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WEEKLY_WATCH_NUMBER_53_+_monthly_review

" GM_WATCH "

Fri, 2 Jan 2004 12:15:08 GMT

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THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 53

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

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Dear all

 

Welcome to WW53 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.

 

The big news this week has been the release of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics

final version of its report on GM and the developing world (see HIGHLIGHTS). We

are less than surprised that the Council has reiterated its 1999 report's claim

that developing GM crops for developing countries is a " moral imperative " .

 

Possible reasons for the authors' enthusiasm are contained in our new directory,

" THE BIOTECH BRIGADE: Who's who in the fight to force-feed us GMOs " at

http://www.gmwatch.org. The individual profile of the Nuffield Council, at

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=98 , details the corporate affiliations

of some of the scientists who drove both Nuffield reports.

 

Meanwhile, in the US, a genetic engineer has had to give up his GM experiments

because the ordinary tomato seeds he wanted to tinker with turned out to be GM

already - this in spite of the fact that the seed repository he'd got the seed

from believed it had no GM seeds (see SETBACKS).

 

While we welcome the cessation of experiments involving the release of GMOs,

we're concerned that GM contamination is becoming so widespread that natural

seeds are increasingly hard to find. This, of course, is the situation desired

by biotech companies - and not just because they intend to patent and own every

commercial seed on the planet. An added bonus of universal GM contamination for

industry is that non-GM control groups of seeds, crops, livestock and human

consumers will no longer be available. And if there is no control group, there

can be no studies designed to find out if there is a problem with GM foods or

crops.

 

On the positive side, a British MP has introduced a Bill into Parliament

mandating larger separation distances between GM and conventional or organic

crops than are currently in force, and deciding liability for contamination.

 

We wish all our readers a happy and peaceful New Year.

 

Claire claire

www.ngin.org.uk

 

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CONTENTS

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK

SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES

HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

SUBSCRIPTIONS

 

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK

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ON THE NUFFIELD COUNCIL'S CLAIM IN 1999 THAT DEVELOPING GM CROPS FOR 3RD WORLD

IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE

" Perhaps you believe that India needs genetically engineered seeds, or there

will be famine? I am from north-west India. India has a surplus of food, and we

have a problem of storage, not of shortage. What we need are facilities and

political will for the distribution of this food. Even without genetically

engineered seeds, we have surplus. So you can imagine our astonishment to hear

from your report that we need genetically engineered food to feed ourselves. "

- Manjit Kadran, Indian farmers' union representative, addressing Anthony Tomei,

director of the Nuffield Foundation in London, in 1999. Kadran was one of 30

farmers who had travelled to London to challenge the Nuffield Council on

Bioethics' report claiming that the development of GM crops was a " moral

imperative " . They were infuriated that Nuffield had consulted no farmers from

the developing world.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1903

 

ON HOW POLITICS AND COMMERCE TRUMP HUMANITARIAN CONCERN

" At the height of the 1974 famine in the newly born Bangladesh, the US withheld

2.2 million tonnes of food aid to 'ensure that it abandoned plans to try

Pakistani war criminals'. And a year later, when Bangladesh was faced with

severe monsoons and imminent floods, the then US Ambassador to Bangladesh made

it abundantly clear that the US probably could not commit food aid because of

Bangladesh's policy of exporting jute to Cuba. And by the time Bangladesh

succumbed to the American pressure, and stopped jute exports to Cuba, the food

aid in transit was 'too late for famine victims'. "

- Devinder Sharma in the preface to his new book, GM Food and Hunger: A View

from the South. To obtain a copy, please contact the author:

dsharma

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1911

 

ON CORPORATE WELFARE

" Ironically, fiscal deficit (which is the reason for reducing support to India's

small farmers) has never been the consideration when the government doles out

massive funds for the telecom industry, the IT industry or the new sunrise

industry - biotechnology. "

- Devinder Sharma in his book, GM Food and Hunger: A View from the South.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1910

 

ON THE WISDOM OF ANIMALS

" I gotta tell you, you can be Chef Boyardee and mice are still not going to like

them. "

- Scientist Roger Salquist on lab mice's reluctance to eat GM Flavr Savr

tomatoes during feeding trials (mice are usually happy to eat tomatoes). The

mice were eventually force fed the tomato through gastric tubes and stomach

washes. Several developed stomach lesions; seven of forty died within two weeks.

The tomato was approved without further tests. [from ' SEEDS OF DECEPTION:

Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically

Engineered Foods You're Eating' by Jeffrey M Smith (ISBN 0-9729665-8-7).]

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1904

 

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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY

------

 

+ UK: BALLOT WINNER BACKS GM CONTAMINATION AND LIABILITY BILL

Strict new laws on growing GM crops will be proposed by Tory MP Gregory Barker.

Mr Barker will propose minimum separation distances between GM and conventional

crops and set out liability where contamination occurs. Mr Barker was among

backbench MPs who won the right to have their chosen topic debated in the

Commons in the annual ballot. He announced he would propose green group Friends

of the Earth's GM Contamination and Liability Bill.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1907

 

The question of who is liable for GM contamination will affect the livelihoods

of farmers everywhere the crops are grown. Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser was

successfully sued by Monsanto for patent infringement when his soy crop was

contaminated by the company's GM varieties. The courts ruled that Schmeiser was

liable no matter how the contamination occurred, i.e. whether it was a

deliberate act on the farmer's part or whether it occurred by accident

(cross-pollination or seed spillages).

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1907

 

+ EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTES FOR GM-FREE SEEDS AND EU-WIDE COEXISTENCE AND

LIABILITY RULES; CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON GMO APPROVALS

The EP adopted with a large majority (327 to 52) a report on the co-existence of

GM and non-GM agriculture, which calls for labelling of GM contamination in

seeds at the detection level and EU-wide coexistence and liability rules; and

demands that no approvals for GMO cultivation should be approved until such

legislation is in place.

Report as adopted, in all languages

http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A5-2003-0465+0\

+NOT+XML+V0//EN & LEVEL=2 & NAV=S

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1900

 

+ EU GMO-COMMITTEE: NO GO AHEAD FOR GM MAIZE

Representatives of EU member states failed to agree on whether or not to approve

the marketing of Syngenta's GM 'bt11' maize for human consumption. The decision

will now be forwarded to the council of ministers, which has 3 months to accept

or reject the proposed first approval of a GMO since 1998.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1900

 

+ US STUDY: PEOPLE PAY LESS FOR GM FOODS

Researchers at Iowa State University have carried out a study involving 300

people to determine consumer acceptance of GM foods. It found that consumers

wanted to pay 14 percent less for GM foods. This study concluded that there is

little incentive for companies to voluntarily label foods that contain GM

ingredients. Craig Winters, executive director of the Campaign to Label

Genetically Engineered Foods, said, " When mandatory labeling is eventually

required, most companies will choose to use non-genetically engineered

ingredients since consumers will most likely be reluctant to purchase them. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1908

 

+ SCIENTIST HALTS GM EXPERIMENT ON FINDING ORDINARY SEEDS WERE GM

After five years, a California State University, Sacramento project in

genetically engineering crops to produce medicines has been halted by the

biologist who led the project, Nicholas Ewing. The experiments didn't work

because the very tool he was trying to employ - biotechnology - spoiled the

studies. Ewing and his students tried to genetically engineer seeds they thought

were from an ordinary tomato. Trouble was, the seeds were mislabeled; they

arrived with genes already altered.

 

It was another case of agricultural biotechnology appearing to be out of

control. Ewing sad, " It illustrates that these (biotech) genes can be difficult

to contain unless we have practices in place to better detect them. "

 

Now, not wanting to be party to a more serious biotech accident, Ewing is

putting the project on indefinite hold. Students in his lab were attempting to

engineer into tomatoes the components of an antibody derived from mouse cells,

as well as a bacterial protein that binds to antibodies. In both cases, the

products appear to be safe to eat, Ewing said, but he can't say so positively.

 

" In light of this (seed accident), we thought, 'Let's back up on this,' " he

said. " ... I want to look more carefully at safety and the regulatory process. "

 

The seeds came from the University of California, Davis, C.M. Rick Tomato

Genetics Resource Center - a place where the genetic diversity of important

plants is catalogued and preserved. The Rick Center doesn't knowingly keep GM

seed in its stock.

 

UC Davis officials claim the mistake doesn't endanger the food supply. The

biotech gene, or " transgene, " in the tomato was approved for human consumption

by the US government in 1994. The transgene is designed to slow the fruit's

decay. It is essentially the same as that in the Flavr Savr tomato, the world's

first GM commercial crop, created by Calgene.

 

GMWATCH note: In fact, Flavr Savr was approved in spite of the doubts expressed

by US FDA's own scientists, after feeding trials found problems in lab mice. See

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1912

 

+ US: JUDGE OKS GM CROP BAN VOTE

Saying the courts should " tread lightly, " a Mendocino County judge has let stand

ballot language that argues for a local initiative to ban GM crops. Superior

Court Judge Leonard LaCasse said he would not block election officials from

printing the March 2 primary ballot, which contained language Measure H critics

had claimed was false and misleading.

 

While the specific statements may not " constitute the whole truth, they are not

so completely wrong to constitute a falsehood to voters, " said LaCasse. He also

recognized the deeply divergent viewpoints in the debate over GM, reflected in

the local ballot measure that has attracted national attention. " It is

instructive that the argument against this ballot proposal contains language

that is at least equally provocative to the language in favor of the measure, "

said LaCasse.

 

The measure would make Mendocino County the first in the nation to ban

cultivation of GMOs. Supporters, who include 150 organic farmers and wine-grape

growers, contend the ban is needed to protect Mendocino County's growing stature

as a producer of organic products.

 

The measure has run into opposition from other agricultural interests. The

California Plant Health Association (CPHA) launched a lawsuit against the local

initiative to ban GMOs, seeking to have three specific statements in the ballot

argument in support of Measure H stricken from the March ballot. CPHA is a

statewide lobby group representing some of the biggest names in GMOs, herbicides

and pesticides including Monsanto Corporation, Dow AgroSciences, Bayer

Corporation, Helena Chemical Company and DuPont.

 

Monsanto last year spent an amount variously reported as $1.5 million or $6

million to help defeat an Oregon ballot measure that would have forced labeling

of GM foods. The Mendocino measure does not attempt to impose a labeling

requirement.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1909

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1901

 

---------------------------

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

---------------------------

 

+ BRITAIN " HAS MORAL DUTY TO FUND GM RESEARCH "

A Guardian article reports that the Nuffield Council on Bioethics is urging

ministers to pledge millions of pounds to help develop GM crops for poor

countries. In a new report, 'The Use of Genetically Modified Crops in Developing

Countries' (published 28 December and available at

http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org )

the Nuffield Council says Britain is ignoring a moral imperative to promote GM

foods suitable for tropical and sub-tropical nations.

 

The GMWATCH profile of the Nuffield Council at

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=98

gives the rundown on the people behind the report and possible reasons why they

say what they say.

 

The Nuffield report dismisses the ecological dangers of GM crops on the grounds

that there is not enough evidence to support the claim that they threaten

" actual or potential harm " . Instead, it criticises European nations for their

obsession with pinpointing tiny traces of GM crops in our food chain.

 

However, the last Nuffield report on GM was described by George Monbiot in The

Guardian as " perhaps the most asinine report on biotechnology ever written. The

stain it leaves on the Nuffield Council's excellent reputation will last for

years. "

 

That May 1999 report claimed there was a moral imperative to make GM crops

available to developing countries - exactly the claim made in the new report.

This is not surprising, as the new report was drawn up by the same people who

drove the first report.

 

Though the panel that drew up the original report was presented as 'a group of

independent scientists', this does not bear examination. In fact, it is the

least independent-minded members of the original group that have been brought

together to form the small working group that has produced the Son of Nuffield.

 

Both panels included:

*Mike Gale FRS: biotechnologist and former acting director of the John Innes

Centre (JIC), which at the time of the original report was negotiating a deal

with biotech giants Zeneca (later part of Syngenta) and DuPont promising some

GBP60-70m in investment.

* Derek Burke: former vice chancellor of the University of East Anglia (UEA),

and former chair of the governing council of the JIC (see above), both of which

have benefited from biotech industry funding.

* Michael Lipton: development economist at the Poverty Research Unit, University

of Sussex. Lipton is a strong supporter of GM and of GM 'golden rice'. He warns

that it is threatened by " a great anti-scientific wave " and that NGOs that

oppose it should have their charitable status brought into question. He doesn't

appear to consider that the large amount of money invested in 'golden rice'

could be better spent on the cheap and effective approaches already available,

nor that those likely to be most directly affected by this technology should be

involved in any decision about it.

 

For more on Nuffield and those involved in its reports:

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=98

For more on all of those mentioned see our directory:

www.gmwatch.org/profile.asp

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1902

 

+ NUFFIELD REPORT ABOUT JOB SECURITY FOR RICH, NOT FOOD SECURITY FOR POOR

Indian food policy analyst Devinder Sharma sees the Nuffield Council's plea for

massive funding for GM research as more about job security for UK scientists

than food security for the hungry. Devinder writes, " By setting up a working

group, comprised of five so-called distinguished scientists - known to be

corporate loudspeakers - the outcome of the report was never in doubt. " The

panel is guilty of exploiting hunger in the poor world for the sake of

employment opportunities for the rich.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1906

 

+ TEWOLDE EGZIABHER RESPONDS TO NUFFIELD REPORT

Tewolde Egziabher, head of the Environmental Protection Authority, Ethiopia,

writes, " The Nuffield report suggests that there is a moral imperative for

investment into GM crop research in developing countries. But the moral

imperative is in fact the opposite. The policy of drawing of funds away from

low-cost sustainable agriculture research, towards hi-tech, exclusive, expensive

and unsafe technology is itself ethically questionable. There is a strong moral

argument that the funding of GM technology in agriculture is harming the

long-term sustainability of agriculture in the developing world. There are

plausible and viable alternatives to GM, but they are being ignored and under

funded as a result of the expensive demands of GM research and development. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1905

 

+ INDIA: NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: " RELEVANCE OF GM TECHNOLOGY TO INDIAN AGRICULTURE

AND FOOD SECURITY "

See the key recommendations of the symposium, organised by Gene Campaign, at

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1911

 

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THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES

---------------------------

 

+ SIX UK GM SEED APPLICATIONS WITHDRAWN BY BAYER

Six applications for approval of GM seed varieties have been withdrawn from the

UK's National Seed List by Bayer CropScience. The company has informed DEFRA it

wants to withdraw three varieties of winter oilseed rape, two varieties of

spring oilseed rape and one variety of fodder maize. No reason has been given

for the withdrawal to DEFRA but it is likely to be for " commercial " reasons.

 

This leaves just five GM applications for UK seed listing - two beet, one spring

oilseed, one winter oilseed and one fodder maize. The remaining fodder maize is

the controversial Chardon LL which was subject to lengthy public hearings in

2000 and 2002. All varieties withdrawn are resistant to Bayer's herbicide

glufosinate ammonium. Securing a place on the National Seed List is an important

step in the GM seed approval process and is central to the commercial success of

any seed variety in the UK.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1898

 

+ THE BIOTECH BRIGADE: WHO'S WHO IN THE FIGHT TO FORCE-FEED US GMOS

December saw the launch of our new database, " THE BIOTECH BRIGADE: who's who in

the fight to force-feed us GMOs " , on our website

http://www.gmwatch.org

which has also now been made fully searchable.

 

Here, you can look up the people and organisations who are pushing GM. You can

find profiles giving affiliations and sources of funding that help to explain

why they speak and act as they do.

 

It's a directory of biotech lobbyists, PR operators, corporate phantoms, web

attackers, corporate science, and campaigning pro-GM scientists. It contains a

wealth of links to articles and source material. A lot of this information has

either not been published before or not in this detail, not least the exposure

of how extreme political networks are active in promoting genetic engineering.

 

George Monbiot marked the launch of the directory by drawing on its research for

an article in The Guardian showing the murky interconnections of a series of

pro-genetic engineering 'science' lobby groups, including the Science Media

Centre and Sense About Science. Sense About Science were, of course, behind the

recent letter to Blair, signed by 114 pro-GM scientists, plus a series of media

reports claiming critics of GM have engaged in campaigns of intimidation or that

they fixed the UK's public debate on GM.

 

In his article, Monbiot exposes LM or Living Marxism, a bizarre and cultish

political network which has become the public face of the scientific

establishment, working to generate media attacks against critics of

biotechnology. The article is at

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1870

A fully referenced version of the article is at:

http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=627

 

+ RESPONSES TO MONBIOT/GMWATCH REVELATIONS

The Royal Society and others tried to brush off the Monbiot/GM WATCH revelations

as " paranoia " , " conspiracy theories " , " nonsense " , " hilarious " etc.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1895

 

What they completely failed to do is respond to any of the well-evidenced facts

that they have welcomed into their midst people whose attitude to the truth is

reflected in their long history of denial of the horrors of the Rwandan

genocide, of massacres, torture and other war crimes in Bosnia and terrorist

atrocities in Ireland.

 

+ THE BIOTECH BRIGADE: A SAMPLER

 

THE SCIENTIFIC ALLIANCE was founded by quarryman and anti-environmentalist

Robert Durward, who describes himself as 'a businessman who is totally fed up

with all this environmental stuff' and who has written, 'Perhaps it is now time

for Tony Blair to try the " fourth way " : declare martial law and let the army

sort out our schools, hospitals, and roads as well. Who knows, they might even

manage to put the 'great' back into Britain.'

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=136

 

SENSE ABOUT SCIENCE

This is the lobby group behind the Blair letter and behind the campaign to paint

critics of GM as " violent " and as fixers of the Public Debate. It also has

projects aimed at attacking Pusztai yet again and sucking in yet more public

money into GM research to fill the void left by the retreating corporations. Its

principal collaborators include the Royal Society and the John Innes Centre.

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=151

 

THOMAS DIECHMANN, concentration camp defender turned GM apologist

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=161

 

FIONA FOX - GM WATCH PROFILE (Excerpts)

For the full Fox profile with links see:

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=45

Fiona Fox is the director of the Science Media Centre (SMC).

 

Despite having no previous background in either science or science

communication, Fox has been afforded, since her appointment in December 2001,

the status of expert. She has, for example, been included in a working party on

peer review set up by Sense about Science, and in a steering group on improving

communication over science policy and risk set up by the Office of Science and

Technology. In 2003 Fox delivered a lecture at Green College, Oxford, on the

challenge of adapting science to the mass media.

 

Within a matter of months of Fox becoming director, the SMC was embroiled in

controversy over its activities. It was accused of operating as " a sort of

Mandelsonian rapid rebuttal unit " and of employing 'some of the clumsiest spin

techniques of New Labour " . There have also been controversies about both the

SMC's funding and Fox's background.

 

According to the profile provided by the SMC, Fox previously ran " the media

operation at the National Council for One Parent Families " and was " Head of

Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency " . In addition, the SMC says, Fox " has

written extensively for newspapers and publications, authored several policy

papers and contributed to books on humanitarian aid. "

 

What they do not say is that throughout much of that time Fox led a double life.

It's one which seriously undermines the SMC's claims to be open, rational,

balanced and independent, not to mention its being in the business of ensuring

the " that the public gets access to all sides of the debate about controversial

issues. "

 

It's a double life that connects the SMC's director to the inner circles of a

political network that compares environmentalists to Nazis and eulogises GM

crops and cloning. More disturbingly it is a network whose members have a long

history of infiltrating media organisations and science-related lobby groups in

order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network that has targeted

certain media organisations and sought to discredit them or their journalists.

 

Fox's double life was first exposed after an article entitled " Massacring the

truth in Rwanda " appeared in the December 1995 issue of Living Marxism. The

magazine subsequently reported receiving " a stream of outraged letters from the

Nazi-hunters of the prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, the

Rwandan embassy, the London-based African Rights group and others. " ...

 

+ GMWATCH GET ECO-GONG!

Guardian environmental columnists John Vidal and Paul Brown have given GMWATCH

an " Eco-Gong " , their Agro-industry Website Award. Several other ironic Eco-Gongs

go to our LM/Living Marxism friends (see above item).

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1891

 

+ EU MORATORIUM STANDS

Britain tried and failed on December 8 to lift a five-year EU moratorium on new

GM food products, in a move that attracted criticism from green groups. Anxious

for the EU to avert a trade war with the US, British representatives voted in

Brussels to back the Europe-wide sale of a variety of GM sweetcorn produced by

the Anglo-Swiss firm Syngenta. Had the UK carried the day, the product - known

as Bt11 maize - would have been the first GM food to have been approved since

1998, when an EU-wide moratorium was imposed because of public unease about the

technology.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1871

 

+ FOOD STANDARDS AGENCY MUST DO MORE TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH

The Food Standards Agency should be more active in initiatives to protect public

health and consumers' interests in relation to food, a parliamentary audit of

its work said. The audit by the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts -

a group of members of parliament that scrutinises use of public funds -

recommended that the agency should take a stronger stance as " the champion of

the consumer. "

 

The report cited the labelling of food as a major issue of importance to

consumers on which the agency should show measurable progress. Labelling should

clarify the nutritional content of food and should also make it clear whether or

not the food contains GM ingredients. The FSA under Sir John Krebs has done its

best to limit and even undermine GM food labelling.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1844

 

+ BERKELEY ACCUSED OF BIAS AS ECOLOGIST IS DENIED TENURE

Following the University of California, Berkeley's decision to deny ecologist

Ignacio Chapela tenure, some of his colleagues are now questioning the integrity

of the decision-making process. The Berkeley campus has been wracked by dissent

ever since it signed a lucrative deal in 1998 with the Swiss-based firm

Novartis, giving the company privileged access to the university's plant

scientists. Ignacio Chapela was prominent among a group of vocal protesters

against the deal. Subsequently, he was attacked by the pro-GM lobby after

publishing research showing GM contamination of natural maize in his native

Mexico.

 

Chapela's supporters charge that his denial of tenure calls into question the

university's willingness to back academics who challenge powerful agricultural

industrial interests. But university administrators argue that Chapela's

publishing record in the seven years since he arrived at Berkeley is too weak to

justify tenure.

 

One Berkeley scientist involved in the tenure review was so upset at the

handling of the case that he has broken the strict confidentiality of the

process to complain. Population biologist Wayne Getz, who sat on an ad hoc

faculty committee that recommended giving Chapela tenure, says that the

ecologist received overwhelming faculty support, but alleges that the normal

review process was then " hijacked " by Chapela's opponents in the university.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1877

 

+ GM-FED COWS DIE MYSTERIOUSLY ON FARM IN HESSE, GERMANY

Twelve cows fed GM maize on a farm in Hesse, Germany have died in mysterious

circumstances. Fifteen Greenpeace activists protested with a cow's skeleton in

front of the Robert-Koch Institute in Berlin, which authorised the GM maize and

which has refused to conduct a full investigation into the deaths. Greenpeace is

calling for a full investigation into the deaths of the cows and an immediate

ban on the GM maize concerned, Syngenta's Bt176 maize.

 

Henning Strodthoff of Greenpeace said, " The GM maize should never have been

approved. Even the US has now taken it off the market. In this situation no new

licences for GM plants should be issued, and certainly not by this institute. "

The case is particularly explosive because the EU is discussing a new

application for another Syngenta GM maize. This bt11 maize is intended for human

consumption, and forms the same poisonous protein.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1890

 

+ WINSTON REGRETS SIGNING BLAIR LETTER

Lord Robert Winston, a signatory to the Sense About Science letter to Blair

calling for more government support for GM crops, has said that in some ways he

regretted signing the letter and that there was a danger of science being used

to deny uncertainties and of scientists following the money rather than engaging

in a genuine dialogue over controversial scientific issues. Needless to say,

Winston's comments did not go down well with certain elements of the pro-GM

lobby.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1893

 

+ PRINCE'S INFLUENCE " BARS SCIENCE HONOURS "

An article in the Times blames Prince Charles for the absence from the Honours

list of scientists Colin Blakemore, one of Lord Winston's critics (see item

above), and Derek Burke. Burke, according to an MP quoted in the Times Higher

Educational Supplement, has missed out on a knighthood because, it is implied,

he has criticised the Prince's opposition to GM crops. The allegations follow

the leak of a Cabinet Office document.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1894

More on Burke:

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=26

 

+ BIOTECH INDUSTRY CHANGES PR TACTICS

The Guelph Mercury in Canada carries an article explaining the new soft-sell

tactics of the biotech industry: " Rather than trying to convince everyone

biotechnology has something to offer, the industry will concentrate on those who

are at least neutral when it comes to new technology. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1896

 

+ ZAMBIA TO EXPORT OVER 50,000 TONNES OF SURPLUS MAIZE

Zambia will export over 50,000 metric tonnes of maize to neigbouring countries,

Deputy Agriculture Minister Chance Kabaghe said. Kabaghe said that Zambia

produced a surplus of 120,000 tonnes of maize this year. Kabaghe said Zambia has

already exported 20,000 metric tonnes of maize to Zimbabwe, which is facing food

shortages because of political and economic upheaval and drought. Zambia was

among six nations in the region hit by severe food shortages since last year.

Zambia's government last year refused to accept GM food donated by the US

government as part of its contribution to international relief efforts.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1887

 

+ PUSZTAI GM AND FOOD SAFETY PAPERS ON THE WEB

http://www.biotech-info.net/new.html

 

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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the GMWATCH archive

-------

19/12/2003 Six UK GM seed applications withdrawn by Bayer

19/12/2003 THE WEEKLY WATCH number 52

23/12/2003 Save Our Seeds news roundup

26/12/2003 Biotech giants launch lawsuit against a GM-free Mendocino

28/12/2003 Britain 'has moral duty to fund GM research'

28/12/2003 No one hears us. Kindly tell our agonies to your scientists

29/12/2003 Nuffield report about job security for the rich, not food security

for the poor - Devinder Sharma

29/12/2003 Tewolde Egziabher responds to Nuffield's Corporate Trawling Seed Net

29/12/2003 The Wisdom Of Animals

30/12/2003 Contamination and law

30/12/2003 Iowa State University researchers test consumer acceptance of GM food

31/12/2003 'GM Food and Hunger: A View from the South'/Gene Campaign's 2-day

symposium - findings

31/12/2003 INDIA: 'Genetic engineering not an answer to hunger' - Devinder

Sharma's new book and latest article

31/12/2003 Judge OKs genetically modified crop ban vote

31/12/2003 Mix-up leaves biotech project at CSUS withering on the vine

FOR THE COMPLETE GMWATCH ARCHIVE: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

 

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