REVIEW number 306

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GMWATCH REVIEW number 306
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from Claire Robinson, REVIEW editor
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Dear all:

Environmental and social organisations all over Europe are writing to supermarkets and the food industry, asking them not to mislead their consumers by labelling GM and intensively produced soy as "responsible". GM soy production in South America is responsible for deforestation, destruction of rural communities, and mass pesticide poisoning. Please tell the supermarkets that we don't accept this label fraud. Rainforest Rescue has set up a quick and easy system you can use to send a letter to supermarkets all over Europe (TAKE ACTION).

Hot on the heels of revelations from Wikileaks that the US government planned a campaign of retaliation against the EU that would "cause some pain" as punishment for its reluctance to adopt GM crops, comes a report from Argentina that the US government forced Argentine authorities to commission a private firm to come up with a study to counter Prof Andres Carrasco's findings that glyphosate causes birth defects (THE AMERICAS).

Incidentally, you'll see we've changed the name of our regular global update from Weekly Watch to GMWatch Review, as it seems to better capture what it's all about. You'll continue to get it every week or two, along with occasional alerts or special articles and, of course, our regular GMWatch Monthly Reviews.

Claire <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org
Profiles: http://bit.ly/12UAI2
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://bit.ly/c6OnaX

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CONTENTS
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TAKE ACTION: TOXIC SOY/GM COOKING OIL/GM ALFALFA/GM FISH
THE AMERICAS
FEEDING THE WORLD
AFRICA
EUROPE
LOBBYWATCH
CORPORATE CRIMES
AUSTRALASIA
ASIA

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TAKE ACTION: TOXIC SOY/GM COOKING OIL/GM ALFALFA/GM FISH
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+ EUROPE: TAKE ACTION - TELL FOOD COMPANIES, DON'T BUY THE LIE OF "RESPONSIBLE" SOY
Environmental and social organisations all over Europe are writing to supermarkets and food industry, asking them not to mislead their consumers by labelling GM and intensively produced soy as "responsible". GM soy production in Latin America has caused the destruction of many millions of hectares of forest in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It has also caused violent land grabs, displaced indigenous peoples, dramatically increased the use of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller, caused major health problems, and created vast unsustainable GM monocultures. Despite this disaster, GM soy production is being greenwashed by the likes of Monsanto and the WWF via the Round Table on Responsible Soy. We need to reduce the dependence of Europe on imported soy and radically change the way food is produced. Please tell the supermarkets that we don't accept this label fraud. Rainforest Rescue has set up a quick and easy system you can use to send a letter to supermarkets all over Europe:
http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/679/responsible-soy-misleading-consumers
GMWatch/Friends of the Earth press release about the "Don't buy the lie" campaign:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12948
Backgrounder on what's wrong with the RTRS:
http://www.gmwatch.org/images/pdf/rtrsbackgrounderfinal.pdf
More about the terrible human cost of GM soy production in South America:
http://www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/12479-reports-reports

+ UK: TAKE ACTION ON GM COOKING OIL - WHAT'S IN YOUR CHIPS?
GM cooking oil is used by takeaways, caterers and increasingly sold in supermarkets. We know because there are GM labels on the cans. In 2008 York Trading Standards officers reported an official investigation revealed a quarter of caterers were using GM oil and 94% of them are selling it unlabelled in violation of the law. In Norfolk, Trading Standards officials reminded all takeaway owners they face six months in jail and fines of up to GBP5,000 if they use unlabelled GM ingredients - something over 40% of establishments visited are doing. If you want to help get GM oil and other GM ingredients out of the food chain, visit GM Freeze's 'one-stop shop' info and action pages.
http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?ID=482

+ TELL U.S. DAIRIES YOU DON'T WANT GM ALFALFA
Ask them to pledge to use only non-GMO alfalfa
https://secure3.convio.net/cfs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=357

+ TELL U.S. FOOD COMPANIES TO STOP THE INTRODUCTION OF GM ALFALFA INTO SUPPLY CHAIN
http://action.responsibletechnology.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5838

+ URGE CONGRESS TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST GM FISH
https://secure3.convio.net/cfs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=365

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THE AMERICAS
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+ USDA REGULATORS WORKED WITH MONSANTO TO DEREGULATE GM ALFALFA
An article for Truthout exposes the scandalous way in which GM alfalfa was deregulated in the US. In a string of emails between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto, federal regulators and Monsanto employees shared edits to a list of the USDA's questions about Monsanto's petition to fully legalize the alfalfa. Later emails show a USDA regulator, Dr Virgil Meier, accepted Monsanto's help with drafting the initial environmental assessment (EA) of the alfalfa and planned to "cut and paste" parts of Monsanto's revised petition right into the government's assessment.
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12939

+ FROM GM CROP DEVELOPER TO GM CROP REGULATOR: DR VIRGIL MEIER
Dr Virgil Meier, the member of the USDA panel that assessed GM alfalfa for deregulation and offered to "cut and paste" from Monsanto's petition right into the government's assessment, used to be an employee of the seed company Scotts, where he managed the team that developed GM Roundup Ready bentgrass. Later, he joined USDA, where he assessed the very same GM bentgrass for approval.
GMWatch comment: The story of GM alfalfa identifies the No. 1 issue we have to take on if GMOs and the toxic pesticides they depend on are ever going to be written out of the food system - the corrupt and unscientific regulatory procedure.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12944
GMWatch profile of Dr Virgil Meier:
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Virgil_Meier

+ U.S. FORCES STUDY TO COUNTER CARRASCO'S FINDINGS OF ROUNDUP LINK TO BIRTH DEFECTS
The US Embassy in Argentina is promoting the use of glyphosate herbicide, which can cause major birth defects, according to a PressTV report. PressTV reported that the US Embassy in Buenos Aires has forced the authority that monitors agricultural production to promote the use of glyphosate by hiring a private firm to come up with a report that denies health risks of the herbicide. The report appears to have been organized to counter the findings of researcher Prof Andres Carrasco, who found that glyphosate causes birth defects in frogs and chickens at levels far below those used in agriculture.

"Many have criticized Carrasco's studies because he proved that glyphosate affects embryos and causes malformations. There is no legislation to control the effects of such chemicals. One day the health effects of glyphosate will be considered a crime and subject to prosecution," Jorge Rulli, an expert in sustainable development, told Press TV.
See video news report in English:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/169412.html
See The Poison of the Pampas, video news report from Argentina on the human consequences of glyphosate spraying on GM soy:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/26-gm-in-latin-america/12580-the-poison-of-the-pampas
See the Tyranny of Soy in Paraguay, TheRealNews video news report:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/gm-videosb/26-gm-in-latin-america/12712-the-tyranny-of-soy-in-paraguay

+ BAYER IN COURT: "WE DON'T KNOW HOW" GM RICE CONTAMINATION HAPPENED
In a US court case brought against Bayer, the GM/agrochemical company responsible for contaminating the US rice supply with unapproved GM rice, Bayer executive Scott Johnson has admitted he has no idea how the worst catastrophe in the history of the rice industry occurred: "It happened, but we don't know how." Oh, and an eminent professor who's a GM expert, and the USDA don't know, either.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12933

+ 96% WANT GM LABELED
In a poll conducted by US news station MSNBC, 96% of respondents voted strongly in favor of labeling GM foods.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12942

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FEEDING THE WORLD
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+ SAVE CLIMATE AND DOUBLE FOOD PRODUCTION WITH ECO-FARMING
Eco-farming could double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change, according to a new UN report. An urgent transformation to "eco-farming" is the only way to end hunger and face the challenges of climate change and rural poverty, said Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, following the presentation of his annual report focusing on agroecology and the right to food to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Agroecology mimics nature not industrial processes. It replaces the external inputs like fertiliser with knowledge of how a combination of plants, trees and animals can enhance productivity of the land," De Schutter said, stressing that, "Yields went up 214 percent in 44 projects in 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa using agro-ecological farming techniques over a period of 3 to 10 years... far more than any GM crop has ever done."

Other recent scientific assessments have shown that small farmers in 57 countries using agroecological techniques obtained average yield increases of 80 percent. Africans' average increases were 116 percent. "Today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agro- ecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilisers in boosting food production in regions where the hungry live," De Schutter said.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12951
The report is here:
http://bit.ly/eU98iY

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AFRICA
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+ SOUTH AFRICA "DUMPING" MAIZE ON AFRICA
South Africa has dumped GM maize on African markets, the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) alleged. "In the last four months, South Africa has dumped almost 300 000 metric tons of GM maize on to Kenya, Mozambique and Swaziland," it said in a statement.

An ACB study contained the first documented cases of commodity exports of GMOs from South Africa to the rest of the African continent, it said, describing this as a "a worrying precedent". The ACB said that even Kenya, which was strategically important to Africa's biotech industry, and where most of the GM maize ended up, lacked the capacity to ensure the safe handling and monitoring of such a huge volume.

ACB director Mariam Mayet said as much as 80% of the grain trade in East Africa was informal and undocumented. "The arrival of 280 000 tons of GM maize into Kenya presents the potential for genetic contamination on an unimaginable scale," she said. "These shipments have come at a time when South Africa has experienced its second largest maize harvest on record, at over 13 million tons."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12934

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EUROPE
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+ ROMANIA'S AG SECRETARY IN THRALL TO GM FAIRYTALES
Romania's Agriculture Minister Valeriu Tabara wants the country to become a major cultivator of GMOs. He said, "GM soy is a miracle plant which fixes nitrogen [a fertiliser] in the soil, allowing the establishment of subsequent crops without the farmer needing to buy additional inputs for the new crop."

This is, of course, garbage. Soy is a legume, so it fixes nitrogen in the soil - but so does non-GM soy and most other legumes. And GM soy cultivation in South America has left the soil so poisoned with Roundup and so depleted of nutrients that it's unable to support any other crop. And farmers are having to use more and more glyphosate on GM soy plus other herbicides, in an effort to control glyphosate-resistant weeds.

Syngenta Romania's CEO weighed into the debate with the comment, "I would like to see the EU take the proper steps to examine the scientific evidence and approve GM."

We suggest that Radulescu take the first part of Syngenta's advice. He would find that the science shows that glyphosate has a negative impact on nitrogen fixation. In young GM Roundup Ready soy plants, glyphosate delays nitrogen fixation and reduces the growth of roots and sprouts, resulting in yield decline. In drought conditions, yield is reduced by up to 25 per cent.

The mechanism for this effect may be explained by another study, which found that glyphosate enters the root nodules and adversely affects beneficial soil bacteria that help nitrogen fixation. It inhibits root development, reducing root nodule biomass by up to 28 per cent. It also reduces an oxygen-carrying protein, leghaemoglobin, which helps bind nitrogen in soybean roots, by up to 10 per cent.
Citations:
- King CA, Purcell, L.C., Vories, E.D. Plant growth and nitrogenase activity of glyphosate-tolerant soybean in response to foliar glyphosate applications. Agronomy Journal. 2001;93:179”šÄì186.
- Reddy KN, Zablotowicz, R.M. Glyphosate-resistant soybean response to various salts of glyphosate and glyphosate accumulation in soybean nodules. Weed Science. 2003; 51:496”šÄì502. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1614/0043-1745(2003)051[0496:GSRTVS]2.0.CO;2.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12941

+ GM RISKS FOR BEES - SWEDISH BEEKEEPERS
Swedish beekeepers have written to the Advocate General saying that all EU approvals of Bt maize crops, including the recently approved MIR604, must be challenged based on the fact that no risk assessment of honey or pollen as a food supplement has been carried out.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12955

+ BT MAIZE COULD BE CO-FACTOR IN BEE COLONY COLLAPSE
Interview with bee researcher Prof Dr Hans-Hinrich Kaatz of the University of Halle-Wittenberg:
http://www.gmwatch.eu/latest-listing/1-news-items/11621

+ UK TRIBUNAL DECIDES: GM CONTAMINATION SITE SHOULD BE KEPT SECRET
Following an appeal by GM Freeze, an Information Tribunal has upheld UK ag ministry Defra's decision to keep secret the location of a field of winter oilseed rape in Somerset contaminated with a GM trait in 2008. The Tribunal ruled that levels of contamination were too low to justify lifting the data protection rights of the landowner.

"We are disappointed in the ruling, but we note it depends on the low contamination level in this case," said Pete Riley, Director of GM Freeze. "We strongly believe that neighbours should be informed of any GM contamination that might affect their fields, and we will be back to make this case again if another incident occurs."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12956

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ BLACK OPS AGAINST GM CRITICS AND OTHERS
Greenpeace is suing people connected with a now defunct private security firm, Beckett Brown International (BBI), for conducting illegal black ops against it and other activist organisations. BBI targets included GM critics, the Centre for Food Safety and GE Food Alert, and various scientists and individuals. BBI sent its reports to clients such as Wal-Mart, Halliburton, the National Rifle Association, the Carlyle Group and Monsanto. Other defendants in the lawsuit are two public relations firms, Dezenhall Resources and Ketchum, and chemical giants Dow Chemical and Sasol America. Greenpeace accuses the defendants of "clandestine and unlawful activities", claiming they stole confidential documents, conducted illicit surveillance - sometimes using off-duty policemen - and "in all likelihood" broke into Greenpeace offices and other locations between 1998-2000. It cites at least 200 illegal actions in this period.
http://gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12940

+ WHY GM WATCH ARE "A BUNCH OF MURDERING BASTARDS"
According to corporate consultant Patrick Moore, we at GMWatch are "low-life" "murdering creeps", "profiteering on ignorance"; not to mention "a bunch of murdering bastards" with an "anti-human, murderous agenda". How come? Find out more about Moore here:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12932

+ GM COTTON: SUICIDE SEEDS?
Mark Lynas who, together with Stewart Brand, fronted the controversial Channel 4 documentary, What the Greens got wrong), recently published an article on his website denying that Bt cotton had anything to do with farmer suicides in India. The article attracted comments from readers who strongly disagreed with Lynas - including policy analyst and journalist Devinder Sharma.
http://gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12954

+ GM INDUSTRY LIE: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WANT AND NEED GM
The last 12 months have seen a number of biotech industry lies bite the dust. One of them is that developing countries are hot for GMOs with only affluent Westerners obstructing their acceptance. In fact, the opposite has been shown to be the case, with deeply rooted resistance to GM crops becoming more and more apparent in developing countries in the face of the heavily financed efforts of US-based and GM industry-led interests to push GM crops. Here's a rundown of the resistance and the GM industry's dirty tricks:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12943

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ MONSANTO PLACES ALL LIABILITY ON FARMERS
An article analyzing Monsanto's Technology Agreement, which farmers growing GM crops have to sign, has been doing the rounds on the internet. The article says that the contract places all liability for contamination from Monsanto's GM genes on the farmer... for ever. If the farmer sells his land, the new purchaser must also sign a Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement.

Monsanto's reply, published on its blog by a woman only identified as "Janice", does not reassure:
**"Janice" says that people are silly to worry, that we all have to sign liability contracts when buying a house, but that everyone should read the contract
**an unnamed farmer also thinks we are silly to worry, but sticks his neck out enough to add his view of what the contract means: "The way I read it, it says if you buy or rent a farm that has their [Monsanto's] traited crops planted (i.e., current crop year in the middle of the season) on it you have to sign the agreement to spray them and harvest them."

Neither "Janice" nor farmer has anything to say about what happens if Monsanto's GM trait persists on the land without anyone deliberately planting GM crops. This has happened with GM crops and will probably happen all the more with GM alfalfa, which is a perennial crop. Could this be the case of Percy Schmeiser's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren versus Monsanto?
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12936

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AUSTRALASIA
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+ AUSTRALIA: KELLOGG'S AGREES TO NON-GM POLICY
Kellogg's has agreed to produce foods without GM ingredients. The company was found by Greenpeace to be producing a bar with a suspected GM ingredient. The Kellogg's K-Time twist bar contains fructose sourced from the US, which "almost always comes from corn and is genetically modified," said Nathaniel Pelle, a Greenpeace campaigner and the producer of Greenpeace's Truefood Guide.
http://gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12949

+ WESTERN AUSTRALIA: DEMAND FOR NON-GM CANOLA JUMPS
European demand for non-GM canola crops from Western Australia has led to a dramatic increase in the price of the grain.
http://gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12949

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ASIA
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+ INDIA: MINISTER ASKS REGULATOR TO STOP GM MAIZE TRIALS
Even as the moratorium on commercialisation of Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) stands, India's Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to immediately withdraw its permission to Monsanto for field trials of Bt maize in Bihar. Bt brinjal was the first, and maize is the second food crop for which the GEAC has given permission for field trials in India. Ramesh's intervention came after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told him personally that he was "opposed" to field trials of Bt maize in Bihar because of the risks and wanted the GEAC to withdraw its permission.

In a letter to the GEAC chief, Ramesh said: "Bihar CM's phone call reinforces my belief that biotech regulation, particularly in the field of agriculture, cannot be a purely scientific enterprise... There are political considerations that will come into play and I use that term in its best people-oriented sense. Regulation in telecom or insurance cannot be equated with regulation in food crop-oriented biotechnology."
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12950