from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
While the GM lobby love to accuse those who raise concerns about GM of 'scaremongering', they themselves are the biggest scaremongers of all. The latest crisis narrative that the GM lobby's busy spinning involves animal feed.
A whole host of voices are suddenly claiming that the current price hikes for livestock feed are due to Europe's failure to accept GM crops. But these price hikes affect grain generally and the real reason for rising prices is that farmers have massively switched to growing crops for agrofuels.
Every baker in the UK seems to grasp this fact - witness the notices that have gone up in bakers' shops over the past few months apologizing for the rise in bread prices and citing 'biofuel' expansion as the cause. But the GM lobby and their allies in the leadership of some of the farm unions choose to ignore the truth in order to find yet another excuse to push GM. (See SCAREMONGERING)
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 CONTAMINATION
GM - REDUCED YIELDS, INCREASED COSTS
SCAREMONGERING
EUROPE
MASSIVE REGULATORY FAILURE
SILENT INVASION
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
CLONING
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GM CONTAMINATION
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+ NEW GM CONTAMINATION INCIDENT IN US
According to a USDA, FDA, EPA press statement released late Friday (22nd), Dow reported approximately 53,000 acres of corn seed contaminated with an unapproved GM variety, were planted in the United States in 2007. Although the contaminated corn seed had been cultivated since 2006, it was apparently never detected till January 2008. The US Administration was told about the problem January 25th, and then took a month to come up with its response.
According to Dow, those tens of thousands of acres of contaminated corn all originated because pollen from some unapproved GM corn stalks growing in a research plot 'landed on a patch of approved stalks'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8803
+ HERBICIDE-RESISTANT GENES FOUND TO PERSIST IN WEEDS
From an excellent article in Canada's Star Phoenix on previously reported research conducted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, which found that herbicide-resistant genes escaping from GM canola into weedy relatives persisted over a 6-year period (EXCERPT): It's not supposed to happen, but it does. Genetically modified canola plants have been found to interbreed with a weed, producing a hybrid wild mustard that is resistant to the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup).
Significantly, these new hybrid weeds are persistent. Millions are spent on propaganda to calm the nerves of irrational consumers and other overwrought folks worried about the environment... First the propagandists said that genetically engineered plants wouldn't cross with weeds. When they did, they said the new hybrids wouldn't persist. They are unstable plants that die out after a year or two, so no need to worry. Now, new research from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists provides the first report of persistence and apparent introgression (stable incorporation of genes from one gene pool into another). The researchers found the herbicide resistance gene from Brassica napus moved into the gene pool of its weedy relative, Brassica rapa, under normal commercial field conditions. Persistence of the HR trait occurred during a six-year period. Contrary to the propaganda from the biotechnology industry, the scientific community is not entirely at ease with genetic engineering, and for good reason.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8778
+ FINAL WARNING FROM CANADIAN FARMERS TO AUSTRALIA
From a telling report in the Australian press on the Canadian farmers' recent speaking tour of Australia: Two Canadian farmers have warned that once Australia introduces GM canola, the country would be 'GM forever'. ... Guest speakers Terry Boehm, a grain farmer and vice-president of the Canadian Farmers Union, and Arnold Taylor, a farmer of 25 years from the Saskatchewan province of Canada, shared their experience of growing GM canola. 'We didn't realise what we were getting into,' Mr Boehm said. 'Canada is now a GM country. If we had a choice, we wouldn't have become a GM nation. 'Contamination takes place rapidly, there are many legal disputes over responsibility and ownership and we lost the European (export) market soon after GM canola was introduced to Canada. It was ultimately the end for our crops.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8778
+ JAPANESE TELL AUSTRALIA AGAIN, STAY GM-FREE
A delegation from the Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) visited the Australian Embassy in Tokyo to ask the new Australian government to ban GM canola. CUJ has 1,250 member organisations that represent over 2 million Japanese shoppers. Said Ms Michiyo Koketsu of Consumers Union of Japan, 'We were shocked to hear that your farmers who want to stay GM-free are scared to speak out, under company and agribusiness pressure for GM canola,. Said Ms Ryoko Shimizu of the Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector, a member of CUJ, 'In Canada, Monsanto and Bayer have also stopped selling GM-free canola seed as patented GM seed is more profitable, so all Canadian canola is GM now.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8786
+ CONSEQUENCES OF GM CROP CONTAMINATION ARE 'SET TO WORSEN'
The consequences of GM contamination will be much more serious with the next generation of GM crops, an influential group of US scientists has warned. GM contamination has already caused serious economic losses. But the consequences of contamination will be much more serious with crops that are altered to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals, the scientists argue. The crops could harm human health and be toxic to wild animals. Karen Perry Stillerman of the Union of Concerned Scientists says, 'Our perception is that some of them might be toxic, but all of them would certainly cause tremendous economic upheaval.' The group presented its findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8776
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GM - REDUCED YIELDS, INCREASED COSTS
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+ NON-GM COTTON MORE PROFITABLE
A multi-year study of GM and non-GM cotton cultivation in the Unites States, published in the January-February 2008 issue of Agronomy Journal, shows all types of GM cotton failed to give a better return than non GM cotton varieties. The authors conclude, 'When considered as a whole, no transgenic technology system provided greater returns than a nontransgenic system in any year or location.' Critically, in terms of profitability, GM cooton varietes did not do so well in terms of yields.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8797
+ EVEN POORER YIELDS/PROFITABILITY WITH BOLLGARD II
Monsanto is choosing not to pursue re-registration in 2009 of its Bollgard (single gene) Bt cotton because of insect resistance fears. After that only stacked gene (Bollgard 2) varieties of Bt cotton will be available. But these cost more and don't yield as well as single gene Bollgard - to such an extent that there's a warning it could cost cotton growers in the state of Georgia an extra $60-100 million a year, causing 'unprecedented profitability hardship' (in the words of UGA Extension Agent Scott Brown) to cotton producers. The production value of Georgia cotton is expected to fall by a minimum of $100 per acre.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8794
+ BOLLWORM RESISTANCE NOT A NEW PROBLEM
Recently published research showing bollworms are becoming resistant to Bt cotton in some parts of the US is being challenged by Arkansas entomologist, Randy Luttrell. Luttrell's main reason for this is particularly interesting: 'From the start, Bt cotton (Monsanto's Bollgard varieties) really didn't provide control of bollworms, and it was clear from the beginning that there were insects that survived,' he said. It seems this was apparent even in early field trials: 'We saw that effect several years before Bt cotton was commercially introduced.' Curious then how Monsanto ever came to market Bt cotton as an effective means of controlling the bollworm!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8794
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SCAREMONGERING
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+ FAILURE ON GMOs COULD RUIN LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY - CLAIMS
Europe's livestock industry could be decimated without greater use of GM crops, it's being claimed. But Friends of the Earth Europe has warned that such claims are attempts to lower EU standards on GMOs. Helen Holder of FoE Europe said: 'The biotechnology and feed industries and the European Commission's Agriculture department are trying to spread panic that the EU's GMOs policy is threatening Europe's livestock sector... But the real reason that animal feed prices are rising is because land is being used to grow agrofuels. The EU should stand firm and protect its safety rules from industry attacks.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8788
+ FEED PRICES COULD SOAR 600% UNLESS GM APPROVALS COME FASTER - NFU SCOTLAND
NFU Scotland has said the EU's process for authorising the use of new GM varieties is paralysed and livestock farmers and consumers are set to suffer. The union predicts animal feed price rises of up to 600% unless the EU speeds up the GM authorisation process. It compares the EU to the USA; in the EU, it takes an average of two and a half year for a variety to be approved, while it is just 15 months in the USA. But the Soil Association noted there is no shortage of non-GM feed. 'Feed prices are rising mainly because of speculation on the back of George Bush's nonsensical biofuel subsidies.'
COMMENT from GM Watch: Farmers are struggling with rising animal feed prices in a whole series of countries where they rely on imported animal feed, including countries outside the EU and including countries where they grow GM crops. The hardest hit European farming sector as a result of animal feed price increases is the pig industry, but their big price hikes have been down to wheat and barley, and shortages of feed wheat, i.e. involve crops that are entirely non-GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8791
+ SCRAP BIOFUEL TARGETS AND SOLVE FOOD PRICE PROBLEM
Europe must scrap its biofuel targets to combat the upward spiral of food prices. 'The vultures have landed on the food prices issue,' said Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth. 'They say GM crops will feed the world, with increased yields meaning increased income. But there is no evidence that genetic modification will benefit yields.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8792
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EUROPE
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+ STALEMATE IN EUROPE - OPPOSITION HARDENING
European Union farm ministers fell short of a consensus agreement to allow imports of five GM products, including a particularly controversial GM potato, paving the way for default approval by legal rubberstamp. 'The debate in Europe appears to be heading toward stalemate,' Jacqueline Mailly, senior European regulatory affairs adviser at the law firm Hogan & Hartson in Brussels, said. 'If you take the Austrians, for example, they now appear to be standing firmer than ever against biotechnology.' Mailly's point is backed up by the voting statistics on the GM potato. Fifteen nations voted against importing the GM potato, an increase on last July when 11 member states voted against it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8777
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8781
+ GREENPEACE COMMENT ON GM POTATO
Yet again the Commission proposal to get GMOs authorised did not get Council approval. However, due to the inadequacies of the authorisation process, the Commission may nevertheless allow these products onto the EU market, which goes against the will of a majority of European citizens. In the case of the BASF GM potato, Greenpeace calls on the Commission to urgently review the health risks arising from the antibiotic resistance properties of the potato, following statements by a leading scientist published in the International Herald Tribune. Patrice Courvalin - Head of Antibacterial Agents Unit at the Institut Pasteur medical research centre - told the paper: 'We should keep trying to prevent dissemination of antibiotic resistance rather than to allow products into the food chain that could potentially make a bad situation even worse.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8781
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MASSIVE REGULATORY FAILURE
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+ U.S. SUPPRESSES AND FALSIFIES SCIENCE
Leading US scientists have called on Congress to make sure the next president does not do what they say the Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research. They also note that although George W. Bush is the worst offender, it is not the first US administration to mistreat and misuse science and scientists. GM Watch comment: Approval of GMOs in the US by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), based on a misrepresentation of the facts and a massive cover up of FDA scientists' warnings, occurred well before the Bush Administration came to office, as did the equally controversial approval of Monsanto's GM hormone rBGH (aka rBST).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8773
+ FDA USELESS IN ENSURING SAFETY OF GM FOODS - SCIENTIST
Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists has commented on the above story in the light of the FDA's role in allowing GMOs into the food chain with no regulation except a 'brief review' of industry-generated information on each product. Amongst previous posts, Doug has worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where he was responsible for assessing human health and environmental risks from transgenic plants and microorganisms and for developing biotechnology policy. Doug points out that after its perfunctory review, FDA sends the company a form letter reminding it that it has the responsibility to make sure that the GMO is safe. This is very different from a safety approval, for example as is done for chemical food additives or drugs, where the burden of proof is on the company to show that the drug or additive is safe. Under the legal provisions that regulate GMOs in the US, there is a presumption of safety, and therefore no rigorous safety assessment or requirements.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8785
+ BLIND FAITH IN GM SAFETY
The Agriculture Spokesman for Ireland's main opposition Party - Fine Gael - has claimed that GM food and animal feed are safe because the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the European Food Safety Authority, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say so. Michael O'Callaghan of GM-free Ireland Network exposes these claims as bogus:
*US FDA: To avoid traceability and liability, Monsanto persuaded the US FDA to approve GM food and animal feed WITHOUT ANY RISK ASSESSMENTS or labelling of any kind!
*The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI): FSAI is run by Dr. John O'Brien, a former Director of the International Life Sciences Institute biotech lobby group which is banned from WHO food safety discussions because it was funded by Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, and Novartis / Syngenta. And FSAI's Chief Biotechnology Specialist Dr Pat O'Mahony acknowledged, 'We are a law enforcement agency so we do not carry out research' on the safety of GM food and animal feed. FSAI Director of Food Science and Standards Alan Reilly admitted, 'We rely on scientific opinion from the European Food Safety Authority.'
*EFSA: EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said, 'EFSA cannot deliver a sound scientific opinion on GMOs' because it mostly relies on risk assessments provided by the applicant companies; these are assumption-based, do not follow standard protocols, use results of feeding studies based on single ingredients instead of the whole GMO, discard troubling evidence, and accept the applicants' conclusions without disclosure of the original data.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8784
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SILENT INVASION
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+ 'EVERY EUROPEAN GETS A DOSE OF GM EVERY DAY' - SYNGENTA MAN
Mike Mack runs Syngenta. In a recent article in The Times, Mack admits Syngenta's retreat in the face of European opposition to GMOs - 'We don't conduct any GM research in Europe. We took all our GM research to the US years ago.' Europe is no longer even part of Syngenta's game plan, according to Mack: 'Our financial ambitions are not underpinned by the EU because we cannot see that happening anytime soon.' But Mack makes an interesting claim - that the proof of the safety of GM foods is there for all to see in Europe, because European livestock, he says, eat imported GM maize and soya - hence, 'Every European gets a dose of GM every day.'
COMMENT from GM Watch: This is a startling admission because up till now the industry has always claimed, as part of its argument that meat, milk and eggs from animals fed on GM crops do not need to be labelled, that consumers are not exposed to GM material by eating food from GM-fed animals. And they could just about get away with such a claim up until 2005 as studies which tried to detect GM DNA in milk, eggs and tissues from GM-fed animals had only detected non-GM DNA from the crops. But more recent scientific evidence shows GM DNA does end up in milk and animal tissues of GM-fed animals, contrary to the assurances from the industry and the likes of the UK's Food Standards Agency. Worse still, at least 13 animal feeding trials now show a range of alarming health effects in animals fed GM: lesions in the gut, toxic effects in body organs, unexplained deaths and stunted growth in their offspring.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8779
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AFRICA
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+ BIOHAZARD MAPS RELEASED
Up-to-date biohazard maps have been released by the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) to inform the public about where GM trials are taking place in South Africa. The maps, along with a report on the trials, are available on the ACB website. 'The latest report contains both good and bad news,' says Mariam Mayet of the ACB. The good news is that there were significant refusals as a result of opposition to GMOs and far fewer field trials during 2007 than in 2006. The bad news is that there were still 21 different field sites in 2007, as well as 11 medical clinical trials including GM HIV vaccine and GM TB vaccine.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8790
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THE AMERICAS
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+ SYNGENTA UNCERTAIN ABOUT FUTURE OF GM TEST CENTRE IN BRAZIL
Syngenta remains uncertain about the future of its troubled 128-acre GMO test center in west Parana. The GM soybean and corn research lab owned by Syngenta, not far from the large Iguassu National Park, has been dogged by opposition since 2006. Activists want to eject Syngenta from the area after an anti-GM campaigner from the Landless Rural Workers Movement, or MST, was shot and killed at the test centre by one of the company's hired security guards.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8780
+ ARGENTINA: DANGER IN THE FIELDS AS PESTICIDE USE SKYROCKETS
Argentina's GM soya boom has led to an explosion in the use of agrochemicals, with glyphosate as the leading product - used to control weeds in the country's vast soybean fields. And little attention has been paid to warnings from companies, government agencies and experts on the potential toxic health effects of agrochemicals for people living in rural areas. A study, carried out with contributions from Argentina's Health Ministry, the Secretariat of the Environment and Sustainable Development, and several universities, says the inappropriate handling of agrochemicals is 'a serious environmental and health problem' in Argentina that is causing damages that 'could be irreversible,' especially for children.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8780
+ USA: MONSANTO UNIVERSITY - CASH FOR GM, THE SHAFT FOR ORGANIC
Public-university researchers get cash for studying GMOs - and the shaft for studying organic agriculture, writes Nancy Scola in an excellent article for Gristmill.
EXCERPTS: The future of agricultural research at America's land-grant institutions belongs to biotech conglomerates like Monsanto. And it seems likely that it's a future of chemical-dependent, genetically modified, bioengineered agriculture. 'Coming out of the organic closet could be the beginning of the end of your career,' says [executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation, Bob] Scowcroft. Looking outside biotech agriculture is, he says, 'like throwing 30 years of the Green Revolution in your boss's face.' Today, says John Reganold, an OFRF grantee and apple researcher at Washington State University, academics interested in organic farming 'just don't have the money to do what we need to do.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8789
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CLONING
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+ SCIENTISTS FIND WAY TO SCAN FOR CLONED MEAT
Scientists have said that meats can be certified clone-free with DNA-tracking, a fast and cheap technique already used in some countries to certify beef and chicken as organic or hormone-free. 'Think of it as God's barcode,' said Prof Patrick Cunningham, a DNA-tracking pioneer and now science adviser to the Irish government. Originally developed to deal with public fears about meat sources during the European outbreak of mad cow disease in the 1990s, the method has since been improved and now costs only pennies per food item. Cunningham said the method would also reveal meat or milk from the direct progeny of cloned cattle but costs rise sharply for later generations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8771