WEEKLY_WATCH_number_88_-_and_monthly_review

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> WEEKLY_WATCH_number_88_-_and_monthly_review

> " GM_WATCH " <info

> Fri, 3 Sep 2004 23:11:42 +0100

>

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> WEEKLY WATCH number 88 - and monthly review

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> from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

>

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>

> Last week the news that Thailand's Prime Minister

> was giving the green light to GMOs was said to be

> sending out signals right across Asia. By the end of

> this week it all looked very different thanks to

> Thailand's brilliant campaigners and to all those

> who lobbied the Thai PM and his ministerial

> colleagues.

>

> Spurred by the powerful campaign of opposition,

> ministers failed to endorse the Prime Minister's

> proposal to take his country down the GM route.

> Following a Cabinet meeting, it was announced that

> the Government is now convening a group to report on

> the issue. The battle is far from over, however, as

> Thailand's campaign groups now have to focus on

> ensuring that the proposed committee of " academics "

> isn't stacked with the usual pro-GM lobbyists (See

> THAILAND LATEST).

>

> There's also more work for us all to do in stopping

> the unelected outgoing EU Commission forcing through

> GM contamination tolerances for seeds (EUROPE).

> Please send a letter, fax or email to the

> Commissioners listed to let them know that this is

> completely unacceptable.

>

> Claire claire

> www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

>

>

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> CONTENTS

>

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> LOBBYWATCH

> THAILAND LATEST

> OTHER NEWS FROM ASIA

> FOCUS ON AFRICA

> EUROPE

> THE AMERICAS

> FOOD SECURITY

> CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE

> DONATIONS

>

>

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> LOBBYWATCH

> http://www.lobbywatch.org

>

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>

> + MONSANTO'S ATTACK DOG LECTURES NATIONAL CATTLEMEN

> America's National Cattlemen's Beef Association has

> been warned by " advocacy group watchdog " Jay Byrne

> that, " The number of advocacy groups targeting beef,

> animal agriculture and agriculture in general are

> growing daily. Many of these groups are portrayed as

> having grassroots agendas, when in fact they are

> fronts for a much larger hidden agenda " .

>

> The attack on " fronts " by the President of v-Fluence

> Interactive Public Relations is interesting as GM

> WATCH's research pinpoints Byrne as the chief

> architect of a covert Monsanto PR campaign involving

> poison-pen attacks on the company's critics via

> front e-mails, such as those of fake " citizens " such

> as Andura Smetacek and Mary Murphy, and via a fake

> agricultural institute, the Center For Food and

> Agricultural Research (CFFAR). The Berkeley

> scientist Dr Ignacio Chapela was among the principal

> targets of this malicious campaign.

>

> In fact, Smetacek, Murphy and CFFAR targeted many of

> the same individuals and organisations criticised by

> Byrne in his talk to the cattlemen, and in very

> similar terms. For instance, Michael Hansen of the

> Consumer Policy Institute, who is one of two people

> Byrne singles out in his beef industry presentation,

> was one of two people who had a poison-pen

> 'biography' faxed to the press from the non-existent

> agricultural institute, CFFAR, ahead of a press

> conference they were giving on GM.

>

> Similarly, a number of the claims posted via the

> Monsanto PR fronts recurr in Byrne's advice to the

> cattlemen to beware of front groups. Byrne attacks

> environmental, organic and consumer groups who

> criticize aspects of the beef industry, accusing

> them of scaremongering and " black " marketing in the

> service of a hidden agenda. He claims these groups

> are not grassroots but are massively funded by

> philanthropic foundations and corporate and

> individual donors who should know better.

>

> Byrne also directs the cattlemen to the website

> ActivistCash. Both ActivistCash and the group behind

> it - Consumer Freedom - are fronts of the PR firm,

> Berman & Co. Consumer Freedom is also known to have

> received a $200,000 " donation " from Monsanto. Byrne

> is Monsanto's former Director of Public Affairs and

> the company's former Internet Outreach Programs

> Director.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4273

> For links to profiles of all the individuals and

> organisations involved in the Monsanto dirty tricks

> campaign here:

> http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=28 & page=1

> For articles from the press on the campaign:

> http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=25 & page=1

>

> + SPIN AND CORPORATE POWER

> A two day research seminar at Strathclyde University

> in Scotland on November 18th & 19th, 2004, will

> discuss how spin works and how it might be

> countered. Among the speakers is the investigative

> journalist Andy Rowell, author of " Don't worry, it's

> safe to eat " and " The green backlash " . Further

> details from

>

http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/Geography/html/news%20items/Nov_confefence.h\

tm

> Or email davidmiller

>

>

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> THAILAND LATEST

>

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>

> + THAI CABINET OVERTURNS GM APPROVAL

> Thailand's cabinet decided on 31 August to keep a

> three-year ban on planting GM crops, overturning a

> decision by a panel chaired by Prime Minister

> Thaksin Shinawatra. Instead, it decided to set up a

> panel to hear the arguments for and against GMO

> crops from state agencies and biotech lecturers at

> all Thai universities, Science Minister Korn

> Dabbaransi told reporters.

>

> " We will have academics from all universities to

> hear their view on three options - 1) to promote

> GMOs freely in Thailand, 2) to allow the

> co-existence of GM and non-GM crops, or 3) to ban

> GMOs completely, " Korn said after the weekly cabinet

> meeting.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4268

>

> + DECISION DUE TO STRONG OPPOSITION

> While the Cabinet met representatives from consumer

> groups, organic farmers, organic farm-product

> exporters and environmental groups, demonstrated

> outside Government House in a show of force against

> the policy.

>

> Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair admitted the

> decision was partly due to strong opposition from

> various Thai groups. " Prime Minister Thaksin

> Shinawatra decided not to consider putting the

> resolution on the Cabinet's agenda due to it being a

> debatable issue academically, with controversy among

> various groups, " he said. " More information needs to

> be gathered before a decision can be made. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4278

>

> + GM WATCH " WADES INTO GM ROW "

> At the suggestion of the Thai environmental group

> BioThai, the campaign to get the Thai government to

> change course included an open letter of concern to

> the Thai Prime Minister from GM WATCH. Over four

> hundred people also sent their own letters of

> concern to the Prime Minister via our website.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/proemail1.asp?id=4

>

> Biothai translated the GM WATCH letter into Thai and

> it made the front page of 4 Thai newspapers. The

> English language Bangkok Post also carried the

> letter in full while another leading English

> language paper The Nation ran an article around GM

> Watch's concerns - " Watchdog wades into GMO row " .

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4265

>

> GM WATCH editor Jonathan Matthews also did an

> intervew with the BBC's Thai service on how the

> biotech industry with unprecedented backing from the

> US were targeting Asian countries like Thailand.

>

> + THE BATTLE GOES ON

> While activists welcomed the Thai prime minister's

> reversal of a recent decision to allow the

> commercial growing of GM crops, and hailed it as a

> people's victory, they warned that a national

> committee set up by the government to study the

> issue could run the risk of being hijacked by

> scientists having links to biotechnology companies.

>

> Activists said they would only accept the committee

> if members of civil society and environmentalists

> were on it. " We will push the government to accept

> independent members, " said Witoon Lianchamroon, the

> director of BioThai.

>

> Withoon wants the government committee to include

> organic agriculturalists and independent researchers

> and says the government-appointed academics have an

> agenda to promote GM crops.

>

> " These scientists and academics have links with

> multinational companies that supply GM seeds. They

> are in it for the money, " says withoon. " BioThai

> will not agree to the public shut out from such an

> important decision. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4282

>

> + GERMAN FOOD DISTRIBUTOR CANCELS ORDER

> A well-known German food distributor has banned

> fruit cocktail products from a Thai exporter for

> fear the products contain GM papaya. The German

> importer has stopped ordering canned fruit cocktail

> from a Chiang Mai-based processed fruits exporter

> following a report of the illegal spread of GM

> papaya from the Agriculture Department's Khon Kaen

> research station to local farms. The German company

> said exports of the fruit cocktail, which contains

> papaya, pineapple and guava, would be banned

> indefinitely until there was proof the papayas were

> grown from GM-free seeds. The company has apparently

> switched to buying papayas from the southern

> provinces pending an investigation of the GM papaya

> scandal in Khon Kaen. Food exporters have confronted

> a series of trade obstacles since GMO contamination

> in local farms was publicised, including a GM-free

> labelling requirement in South Africa on Thai rice

> and an order to delay shipments of Thai papaya

> products by Carrefour superstore in France.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4291

>

>

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> OTHER NEWS FROM ASIA

> http://www.gmwatch.org/asia.asp

>

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>

> + ASIAN FARMERS SUCKING THE CONTINENT DRY

> An article in New Scientist reports how Asia is on

> the brink of a water crisis as, depleted by farm

> irrigation, water supplies dwindle.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4267

>

> What the article fails to mention is the role of the

> Green Revolution in this crisis. The Green

> Revolution brought seeds that need intensive

> irrigation to thrive. Those who brought this first

> green revolution are those who are leading the

> charge on the second " gene revolution " . Their

> strategies of intensification remain the same.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=291 & page=S

>

> + GM WILL " MAKE POOREST OF POOR MILLIONAIRES "

> Two articles, one from Malaysia and the other from

> Nigeria, provide extraordinary examples of what the

> economist Joseph Cortright has termed the " bad-idea

> virus " - the fever that sweeps through political

> leaders leaving them believing the money-losing

> biotech industry is about to generate a

> wealth-creating bonanza in their locality.

> Cortright's research on the biotech industry has led

> him to conclude: " This notion that you lure biotech

> to your community to save its economy is laughable. "

>

> It's hard to laugh, though, when that idea is being

> fed to the leaders of countries facing problems that

> include desperate poverty, hunger and disease. It's

> even harder to laugh when one hears these leaders

> talking about impoverished farmers being turned into

> millionaires by GMOs, or blithely claiming biotech

> as the answer to almost every ill known to man.

>

> Note that all the examples of the brilliance of

> biotech in the second article are not only years old

> but discredited. The storage-friendly GM tomato

> sounds suspiciously like the Flavr Savr, which was

> withdrawn from the market after it failed to live up

> to any of its promises. Dolly the cloned sheep, far

> from showing " better animal performance " , contracted

> arthritis and died prematurely, followed by the

> company that financed her creation. The Third World

> is being sold down the river on a decidedly leaky

> raft.

>

> And is it just coicidence that Malaysia like

> Thailand is trying to win a bilateral Free Trade

> Agreement from the US?

>

> 1) Excerpt from Malaysian article:

>

> Since taking over from Mahathir last October,

> Abdullah [newly elected Malaysian Prime Minister

> Abdullah Ahmad Badawi] has relentlessly pushed to

> regenerate and modernise the agriculture sector with

> an infusion of capital, bio-technology and the

> introduction of new, genetically modified (GM) seeds

> that proponents claim would turn poverty stricken

> farmers into millionaires.

> - Baradan Kuppusamy, Abdullah Plans to Make Poorest

> of Poor " Millionaires " , Inter Press Service News

> Agency, 24 August 2004

>

> 2) Excerpt from Nigerian article, an interview with

> the Director General of the National Biotechnology

> Agency, Prof Chukwuemeka Omaliko:

>

> To a weak economy like Nigeria's, of what effect

> would biotechnology be?

>

> [Omaliko:] Quite tremendous! We have quite a lot of

> things we can gain... Let's start with our stomach:

> food and agriculture, you find that definitely it is

> going to help us a lot, first in having the inputs

> more available, much more empowered. They are going

> to be modified in a way that they can on their own

> do better than their parents were doing. It will

> come to the point of production itself, because the

> production inputs are improved upon, then you have

> something that will have a higher productivity, you

> come to the post-harvest processing, you also have a

> better storage in some of the instances like in

> tomato, where we can now have tomatoes that can stay

> on the table for two or three weeks without spoiling

> against the three or four days of the normal

> tomatoes. .. You go to the animals, you also find

> genetic improvement. I think globally we know Dolly,

> where we now clone the sheep so as to have a better

> animal performance. You find it in fish and we have

> it with catfish, which is a popular fish in Nigeria.

> And you go to health - biotech helps us to have a

> cheaper, more efficient healthcare delivery system.

> - Chuks Okocha, " How Bio-Tech Can Drive National

> Economy " , This Day (Lagos), 25 August 2004

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4277

>

>

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> FOCUS ON AFRICA

> http://www.gmwatch.org/africa.asp

>

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>

> + AFRICABIO TRAINS SOUTHERN AFRICA IN TALKING UP

> BIOTECH

> A Southern Africa Biotechnology Communications

> Training Workshop organized by AfricaBio in

> Pretoria, South Africa attracted more than 70

> delegates from 10 of the 14 Southern African

> Development Community countries for training on

> " communicating biotechnology to the public of

> Southern African countries " . AfricaBio is an

> industry front group which refuses to disclose its

> level of industry control and backing.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=41 & page=1

>

> An article in the science journal Nature described

> AfricaBio as, " along with agribiotech companies and

> other pro-biotech campaigners... fighting tooth and

> nail, often by somewhat controversial methods, to

> spread the word about GM crops... the idea is to

> improve GM's image. "

>

> The article also says of AfricaBio, " the group's

> methods would be considered in some countries to be

> blatant media manipulation. [Prof Jocelyn] Webster

> [AfricaBio's Executive Director] talks about

> training journalists how to report GM stories,

> telling them that the term 'genetically improved' is

> more accurate than 'genetically modified'. "

>

> Now we find Webster training representatives of a

> whole array of Southern African countries in

> " communicating biotechnology " . No wonder a spokesman

> for Monsanto recently described South Africa as its

> gateway to the continent.

>

> For profiles of all GM promoters in Africa (Webster,

> AfricaBio, ISAAA, USAID etc.), see

> http://www.gmwatch.org/africa.asp

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4276

>

> + SOUTH AFRICA A HANDY LABORATORY

> An article from Florence Wambugu's PR outfit -

> Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International -

> claims to explain why " anti-GM activists " regard

> South Africa as such an important front in the GM

> war. In fact, it precisely delineates the industry's

> reasons for targeting SA - " our continent's food

> chains are dominated by South Africa " , says the

> article.

>

> And when Rosa Seleke of A Harvet claims SA is " the

> main focus for anti-GM activity " , just substitute

> the word " pro " for " anti " and you get a real insight

> into the industry's agenda - something confirmed by

> Monsanto's MD for Southern Africa in an article in

> the South african press headlined: MONSANTO FINDS SA

> A HANDY LABORATORY AND THE GATEWAY TO AFRICA.

>

> Just what kind of laboratory we're talking about is

> highlighted in a quote from Peter Lowins, a South

> African farmer who represents the local grain

> growers committee. Lowins and his fellow grain

> growers are worried that the GM pharma crops planned

> for testing in SA will have unintended consequences:

> " And that's why they try using Third World countries

> to do these experiments. If it's wrong or if it's a

> failure in the future, it doesn't affect them. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4285

>

> + BIOSAFETY BILL ENDANGERS KENYA

> Kenya's new draft Biosafety Bill is weak, and does

> more to allow approvals of GMOs than to regulate

> them, according to a coalition of Kenyan NGOs. After

> South Africa, Kenya is the industry's prime target

> in Africa and Kenya's pro-GM industry front groups

> appear to have been closely involved in the

> development process for this Bill. According to Eric

> Kisiangani of the Intermediate Technology

> Development Group - East Africa (ITDG-EA), " this

> draft Bill seems to be more of a mechanism to

> facilitate and approve GMOs, rather than to regulate

> them. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4287

>

>

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> EUROPE

>

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>

> + EU COMMISSION VOTE ON GM CONTAMINATION IN SEEDS -

> ACT NOW - BEFORE 8 SEPT!!!

> 'Save Our Seeds' warns that the European Commission

> plans to allow for unlabelled contamination of

> conventional and organic seeds with GM varieties.

> SOS asks for your swift and active support as there

> is an immediate threat that a high seed

> contamination threshold will be established by the

> Commission on 8 September.

>

> The EU Commission is in transition. A new president

> will take over 1 November and some Commissioners

> will leave. Until then the old Commission under

> President Romano Prodi is still in power. Margot

> Wallstršm, the outgoing Commissioner for Environment

> on 8 September will propose to the old Commission a

> draft " Commission decision establishing minimum

> thresholds for adventitious or technically

> unavoidable traces of genetically modified seeds in

> other products " , which sets thresholds for

> unlabelled GM contamination of seeds at 0.3% for

> maize and oilseed rape. If adopted, only a 2/3

> majority of the Council of Ministers could stop this

> proposal from entering into force under the legal

> 'comitology' procedure chosen by the Commission.

>

> SOS points out that the old EU Commission hasn't

> dared to put this highly unpopular measure through

> for the past three years they have been in power.

> Now, in their last days, making use of the current

> vacuum of political power (and at the end of the

> summer holidays, when most of us have other things

> on our minds), they hope they can sneak it through.

>

> Please send faxes and letters to the Commissioners

> responsible, and especially to their President,

> Romano Prodi to let the Commissioners know that

> society is following their plans and does not

> approve this attempt to introduce fundamental and

> highly contentious legislation in their last days.

> Ask them to raise their voices and vote in the

> College of Commissioners against the adoption of the

> GM seed proposal. Please also say that it should be

> left to the new Commissioners in charge to find an

> integrated solution in co-operation with the EU

> Parliament. Please maintain a polite tone.

>

> Sample letter at

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4283

>

> Send your letters/emails/faxes to:

> 1) Romano Prodi, present President of the

> Commission, Rue de la Loi 200, 1049 Brussels,

> Belgium. Tel: +32.2.2967246; +32.2.2991563. Fax:

> +32-2 295 0138/39/40; +32.2.2956336. Email:

> romano.prodi

> 2) Margot Wallstršm, present Commissioner for

> Environment and future Vice President of the

> Commission. Address same as Prodi's, above. E-mail:

> Margot.Wallstrom. Phone: + 322 2981800.

> Fax: + 322 2981899

> 3) Stavros Dimas, future Commissioner for

> Environment, present Commissioner for Social

> Affairs. Address same as Prodi's, above. E-mail:

> empl-info. Fax: +32 2 2982 099

> 4) Markos Kyprianou, future Commissioner for Cosumer

> protection and present Commissioner without

> portfolio. Address same as Prodi's, above. E-mail:

> cab-kyprianou

> 5) Else Mariann Fischer Boel, future Commissioner

> for Agriculture and presently Danish Minister for

> Agriculture. Address same as Prodi's, above. Fax:

> +32/2/29-59 225

> [no individual contact details available yet]

> To look up your Members of the European Parliament

> go to

>

http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/ep6/owa/p_meps2.repartition?ilg=EN

>

> + UK: CONSUMERS SHUN GM FOODS

> Britons are increasingly concerned about GM foods, a

> survey by consumer magazine Which? suggests. Of the

> 1,000 people polled, 61% said they were concerned

> about the use of GM material in food production. The

> poll also suggested more consumers are trying not to

> buy GM food, while fewer back GM crops in the UK.

> According to the poll, the number of people who are

> wary of GM foods and try to avoid them has gone up

> from 45% in 2002 to 58%.

>

> " Consumers clearly don't want GM food and are

> hardening their stance against it, " said the editor

> of Which?, Malcolm Coles.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4286

>

> + CZECH GOVT WANTS PUBLIC CHANCE TO DECIDE ON GMOS

> The cabinet of Stanislav Gross (Social Democrat-

> CSSD) would like Parliament to return the chance to

> decide on GMOs to the public, and has submitted a

> bill to the Chamber of Deputies that would allow for

> this.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4272

>

> + GM PROTEST IN SLOVAKIA

> Activists staged protests at a Tesco store in

> Bratislava, Slovakia. While Tesco was moving to

> ensure own label products in the UK and Hungary were

> non-GM, it had not offered such reassurances to

> Slovakian customers, claimed the pressure group.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4272

>

>

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> THE AMERICAS

>

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>

> + GUYANA: THE ONLY GM COFFEE CROP IS DESTROYED

> The only experimental crop of GM coffee, planted in

> Sinnamary (Guyana), was destroyed by unknown

> individuals, reported the CIRAD (Center for

> international co-operation in agronomic research for

> development).

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4292

>

> + ARGENTINA: GREENPEACE JAGUARS CAGED

> The team of Greenpeace Jaguars who have been

> protecting the ancient forests of Argentina from the

> expansion of GM soya has been arrested while

> documenting the deforestation in northern Argentina

> some 1800 km north of Buenos Aires in the city of

> Tartagal, north of Salta province.

>

> Among the nine is Martin Prieto, Executive Director

> of Greenpeace Argentina. The Jaguars' lawyer was

> also thrown into jail, thus depriving them of legal

> representation.

>

> TAKE ACTION: Write to the President of Argentina

> asking him to ensure the activists are promptly

> released from jail and the problem of GE soya

> expansion is tackled instead.

> http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=1499 & s=gen

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4280

>

> + COLOMBIA: NEW SUPER COCA STUNS ANTI-DRUG OFFICIALS

> Drug traffickers have created a new strain of coca

> plant that yields up to four times more cocaine than

> existing plants and promises to revolutionise

> Colombia's drugs industry. The new variety of coca,

> the raw material for cocaine, was found in an

> anti-drug operation on the Caribbean coast, on the

> mountainsides of the Sierra Nevada, long known as a

> drug-growing region.

>

> A toxicologist, Camilo Uribe, who studied the coca,

> said: " The quality and percentage of hydrochloride

> from each leaf is much better, between 97 and 98 per

> cent. A normal plant does not get more than 25 per

> cent, meaning that more drugs and of a higher purity

> can be extracted. "

>

> Experts estimate that the drugs traffickers spent

> GBP60 million to develop the new plant, using

> strains from Peru and crossbreeding them with potent

> Colombian varieties, as well as, it is said,

> engaging in genetic engineering.

>

> GM WATCH comment: This plant sounds far too good to

> be GM! If it were GM and was higher yielding, it

> would represent a massive breakthrough - the GM

> industry has never successfully increased yield

> before despite countless claims to the contrary -

> and Monsanto scientists would doubtless be

> scrambling to get to Colombia to sit at the feet of

> the drug barrons!

>

> However it is possible that this plant has been

> bred, one way or another, to resist the glyphosate

> chemicals developed in the US that are sprayed on

> drugs crops across Colombia.

>

> In the southern province of Putumayo, once the coca

> capital of Colombia, drug farmers have changed the

> way they sow crops in the face of repeated aerial

> fumigations. " We know the spray planes need a target

> area of three hectares, " said Sebastian Umaya. " Now

> we just have smaller fields, but with more intensive

> farming of the coca bushes. "

>

> Should the new strain be introduced, these smaller

> fields could yield up to four times more drugs and

> be immune to aerial eradication, meaning

> anti-narcotic police would have to eradicate them

> manually, an impossible task in the southern jungle

> provinces controlled by Marxist rebels.

>

> GM WATCH comment: hand weeding has also been

> resorted to by Monsanto in the US where

> glyphosate-resistant (Roundup Ready) plants have

> been springing up unwanted on farms. The political

> climate in the US is, of course, somewhat more

> accommodating.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4274

>

> See also below ROUNDUP RESISTANT WEEDS CAUSE BIG

> TROUBLE IN US

>

>

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> FOOD SECURITY

>

-------

>

> + BIO-IMPERIALISM: GM AND LOSS OF FOOD SECURITY

> An excellent, if rather depressing, article on this

> topic is at

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4284

>

> Note especially the section called " A

> bio-imperialism " , on USAID. Excerpt:

>

> USAID finances US corporations such as Monsanto to

> run GM research programs in Africa. A former

> Monsanto official is USAID consultant on use of GM

> in food aid. Recently USAID granted $100 million for

> a 10-year program, " Collaborative Agriculture

> Biotechnology Initiative or CABIO, to 'help

> developing countries access and manage the tools of

> modern biotechnology.' "

>

> To help this along, USAID has pressured numerous

> developing governments in Africa and elsewhere to

> pass national laws on " intellectual property rights

> (IPR's). " Given the fact that GM companies like

> Monsanto and Syngenta are filing patents on GM

> maize, rice, soya and other natural crops, the day

> is approaching where a Kenyan traditional farmer or

> Indian peasant must pay a " technology fee " to plant

> rice or corn grown by their ancestors for thousands

> of years simply because a DNA gene has been altered.

> The WTO is in charge of enforcing these IPR's.

> Washington has the largest weight in WTO.

>

> USAID also funds the International Service for the

> Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA).

> The ISAAA promotes GM crops for the developing

> world, from Africa to Asia and Latin America,

> including GM bananas, sweet potatoes, maize and

> papaya. ISAAA is funded by USAID together with

> Monsanto, Bayer AG, Syngenta, Cargill, Dow

> AgroSciences, and the US Department of Agriculture.

>

>

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> CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE

>

---------------------------

>

> + TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS: CGIAR AND GM

> CONTAMINATION

> In a remarkable departure from its role as a public

> science network, the Consultative Group on

> International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) is

> huddling with the biotech industry (including

> Monsanto and DuPont) to craft a policy response to

> the unwelcome and ongoing spread of DNA from GM

> plants to farmers' varieties.

>

> The meeting began in Rome on 30 August and came

> three years after scientists first confirmed GM

> contamination in Mexico's maize crop - and two and a

> half years after farmers' organizations and their

> civil society allies called upon CGIAR and the UN

> Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to take

> action.

>

> [Note: The world's most important collections of

> seeds, the vast majority of which were collected

> from farming communities in the South, are

> maintained in a network of 16 gene banks overseen by

> the CGIAR. In 1994, the FAO and CGIAR signed

> agreements placing most of the seed collections

> under the auspices of the United Nations.]

>

> At the meeting, CGIAR examined the implications of

> GM contamination for gene bank collections it holds

> in trust for the international community. The

> meeting heard from government institutes such as

> EMBRAPA in Brazil, CGEN in Netherlands and the USDA.

> The agenda also called for presentations from three

> industry representatives including Monsanto and

> DuPont - the world's two largest seed corporations.

>

> Missing from the speakers list are the

> representatives of farmers' organizations, South

> government policymakers, development agencies, and

> civil society organizations familiar with the

> issues. FAO was invited but not offered a place on

> the agenda.

>

> " The CGIAR has mandated itself to use science for

> 'poverty alleviation' but now seems to be more

> concerned with helping the agbiotech industry get

> through the crisis created by their own sloppy

> science, " says Pat Mooney of the Canadian-based ETC

> Group.

>

> " The CGIAR network has always had a paternalistic

> approach to farmers and their organizations, " Mooney

> adds, " but this is the first time we have known them

> - as an international consortium of public sector

> scientists - to side so thoroughly with industry. It

> is farmers' seeds that are being contaminated.

> Industry's GM crops are causing the contamination.

> Whose business is the CGIAR taking care of? "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4269

>

>

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> MEDICAL GM

>

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>

> + GM INSULIN PROBLEMS CONTINUE

> The latest article on the sometimes horrific effects

> of GM 'human' insulin prescribed to diabetics, and

> controversial withdrawal by drug companies of the

> old animal insulin, is at

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4281

>

> Telling quote from a diabetic after being put on the

> GM insulin (which she wasn't told was different from

> her old animal insulin): " I just fell so ill all the

> time. I had never felt so ill. I couldn't think,

> everything was cloudy. I genuinely thought I had

> cancer or a tumour. It was the worst nightmare I

> have ever been through.... Even if going back on

> human insulin keeps me alive, given the quality of

> life for me, I would rather not be alive. "

>

>

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> REST OF THE MONTH'S TOP STORIES

>

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>

> + GM CROPS HURTING MONARCH LARVAE

> The number of milkweed plants in the Upper Midwest

> carrying the monarch butterfly's larvae is in its

> third consecutive slump. Research by the Monarch

> Larva Monitoring Project at the University of

> Minnesota shows that the numbers are below average

> and at their lowest level since 1998. Milkweed is

> the only plant on which monarchs will lay their

> eggs, and also serves as the sole food source for

> larvae.

>

> In 2002, the project found that about 7 percent of

> milkweed plants examined in the Upper Midwest

> carried larvae. In 2003, that number was about 8

> percent. This year, volunteers are finding that

> slightly fewer than 5 percent of milkweed plants

> carry larvae. That's extremely low, said Karen

> Oberhauser, the project's founder and an assistant

> professor in the university's Department of

> Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology.

>

> In 2001, nearly 25 percent of all milkweed plants

> carried larvae. Since the project began keeping tabs

> in 1996, the average has been 13 percent.

>

> Although a link has not been proved, Oberhauser

> said, one factor in the decline in the number of

> egg-carrying plants could be the growing use of

> herbicide-tolerant soybeans, which are genetically

> engineered to permit larger amounts of weed-killing

> chemicals to be applied without hurting the crop.

> This may have increased the spraying of herbicides

> and thereby the destruction of milkweed. The

> project's findings show that the use of

> herbicide-tolerant soybeans grew from 50 percent in

> 2000 to 85 percent in 2003.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4241

>

> + ROUNDUP RESISTANT WEEDS CAUSE BIG TROUBLE IN US

> Just a few years after its adoption of GM crops,

> North America has a serious problem with herbicide

> resistant weeds. A debate has sprung up about how to

> deal with them. Experts variously recommend mixtures

> of chemicals, or older, more toxic chemicals, or as

> yet undiscovered new chemicals. Some believe the

> weed plague may spell the end of so-called

> 'conservation tillage' or 'no-till'. This is a

> no-plough method which relies on burning off weeds

> with liberal amounts of herbicide, pushed by

> chemical/GM companies as a way of preventing soil

> erosion and, of course, selling more chemicals.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4223

>

> For more on this and 2 serious outbreaks of

> glyphosate resistant weeds see:

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4263

>

> + EU MORATORIUM STILL APPLIES

> According to an article on AgBioView, what was

> heralded as a turning point for accepting GM crops

> in the EU now appears to be " a farce " . When the EU

> decided to allow imports of Syngenta's biotech Bt-11

> sweet corn last spring, the industry breathed a sigh

> of relief. It was the first biotech approval in six

> years. Was the EU finally making strides to end its

> five-year moratorium on approval of new biotech

> crops? It seems not.

>

> According to WTO rules, says Kim Nill, technical

> issues director for the American Soybean

> Association, " If the EU approves one new biotech

> product, they're no longer considered to be blocking

> biotech's progress. In this case, they (EU) knew

> Syngenta wasn't going to actively market sweet corn

> there. "

>

> The fallout is that the EU has as much as two to

> three more years before they'll have to approve

> another biotech product to remain in compliance with

> WTO rules. " The farce of Bt-11 approval has given

> them (EU) breathing space, " says Nill. " This whole

> approval issue has taken a step backward. It's a

> joke. "

>

> Currently, there are about 30 GM products and foods

> awaiting approval for import into the EU. " Even if

> they march forward at one every six months, it's

> just too slow, " says Nill. " The products are already

> outdated in the US by the time they get through the

> approvals. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4260

>

> + GM TRADE WAR DELAYED: US FIGHTS TO PREVENT

> SCIENTISTS BEING CALLED IN

> The outcome of the transatlantic trade dispute on GM

> foods has been substantially delayed as scientists

> are called in to debate the safety of GM foods and

> crops. The move is a blow to the Bush Administration

> who fought to stop any debate over scientific

> safety.

> The US had argued in its WTO submission 'Comments on

> the EC's final position whether to seek scientific

> advice', that there is " no need or value in

> consulting experts " . See

>

http://www.foeeurope.org/biteback/US_comments_whether_seek_expert_advice.pdf

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4264

>

> TELLING QUOTE: " GM lobbyists accuse us [anti-GM

> campaigners] of being anti-science Luddites. But we

> are the ones who are asking for more science. " -

> Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, on a

> 2004 UK lecture tour

>

> + FOOD COMPANIES FAIL TO DISCLOSE SHAREHOLDER RISK

> OF GM CROPS

> Ninety-five percent of the top food companies in the

> US fail to properly inform shareholders about the

> risks posed by GE ingredients, according to Duty to

> Disclose: The Failure of Food Companies to Disclose

> Risks of Genetically Engineered Crops to

> Shareholders, a new report released 19 August by the

> US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG).

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4243

>

> + ISAAA CHIEF BACKS TERMINATOR IN INDIA!

> When confronted with the problem of

> cross-pollination of non-GM plants, the only

> solution Clive James, chairman of the

> industry-backed GM crop promotion body ISAAA, can

> offer is the Terminator! This, he complains, had had

> to be shelved at the behest of " the Greens " . James

> was speaking at the recent big pro-GM " International

> Conference on Agricultural Biotechnology: Ushering

> in the Second Green Revolution " conference in New

> Delhi.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4237

>

> + GM CORN PLANTING PLATEAUS

> In March a much-hyped USDA survey of corn farmers,

> done before corn planting was underway, projected

> that 46 percent of corn acres would be planted to

> GMO varieties in 2004. After planting was completed

> and the seed was in the ground an American Corn

> Growers Foundation (ACGF) survey found only 34.4

> percent - almost the same as last year.

>

> According to Dan McGuire, CEO of the ACGF, " This

> survey suggests that US corn farmers may well be

> taking the concerns and demands of foreign consumers

> and importers into account in their planting

> decisions by holding their GMO corn acres to only

> about a third of the total acres they planted to

> corn this year. "

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4232

>

> + FOOD INDUSTRY ALARMED ABOUT PHARMA CROPS

> The Grocery Manufacturers of America, one of the

> biggest food industry trade groups, is speaking out

> against a plan by ProdiGene to cultivate GM

> pharmaceutical corn in Frio County, Texas.

> Texas-based ProdiGene gave the biotech industry a

> black eye two years ago when the company's

> pharmaceutical corn crops were mismanaged in Iowa

> and Nebraska. In a letter to the US Dept. of

> Agriculture, GMA said the government is not doing

> enough to regulate crops engineered for

> pharmaceutical and industrial purposes.

>

> Spokeswoman Stephanie Childs said that if any of the

> plant-made pharmaceuticals made it into the food

> supply, " It's our brands that get damaged. "

> For more info visit: www.pharmcrops.com

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4240

>

> + MONSANTO STILL CONDUCTING SECRET GM WHEAT TRIALS

> IN CANADA

> Monsanto is breaking a pledge made earlier this year

> that GM wheat testing would be abandoned.

>

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/08/17/587920-cp.html

>

> + FOCUS ON ASIA - NEW GM WATCH RESOURCE

> We've launched a special section on our website -

> *FOCUS ON ASIA* - dedicated to keeping you up to

> date with GM news, research and resistance on that

> continent.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/asia.asp

>

> You'll also find a useful directory of GM pushers

> and shovers active in Asia, as well as links to the

> organisations leading the resistance. Please tell

> all your friends and contacts.

>

> + FAST-TRACK GM APPROVAL ARRIVES IN INDIA

> India will put in place a single window regulatory

> body by January to consider permission for

> cultivation of GM crops in the country, according to

> the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr

> Kapil Sibal. He even suggested India might simply

> follow other countries' assessments of GM crops

> where they had already granted approvals.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4217

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4215

>

> + SURVEY REVEALS GM CONTAMINATION IN BRAZIL

> Weaknesses in Brazilian soybean segregation were

> recently brought to light when the agriculture

> ministry released a report revealing that a high

> number of samples testing positive as biotech

> varieties came from farmers who were not supposed to

> be growing them.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4223

>

> + WESTERN AUSTRALIAN GOVT BLOCKS GM COTTON

> The Western Australian Government has blocked plans

> for a GM cotton industry in west Kimberley. New

> South Wales company Western Agricultural Industries

> has spent $7 million over the past six years

> developing plans to grow up to 200,000 hectares of

> commercial crops, using GM cotton as a base. But

> following intense lobbying from Aboriginal and

> environmental groups, the State Government has

> decided not to extend its memorandum of

> understanding with the company.

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4225

>

>

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