from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
Reports coming from South Korea suggest the Government there is desperately trying to cover up a Faustian pact with the US to exempt GM crops from safety tests in return for textile industry concessions.
Things are really bubbling in India. An official task force for India's Planning Commission says the country's apex GM regulator has been flouting the law in irresponsibly approving GM releases. And 6.5 million farmers want to join the public interest lawsuit before India's Supreme Court to stop GM crops.
Meanwhile, India's department of biotechnology has been ordered to disclose toxicity and allergenicity data on GM crops approved for field testing. This has already lead to the disclosure that the safety data for some of the approved crops is still "under development" and "yet to be evaluated"!!
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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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
ASIA: IRRI AND ICRISAT PROTESTS
ASIA: FIGHTING BACK
ASIA: BT COTTON FIASCO
ASIA: REGULATORY BATTLE HOTS UP
THE AMERICAS
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
PHARMA CROPS
LOBBYWATCH
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK
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+ TAKE ACTION ON THE LOSS OF HONEYBEES!
The Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Committee is asking for scientific investigation into whether GM crops are responsible for the massive die-off of bees in the US. You can help by lobbying Senator Tom Harkin, 731 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510. Tel (202) 224-3254; fax (202) 224-9369. Model letter at http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2007-04-07.asp
Senator Harkin can also be reached online via his website at http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
Laurel Hopwood says the Sierra Club welcomes lobbying by concerned citizens right across the world: "Considering the colony collapse disorder is an international issue, he should be bombarded with the request to do the science."
+ GM SPUDS - INFO, PETITION, RALLIES, CHANCE TO COMMENT
Oppose BASF's plans to trial GM potatoes in the UK *New website http://www.mutatoes.org *Please spread the word about rallies and picnics in Cambridge and Hull (for Hedon) on 14 and 21 April. http://www.mutatoes.org
*Sign the petitions - time's running out http://www.hedonagainstgm.org.uk/petition.php (Hedon) http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/notogmspuds/ (Cambridge) *Grid references for trials
Cambridge: TL430627.
Hedon: if trial approved, grid refs after 20 April at http://www.mutatoes.org *Second consultation by UK's DEFRA into the proposed trials ends 20 April. Address for comments: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Reference for subject line of e-mail: 07/R42/01 http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7750
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ASIA: IRRI AND ICRISAT PROTESTS
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+ PROTEST AT ICRISAT AGAINST GMOs
As a part of the International Month of Opposition to GM, about 300 women farmers, led by the Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defence of Diversity and the Deccan Development, formed a human chain in front of the International Crop Research Institute (ICRISAT) in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India denouncing ICRISAT for its corporate-backed pro-GM research agenda. They demanded that ICRISAT move away from GM and work with farmers to build on the foundations of their science once again.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7747
+ IRRI TOLD TO GET OUT OF ASIA
"IRRI out of Asia!" This was the resounding call of more than 1,000 Filipino farmers who marched in front of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) headquarters to protest its 47th anniversary and to culminate the highly successful Asia-wide Week of Rice Action (WORA) led by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP). Sarojeni Rengam, PAN AP's executive director, said, "We are telling IRRI to get lost, to get out and be with farmers and not TNCs like Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer. We don't want GE crops, especially rice. ... We can't allow IRRI to take over."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7732
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ASIA: FIGHTING BACK
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+ DOCUMENTS SHOW S. KOREAN GOVT LYING OVER TRADEOFF WITH U.S. ON GMOs
The South Korean government has denied that it had to give ground on GMO acceptance in order to secure a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US. It even denies that the US demanded concessions on GM in return for some opening up of its textile market to Korea. But government documents show this is precisely what happened.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7743
+ KOREAN, VIETNAMESE AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS UNITE
South Korean and Vietnamese veterans of the Vietnam War are now fighting together to get compensation from the US makers of Agent Orange, like Dow and Monsanto.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7744
+ ASIAN PEASANTS AND SCIENTISTS: NO TO GM RICE, YES TO LAND REFORM
As part of the Week of Rice Action in the Philippines, peasants and scientists celebrated Asia's treasured rice culture with a strong statement: NO to genetic engineering; YES to genuine land reform.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7731
+ STAVING OFF GMO INVASION OF PHILIPPINES ISLAND
The Negros Organic Agriculture Movement has expressed support for the move of the provincial government to ban GMOs on the island of Negros Occidental. NOAM said banning GMOs is indispensable in attaining the goal of making Negros the "Organic Food Bowl in Asia." The group's move came after the legislature passed the first reading of the ordinance that will prohibit the entry of GM products into Negros Occidental.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7755
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ASIA: BT COTTON FIASCO
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+ BT COTTON A TOTAL FIASCO - FARMERS' LEADER
"Bt cotton proved to be a total fiasco," says Krishan Bir Chaudhary in an article for the New Agriculturalist: "Thousands and thousands of farmers have already committed suicide, and there seems to be no end to this tragic situation." Chaudhary is executive chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj, a large farmers' organization connected to India's ruling Congress Party.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7735
+ P. SAINATH ON BT COTTON
Award-winning journalist P. Sainath says of Bt cotton in in Vidharbha, the cotton belt of Maharashtra, where - thanks to a massive campaign of hype - farmers have bought into a bigger GM acreage than anywhere else in India:
...even as many, including the National Commission on Farmers, call for making Vidharbha "an organic farming zone", the reverse process is in full swing... the state's own seed corporation is a major distributor for Bt cotton. This gets more worrying when you look at the record of the last few years. The government began the last season's harvest with boasts of a "record" 350 lakh quintal "bumper crop." ... And this grand success was swiftly credited to Bt cotton in some media reports. As the run of events punctured these claims, the figure was scaled down more than once.
Vidharbha did better in a 'non-Bt cotton year' than during one in which more than 60 per cent of the acreage was under Bt cotton. The state government's own report informs us that in preceding seasons too, "In rain-fed conditions, Bt cotton has not paid good returns." And 97 per cent of cotton grown in Maharashtra is unirrigated. Here's the nub: a poor monsoon could make the earlier crisis seasons look like the good old times.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7737
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ASIA: REGULATORY BATTLE HOTS UP
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+ INDIA: GM BODY FLOUTING THE LAW, SAYS OFFICIAL REPORT
The genetic engineering approval committee or GEAC (India's apex GM regulatory body), is flagrantly disregarding the law, says a report from the India's Planning Commission Task Force on Biodiversity & Genetically Modified Organisms. The Planning Commission is an official body chaired by the Indian prime minister. The report rips through the functioning of the GEAC. "The failure of the GEAC to control the situation even many years down the line does not inspire confidence in its capabilities," says the taskforce. The report finds substantial problems with India's existing regulation of GMOs, implying that as it currently operates it could pose "immense danger to the environment of this country and the health of its people".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7741
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7742
FULL REPORT AT
http://www.genecampaign.org/home_files/Task%20Force_WG%20report_Agbio-GMOs_29.pdf
+ INDIA: 6.5 MILLION FARMERS WANT TO JOIN LAWSUIT AGAINST GMOs
There's been another major development in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) brought by Aruna Rodrigues and co-petitioners before India's Supreme Court. Over 6.5 million farmers from every state in India are asking the Supreme Court to let them join the case before the court, saying GM crops risk irreversibly damaging India's farmland and biodiversity. This new move follows the application filed in the Supreme Court by the Association of the Rice Millers and Exporters in India, who want a GM moratorium to protect the rights of farmers and consumers to grow and consume GM-free crops, as well as to ensure that exports don't suffer because of GM contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7739
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7746
+ INDIA: GOVERNMENT FORCED TO DISCLOSE SAFETY DATA ON GM CROPS
India's Central Information Commission (CIC) this week ordered the department of biotechnology to disclose toxicity and allergenicity data on GMfood crops that are being field-tested across the country. In a far-reaching decision, the head of CIC, Wajahat Habibullah, directed the government to make public within 10 working days all the relevant data on genetically engineered brinjal, okra, mustard and rice which have been approved for multi-location trials.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7757
The order came on appeal after a request for toxicity, allergenicity and other relevant data (under the Right to Information Act, 2005) was rejected by the Dept of Biotechnology on the grounds that disclosure could harm commercial interests.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7725
The appeal was filed by Divya Raghunandan of Greenpeace. Divya drew attention to an extraordinary admission made by the government in response to her application. The government said that the data on GM rice, okra and mustard was "under development" and "yet to be evaluated", even though it has already approved multi-location field trials for these crops. Divya points out this could lead to genetic contamination in the areas where field trials were being held even before the toxicity and allergenicity data had been analysed.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7757
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THE AMERICAS
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+ MONSANTO WANTS FEDS TO SILENCE DAIRIES OVER GM CATTLE DRUG
Excellent roundup of the growing controversy over rBGH in the US.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7727
+ CONSUMERS WANT rBGH-FREE MILK TO BE LABELLED, POLL SHOWS
80% of US consumers want milk produced without Monsanto's rBGH to be labelled as such, according to a new poll.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7736
+ PUSZTAI REVIEWS EPSTEIN'S "WHAT'S IN YOUR MILK?"
EXCERPT from Dr Arpad Pusztai's review of Dr Samuel Epstein's new book on the fraud of rBGH, 'What's In Your Milk': Every trick in the book by the industry is illustrated... Monsanto in cahoots with the FDA and the US administration, aided and abetted by the "revolving door" between official and industry personnel, setting up hit-squads to discredit "awkward" scientists, putting out misleading or false information in the press, suppressing nationally and internationally relevant scientific information on safety, or the lack of it, of their product, leaning on political, regulatory and other bodies, committees and organizations and putting pressure on their personnel...
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7745
+ MONSANTO'S GM SOYA COMES TO CHILE
Monsanto's general director for Chile, Alfredo Villaseca, and Chile's minister of agriculture Alvaro Rojas, have jointly announced plans to introduce 20,000 hectares of GM soya into Chile between 2007 and 2010. The introduction of GMOs into Chile represents a step backwards from President Michelle Bachelet's 2005 election campaign pledge "to not open the country to commercial transgenic crops."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7730
+ GUATEMALA REJECTS U.S. ETHANOL PLAN
The US-promoted plan of using agricultural products to produce ethanol would bring a world food catastrophe, say Guatemala's leaders and farmers.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7730
+ MONSANTO'S PLANS FOR HAWAII RISK OTHER CROPS
Monsanto has recently announced its purchase of thousands of acres in Central Oahu, Hawaii, to test GM crops. Attorney Paul H. Achitoff reports that the newspapers are full of a steady stream of letters from industry employees claiming that anyone who is unwilling to give the industry free rein is an ignorant fear-monger mindlessly opposed to everything "biotech", from aspirin to stem-cell research. The reality, he says in a compelling article, is quite different: GM crops have provided no benefits and have destroyed existing markets by contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7752
+ SYNGENTA URGED TO RECONSIDER GM CORN SEED SALES
The US's two leading trade associations representing the grain, feed and grain processing industries have joined together in urging Syngenta to reverse its plan to commercialize a new GM corn seed for planting this year because it has not obtained regulatory approval in Japan and other US export markets.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7728
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EUROPE
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+ EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO SUPPORT FAILING GM CROP SECTOR
The European Commission intends to promote GM crops in Europe, even though it admits that the European public does not want to eat GM foods. The European Commission's review of the EU's Biotech Strategy calls for increased financial and political support for biotechnology - including GM crops - while acknowledging the poor performance of the GM crop sector and widespread public opposition. But research published last month by Friends of the Earth Europe shows environmentally friendly farming will create more jobs and make the EU more competitive than if it grows GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7749
+ EU BIOTECH STRATEGY PUSHES BIOFUELS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7749
+ GERMAN GROUP DENIED PERMIT TO GROW GM RAPESEED IN LITHUANIA
Lithuanian authorities reaffirmed their opposition to the spread of GM crops by rejecting an application from a German company seeking to grow GM rapeseed in Lithuania for research purposes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7734
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AFRICA
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+ ZAMBIA TAKES STEPS TOWARD BIOSAFETY LAW
Zambian policymakers have adopted a biosafety bill that paves the way for legislation to deal with issues surrounding GMOs. Minister of Justice George Kunda said Zambia needs the legislation to avoid becoming a "dumping ground" for such products. Saviour Chishimba, chairperson of the Education, Science and Technology Committee said, "The bill is aimed at ensuring that Zambia remains a GMO free country."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7754
+ WEST AFRICA: CIVIL SOCIETY REJECTS ECOWAS PLAN FOR BIOTECH
The planned introduction of GM crops by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ministers into the region has been rejected by a coalition of civil society organisations at a one-day conference in Accra, Ghana. The conference also condemned the planned introduction of GM cassava in Ghana following the failure of similar trials in Nigeria and the non- conclusive outcome of the over three year-confined trials of Bt cotton in Burkina Faso.
The support for GMOs by ministers in West Africa is the direct result of prolonged lobbying by the US and, in particular, a series of ministerial conferences financed and supported by US government agencies. But a citizen's jury in Mali, West Africa, which heard all sides of the issue, came to very different conclusions: farmers unanimously rejected the introduction of GMOs to Mali.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7740
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ NEW ZEALAND: DEMONSTRATORS DISRUPT GM HEARING
Anti-GM protesters who blew whistles and made speeches disrupted a three-day Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) hearing in Christchurch on GM brassica trials. Police helped security guards, and one person was charged with trespass. ERMA has never turned down a GM field trial application. See also QUOTES OF THE WEEK
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7751
+ FARMER REJECTS GM CROPS SUPPORT CLAIM
Australia's Victorian Farmers Federation is pushing for a state government moratorium on GM crops to be lifted on the grounds that most farmers would support a resumption of testing. But West Wimmera farmer Geoff Carracher from the Network of Concerned Farmers says he does not believe the push has community support. "As far as I know there's been no questionnaire sent out to people, there's been no independent survey done of farmers to see whether they have changed their attitudes from between 70-80% of those who said they wanted a moratorium," he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7753
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PHARMA CROPS
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+ HOW TO CONFINE THE PLANTS OF THE FUTURE?
Superb article by Denise Caruso on the problem of containing pharma/industrial GM crops. See also QUOTES OF THE WEEK.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7738
+ PHARMA CROP REPORT ON BBC NEWSNIGHT
A report by Susan Watts for the UK's BBC Newsnight TV programme discusses GM crops which produce insulin.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6518787.stm
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ INTERVIEW WITH MONBIOT ON THE LM GROUP
We've just published on our LobbyWatch website a powerful in-depth interview with George Monbiot about the LM network - a political group active in the UK and Germany, in particular, that engages in infiltration of media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote its own agenda. It's well worth reading in full.
Although the Monbiot interview took place some time ago, its publication is timely in the light of the controversy following the broadcast of Martin Durkin's documentary, 'The Great Global Warming Swindle'. This controversy has lead to considerable focus not just on Durkin's dubious past record as a documentary film-maker (including a notorious documentary on GM) but also on his close links to the LM network.
More comment and the Monbiot interview at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7748
+ PEW-USDA REPORT INTENDED TO WEAKEN GM REGULATION
A new joint report on GM crops from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the US Dept of Agriculture aims to weaken the already lax regulation of GM crops. What is insidious about the Pew Initiative is that (in the words of Michael Fernandez, Pew's executive director) it claims to be "a credible 'honest broker' that could bring together stakeholders of differing views to discuss the opportunities and challenges that agricultural biotechnology presents." In fact, as Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists notes, the meetings that led up to the report were packed with scientists that have a long history of being pro-GM and of supporting weaker regulations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7721
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QUOTES OF THE WEEK
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+ NAIL ON THE REGULATORY HEAD
Lawyer Duncan Currie, addressing a three-day Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) hearing on GM brassica trials in New Zealand: "The appearance is that any application, no matter how misconceived, how pointless and no matter what level of opposition, will be approved."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7751
+ OPENING THE DOORS OF GM's PRIVATE CLUB
Denise Caruso writing in the New York Times, April 8 2007:
Scientists often dismiss the idea that people without technical knowledge can help them make risk assessments. As a result, biotech scientists and regulators have long made safety determinations from within an opaque system of their own design, using only the evidence they accept as valid.
But scientific evidence is not a constant, like the speed of light or pi. Especially in biology, where we still know so little, "evidence" is often just a small circle of light surrounded by the darkness of the unknown. Decisions about risk cannot safely be made in a private club that accepts only its members' notions of scientific evidence.
The best research on risk declares the opposite to be true: that risk evidence is particularly subject to distortion by conflicting interests, and that the best foil for such distortions is to ensure that the people whose fate is at stake participate in the analysis.
We need a new policy framework for scientific evidence that is built on this foundation. If developers want to sell their products, they must subject their inventions to the helpful scrutiny of people outside the club - before radical technologies like biopharma are brought to market.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7738