigeon pea, rice and tomato belonging to 17 different agencies were allowed by Department of Biotechnology for trials in open field conditions despite the fact that inadequate biosafety regime and improper monitoring have repeatedly been exposed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6500
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EUROPE
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+ IRELAND: EPA APPROVES GM POTATO TRIALS IN MEATH
Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency has approved controversial plans to grow GM potatoes in Co Meath.
The five-year trials by the German chemical firm BASF are due to take place in Arodstown, near the Teagasc research centre in Summerhill. The potatoes will not be allowed on the market as this would require further consent and approval at EU level.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6512
+ IRISH FARMERS ASK FOR BAN ON GM TRIALS
Farmers in the Summerhill area are to formally request Meath County Council to pass a motion prohibiting the cultivation of GM seeds and crops in Meath.
The landowners are also asking the local authority to exclude county council funding for the procurement of food containing GM ingredients and to prohibit the transportation of live GM seeds (including rape seed approved for animal feed) on roads in its jurisdiction.
At an emergency meeting in Summerhill, local farmers expressed concern about the economic impacts of GM contamination on the future of Irish farming.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has received 96 submissions from the public, of which all but one oppose the proposed five-year experiment with 450,000 patented GM potatoes near Summerhill. The GM experiment is thought likely to get the go-ahead in coming weeks.
Jim Cosgrave, a drystock and tillage farm from Enfield, said farmers who become contaminated by GM potatoes or GM superweeds would not only face patent issues, but would also face mandatory GM labelling, loss of market share and a significant drop in the property value of their land.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6502
Please sign petition online: http://www.gmfreeireland.org The GM-free Ireland Network urgently needs financial support for its public awareness campaign. Contributions may be given through a registered charity. Please help.
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/support/index.php
+ GM TREES ARE BEING GROWN SECRETLY IN UK
GM elm trees resistant to Dutch elm disease are being grown in Dundee, Scotland. But the scientists involved will not say precisely where they are, or even exactly how many of them are being grown.
The government was forced to admit that GM poplar, apple and eucalyptus trees have been cultivated outdoors in Berkshire, Derbyshire and Kent.
The admission came after warnings about such trees from ministers from over 100 countries at a UN conference in Curitiba, Brazil. They urged a "precautionary approach" towards them after hearing that they could "wreak ecological havoc throughout the world's forests".
The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs denied that GM trees had ever been grown in the open in Britain, until given details by The Independent on Sunday.
All the plantations have either been destroyed by protesters or cut down at the end of the experiments. Britain's only GM trees are now elms, resistant to Dutch elm disease and being grown in "a controlled environment" somewhere in Dundee.
The scientists developing them say they will not plant any outside because they fear "terrorism" by protesters. They will not disclose where they are or give details of the numbers, but confirm that there are "more than a hundred" of them.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6496
+ FIRST GM BT POTATO APPROVED FOR FOOD IN RUSSIA
The first GM potato, Elizabeth, made by Russian scientists by transferring Monsanto's Bt gene to a Russian potato variety, has been registered in Russia for human consumption, reports the CIS Alliance for Biosafety.
The safety assessment was done by the Russian Institute of Nutrition. CIS Alliance for Biosafety says this Institute is famous for its non-transparent policy and violation of democratic procedures. Last year Greenpeace Russia brought a case against the Institute to demand the release of the results of previous safety tests on the imported Monsanto GM potato New Leaf and Russet Burbank. The court ruled in favour of public disclosure, but the Institute never implemented it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6504
+ ITALY: COURT RULES COEXISTENCE LAW UNCONSTITUTIONAL
The Italian Constitutional Court has ruled that Italy's January 2005 Framework Law on Coexistence is unconstitutional. The ruling is a setback for those that want to ensure that Italian farmers do not use GM seeds.
The Coexistence law set buffer zone distances between GM and non-GM crops and defined procedures for GM crop production and the process for returning to conventional production. Minister of agriculture Gianni Alemanno said, "the Constitutional Court has opened a dangerous passage for the wide contamination of transgenic materials in regions and areas of quality products that wish to remain GMO-free." The minister has already announced his wish to develop, in cooperation with the Regions, an urgent measure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6503
http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=5659
+ GREENPEACE STOPS AMAZON SOYA ENTERING EUROPE
Sixty Greenpeace activists have prevented commodities giant Cargill from unloading a shipment of Amazon soya in Amsterdam port, to protest against the destruction of huge tracts of the Amazon rainforest to grow soya to feed farm animals in Europe.
Several activists chained themselves to the conveyor belt and the suction pump Cargill uses to unload the soya, while others started to paint "Forest Crime" on the company's silos.
Greenpeace forests campaign co-ordinator, Gavin Edwards, said: "Cargill is trashing the Amazon so we can eat cheap meat. The scale of the destruction is incredible - approximately 19,000 hectares of the rainforest, almost the size of Amsterdam, would have to be destroyed to grow the amount of soya on this ship alone."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6497
+ POLAND BANS SALE OF GM SEEDS
Poland's parliament has passed a law which removes GM seeds from a national register, effectively banning their sale. Around 76 percent of Polish consumers are against GMOs.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6495
+ AUSTRIA: GM CROPS ARE FOREVER, WARNS CANADIAN FARMER
GM crops are forever, said Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser at a press conference in Austria organized by the anti-GM organization Pro Leben. Once a country had them, there was no getting away from them, he said.
There was no stopping the spread of GM pollen and seeds through wind or animals, or by machines and human beings. That meant farmers lost their free choice which crops to plant.
In Canada GM seeds have been used for ten years. At the present time, there is no more non-GM soya or rapeseed, he said.
In Canada, there had been promises of higher yields, more nourishing food, and a reduction of chemicals. They had all turned into the opposite.
In the soya harvest there had been a 15 per cent decline, in rapeseed 6 per cent. The quality of the foods had deteriorated, and the use of pesticides increased three times over. There had also been economic harm - many of the products had no longer been cleared for export because they were tainted by gene technology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6509
+ MONSANTO CONTINUES FRENCH GM TESTS DESPITE RULING
France's top court, the Council of State, has cancelled two authorisations granted to Monsanto to grow test fields of its GM Roundup Ready maize. The court said Monsanto had not given precise enough details of where the field trials would take place.
The annulment was welcomed by anti-GM campaigners who said it showed experiments were held in secret and repeated calls for all trials in the country be halted.
But Monsanto said it would not prevent them carrying out their tests. "We'll continue our experiments but we might have to change a bit the way we ask for licences in the future," Yann Fichet, Monsanto France's director of external relations said.
Half of Monsanto's experiments in France are destroyed each year. Said Fichet, "Transparency today is used to destroy our work. This is unacceptable. It certainly makes us think deeply about our experiments in France."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6510
+ EU COMMISSION FACES PRESSURE TO DEAL WITH GM LAWS
EU countries will soon demand more clarity on rules for separating traditional, organic and GM crops, focusing on specific plant varieties to help farmers who want to grow GMOs to be better able to do so.
Later this month, EU farm ministers will vote on a paper that asks the Commission to identify best practice for technical segregation measures and develop guidelines for crop-specific measures. "The conclusion from the conference was that we have to develop crop-specific guidelines, as rapeseed is different from maize, for example," a Commission official said. Privately, insiders say the guidelines are unlikely to emerge before 2007.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6511
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THE AMERICAS
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+ VERMONT GOVERNOR TO VETO GM SEED LIABILITY BILL
Vermont Governor James Douglas said he will veto a bill that would allow farmers to sue manufacturers of GM seeds if the seeds drift into their fields.
Douglas said if the bill became law it would discourage manufacturers from selling seeds in Vermont. But Margaret Laggis, a lobbyist for the biotechnology industry, said that while her clients opposed the bill, it's unlikely that seed manufacturers would not sell products in Vermont if the bill became law.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6513
+ WHAT'S MAKING AMERICANS SO SICK?
Associated Press report from the nation that eats more GM food than any other (EXCERPTS):
Middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, startling new research shows, despite US health care spending per person that's more than double what England spends. A higher rate of Americans tested positive for diabetes and heart disease than the English. Americans also self-reported more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer.
The gap between the countries holds true for educated and uneducated, rich and poor.
"At every point in the social hierarchy there is more illness in the United States than in England and the differences are really dramatic," said study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.
The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, adds context to the already-known fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet trails in rankings of life expectancy.
"Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?" Marmot said. "It's something of a mystery," said Richard Suzman of the US National Institutes of Health, which helped fund the study.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6501
+ MARKET LOSS AND CONTAMINATION - GM PAPAYA IN HAWAII
GM papaya has been hyped as a huge success story - but nothing could be further from the truth, says an article in the Bangkok Post. The article says, "The concern over this ... GMO food is so great, that it creates resistance, loss of markets, contamination and more loss of markets."
EXCERPTS:
In Jamaica, the GM papaya was never commercially released after many years of field trials as the primary export market is the EU, which does not tolerate GM papaya. In Venezuela, field trials were cancelled after a medical doctor advised the public against eating GM papaya. Attempts to release the GM papaya in such diverse places as Mexico, Australia, Taiwan and Brazil have all been thwarted by governments and farmers who fear market loss and contamination.
In Hawaii, despite a major epidemic of ring spot virus, it took heavy pressure and combating farmer resistance to introduce the GM papaya. ...
From 1998, the commercial release of the GM papaya in Hawaii until now, we've lost half of our papaya farmers. The primary reason is the GM papaya has never been worth as much as the non-GM fruit. Our biggest loss is much of the Japanese market.
GMO Free Hawaii ... consistently found 30-50% GM contaminated papayas in places they shouldn't be. In 2004, GMO Free Hawaii ... found 50% contamination on the island within the major growing area, 5% contamination on Oahu and the University of Hawaii's seed supply contaminated at 1%.
Organic farmers started testing and were shocked to find contamination on their farms. This led to market loss and often the chopping down of trees in efforts to decontaminate. Toi Lahti lost three separate markets and his seed line, which he'd been developing for 17 years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6493
+ YOUR VIEWS WANTED BY CNN
CNN have a discussion going on their website about GM and it's being hogged by the GM companies. Alternative views welcome! Discussion at http://edition.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/04/28/gmcropcontr/index.html
- click on "read your submissions" to see the comments
+ LABELLING SOUGHT FOR GM FOOD IN CANADA
Canadians may be at risk of developing new allergies and other side-effects from unlabelled GM food and the government must make labelling mandatory to protect citizens, say international consumer groups in Ottawa for meetings with the United Nations' food standards committee.
"Labelling is absolutely needed to be able to trace both known and unexpected human health problems," said Michael Hansen, senior research associate at the New York-based Consumers Union. "It's a basic consumer right-to-know issue."
Canada is one of the world's largest exporters of GM food and is one of the only countries in the world that strongly opposes mandatory labelling, Hansen said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6506
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ AUSTRALIAN GM STUDIES ARE CASH COW FOR GM INTERESTS
Commonwealth Government grants of $851,890 for gene technology studies, announced by agriculture minister McGauran, are designed to justify the fast tracking of GM crops and foods into Australia. The money is from the $3.8 million Biotechnology Strategy for Agriculture, Food and Fibre, part of the National Biotechnology Strategy.
It's claimed that the GM studies will examine, among other issues:
***the value of biotechnology for insect pest and weed control in the cropping sector, including experiences with GM cotton;
***the potential for GM crops to serve as factories for pharmaceutical and industrial compounds;
***the implications of using gene technology in the oilseeds industry.
But GeneEthics Network Director, Bob Phelps says, "This cash cow for corporate interests is the opening salvo in another wasteful taxpayer-funded government/industry PR campaign to trash the GM-free values held by most Australian family farmers and shoppers.
"These in-house studies, by the Bureau of Rural Sciences, the Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the private sector, exclude the public and independent experts.
"The eight reports will be published only after they are massaged in secret with a GM-friendly corporate spin that justifies the marketing of GM seeds and foods, and the introduction of GM canola by Bayer and Monsanto. The disinformation strategy will target the popular state and territory moratoria which have been placed on commercial GM canola until 2008 at least."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6507
+ GENE TECHNOLOGY REVIEW USELESS
A recent Gene Technology Act 2000 Review Panel report ignored most of the 280 submissions received and instead recommended weaker laws on GMOs. The report backed the GM industry's agenda, despite many flaws in the regulatory system and its implementation which had been pointed out to the panel.
Said Director of the GeneEthics Network, Bob Phelps, "The report makes no recommendations on the need to prevent GM disasters before they arise, even though there have been many instances of mismanagement, accident and unauthorised GMO releases in the past twenty years."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6507
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VIDEO ONLINE
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+ VIDEO ONLINE
An inspirational 6-minute GM video from the past - 'Terminator Seed' - is now available for online viewing via Google: "Hang out with the police, protesters, and biotechnology activists at The National Democratic Convention in Los Angeles [2000]." Among those filmed at teach-ins during the convention are Peter Rosset and Anuradha Mittal.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=terminator+seed
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NANOTECHNOLOGY
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+ TOXIC WARNING FOR NANO INDUSTRY
A senior UK researcher warns the nanotechnology industry of the potential toxic effects of some of their products:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/4968346.stm