from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:
A new report asks, "Who benefits from GM crops?" It has important new information and is worth a closer look (NEW REPORT: WHO BENEFITS FROM GM CROPS?).
Please URGENTLY ask India's regulator to ban GM field trials, in the wake of the totally illegal and unscientific practices that have recently been exposed (ASIA).
And don't miss Jeffrey Smith wiping the floor with a biotech lobbyist (LOBBYWATCH).
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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FOOD SAFETY
THE AMERICAS
ASIA
EUROPE
NEW REPORT: WHO BENEFITS FROM GM CROPS?
GLOBAL CONTAMINATION
LOBBYWATCH
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GM WATCH NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT
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GM Watch is asking for your support. We need financial donations and people with language skills so that we can reach the widest possible global readership. More about how you can help: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6043
"I checked out your website. I had no idea you had so much useful information. You are providing an incredible service to all of us wanting to know what is really going on in the GM battle." - Rick North, Project Director, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility's Campaign for Safe Food, USA
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FOOD SAFETY
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+ NEW STUDY SHOWS UNBORN BABIES COULD BE HARMED
At last, there's some mainstream media coverage of the Ermakova study on GM soy, which found that more than half of the offspring of rats fed on GM soy died in the first three weeks of life, six times as many as those born to mothers with normal diets. Six times as many were also severely underweight.
You can hear Dr Irina Ermakova, a leading scientist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, talking about her GM soy study, as well as the comments of the biotechnologist, Dr Michael Antoniou, and Monsanto spin doctor, Tony Combes, on BBC's Farming Today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/farmingtoday_wed
Alternatively go to the Farming Today web page and click on 'Listen again' for Wednesday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/farmingtoday/
Dr Ermakova tells the BBC that when she saw her findings, "I was shocked. I was so shocked by these data that I repeated these experiments 3 times."
Monsanto's man, Tony Combes, tells the BBC that they are irresponsible to even report Dr Ermakova's findings!
The Independent on Sunday, 8 January 2006, puts the Ermakova study into context:
EXCERPT:
Women who eat GM foods while pregnant risk endangering their unborn babies, startling new research suggests...
The research - which is being prepared for publication - is just one of a clutch of recent studies that are reviving fears that GM food damages human health. Italian research has found that modified soya affected the liver and pancreas of mice. Australia had to abandon a decade-long attempt to develop modified peas when an official study found they caused lung damage.
And last May this newspaper revealed a secret report by the biotech giant Monsanto, which showed that rats fed a diet rich in GM corn had smaller kidneys and higher blood cell counts, suggesting possible damage to their immune systems, than those that ate a similar conventional one.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6104
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THE AMERICAS
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+ HAWAII: PROTESTORS GEAR UP FOR BIOTECH EVENT
Activists pledge to be out in force at this week's Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, which starts 11 January at Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Mililani Trask of Na Koa Ikaika Kalahui Hawaii, a human rights and environmental group, said a main concern is the lack of a framework to protect the environment and native species. Hawaiian groups created just such as framework in 2003 in a document called the "Paoakalani Declaration." But politicians and corporations have ignored the declaration, she said.
Trask points to a lawsuit involving Mera Pharmaceuticals Inc. as an example of the state's deficiencies. When the company wanted to GM algae from California to grow on the Big Island, environmental groups had to sue to force the state Department of Agriculture to require studies of potential environmental impacts.
There's also the issue of patenting the genes of native plants and microscopic organisms, a process called bioprospecting. Although the conference has a panel on bioprospecting, Trask said she and other locals were denied the chance to participate.
"It's a shame that public resources were spent, and every effort was made to exclude the public, the farmers, the native Hawaiian stakeholders," she said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6117
+ NON-GMO PROJECT LAUNCHED IN U.S. AND CANADA
A group of natural grocery stores and co-ops in the United States and Canada have formed The Non-GMO Project, which will provide North American consumers with the ability to purchase non-GMO products produced in compliance with a membership supported, rigorous non-GMO Program Standard.
GM contamination of crops is a fast growing concern across the North American continent, and polls repeatedly show that the majority of Americans and Canadians feel that GMOs should be labeled in food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6111
+ GM CORN THREATENS BRAZIL'S BIODIVERSITY
The presence of GM corn seeds in municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul constitutes a threat to non-GM corn, according to the agronomist and Greenpeace activist, Ventura Barbeiro.
"One of the greatest dangers involving corn is its high pollination potential, that is, its capacity for cross-fertilization. If a farmer plants a small area, it can genetically contaminate plantations in a radius extending from 500 meters to 1 kilometer," Ventura said. The agronomist was responding to studies by the Ministry of Agriculture confirming the presence of GM corn in some Rio Grande do Sul cities.
The studies were carried out to investigate an accusation made by state deputy, Brother Sergio Gorgen, who believes that GM seeds will represent a problem for the region. "The Poultry-Breeders' Association of Rio Grande do Sul is desperate, because, if the presence of transgenic corn in poultry ration is confirmed, the Rio Grande do Sul chicken industry will lose important export markets," he said.
Gorgen added, "I don't want the farmer to be punished. I want the smuggler, the salesman, and the multinational to be punished. Monsanto should be banished from the country."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6123
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ASIA
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+ MONSANTO-MAHYCO PURSUED OVER FARMER COMPENSATION
Andhra Pradesh has threatened to cancel the licence of the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) if it doesn't compensate farmers for poor quality seeds leading to the failure of Bt cotton crop in the state.
The warning came ahead of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) hearing on the state government's petition challenging Mahyco for charging a high premium for the Bt strain in the cottonseed.
Based on the reports of 20 expert teams, the state government has verified that the farmers had indeed been duped by the seed company, which had entered into a memorandum of understanding to pay compensation in case the seed quality led to crop failure.
Agriculture Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy said, "If Mahyco does not pay compensation this season, we will not hesitate to cancel their license and also fight them in the high court."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6102
+ MULTIPLE PROBLEMS WITH BT COTTON
An article in the Financial Express of India notes some of the wide ranging problems currently connected to Bt cotton:
***inadequate payment to farmers by seed companies like Monsanto and Syngenta for producing Bt cotton seeds - something that's fuelling the large-scale deployment of child labour
***"aggressive marketing" of Bt cotton seeds to farmers
***high price of Bt cotton seeds
***secret GM crop trials which are not even being notified to state governments and which are reported as having inadequate biosafety measures
***adverse reports about the performance of Bt cotton in the field.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6116
+ CONSUMER GROUP HAILS ACTION AGAINST MONSANTO
The Federation of Consumer Organisation of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (FEDCOT) and the Consumer Coordination Council, New Delhi, have hailed the bold, though belated, initiative of the government of Andhra Pradesh for filing a case against Monsanto for its unfair trade practices.
The chairman of FEDCOT, P Duraisingam, stated that Monsanto had supplied GM Bt cotton seeds, which caused havoc among the families of cotton farmers in AP. The seed, which promised bountiful cotton harvest, failed miserably leading to many farmers committing suicide.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6105
+ GM CROPS CAUSE SUICIDES
A number of farmers who planted GM cotton have committed suicide on failing to repay debts with the produce, a group lobbying for a ban on GM crops said.
Agriculture scientist Palash Ranjan Ghoshal of the Maharashtra-based NGO YUVA and Pallapadu Damodar of Andhra Pradesh's Sarvodaya Youth Organisation claimed a number of farmers' suicides in the cotton growing belts of the two states were linked to GM crops.
The two were speaking to reporters on the occasion of the release of a report by the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) set up by nearly two dozen non-governmental organisations to monitor field trials of GM Bt cotton seeds across the country.
"Seed companies lure farmers with false claims into trying out the crops. Not only is the actual yield lower than as claimed, the farmers often also have to make big investment on pesticides. In the end, the yield and the price he gets for the produce do not cover up the input cost," Ghoshal said, speaking about Vidarbha in Maharashtra.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6110
+ FARMERS TO MOVE CONSUMER COURT OVER BT COTTON
About 50 cotton growers of Madhya Pradesh plan to approach the state's consumer court over the alleged failure of GM Bt cotton II to deliver promised results.
"We were promised by the company (Mahyco) that these seeds were of better quality and would have higher yield," said Rancholal Gobaji Anametaria, a farmer from Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh.
Anametaria added that the state's agriculture department had promoted the seeds as part of the pilot project to check the quality of Bollgard II, popularly known as Bt cotton II.
"We have decided to go to the consumer court by the end of this month. We have asked all farmers in Madhya Pradesh to file cases against the company," he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6112
+ GROSS IRREGULARITES IN GM FIELD TRIALS
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) has revealed hard hitting evidence of blatant biosafety violations in field trials of Bollgard II in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu , Maharashtra and Punjab.
The MEC report says field trials of GM crops are being conducted in an "unscientific" and "unmonitored" manner in gross violation of biosafety regulations and the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
A film prepared by the MEC showed farmers from many states admitting to the violations and alleging that the company officials rarely visited the fields. While the law mandates that the residue be burnt in the field only, one farmer said he was using the crop residue as cooking fuel. All the farmers shown on video said they were selling the produce in open market.
Here's a snapshot of the key issues raised by the report:
***All materials from field trials, including seeds, cotton, crop residue etc., have entered (or are about to enter) the regular supply chain. This is a clear violation of biosafety rules for Bollgard II. The companies are clearly flouting the rules and guidelines of the EPA.
***In cases where the farmer has incurred heavy losses and where the company refused to come and monitor the plot, there are no accountability mechanisms put in place that protect the farmers' interests.
***The trials are being conducted in an unscientific manner. In several cases the company has abandoned data when the crop starts performing poorly. Would this mean that they fabricate numbers for this plot, or that they calculate averages for approval only from those plots that the company finds promising?
There are currently 21 food crops (cereals, vegetables, pulses) being genetically engineered in the country. Over 13 of these are currently being tested in open-air field trials in numerous unknown locations across the country. The findings presented in the MEC report raise serious questions about the biosafety of these potentially dangerous GM foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6114
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6110
+ READ THE REPORT ON ILLEGAL FIELD TRIALS
Read the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture report, "Field Trials of GM Crops in India: Illegal and Unscientific", which focuses on Monsanto's Bollgard II and highlights many disturbing irregularities, including major biosafety violations, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6126
+ URGENT: TAKE ACTION - BAN FIELD TRIALS IN INDIA
Please put pressure on India's GM regulator - the GEAC - to declare all field trials of GM crops invalid and to put in place an immediate moratorium. The GEAC meets to discuss the trials on 13th January so this is an URGENT action. Sample letter and email addresses/fax numbers are at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6125
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EUROPE
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+ EU COMMISSION ORDERS GREECE TO LIFT GM BAN
The EU Commission has ordered Greece to lift its ban on GM maize seeds. Greece, along with a number of other Member States, has consistently voted against any new GMO authorisations.
The parent maize in question, MON 810, engineered by Monsanto to resist insect pests, won approval for growing just before the EU began its biotech ban in 1998. But in September 2004, the EU authorised 17 different seed strains of Monsanto maize from a parent crop known as MON 810 for planting and sale across EU territory, opening up bitter debate among member states.
It seems likely that the Greeks, who have consistently voted against any new GM authorisation, will appeal against the EC's order at the European Court of Justice, the bloc's highest court.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6118
+ MONSANTO TRIES TO CONTAMINATE EU WITH GM SOYA
Greenpeace, joined by a former manager of Monsanto and Limagrain in Romania, Mr Dragos Dima, at a press conference exposed how Monsanto will contaminate EU agriculture with GM soya.
Monsanto made an application in December 2005 to the EU to grow its GM Roundup Ready soybeans across the whole of Europe once its current license - permitting the beans' import but not cultivation - expires in 2006.
A new Greenpeace report reveals that the GM soya crop in Romania covers more hectares than are officially registered. Due to illegal cultivation and uncontrollable contamination, conventional and organic farming is now impossible in many regions.
Romanian Government officials, reacting to Greenpeace's findings, announced that the cultivation of GM crops should be reduced in 2006 and phased out completely by 2007, when it is due to join the EU. However, Monsanto filing an application for the whole of Europe now would effectively prevent Romania ridding itself of GM crops and GM contamination.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6121
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NEW REPORT: WHO BENEFITS FROM GM CROPS?
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+ MONSANTO TARGETS EUROPE'S MAIZE
Monsanto is aiming to genetically modify all of Europe's maize over the next 4 years, reveals a new Friends of the Earth report. The report reveals that in November 2005 Monsanto announced to its investors that it sees Europe as a "Next Opportunity". It highlighted that in the four years up to 2010 there is market potential to introduce 59 million hectares of its Roundup Ready maize and 32 million hectares of its YieldGard insect-resistant maize. In other words, it is targeting the whole of the European continent's maize production. In addition, it is aiming to introduce 1 million acres of its GM soybeans. Monsanto has currently permission to grow only one type of insect-resistant maize in the EU.
However, despite Monsanto's efforts, the Friends of the Earth report reveals that:
* There have been no new GM crops approved for cultivation in the EU since 1998, and despite 30 years of research and public money the industry has only delivered two GM traits: herbicide tolerance and insect resistance
* Commercial growing on any scale in the EU is still limited to just Spain, and even there the number of GM events permitted has been reduced to just one
* The number of countries and regions banning GM products has increased over recent years
* Europeans continue to reject GM foods
* GM crops have failed to tackle hunger and poverty.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6109
+ TEN YEARS OF GM CROPS FAIL TO DELIVER BENEFITS TO AFRICA
Ten years after the first significant planting of GM crops there are no apparent benefits for consumers, farmers or the environment, and despite renewed promises by biotech corporations, there has been no impact on hunger and poverty, according to a report by the African Center for Biosafety and Friends of the Earth International.
The 100-page report, "Who benefits from GM crops?", concludes that the increase in GM crops in a limited number of countries has largely been the result of the aggressive strategies of the biotech industry, rather than the consequence of benefits derived from using GM technology.
"Contrary to the promises made by the biotech industry, the reality of the last ten years shows that the safety of GM crops cannot be ensured and that these crops are neither cheaper nor of better quality. Biotech crops are not a solution to the hunger question in Africa or elsewhere," said Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Nigeria.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6107
+ GM CROP REVOLUTION DRIVEN BY HYPE AND CORRUPTION
The new FoE Nigeria/African Center for Biosafety report shows that industry body ISAAA "misrepresents GM crop reality", vastly inflating figures for GM plantings. The report also shows that Monsanto and the biotech industry have designed the US regulatory system to enable rapid market penetration for GM products.
EXCERPTS: "ISAAA has inflated its figures. There is a lack of accurate statistical data in most countries about GM crop plantings such as in South Africa, the Philippines and Brazil. Analyses by several authors have found ISAAA data to be vastly inflated in countries such as South Africa, Asia and even the US.
...The US regulatory system has been driven by biotech industry lawyers. As the former official responsible for agricultural biotechnology at the US Food and Drug Administration affirmed: "in this area, the US government agencies have done exactly what big agribusiness has asked them to do and told them to do."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6113
+ READ THE SUMMARY OF THE REPORT
The executive summary of FoE's report with more details of the inflated ISAAA figures, is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6119
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6120
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GLOBAL CONTAMINATION
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+ THE GLOBAL SPREAD OF GMO CROPS
An excellent article for CounterPunch by Peter Montague of Rachel's Health and Democracy looks at global GM contamination and asks, "Who benefits from all this?"
EXCERPT:
Think of it this way: when all crops on earth are genetically contaminated, then the seed companies that own the patented seeds will be in a good position to begin enforcing their patent rights. They have already taken a test case to court and won. In 2004, Monsanto . . . won a seven-year court battle against a 73-year-old Saskatchewan farmer whose fields had been contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified plants. The Supreme Court of Canada court ruled that the farmer -- a fellow named Percy Schmeiser - owed Monsanto damages for having Monsanto's patented crops growing illegally in his field.
Armed with this legal precedent, after genetically modified crops have drifted far and wide, Monsanto, Dow and the other GMO seed producers will be in a position to muscle most of the world's farmers. It is for cases exactly like this that the US has spent 30 years creating the WTO (world trade organization) - to settle disputes over "intellectual property rights" (such as patents) in secret tribunals held in Geneva, Switzerland behind closed doors without any impartial observers allowed to attend. Even the results of WTO tribunals are secret, unless the parties involved choose to reveal them. Let me see - a dirt farmer from India versus Monsanto and Dow backed by the US State Department and the US Treasury. I'm struggling to predict who might win such a politico-legal dispute conducted by a secret tribunal in Geneva, Switzerland.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6106
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BIOTECH SLOWDOWN
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+ GM FARMING GREW AT SLOWEST RATE FOR 10 YEARS
From Dow Jones Newswires:
The annual rise of biotech cultivation grew last year at its slowest pace since 1996, when US farmers sowed their first crop of genetically modified soybeans for sale on the open market, according to a report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.
Experts attributed the slowdown to some countries nearing saturation point in their use of herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant seeds, as other countries hesitate to use the seeds over health and environmental concerns.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6122
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LOBBYWATCH
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+ UN-SPINNING THE SPINMASTERS ON GM FOOD
In September, 2005, the South African investigative magazine Noseweek ran an interview with Seeds of Deception author Jeffrey Smith that was described by a GMO campaigner as "the hardest knock" that the biotech industry had ever taken from the media.
Hans Lombard, a PR man for the biotech industry, wrote a rebuttal to Noseweek that was pure industry spin. Fortunately, Jeffrey was given the opportunity to respond. Lombard's letter, and Jeffrey's responses (well worth reading in full!) are at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6124
EXCERPT:
LOMBARD (in response to Jeffrey Smith's contention that GM crops are not adequately tested for safety):
. . . no agricultural crop in history has been subjected to such stringent scientific and medical tests. GMO crops have passed these tests with flying colours.
The European Commission conducted 81 scientific research tests over a period of 15 years and costing R640 million. It concluded: "GM food is both safe for humans and the environment. Biotech crops may even be safer than conventional food."
SMITH:
The European Commission had funded 81 projects on GMOs, not conducted. As of 2001, when this count was made, most were in progress but not yet published. An analysis of all peer-reviewed animal feeding safety tests on GM foods, published in Nutrition and Health in 2003, found only 10.
Another comprehensive analysis published in October 2005 raises that number to 19. Most of these are industry-sponsored and are criticized as superficial and poorly designed. According to "GMO in animal nutrition: potential benefits and risks" [Pusztai/Bardocz paper], "relatively short-term animal feeding/production experiments, particularly as they are presently carried out, do not contribute much to GM safety."
Another peer-reviewed article in Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews exposed numerous health risks of GM foods that are not being tested for, and cited serious deficiencies in both regulatory oversight and corporate testing procedures.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6124
+ TAVERNE - BOLSTERING PREJUDICE
Last year James Wilsdon, head of science and innovation at the think-tank Demos, took on Dick Taverne, the head of Sense About Science, in a debate at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Here's his comment on Taverne's book, 'The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism':
EXCERPT:
Most strikingly, he [Taverne] presents a completely distorted account of the relationship between science and environmentalism... entirely ignoring the extent to which environmentalism relies on and engages positively with science - for example, in understanding climate change and developing technologies to tackle it, or in monitoring biodiversity.
In fact, on climate change, he sails very close to the wind. Narrowly shies away from a sceptical view. When he says, "I believe Lomborg has rendered a great service" - whose case is he helping to build? I can't see Sir David King, the Chief Scientist, thanking him for that intervention.
There's a fantastic moment at the start of the book where he attacks those who "use evidence selectively and unscrupulously to bolster prejudice, and who go through the motions of inquiry only to demonstrate some forgone conclusion." I had to laugh when I read this - because I'm afraid that's exactly what he does throughout the book!
...
More, plus a scathing review of Taverne's book in the Financial Times, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6115