from Jonathan Matthews, guest editor
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Dear all:
Claire Robinson has just moved house and has had unexpected problems getting a broadband connection, so in Claire's absence here's a stopgap Weekly Watch. Our normal service will be resumed shortly.
Jonathan 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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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
EUROPE
LOBBYWATCH
MORE LOBBYING OF THE VATICAN
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ EU TO TEST ALL US RICE IMPORTS
European Union nations have voted to test all U.S. long-grain rice imports to make sure they don't contain GM varieties that haven't been approved by the EU.
All consignments of U.S. long-grain rice will be sampled and tested at EU entry ports before they can be distributed and sold, the European Commission said.
The EU action is aimed at detecting a banned GM rice strain named Liberty Link Rice 601. The tests will ALSO check for another unauthorized genetically modified rice, LL Rice 62, recently found in French imports of U.S. rice.
The Commission said it has to start mandatory tests because the EU and the U.S. failed to agree on how to check for genetically modified rice not legally allowed on sale in Europe.
Talks broke down after the sides could not agree on a way of testing the rice to "a high level of consistency and accuracy". Previously, a shipment of rice certified GM free by the Americans was found to be contaminated when tested in Europe.
The costs of testing will be borne by exporters. The EU is a major market for US rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7140
+ US SAYS RICE TRADE CAN'T CONTINUE
The U.S. says the burden of mandatory testing may be too much for the rice trade to continue between the U.S. and Europe. Since the EU increased monitoring for GM strains, U.S. rice shipments to Europe have halted. Floyd Gaibler, U.S. deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services says the new European testing program is "simply too onerous for us to accept."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7140
+ THAIS REAP WINDFALL FROM GM RICE BAN
Thailand, as the world's leading rice-exporter, has reaped a windfall as orders for non-GM rice have kept rising over the past several months.
"We've got more orders from Europe to replace those which would otherwise have gone to the US," said Wanlop Pitchyapongsa of Capital Rice, a major exporter.
He also said that this shows that Thailand's strength lies in non-GM rice, which should be maintained as the chief selling point.
Thanakorn Jitratangbunya of Chia Meng Group, another big player, said the risk of experimenting with GM rice was high and it should not be allowed in Thailand.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7134
+ WEBSITE DOCUMENTS ALL GM RICE CONTAMINATION INCIDENTS
Friends of the Earth have set up a website documenting all the GM rice contamination incidents (US and Chinese) in Europe:
http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/rice_contamination.htm
+ TOUGHER MEASURES NEEDED AGAINST GM CONTAMINATION
Friends of the Earth Europe is calling on the European Commission to develop a much more pro-active strategy to stop GM contamination. Adrian Bebb said, "It is clear that you cannot grow genetically modified crops outdoors without the risk of contaminating the whole food chain. Ideally, outdoor growing should be banned. Failing that, biotech companies must be forced to disclose details about their experiments so that we can track contamination of foods and take preventative action to protect public health."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7179
+ GM RICE LEGAL CHALLENGE ISSUED AGAINST FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY
Friends of the Earth has filed a legal challenge against the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) over its failure to take necessary action to prevent consumers being exposed to illegal GM rice in their food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7147
+ HOW REGULATORS TRIED TO SIDESTEP THE LAW
Prof. Peter Saunders asks, "BSE, drug trials and GM food, who are the regulators protecting?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7175
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ASIA
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+ FARMERS UNION DESTROYS GM RICE TRIAL
A GM Rice plot in Haryana, India, was destroyed by Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU) - a major Indian farmers' organisation - after more than 500 farmers, including many farmers from Rampura village in the Karnal district of Haryana, where the trial was being held, congregated at the trial site and demanded its destruction. The famers wanted to prevent GM contamination.
Among the protesters who destroyed the trial plot was Paramjit Singh, the farmer on whose land Mahyco - Monsanto's seed partner in India - was conducting the trial. Mahyco had not made it clear to the farmer that he was hosting a GM trial.
Mr Rakesh Tikait, a spokesperson for the Bhartiya Kissan Union, said it had been necessary to take action because of the "unreliable track record of the company and the regulators in preventing contamination from the trial plots... This is all the more dangerous in a basmati-rice growing belt of the country."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7195
+ MAYHCO VIOLATES GM TRIAL CONDITIONS YET AGAIN
Research by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), baed in Hyderabad, India, has repeatedly shown how experimental GM crops, being grown in field trials in India, have been harvested and then sold off into the regular supply chain.
Last week the CSA published its latests findings on GM field trials in the state of Karnataka. Their research shows that Karnataka's relevant departments and officials do not have any information on the GM trials happening in the state.
This is a clear violation of the conditional clearance that Mahyco obtained from the government of India. This required the company to keep the state government, district authorities and the village panchayat informed about the exact details of the trial. Mahyco - Monsanto's seed partner in India - had failed to do so.
"More importantly," reported the CSA, "the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee itself does not have information on where various trials are happening in the country after permitting such trials!!!"
The investigation by CSA comes at a time when India's Supreme Court has asked the GEAC not to permit any more trials in the country but the Court has also said that it "was not inclined to stop any ongoing trials".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7150
+ NEW WEBSITE ON GM IN INDIA
New website on GM in India - www.indiagminfo.org
+ GOLDEN RICE TRIALS IN INDIA "SOON"
The director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Mangla Rai recently claimed, "We would possibly go for largescale field trials of our Golden Rice within a year."
His statement was condemned by the Organic Farming Association of India Orissa Chapter which said it would oppose any move involving field trials of GM Rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7157
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7137
+ NO GO AHEAD FOR GM RICE IN IRAN
The director of the Iran's Department of Environment, Fatemeh Javadi recently announced that an official go-ahead for cultivation of genetically modified rice would not be issued due to lack of compelling documents that could support the move.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7197
+ GREENPEACE TAKES LEGAL ACTION TO END GM FIELD TRIALS IN THAILAND
Greenpeace Southeast Asia has petitioned Thailand's Administrative Court to revoke the Agriculture Department's order allowing the open-field trials of GM papaya. The group also filed a petition with the court against the department and its director Adisak Sreesunpagit for negligence in preventing GM contamination to spread from its research station. Open-field trials of all GM crops were banned in 2001, but the ban was later lifted to allow the GM papaya trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7152
+ ISLAND OF PRESPERITY IN INDIA'S SUICIDE BELT
A village in the farmer suicide heartland of Andhra Pradesh has no indebtedness, no suicide and no migration. Farmers here have shown that without pesticides, chemical fertilisers and GM crops, there is prosperity and hope in agriculture. It is the first village in the country to declare itself, chemical-free and GM-free.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7142
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THE AMERICAS
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+ U.S. SOYBEAN PRODUCERS EXPLORE 2nd WTO CASE AGAINST EU
The American Soybean Association (ASA) has been meeting with administration officials to explore a possible second World Trade Organization case against the European Union’s traceability and labeling requirements for products that contain or consist of genetically modified organisms, according to informed sources.
GM WATCH COMMENT: It's hardly surprising the American Soybean Association are so desperate to break back into the European market and stop the growth of GM opposition elsewhere. According to a recent report by Iowa State University grain market analyst Bob Wisner, US soybean exports to the EU have now "dropped to almost economically insignificant levels. Historically, the EU has been the largest overseas customer for U.S. soybeans and often has been its largest foreign buyer of soybean meal."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7191
+ MEXICO REJECTS GM MAIZE
Mexico has banned Monsanto and other biotechnology companies from planting GM corn, helping to prevent it contaminating native varieties in Mexico, the birthplace of corn and still a storehouse of genetically valuable native species.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7139
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7196
+ SAY NO TO IMPUNITY FOR THE KILLERS OF SILVINO TALAVERA
In 2003, Silvino Talavera was 11 years of age when he was sprayed with an agrotoxic cocktail used to fumigate "RoundUp Ready" soy fields.
The Talavera Villasboa family is one among many Paraguayans who live surrounded by monocultures of Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically engineered soy, the aggressive marketing and consequent use of which has been the cause of the exponential increase in glyphosate spraying over the Paraguayan countryside and its people.
Silvino didn't survive a second attack. Phenol, carbamatol and glysophate were found in the blood of children in the family, which has been fighting for justice ever since.
The family has received incredible pressure to drop its court case, including death threats. SEND A LETTER OF SOLIDARITY:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7199
+ KEEP BIRTHPLACE OF THE POTATO GM FREE
Environmentalists are demanding that Chilean authorities declare the southern archipelago of Chiloe a transgenic-free zone, and recognise it as a birthplace of the potato, alongside Bolivia and Peru.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7149
+ FDA READY TO APPROVE CLONED FOOD
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is said to be ready to approve milk and meat from cloned animals. Polls show that more than 60% of Americans think animal cloning is immoral, and that most people wouldn't knowingly eat the products even if the FDA approved them. But because the FDA would allow cloned meat and milk to be sold without identifying labels, consumers wouldn't be able to avoid them.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7178
+ GLYPHOSATE RESISTANCE GROWING
The over-reliance on Monsanto's herbicide Roundup (active ingredient, glyphosate), massively encouraged by the growing of Roundup Ready crops, has triggered an explosion in glyphosate-resistant weeds on US farmland that could have a major impact on the entire US farming system in the longer term.
There are no new herbicides in the pipeline. According to Ford L. Baldwin of Practical Weed Consultants, "If you are farming for the short haul, it probably does not matter. However, if you are farming for the long haul, glyphosate resistance needs to become a 'big deal.'" http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7190
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7132
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AFRICA
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+ US TARGETING AFRICA, IRAQ AND INDIA
US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a recent speech spelt out USDA's principle overseas tagets: India, Iraq and Africa: "We have also set our sights on Africa... Last year I was in Africa twice. From training African science to hosting biotechnology workshops they are committed to this cause. We are helping African policymakers to understand the enormous potential of biotech crops that can literally make a lifesaving difference. And we are transferring new technologies to Africa by training their top scientists."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7177
+ UN CLIMATE CONFERENCE - AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GM?
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in Nairobi, Kenya this year from the 6th-17th November. Teresa Anderson at the Gaia Foundation warns that, as Nairobi provides a base to a number of groups that push GM for African Agriculture, and USAID, Monsanto and Syngenta all have a strong presence there, it is entirely possible that the GM industry will be looking to turn the Nairobi UNFCCC into an opportunity to promote GM technology as the next big solution to climate change. The GM industry may push for the UNFCCC to endorse GM in a number of areas, such as biofuels, GM trees, and drought tolerant GM crops. It is, therefore, vitally important that NGOs and country delegates attending the UNFCCC know the true story behind the hype, and the risks that GM technology can bring. READ ON:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7128
+ GM GRAPES EARN WRATH OF GROWERS
A South African university's planned planting of GM grapes has the country's top wine exporters seeing red.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7181
+ STOP GM WINE
see CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
+ BIOWATCH GETS COURT DATE TO APPEAL MONSANTO COSTS ORDER
Biowatch South Africa has finally got a court date for its appeal against the costs order made against it - and in favour of Monsanto - when it won its case in the Pretoria High Court for access to information about how decisions are made in the permitting of GM crops in South Africa.
In the High Court the judge not only granted access to almost all the information Biowatch had requested, but he reconfirmed that they had a constitutional right to the information; that their access to the information was in the public interest; and that they had been forced to apply to the court to establish their right to access to the information. Yet the NGO's reward for winning their case and successfully upholding the public interest, was an order that they should pay Monsanto's hefty legal costs. The giant corporation had been the only respondent to insist, right to the end, that Biowatch should bear its legal costs.
If this absurd order is not now overturned, the message to other public interest litigants could not be clearer: even if you win, you're the ones who'll be penalised!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7136
+ NEW REPORT CRITICAL OF GATES AND ROCKEFELLER
A new report from Food First points out that the Green Revolution did not "bypass" Africa. It failed. And because plans for a new Green Revolution ignore, misinterpret, and misrepresent the harsh lessons of the first Green Revolution's multiple failures, they will likely worsen the problem.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7133
+ ZAMBIA SEES ORGANIC FARMING AS CRIUCIAL
The growing demand for organic products on both the local and export markets will significantly contribute to growth and poverty reduction, a senior Zambian agricultural official has said in Lusaka.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7168
+ THE TRUTH BEHIND GM COTTON IN SOUTH AFRICA
A useful summary of a new report published in the journal, Review of African Political Economy, on GM cotton in South Africa's Makhathini Flats http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7160
The full paper:
http://www.grain.org/research_files/Witt_Patel_Schnurr.pdf
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EUROPE
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+ 75% OF ITALIANS SEE GMOS AS HEALTH THREAT
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7129
+ BIG ITALIAN REGION GOES GMO FREE
The Lazio region of Italy, which includes Rome, has gone GMO-free. The growing and breeding of any kind of GMO has been banned throughout the region. At the same time, it is forbidden to use GMO products in catering services at kindergartens, schools, hospitals, residential homes, regional offices, provincial offices and communal offices, or at their respective subsidiary organisations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7198
+ NINTH IRISH COUNTY GOES GMO FREE
Kildare County Council became the ninth county on the island of Ireland to declare itself a GMO-free zone. Eddie Punch, General Secretary of the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association said, "The vast majority of EU consumers do not want to eat food containing GM ingredients. The whole island of Ireland should become a GMO-free zone, in order to supply the consumers of Europe with the GM-free products they desire"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7198
+ ROMANIA HARVESTS TROUBLES WITH GMOS
Romania may find itself excluded from European Union markets because of delays in eliminating GM soya.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7173
+ BIG DEMO AGAINST GREEK BIOTECH CONFERENCE
Hundreds of protesters marched against the 3rd International Biotechnology Conference in Greece, organised by the Greek representatives of the EuropaBio lobby group.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7187
+ GREEK FARMERS SEEKING YOUR SUPPORT
The second biggest farmers' organisation in Greece, GESASE, are taking Syngenta, Pioneer and the Greek Government to court over GM maize contamination incidents in 2004. They need your letters of support.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7194
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ LEADING INDIAN GM REGULATOR PART OF GM LOBBY GROUP
The Times of India reports that Charudatta Mayee, the co-chairman of India's GM regulatory body, is on the board of directors of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) - a GM propaganda and 'technology transfer' ouitfit whose funders include Bayer CropScience, Monsanto, Syngenta and Pioneer Hi-Bred.
ISAAA's multi-million dollar budget is matched by high-profile board members, past and present, such as: Monsanto's Robert Fraley, Wally Beversdorf of Syngenta, and Gabrielle Persley, Executive Director of AusBiotech Alliance and advisor to the World Bank.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7141
+ INDUSTRY PR TACTICS FOR DEFEATING LOCAL BALLOTS
An article in California's Terrain Magazine provides a very useful analysis of how the biotech lobby successfully changed its PR tactics after losing the local ballot in Mendocino County on the measure to make the County GM-free.
CropLife America, which represents the chemical industry, poured in over half a million dollars to a campaign against the ballot measure to go GM-free in Mendocino that seemed constantly on the defensive.
After the ballot initiative passed, the opposition took learned lessons from the Mendocino campaign. In opposing a similar ballot in Sonoma County the opposition began to portray a farmer-friendly image, using the Sonoma County Farm Bureau and other commercial growers to form the Family Farmers Alliance to oppose the Measure.
"The Farm Bureau campaigns now look almost exactly like ours but reversed," says Doug Mosel, who acted as spokesperson for GMO-Free Mendocino. Dave Henson, who directed the GM-Free Sonoma campaign, agrees with Mosel, saying, "They learned to get the Monsanto corporation logo out of the front line and not directly send any money to the Sonoma campaign."
"If you look at their spending reports, which are public documents, they borrowed $150,000 and have yet to say where they got it. This is a classic campaign trick, and after the campaign is over, the biotech corporations could give them $150,000. It's not illegal, it's a way to avoid having the public see who is behind a campaign."
"Monsanto has an annual budget of ten million dollars and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting farmers."
"The old narrative is that environmentalists are trying to take farmers' rights away, but in this particular case, the exact opposite is true."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7164
+ MONSANTO VICE PRESIDENT JOINS THE GATES FOUNDATION
The Gates Foundation has hired Rob Horsch, Monsanto's vice president for international development partnerships.
According to the Seattle Times, "Horsch... led genetic engineering of plants at the seed giant. As senior program officer [for the Gates Foundation], Horsch will apply the technology toward improving crop yields in regions including sub-Saharan Africa..."
Horsch's most famous project for Monsanto was also a GM project for Africa - the GM sweet potato - and it really exposes the cras and misguided character of much of Gates' philanthropy, because in actual practical terms the project totally failed to deliver. (See 'Monsanto's showcase project in Africa fails', New Scientist)
But getting the GM sweet potato out to farmers was not the real intention. Horsch's project was a PR confection, based to a very large extent on lies and misinformation, which generated endless media hype for Monsanto and helped open doors to GM, and in those terms it was a runaway success.
In other words, the project served its purpose as a vehicle for poor-washing GM while driving forward the regulatory frameworks and the technical capacity that US corporations require to build-up global markets for their GM crops.
The Gates Foundation provides Horsch with a perfect platform for much more of the same.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7158
+ AGBIOVIEW - CAN YOU F@#$!*G BELIEVE THAT?
CS Prakash's AgBioView recently featured articles claiming all environmentalists are bent on "man's extinction" and that Zambia's leaders were hoodwinked by political agitators, operating out of Greenpeace, into committing crimes against humanity. One of AgBioView's articles asked, "Can you f@#$!*g believe that?" Not easily, is the answer! Read on:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7174
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MORE LOBBYING OF THE VATICAN
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The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See recently brought three American researchers to Rome for lobbying purposes.
The researchers were presented as not just public sector scientists but "former Peace Corps volunteers whose research focused on the humanitarian aspects of GMO science" and who have no particular axes to grind.
In fact, Lawrence Kent is director of International Programs at the Danforth Center - Monsanto's mission to the developing world. The Center sits cheek by jowl with Monsanto in St Louis on a 40-acre tract of land donated by Monsanto and worth $11m. The Center was launched with a financial pledge from the company for a further $70m. Monsanto recently coughed up a further $15m, much of it earmarked to "fuel work in Africa."
Kent has been Danforth's man in Africa. He has said, "It's too important what we're trying to do. If we give up, who's going to do it?" Good question. Monsanto via USAID already brought Africa the "virus-resistant" GM sweet potato that wasted millions of dollars to no effect while providing no virus resistance.
The Danforth Center's main project for Africa has involved a GM virus-resistant cassava. This too came to a grinding halt after it turned out to be a dud. That, however, hasn't stopped its continuing use as a showcase project for public relations purposes!
The other two speakers at the US embassy to the Holy See's event are also known GM enthusiasts.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7151
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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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+ STOP GM WINE
'Wines of South Africa' (WOSA), the body that claims to represent exporters of South African wines, inexplicably seems to be backing GM trials - just click the link below to automatically send them an e-mail. It only takes a minute: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=87&page=1 (please paste this link into your browser, if necessary)
WARNING: Don't be fobbed off with assurances about WOSA's opposition to GM yeast; if GM grape trials go ahead then all South African wine could be GM contaminated.