WEEKLY WATCH number 236
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
The lifting of GM moratoria by two Australian states exactly coincides with France's decision to ban GM plantings until safety reviews are carried out. The Australian states seem to have made their decision with reference only to one tiny sector of society - the biotech companies and their supporters.
Watch out for all the latest on the Nature Biotechnology row, including a superb commentary from the Bioscience Resource Project. (SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION)
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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SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION
AUSTRALASIA
EUROPE
ASIA
AFRICA
THE AMERICAS
RESEARCH
THE DOOMSDAY SEED BANK
GENETIC CROSSROADS
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SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION
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+ RESPONSES TO NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
The online version of the December 2007 edition of the journal Nature Biotechnology contains correspondence highly critical of the journal and its editor, Andrew Marshall. At issue is the 'Feature' published in its September edition that effectively gave a free hand to four notorious biotech apologists - Bruce Chassy, Vivian Moses, Val Giddings and Alan McHughen - to make a premeditated attack on the Russian researcher, Irina Ermakova and her study showing the damaging effects of GM soy on rats. For links to all the correspondence http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8589
EXTRACT: 'Publishing edited extracts of her work together with comments of scientists who are well known to uncritically reject even the notion that there may be risks associated with GM crops gives me the strong impression that your journal is politically motivated to (i) defend the dogma that there are no potential health risks associated with GM crops, (ii) destroy the reputation of scientists that dare to challenge that dogma and (iii) prevent such scientists from gaining the resources to continue their work on risks of GM crops and how to avoid them.' - Prof. Carlo Leifert
+ 'EDITOR ADMITS TO SERIOUS ERRORS OF JUDGEMENT'
Commentary from GM Free Cymru, which has played a leading role in exposing the Nature Biotechnology Sscandal.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8589
+ WHAT IS NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY GOOD FOR?
A superb commentary from the Bioscience Resource Project points out that the criticisms aimed at Dr. Ermakova's paper apply equally to the papers that are trumpeted by the critics as showing no ill effects from GM soy. The commentators conclude, 'Nature Publishing Group no doubt finds that publishing a magazine [Nature Biotechnology] that does double duty as a science journal and as a trade journal is a highly profitable combination, but equally it is never going to be one that encourages disinterested science.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8588
+ PARLIAMENTARY MOTION AGAINST SCIENTIFIC MISREPRESENTATION - TAKE ACTION
If you're in the UK, please urge your Member of Parliament to sign an Early Day Motion against scientific misrepresentation concerning GM crops, as in the Nature Biotechnology and Shane Morris affairs. Michael Meacher MP - the former UK minister for the environment - has tabled an important EDM on the manipulation and misrepresentaion of research on GM crops, and 18 Members of Parliament have already become co-signatories. All the details including how to contact your MP at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8584
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8583
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AUSTRALASIA
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+ VICTORIA AND NSW LOSE CANOLA TRADE TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Western Australian farmers are already reaping financial benefits and trade advantages by maintaining the state's moratorium on growing GM crops, WA agriculture minister Kim Chance says. Chance said the Consumers Union of Japan announced it would cease buying canola from Victoria and New South Wales during a recent Australian visit. It would instead buy WA's GM free canola. A preference by consumers for GM-free food is not just a Japanese phenomenon and is mirrored in Australia, Europe and worldwide, Chance points out. Given WA farmers are receiving substantial price premiums for their GM-free canola, it makes no sense to jeopardise the state's strong market position and begin growing commercial GM crops. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8576
+ WESTERN AUSTRALIA WON'T RELAX GM BAN
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8572
+ MOST AUSTRALIANS STILL DON'T WANT TO EAT GM FOODS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8578
+ CLEAN GREEN PROSPECTS TAKE A WHACK
According to figures from Monsanto, some Australian trials of GM canola produced yields 16 per cent below the national GM-free average. In the end, increasing yields won't matter much as broader market access and restriction issues determine the value of GM. The global current trends point towards ever more GM restrictions. The EU moratorium already restricts some 400,000 tonnes of GM canola from Canada but imports 38 per cent of all Australia's clean canola. Japan is considering injecting tighter controls into already tough GM import regulations. Stricter Japanese GM laws could impact 41 per cent, (300,000 tonnes) of Australian canola exports.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8558
+ HEAD OF GM PANEL IN CONFLICT CLAIMS
Sir Gustav Nossal, chosen to head the Victorian government's panel that recommended lifting bans on GM crops, is the founder of a business designed to reap commercial gain from biotech. Victoria Labor MP Tammy Lobato is among those who have questioned Nossal's independence, branding as 'seriously compromised' his government-appointed panel. 'In 2002, Gus Nossal saw the issue of adoption of GM as merely a public relations battle that had to be won. His stance was so entrenched that Monsanto used his statements in their own marketing,' she said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8565
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8566
+ AUSTRALIA'S GENE TECHNOLOGY REGULATOR
Nossal's report relied for its review of GM safety issues on the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR), which is headed by Dr Sue Meek. While Meek claims independence, her whole background has been in industry-sympathetic roles involving encouraging the development of the biotechnology industry and the commercialisation of its products.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8565
+ GM A MILLSTONE
Peter Draper, MP for Tamworth, New South Wales, said in a media release that GM contamination could well turn out to be like nuclear waste, 'a millstone we leave for future generations to pay the price'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8566
+ NON-GM FARMERS CALL FOR STRICT LIABILITY ON GM CROPS
The Network of Concerned Farmers is calling for strict liability legislation to be introduced to protect non-GM farmers from the inevitable economic losses that will occur if GM canola is introduced in New South Wales. Arthur Bowman, a canola grower, said, 'In North America Monsanto is suing farmers who have had their land contaminated with GM crops for patent infringement. We can't let the same thing happen in Australia. I'm appalled with the misinformation given by key people in this debate.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8561
+ FARMERS WILL BE LIABLE FOR GM CONTAMINATION - WARNING
Those supporting the end of the moratoria hail 'farmer choice' as a benefit. But Juliet McFarlane of the Network of Concerned Farmers points out that on the contrary, farmers will not be given a choice as there is no suitable on ground test for farmers to detect the GM content of their canola. McFarlane said, 'Growers will be expected to guess as to whether their canola contains less than 0.9 per cent for non-GM at delivery point. If farmers guess incorrectly they will be liable for any inadvertent contamination from neighbouring GM crops and residual GM canola left in harvesters.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8561
+ CANADIAN FARMERS - LAUGHING BEHIND THEIR HANDS?
The Victorian and New South Wales governments both claimed farmers in Canada were leaving Australian farmers behind thanks to GM canola. But in an interview with ABC radio, Percy Schmeiser, the farmer from Saskatchewan, Canada whom Monsanto sued for having its patented genes on his land, says Canadian farmers who grow GM canola have lost their traditional markets and none of the promised benefits of GM materialized. Most of the GM canola grown in Canada now goes to make biofuels.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8558
+ PUBLIC OUTRAGE AT THE END OF THE MORATORIA
In The Age, Dr Susan Hawthorne, research associate, Victoria University, writes:
Premier John Brumby is purveying the idea of choice as a rationale for ending the moratorium on GM crops. When governments give in to corporations it is not choice, but rather the erasure of sensible decision-making. The end of the moratorium marks an irreversible decision to change the nature of farming in Victoria. The growing of GM crops means that Victoria will no longer be able to claim clean, green status - ever. Instead we will drink milk produced by cows fed on GM stock feed; it will be unclear which foods are GM and which not, since contamination is inevitable. Where is our choice in that?
Lindsay Bussau of Carnegie writes:
As a consumer, I do not want to eat GM food. As a taxpayer, I will be responsible for fixing any problems that occur with it in future. As a scientist, I am seriously worried about the potential health and environmental risks of GM crops. As a father, I am concerned at the legacy this decision will leave for my children. As a voter, I am cynical this has been announced in the aftermath of a federal election.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8559
+ MORE ARTICLES ON THE LIFTING OF THE BANS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8572
+ OCEANIA AT RISK FROM BIOTECH EXPLOITATION AND GM FOOD
The biodiversity of Oceania is at high risk of exploitation by biotech companies and Pacific Islanders may be threatened by a major food security risk from GM food, particularly in the light of the lifting of GM bans in Australia, says Rev. James Bhagwan, who represents the Pacific Conference of Churches.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8580
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EUROPE
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+ FRANCE BANS USE OF GM SEEDS
France has formally suspended the commercial use of GM seeds in the country until early February and ordered a biotech safety study. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8585
+ FRENCH UNION URGES FARMERS NOT TO BUY GM SEEDS
France's largest farm union, FNSEA, has urged farmers to refrain from buying GM seeds ahead of the new biotech law requiring farmers to declare their GM plantings and making them financially liable for any contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8569
+ NEW COALITION FOR A GM-FREE POLAND
In reponse to renewed corporate attempts to undermine Poland's GM-free status, a new body has been launched, The Coalition for a GMO Free Poland. The new body, made up of a broad cross section of society, will specifically counteract attempts to force GMOs onto Polish fields and strongly put forward arguments for maintaining the current ban on GM seeds and the import ban on GM animal feeds due to take effect in the summer of 2008.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8581
+ FOOD SAFETY BODY'S GM APPROVALS VIOLATE LAW AND SCIENCE
Fundamental violations of existing laws and arbitrary and scientifically unreasonable decision-making have become standard practice for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its rubber-stamping of GM applications, said Werner Mueller of ECO-RISK Office of Technological Risk Research, Vienna in a lecture. Mueller showed through the examples of DDT, methylbromide and the pesticide Vinclozoline, three substances which are banned today, that scientists inevitably commit errors in risk assessment. As GMOs cannot be retrieved from the environment, any errors irrevocably harm the environment and all future generations.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8567
+ SUPPORT EU-WIDE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST EFSA
The Institute for Nature Protection and Nature Protection Law (IfNN) Tuebingen, Germany is preparing a legal opinion for the international pressure group Aktion Genklage (Legal Action Against GM), as a basis for legal proceedings against the Commission all over Europe. The aim is to initiate a Europe-wide coordinated court action against the EU-Commission and EFSA challenging its approvals of GMOs. Consumers, farmers, retailers, producers and EU member states are entitled to demand the protection of EU law in such actions.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8567
+ CRIIGEN SLAMS CONNIVANCE AND 'DEFECTIVE UNDERSTANDING' OF GM ADVISORY BODIES
CRIIGEN (Comite de Recherche et d'Information Independantes sur le Genie Genetique) has previously accused GM regulators in Europe and elsewhere of bias and complacency. Now Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini and his colleagues have accused Australia and New Zealand's GM advisory bodies of seeking to defend indefensible positions, refusing to admit mistakes, and failing to understand key scientific and statistical methods. The letter just sent to FSANZ is reproduced at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8570
+ ANOTHER RANT FROM DAVID KING
The UK government's retiring chief scientific adviser Sir David King has engaged in another GM promotional, claiming Britain's failure to adopt GM crops had cost the economy up to GBP4bn! King produces no evidence to support his outlandish claim.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8579
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ASIA
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+ INDIA'S DEREGULATION OF GM FOODS THREATENS PUBLIC HEALTH
By deregulating GM food imports, the government has endangered public health, argues Dr Suman Sahai in an article for Daily News & Analysis. She believes the deregulation is one of the outcomes of the the Indo-US deal on Agriculture.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8587
+ THAI CABINET POSTPONES DECISION ON GM PAPAYA FIELD TRIALS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8574
+ GMOs STILL BANNED IN NEGROS ORIENTAL (PHILIPPINES)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8574
+ QATAR TO LABEL GM PRODUCTS
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8580
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AFRICA
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+ NEW BOOK ON GMOs IN AFRICA
Extracts from the African Centre for Biosafety's important new book, GMOs in Africa: Food and Agriculture Status Report 2007, are at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8582
The book can be downloaded free but as the ACB is badly in need of financial support, we encourage you to buy the book from ACB, if you possibly can, in order to allow them to recoup some of their costs. You can order the book by going to the shopping cart on their website at www.biosafetyafrica.net
+ NO GM YEAST FOR SOUTH AFRICAN WINERIES
The department of agriculture's GMO Executive Council has denied an application for the release of GM yeast for use in commercial wine. The introduction of the GM yeast was widely opposed within the wine industry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8573
+ MORE ON BIOWATCH COURT RULING
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8573
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THE AMERICAS
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+ BRAZIL: WARNING LABELS FOR GMOS EVEN <1%
A Brazilian court judgement requires all manufacturers of products that contain transgenics to be labeled with the symbol 'T'. This will apply even to products containing less than 1% of GM material. Before the ruling, the requirement was only in place for those products containing more than 1%.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8575
+ U.S.: FIRST NATIONAL RESTAURANT CHAIN BANS rBGH
From the end of 2007, Chipotle Mexican Grill will no longer serve any cheese made with milk from cows treated with the GM hormone rBGH. That will make Chipotle the first national restaurant chain to eliminate rBGH entirely from items on its menu.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8575
+ GM SUGAR ON THE WAY IN THE U.S.
American growers will plant GM Roundup Ready beets next year, says an article for the New York Times.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8586
TAKE ACTION ON GM SUGAR BEETS
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/oca/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12700
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RESEARCH
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+ SAFETY OF VIRUS-RESISTANT GM PLANTS QUESTIONED
The safety of virus-resistant GM plants has been questioned in a paper published in Molecular Plant Pathology. The paper, by Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson, proposes that, in addition to conferring resistance to the target virus, inserting viral genes into GM plants is likely to increase overall genetic vulnerability to viral infections. The paper is of vital importance as the US EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) is currently formulating a new policy for the regulation of transgenic viral coat proteins in plants. The policy that the EPA is seeking to replace is the present case-by-case assessment of each new application. Instead, the EPA is now considering submitted comments on a new policy: a blanket approval for transgenic plants containing plant viral coat proteins. The authors of the paper warn, 'the most complete and rigorous analysis available shows that intact coat proteins (and indeed all functional plant viral proteins) require not blanket approval but blanket disapproval.'
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8564
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THE DOOMSDAY SEED BANK
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+ DO BILL GATES, ROCKEFELLER AND THE GM GIANTS KNOW SOMETHING WE DON'T?
F. William Engdahl, author of Seeds of Destruction, the Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, has published an article detailing what he says is the hidden agenda of Bill Gates' Gates Foundation, which is investing USD 30 million in a project called the 'doomsday seed bank'.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8571
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GENETIC CROSSROADS
Center for Genetics and Society
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+ MANY GENE TESTS A WASTE OF MONEY: EXPERTS
Genetic tests to assess disease risk are proliferating but many are a waste of money and tell people little more than they would know from studying family history, medical experts said on Friday.
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=3814
+ THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOSTS BIOTECHNOLOGY:
*The New York Times' New Hitman
by Osagie Obasogie, Biopolitical Times
John Tierney has been writing for the New York Times for quite a while. But his most recent beat has entailed covering science and technology, where he has drunken the biohype kool-aid that's apparently on tap at the Times' watercooler.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3818
*Stem cell cheerleading and hand-wringing at The New York Times
by Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times
The Times has a biotech hype problem on its editorial page, where over-the-top stem cell fervor long ago left thoughtful assessment behind.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3816
+ DEFENSIVE IDEOLOGUES DIG IN
by Jesse Reynolds, Biopolitical Times
Here are three examples of the ridiculous commentary on the new iPS techniques, all from entrenched embryonic stem cell research ideologues - with financial interests in the field - who are resorting to defensive posturing.
http://biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=3811