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from Claire Robinson, REVIEW editor

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Dear all:

A big class action lawsuit brought in the US by Argentine tobacco farmers holds Monsanto and Big Tobacco responsible for causing birth defects and other serious health problems in their families by asking them to use Roundup and other toxic products. Today, tobacco; tomorrow, GM soy. Watch this space. 

And watch out to for all the latest on what's happening with UK supermarket chain Morrisons' recent decision to betray its customers by dropping its non-GM feed policy for poultry – see EUROPE, and please take action. 

Claire

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Monsanto, Philip Morris and other US tobacco giants knowingly poisoned Argentine tobacco farmers with pesticides, causing "devastating birth defects" in their children, dozens of farmers are claiming in court. The farmers claim the tobacco companies asked them to use Roundup and other toxic products made or distributed by Monsanto, and assured them the products were safe. They say the defendants "wrongfully caused the parental and infant plaintiffs to be exposed to those chemicals and substances which they both knew, or should have known, would cause the infant offspring of the parental plaintiffs to be born with devastating birth defects." Monsanto's pesticides contaminated the farmers' non-tobacco crops, water wells and streams meant for family use, the farmers say.

Food manufacturers are being warned of a possible food fraud involving basmati rice that may have been intentionally contaminated with GMOs. According to Richard Werran, managing director of GM testing firm Cert ID, unauthorised GMOs have been turning up in consignments of basmati rice from India and Pakistan. Werran suggests that the source of the contamination may be the adulteration of the more expensive basmati rice with cheap GM rice (cheap because no one wants it, not because it's cheap to develop!). This follows on from other major GM rice scandals that have affected rice and rice products imported from China and the US.

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Not much, it seems, based on OUP's publication of Monsanto advisor Robert Paarlberg's book Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. The book defends GMOs and factory farming uncritically – and as for citations, er, well, there aren't any! It seems OUP has published similar citation-free books on other controversial public interest issues, including one on nuclear. A petition has been organised asking OUP to uphold scholarly standards and to require authors to include citations for claims and to disclose conflicts of interest. There are interesting comments from signatories, including a woman who helpfully suggested to OUP that if it publishes any future books of this ilk, it might consider classifying them as "opinion" or "fiction". 

 

Sign on: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/844/611/091/

 

Read Frances Moore Lappe's comments on the OUP scandal: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13831

Research by Harvard professor Shon R Hiatt shows how Monsanto has captured the regulatory agencies in the US – through third-party groups such as farmers' organisations. If these groups like a GMO, apparently the regulators are more likely to give it the green light. Hiatt's research makes sense of the enormous lengths that companies like Monsanto go to to cultivate these organisations.

Find out more: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13833

Many states in India have said they will not host GM trials. So India's GM 'regulator' GEAC has taken on the role of lobbyist for GM multinationals and is writing to the state governments "about the importance of GM crops". Most of the bigger states such as Bihar, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have refused to give no-objection certificate for field trials. The latest is Rajasthan, which has now also refused to allow field trials of GM crops. 

In a protest organised by the Deccan Development Society as a part of the global anti-GMO week, over 500 women marched in Zaheerabad to protest against government inaction on the spread of Bt cotton, which they said is not only destroying the environment but is also playing havoc with farmers' livelihoods. Farmers who are lured by the promises of Bt seed dealers are finding that not even 50% of the promised yields are being realised. The women have demanded a total ban on the cultivation of Bt cotton in their district as well as for criminal charges to be brought against the Bt seed dealers. 

 

Great photo of the women's anti-GMO protest here:

The Southern Action on Genetic Engineering (SAGE) said the "success story" of Bt cotton in the last 10 years is only hype. When Bt cotton spread to 85% of the country's cotton area in 2009-10, the yield was 474 kg of lint a hectare. "This is just 4 kg more than the yield in 2004-05 when Bt cotton's share was 5.7% in the total cotton area," PV Satheesh, National Convenor of SAGE, said. At the same time, the cost of inputs went up by 50%. Quoting Cotton Advisory Board figures, he said yields had in fact declined in the last five years. And the often-cited rise in India's cotton production is down to the expansion of the planted area, not Bt cotton, with around 2.5 million acres of new land having been brought into irrigated cotton production since the arrival of Bt cotton in India.

 

Summary of new report, "Bt cotton and beyond: Status & implications of genetically engineered crops and post GE technologies for small and marginal farmers in Africa & Asia – An Afro Asian conclave": http://www.ddsindia.com/www/pdf/B&B%20Summary.pdf 

Full report: http://www.ddsindia.com/www/pdf/B&B%20Report.pdf

Intruders dug under electrified security fencing and destroyed hundreds of GM pine trees in a field trial being carried out by Crown Research Institute Scion in Rotorua. In spite of claims that the trees were part of research to make production more environmentally friendly, it seems that at least some of these trees were engineered to make them tolerate herbicides – and thus perpetuate reliance on agrochemicals.

The dramatic rise of weeds resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, is leading biotech companies to develop GM crops that are tolerant to older, potentially even more toxic herbicides such as 2,4-D and dicamba. In a paper published in BioScience, David Mortensen, professor of weed ecology at Penn State, and fellow researchers say the approach will dramatically increase herbicide use and threaten environmental quality, create even more herbicide resistant "superweeds", and encourage continued neglect of research on integrated weed management approaches in favour of chemical company profit-driven GM approaches. Interesting interview with Dr Mortensen here:

The GM "Enviropig" was engineered to produce less phosphorus in its faeces, supposedly reducing pollution problems from pig farm runoff. But Lucy Sharratt of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network points out that there is already a simple technology, a pig feed supplement (phytase), that does exactly what the GM "Enviropig" promised to do, minus the controversy that threatened the domestic and international markets for Canadian pork. The GM pig is a classic example of GM technology developed to solve a problem that already has one or more solutions.

Recently our attention was drawn to unpublicised attempts to promote a not-very-impressive GM drought-tolerant maize in Europe 

 

We're pleased to remind our readers that not only have 34 non-GM drought-tolerant maize varieties been developed, but they won the 2012 Climate Week Award: http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=118342&CultureCode=en

 

There are countless more examples of non-GM supercrops that provide the best argument for why GM is not needed. We have a database of them here, which we update regularly: 

 

Please tell all your friends and contacts about it, as you never know when the next piece of GM hype along the lines of "only GM can solve the phosphorus pollution/drought/rust disease problem" will be presented to decision-makers.

GM crop trials have failed to take off in New Zealand for reasons other than the "strict" legal barriers blamed by developers, the Sustainability Council says in a new report. The think tank found the drop in the number of GM field trials was mainly due to factors such as loss of funding, technical difficulties, and lack of public enthusiasm for GMOs. Tens of millions of dollars of public funding had gone into developing GMOs. Yet despite promises of major economic returns and imminent commercialisation, not one of these GM crop varieties has ever reached the market or is likely to do so within the next decade. 

GM testing has confirmed that South African foods sold in New Zealand supermarkets are contaminated with GMOs – some of which may be illegal. 

http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13846

The African Centre for Biosafety which first exposed how South African food manufacturers were selling foods, including baby foods, with high levels of GM content without any labels is now facing legal threats from big food producers for suggesting this is illegal under South African law. A scan of a Cape Times' article about the legal threats has been posted on Facebook:

 

See the ACB's original press release flagging up the issue here: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13770

"You have the right to know what you eat, especially when it's better. After several months of debate, Europe has just adopted a new law for the labeling of food that comes from genetically engineered plants. We believe that products that come from biotechnology are better and that they should to be labeled." – Monsanto, 1998, in its advertising campaign in France after the EU instituted mandatory labeling of GMOs

 

See the advert in English here:

Hundreds of people, many of whom traveled in buses from the far corners of the state, jammed the Vermont Statehouse on 12 April to tell the House Agriculture Committee to pass the bill mandating labeling of GM food sold in Vermont. Around 112 people testified. Committee member Will Stevens said, "One hundred percent wanted us to pass the bill. Some said tonight, some said tomorrow." Committee chair Carolyn Partridge said after the hearing that she expects the bill to pass in some form. Rachel Lattimore, a Washington, DC-based lawyer who has represented the Biotechnology Industry Association, Monsanto, and other biotech companies, told the committee and one of its attorneys that Vermont would face a lawsuit from the industry if it passed this bill.

In anticipation of the April 12 public hearing concerning Vermont's proposed bill to label GMOs, the Vermont Right to Know GMOs coalition held an "Unlabeled and Unnatural Buffet" at the Vermont Statehouse. The coalition used the event to highlight the fact that many products labeled as "natural" in fact contain GMOs.

The Chilean Transparency Council has supported Chileans' right to know about GM crops. The Council's decision to insist that people are informed where GM crops are grown ensures that farmers, beekeepers and rural residents can find out exactly where GM crops are planted – basic information that is critically important as they seek to protect their farms, apiaries and families from toxic pesticide drift and contamination by pollen from GM plants.  

Dozens of peasant farmers, academics and activists, along with members of the general public, attended the traditional maize festival in San Juan Ixtenco in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. The festival is one of 150 that take place in Mexico every year to celebrate maize. Mexico's many indigenous varieties were exhibited. Participants, from peasant farmers to scientists, condemned the government's decision to allow planting of GM maize in Mexico.

A new report by La Via Campesina and other civil society organisations shows that around the world, smallholder and organic farmers, local communities and social movements are increasingly resisting and rejecting Monsanto and the agroindustrial model that it represents. The new report provides snapshots of frontline struggles against Monsanto and other agrochemical corporations pushing GM crops onto farmers and into the environment.

Poland has imposed a ban on growing Monsanto's MON810 GM strain of maize on its territory. Agriculture minister Marek Sawicki said that as well as being linked to range of health ailments, the pollen originating from this GM strain might harm bees.

UK supermarket chain Morrisons recently dropped its non-GM feed policy for poultry, much to the delight of Dr Julian Little, chief spin doctor for Bayer CropScience in the UK and head of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, a GM industry front group. Little has published a letter in The Grocer repeating the ancient lie that "non-GM feed [is] becoming pricier as the availability of non-GM protein (namely soy) decreases" and advising other retailers to follow Morrisons. But Richard Werran, MD of non-GM certification company Cert ID, has responded by saying that the difference in cost between GM and non-GM feed is tiny and that consumers are willing to pay more for food produced with non-GM feed. Of course, Morrisons have only agreed to accept food produced from animals fed on GM feed because they can market it without telling their customers! It's all down to a loophole in the EU's GM labelling regulations.  

Morrisons scrambled to put the company Facebook page into damage limitation mode as UK consumers registered their protests over the retailer's decision to allow suppliers to feed GM to poultry.

 

TAKE ACTION: Go to Morrisons' Facebook page and let them know what you think:  

 

More ideas on how to take action:

Exchange between Dr Brian John and Morrisons' Head of Policy on the company's decision to abandon the use of GM-free poultry feed:

Protesters have ramped up their campaign against GM wheat trials, by delivering a giant pasty to the offices of DEFRA, the agriculture ministry. Members of the group, called "Take the Flour Back", carried the 4ft pasty and dumped it at the front door of the offices. DEFRA workers had to step over the giant pie to enter the offices as protestors lobbied officials. Activists are urging ministers to stop the field trial of GM wheat at Rothamsted Research, which is genetically engineered to give off an odour that repels aphids.

Check out the website: http://taketheflourback.org/

Public opposition has killed off plans to sell milk from Britain's only herd of cloned cattle. Most of the 96 animals, which were sired by two bulls bred from embryos from a cloned cow and were kept on a farm in Scotland, have been destroyed or exported to Portugal. The farmer who owned the cows decided to get rid of them after it became clear the public would not accept milk or meat from them. Simon Gee of Holstein UK, which keeps breed records for milking cows, said no new clone offspring had been born and registered in the UK since the 96 on the Scottish farm. He also said most farmers had no interest in using clones. "Farmers do not want lots of copies of the same animal for either breeding or food," he said. "They are constantly looking to improve the animals they have on farms."

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