Guest guest Posted September 16, 2005 Report Share Posted September 16, 2005 WEEKLY WATCH 141 " GM WATCH " <info Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:36:08 +0100 --------------------------- WEEKLY WATCH number 141 --------------------------- --------------------------- from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor --------------------------- Dear all: It's good to see the Australian states maintaining, and even intensifying, their robust stance against GM contamination (AUSTRALASIA). In India, meanwhile, problematic Bt cotton may have sprung a new disease and it's certainly suffering a battering from sucking pests (ASIA). New research supports previous findings that Monsanto's Roundup herbicide can contribute to an increase in fungal disease, posing a serious food safety risk as well as a major economic threat to farmers (RESEARCH). Please revisit our CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK on Terminator, which last week reprinted an erroneous email address. Make sure your comments get to the right place! Claire claire www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org ------- CONTENTS ------- AUSTRALASIA THE AMERICAS ASIA EUROPE AFRICA MIDDLE EAST RESEARCH COMPANY NEWS LOBBYWATCH MUST-SEE MOVIE CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK --------------------------- AUSTRALASIA --------------------------- + NEW SOUTH WALES GM CROP BAN EXTENDED NSW Agriculture Minister Ian Macdonald has extended the state ban on GM crops from 2006 to 2008, bringing NSW into line with other states. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5719 + CANOLA DESTROYED DUE TO GM CONTAMINATION Millions of canola seedlings have been destroyed after one variety in a New South Wales crop trial was found to be GM. All the crops were supposed to be non-GM varieties in nine trials of canola varieties. Farmers are worried in case the contamination proves to be more widespread. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5721 + STRICT LIABILITY CALL FROM MINISTER Western Australia's Agriculture Minister Kim Chance has called on GM companies to take greater care and responsibility for their product or face clean up costs. " Regretfully, the GM companies appear unable to contain their product within the laboratory or within Office of Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) trial sites and they appear unable or unwilling to respect WA's moratorium or those in place in other Australian jurisdictions, " Mr Chance said. Mr Chance says without strict liability for adverse effects from GMOs - something the biotech industry steadfastly refuses to contemplate - the GM moratoria introduced by the Australian states will continue indefinitely. " Until we have assurances that we have an adequate legal framework, no state jurisdiction is ever going to lift their moratorium. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5719 http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5722 + GM CROP CONTAMINATION MAY SPARK REVIEW OF LIABILITY LAWS The federal and state governments are being urged to consider national liability laws after canola crops in four states were contaminated with GM material. The Western Australian government said the legal framework needed an urgent review in the wake of the nation's biggest ever contamination cases. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5722 + NZ JUDGE RAISES CONCERN OVER PEPPER SPRAY In a Rotorua court ruling in New Zealand, Judge James Weir raised serious concerns over police failure to follow their own procedures and their use of pepper spray (OC) at an anti-GM protest earlier this year. Felicity Perry, Arthur Price and Simon Oosterman were acquitted of all charges relating to the protest against GM trees in Rotorua. They had pleaded not guilty to charges of obstruction and resisting arrest. A Northland farmer who was present at the protest told GM Watch, " I had the unfortunate experience -during a peaceful protest - of witnessing large aggressive security guards/police seizing a very slight young woman, dragging her across the 'no go' line and nearly wrenching her arm off, getting her in a headlock. Peaceful protestors were grabbed, pepper sprayed, I was horrified and was thankful to not be injured in the fray. A number of farmers and foresters had travelled down to Rotorua to participate in a GE TREE conference/hui, due to our concerns about the risks of GE trees to the environment and forestry industry, but did not expect this sort of behavior from the police and security guards. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5717 + MORE ON HORIZONTAL GENE TRANSFER FROM GM CATTLE STORY Allegations have been made by GE Free NZ that AgResearch soil tests suggest 'horizontal gene transfer' may have occurred with soil micro-organisms in land where transgenic cattle have been grazing for 6 years. However, AgResearch has strongly contested this claim. Scientist Dr Jack Heinemann of the Institute of Gene Ecology, at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, gives his views on the evidence at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5724 --------------------------- THE AMERICAS --------------------------- + UNI OF MANITOBA BLOCKED VIDEO ON GM CROPS Researchers at the University of Manitoba have accused the university of blocking the release of their video exploring the risks of GM crops while at the same time courting funds from biotech companies. The university originally demanded assurances it would not be liable if anyone sued. One insurer demanded a $50,000 deductible for any lawsuits by Monsanto. The university appears to have now dropped the lawsuit issue, but McLachlan said the university is still demanding control over where and when the video is shown, while at the same time requiring a disclaimer indicating the project has nothing to do with the university. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5712 + GM BAN SUPPORTERS FILE LAWSUIT OVER BALLOT WORDING Supporters of Measure M, a California ballot initiative seeking to prevent contamination from GMOs, has filed a lawsuit in Sonoma County Superior Court. " The (Sonoma County) Farm Bureau has had their facts wrong all along, so their ballot statement was no surprise, " said Dave Henson, main author of the measure. Supporters of the measure, which will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot, want to halt printing of the ballot measure until the language is revised. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5702 + LAWMAKER WANTS TO NULLIFY GM CROP BAN A Central California legislator is pursuing a bill in the 2005 state legislative session that would nullify voter-approved bans on GM crops. Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, has revived a bill attacking GMO bans in place in Marin, Mendocino and Trinity counties, as well as the cities of Arcata and Point Arena. The bill would affect Sonoma County's Nov. 8 ballot measure to establish a GM crop ban, and a proposed ordinance prohibiting biotech crops in Lake County. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5702 + CORPORATE CRONYISM IN U.S. The blatant extremity of the cronyism of the Bush administration is starting to wake people up to the political and corporate corruption of US government agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and FEMA, which is run by Dubya's pal but performed abysmally in the recent disaster in New Orleans. But there's still limited recognition of the fact that problems like the FDA's cosiness with the biotech and pharma corporations go way beyond the partisan policies and cronyism of a single administration. Consider, for instance, Michael R. Taylor, whose career managed to intermingle being a vice president for Monsanto with working for the FDA and the US Dept of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service - long before the Dubya ascendency. More on Bush's cronies and on Taylor: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5715 --------------------------- ASIA --------------------------- + INDIA: UNUSUAL DISEASE ON BT COTTON A fact-finding team visited Bt cotton and non-Bt cotton fields on September 9, 2005 to inquire into the incidence of an unusual disease on cotton crop, especially on Bt cotton, in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The disease has apparently affected more than 50,000 acres of cotton crop. The fact-finding team, after its day-long visit to villages and meetings with numerous farmers, concludes that Bt cotton seems to be more vulnerable to this disease (which seems to be a viral disease being spread by sucking pests) than non-Bt cotton. The fact-finding visit also has important findings on the central claims of the Bt cotton technology - that of controlling pest damage to the flowering and fruiting parts of the cotton plant (economically important parts). The team found high incidence on these parts of Spodoptera (a destructive moth) and Helicoverpa (bollworm - the very pest that Bt cotton is supposed to resist!) on Bt cotton plots, with considerable damage. The team has called for urgent investigations by the government and an advice service to help farmers control the phenomenon. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5709 http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5720 + THE POLITICS OF GM COTTON FAILURE Suman Sahai has written in India's national paper The Hindu about the Indian regulator GEAC's continuing approvals of Bt cotton in spite of widespread failure of the crop, " What the GEAC is doing with respect to Bt cotton amounts to criminal negligence. Its biased decisions are resulting in debilitating losses for poor farmers, especially in rainfed areas. The members of the GEAC must be held accountable for the losses faced by farmers, sometimes leading them to taking extreme steps. The government has remained unmoved by reports of crop failures and impervious to demands that a thorough review be undertaken of the Bt cotton performance in India, before proceeding any further with it. It continues to commit offences against farmers by allowing a substandard product to be sold to them. " Dr Sahai refers in the article to the recently published study by Indian government scientists, lead by Keshav Kranthi at the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), showing that the " protection offered by Bt cotton lasts only for part of the plant's life cycle and most critically, that bollworm readily attack the bolls because Bt toxin expression was below effective levels in the economically most important part of the plant. " This article, and the fact that Gene Campaign has now issued a notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests to file a complaint over the GEAC's failure to regulate GMOs properly, has stung Keshav Kranthi into responding. Kranthi dismisses concerns over Bt cotton as " meaningless hullabaloo " and claims that Bt cotton is, in fact, " a brilliant technology " , " state-of-the-art " etc., despite the fact that the CICR study, as he admits, confirms " inherent inadequacies " . Revealingly, Kranthi writes, " our main intention [in doing the study] was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the technology so that it can be improved further. " This would seem to tie in with allegations made at the time of the study's publication, that the real intention behind it was to admit to the problems with GM cotton in India only in order to lay the ground for further GM cotton approvals. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5708 + RETHINK ON GM URGED FOR ORISSA A rethink on GM crops is being urged for the Indian state of Orissa. Serious objections are being raised on behalf of organic farmers and a variety of organisations in Orissa to the way in which the public and farmers have been left out of policy making on GM: " a delegation of farmers had met the chief minister in March, 2005 and he had promised to conduct a serious study on the matter of declaring Orissa as an 'organic agriculture state' which will ban GM seeds and food. " Predictably, it hasn't hapened and the fear is that the introduction of GM could bring the same ruin that it has for thousands of farmers in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, from which Monsanto has now been banned because of GM cotton's dire performance and the company's refusal to compensate farmers. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5707 + CHINA CULTIVATES RECORD HIGH-YIELD NON-GM RICE Chinese agronomists have cultivated new species of " super rice, " the Super Rice II YOU 28, with average per hectare yield reaching a record high of 18,449.55 kilograms. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5713 + JAPANESE CONSUMERS SHUN U.S. GM SOY... Japanese consumers are shunning American GM soybeans. Major tofu producer Asahi Food Processing Co. is due later this month to market tofu made only with Australian soybeans, which are not GM, through supermarkets in the Tokyo area. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5718 + ... AND SOUTH KOREANS TOO South Korea's state-run Agricultural and Fishery Marketing Corporation has bought 25,000 tonnes of non-GM US soybeans from ADM. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5718 --------------------------- EUROPE --------------------------- + 'CO-EXISTENCE' OF GM WITH OTHER CROPS IMPOSSIBLE Speaking at a conference in Bologna, Italy on 'Co-existence' of GM with conventional or organic crops, Dr Ignacio Chapela told the conference, " 'Co-existence' of GMOs and GM-free plants is biologically impossible. If we keep thinking like this, it won't be a question of if contamination will occur; it will be a question of when and how much. We do not have the political will, the technical capacity or the independence of thought to deal with 'co-existence', neither to monitor its development, nor to remedy its consequences. Proposed biosafety and bioethical frameworks will not prevent contamination. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5704 + ACTIVIST DEFENDS GM CARGO SHIP PROTEST Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe, who was involved in a two-day protest on a cargo ship, said he believed it was carrying illegal and unapproved GM crops. Greenpeace had claimed the MV Etoile, which was stopped from heading into Bristol in June last year, was carrying GM animal feed. Ten men and three women deny a public nuisance charge at Cardiff Crown Court. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5714 + SEVEN YEARS LOST FOR GENETIC ENGINEERING An article with the above title has appeared in the German press, featuring much bleating from the industry about Germany's strict liability laws on GM crops. The industry is desperately hoping that the upcoming German elections will deliver an aggressively right-wing government sympathetic to their interests. Fortunately, it's far from clear that the " German Margaret Thatcher " and her admirers will sweep the board in the way the biotech brigade have been hoping. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5723 ------- AFRICA ------- + ZAMBIAN MILLERS DEMAND STERN ACTION AGAINST GM POLLUTERS The Millers Association of Zambia (MAZ) has apparently found evidence of illegal imports into Zambia, which has a policy of being GM free. MAZ chairman, Caleb Mulenga, has since called on the government to be on red-alert and look out for illegally imported and contaminated GM mealie-meal and take stern action against culprits. The Times of Zambia in an editorial supports the call for tough action, saying any illegal introduction of GMOs into the country amounts to economic sabotage and an attack on the future health and welfare of the people of Zambia. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5725 + JEFFREY SMITH INTERVIEW Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, is in Africa this month. A hard-hitting interview with him is at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5705 ------- MIDDLE EAST ------- + WHAT IRAQ'S ORDER 81 REALLY MEANS FOR FARMERS " Farmers shall be prohibited from reusing seeds of protected varieties " - so reads article 15 of Iraq's order 81, ... one of 100 " orders " brought in by the US-run coalition provisional authority which ruled Iraq prior to handing over to Iraqis - and which have stayed in place ever since. Opponents have leapt on Order 81, saying it means farmers can keep no seeds at all... Such claims give the big seed firms angling to grab a share of the Iraqi market..., particularly Monsanto's pro-active PR team, an opening to insist that the order does no such thing. Campaign groups Grain and Focus on the Global South have even had to add a Monsanto-approved clarification to their critical report from October 2004, saying: " The law does not prohibit Iraqi farmers from using or saving 'traditional' seeds. It prohibits them from re-using seeds of 'new' plant varieties registered under the law. " So that's all right then? Well, no. There are, in fact, next to no 'traditional' seeds left in Iraq. Much of the public sector-controlled local seed industry was destroyed in fighting and looting and the UN has just warned that seed shortages now threaten the country's food security, saying Iraq can meet just 4 percent of its demand for quality seeds from its own resources. And who is ready to step in with their patented, no re-use, cheap-this-time, pay a fortune when all the traditional, re-usable seeds are gone, seeds? Er, the US agri-business giants of course. - From Private Eye no 1140 http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5700 ------- RESEARCH ------- + GLYPHOSATE LINKED TO DAMAGING FUNGAL DISEASE, FUSARIUM Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat has become an increasing problem in North America in recent years, notably in the US Corn Belt and the Canadian Prairies. This damaging disease is considered a major threat as it not only greatly reduces yield and grain quality but causes excessive contamination of the grain with fungal toxins (mycotoxins). Mycotoxins such as vomitoxin, produced by the fungus in grain and straw, are detrimental to animal and human health. This means FHB represents both a serious food safety concern and an economic threat to farmers. A new paper by Fernandez et al, published in Crop Science, points to the application of glyphosate as a significant predisposing factor for the development of the disease. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup - the herbicide used with Monsanto's glyphosate-resistant Roundup Ready GM crops, which are heavily grown in the US Corn Belt and the Canadian Prairies. This is not the first research to suggest that glyphosate could cause an increase in fungal populations. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5710 ------- COMPANY NEWS ------- + DOW WINS BT PATENT BATTLE WITH MONSANTO Dow Chemical Co. said it won rights to a " broad and enabling " technology for creating GM Bt crops, such as those sold by Monsanto. Concluding a dispute between the two companies that has run for more than a decade, the US Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent to Dow AgroSciences. Monsanto has yet to review the patent ruling, spokeswoman Lori Fisher said. However, Monsanto believes it holds sufficient patents on related technology to continue marketing and developing its products, she said. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5716 ------- LOBBYWATCH ------- + WE'RE BEING FED BIG FAT LIES An excellent piece of journalism from The Times features our old friends, the BBSRC, Spiked, SIRC, the Science Media Centre and others. Here's the essence of the story: The UK government's House of Commons Health Committee published its Obesity Report in May 2004. Over ten months, the committee had investigated childhood obesity, producing 148 pages that demanded radical changes in government nutrition policy. For the food industry, this meant a widespread and costly set of new restrictions. The report was subjected to a massive coordinated onslaught of attacks from so-called independent critics keen to exonerate the food industry by denying any link between eating junk food and obesity! These critics include the usual suspects mentioned above and their allies. For example: EXCERPT from Times article: [Professor Tom Sanders, a media-friendly nutritionist at King's College London, said,] " It may surprise many readers to learn... that most published studies do not show that overweight children report eating more 'junk food' than their lean peers. " The problem, he suggested, was that the committee had been taken over by powerful " anti-food industry lobbyists " - a charge echoed by apparently independent think-tanks such as the Oxford-based Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC). David Hinchliffe, then an MP and the Health Committee's chairman, smelt more than a rat. The aggressive media assaults on his committee, he believes, were symptomatic of wider behind-the-scenes manipulation by the food industry in a battle for public opinion. Read the entire article (well worth it!) at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5706 + AGBIOVIEW ATTACKS BENBROOK'S " SCIENCE AND CREDIBILITY " An attack on the agronomist Dr Charles Benbrook by Sivramiah Shantharam has gone out on the AgBioView list. It effectively accuses Dr Benbrook of being corrupt, calling him a " professional misinterpreter and a misleader " on biotech issues who is guilty of continuously " cherry picking data for his slanted analysis " . " People like Benbrook do these kind of things, " it says, to earn a living. In Benbrook's case, it specifies, it's done " at the behest of the organic and other anti-GM lobby who hire him " . Those " like Benbrook " who, according to the AgBioView attack, are paid to mislead and deceive are contrasted with " busy professional scientists [who] must keep busy doing their honest to good research work that will stand scrutiny of their professional peers " . The fact that, amongst other things, Dr Benbrook was for seven years Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture of the US's National Academy of Sciences, is dismissed as irrelevant - simply something " flaunted " by the anti-GM lobby to try and lend " credibility to his 'scientific' (sic) analysis " . The irony is, of course, that with Dr Benbrook's background and credentials, if he were remotely minded to earn an income doing dodgy science in the way that is being suggested here, he could have earned himself a fortune by now, while enjoying a massive research budget, courtesy of the biotech industry and its various front institutes. The only cost would have been to his integrity. The man behind the AgBioView attack is an ex-Syngenta employee with a history of smears and misinformation on the GM issue. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5703 + MONSANTO LOBBIES TO KEEP STATUS QUO FOR GM CROPS In the US, despite years of controversy over Monsanto's GM seeds, there hasn't been a single congressional hearing on legislation calling for labeling GM foods, even as much of Europe, Japan and other nations adopted labeling Iaws. Monsanto lobbyists have worked hard to preserve the current system in which its GM products are treated as essentially equivalent to regular crops - and therefore don't need additional labeling. Monsanto is a big spender on lobbying, dishing out more than $18.5 million from 1999 through 2004. In 2004, Monsanto had nine in-house Washington lobbyists on its payroll, along with another 13 at private firms. More: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5711 + PETER RAVEN AND " TRANSGENES IN MEXICAN MAIZE " In a recently published paper commenting on whether native Mexican maize is contaminated with GM material, Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, contributes his bit to the usual industry PR strategy of: 1. We say we can utilise this technology in a way that does not impact on any other growers or consumers who do not want GM contamination. 2. When faced with evidence to the contrary, we try and deny the evidence and, if possible, attack those who supplied it. 3. Finally, we say GM contamination is not just inevitable but is both natural and desirable. (Peter H. Raven, Transgenes in Mexican maize: Desirability or inevitability? Perspective Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0506082102. Published online before print Sept 6, 2005) Prof Joe Cummins comments on Raven's paper and points out that his understanding of basic genetics is " unconventional " (!), at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5699 ------- MUST-SEE MOVIE ------- + THE CORPORATION The long-awaited DVD of this superb documentary film is now available worldwide. Winner of 24 international awards, The Corporation explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a " person " to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask, " What kind of person is it? " The Corporation includes interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Vandana Shiva on seed saving, Dr Samuel Epstein on cancer and industry, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson on Monsanto's GM bovine growth hormone, and an extraordinarily enlightened carpet magnate - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change. DVD available from www.thecorporation.com ------- CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK ------- + ACTION NEEDED TO STOP TERMINATOR (Please note: last week we were given an incorrect email address for comments to be sent to; the correct one is below) Indigenous peoples, local communities, peasants and small-scale farmers' organizations and others have the opportunity to send written comments on the potential impacts of Terminator to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) before September 30, 2005. Terminator (also called Genetic Use Restriction Technology - GURTs) refers to plants that are genetically modified to render sterile seeds - preventing farmers from saving and re-using harvested seeds. SAMPLE DEMANDS to put in your letter/email and more info are at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5698 WRITING YOUR SUBMISSION: You can present your written comments in any format. You may also send comments in the form of audiotape with recorded comments from community members, representatives or elders. Please use the following reference in your submission so that your comments go to the right place: " Ref: SCBD/STTM/DCO/va/48601 " Advice on the report of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Genetic Use Restriction Technologies " . SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO (by email and/or fax if possible): Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Environment Programme, World Trade Centre 413 Saint-Jacques Street, Suite 800, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 1N9 secretariat FAX: 1 514 288 6588 Please also send a copy of your submission to the Ban Terminator Campaign: lucy ------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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