Organic Consumers Organization - BioDemocracy News #42

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http://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/biod42.cfm

 

BioDemocracy News #42

 

(Feb. 2003) Global Grassroots: Gaining Ground

by: Ronnie Cummins

Organic Consumers Association <www.organicconsumers.org>

 

In this issue:

 

Quotes of the Month

Globalization and Biotech under Fire

Biotech Bullying Backfires

The View from Porto Alegre: Another World Is Possible

Biopharm Blunders-Another Nail in the Coffin for Agbiotech

Monsanto Meltdown

Poisoning Pigs and Humans

The Next Step

 

Quotes of the Month:

 

" The deal would be this: if the Americans would stop lying about us, we would

stop telling the truth about them. " European Union Development Commissioner Poul

Nielson, referring to the increasingly bitter EU/US conflict over genetically

engineered food, Reuters, 1/20/03

 

" There is no need for GM (genetically modified) crops; no one wants them, not

famine-stricken African nations, and very possibly, not even the biotech

corporations themselves, judging from the spectacular cutbacks and spin-outs of

agricultural biotechnology and major retreats from funding academic research

over the past year. " Dr. Mae Wan-Ho, Institute for Science and Society

www.i-is.org.uk 1/14/03

_________

Globalization and Biotech under Fire

 

On the eve of an increasingly unpopular war, US government policies, including

globalization, genetic engineering, and subsidies to industrial agriculture, are

under fire as never before-from Iowa to India, from London to Latin America. On

New Year's Day, the ninth anniversary of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade

Agreement, a stone's throw from the Mexico office of the OCA in Chiapas, 20,000

indigenous protestors are marching through the streets. Wearing masks and

bandanas, armed with machetes, and holding aloft hand-made signs, Zapatista

farmers and rural villagers are rising up in resistance. In an evening rally,

illuminated by the flames from hundreds of torches, Zapatista leaders denounce

NAFTA and rural poverty; as well as biopiracy, the theft and patenting of native

resources and knowledge by biotech scientists, and transgenic pollution, the

contamination of Mexico's traditional corn varieties by genetically engineered

(GE) corn being dumped on the country by US-based grain giants, Archer Daniels

Midland and Cargill.

 

A thousand miles to the north, Mexican farmers organize a parallel protest,

blocking the US/Mexico border in Ciudad Juarez. Since the advent of NAFTA in

1994, the country has been flooded by cheap, US taxpayer-subsidized grains and

foods, including six million tons a year of GE corn and high-fructose corn

sweetener for soft drinks. Unable to compete with more than $20 billion in

annual subsidies to US agribusiness, most of which goes to large farms, two

million Mexican corn growers, cane-cutters, and indigenous subsistence farmers

have been driven off the land, forced to migrate to the already overcrowded

cities, or to make a long and dangerous journey to the US to find work. Once

self-sufficient in food production, Mexico now spends 78% of its oil exports to

purchase food imports from the US.

 

Not since the revolution of 1910 has the US's neighbor to the south experienced

such a wave of unrest. In the past two months, hundreds of thousands of Mexican

farmers organized marches, blocked highways, and seized government

installations. In one dramatic protest, a group of ranchers blocked the streets

outside the Congress in Mexico City with their farm tractors, and then rode up

the steps of the building on horseback. Desperate to defuse the mounting crisis,

Mexican President Vicente Fox has promised to renegotiate the NAFTA agreement,

much to the chagrin of the White House. Similarly hammered by NAFTA and

subsidies to large corporate farms, the National Family Farm Coalition in the US

and the National Farmers Union in Canada have extended their solidarity, calling

for economic justice for farmers, North and South, a rollback of international

trade agreements, and an end to the dumping of GE corn and other crops on the

Mexican and world market. On Jan. 31 over 100,000 irate farmers marched through

the streets of Mexico City and rallied in front of the National Palace.

 

Further south, in Brazil and Ecuador, new Presidents have been swept into

office, riding a wave of anti-globalization and a demand for peace and economic

justice. In Brazil left-wing President Lula da Silva has made " Zero Hunger " and

food security his number one priority, at the same time pledging to maintain

Brazil's moratorium on GE soybeans. Brazil's exports of GE-free soybeans have

doubled to $7.6 billion over the last four years, while US soybean exports (75%

of which are GE) have declined by 30%. In a national survey in July 2001, 67% of

Brazilians said that transgenic crops should continue to be banned.

 

Manifesting the growing power of the global grassroots, from Jan. 23-28 over

100,000 farmer, labor, consumer, and environmental, activists gathered in Porto

Alegre, Brazil for the third annual World Social Forum-denouncing war, corporate

globalization, and food insecurity, under the overall theme, " Another World is

Possible. " Among the notable street demonstrations in Porto Alegre was a Jan. 27

protest at Monsanto's headquarters, where Greenpeace activists scaled the

building and hung a banner denouncing Frankencrops.

 

The economic crisis in Latin America has grown worse. Besides reducing

consumer-buying power by 30% in 2002, Argentina's economic strangulation by the

International Monetary Fund has reduced the ability of Argentina's farmers to

buy GE Roundup Ready soybeans-a significant factor in Monsanto's recent economic

downturn. One of the few glimmers of hope in the Argentina rural economy is the

increasing demand overseas for non-GM corn and grass-fed beef. Meanwhile in

Venezuela, increasing poverty, capital flight, empty supermarket shelves (50% of

the nation's food is imported), and a business-led sabotage of the oil industry,

have brought the country to the verge of civil war.

 

In Colombia, the collapse of world coffee prices and a generalized agricultural

crisis have increased poverty and hunger, driving many desperate farmers to grow

drug crops, fueling an ever more violent civil war. Seemingly drunk with power,

emboldened by what it believes is the popularity of its " war on drugs and

terrorism, " the Bush administration has moved aggressively into Colombia. US

troops are now directly involved in counter-insurgency operations, guarding oil

pipelines and working hand in hand with the Colombian army and right-wing death

squads. Among the tactics being employed by the US are the indiscriminate aerial

spraying of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide over vast areas of the Colombian

countryside, poisoning rural communities and destroying food crops, as well as

coca and poppy fields. US biowar proponents are advocating the aerial spraying

of an even more dangerous herbicide, genetically engineered fusarium bacteria.

www.organicconsumers.org/ge/GEherbicide.cfm

 

Biotech Bullying Backfires

 

Across the globe, as reported in BioDemocracy News, and updated daily on OCA's

website www.organicconsumersw.org, an enormous " food fight " has intensified.

While developing nations sound the alarm over hunger, food dependency and

declining biodiversity, and resent the recent dumping of GE-tainted corn on

impoverished nations; in the industrialized world, consumer concerns over food

safety, nutrition, and environmental sustainability have reached an all-time

high. Both North and South there is an increasing distrust of " industrial food "

and GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and a growing appetite for organic

products. While industrial food revenues are flat, growing 1-2% a year, organic

sales are booming, with yearly growth rates of 20-25%. By the year 2020, at

current rates of growth, most food sold at the grocery store retail level in the

US, Canada, and the EU will be organic. Farmers in 110 nations will produce more

than $25 billion worth of organic foods and fiber in 2003.

 

Worldwide sales of transgenic crops have stalled at $4.25 billion a year, with

only four countries, for all practical purposes, producing GMOs on a commercial

scale (US-corn, soybeans, cotton, and canola; Canada-corn, soybeans, canola;

Argentina-soybeans only; and China-cotton only). As Greenpeace organizer Jeanne

Merrill told the Associated Press (1/16/03) " The reality is that the

biotechnology revolution has not happened. The majority of these crops are going

into animal feed. Farmers are rejecting biotech food crops. "

 

In 2002 there was essentially no increase worldwide in the commercial plantings

of the four major GE crops, soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton- with the sole

exception of GE cotton in China and India. And even the expansion of Bt-spliced

or herbicide-resistant cotton is likely to be short-lived, with reports from the

fields of pest resistance and declining yields. In order to speed up the demise

of Bt cotton, as well as to fight sweatshops and increase the market demand for

organic cotton and sustainable fibers, the OCA is launching a major new campaign

called Clothes for a Change. Among other tactics, this campaign will pressure

leading brand name companies such as Gap, Levi's, Ralph Lauren, Nike, and

Wal-Mart to go " sweatshop-free, " to stop using GE cotton in their garments, and

to blend in organic and sustainable fibers instead. For more information see

www.organicconsumers.org/clothes/

 

The Bush administration's bullying tactics on GMOs have backfired badly. US

Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's belligerent threats to file a WTO

challenge against the EU for its moratorium on GE crops have simply hardened

European attitudes toward Frankenfoods and increased global market demand for

organic and non-GMO crops. Similarly Washington's denunciations of African

leaders for " starving their people " by refusing shipments of US food aid

contaminated by genetic engineering, have angered Africans who believe that

America is trying to shove unwanted GMOs down their throats. Charges by US trade

officials that Europe had manipulated gullible Africans into believing that GMOs

were unsafe prompted a blunt response from EU Development Director Poul Nielson

on Jan. 20 that the US " was lying. "

 

Compounding White House and biotech industry woes, the GMO-tainted food aid

controversy has spread to Asia, with India recently refusing part of a $100

million shipment of GE-tainted corn and soy from the US. At the same time

Japanese importers once again rejected a shipment of US corn, contaminated with

the banned StarLink variety. USDA officials said they were " surprised " by the

news, since they believed all remaining StarLink corn was destroyed last year.

On 1/18 the Brazilian government impounded a GM corn shipment from the US,

demanding that it be returned or incinerated. Meanwhile protesters pulled up GM

crops and took to the streets in the Philippines after the government bowed to

US pressure and approved Bt corn. In Australia, shipments of US GM corn were

confronted by protests in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Newcastle.

 

On the eve of an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, anti-US sentiments are

rising. Mounting anger toward the US overseas, combined with Bush administration

bullying on trade and GMOs, may well deliver a fatal blow to the Gene Giants,

already on life-support after several years of setbacks.

 

The View from Porto Alegre: Another World Is Possible

 

Before reviewing several recent major developments on the biotech front, let's

step back for a moment and look at the " Big Picture " of agriculture, food

security, war, and peace, as articulated at the recent World Social Forum in

Brazil. Several of us from the OCA were fortunate enough to be delegates at this

annual gathering, which is attempting to unite activists worldwide, creating a

global grassroots alternative to the elite-based WTO and the World Economic

Forum. Among the major concerns of global civil society, as expressed in Porto

Alegre are the following:

 

" Genetic engineering and industrial agriculture pose a mortal threat to public

health, the environment, and the economic survival of the world's 2.4 billion

farmers and rural villagers, 1.4 billion of whom are " seed savers. "

 

" Even as GE crops and foods are finally driven off the market, chemical and

energy-intensive industrialized agriculture and globalized food production and

distribution still pose a mortal threat to public health and the environment and

the survival of rural communities worldwide.

 

" Organic and sustainable agricultural practices (coupled with sustainable

practices in energy, transportation, water, housing, health, education, and

industrial production) are the only road to health, sustainability, peace, and

justice. Nutritious and safe food-preferably organic food--and a clean

environment are among people's basic human rights. Organic production systems

must embody the principles of Fair Trade and social justice.

 

" A thousand billionaires and multi-billionaires, along with a thousand large

transnational corporations, are poisoning the planet and our bodies and

undermining democracy. This global elite's stranglehold over our politics,

commerce, media, and culture-including our choices regarding food, fiber, and

health care-must be broken and replaced by a system of participatory democracy

and sustainable development.

 

" We'll never stop having wars, we'll never stop the proliferation of nuclear

bombs and biowarfare weapons, we'll never stop having dictators like Saddam

Hussein, and dangerous demagogues like George Bush as leaders, until we decide

that it's a priority to feed, house, and clothe the world's 830 million starving

people. In addition we must provide employment and living wage jobs for all,

especially the 2.8 billion people currently struggling to survive on less than

$2 a day. And finally we must make it a global priority to allow the world's 2.4

billion farmers and rural villagers to remain on the land, producing the world's

food and fiber, safely, sustainably, and equitably.

 

Biopharm Blunders-Another Nail in the Coffin for Agbiotech

 

" We're very sorry for the mishap… " Anthony Laos, CEO of the biopharm

corporation, ProdiGene.

 

Among the most hazardous and unpredictable new products in the biotech pipeline

are the so-called " pharm " crops. These are crops, most often corn or tobacco,

that are gene-spliced to produce powerful pharmaceutical drugs and industrial

chemicals. Drug and chemical companies are excited about biopharming, since

using plants or animals as " bioreactors " can reduce their manufacturing costs.

The downside is that these mutant bioreactors will undoubtedly pollute the

environment and contaminate the food chain.

 

Over the past few years more than 300 fields of biopharm crops have been planted

in the US--in secret locations, in the open environment. Approximately 200 of

these experiments have been conducted with corn, notorious for spreading its

wind-blown pollen to surrounding fields. Although no pharm crops have been

approved for commercial production, regulations and enforcement of test plots

are notoriously lax. Biopharm companies are not even required to give the USDA

the exact gene sequences of the experimental crops, making it impossible to

verify whether or not particular pharm crops have contaminated the food chain.

As Larry Bohlen of Friends of the Earth put it, " " If the USDA continues to allow

biopharm food crops to be planted, someone is going to get prescription drugs or

industrial chemicals in their corn flakes. " Recent events suggest that this

contamination is already taking place.

 

In Nov. 2002 the USDA was forced to admit that at least two experimental corn

crops in Nebraska and Iowa, grown by ProdiGene, had already polluted the

environment. Not only had a least one, and possibly both, of the mutant corn

crops pollinated, thereby spreading their mutant genes into the air, but several

hundred " volunteer " ProdiGene corn plants had sprung up the following year,

contaminating over 500,000 bushels of soybeans in Nebraska, and 150 acres of

corn in Iowa. ProdiGene at first tried to deny there was a problem, but then

issued an apology. The USDA imposed $3 million in penalties on ProdiGene, but

brushed off demands by OCA's public interest coalition, Genetically Engineered

Food Alert www.gefoodalert.org for a complete moratorium on biopharm

experiments.

 

According to USDA records, and an FDA memo posted on the OCA website, ProdiGene

holds permits to grow corn which has been genetically engineered to express a

pig vaccine, as well as corn gene-spliced to produce a controversial AIDS drug

called HIV glycoprotein gp120, a blood-clotting agent (aprotinin). ProdiGene,

under pressure, admitted that some of the plants cited in their violation were

designed to express a pig vaccine, but a November FDA memo strongly suggests

that it was the AIDS drug or some other human drug-not the pig virus-that was

being grown by ProdiGene in Nebraska. See:

www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/121002/_genetically_engineered.cfm

 

ProdiGene's biopharm blunder was the most serious biotech scandal since the

StarLink controversy in 2000, when a likely allergenic variety of feed corn

contaminated the US food chain and generated major controversy in the press,

both in the US and worldwide. For the first time since the advent of GE foods

and crops in 1994, major US grocery store chains, represented by the Grocery

Manufacturers of America, and food corporations, represented by the National

Food Processors Association, clashed with the USDA and the biotech industry,

demanding that biopharm companies stop experimenting with food and animal feed

crops such as corn. Even the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the

trade association for medical and agbiotech companies, briefly called in October

for a moratorium on biopharm experiments in the Midwestern corn belt, no doubt

having been tipped off that the ProdiGene scandal was about to erupt. However

BIO reversed itself shortly thereafter, caving in to pressure from biotech and

agribusiness lobbyists.

 

More Frankenpharm horror stories loom on the horizon. Pressed as to whether or

not other biopharm violations have occurred, USDA bureaucrats have been evasive,

admitting there have been other " infractions, " but claiming nothing else has

occurred on the scale of ProdiGene. Although US Senator Richard Durbin from

Illinois has formally requested a full accounting of biopharm violations, the

USDA has dragged its heels. Meanwhile biopharm's mad scientists are preparing to

move their operations overseas, to the developing world, where they hope to be

able to pay farmers a pittance, operate in total secrecy, and pollute the

environment and food chain with impunity. On their website

www.molecularfarming.com the biopharm industry have put out a call to farmers

worldwide, especially in the Third World, to make good money and serve a noble

cause by getting in on the ground floor of what they call a " future $50 billion

a year, industry " . But as Monsanto can attest, outsourcing genetic pollution and

treating people as human guinea pigs does not always work out as planned.

 

Monsanto Meltdown

 

Despite heavy advertising and PR greenwash, despite a cozy relationship with the

White House, Monsanto's image, profits, and credibility have plunged. Its

aggressive bullying on Frankenfoods, its patents on the Terminator gene, its

attempt to buy out seed companies and monopolize seed stocks, and its

persecution of hundreds of North American farmers for the " crime " of

seed-saving, has made Monsanto one of the most hated corporations on Earth.

 

Monsanto will likely soon be broken up, with its parts sold off to the highest

bidder. The New York Times reported 1/14/03, that " With its stock price low,

Monsanto is considered a takeover target… by investment banks… and could be

bought and sold off in pieces. " On December 19, Monsanto shocked the biotech

industry by forcing the resignation of its CEO, Hendrik Verfaillie, a 26-year

veteran with the company. The sudden move came as Monsanto reported losses of

$1.75 billion for the first three quarters of 2002, despite cutbacks, including

layoffs for 700 employees. Monsanto's stock has fallen nearly 50% since January

2001.

 

But Monsanto is not the only Gene Giant downsizing. Last year, biotech giant

Syngenta closed down its plant genome lab in San Diego, terminated its

controversial research partnership with the University of California in

Berkeley, pulled out of its planned collaboration with the Indira Gandhi rice

research institute in India, and canceled its contract with the John Innes

Center in the UK

 

Major transnational corporations in the food and life sciences sector are

unlikely to shed any tears over Monsanto's demise. It's no secret on Wall Street

that Monsanto, in its present form, has become a major liability for

transnational food corporations and the biotech/pharmaceutical giants, who are

much more concerned with the potential for hundreds of billions of dollars in

sales from biotech drugs, nutraceutical foods, and nanotechnology, than the

declining fortunes of agbiotech crops, whose total sales in 2002 were $4.25

billion.

 

One of the major reasons for Monsanto's decline, besides the growing worldwide

opposition to its GE crops, is the growing resistance of weeds to Monsanto's

flagship product, Roundup herbicide. Roundup, up until now the top-selling weed

killer in the world, making up 50% of Monsanto's sales and 70% of their profits,

has recently begun to lose its effectiveness against major crop weeds such as

mare's-tail, waterhemp, and ryegrass. GE Roundup-resistant soybeans presently

account for more than 75% of all the soybeans planted in the United States and

Argentina, as well as the majority of rapeseed or canola in Canada. According to

a recent report by Syngenta, herbicide-resistant superweeds will soon reduce the

economic value of farmland on which Roundup Ready soybeans are grown by 17%.

Forty-six percent of farmers surveyed in Syngenta's study said that weed

resistance to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's herbicide Roundup,

is now their top concern. www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/roundup011403.cfm

 

According to industry experts, Monsanto has no alternative in the pipeline once

glyphosate starts to fail. Syngenta, which also sells herbicides containing

glyphosate, has criticized Monsanto for encouraging its customers to overuse the

relatively cheap herbicide, as well as for not warning farmers to avoid

mono-cropping, growing the same Roundup Ready crops, year after year, on the

same plots of land.

 

Leading scientific critics such as Dr. Michael Hansen and Dr. Charles Benbrook

have warned for years that weeds would inevitably develop resistance to GMOs.

The reason for this is that GE herbicide-resistant plant varieties are designed

to be able to survive heavy doses of the companies' broad-spectrum weed killers,

which in turn cause resistant strains of these weeds to survive and eventually

predominate. Similar warnings have been leveled at the use of Bt-spliced crops,

which are engineered to express high doses of a soil bacteria called Bt. Now

that Bt crops such as cotton and corn have been commercialized on millions of

acres, major insect pests such as bollworms, bud worms, beetles, and corn borers

are also expected to become resistant to Bt over the next 5-10 years.

 

The shaky bottom line for agbiotech is that almost 100% of all Frankencrops

today, the so-called " first generation " GE crops, are either herbicide-resistant

or Bt-spliced. Once these genetically engineered traits lose their

effectiveness, which is now happening, the first generation of biotech crops

will be dead, period. Here's a toast to the speedy breakup and demise of

Monsanto and the other Gene Giants. RIP. In future issues of BioDemocracy News

we'll look at the so-called second, third, and fourth generation of Frankenfoods

and crops, including the absolutely frightening advent of nanotechnology, or

" atomtechnology. " See www.etcgroup.org

 

Poisoning Pigs and Humans

 

In July 2002 a number of hog farms in Iowa reported that pigs were suffering

extraordinary rates of reproductive failure-outward signs of pregnancy but no

births. www.organicconsumers.org/ge/pigfertility012703.cfm

What the farms had in common was feeding their pigs Bt corn (or corn which was

both Bt-spliced and Roundup resistant), which turned out to have a high level of

fusarium mold. When one of the farmers switched back to non-GE corn, the

reproductive problems disappeared. A memo by USDA researcher Dr. Mark Rasmussen

dated 8/5/02 stated, " A possible cause of the problem may be the presence of an

unanticipated biologically active, chemical compound in the corn. " Previous

research at Baylor University in Texas found similar problems in rats exposed to

" chipped corncob bedding " made from Bt corn. As indicated in previous issues of

BioDemocracy News, it is likely that human guinea pigs (i.e. the general

public), as well as pigs, are now suffering from allergic reactions as well as

damage to their immune systems and guts from ingesting Bt corn. A number of

scientists believe that the Iowa incident may be the result of a sort of toxic

synergy between Bt corn and Roundup Ready soybeans. More on this in an upcoming

issue.

 

The Next Step

 

The OCA has made a commitment to double the size of our 500,000-member network

over the next 12 months, and to step up the pressure by helping grassroots

activists pass laws that alter public policy at the local and state levels. This

is in addition to carrying on our marketplace pressure campaigns against

Starbucks and supermarket chains and stepping up our public education efforts.

If you are willing to help us with network building in your local area, or work

with us to pass pro-organic legislation against sweatshops, Frankenfoods,

irradiated food, or slave labor coffee and chocolate, send an email to

simon. In your email, please include your telephone number

and street address so we can have the appropriate OCA regional field organizer

get back in touch with you.

 

And last, but not least, if you want to get involved in the growing anti-war

movement and put pressure on the US Congress, you should consider joining one of

the most exciting and powerful new internet networks in the world www.moveon.org

 

For a weekly expose of Bush administration lies and propaganda on the war,

biotech, the environment, and other issues check out <www.prwatch.org> published

by OCA policy board member John Stauber. To sign up for PR Watch's free weekly

email report go to: http://www.prwatch.org/cmd//sotd.html

 

Stay tuned to BioDemocracy News and www.organicconsumers.org for the latest news

and Action Alerts.

 

End of BioDemocracy News #42

 

 

 

 

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