WEEKLY WATCH number 178

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

This week's issue exposes the strange logic of biotech proponents. The pretended champion of poor farmers, GM lobbyist, CS Prakash, has been circulating an article about why the decision of some Indian states to force a price cut in Monsanto's Bt cotton - thereby helping farmers who want to grow the crop - is a disaster! (ASIA)

Another biotech lobbyist, the Roman Catholic biotechnologist, Piero Morandini, claims GM will help poor farmers and alleviate hunger because "the technology is built 'in the seed'". Morandini conveniently omits to mention all the expensive and environmentally destructive inputs, not to mention complex management practices, that these seeds require. (LOBBYWATCH)

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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GM WATCH PODCASTS NOW AVAILABLE
FOOD SAFETY
RESEARCH
LOBBYWATCH
BIOTECH, FREE TRADE, AND INVESTMENT
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AUSTRALASIA
GM MEDICINES

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GM WATCH PODCASTS NOW AVAILABLE
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GM Watch has just produced its first two podcasts. You can hear GM Watch director Jonathan Matthews and Weekly Watch editor Claire Robinson being interviewed about recent news on the GM front by our podcast producer, Peter Brown.

We hope to produce podcasts on a regular basis. How to subscribe for free:
http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=80&page=1

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ CONSUMER GROUP SUES FDA OVER GM FOODS
A lawsuit filed by the Center for Food Safety against the Food and Drug Administration seeks to force the US government to conduct mandatory reviews of GM foods and require labeling of such foods once approved.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6612

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RESEARCH
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+ BOOSTING CASSAVA ROOTS THE NON-GM WAY
There was recently a huge amount of hype around a story that researchers at Ohio State University had genetically modified cassava to boost the size of its starch-rich roots.

The researchers produced roots that were double the normal size by inserting a bacterial gene into the cassava DNA and this was said to be a beacon of hope for Africa where about 250 million Africans 40 per cent of the continent's population - use cassava as their primary source of food.

Ohio State University molecular biologist Richard Sayre claimed his GM cassava could help solve food shortages not just in Africa but in other nations too.

And biotech proponents called for every effort to be made to ensure that the "genetically modified cassava reaches every corner of the African continent. Farmers need it and it should be made available to them as soon as possible."
http://www.gmoafrica.org/

But a professor of genetics at the University of Brasilia has pointed out that he and his team of researchers have produced a hybrid cassava with roots that are *ten times* the normal size without resorting to GM. What's more, he says, "The cost of our research was extremely low."

So the non-GM approach produced cassava roots 5 times bigger than the much hyped GM approach and for a small cost. An image of these non-GM cassava roots is at:
http://www.geneconserve.pro.br/fig90.htm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6606

+ SOME CORN ROOTWORMS CAN DETECT BT CORN AND LIVE
Research published in the Journal of Economic Entomology suggests that some western corn rootworm larvae may be able to detect small concentrations of Bt proteins in root tissue, stop feeding, and survive to the next stage of life. Ultimately, under this scenario, there is adult emergence into producers' fields. The research was conducted by University of Illinois entomologist Mike Gray.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6622

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ FOR I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU DECEIVED ME: AGBIOTECH'S BAG OF TRICKS
Piero Morandini is a biotechnologist and Roman Catholic who has repeatedly used his religion to lobby for GM crops.

Typical of his antics is his involvement in CS Prakash's AgBioWorld attacks on the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection and the Jesuit-run Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre in Zambia. Morandini co-authored a report - with Greg Conko of the Monsanto-backed lobby group, the Competitive Enterprise Institute - that accused the Jesuits of "Tricks not Truths" and "Junk Science".

But as his latest article, "For I Was Hungry and You Fed Me: Ag-biotech and Hunger", shows, it is actually Morandini who engages in tricks not truths, implying GM can magic away the problems facing poor farmers.

Morandini writes: "A striking bonus about ag-biotech is that the technology is built 'in the seed.' To reap the benefits of the technology, one needs nothing more, in most cases, than the engineered seed. Obviously, fertilizers or hybrid seeds can further improve yields, but such things are not essential for the technology to work (with the exception of herbicide tolerant crops, where an additional input, the herbicide, is needed)."

Note carefully the exception bracketed away at the end of that paragraph almost as it it were an afterthought. Eighty percent of the GM crops planted globally possess some form of herbicide tolerance. That's one hell of an exception! Yet Morandini tells his readers, "one needs nothing more, ***in most cases***, than the engineered seed."

In fact, all the GM crops on the market almost invariably need additional - and often expensive - inputs. Take Bt cotton, for instance. It resists certain pests but not others which require spraying. Poor cotton farmers who've been taken in by the lie that Morandini promotes - "the technology's in the seed" - can end up losing their crops to secondary pests despite having paid vastly more for expensive GM seeds. The result can mean ruin. Indeed, some of these secondary pests may even be exacerbated by Bt crops and the way they alter insect communities.

Bt crops also require special management practices - some of which are particularly challenging for poor farmers. Take the need to plant refuges to slow down pest resistance with Bt crops. How practical is that for farmers with very small plots of land?

In addition, Bt crops often perform poorly without generous irrigation - a near impossibility for many poor farmers, not to mention environmentally risky in a time of ever-declining water resources.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6615

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BIOTECH, FREE TRADE, AND INVESTMENT
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+ BIOTECH, FREE TRADE, AND INVESTMENT: NEW REPORT ONLINE
An important new report shows how bilateral free trade agreements are used by the biotech industry as a conduit for spreading GMOs around the world. US agribusiness corporations are looking into bilateral and regional trade agreements to expand foreign acceptance of regulations and standards, particularly with respect to agricultural biotech.

These bilateral trade negotiations are much less visible and can easily slip beneath the radar of NGOs and popular movements that oppose the WTO. The business coalitions that are the biggest driving force behind bilateral free trade and investment negotiations are open about their self-interest, and eager to keep upping the stakes and locking governments into even tougher standards to ensure expanded profit margins and monopoly control. Through bilateral agreements, they seek to stitch up from below what they have been unable to achieve - so far - at the WTO.

The report, written by Aziz Choudry for the Pesticides Action Network Asia Pacific and People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty, is at
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=4861
http://www.bilaterals.org/IMG/pdf/PANAP_PCFS.pdf

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ASIA
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+ UPTAKE OF BT COTTON DECEPTIVE
Monsanto and its supporters point to a growing uptake of Bt cotton as a ringing endorsement of the technology. But Indian journalist Ashok Sharma points out that the real reasons for the spread of the crop have little to do with its performance and a lot to do with aggressive marketing strategies.

Biotech companies also have friends like the Punjab chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, to do the job for them. In the previous year, Mr Singh involved the state agencies in promotion of sales of Bt cotton seeds. He even went public in campaigning for Bt cotton.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6605

+ INDO-U.S. FARM PACT TALKS IN PROGRESS
The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has had talks with the private sector in the run-up to the third meeting of the Indo-US Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture to be held in Washington DC June 6-7.

US private sector companies that have a major say in the decisions of the Initiative's Board are Monsanto, Wal-mart and Archer Daniels Midland. The Initiative has identified biotech as a major thrust area for which the Indian side is under pressure to create "public awareness.''

Monsanto-Mahyco recently sought permission for field trials of GM brinjal, after its attempts to get permission for GM mustard were met with huge opposition from Punjab where mustard greens are a staple of the diet.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6602

+ REQUEST TO BAN BT COTTON IN WEST VIDARBHA
Farmers' group Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti has written to the chief minister of Maharashtra demanding a ban on Bt cotton in West Vidarbha, where 540 farmers committed suicide during the last season largely due to Bt cotton crop failure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6602

+ BAN BT COTTON: LETTER TO ANDHRA PRADESH AG MINISTER
P.V. Satheesh, of Indian NGOs South Against Genetic Engineering and AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, has written to the Andhra Pradesh agriculture minister to demand a ban on Bt cotton in the light of the group's study on the failure of the crop.

He writes, "What is it that we are going to lose if we do so except for saving the royalty adding up to of billions of rupees that Monsanto collects for its Bt gene and ploughs back into USA? Is it right for us to make the poor Indian farmer pay for the greed of one of the most profit hungry multinational?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6617
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6624

+ ANDHRA PRADESH DEMANDS MONSANTO INSURE FARMERS AGAINST CROP FAILURE
India is the new battleground for the fight against GM crops. And this time, reports the Hindustan Times, it is the Andhra Pradesh government, and not just NGOs, who have taken the lead.

The state has hosted a meeting of agriculture ministries from seven cotton-growing states to push for a drive against Monsanto for its high cost of Bt cotton seeds. One of its demands is that the company should insure farmers against any crop failure from Bt Cotton seeds. Several studies in Andhra and Maharashtra show the failure of Bt cotton in economic and yield terms, said P V Satheesh, convenor of AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity.

As the Bt cotton fight rages, NGOS have started a campaign against Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant), allowed by the environment ministry for field trials. "Only 15 days have been given for public feedback. The ministry has not given any test results of DNA modification. This haste is inexplicable," Kavita Kuruganti of CSA said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6624

+ MONSANTO LOSES INDIAN COURT APPEAL OVER GM SEEDS PRICES
The Supreme Court has refused to repeal the order of the Andhra Pradesh government which directed Monsanto to cut the price of its GM cotton seeds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6613

+ BATTING FOR MONSANTO: CHENGAL REDDY
The price of Monsanto's expensive Bt cotton seeds being cut by certain Indian states, led by Andhra Pradesh, should be a cause for rejoicing amongst those who genuinely think Bt cotton a boon to poor farmers, even though the price cut is considered bad news by Monsanto.

But GM lobbyist P Chengal Reddy is not happy at this outcome as he made clear in an article that topped CS Prakash's AgBioWorld listserv. Reddy tried out a whole series of often far-fetched arguments for opposing the price cut. Farmers will start demanding government price controls on tractors, he claimed, and he warned of demands for government subsidies next.

Why Reddy might be more concerned with Monsanto's profitability than that of poor farmers is not hard to understand. He has long had a close association with Monsanto and he once proposed that his 'farmers association' became the operational arm in Andhra Pradesh of The Indian Crop Protection Association (ICPA). The ICPA represents the leading agrochemical companies in India.

It's equally revealing that CS Prakash isn't welcoming the price cut but is circulating Reddy's complaints. Prakash has also had a long and dubious association with Monsanto's PR people.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6619

+ INDIA: FIELD TRIALS OF BT BRINJAL UNJUSTIFIED, SAYS NGO
Speak Out Salem, the activism wing of the Salem-based NGO Socio Economic Environment Development (SEED), has launched a campaign against the proposed large-scale field trials of four hybrids of Bt brinjal (aubergine/eggplant). They are also calling attention to biosafety violations in a Bt brinjal field trial in Andhra Pradesh.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6602

+ "EVENT-BASED" CLEARANCE FOR GM CROPS LIKELY IN INDIA
In a move that could fast-track release of new GM crops into the market, the central government is considering "event-based" clearance against the existing system of approving each individual hybrid or variety.

An "event", in biotech parlance, basically refers to a specific gene construct that can be incorporated in a number of existing hybrids or varieties. For instance, Monsanto's Bollgard is an event involving a series of steps developed by it for inserting cry1Ac (a foreign gene isolated from a soil bacterium, Bt) into a parental cotton line. This "event" can be replicated across other hybrids/varieties by backcrossing them with Bollgard.

In the current system of commercial release approvals, every GM hybrid/variety has to undergo a minimum three years of official trials, irrespective of whether it incorporates an existing or new "event".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6602

+ INDIA'S FOOD BILL TO CAUSE SPLIT IN GM REGULATION
Division of responsibilities relating to regulations of GM crops and food is likely in India.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6602

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THE AMERICAS
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+ MISSOURI "PRE-EMPTION" BILL PUSHED BACK BY FARMERS
Until it was pulled from consideration in the Missouri legislature's spring session, Senate Bill 1009 had promised a vigorous tussle between farmers, politicians and biotech lobbyists. SB 1009 called for giving the state power over the "regulation, labeling, sale, storage and planting of seeds."

Before the bill's language was changed late in the debate, it would also have prohibited the state from enacting any seed regulation exceeding federal requirements. The ceding of local control over crops planted - "pre-emption language" is the term favoured by proponents - isn't just happening in Missouri. More than 10 state legislatures have passed similar bills in recent sessions.

Missouri's Bootheel rice farmers had their antennae up because just last year a crisis erupted when GM pharmaceutical rice was to be planted near commercial rice fields. Plans to grow the pharma rice were scuttled only after Anheuser Busch, the largest buyer of Delta rice, threatened to stop buying the rice over fears of a beer consumer backlash.

"If (SB 1009) had passed, we'd have had no say about what could, or couldn't, be planted," says Sonny Martin, a Bootheel rice producer and chairman of the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council. "If (the bill) had been in place last year, Ventria could have come in here and planted their rice within 50 feet of all the commercial rice in the Bootheel. There would have been nothing we could've done about it.

"This is going to haunt us again. Hopefully, before it does, common sense will catch on. This needs to be talked out so people understand what's going on."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6618

+ BIOTECHS CALL THE SHOTS IN VERMONT
A letter published in a Vermont newspaper says the cancellation of the vote to override Gov. James Douglas' veto of the Farmer Protection Act (the Act would have made seed companies liable for GM contamination) may be a blessing in disguise, causing Vermonters to look at the issue in broader terms.

Rick Scharf writes:
The farmers who were opposed to the bill based their opposition on the fear that, when made to take responsibility for their product, genetically modified seed manufacturers would not be willing to sell in Vermont. The governor used this rumour as the basis for his veto despite a statement to the contrary from the industry spokesperson herself. Since there was no official threat, the biotech industry needed only to plant the rumour of a threat to get the hard-working farmers of Vermont who use GM seed to put on their green hats and fight their battle for them. The power that the industry wields over these farmers has never been clearer.

Even if this bill had passed, it would only have altered the playing field on which a Vermont farmer could do battle with Monsanto in the courts. The contamination will have already occurred and the farmer will face an endless court battle against Monsanto, its infinite resources and its team of corporate lawyers.

We, the people of Vermont, need to first address the question of who should wield power in a democracy: the few or the many. If seed manufacturers can prevent the passage of law merely with the rumour of a threat, then they have usurped our authority to govern ourselves. Change begins with the acceptance that we are not currently self-governing, the knowledge that we are capable as citizens to make the decisions that affect our lives, and the courage to accept nothing less than real democracy ...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6603

+ SANTA CRUZ COUNTY EYES GM BAN
Santa Cruz county in California is one step closer to seeing a ban on the cultivation of GM crops. Supervisors have unanimously agreed to develop an ordinance that would place a "precautionary" moratorium on the use of GM crops. The ordinance will come before supervisors on June 20.

The supervisors' action was prompted by a study of the laws and risks associated with such crops conducted by the county's agriculture commissioner and two public health experts. The authors of the study suggested a moratorium because too little is known about the effects of GMOs on human health and the environment. The future viability of organic agriculture is also at risk, the report states.

Some counties, including Trinity, Mendocino and Marin already have imposed bans on GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6620

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EUROPE
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+ EUROPE HAS LITTLE GM CORN
A report in German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau says the area sown with GM crops in Germany is "minuscule". Half of the applications submitted to the Central Registry have been withdrawn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6616

+ FRENCH MINISTER OK'S 17 OUTDOOR GM TRIALS
The French minister of agriculture, Dominique Bussereau, has authorized 17 new outdoor field tests with GM corn and tobacco. These include two projects about producing pharmaceuticals from plant, three about herbicide tolerance, ten about insecticide resistance, one about drought tolerance and another about the onset of blossoming.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6614

+ BASF BOSS SAYS "GET OUT OF THE EU"!
Hans Kast, chairman of industry group EuropaBio and CEO of the GM corporation BASF, says European countries which want to be GM free "should not be in the EU".

A Greenpeace spokesman in Wales, which is seeking to be GM free, said, "GM companies are effectively sticking two fingers up to the people of Wales, telling them that they're going to have GM anyway."

Mick Bates, environment spokesman for the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said, "It is up to the people of Wales to decide whether they want to grow GM crops in their fields - and overwhelmingly they do not."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6601

+ GM SOY ENDANGERS RIVER DANUBE AREA
NGOs Greenpeace Romania and Save the Danube and the Delta - Academia Catavencu have held a conference aimed at drawing attention to the danger posed by GM soy in the River Danube Delta area.

The organizations brought evidence that GM soy is illegally cultivated in the Delta region, habitat to over 1,600 species of plants and over 3,400 species of animals.

"Growing GM soy and using the extremely toxic herbicide Roundup Ready is a serious aggression" to the environment and people's health, said Greenpeace Romania's Anamaria Bogdan.

The cultivation of GM crops is due to be banned entirely in Romania from January 2007.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6623

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ RADIO NZ ITEMS ON GM CORN SAFETY WORRIES
There are concerns that Food Standards Australia and New Zealand may be about to allow a type of GM corn into the country. Monsanto wants to use the GM corn in New Zealand to fatten animals. Monsanto wants a safety clearance in case the corn turns up in human food by mistake. But scientists say once approved for that, it could be used in our food without further approval.

They claim the corn has only been tested in its raw state. "The most likely types of hazards to arise from this corn will arise after cooking and processing," says Jack Heineman from the Centre for Integrated Research on Biosafety. The scientists say the GM corn could cause cancer, diabetes and heart problems once cooked.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6607

Radio NZ reports on this story:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/mnr/ge_corn
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ckpt/corn_food_safety

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GM MEDICINES
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+ QUESTIONS OVER THE FIRST "PHARMED" DRUG APPROVAL
Recently the first medicine produced from a GM animal was recommended for use in Europe. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) reversed an earlier decision not to issue a licence for the drug, Atryn, which is extracted from the milk of goats engineered to carry a human gene involved in inhibiting blood clots.

But an editorial in the staunchly pro-GM journal Nature Biotechnology about EMEA's original decision to turn down the Atryn application back in February raises some interesting concerns about this kind of transgenic product. Atryn was rejected because the drug company, GTC did not present enough appropriate data to allay EMEA's concerns about its immunogenicity (ability to produce an immune response, in this case an adverse effect):

EXCERPT FROM 'NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY':
The problem is that it is pretty difficult for transgenics producers to produce 'nature-identical' proteins in milk. In cows and sheep and GTC's bioreactor of choice, the goat, the oligosaccharide decoration on proteins typically contains N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NGNA), a monomer virtually absent in native human proteins... In fact, only in rabbits and chickens are the oligosaccharides more human-like...

Thus, if immunogenicity of milk-produced proteins turns out to be a generic problem, then a whole class of transgenic production methods may turn out to have a limited future. Chicken milk, anyone?
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6610