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WEEKLY_WATCH_NUMBER_62_-_and_monthly_review

" GM_WATCH "

Thu, 4 Mar 2004 23:16:41 GMT

 

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THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 62 - and monthly review

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

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Dear all

 

There's some great news this week from the US, where residents of Mendocino

County have voted to ban the cultivation of GM crops. The campaigners are

certain it's just the first of many such bans that will be passed by local

ballots.

 

I never thought I'd see the day where the US is leading the way in resistance to

GM while here in Britain, our supposedly elected leader is preparing to drag us

over the GM cliff.

 

But he's in for a rough ride. Reacting to comments by the UK prime minister

Blair's spokesman that the government is to announce the commercialisation of GM

maize, Greenpeace's Sarah North said: " Tony Blair has today picked a fight with

the British people. Once again he's pushing a pet project in spite of the

evidence. There are thousands of people ready to fight this decision in the

fields, the streets, the courts and the supermarkets. Today is just the start of

it - there could be chaos in the countryside.

 

" British farmers are already suffering, and the last thing they need is a new

threat from a technology that shoppers won't touch. Blair is giving it the nod

on the basis of flawed testing. If GM is sown in our fields he will reap a

whirlwind of protest. "

 

As George Monbiot said this week, " We can't rely on the Establishment to topple

Tony Blair: we must do it ourselves. "

 

Claire claire

www.ngin.org.uk / www.gmwatch.org

 

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CONTENTS

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GRASSROOTS VICTORY OF THE WEEK

UK GM CROP COMMERCIALISATION LOOMS

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL

THE REST OF THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES

DONATIONS

HEADLINES OF THE WEEK

SUBSCRIPTIONS

 

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GRASSROOTS VICTORY OF THE WEEK

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+ MENDOCINO COUNTY BANS GM; BIOTECH INDUSTRY TO FIGHT VOTE

Congratulations to the people of Mendocino County, California, who voted in a

March ballot to become the first region in the US to outlaw the growing of GM

crops.

 

The biotechnology industry is considering a lawsuit or statewide legislation to

nullify the successful Mendocino County ballot initiative. In the past, county

efforts to restrict local use of agricultural pesticides have been voided by the

state Legislature, and a similar fate could await the Mendocino County crop ban.

 

But activists in another California county, Humboldt, are already at work on an

identical initiative and hope to gather enough signatures to qualify it for

their local ballot in November.

 

Backers of Mendocino County's Measure H won almost 57 percent of the vote. " This

is just the beginning of the revolution, " said Els Cooperrider, an author of the

initiative and co-owner of the Ukiah Brewing Company & Restaurant. " We're the

first county in the US to prohibit the growing of genetically altered crops and

animals, but we won't be the last. "

 

They won even though they were outspent by a ratio of more than 6-to-1 by

opponents, who raised more than USD600,000 - most of it from CropLife America, a

trade and lobbying group representing the largest producers of genetically

engineered seed in the world, including Monsanto, DuPont and Dow.

 

The measure's backers spent about USD100,000 in a mostly volunteer effort.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2784

 

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UK GM CROP COMMERCIALISATION LOOMS

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+ NEW LABOUR SPIN OPERATION UNDERWAY - PUSH FOR GM COMMERCIALISATION

Hopes that GM commercialisation in the UK might be delayed for a year seem

destined to be dashed. The government is expected to make an announcement soon

that it will go ahead regardless of public opposition and all the evidence to

the contrary.

 

We were warned by recently leaked Cabinet documents to expect an onslaught of

spin citing " science " and the " developing world " , and we're certainly getting

it.

 

We've had Lord Sainsbury's associate Lord Taverne (see below) extolling the

" benefits " of GM for the world's poor, a Cabinet leak that commercialisation

will go ahead, two written replies to questions in Parliament from ministers

invoking the deeply flawed Nuffield report, and now news (see below) that

Labour-supporting Prof Joe Perry has worked a statistical miracle.

 

The timing of the release of the statistics from Perry on Nature's website (see

below) is obviously intended to distract attention from the Environmental Audit

Committee's findings against GM commercialisation, to be released 5 March. This

is clearly a New Labour spin operation at its most cynical.

 

The pugnacious Perry likes to parrot Patrick Moore in suggesting that the

environmental movement has been taken over by communists and Trotskyites. Even

after he was shown evidence of Moore's track record as an industry front man,

Perry continued to make these claims. An evangelical Christian, as well as a

" Scientist for Labour " , Perry claims GM crops are in tune with God's will.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2790

 

+ SCIENTISTS BACK GM CROP FINDINGS

The imminent decision to approve the growing of GM maize in the UK will this

week be supported by an announcement on 5 March by scientists involved in the

farm-scale trials of GM crops that the EU ban on atrazine does not overturn

their findings that growing GM maize does less damage to biodiversity than

non-GM maize crops.

 

Scientists had found that growing GM maize was more beneficial to weeds and

wildlife. But this result was rendered out-of-date by the ban on atrazine, used

in the trials in the control crop of non-GM maize. Environmental groups claimed

withdrawing such a powerful weedkiller could make conventional maize production

less damaging to wildlife and so overturn the result.

 

But Professor Joe Perry, the ecological statistician from Rothamsted Research

station who recalculated the trials results following the ban, concluded that if

atrazine was not used for conventional production, the benefits to wildlife of

growing GM maize were reduced by about one-third but still remained significant.

His findings are to be hurriedly published on the website of the magazine

Nature.

 

The scientists' analysis of FSE sites where atrazine and the other triazine

weedkillers were not used is based on only four samples, and in some cases

just two. So there is a serious lack of reliable data.

 

Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, is due to announce the go-ahead for

GM maize next week, without allowing any further time for consideration of the

evidence or follow up research.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2790

 

+ GOVERNMENT HIDING BEHIND NUFFIELD'S DODGY DOSSIER

Recently, leaked Cabinet documents revealed that government ministers, including

environment secretary Margaret Beckett, are planning to sell the public GM crop

commercialisation on the basis of the technology's benefits for the developing

world. In response, Labour Member of Parliament Joan Ruddock asked for evidence

of those benefits - specifically, a list of the GM crops which have assisted

development and of relevant peer-reviewed research to back that up.

 

In his reply, environment minister Elliott Morley refers her to " a recently

published report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics " . This, Morley says,

" contains a number of case studies detailing the actual and potential benefits

of GM crops for developing countries " (update of the 1999 Nuffield report - " The

use of genetically modified crops in developing countries: a follow up

discussion paper " , January 2004

http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/filelibrary/pdf/gm_crops_paper_final.pdf )

 

So how reliable is the latest version of Nuffield that forms the basis of the

government's case for commercialisation?

 

One of the limited number of case studies the new report uses is a

Monsanto-initiated project to breed a GM virus-resistant sweet potato for use in

Kenyan agriculture. On the face of it, this project appears to provide some of

the evidence for increased crop yields that Joan Ruddock asks about. The report

says, " it is expected that yields will increase by 18-25% " and that, where sold,

" the increased income will be between 28-39% " (p.39).

 

That sounds impressive but the Nuffield report was released in the same month as

the results of 3 years of crop trials on the GM sweet potato. These show the

project to have been a complete failure. As New Scientist reported, the

supposedly virus-resistant GM sweet potatoes were outperformed by conventional

sweet potatoes.

 

The Nuffield authors can be forgiven for not knowing the results of the trials

in advance, but a report by Aaron deGrassi of the Institute of Development

Studies, produced well ahead of the final version of the Nuffield report,

pointed to the lack of reliable scientific evidence to support the claims being

made for the Kenyan project. It also pointed to reasons for extreme caution

about its likely outcome.

 

DeGrassi's report was not only widely circulated on the Internet, but it was

repeatedly referred to in national press articles in the months prior to the

production of the final version of the Nuffield report. One of these even told

the Nuffield authors they needed to go and read deGrassi's report!

 

In addition, the only development specialist on the Nuffield Working Party

(Michael Lipton) is based, like deGrassi, at the University of Sussex. Indeed,

Lipton and deGrassi were both among those at a two-day conference on GM and

development at the Institute of Development Studies at the beginning of October

2003 - some 3 months before the publication of the Nuffield report.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1564

 

It is, therefore, extremely difficult to see the Nuffield authors' failure to

make any reference to deGrassi's work as anything other than deliberate. This

typifies the character of this deeply flawed report.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2765

 

+ GM WILL NOT SOLVE WORLD HUNGER, SAYS CATHOLIC INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL

RELATIONS (CIIR)

CIIR has criticised recent moves by the biotech lobby to pitch GMOs as a

solution to world hunger, in particular the UK government's claims to justify

commercialisation on this basis. CIIR believes that what happens in the UK will

set a clear precedent for the rest of the world. If the UK and Europe give the

go-ahead to the commercialisation of GM crops and foods, developing countries

will be put under further pressure to follow suit. The introduction of GM crops

in countries with weak institutions and lax regulations will result in food

insecurity, poverty and environmental vulnerability for millions of heavily

disadvantaged farmers. It will also further tighten corporate control of

production.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2766

 

+ " THE HUGE BENEFITS OF GM ARE BEING BLOCKED BY BLIND OPPOSITION " - TAVERNE

Chairman of Sense About Science Lord Dick Taverne has published an article in

the Guardian (March 3) with the above title. The message of the article is

predictable and in line with what Cabinet leaks told us to expect - " The

strongest argument in favour of developing GM crops is the contribution they can

make to reducing world poverty, hunger and disease " .

 

The extent of Taverne's ignorance (or cynical disingenuousness) is astonishing.

He cannot see the difference between gene tinkering of medicines and gene

tinkering of foods: " Many green activists oppose GM crops on principle. It is

difficult to understand what the principle is, since they do not campaign

against the production of drugs by genetic modification. Yet the same technique

is used to transfer a gene from one species to another to make human insulin for

people with diabetes, for instance, as to modify a GM crop. By what principle is

it right to make better drugs to protect us from disease, but not to modify

plants to make them resistant to insect pests? Why is there such a violent

reaction against the genetic modification of plants? "

 

Well, for starters, people can choose whether to take GM drugs, based on an

assessment of possible benefits against possible risks. Then there's the fact

that drugs undergo at least some clinical testing for safety. And the fact that

few people take a drug for their whole lives. And the fact that it's possible,

at least in theory, to grow GM medicines in contained conditions. Naturally,

Taverne does not mention the fact that some diabetics have reported serious

problems with GM insulin...

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2773

 

+ ROTTEN TO THE CORP - CORRUPT POLITICS AND SCIENCE

More of Taverne's tosh and details of the dubious origins and tactics of the

lobby group he chairs, Sense About Science, are in the article " Rotten to the

Corp " , by GM WATCH editors Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews, published in

Science in Society magazine no 21, Spring 2004 (www.i-sis.org.uk, subscriptions

+44 (0)20 7383 3376).

 

Excerpt from the article concerning SAS black propaganda tactics:

Articles in the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and elsewhere ...

claimed that scientists who support GM were being subjected to a campaign of

physical and mental abuse, leading some to leave the country for jobs abroad.

One THES article headlined, " Scientists quit UK amid GM attacks " , named two

scientists said to have suffered such intimidation. One was - again - Chris

Leaver, a SAS trustee. The other was Mike Wilson, a SAS advisory panelist.

 

Another THES article - " GM debate cut down by threats and abuse " - sounded a

more sinister note. It spoke of " the increasingly violent anti-GM lobby " ,

" growing levels of physical and mental intimidation " , " hardcore tactics of

protesters " , " intimidation by anti-GM lobbyists... mirroring animal-rights

activism " , " increasingly vicious protests " , " a baying mob of anti-GM activists " ,

and " a string of personal threats " . It called for " the government to intervene

to protect researchers. " However, this article, like the others, failed to cite

a single instance of a researcher being assaulted or anything similar. Indeed,

the only specific threat of any seriousness cited was a bomb hoax in 1998.

 

The irony is, of course, that victimisation is predominantly suffered by those

scientists brave enough to publish findings unfavourable to the biotech industry

or to criticize it (see " Biotech critic denied tenure " , for the latest

punishment meted out by the pro-biotech scientific establishment). What better

way to deflect attention from these shameful events than to reverse the roles of

victim and attacker in the public mind?

 

The same tactic was used again a month later in an article in The Times, by SAS

chairman Lord Taveme, headlined, " When crops burn, the truth goes up in smoke " .

Taverne spoke of farmers and researchers being " terrorised " and of " anti-GM

campaigners " adopting " the tactics of animal welfare terrorists " . Again, no

examples were given, other than the bomb hoax five years earlier. Taverne wrote,

" The anti-GM campaign has become a crusade. Its champions... have become

ecofundamentalists, followers of a new kind of religion... But when campaigns

become crusades, crusaders are more likely to turn to violence. "

 

The attempt to portray anti-GM activists as terrorists is no spur-of-the-moment

inspiration on the part of Taverne and his team. It is a carefully calculated

tactic borrowed from America's pro-corporate 'Wise Use' movement - the

brainchild of Ron Arnold, executive vice president of the Centre for the Defense

of Free Enterprise. Founding funders include logging firms, oil company Exxon

and biotech giant DuPont.

 

Read on at

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2785 or to Science in

Society (details above)

 

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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK

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+ COWS DANCE ON SAINSBURY'S ROOF TO LAUNCH NATIONAL ACTIONS

In a protest designed to launch national actions against GM animal feed, a pair

of Friesian cows from Totnes, Devon took to the roof of a Sainsbury's

supermarket. The anti-GM food campaigners dressed as cows were part of a

17-strong group from Totnes and Exeter who took their protest to Sainsbury's in

Exeter as part of a national day of action against GM. The " cows " took to the

roof of the store with a protest banner while other campaigners handed out

leaflets, put warning labels on products they claim are GM-derived, took over

the store loudspeaker system and released protest balloons inside the building.

 

The group reported: " Three of the checkout girls spent their break outside with

the protesters, asked for leaflets and quietly said, 'good on you, we agree'.

The police were called, but were almost embarrassingly co-operative, and there

were no arrests. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2775

 

+ GOODBYE RYLOTT - AND ALL BAYER'S OTHER EUROPEAN BOSSES

The man who led the charge on getting the former environment minister Michael

Meacher, sacked has himself been given the order of the boot. Bayer CropScience

is parting company with Dr Paul Rylott, Bayer's UK head of bioscience, and all

the bosses of its GM programmes throughout Europe, in a move which is bound to

be seen as an acknowledgement that it sees little future for the technology in

Europe.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2754

 

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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL

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+ FILIPINO ISLANDERS BLAME GM CROP FOR MYSTERY SICKNESS

More details have emerged of the strange illnesses seen in Filipino villagers

and their animals living near Bt maize crops. A link between the illnesses and

the GM crop has been suggested by a Norwegian government scientist.

 

Excerpts from Guardian article:

For the first time there are indications that the pollen from the bacillus

thuringiensis (Bt) maize sown here (Kalyong village, on the southern Philippine

island of Mindanao) last year may have contributed to human illness.

 

Terje Traavik, the scientific director of the Norwegian Institute of Gene

Ecology, who was asked last October to analyse blood samples from 39 of the 100

people who fell ill, has said that a link might exist between GM crops and human

health.

 

The landowners, government officials, and Monsanto, the multinational company

that provided the seeds planted on the plot, insist the corn is not the cause.

They claim the villagers are being manipulated by anti-GM campaigners.

 

Villagers say the trouble began in July last year when the maize plants started

flowering. " There was this really pungent smell that got into our throats, " said

Maryjane Malayon. " It was like we were breathing in pesticides. "

 

Her sister, Amaniel, their parents, Samuel and Merlina, and Maryjane's

nine-month-old daughter, , began coughing, vomiting, feeling dizzy and

suffering from head and stomach aches.

 

Within days people living a little further away, on the other side of the dusty

road that runs through this village on the slopes of the remote 7,500ft (2,286m)

volcano Mount Matutum, were experiencing similar symptoms.

 

Pablo Semon, a community leader, says about 100 people were affected.

 

Maryjane says the situation got so bad that the family was forced to move to a

relative's home three miles down the mountain.

 

" We were the only ones who moved because we were so close, " she explains. " But

within a week we had all recovered. "

 

A villager who had no home at the time, Bernhard Nanquil, says he rented the

Malayon home after they left. " Within a week I too was sick with a stomach ache

and diarrhoea. " Others noticed that their livestock was suffering.

 

" One day the horse ate some of the corn plants and its appetite disappeared, "

said Nestor Catoran. " The belly swelled, its mouth started frothing and it

slowly died. "

 

Villagers are linking the corn to the deaths of four other horses, which were

disposed of without any analysis.

 

However, all the villagers are convinced that the corn is in some way

responsible for their illness.

 

....Dr Traavik, who describes himself as a GMO sceptic and not an opponent, says

it is highly unlikely the Bt toxin was the only cause of the villagers'

sickness.

 

" There's no illness that's caused by only one factor, " he said. " What happened

in there [Kalyong] could have been an underlying viral infection that could

explain the symptoms, but that does not exclude the possibility that this has

been exacerbated by a new allergenic protein from the Bt corn. "

 

The head of the corn programme at the department of agriculture, Artemio

Salazar, has no time for the villagers' allegations. " The phenomenon - the

supposedly allergenic reaction - was also occurring in areas where there was no

Bt corn, " he said yesterday, without being able to name any of the other

regions.

 

One of his microbiology experts, Nina Barzaga, from the University of the

Philippines, added: " We have to see the results. " But I think they're trying to

create some panic ... the Bt toxin has never been associated with any sickness

anywhere in the world. " [GM WATCH: This is rubbish - even the natural non-GM

form of the Bt toxin has been linked to health problems in those who spray it,

though it decomposes rapidly in daylight. The effects of the GM form of the

toxin are unknown but plenty of scientists have raised questions about its

safety.]

 

Dr Traavik said he would be willing to share his results with Dr Barzaga but

cautioned against saying there had never been problems with Bt maize.

 

Monsanto was not available for comment yesterday but said last week that it was

extremely unlikely that the maize was responsible for ill health in the village.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2774

 

More on the story:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2716

 

For more details on Traavik's research, including his identification of a

possible GM viral culprit in the mystery disease, the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus

(CaMV) promoter used in most current GM crops, see:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2712

For the short version, see item below:

+ RESEARCH SHOWS NEW DANGERS OF GM FOOD in THE REST OF THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES.

 

+ PHILIPPINES: FAO AWARDEE NIXES GMO CROPS

A former nun judged last year to be the 'Best Female Farmer' by the United

Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has strongly called on consumers

to shun food products containing GMOs. Virginia Munino, who left the convent of

the Oblates of Notre Dame in 1994, said that GM foods pose risks to health and

the environment.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2751

 

+ EYEING MARKETS, INDIA PULLS PUNCHES ON BIOSAFETY - ACTIVISTS

India has agreed to soften international protections against plant

contamination, in a bid to enhance commercial prospects for GM crops that could

jeopardise consumer safety and food security, leading activists said.

 

At issue is the UN Convention on Biodiversity's Biosafety Protocol, which aims

to ensure that GMOs do not harm human health, contaminate traditional crops, and

reduce Earth's biodiversity. Parties to the protocol, which was signed in

Cartagena, Colombia in 2000 and took effect last September, met in Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia Feb 23-27 to hammer out implementation standards. ''The Indian team

seemed soft on issues like levels of compliance and handling of GM crops because

they see themselves as exporters of GM crops in the future,'' said Suman Sahai,

a member of the influential Delhi-based group Gene Campaign who attended the

Kuala Lumpur talks.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2772

 

+ INDIAN GOVERNMENT PAYS UNIVERSITY TO DEVELOP GM HERBS, OILSEEDS, PULSES

The government has given Rs 40 million to the Delhi-based university, Jamia

Hamdard, to develop GM oilseeds, pulses and medicinal herbs. The move seems

especially demented in view of the large export market for such products, which

relies on a customer base that is unusually concerned with health, safety and

purity.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2772

 

+ LATIN AMERICA: UNEP REGIONAL OFFICE URGES CAUTION ON TRANSGENICS

The United Nations Environment Programme has warned in Mexico that transgenic

crops could pose a threat to biodiversity and human health, and recommended that

the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean act with caution in using GMOs.

 

This stance clashes with the position taken by its sister organisation, the

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2001.

 

The UNEP opinion on the controversial issue is laid out in its Global

Environment Outlook report (GEO 2003) for Latin America and the Caribbean,

presented in the Mexican capital to enthusiastic applause from

environmentalists. GEO 2003 warns of the possibility that modified genes might

be spread accidentally amongst species, and could pose a danger to the

biodiversity that is fundamental to humanity's food security.

 

The report states that the debate on GMOs involves polarised positions and major

commercial interests, and that the precautionary principle should be applied as

the norm until scientific consensus exists on the matter.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2788

 

+ GM PIG FEED BLUNDER

The carcasses of three GM pigs have accidentally ended up in animal feed in

Canada. Health officials seized 800 tonnes of feed after the alarm was raised on

11 February, but not before some 1 per cent of the contaminated material had

been given to chicken and swine in Ontario and Quebec. The pigs, all female,

came from TGN Biotech in Quebec, a research company that engineers male pigs to

produce therapeutic proteins in their semen, for use in human and veterinary

medicine. No charges are expected to be laid.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2787

 

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THE REST OF THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES

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+ AFRICA GROUP'S VICTORY OVER US AT BIOSAFETY MEETING

The Biosafety Protocol is back on track, and looks stronger than ever, thanks

largely to the work of the Africa Group at the recent talks in Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia. This makes the claims by the US and UK governments that GM crops are

wanted by Africa look all the more foolish.

 

Teresa Anderson of Gaia reported: " There were fears that in spite of the urgent

need to develop and strengthen many issues, the United States delegation would

continue in their efforts to undermine the Protocol. Indeed, the US lobbied hard

to weaken the agreement, claiming that the labelling and liability wanted by

other nations was unrealistic for trade. The US is not even a signatory of the

Protocol, but that did not stop them from trying to interfere. But developing

countries, particularly the Africa Group, (led by Dr Tewolde Egziabher) kept the

agenda firmly focused on what was needed. They argued convincingly and

effectively for the adoption of labelling and documentation requirements, as

well as progress in the issue of liability.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2735

 

+ ARGENTINA POLICES PATENTS, TAXES ITS FARMERS, FOR MONSANTO

Argentina has been reduced by the US and Monsanto to proposing to tax its own

farmers in order to collect an estimated $34 million in royalties for Monsanto

and other seed companies. Argentina will effectively police the patent system

for Monsanto, using its police and the courts against its own farmers.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2715

 

Argentine agronomist, Adolfo Boy, issued a warning at the conference that the

country's GM experiment was threatening a catastrophe for Argentina's

agriculture, food security and ecology. " Let Argentina be a warning to others.

We are going down the path of destruction. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2719

 

+ RESEARCH SHOWS NEW DANGERS OF GM FOOD

New research by geneticist and advisor to the Norwegian government Prof Terje

Traavik at the Norwegian Institute for Gene Ecology, in Tromso, Norway points to

serious health dangers of GM foods and vaccines. The study found that:

*Inhaled GM maize pollen may cause disease

*GM food promoter (CaMV or cauliflower mosaic virus promoter) transfers to rat

cells

*GM vaccines recombine into unpredictable hybrid viruses in human and animal

cells.

 

Terje Traavik, PhD, Director of the Norwegian Institute for Gene Ecology,

announced the findings at a meeting held on February 22 in Kuala Lumpur,

sponsored by the Third World Network. The studies are ongoing and not yet

published, but Traavik says, " Publication of results typically requires a

waiting period of up to one year or more. With such evidence of possible human

health impacts of foods already on the market, we believed that waiting to

report our findings through publication would not be in the public's interest. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2735

 

+ WHO'S LIABLE FOR UK GM CONTAMINATION?

Leaked Cabinet minutes show the UK government holds a pigs-might-fly belief that

the industry will pick up the tab for a fund to compensate conventional or

organic farmers who suffer losses from GM contamination.

 

Here's Paul Rylott, head of biosciences at Bayer CropSciences and chairman of

the industry-backed Agricultural Biotechnology Council on the likelihood of this

happening: " If the government told us to provide a compensation fund for organic

farmers, we'd say 'don't be silly'. There's no need to have a compensation

fund. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2678

 

+ UK MINISTER 'BROKE CABINET RULE' IN BIOTECH PROMOTION

UK science minister Lord Sainsbury is fighting for his political life after he

was accused of breaching government guidelines over his business interests.

Leaked minutes reveal that Sainsbury, who has extensive business interests in

the biotech sector, was at a key Cabinet meeting which drew up a strategy to

promote the fledgling industry, a policy shift from which he could reap large

dividends.

 

At the meeting Sainsbury was tasked with asking the prime minister to use his

influence with European leaders to promote the biotech industry. By doing so

Sainsbury is accused of contravening Article Six of Cabinet Office guidelines

that stipulate: 'Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to

arise, between their public duties and their private interests.' The news

triggered calls for the minister to be sacked.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2694

See our profile of Sainsbury at

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=116 & page=S

 

+ GM-FREE REBELLION GROWS

Dozens of regions across Britain are preparing to declare themselves " GM-free "

after leaked cabinet minutes said the government was poised to give the go-ahead

for GM crops. At least 20 local authority areas - and the whole of Wales - are

preparing to oppose the planting of GM maize. Another 20 regions have voiced

opposition and may also refuse to allow them to be grown.

 

Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, has conceded the government may

have to allow GM-free zones because of public opposition.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2682

 

+ BRITISH BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION - BOUGHT BY THE BIOTECHS

BBKA member Phil Chandler writes on the BBKA forum that the BBKA is taking money

from biotech corporations. He writes, " There have been a series of talks to

local associations by biotech mouthpieces like Paul Rylott and Mick Fuller, and

practically none putting the case for the opposition. It seems likely that BBKA

has sold out to the biotechs in the most shameful way, potentially putting at

risk the entire British bee population if this technology proves less benevolent

than its proponents claim. If this were happening within a political party, it

would be all over the press. Because the media generally regard beekeeping as an

amusing hobby practiced by harmless, mostly elderly folk, instead of an activity

that is vital to British agriculture, nothing is said. "

http://www.bbka.org.uk/phpBB2/index.php

 

+ US CROPS " WIDELY CONTAMINATED " BY GM DNA

US scientists are warning of a potentially " serious risk to human health " after

the discovery that traditional varieties of major American food crops are widely

contaminated by DNA sequences from GM crops. Crops engineered to produce

industrial chemicals and drugs - so-called " pharm " crops - could already be

poisoning ostensibly GM-free crops grown for food, warns the study by the

Washington-based Union for Concerned Scientists. " If genes find their way from

pharm crops to ordinary corn, they or their products could wind up in drug-laced

corn flakes, " says the report's co-author, UCS microbiologist Margaret Mellon.

 

The UCS asked two commercial laboratories to test traditional varieties of three

crops - maize, soybeans and canola or oil-seed rape - for sequences of DNA from

GM varieties currently grown on US farms. The labs reported that the seeds were

" pervasively contaminated with low levels of DNA sequences from GM varieties " .

Up to 1 per cent of individual seeds, and more than half the batches of seeds,

contained one or more of the GM sequences. The authors say while there is no

evidence that these crops are unsafe, the same may not be true for pharm crops.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994709

More on the contamination story: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2713

The UCS report, " Gone to Seed " , can be found at:

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/biotechnology/seedreport_fullreport.p\

df

 

+ USDA EMPLOYEES EARN EXTRA FROM GM CROPS

US Dept of Ag (USDA) employees gain financially from the sales of GM patented

seed that USDA helped develop. In particular, employees stand to profit from the

widely hated Terminator technology crops. As these USDA employees are the same

people who approve and regulate GM crops, there appears to be something of a

conflict of interest.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2622

 

+ THE SLEAZE BEHIND OUR SCIENCE

The conflicts of interest revealed by the MMR story are everywhere

By George Monbiot

This excellent article from the Guardian questions why MMR researcher Andrew

Wakefield is being pilloried for alleged conflicts of interest when the science

establishment is rife with such conflicts that go unreported. The answer is, of

course, that Wakefield threatens industry, whereas the scientists who are

allowed to live in peace are those who support its interests.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2710

 

Interesting snippet from the article, in light of the UK government's plans to

commercialise Bayer's GM maize:

" Friends of the Earth are currently being sued by the biotech company Bayer to

prevent them from exposing its data on the environmental and health effects of

glufosinate ammonium, the herbicide used on the GM maize the government wants to

approve for planting in Britain. By all accounts the figures make grim reading.

But if Bayer gets its way, neither we nor the government will be allowed to see

them before the decision is made. "

 

+ GM SCIENCE REVIEW PANEL GOT IT WRONG

University of Leeds microbiologist John Heritage has published a paper in Nature

Biotechnology which argues, based on the evidence thus far, that GM transgenes

do transfer to gut microflora of people or animals that eat the GM food. UK

prime minister Blair's Science Review Panel had argued (2003) that such transfer

was " unlikely " .

 

Heritage claims that such transfers " are highly unlikely to alter

gastrointestinal function or endanger human health " (though this claim is not

supported by science). But he warns that this may not be the case with genes

encoding for antibiotic resistance.

John Heritage, " The fate of transgenes in the human gut " , Nature Biotechnology,

February 2004, Vol 22 no. 2 pp170-172

http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nbt/journal/v22/n2/full/nbt0204\

-170.html

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2626

 

+ UK RETAILERS CONFIRM HIGH PUBLIC OPPOSITION TO GM

Unlike the UK government, British retailers are under no illusion that public

opposition to GM is high and has not decreased. The following is an excerpt from

recent evidence to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on " GM

food - evaluating the farm scale trials " , 17 December 2003:

 

" ...we are talking about a consuming public of which anywhere up to 70 per cent

will say they will not buy GM products. As an industry, therefore, retailers'

attitudes for their own-label products - and I have to stress own-label products

- are that they have non-GM policies. " - Richard Ali, Director of Food Policy,

British Retail Consortium (which represents the major British supermarkets)

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2681

 

+ INDIA: BT COTTON BENEFITS SHORT-LIVED - STUDY

A study by entomologists at Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi

has cast doubts on the long-term benefits of Bt cotton. The Bt gene produces a

toxin called " Cry1ac " that kills bollworms, a cotton pest. The study, by K

Chandrasekar and GT Gujar, found that the protection afforded by the Bt gene

lasts at best for six years. The bollworm developed " 31-fold resistance to the

toxin 'Cry1ac' within six generations. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2634

 

+ INDIA: SUPREME COURT SENDS NOTICES TO MINISTERS OVER MONSANTO WHEAT PATENT

A three-member Supreme Court bench has issued notices to the ministries of

commerce, industry, law, agriculture and environment on a public interest

litigation accusing the government of not objecting to Monsanto's patent claim

over an Indian wheat landrace, granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) on 21

May 2003. The lawsuit was filed by the New Delhi-based Research Foundation for

Science, Technology and Ecology. The wheat is used in India for making chapattis

or flat bread.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2634

 

+ STUPID WHITE MEN RUNNING BIOTECH

It seems even the vigorously pro-GM Nature Biotechnology journal is losing

patience with the greed and stupidity of the biotech industry. The journal has

published a damning editorial on the genetic engineering of pharmaceutical drugs

into food or animal feed crops, a practice which it fears will muddy the pitch

for the whole GM industry.

 

Excerpt: " It seems that an industry in which the PhD is the intellectual norm is

either incapable of learning a simple lesson from the past or cannot bring

itself to act appropriately, despite what it has learned previously. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2621

 

+ WHAT BELGIUM SAID ABOUT BAYER'S GM OILSEED RAPE APPLICATION

The Belgian Biosafety Council has issued a report giving its reasons for

refusing Bayer's application to grow its Liberty Link oilseed rape MS8xRF3.

These are:

- effective and practicable measures minimizing the environmental risks

associated with this GM line have not been defined.

- a loss of biodiversity due to the use of the associated herbicide was

demonstrated in the Farmscale Evaluation trials in the UK and no measures

compensating this loss were proposed by the notifier.

- the long distance dissemination of pollen, an intrinsic oilseed rape

characteristic, will lead to a gene flow to the neighbouring oilseed rape fields

and wild relatives, at a time where coexistence regulation is not yet entered

into force.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2623

 

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

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

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+ MICHAEL MEACHER ON GM CROP COMMERCIALISATION IN UK

" Why is the Government going ahead? It is not because of the science, it is

because of the Bush administration applying pressure, and because of companies

like Monsanto who want to make a big profit bonanza out of cornering the world

food supply. It is nothing to do with feeding the world. " - Michael Meacher,

former UK environment minister http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2677

 

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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the GMWATCH archive

-------

4/3/2004 " Pa, There's Pig Vaccine In My Corn Bread! " /And GM pigs in the feed!

4/3/2004 Biotech industry to fight vote against altered crops

4/3/2004 New Labour spin operation underway - push for commercialisation

4/3/2004 Responses to Taverne - Sense and GM science

4/3/2004 Rotten to the Corp - corrupt politics and science

4/3/2004 UN Environment Programme warns GMOs could pose a threat, urges caution

3/3/2004 Cows dance on Sainsbury's roof to launch national actions against GM

animal feed

3/3/2004 Filipino islanders blame GM crop for mystery sickness

3/3/2004 India Pulls Punches on Biosafety/India Can Shine By Fighting Against

Biopiracy

3/3/2004 The huge benefits of GM are being blocked by blind opposition - Taverne

3/3/2004 US scientists and others urge caution with GMOs

2/3/2004 GM will not solve world hunger - Catholic Institute for International

Relations

2/3/2004 Government hiding behind Nuffield's dodgy dossier

1/3/2004 Eco-Traitor - Patrick Moore, a new profile

1/3/2004 FAO awardee nixes GMO crops

29/2/2004 GM crops roll-out is blighted as MPs prepare to challenge No 10

29/2/2004 Rylott sacked - GM giant culls top jobs in Europe

28/2/2004 THE WEEKLY WATCH number 61

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

 

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