THE GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW - JANUARY 2005

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GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW - JANUARY 2005

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Fri, 4 Feb 2005 15:11:53 GMT

 

 

 

THE GMWATCH MONTHLY REVIEW - JANUARY 2005

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from Claire Robinson

 

+ MONSANTO RATS BAILING OUT OF SINKING SHIP?

A new report by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors paints a bleak

picture of Monsanto's prospects and says that insiders are dumping their

shares.

 

EXCERPT:

21.9% of the shares held by insiders have been sold in the latter half

of 2004... while no significant purchases have taken place. In

addition, extraordinary charges have regularly appeared on the balance

sheet,

averaging $350 million per year over the past four years.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4813

 

+ FAKE PARADE HITS NEW YORK

Monsanto has signed up its very own black front group. Visit the home

page of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and beside images of

freedom riders and civil rights activists murdered by the KKK, you'll see

the Monsanto logo under the legend " CORE's corporate partner " .

http://www.core-online.org

 

One 17 January, Monsanto's Chairman and CEO, Hugh Grant chaired CORE's

celebratory reception marking the Martin Luther King National Holiday

at which various right wing figures, including Bush's election

strategist, Karl Rove, were honoured. On 18 January, at CORE's " UN World

Conference on Biotechnology " for diplomats and others, Monsanto's

executive

vice president made the closing address.

More: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4805

 

+ HUNGARY BANS MONSANTO GM MAIZE SEED

Hungary has banned the import and planting of Monsanto's MON 810 GM

maize seeds and will not allow existing stocks to be planted.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4815

 

+ MONSANTO ASSAULT ON US FARMERS DETAILED IN NEW REPORT

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has released a review of Monsanto's

use and abuse of US patent law to control the usage of staple crop seeds

by US farmers. " Monsanto vs. US Farmers " details the results of this

CFS's research, discusses the ramifications for the future of farming in

the US and outlines policy options for ending the persecution of

farmers.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4797

 

+ MONSANTO BUYS SEMINIS FOR USD 1.4 BILLION

Monsanto has paid USD 1.4 billion (GBP 745 million) buy vegetable and

fruit seed company Seminis. Monsanto will also assume about $400 million

in debt. The deal aims to speed up Monsanto's move into the seed market

and extend its reach further into Europe and Asia, where Seminis does a

large part of its business. The Economist's headline was LORDS OF THE

SEEDS.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4827

 

+ INVESTORS CHALLENGE MONSANTO OVER GM RISKS

A shareholder resolution asks Monsanto to report on impacts related to

its GM products. Shareholders see untested and under-reported

environmental impacts as the biggest risk.

 

Some of the major business strategy reversals that took investors by

surprise include: Monsanto's decision to not commercialize GM wheat

despite spending $60 million on it in 2004 alone; the cancellation of

plans

to develop pharmaceutical crops; forsaking its operations in Argentina

despite 90 percent market penetration of GM soya; and suspending

investment in GM canola in Australia.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4819

 

+ INDONESIA: MONSANTO BRIBED " AT LEAST 140 " OFFICIALS AND OTHERS

Between 1997 and 2002, Monsanto gave bribes totaling a minimum of

$700,000 to at least 140 current or former Indonesian government

officials

and their family members, in order to smooth the entry of its GM crops

in Indonesia. Monsanto agreed to pay USD 1.5 million in penalties to

settle US criminal and civil charges over the bribery scandal.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4776

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4780

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4793

 

+ BUCK STOPS WITH MONSANTO PRESIDENT HUGH GRANT

Monsanto's president and chief executive officer Hugh Grant was in

charge of the Asia Pacific region, including all the company's

agricultural

business operations there, from 1995-98. The five years of corrupt

payments in Indonesia began in 1997, i.e. Grant was the man in charge at

the time.

 

Scottish Members of Parliament have led calls for Grant's resignation

from Scottish Enterprise, a body which helps promote Scottish

businesses.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4811

 

+ DIRTY TRICKS AND BROKEN PROMISES - MONSANTO'S LEGACY IN INDONESIA

The farmers who grew Monsanto's seed did less well out of it than the

officials who took the bribes. One Indonesian farmer who grew Monsanto's

GM cotton said, " The company didn't give the farmer any choice, they

never intended to improve our well being, they just put us in a debt

circle, took away our independence and made us their slave forever. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4783

 

+ REVIEWS OF 2004

GM Watch has published 10 reports from around the world providing brief

summaries of some of the main events of 2004 with links to further

information.

http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=57 & page=1

 

+ ITALY: GM LAW PASSES LOWER HOUSE

The Alemmano GMO decree on co-existence of transgenic, conventional and

organic crops was passed by Italy's Lower House with amendments which

will make it even harder for GM crops to be grown in Italy. About 70% of

Italy's regions have already said they will block the sale and use of

GM crops.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4830

 

+ GM POLICY SHIFT IN EU

Newly installed European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel

has signaled a shift in European Union policies toward GM crops, saying

that she believes the EU should issue guidelines for acceptable

distances between GM and non-GM crops.

 

Fischer Boel said that GM and non-GM fields must be separated to avoid

GM contamination. However, she said: " Regulations must not be so hard

that the producers of GM crops have no chance to come to market. "

 

Some German political observers saw Fischer Boel's comments as a veiled

reference to Germany's new strict GM law, which holds planters of GM

crops liable for economic damages to adjacent non-GM fields even if they

followed regulations.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4838

 

+ ISAAA'S GM PROPAGANDA MISLEADING

The annual media-hype fest from industry body ISAAA is under way:

" Eight million farmers in 17 countries grew engineered crops on 200

million

acres last year, a 20 percent increase over the 167 million acres in

2003, according to a report released by the International Service for the

Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. "

 

Here's an antidote from Julie Newman of the Australia-based Network of

Concerned Farmers:

 

" It is not that farmers benefit from GM technology, farmers are not

being offered anything that can not be achieved with non-GM

biotechnology.

Figures show the area of GM has increased in certain countries but this

is because most of these farmers have relied on heavy subsidies from

governments or from the GM companies themselves. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4791

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3639

 

+ ISAAA ADMITS GM " DISASTERS "

In the wake of ISAAA's annual report claiming increased uptake of GM in

the developing world, ISAAA global coordinator Randy Hautea has

admitted that Indonesia and Bulgaria have pulled out from the global

race for

transgenic crops. The governments in these countries did not extend the

approval for transgenic crops as " there was some disasters " [sic].

Asked if a similar situation would result in India relating to Bt cotton,

Dr Hautea refused to comment.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4802

 

+ INDIA: FARMERS OPPOSE PATENT ORDINANCE

Farmers' bodies have decided to oppose the recent ordinance which seeks

to introduce patent monopolies on seeds. The agitation was launched on

January 30. They have decided to oppose the proposed amendments to the

Seeds Act and government policies leading to privatisation of the water

sector and market monopolies.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4786

 

+ CHINA DRAGS ITS HEELS ON GM ROLLOUT

China is stalling the adoption of GM plant cultivation as a cautious

government ponders their safety. The Chinese government had been expected

by many to grant permission for GM crops but Beijing has thus far only

allowed the cultivation of transgenic cotton, with all other GM crops

banned.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4817

 

+ ASIAN GM TRIALS PUSHED BY CORPORATE-BACKED INSTITUTES

In the Philippines, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice)

is trialling Bt cotton with the aim of introducing it. In Bangladesh,

the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute trialling a local variety of

Golden Rice, a GM rice which contains small amounts of a precursor of

vitamin A.

 

Both institutes are part of the International Rice Research Institute

(IRRI), which has offices in 11 different countries and a research

headquarters in the Philippines. IRRI describes itself as an " autonomous,

nonprofit institution " but its annual reports show grants from

corporations like Monsanto, Union Carbide, Bayer, Cyanamid, Hoechst,

OccidentalChemical, Ciba Geigy (later part of Novartis Seeds which is

now part of

Syngenta), Upjohn and Chevron Chemical, among others.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4825

 

+ VAST MAJORITY OF CANADIANS SUSPICIOUS OF GM FOODS

Roughly 90 per cent of people surveyed for Health Canada last year said

they were concerned about the long-term health risks of GM foods.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4835

 

+ US REDUCES FOOD AID TO ANGOLA AFTER GM BAN

Following Angola's ban on imports of GMOs, the US has reduced its food

aid to the country.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4833

 

+ DOW FIELD TRIALS OF GM MAIZE BLOCKED

The African Centre for Biosafety has stopped Dow Agrosciences from

using land in South Africa to field test its GM maize TC 1507. In its

objections the ACB raised questions as to " the veracity of the

information

supplied by Dow " .

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4831

 

+ THAILAND: GOVERNOR SAYS GM RICE NOT NEEDED

The governor of one of Thailand's most important rice-growing provinces

has called on agriculturalists to shift towards organic farming

methods, while insisting that Thailand has no need for GM rice.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4822

 

+ JOURNALISTS CHALLENGE FOX BROADCAST LICENCE

For what is believed to be the first time, two television journalists

have challenged the broadcast licence of a station on grounds it

deliberately broadcast false and distorted news reports. Reporters

Jane Akre

and Steve Wilson filed the petition against Rupert Murdoch's WTVT Fox-13

in Tampa, Florida. The reporters allege that Fox managers ordered them

to distort news reports about the secret use of Monsanto's GM bovine

growth hormone, injected into dairy cattle.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4800

 

+ LORD SAINSBURY SUCCESSOR ANOTHER INDUSTRY CRONY

Anyone who thought that Tony Blair could never outdo his choice of an

unelected biotech investor and food industrialist as his science

minister will be reassured to know that the man tipped to be Lord

Sainsbury's

successor is Lord Drayson, the former head of the BioIndustry

Association (motto: " Promoting UK Biotechnology " ).

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4824

 

+ GM SUGAR BEET LEAVES WILDLIFE SHORT OF FOOD

Despite being hyped as a breakthrough, new research on GM sugar beet

shows that the different crop management systems employed will still

leave the UK's farmland wildlife short of food at some stage in the year.

The research, carried out by Prof Mike May at Brooms Barn Research

Centre, and funded by the biotech industry, shows that all three GM sugar

beet management approaches so far proposed fail to provide sufficient

weeds and weed seeds for farmland wildlife in every season.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4812

 

+ DESTRUCTION OF BUFFER ECOSYSTEMS CONTRIBUTED TO TSUNAMI DEVASTATION

Devinder Sharma has written an excellent on the contribution of the

profit-driven destruction of natural eco-systems to the tsunami disaster.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4785

 

+ HELP VIA CAMPESINA'S TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORTS

The agricultural reform NGO, Via Campesina is raising funds for

grassroots tsunami relief. Visit Via Campesina's Online Donation Page:

https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589

 

+ FOOD MULTINATIONALS THREATEN FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY

Multinational food companies are threatening the fight against poverty

in developing countries, says a new report by development agency

ActionAid.

 

The report - " Power hungry: six reasons to regulate global food

corporations " - reveals that the activities of multinational food and

agribusiness companies, such as Nestle, Monsanto, Parmalat, Syngenta and

Unilever, threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poor

farmers

and undermine basic rights.

 

ActionAid's evidence from Brazil shows that 50,000 dairy farmers have

been forced out of business, after takeovers by Nestle and Parmalat. In

India, an estimated 12,000 children worked last year on cottonseed

farms supplying subsidiaries of Bayer, Monsanto, Syngenta and Unilever.

Many children were also exposed to dangerous pesticides.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4836

 

 

 

 

 

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