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WEEKLY WATCH number 202
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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
In a shamefully cynical act, the US has deregulated Bayer's contaminant GM rice, thus letting the company off the legal hook. Not surprisingly, the act has made no difference to the worldwide non-acceptance of US rice imports (GM RICE CONTAMINATION).
A tragic new wave of farmer suicides in Maharashtra is being directly attributed to the huge losses made by farmers lured into growing GM cotton by promises of a bumper harvest. (ASIA)
And don't miss the RESEARCH section for two exciting non-GM plant breeding breakthroughs. Interestingly, articles about both have been posted onto the pro-GM AgBioView list as if they were GM successes!
Claire
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
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CONTENTS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
ASIA
CORPORATE DECEPTION
LOBBYWATCH
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
RESEARCH
EUROPE
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
BIOFUELS
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GM RICE CONTAMINATION
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+ USDA "DEREGULATES" DISPUTED GM RICE
The US Dept of Agriculture said on 24 November that it has "deregulated" a strain of GM rice that has contaminated world rice supplies.
A USDA spokesman said the rice could now be grown without oversight from the department.
"With this decision, USDA is telling agricultural biotechnology companies that it doesn't matter if ... you contaminate the food supply with untested genetically engineered crops, we'll bail you out," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety.
"In effect, USDA is sanctioning an 'approval-by-contamination' policy that can only increase the likelihood of untested genetically engineered crops entering the food supply in the future, and further erode trust in the wholesomeness of US food overseas.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7322
+ USDA APPROVES BUT TRADE STILL FETTERED
EXCERPT from Reuters report:
US regulators' latest move to sanction a strain of biotech rice may do little to soothe lingering doubts about the oversight of genetically modified foods destined for export markets, analysts and industry groups said this week.
"This is just a question of reputation," said Steve Suppan, a senior policy analyst for the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. If exporters can't guarantee the crops they sell to other countries are GMO-free, "what is that going to do to the overall ability of US rice exporters?"
"We have zero tolerance in the EU for this. It shouldn't be on the shelf," said Canice Nolan, who heads food safety for the European Commission's delegation to the United States.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7338
+ CONTAMINATED RICE DUMPED IN AFRICA
Testing has confirmed that contamination by illegal GM rice LL601 has occurred in Ghana and Sierra Leone, the main African recipients of rice as commercial imports and food aid from the US. Campaign groups in Africa are calling for an immediate recall of the contaminated products.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7318
Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety commented, "The approval of GM rice right after it has been found in US food aid sent to Africa is a blatant insult to our people. USDA's stamp of approval to genetically engineered rice after it has illegally contaminated the food supply completely erodes all trust in the US Food System."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7327
+ CONTAMINATED RICE TURNS UP IN PHILIPPINES
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7337
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ASIA
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+ NEW BT COTTON DISASTER IN MAHARASHTRA
An article in The Hindu directly contradicts claims of a "bumper crop" of Bt cotton in the main cotton growing belt of Maharashtra, India, where since June last year a staggering 1132 farmers have taken their own lives.
According to the the farmers' campaign group
Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) all the recent cotton growers' suicides have been due to "the mass failure of Bt cotton."
Claims of bumper harvests from Bt cotton have been put about not just by GM lobbyists but by ministers in the Maharashtra government.
The article is by the rural affairs editor of The Hindu, P Sainath - winner of the Prem Bhatia Award for journalistic excellence.
EXCERPT:
"Bumper crop? Where are you living?" Mohan Maratrao Patil wants to know. "My family has 45 acres here in Yavatmal - and all we've managed is 80 quintals of cotton so far. At best, we'll get another 80. We've lost [hundreds of thousands] of rupees." That his lands are irrigated has not helped. "Find me the farmer who has had that great harvest." Mr Patil, a Bt cotton grower in Vanjiri, scoffs at the notion of a bumper crop.
The idea was aired by the government of Maharashtra itself. The state's minister of marketing, Harshvardhan Patil, told the press more than once that he expected a huge rise in cotton production this year. Some reports had him predict a "bumper crop" of 350 lakh quintals. Others had him peg it at a more modest 300 quintals. Either way, this would mean a huge increase of 30-40 per cent over the official estimate for last year.
On the ground, in any of the six "crisis" districts of Vidharbha, this "bumper crop" is hard to spot. Farmers report huge losses. Official reports tend to confirm their claims.
FOR MORE OF THIS IMPORTANT ARTICLE, READ ON AT:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7323
+ GM FIELD TRIALS FACE THE IRE OF CHATTISGARH STATE GOVERNMENT
The Chattisgarh state government has ordered an inquiry into a Bt rice trial near the state capital of Raipur. State officials have expressed displeasure at the fact that they have not been informed about the trial even though conditions imposed on the company prescribe that it should inform the local and state authorities about the trial. For the first time in the history of GM crop development in India, a state minister had to rush to the trial spot to undertake damage control exercises as the local media and activists started reporting violations.
State agriculture minister Nankiram Kawar visited the Bt rice trial plot and ordered the immediate destruction of the remaining crop in the field by burning.
As the protest against GM rice rages through Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu, Greenpeace India is pushing for an organically grown rice combining traditional farming with cutting-edge technology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7316
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7325
+ EXPORTERS WORRIED OVER GM RICE REJECTION
Indian rice exporters are concerned over the growing rejection of GM across the world. Recently producers in major rice exporting countries - Thailand and Vietnam - signed agreement to keep GM rice out of cultivation. The All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) has woken up to the situation and have asked the government not to allow any field trials or commercial cultivation of GM rice in the country.
"[This] country earns millions of dollars in foreign exchange due to export of rice. India's long grain aromatic rice - basmati has a premium market abroad," said RS Seshadri of Tilda Riceland - a major exporter of basmati rice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7337
+ FORMAL COMPLAINTS LODGED AGAINST MAHYCO FOR VIOLATIONS IN GM RICE FIELD TRIAL
After investigations by activists and media in Chattisgarh revealed serious violations in the Environment Protection Act (EPA), the biosafety guidelines for GM-related research and of the conditional clearance for trials given to Mahyco in the case of a Bt rice plot outside Raipur city, activists of Richharia Campaign lodged formal complaints against the company with the local police station and the district magistrate of Raipur.
The police complaint against the company pointed out violations including public nuisance and negligent conduct related to hazardous material. The complaint to the magistrate was based on a clause in the Environment Protection Act, 1986, which prescribes imprisonment for up to five years.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7336
+ CALL FOR CONSTANT VIGIL AGAINST GM RICE TRIALS
The Organic Farming Association of India's Orissa chapter has appealed to the farmers and their organisations to be on constant vigil against the attempts by any companies and research institutions to conduct open-air trials of Bt rice in the state.
Expressing shock over reports that a firm had conducted a field trial on Bt rice without taking due permission in a neighbouring state, the OFAI said Jeypore tract in Koraput district is known as the centre of origin of rice.
It is said that the district is home to more than 300 indigenous varieties of paddy. There has been depletion of indigenous varieties of rice. According to reports, the number of local land races of rice is now only about 150. So there is an urgent need to take all possible measures to ensure that state's existing local varieties of rice do not get contaminated due to Bt rice, the organisation said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7341
+ A HUNDRED FARM SUICIDES A MONTH IN VIDARBHA
According to the roster maintained by farm activist Kishor Tiwari's Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, the toll of farmer suicides in Vidarbha since June 2005 has reached a staggering 1140 with the last five months accounting for 533.
Squarely blaming the state's agriculture policies, particularly those pertaining to cotton for the continuing distress, Tiwari has accused the government of deliberately giving out false predictions of bumper cotton crop in order to ensure low prices for the private traders and favour Monsanto.
Tiwari said while state marketing minister Harshvardhan Patil predicted cotton crop to the tune of 35 million quintal, the actual yield is not even half that.
The farm activist also refuted the government claim that the low yield is due to spurious Bt cotton seed saying that there was no spurious cotton seed in the market since Monsanto had lowered their prices from Rs.1780 per bag to Rs.750. "The low yield is because of the genuine Bt cotton, which is highly uneconomic and known to fail in rain-fed farming," he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7341
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CORPORATE DECEPTION
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+ BAYER'S DANGEROUS DECEPTION
AN ARTICLE in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Bayer's Dangerous Deception - Hiding the Evidence of Adverse Drug Effects" describes Bayer's suppression of information that its drugs were not as safe as it claimed.
This has major relevance to the whole system of regulation of GM crops and foods - a system almost entirely built on the disclosure of information by the applicant, ie companies like Bayer.
As the FDA states it in its 'Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties': "Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety."
And as the NEJM article notes, it is now known not only that Bayer has suppressed damaging evidence of possible adverse drug effects, but that it has also deliberately avoided acquiring such evidence in the first place: "litigation uncovered a memorandum from a company executive arguing against performing a study of [a Bayer drug's] risk. 'If the FDA asks for bad news, we have to give," read the memo, "but if we don't have it, we can't give it to them.'"
The article concludes that, "It is naive to expect companies to voluntarilyfund studies that could sink lucrative products", while "the FDA lacks the regulatory clout to require them".
Or as a director of corporate communications at Monsanto once put it: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
In fact the FDA, it asks, but does not require, companies to submit data only when GM crops contain gene products from plants that commonly cause allergies or contain genes that code for novel proteins. Anything else the company submits is also entirely voluntary.
With this kind of regulatory oversight, we're left almost entirely in the hands of companies like Bayer.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7348
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ AS MILLIONS STARVE, ALARMISTS BLOCK FAMINE SOLUTIONS
An article called "As millions starve, alarmists block famine solutions" has appeared widely in the US press post-Thanksgiving (mostly under the heading "Famine in a time of solutions"), courtesy of Scripps Howard News Service.
It would be great if any of our American subscribers wanted to write in to any of the papers involved to challenge what is, knowingly or otherwise, nothing other than black propaganda. (Google on "Famine in a time of solutions" to identify some of the places this was published.)
Its author - Jay Ambrose - is, we are told, "formerly Washington director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard newspapers and the editor of dailies in El Paso, Texas, and Denver..." It's extremely depressing that such an experienced journalist should make so little effort to establish the truth.
EXTRACT: Already, alarmist groups have exacted tragedy as the price for their exaggerated fears and peculiar reasoning - once by persuading the president of Zambia to decline genetically modified corn from the United States during a famine.
"There is something insane about food aid rotting while people starve due to disinformation campaigns," wrote a Tanzanian physician, Michael Mbwille ...
GM WATCH COMMENT: The only tragedies to do with GM have occurred where it has been hyped - not where it has been opposed. The farmer suicides in India, exacerbated by Bt cotton, are an all too topical example.
As we've repeatedly pointed out in the past, there was no tragedy in Zambia. And, ironically, it is the claims to the contrary that constitute the "disinformation campaigns" against which Ambrose rails. That disinformation campaign can be traced back directly to the likes of Monsanto. READ ON...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7330
+ DDT-PROMOTING GM PROMOTERS
A handful of advocates have mounted an aggressive campaign accusing environmental advocates of racism and promoting widespread use of DDT in Africa. They will be familiar to readers of GM Watch:
***Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) - in 2005 CORE produced a Monsanto-funded video called 'Voice from Africa' promoting the use of genetically modified crops in Africa;
***Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) - staff have links with free-market think tanks critical of the environmental movement, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Institute of Economic Affairs and Tech Central Station;
***Paul Driessen - senior policy advisor for CORE and for the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, a "Wise Use" think tank that includes Ron Arnold - a man who has called publicly for the killing of environmentalists and has been a spokesman for Dow and Union Carbide.
More: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7339
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THE AMERICAS
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+ NO IMPUNITY GRANTED TO KILLERS OF SILVINO
The people responsible for the death of the Paraguayan boy Silvino Talavera by poisoning with agrochemical spraying will go to jail. Talavera and his family lived amidst a monoculture of Monsanto's Roundup Ready GM soy.
In 2003, when Silvino was 11 years old, he was sprayed with a toxic cocktail used on the Roundup Ready fields. The spraying led to his death and also contaminated the food Silvino was carrying, consequently poisoning 22 members of his family.
Now the people most directly responsible for this tragedy will not escape justice. The Paraguayan Supreme Court has declared the extraordinary cessation request submitted by the defence lawyer of Alfredo Lautenschlager and Herman Schlender, as inadmissible. This means they will go to jail for two years for causing general risks and homicide. Lautenschlager and Schlender owned the land on which the spraying of the GM crops took place.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7345
+ MONSANTO MAN - "SCIENTIST TO HUMANITARIAN"
A piece of hokum in Monsanto's home-town rag the St Louis Post-Dispatch paints Monsanto man Rob Horsch as a "humanitarian" as he prepares to leave for a new post at the Gates Foundation, where his job will include pushing GM crops into the third world.
And while his future employment with the Gates Foundation is presented as a less restricted extension of his "rewarding" "humanitarian" role at Monsanto, the latter always had a decidedly self-interested purpose. In an earlier interview Horsch described his role in the company as twofold: to "create goodwill and help open future markets" for Monsanto.
Both aspects of his role are perfectly illustrated by the most famous project Horsch initiated for Monsanto - the GM sweet potato project fronted by Florence Wambugu. That project was a huge success in terms of public relations - generating an enormous amount of media hype - while also helping open doors to GM in Africa.
The only thing the project failed to do was get a useful product out to the farmers it was supposedly helping.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7328
+ U.S. BANS VEGEMITE?!
The US regulatory authorties may be gung ho about GM but they are reported to have banned Vegemite (Marmite to the Brits), even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country. The bizarre crackdown was prompted because great Aussie icon has apparently been deemed technically illegal under US food laws.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7320
+ CANADIAN CANOLA STILL BANNED FROM EUROPE DESPITE WTO
At the end of last week the Canadian government went into overdrive promoting the WTO ruling on Europe's GMO moratorium as a "victory" for GM farmers in Canada:
International trade minister David Emerson remarked, "The Canadian government says farmers stand to make big gains from a [WTO] trade ruling that opens European markets to genetically modified organisms (GMOs)."
But in fact, "Nothing has changed," said Diane Wreford, assistant vice president of public affairs for the Canola Council of Canada. "There has been no victory ... each GM canola event (variety) must still be approved by the EU before the commodity can be imported."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7335
+ GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEEDS UNDERMINE CONSERVATION TILLAGE, COSTS FARMERS
Glyphosate-resistant horseweed has set back conservation tillage efforts in Tennessee, says Larry Steckel, extension weed scientist with the University of Tennessee. Farmers are having to resort to the long-abandoned practice of disking (harrowing) in an attempt to get rid of the weed, which has proliferated because of the use of GM glyphosate-tolerant crops.
Arkansas weed scientists estimate a 15 percent reduction in conservation tillage in their state due to glyphosate resistance. Similar trends have been reported in Mississippi and the Bootheel of Missouri.
Weed scientists say glyphosate-resistant horseweed and pigweed can be managed with a combination of herbicides, but it will cost growers more.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7343
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AFRICA
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+ OUTSIDE SOUTH AFRICA, AFRICAN NATIONS REJECT GM CROPS
Not enough is known about the potential risks of GM crops for Southern Africa to embrace the technology, according to scientists and government officials attending a conference at Victoria Falls.
Reverend Forbes Matonga, national director of Christian Care, which organized the conference, said that all of the countries in Southern Africa with the exception of South Africa share the view that caution is warranted on GM crops until the verdict is in.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7317
+ BURKINA FASO'S GM COTTON CAUSES CONCERN
Africa's largest producer of cotton, Burkina Faso, was to introduce GM cotton to the market in June 2007. COPAGEN and another regional organisation called JINKUN said in a statement that the Burkina government had begun trials of Bt cotton in 2003 without first setting up any regulatory controls, under pressure from Monsanto and Syngenta, and the US state departments for development aid and farming.
The statement said, "...there are a number of solutions other than GMOs, solutions that are scientifically controllable, economically profitable and socially sustainable."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7329
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ MORE GM CONTAMINATED SEEDS IN NZ
A bungle at the border, reports the New Zealand Press Association, has let nearly two tonnes of sweet corn seed into the country to be planted even though it is "contaminated" with
GM seeds.
This is just the latest inadvertent import of GM seed. One incident sparked the "Corngate" political row that dominated much of the 2002 election campaign.
In 2005, NZ farmers expressed frustration when a big maize consignment was found to be contaminated by GM material - endangering export markets - and proposals were made for as much as 13,500 tonnes of
maize to be dumped.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7346
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RESEARCH
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+ MARKER ASSISTED SELECTION PRODUCES HIGH-NUTRIENT WHEAT
Researchers at University of California at Davis have developed a wheat variety that contains high levels of protein, iron, and zinc. GM is not involved: the researchers used marker assisted selection to utilize a gene found in wild wheat but not in domestic varieties.
While much-hyped GM crops like Golden Rice are still years away from going into farmers' fields, this biofortified wheat joins a growing list of non-GM successes, some of which are already being tried out by farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7326
+ NON-GM SUCCESS CLAIMED AS GM SUCCESS STORY!
A BBC report that GM Watch posted reporting the non-GM wheat success story (above) specifically noted that the UC Davis team were breeding these wheat varieties "not by genetic engineering".
But that hasn't stopped CS Prakash's AgBioView from now posting an article which not only claims the biofortified wheat as a *GM* success story but uses it to deliver a sermon on the subject - ridiculing "traditionalists" for their "shrieks of terror" at GM when "it may be the key to improving worldwide standards of living".
Perhaps we'll next see the flood tolerant rice created through conventional breeding (below) claimed as a GM success story, even though the researchers' decided not to produce the flood tolerant plants via GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7344
+ NON-GM NEW FLOOD TOLERANT RICE
An Associated Press article reports on the exciting development of new varieties of flood-tolerant rice that can survive long submergence under water.
Unfortunately, a photo caption with the article could easily confuse people into thinking that this exciting development is a GM success story, when it is exactly the opposite. The photo caption reads: "A rice stalk at UC Davis is inspected by researcher Xia Xu. The plants have been genetically modified to survive totally submerged in water."
Needless, to say the story has gone out on pro-GM lists.
In fact, the gene bred successfully into the plants described in the article was not a transgene. The breeding was conventional but assisted by the non-GM method of marker assisted selection.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7340
+ GM SOYA FED RATS: STUNTED, DEAD, OR STERILE
Dr Irina Ermakova continues to update her research on GM food and feed amid a continuing campaign of denial and misrepresentation by our regulators - despite the fact that her funding has been cut and she has been advised not to pursue this line of study.
Female rats fed GM soya produced excessive numbers of severely stunted pups with over half of the litter dying within three weeks, and the surviving pups are sterile.
UK regulator ACNFP cites a study that supposedly dismisses Ermakova's findings. But Dr Maewan Ho reports that this study doesn't even give the beginning weights of the rats and no testing to ascertain that the two supposedly different diets fed to the rats contained GM and non-GM soy.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/GMSoyaFedRatsFull.php
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7333
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EUROPE
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+ EU TO DEBATE APPROVING FIRST "LIVE" GMOS IN 8 YEARS
Next month, for the first time in eight years, EU experts debate whether to let farmers grow Bayer's biotech potatoes. The EU's last approval of a GMO product for cultivation was in 1998. Shortly after, the bloc started its de facto moratorium on new biotech authorisations that ended in 2004. Still, no more "live" GMOs have gained EU approval since that time.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7334
+ UK GOVERNMENT OK's GMO POTATO TRIALS
The British government is giving German chemicals group BASF permission for the first trials of GM crops in the UK since 2003, the Financial Times reported. The company will be allowed to conduct two trials to produce GM potatoes, the newspaper said, without citing sources.
The GM potatoes were likely to be planted from April next year on two plots of land, one hectare each, in Cambridgeshire and Derbyshire, in central England, according to the FT.
"These GM trials pose a significant contamination threat to future potato crops," Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth was quoted in the FT as saying. "We don't need GM potatoes and there is no
consumer demand for them."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7347
+ HUNGARY RESTRICTS GM CROPS
Hungary's parliament has overwhelmingly backed legislation which severely restricts the planting of GM crops. Under the law, a buffer zone 400m (1,320ft) wide will have to exist between any GMOs and adjacent fields.
The written agreement of all landowners within that buffer zone will also be needed for planting to go ahead.
"This is Europe's, perhaps the world's, strictest GMO law," Agriculture Minister Jozsef Graf said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7334
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7331
+ RUSSIA WELCOMES U.S. PARTICIPATION IN ITS BIOSAFETY
In the bilateral agreement signed on 19 November by the US and Russia's economic and trade officials there was also a specific GMO document: US Russia Side Letter on Biotechnology.
Russian NGOs Eremurus Club and CIS Alliance for Biosafety say that this letter provides an opportunity for the US to influence the biosafety decision making process in Russia. This influence will range from consumer rights regulation to GM crops registration.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7342
+ BIGGEST RUSSIAN FOOD AND FEED IMPORTERS GO GM-FREE
Two major Russian food and feed importers have adopted a policy of only using non-GM products.
Sodruzhestvo, the biggest soya importer in Russia, which supplies 70% of all soya used in the Russian food and feed industry, has stated that it will turn its new factory currently under construction in Kaliningrad into a GM-free zone. The new oil-extraction and feed-processing plant will produce GM-free soya oils and feeds, GM-free maize and GM-free oilseed rape products.
Following the move by Sodruzhestvo the feed producer Rybflotprom, which controls 7% of the Russian feed market, also announced it has adopted a GM-free policy for all its products.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7324
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PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
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+ ASBESTOS - A REAL ASSET IN THE HOME
The Precautionary Principle is sometimes ridiculed by GM proponents as ridiculously overcautious.
GM has been going into processed foods in the US for about a decade, they argue, and nobody is known to have dropped down dead. The paucity of research, and preliminary studies suggesting possible problems, are similarly dismissed as not requiring further study.
In January 2004, Prof Peter Saunders of Kings College, London, as part of a presentation on the Precautionary Principle, talked about the history of asbestos.
Asbestos mining first started in Canada in 1879. A woman inspector in the UK first noticed health problems arising from its use about two decades later in 1898. In 1917 more evidence of harm from asbestos was obtained from research on rats. However, it was not until 1985 that the use of blue and brown asbestos was finally banned.
Prof Saunders said that it's estimated that there are still about 250,000 people yet to die from contact with asbestos in Western Europe over the next 35 years, due to past exposures.
As late as 1927, a jolly article appeared in the Guardian called "Asbestos - a real asset in the home". It's full of such gems as this: "asbestos mats can be obtained with charming embroidered, or otherwise decorated, slip covers. Asbestos tiles, such as are used for roofing purposes, are exceptionally useful in the kitchen, as a hot dish or saucepan can be placed on them without the fear of marking or burning the table."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7319
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BIOFUELS
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+ TURNING FOOD INTO FUEL: GM DROUGHT TOLERANT SOYBEAN AND ITS USE IN THE PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL
A new report on this subject from the African Centre for Biosafety is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7321
EXCERPT from the conclusion:
Ultimately, biofuels are not a green option. It is estimated that the replacement of all our fossil fuels consumption with biofuels would require at a minimum, 22% of the net primary productivity (NPP) of the Earth's current biota [living things] ...
It would be more energy efficient to lay a field of photovoltaic panels and get 200 times the amount of energy than it would be to plant maize on a hectare of land. However, the reason for planting maize should be for food and feed and not for producing food crops for the production of energy. Producing crops for the production of biodiesel is not only costly, but subverts valued human food and animal feed from direct use. Further, it would require economic inputs from government in order to be viable, inputs that could be more appropriately allocated within the current South African socio-economic context.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7321