Guest guest Posted April 28, 2006 Report Share Posted April 28, 2006 WEEKLY WATCH 173 " GM WATCH " <info Thu, 27 Apr 2006 23:08:41 +0100 --------------------------- WEEKLY WATCH number 173 --------------------------- --------------------------- from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor --------------------------- Dear all: GM Watch's Jonathan Matthews has written a report exposing the scientific fraud behind a paper published in the British Food Journal that claimed to show that consumers were more willing to buy GM than non-GM food. Believe it or not, the journal even gave this deception an award! GM Watch is now calling for the journal to retract the paper. (GM WATCH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION). Meanwhile, UK prime minister Blair's biotech backers caught up in the " cash for peerages " loans scandal want their money back, a move that could bankrupt Blair's Party. It looks, though, as if science minister and biotech peer Lord Sainsbury might bail out Blair yet again. What a pity. Claire claire www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org --------------------------- CONTENTS --------------------------- GM WATCH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION BIOFUELS EUROPE THE AMERICAS ASIA AUSTRALASIA RESEARCH BT CROPS AND HEALTH COMPANY NEWS --------------------------- GM WATCH SPECIAL INVESTIGATION --------------------------- + RETRACT THIS PAPER - IT'S A DISGRACE TO SCIENCE The British Food Journal's Award for Excellence for Most Outstanding Paper in 2004 went to research that should never have been published. What the reviewers mistook for an impressive piece of scientific enquiry was a carefully crafted propaganda exercise that could only have one outcome. Both the award and the paper now need to be retracted. For the GM WATCH report together with links to source materials and a photo of one of the signs the researchers used to bias consumer responses, go to: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72 & page=1 Here's a summary. In late 1999 a Greenpeace news conference outside a Loblaws grocery store in downtown Toronto was disrupted by a group of GM supporters. " The food is safe, " shouted Jeff Wilson, who farms northwest of Toronto. He'd come to the store with the head of a lobby group that supports GM foods, and Doug Powell, an assistant professor at the University of Guelph. And they'd come prepared. Holding aloft a bug-ravaged cabbage, Wilson demanded, " Would you buy that? " Wilson claimed the cabbage could have been saved by genetic engineering. Doug Powell ended up in a shouting match with a shopper. A year later and Powell and Wilson's street theatrics had given way to a much more carefully choreographed exercise in persuading people that GM foods were what they wanted The scene this time was not Loblaws but Jeff Wilson's farm store. Here Powell and Wilson were running an experiment that had been conceived following the Loblaws encounter. During summer 2000 Wilson grew both GM and conventional sweet corn on his farm. And following the first harvest, both types of corn were put on sale amidst much publicity. The aim was to see which type would appeal most to Wilson's customers. According to an award winning paper published in the British Food Journal, a sizeable majority opted for the GM corn. In the paper, authored by Wilson and Powell, and Powell's two research assistants - Katija Blaine and Shane Morris, the choice appears simple - the bins were " fully labeled " - either " genetically engineered Bt sweet corn " or " Regular sweet-corn " . The only other written information mentioned in the paper that might have influenced the preference of customers was lists of the chemicals used on each type of corn, and pamphlets " with background information on the project. " What Powell and his co-authors failed to report was that they had used a variation on the bug-eaten cabbage stunt. The sign above the non-GM corn bin in Wilson'd store asked, " Would You Eat Wormy Sweet Corn? " Above the the Bt-corn bin, the sign referred to " Quality Sweet Corn " ! Toronto Star reporter Stuart Laidlaw, who visited Wilson's farm several times during the research, says, " It is the only time I have seen a store label its own corn 'wormy'. " In his book Secret Ingredients, Laidlaw includes a photograph of the " wormy " corn sign, and notes that with those labels " it was hardly surprising which sold more. " Laidlaw also notes that any mention of the corn being labelled as " wormy " or " quality " was omitted in presentations and writings about the experiment. This is certainly the case with the paper in the British Food Journal. Yet the paper describes in significant detail the care that the researchers took to avoid biasing consumer choice! Whether reviewers and editors will continue to collude with the researchers' deceit remains to be seen. Either way, important questions need to be posed about a culture of science and academia that allows scientists who raise questions about GM, and other corporate interests, to suffer a barrage of criticism and abuse, and even terminal damage to their careers; while those whose opinions and findings support GM are validated and affirmed, regardless of whether their claims stand up to critical scrutiny. This is the context in which corporate propaganda came to be rewarded as exemplary science. FOR THE FULL EXTRAORDINARY STORY AND A POINT-BY-POINT REBUTTAL OF THE ORWELLIAN EFFORT TO COVER UP WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, GO TO: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72 & page=1 --------------------------- BIOFUELS --------------------------- + BIOFUELS TO RESCUE GM INDUSTRY At the BIO 2006 conference in Chicago, " biofuels " - renewable fuels made from plant materials - were the centre of attention, with biodiesel and ethanol as the industry's two leading hopes for spurring renewed interest and investment. On the heels of President Bush's speech in which he said the US was " addicted to oil " , BIO released a letter to Congress requesting full funding for programmes that would support research and development into ethanol production. This would all be made possible through the introduction of " White " industrial biotechnology. EuropaBio, the European equivalent of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is advancing the cause of " White Biotechnology " with claims that it will reduce pollution and waste through using renewable organic resources and recycling waste for more efficient energy supplies. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6468 + THE ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS OF BIOFUEL A law on biofuels in Argentina that will give a boost to soybean production has come in for harsh criticism from environmentalists. The Argentine Senate has approved a bill that will grant tax incentives to the producers of biofuels while guaranteeing them a share of the market for 15 years. To ensure a market for the alternative fuels, the state will guarantee that four years after the law goes into effect, gas stations will be under the obligation to offer gasoline that contains five percent ethanol and diesel comprised of five percent biodiesel. The new law worries those who have criticised the continued expansion of soybean monoculture. Argentina's soybean crop, which is mainly transgenic, threatens biodiversity in agriculture and has hurt family farms and the rural social fabric, according to environmentalists and other critics. In the last decade, expanding monoculture has prompted an exodus of seasonal workers and small farmers to the cities, while fuelling the concentration of land ownership. Greenpeace has launched several campaigns to protest the deforestation of land rich in biodiversity by large soybean farmers. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6475 + BIOFUELS EXPLOITED BY GM LOBBY Last year we warned that the current energy crisis was being exploited by the GM lobby to push biofuels. We've republished two intelligent pieces we circulated at the time at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6469 One of these articles points out that the GM lobby claims that biofuels help climate change by absorbing CO2, a greenhouse gas, during growth. However, this is true only in relation to what was growing before the plantation was established. In many South American countries, forests have been replaced by soy. In this case the CO2 balance is negative. Also, the moment that the biofuel is used (burnt), CO2 is regenerated as product of the combustion! So biofuels actually produce greenhouse gases. + MORE ON BIOFUELS Feeding Cars, Not People - George Monbiot http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/11/23/feeding-cars-not-people/ GM non-food crops will bring contamination threats to food and nature - GeneWatch UK http://www.genewatch.org/Press%20Releases/pr61.htm Biofuels and GM - GM Watch http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3080 --------------------------- EUROPE --------------------------- + WESTMINSTER IN THE DOCK Three weeks ago, an eight-page dossier landed on the desk of John Yates, Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner, who is heading the police investigation into the cash-for-peerages affair. Of the leading figures in the drama, Lord Levy, Mr Blair's personal fundraiser and the president of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, is said to be sticking by his vow, made privately to colleagues, that he will not be the " fall guy " for Mr Blair. It was revealed last week that offices used by the peer, a key figure in securing Labour's GBP14 million of loans, had been damaged by a fire in November, after some of the facts in the cash-for-peerages affair had been uncovered, but well before the police began their inquiry. No documents relevant to the inquiry were said to have been burnt. [How would we know, if they went up in smoke?] There was continuing political interest in the role of Lord Sainsbury, the science and technology minister, who faces a possible investigation under the ministerial code into failing to tell the most senior civil servant in his Whitehall department about his GBP2 million loan to Labour. Lord Sainsbury, who has remained in the same ministerial job since Labour came to power in 1997 (the only one to do so, apart from Blair and Gordon Brown), has always denied there is any conflict of interest between his publicly professed support for GM food (and his involvement in several companies which research and produce it) and government policy on GM products. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6477 CLEAN UP WESTMINSTER from Blair's sleaze by signing petition: http://www.cleanupwestminster.com Feel free to sign even if you are not a UK citizen as Britain's Parliament is called " the mother of all Parliaments " and what the Blair government gets up to in Europe and globally affects us all. + TYCOONS TELL LABOUR: PAY US BACK NOW Demands by businessmen for immediate repayment of their secret loans to Labour, is threatening financial crisis for the party. The demands will necessitate a fire sale of the party's London headquarters to pay the debts. The " loans-for-honours " scandal now threatens to derail the party's campaign for next month's local elections. Sir Christopher Evans, the biotech tycoon, said that he would be demanding the repayment of his GBP1m loan " this summer " . Labour is also expecting to repay a GBP2m loan to Lord Sainsbury, the science minister, in July. However, sources said he was preparing to make a sizable donation to compensate for the loan repayment. GM WATCH comment: It looks as if the current scandal will leave Blair even more financially dependent on his Party's biggest individual donor, the GM entrepreneur and enthusiast, Lord Sainsbury. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6489 + BLAIR COMMENTS - OR NOT - ON SLEAZE Member of Parliament Nigel Evans, raising the question of money loaned to Labour by science minister Lord Sainsbury: " Do you not feel it ill-judged to have accepted a GBP2m loan off one of your ministers? Don't you agree that the whole thing stinks and it's about time you gave the GBP2m back to Lord Sainsbury? " Blair: " I think he does a superb job as a minister and I'm proud to have him in the government. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6489 + UK: BIOSCIENCE CENTRES AWARDED MILLIONS Three new UK centres for integrative systems biology, representing an investment of GBP27m, have been announced by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471 + FRANCE: GM PROTESTORS ARRESTED AS EU OPPOSITION RADICALISES Farmer Jose Bove was recently arrested after he, along with up to 75 campaigners, attempted to occupy Monsanto's seed facility near Carcassonne in southern France. The campaign against Monsanto had been organised by the Collectif des faucheurs volontaires, la Confederation paysanne and Greenpeace. The protestors want Monsanto and the French authorities to stop importing and distributing GM maize seed into France. " We are putting Monsanto on notice, along with each and every Biotech firm that is contaminating our fields and our food supply now - or has future plans to introduce GM seeds - this is the beginning, we will not stop until France is declared a GM free zone, " said Olivier Keller, national secretary of the Confederation Paysanne. Half of all open-field GM crop trials carried out in France in 2004 were ripped out by anti-GM campaigners. Court decisions last year acquitting two groups of activists who destroyed GMO crops have further bolstered opposition to the experimental plantations. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6484 + POLAND SET TO APPROVE GM BAN Poland's upper house of parliament has banned trade and plantings of GM seeds and put Warsaw on a collision course with the EU Commission, which claims GM bans are illegal. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6470 http://www.wbj.pl/?command=article & id=31787 & type=wbj --------------------------- THE AMERICAS --------------------------- + VERMONT GM BILL TOUGH ON MANUFACTURERS Manufacturers of GM seeds could be liable for damages if their products drift into the fields of neighboring farmers who don't want them under a bill that won approval 25 April in the Vermont House. The bill would treat farmers as consumers and would allow them to sue a seed manufacturer, claiming the so-called drift into his or her field was a private nuisance. Such a claim could only be made if the farmer could prove that his or her total loss exceeded $3,500. " This is a bill to protect all farmers, " said Rep. Dexter Randall, P-Troy, the primary sponsor of the bill and a dairy farmer. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6483 + UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH FACULTY " IN BED WITH CHEMICAL INDUSTRY " Environmentalist David Suzuki has said University of Guelph faculty are " in bed with the chemical industry. " Suzuki criticized the University of Guelph's agriculture department, saying it strongly supports industrial-type agriculture, with its reliance on chemicals and GMOs. " I've been stunned to find myself arguing with a lot of faculty, " he said. " It's clear that Guelph is in bed with the chemical industry. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6486 If you want specifics on what's been going on at Guelph, then check out a profile of Doug Powell from the Dept. of Plant Agriculture: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=257 and the article " Award for a fraud " http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72 & page=1 + RUMSFELD MAKES USD5 MILLION KILLING ON BIRD FLU DRUG Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5m (£2.9m) in capital gains from selling shares in the biotech firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6477 Tamiflu linked to deaths of 12 children: http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=14546 & hed=FDA+Probes+Tamiflu+Deaths & sec\ tor=Regions & subsector=Asia + COURT FORCES BRAZIL'S MAIN PORT TO HANDLE GM SOYA A federal court has ruled that Brazil's main grain port of Paranagua must open all of its soya terminals to GM soybeans. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471 --------------------------- ASIA --------------------------- + INDIA NEEDS GM-FREE POLICY, GOVERNMENT TOLD More than 80 farmers' organisations, NGOs, individuals and consumer groups have signed a letter to the Government of India, on its draft rules to implement GM labelling in India. The organisations are seeking a GMO-free policy for India and a labelling regime that ensures such an approach. The letter sets out the reasons: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6490 + LABELLING IN INDIA NOT ENOUGH PV Satheesh of the Deccan Development Society argues that the debate about GMOs in India should not be about whether to label them (especially when the country's illiteracy levels are close to 40%) but whether to allow them into the country in the first place. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6474 http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6476 + INDIA'S DEATH DANCE SHOWS GREEN REVOLUTION FAILURE Devinder Sharma argues in India's largest-selling daily paper that the Green Revolution has for all practical purposes collapsed. With Bt cotton farmers committing suicide in large numbers after their GM crop failed, the last thing the country needs is a second corporate-driven Green Revolution focused around GMOs. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6473 + INDIA: FARMER SUICIDES CONTINUE A story from GG2NetNews focuses on the suicides of farmers who grew Bt cotton, only to have their crop fail. EXCERPT: Despite failed crops and mounting debts, the family of Indian cotton farmer Chandrakant Gurenule never believed his suicide threats until he set himself alight and fled their home in flames. The ambitious 34-year-old bought the latest, expensive, high-yield genetically-modified cotton seeds for his 15-acre (six-hectare) farm in this parched corner of India's vast rural hinterland only for his crops to fail for two successive years. He sold the pair of bullocks he used to plough the fields, and told his wife - whose wedding jewellery had already been given to unofficial moneylenders - there was no hope left. He sat inside his home, doused himself in kerosene and lit a match. His death on April 1 was one of the latest in a crisis that saw more than 4,100 farmers commit suicide in the western state of Maharashtra alone in 2004, according to a state government-backed report based on police figures. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6476 + VIDARBHA FARMERS TO OBSERVE MAY 1 AS " BETRAYAL DAY " The total number of Bt cotton growing farmers in Vidarbha who have committed suicide this growing season since June 2005 has reached 474. Farmers in the region are to observe a mass fast on May 1, naming it " Betrayal Day " . The vast majority of the farmers who killed themselves grew Bt cotton. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6491 + BATTLE OVER BT COTTON HOTS UP IN ANDHRA PRADESH The ongoing battle between the Andhra Pradesh government and seeds company Mahyco-Monsanto over compensation to farmers shows no signs of letting up. While the company says it has expressed its willingness to compensate for crop loss after the widespread failure of GM Bt cotton, the government denies that it has received any such proposal. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6491 + INDIA: MONSANTO MADE US RIP OFF POOR FARMERS, SAYS LICENSEE COMPANY Nuziveedu Seeds says Monsanto forced it to sell Monsanto's GM seeds to poor cotton growers at exorbitant prices, while Monsanto argues the companies were fleecing poor farmers by mutual agreement! http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6488 --------------------------- AUSTRALASIA --------------------------- + MONSANTO APPLIES FOR HUMAN FOOD APPROVAL FOR ANIMAL FEED GMOs Monsanto has applied to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand for two new GM crops used as animal feed to be approved for use in human foods. The company wants approval as a small amount may enter human foods by accident. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471 --------------------------- RESEARCH --------------------------- + SALVAGE PROSPECT FOR " JUNK " DNA A BBC report confirms what intelligent scientists have been saying for decades: that so-called " junk DNA " might not be useless at all. The term junk DNA refers to those portions of the genome which appear to have no specific purpose. But a team from IBM has identified patterns, or " motifs " , that were found both in the junk areas of the genome and those which coded for proteins. The presence of the motifs in junk DNA suggests these portions of the genome may have an important functional role. The findings are reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Dr Andrew McCallion of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who was not an author on the new paper, commented: " Up until not so long ago, we were under the impression that the vast majority of information in the genome, if not all of it, was encoded in those stretches of DNA that encoded proteins. We now understand there is much more complexity involved. " This story yet again illustrates that no form of genetic modification can be an exact science http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6482 --------------------------- BT CROPS AND HEALTH --------------------------- + MORE ILLNESSES LINKED TO BT CROPS Further evidence has emerged on the link between common transgenic proteins and serious allergic reactions - while regulators turn a deaf ear and approve yet more planting, reports Dr Maewan Ho. EXCERPT: Farmers from the Nimad region in Western Madhya Pradesh began complaining of health hazards after Bt cotton was planted. This prompted a three-member team representing a coalition of non-government organisations to carry out a preliminary survey in six villages in Nimad region between October and December 2005 ... The team found allergy symptoms in people in direct contact with Bt cotton on their hands, feet, face, in their eyes and nose, with some becoming " very severely ill. " The skin was the most common site of allergy: itching, redness, eruptions and swelling. Typically, after the first 4-5 hours of exposure, most people complained of itching on the face and the hand. Soon, the itching increased and by the time they finish the day's work, they had redness on the hands and face and swelling of the face. After continued exposure of one to two days, small white eruptions would appear, most often on the face. The symptoms began to subside after varying periods from four to five days up to five to six months, but black discolouration would show on the skin. The people affected did not have previous history of allergies even though they were involved in picking cotton earlier. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6472 --------------------------- COMPANY NEWS --------------------------- + MONSANTO: MONSTER STOCK, OR JUST PLAIN MONSTER? An excellent article for the Motley Fool, which describes itself as " the world's premier multimedia financial education company " , asks if the profits from investing in Monsanto are worth the risks for both investors and consumers. EXCERPT: Monsanto, with its annual revenues approaching $7 billion, is embroiled in quite a few lawsuits - it takes quite some time to read through them all in regulatory filings. Recently, it agreed to pay $100 million in royalties to the University of California, which claimed Monsanto violated its patent on bovine somatotropin, or Posilac, a hormone that increases milk production in cows. Furthermore, 90 Texas farmers recently alleged that Monsanto failed to warn them about a defect in its GM cotton product, resulting in widespread crop loss. Monsanto's most obvious controversy is the GM hot button, though. A group of farmers, consumers, and environmentalists recently sued the US Dept. of Agriculture, alleging that it is improperly allowing Monsanto to sell an herbicide-resistant alfalfa seed without examining the health, environmental, and economic ramifications. Monsanto isn't just the defendant in many lawsuits. Part of its business is being the plaintiff as well. For example, GM alfalfa is expected to easily contaminate old-school alfalfa crops, which could result in Monsanto lawsuits against farmers for royalties if traces of its own patented GM alfalfa get into such farmers' crops by accident. Alfalfa is apparently easily cross-pollinated by bees and wind. That seems not only an ethical issue, but an antitrust issue as well, to my way of thinking. Many farmers and environmentalists contend that Monsanto is gearing up to have an agricultural monopoly, and they've filed suits related to antitrust issues. Furthermore, many people are still unconvinced that GM products like Monsanto's won't end up being harmful to human health or the environment in the long run. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6479 + GMOs A RISKY INVESTMENT A second article from the investment advisor of the Motley Fool warns that while corporations may appear to stand to gain from GM crops and the food they produce, their strategy is actually a lot " riskier than some might want to believe " . The primary problem from an investment perspective may be not whether GM foods turn out to be dangerous to human health and/or the environment: " What may be dangerous to some of the related entities is the seemingly clandestine way that GM foods have been introduced into Americans' pantries - as if the makers of GM foods hope we won't notice. " The article notes, " Some of the best companies - the ones that reward investors the most over the long term - are the ones that invoke trust from their customers. In light of this issue, I'd say that the companies that haven't felt moved to voluntarily label still-controversial GM ingredients in their products aren't doing much to earn that trust. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6478 + " MAJOR STEP FORWARD " SEEN IN DUPONT SHAREHOLDER VOTE Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) said that it has achieved a " major step forward " with the 7.3 percent of DuPont shareholders who voted in favour of a resolution urging the company to disclose any potentially material risk or " off-balance sheet liability " that could be posed by its manufacturing and distribution of food-related GMOs. With more than 480 million shares voting, the 7.3 percent of DuPont shareholders siding with the CBIS resolution represents over $1.5 billion in shareholder equity. John K.S. Wilson of CBIS said: " Today's vote gives CBIS and other concerned groups considerable new leverage to keep up the pressure on DuPont to determine and disclose the potential risks associated with genetically modified agriculture. " http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6485 + BIOGEMMA CLOSES CAMBRIDGE AND PARIS LABS Citing an " unfavourable European environment " regarding GMOs, biotech firm Biogemma is to close its labs in Cambridge, UK and Paris, France. The company is cutting its permanent staff by about a third. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471 + BASF ANNOUNCES " NEXT GENERATION " GM CROPS BASF has announced plans to invest $320 million over the next three years in the development of what it calls " next generation " GM crops. http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6471 --------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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