Brazil nuts/Veneman/WWF in Argentina/Nuclear Jack Cunningham's afterglow

[Guest guest]

GMW: Brazil nuts/Veneman/WWF in Argentina/ " Nuclear " Jack

Cunningham's afterglow

" GM WATCH " <info

 

 

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 11:50:20 +0100

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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Eco sounding

John Vidal and Paul Brown

Wednesday March 30, 2005

The Guardian [selected/shortened]

 

Farmed out

 

In a few weeks Ann Veneman will take over as head of Unicef, the UN's

fund for children. The former US agriculture secretary has neo-con form.

She previously worked for biotech company Calgene,

 

dismantled most of America's forest conservation laws and has furthered

the cause of GM foods around the world. " God help the kids, " says one

America ecologist.

 

Brazil nuts

 

The champagne corks were popping in Monsanto's US offices last week

when President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva finally signed Brazil's new

biosafety bill. Known widely as the Monsanto law, it will allow GM

companies

almost free rein. Brett Begemann, a Monsanto vice-president, purred:

" This demonstrates Brazil's commitment to a science-based

 

regulatory system. " But others said it showed that Lula de Silva was

now completely under the spell of agribiz. They recalled the president

saying only a few years ago: " The release of transgenics in Brazil would

be utter insanity. "

 

Jumping beans

 

Last week international conservation group WWF hosted a meeting in

Brazil with major Latin American soya bean growers. The idea, said

WWF, is

to work with agribusiness corporations and persuade them to adopt

better practices, such as leaving some forest standing and including

corridors for wildlife. But WWF has provoked outrage among grasssroots

organisations from many Latin American countries which met at a counter

meeting down the road. More than 600 ecologists, unions, students, human

rights and other groups all deplored the initiative as naive and

dangerous.

It was summed up by Corporate Watch: " The WWF's agenda seems to accept

that monoculture cash crops, GM soya, intense pesticide use and land

poverty will always be a feature of South American rural society. "

 

Friendly fusion

 

The imminent retirement of " Nuclear " Jack Cunningham [one of Blair's

keenest GM supporters when a Minister], Labour's veteran MP for Copeland

in Cumbria, which includes British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield works, has

been celebrated by opponents of the plant. They fondly hope that their

new MP will not be quite so pro-nuclear. Forget it. Labour's chosen

candidate is Jamie Reed. He is a press officer at Sellafield.

 

 

 

 

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