MONTHLY REVIEW No. 37

GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 37
Claire Robinson, editor

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
OTHER CONTAMINATION STORIES
ENVIRONMENT
GM FAILURES
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
CORPORATE CRIMES
GM APPLICATIONS AND EXPANSIONS
BIOFUELS
BIOPIRACY
PATENTS
NON-GM SUCCESSES
LOBBYWATCH
RESISTANCE
RESEARCH

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GM RICE CONTAMINATION SCANDAL
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+ WORLD'S BIGGEST RICE PROCESSOR SUSPENDS ALL US IMPORTS
Spanish food group Ebro Puleva said it has suspended rice imports from the US in August over fears that shipments contained GM grain. "We are importing from other countries, except for China, which also uses transgenic seeds," an Ebro spokeswoman said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7085

+ JAPAN WIDENS TESTING FOR LLRICE601
Japan's ministry of agriculture, fisheries, and forestry (MAFF) will start testing all US short- and medium-grain rice imports and existing rice stocks for the presence of Bayer's illegal GM rice, LLRICE601. Japan has already banned the import of US long-grain rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7073
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7074

+ JAPAN REFUSES TO ACCEPT US CERTIFICATION
The increased testing in Japan for the presence of the illegal GM rice line LL601 involves the taking of samples from cargoes before they are allowed to leave the US, flying those samples to Japan, and testing the samples in Japanese laboratories. Only then, once they have confirmed a cargo to be GM-free, will they allow a ship to cross the Pacific. Dr Brian John comments, "The Japanese authorities have clearly decided that the American certificates declaring rice cargoes to be 'GM free' are not worth the paper they are written on."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7083

+ "GM-FREE" RICE NOT GM-FREE - EU BOOSTS CHECKS
The European Union said it would reinforce controls on US long grain rice imports, after Dutch officials found an unauthorized GM variety in shipments certified as non-GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7052
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7056

+ "GENE-ALTERED PROFIT KILLER" - WASHINGTON POST
Washington Post (EXCERPT): The disclosure last month that American long-grain rice has become widely contaminated with traces of an experimental, gene-altered rice, Bayer's LL601, has provoked an economic crisis for farmers and reignited a long-smoldering debate over the adequacy of US oversight of biotech food.

"The damage has been done and it is still being done," said Adam J. Levitt, a partner in the Chicago office of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLC, who led a class action lawsuit that won $110 million for farmers after gene-altered and unapproved StarLink corn appeared in food in 2000. "They've really in a very substantial way poisoned the well."

Even if Bayer succeeds in deregulating LL601, farmers will still face international rejection - a potentially major hit, since most rice profits are from overseas sales.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7051

+ GM'S ECONOMIC NIGHTMARE
The painful economic impact of the illegal GM rice crisis - described some as "a catastrophe" - is only the latest instance of major economic damage being inflicted by the GM industry.

Thanks to GM, American farmers have already suffered the loss of their corn export market to the EU while US soybean exports to the EU, historically America's most lucrative overseas market, have also now "dropped to almost economically insignificant levels".

The Wall Street Journal reports that the latest GM contamination scandal is not just hitting farmers. It's also proving a major headache for the food industry: "Companies are struggling to find reliable suppliers and to avoid legal suits by testing their product lines." On top of that, "food importers may face costly legal challenges..."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7035

+ FOURTH LAWSUIT FILED OVER GM RICE
A fourth lawsuit has been filed by farmers against Bayer CropScience, accusing the company of negligence after its unapproved GM rice was found in the US food supply. The lawsuits seek damages for falling market prices and to offset the increased cost of testing rice crops and ensuring that fields are free of LL601.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6973
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7058

+ USDA TO RUBBER-STAMP CONTAMINATION OF FOOD WITH ILLEGAL GM RICE
The US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) has initiated fast-track market approval of Bayer's illegal GM rice variety. If USDA grants approval, that would free Bayer from liability. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7006
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7018

+ US SUPPLY CHAIN "SEVERELY DISRUPTED"
A statement by the major UK rice importer Tilda Rice says, "The US supply chain to Europe is now severely disrupted."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7008

+ GM RICE CONTAMINATION WIDESPREAD
The European Commission has confirmed that 33 out of 162 rice samples tested positive for the LL601 strain. The contaminated rice has been withheld from the market.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7014

+ EFSA SAFETY STATEMENT WORTHLESS - PROOF
The statement issued by the European Food Safety Authority on 15 September asserting the probable safety of GM contaminated rice was scientifically irresponsible, says GM Free Cymru. It was based only upon highly selective data provided to it by Bayer, with large sections of the key scientific documentation blanked out.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7054

+ THE COVER-UP
Britain's official food safety watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, privately told supermarkets that it will not stop them selling illegal GM rice to the public. Peter Ainsworth, the shadow environment secretary, described the agency's conduct as "a massive scandal" and said it "smelt of a cover-up". He said he would be asking for an official investigation into whether the agency had broken the law.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7033

+ SCIENTIST CRITICISES FSA'S FAILURE
The UK FSA's failure to order the illegal rice's withdrawal has been strongly criticised by a former GM adviser to the US government's Environmental Protection Agency, Doug Gurian-Sherman. "We should be taking a more cautious approach," he said. "Risks should not be taken with public health for the convenience of companies or of government. It sets a very bad precedent to make safety assessments based on data that is incomplete." According to Gurian-Sherman, now with the Centre for Food Safety in Washington DC, there was not enough evidence to judge whether the contaminated rice was safe. "I wouldn't eat it myself," he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7041

+ LEGAL ACTION LAUNCHED AGAINST FSA
The response of the UK FSA to the crisis is so inadequate that Friends of the Earth is mounting a legal challenge against it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7042

+ POTENTIAL ALLERGENICITY OF GM RICE SPARKS CONCERN
In a statement, three leading scientists have expressed their concern about the unapproved experimental GM rice found in Europe in products from China. The GM rice contains a toxin with significant potential allergenicity, according to Professor Ian F. Pryme, Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, and Dr Christian Velot.

The rice contains a gene for the Cry1Ac protein, or possibly for a fusion Cry1Ab/Cry1Ac protein with similar immunogenic properties to Cry1Ac3. Cry1Ac, the scientists point out, "has not been approved for human consumption in any food crop and there is concern over its potential allergenicity." Research into the gene for Cry1Ac has found that "the Cry1Ac protoxin is a potent immunogen."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7023

+ FORMER BAYER CHIEF ON CONTAMINATION
The following statement made in 2000 by Dr Paul Rylott, former head of Bayer CropScience UK, is illuminating given the current contamination fiasco. Rylott was replying to a question about whether there was "any danger of cross-pollination" from GM crop trials: "OK, we know that cross-pollination will occur but we've got thirty years of experience to say we know how far pollen will travel. And therefore what we've done is we'll grow a GM crop at a distance away from a non-GM crop, so the people that want non-GM can buy non-GM, and the people that want GM can buy GM. The two will not get mixed up. Everybody will have the right to choose."
http://www.gmwatch.org/p2temp2.asp?aid=23&page=1&op=2

+ BAYER SEEKS EU APPROVAL FOR SIMILAR GM RICE
Bayer has applied for permission to market in the EU a Liberty herbicide-resistant rice similar to the banned contaminant LL601 rice.
http://www.cbgnetwork.com/300.html

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OTHER CONTAMINATION STORIES
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+ ILLEGAL GM CHINESE RICE DISCOVERED IN EUROPE
Greenpeace International has released findings that show illegal GM rice from China has contaminated food products in France, Germany and the UK. Greenpeace International has notified authorities that the illegal GM rice poses serious health risks and calls upon European governments to take immediate action to protect consumers.

GM WATCH COMMENT:
This latest contamination scandal appears to have arisen from collusion between GM scientists and a commercial company to sell GM seeds to Chinese farmers without informing them either that the seeds were GM or that it was illegal to plant them.

According to a report in the China Morning Post, this started five years ago and the man at the centre of the scandal is Zhang Qifa, "China's leading biotechnology scientist". The article says, "Most investigations identified Professor Zhang as the source of the illegal grain."
http://www.gmwatch.org/print-archive2.asp?arcid=5499
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6982
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6983

+ AUSTRALIA: HUMAN ERROR "PROBABLE CAUSE" OF GM CANOLA CONTAMINATION
Human error has been identified as the most likely cause of the GM contamination of Australian conventional canola two years ago. Does anyone believe this is a controllable technology?
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6996

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ENVIRONMENT
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+ GM CROPS WIPING OUT MONARCH HABITAT
You may have thought the problem was monarch butterfly larvae dying when they fed on Bt corn pollen, but it doesn't stop there. An article in the Boston Globe says that the advent of GM crops means that milkweed, the only plant on which the monarch feeds, is being eradicated from America's farmlands under the onslaught of Roundup. The article points out, "The GM switch meant the loss of 80 million acres of monarch habitat..."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6993

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GM FAILURES
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+ GM CASSAVA FOR AFRICA FAILURE
The Monsanto-backed Donald Danforth Center's research on GM cassava has failed. The Danforth Center has been heavily involved in a Disease-Resistant Cassava for Kenya Project, with funding from USAID, for the past seven years. However, on the 26 May 2006, the Danforth Center quietly announced that it had discovered that its GM virus-resistant varieties of cassava had lost resistance to the African cassava mosaic virus (CMVD). This failure demolishes the claim on the Danforth Center's website that "transgenic plants developed at the Danforth Center have demonstrated strong resistance to the disease in greenhouse trials over multiple years."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6979

GM cassava is destined not to feed hungry, but for biofuels, admits Danforth Center scientist:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7011

+ INDIA: WILTING Bt COTTON
A new disease has appeared on Bt cotton in India's Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh. The disease is called bronze wilt and there is no treatment for it. Scientists say that the disease is more prevalent in Canada and America. The affected Bt cotton plants are drying up and dying within 3-4 days of initial signs of infection.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6969

+ FARMERS UPROOT WILTED BT COTTON
Farmers in Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh, who planted Bt cotton have started uprooting it, unable to watch the plants dying due to severe wilt. Since the beginning of Bt cotton cultivation in AP, every year disasters have visited it. In the first year, it yielded 35% less than the non-Bt cotton while costing four times more. In the third year, new diseases spread for the soils and the plant. Cattle which grazed Bt cotton plants started dying.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7001
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7015

+ ROUNDUP-RESISTANT PIGWEED A "NIGHTMARE"
North Caroline farmer Bill McGoogan plans to tackle his Roundup-resistant pigweed problem next year by using a complex weed management system. Ironically, the weed resistance problems afflicting farmers like McGoogan are the direct result of Roundup Ready crops that were supposed to make weed management ultra-convenient!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7072

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GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
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+ INDIA: SUPREME COURT SAYS NO TO GM PRODUCTS TILL FURTHER ORDERS
The Supreme Court has asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) not to give approvals to GM products until further orders. A three-judge bench gave the direction on an application filed by Aruna Rodrigues and others in a public interest litigation seeking a ban on the release of GMOs having the potential to cause major health hazards.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7059
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7063

+ WESTERN AUSTRALIA PARLIAMENT VOTES DOWN COMMERCIAL GM TRIALS
While mayhem has broken out in the US rice industry as a result of gene escape from GM trials several years back, the Liberal Party in Western Australia is gagging to have commercial GM trials on the basis of pie in the sky about non-existent GM "frost-tolerant and salt-tolerant crops". However, the government does not support lifting the moratorium on GM crops, saying WA farmers are able to attract higher prices for their crops because international markets have reservations about GM food. Now, the WA Liberal Party proposal to allow commercial trials of GM canola has been defeated in Parliament. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7028

+ SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVT DEFENDS PLANNED GM CROP BAN EXTENSION

The South Australian government has defended its plan to extend a moratorium on growing GM crops, saying it has benefits in the global market. A ban is in place until 2007, but the government wants to extend it by a year to bring the state in line with the rest of the country.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7045

+ INDUSTRY STILL NOT READY FOR GM WHEAT
An updated report on the potential impact of GM wheat from Iowa State University grain market analyst, Bob Wisner, sounds a sombre warning about the potentially dire economic impact of GM crops. The report concludes, "Loss of the US corn export market in EU and the sharp downward trend in US soybean and soybean meal exports to EU are strong cautions to the wheat industry that GM issues in that market should be taken seriously." US soy exports to the EU have now "dropped to almost economically insignificant levels. Historically, the EU has been the largest overseas customer for US soybeans and often has been its largest foreign buyer of soybean meal."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6994
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7007

+ GM WHEAT DESIGNED TO SOLVE "YESTERDAY'S PROBLEM"
Syngenta and others are continuing to develop GM wheat that would protect a crop from fusarium head blight, or scab. But Todd Leake of Emerado, North Dakota, a commercial farmer and chairman of the DRC's Food Safety Task Force, called scab "yesterday's problem", noting the success of North Dakota State University's Alsen wheat variety with its "excellent Fusarium resistance." He said success of conventional techniques is something proponents of genetic modification "publicly ignore".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7007

+ MONSANTO BACKED GM BILL DIES IN LEGISLATURE
SB1056, a bill that would have pre-empted local laws placing restrictions on GMOs, failed to make it out of committee in the California Senate and died with the close of the legislative year.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6964
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6970

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ MONSANTO ON TRIAL IN FRANCE
Monsanto is on trial in Carcassonne, France, for having allegedly illegally imported, in 1999, 100 tonnes of soya seed contaminated with GM varieties.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7048

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GM APPLICATIONS AND EXPANSIONS
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+ GM FIELD TRIALS IN SOUTH AFRICA
The Agricultural Research Council has applied to run field trials of GM virus-resistant cassava near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7067

+ MONSANTO WAITS AS SOUTH AFRICA STALLS DECISION ON GM MAIZE
Monsanto is battling to get government approval to launch a new variety of GM maize.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7067

MONSANTO AND SYNGENTA TO EXPAND TESTING OF GM COTTON IN BURKINA FASO
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7067

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BIOFUELS
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+ ETHANOL COULD LEAVE THE WORLD HUNGRY
Syngenta hopes in 2008 to begin selling a GM corn designed to help convert itself into ethanol. But the growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food, says an article in Fortune Magazine.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7002

+ MONSANTO SAYS CONVENTIONAL BREEDING IS "QUICKER"
Monsanto says it wants to get into growing biofuel crops, but has rejected the use of GM. A spokesman says conventional breeding techniques are "quicker".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7021

+ BIOFUELS ARE GM TROJAN HORSE INTO EUROPE
The new interest in biofuels opens the door for GM oilseed rape and other GM seeds to be imported into Europe for processing into biofuels, warns the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside. The reality is that biofuels can be a "Trojan Horse" which bypasses existing controls and contaminates the seed chain.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6997

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BIOPIRACY
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+ BIOPIRACY OF INDIAN RICE
A report from India reminds us of how two years ago, Syngenta tried to snatch the germplasm of twenty thousand rice varieties from the state of Chhattisgarh. The varieties were kept by Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGKVV), Raipur, which, the report says, was doing a secret deal with Syngenta until a public outcry stopped it.

Now, germplasm of 18 local varieties from Jatropha have allegedly been stolen by a biotech company called D-One. Again, the medium for the robbery has been IGKVV. IGKVV has failed to protect the bio-resources of Chhattisgarh to which it is presumed to be the custodian.

IGKVV isn't always so generous with its resources. The varieties it tried to sell to Syngenta were collected from farmers by Dr R H Richharia in a publicly funded project. He documented them in a book called "The Encyclopedia of Rice". The university has kept the work unpublished and the information in it firmly out of the public domain. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6977

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PATENTS
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+ MONSANTO TRIES TO GRAB ARGENTINIAN ROYALTIES IN EUROPE
Monsanto's legal hacks are in European courts suing to block millions of tons of Argentine soybean meal from docking on the continent. By using its European patent to disrupt Argentina's lucrative soy-meal trade with Europe, the company hopes to strong-arm Argentine farmers into paying up.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7065

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NON-GM SUCCESSES
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+ HIGHER YIELDS, LOWER COSTS WITH ORGANIC COTTON
With India's indebted cotton farmers taking their own lives in ever increasing numbers after being ruined by expensive Bt seeds and other input costs, here's an eye catching study on organic cotton production in India.

Over a period of two years, an Indo-Swiss research team collected and compared agronomic data on 60 organic and conventional farms. They found the organic producers benefited from:
*40% lower input costs
*13-20% lower production costs
*a far lower need for loans
*total labour inputs not significantly higher, and
*4-6% higher cotton yields

GM WATCH COMMENT: This research comes on the heels of other strikingly successful examples of sustainable cotton production without pesticides or GMOs. The Indian government has an increasingly clear choice. It can either get behind such approaches and help farmers escape the debt-trap and the burgeoning scandal of farm suicides, or it can continue to cosy up to Bush and Monsanto and hype expensive GM seeds to its farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077

+ NEW NON-GM HYBRIDS DRIVE EGYPT'S WORLD-BEATING RICE YIELD
Egypt achieved the worlds highest national average rice yield in 2005, with production boosted by non-GM hybrids developed locally under an FAO-led project.

Whilst no GM crop variety has increased overall yield, non-GM techniques continue to do so, despite the fact that the biotech lobbyists keep saying conventional breeding has reached the end of the road and only GM offers a way forward! http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7004
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7021

+ NON-GM HYPOALLERGENIC CATS GO ON SALE
US biotech firm Allerca says it has managed to selectively breed hypoallergenic cats by reducing a protein that triggers allergic reactions. It was originally planning to use GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7068

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ MORE BULLDUST FROM OZ LOBBYISTS
Australia continues to boast some of the world's most shameless GM promoters. ABC News reports that CSIRO's plant industry deputy chief, Dr T J Higgins, claims that buyers overseas such as Japan are opening up to GM products, despite voicing opposition in the past. Unfortunately for Dr Higgins, this improbable claim comes at the same time that Japan is not only banning American long-grain rice because of possible GM contamination, but is also introducing testing on short- and mid-grain rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7076

+ "SINISTER SPINACH" - GOLDEN BULL AWARD
There's been a nasty E. coli outbreak in the US linked to fresh spinach, and the usual suspects have gone into immediate overdrive in an attempt to blame it onto organic farming (the spinach in question does NOT seem to have been organic).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7049

+ AGBIOVIEW'S WORLD OF GAMMON AND SPINACH
"What a world of gammon and spinach it is, though, ain't it?" - Charles Dickens

Faced with a succession of setbacks and calamities for GM, AgBioView, CS Prakash's regular round up of global GM news, has taken metaphorically to the hills, where it covers anything but the real GM issues of the day. The recent outbreak in the States of E. coli O157:H7 linked to spinach has come in useful. Here are the first 6 items from last Tuesday's bulletin:
* When Spinach Is Bad For You
* Organic Company Disputes Tainted Spinach Claim
* Utah family joins suit against spinach producer
* Restaurant sues over lost spinach
* 21 reasons not to waste your money on organic
* Question and some answers on spinach

On other days, AgBioView brought us more of the same, including "Iowa seeks manure ban on soybean crops" and praise for the World Health Organisation for approving the use of DDT against malaria.

Of course, you can't entirely blame the GM lobby for "Operation: Anything But!" It was the week in which the New York Times featured the suicide of a Bt cotton farmer in India, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post reported on the GM rice crisis with headlines like "Gene-altered profit killer", the South Australian government was extending its GM ban, India's Supreme Court was calling a halt to new GM trials... oh, and the Royal Society lambasted Exxon for funding climate-change-denying lobby groups like the one that co-founded Prakash's AgBioView!

Clearly, not a lot there to encourage the troops, hence the relentless diet of spinach, washed down with liberal helpings of DDT and manure.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7066

+ ROYAL SOCIETY BLASTS ITS PALS
The Royal Society has taken issue with Exxon over its funding of lobby groups which engage in climate change denial. Among the groups mentioned in an article in The Guardian are the International Policy Network (IPN) and the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

The article notes that senior figures in the CEI "have described global warming as a myth", while the IPN "jointly published a report with the UK group the Scientific Alliance which claimed that global temperature rises were not related to rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere."

The joke is of course that many of those involved in these lobby groups have been among the Royal Society's staunchest allies in the GM debate.

The CEI, for instance, actually co-founded CS Prakash's AgBioWorld campaign, and the CEI's Greg Conko serves as AgBioWorld's Vice-President.

The climate-change denying Scientific Alliance has an Advisory Forum that is dominated by fervent GM supporters, e.g. Anthony Trewavas, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and Vivian Moses, who is the Chair of the biotech industry backed lobby group CropGen, and who like Trewavas is on the Advisory Council of Sense About Science - a lobby group which has worked hand-in-glove with the Royal Society.

For much more on the RS and the lobbyists:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7050

George Monbiot article on the climate change lobbyists: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7070

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RESISTANCE
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+ INDEPENDENT EXPERT COMMITTEE SET UP ON BT BRINJAL
Indian civil society groups announced the setting up of an "Independent Expert Committee" to look into the biosafety claims for BT Brinjal (eggplant), to assess the need for Bt brinjal in India and to suggest a future course of action to the government. The official Expert Committee, say the groups, is plagued with conflicts of interest.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7062

+ THAI COURT CLEARS ACTIVISTS OF THEFT AND TRESPASS
Thailand's Khon Kaen provincial court has acquitted two Greenpeace activists, who raided the Department of Agriculture's GM papaya plantation two years ago, of theft and trespass charges.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7036

+ SECOND SUSTAINABLE AG ACTIVIST SLAIN IN PHILIPPINES
Ka Victor Olaivar, a member of the Bohol farmers' network fighting against GMOs and palm oil plantations, was gunned down in cold blood in Cantubod, Danao on September 7, 2006. Bohol was the first province in the Philippines to declare itself GMO-free. His murder follows the slaying earlier this year of Ilagan City Mayor, Delfinito "Jojo" Albano, who supported peasant protests against the spread of GM crops in the Philippines. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7016

+ DAIRY PROCESSORS MAKE HORMONE-FREE SWITCH
America's dairy processors are increasingly seeking rBST-free dairy supplies, as the demand for additive-free foods begins to exert its influence on the market. rBST is Monsanto's GM growth hormone that is injected into a cow to increase milk production.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7039

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RESEARCH
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+ WILL GM FOODS CAUSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS?
A Michigan State University researcher has developed the first animal model to test whether GM foods could cause human allergic reactions. Venu Gangur, MSU assistant professor of food science and human nutrition, has received a $447,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to validate the test.

GM WATCH COMMENT: This work, if successful, may allow a test to become commercially available in another 5 years, i.e. 15 years after GM foods started being widely consumed.

And it's worth remembering that, even if successful, it will only enable the testing of the target protein in the GM food, whereas the process of GM - with its random insertion of genetic material - is so inherently imprecise that it can trigger unpredictable changes in proteins. Such changes can be difficult to identify, let alone test for.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7075