GM Watch: Fast-track GM (EU)

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GMW: Mandy wants to fast-track GM/GM cotton costs up 20%

" GM WATCH " <info

Sun, 5 Jun 2005 16:20:22 +0100

 

 

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Mandelson wants to fast-track GM (EU)

2.GM cotton costs up 20% (Oz)

3.Watchdog set to probe new contamination claims (Thailand)

 

COMMENT

 

Tony Blair shocked even his New Labour colleagues when he appointed his

most trusted lieutenant, Peter Mandelson, to the European Commission

despite his track record of failure and sleaze.

 

The twice-disgraced former minister is now apparently leading the

charge at Brussels to have GM approvals fast-tracked even where that

doesn't

enjoy majority support among the countries of the EU.

 

Michael Meacher, the former UK environment minister has commented,

" Having a group of unelected bureaucrats deciding what food should be

eaten

is fundamentally undemocratic. It is intolerable that they can ride it

through roughshod over the objections of member states. This is the

very kind of thing that the peoples of France and the Netherlands were

objecting to in their referendums last week. " (item 1)

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1.Mandelson wants to fast-track GM

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

05 June 2005

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=644299

 

Peter Mandelson is pressing for new GM foods and crops to be eaten and

planted across Europe, even though governments cannot agree on whether

to introduce them, top officials from the European Commission have told

The Independent on Sunday.

 

They say that the controversial trade commissioner's department wants

to speed up their use, despite widespread public opposition, and is

insisting on their being imposed by the Commission on unwilling

governments.

 

The Commission lifted a six-year moratorium on approving new modified

foods and crops last year, and biotech firms have been queuing up to

have their products officially cleared for use across the Continent.

 

Two types of GM maize have already been passed for human and livestock

consumption over the past year, and more than 30 GM versions of maize,

rice, potatoes, sugar beet, soya beans and other foods and crops are

awaiting approval.

 

They are being nodded through by the Commission, over the heads of

governments, because ministers cannot agree on whether to approve them.

European countries are almost equally split into pro-GM and anti-GM

camps,

and every time a new product comes before ministers for clearance they

are deadlocked. It then passes to the Commission itself for approval,

in a procedure denounced by campaigners as " profoundly undemocratic " .

 

Now the Commission's Health and Environment directorates are pressing

for the system to be changed to give governments greater control.

 

Markos Kyprianou, the health and consumer protection commissioner, has

also come out against it, and Hervé Martin, head of the biotechnology

and pesticides unit in the EU Environment Directorate, says that it is

" not sustainable to continue the system " . He believes commissioners and

governments should meet " before the summer " to work out a better one.

 

But, Mr Martin adds, the Trade Directorate wants to speed up the

approval of more modified crops and products. He says it is insisting on

sticking with the present arrangements, even if this means overriding the

wishes of some governments.

 

Michael Meacher, the former UK environment minister, said yesterday:

" Having a group of unelected bureaucrats deciding what food should be

eaten is fundamentally undemocratic. It is intolerable that they can ride

it through roughshod over the objections of member states.

 

" This is the very kind of thing that the peoples of France and the

Netherlands were objecting to in their referendums last week. "

 

Mr Mandelson's office failed to take up the opportunity to comment.

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2.GM cotton costs up 20%

03 June 2005

http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/news_details.asp?ID=2193

 

Some Queensland cotton growers are considering abandoning the

genetically modified Bolgard cotton because of a significant price

increase.

Monsanto confirms that it will be putting up the cost of its GM seed

by at

least 20 per cent which growers believe will eat into a forecast price

rise for the fibre. Monsanto says it always intended to charge a higher

price after the trial period of the new two-gene resistant cotton was

completed. Monsanto says the reduction in a farmers' chemical bills will

outweigh the increased cost of seed.

 

GM cotton seed price rise

Report: Angus Peacocke

 

In this report: Steve Ainsworth, Monsanto's commercial manager; Hamish

Millar, Emerald-based cotton farmer.

 

Source: ABC Queensland

 

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/qld/today.htm

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3.Watchdog set to probe cross-breeding claims

PIYAPORN WONGRUANG

Bangkok Post, 5 June 2005

http://www.biothai.org/cgi-bin/content/news/show.pl?0535

 

The National Human Rights Commission will probe alleged cross breeding

of genetically modified and ordinary papaya plants found in Khamphaeng

Phet province, said a commissioner on Thursday.

 

Vasant Panich, the NHRC's commissioner, said the organisation would set

up a special sub-committee to probe the case after international

environmental group Greenpeace submitted a letter asking it to follow

up on

the government's clean-up operations to stop the spread of GM papayas in

several provinces.

 

''We wish to get the facts and make sure of them,'' said Mr Vasant.

 

Greenpeace visited the province in late-April and collected samples of

papaya seeds it claimed to be of an ordinary papaya variety, the

Florida Tolerance, to test along with other samples of Khakdam Tha Phra

papayas in Rayong province as part of its follow-up probe.

 

In the middle of last year, Greenpeace also sent samples of the Khakdam

Tha Phra variety grown in the Agriculture Department's research station

and nearby farms in Khon Kaen province to Hong Kong-based lab GeneScan

to test before confirming they were indeed GM.

 

Environmental activists later demanded the department investigate the

GM papaya spread as it had sold the seeds to more than 2,600 farmers in

34 provinces.

 

Farmers in Khamphaeng Phet and Rayong had also bought the seeds,

Greenpeace claimed.

 

Thailand does not yet allow open field trials, commercial production

and the sale of GM crops.

 

The department later collected 8,912 samples from farmers growing the

station's seeds. It found 329 samples from 85 farms were GM, and ordered

them destroyed without publicising detailed findings.

 

Greenpeace, along with other independent organisations, launched their

own follow-up probes. On Wednesday, Greenpeace revealed that three

samples of papayas it collected from Rayong were GM, whereas the

sample of

the Florida Tolerance plant also contained GM genes. It demanded that

the department more effectively contain the GM spread.

 

Surawit Wannakrairoj, assistant professor in biotechnology for crop

improvement at Kasetsart University, said cross breeding of GM and

ordinary plants was the worst-case scenario in terms of environmental

protection as scientists did not know what the results would be.

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