============================================================
THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 12
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from Andy
Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all
Welcome to the first WEEKLY WATCH of 2003 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.
Look out for some great QUOTES OF THE WEEK, especially from an article published in the "U.S. Catholic".
Andy <andy@gmwatch.org>
www.ngin.org.uk
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WEEKLY
WATCH number 12 - CONTENTS
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HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE WEEK - India rejects GM food aid/FDA GM safety a farce/U.S. corn trade
with Japan paralysed/Rejected GM corn dumped on Oz/Roundup Resistance in corn
belt/Monsanto moves on GM wheat
TOPIC OF THE WEEK - The great GM report
coverup continues in the UK
REPORT OF THE WEEK - WHO/FAO infiltrated by food
industry
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK - Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
QUOTES OF THE
WEEK
FACTS OF THE WEEK
SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
LIES FROM THE GM
LOBBY
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
Correction: DOW PRESS RELEASE ON BHOPAL WAS
A SPOOF
PANTS ON FIRE!
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE WEEK
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U.S. GM
regulation "full of holes"
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Excessive
levels of harmful compounds could show up in GM foods because the government has
failed to put sufficient safeguards in place to catch them, according to a
report from The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI - previously
cautiously pro-GM), which contends that the American Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) missed "obvious errors" in reviewing some GM crops. The
group said the FDA's procedures are so full of holes that safety cannot be
ensured. CSPI argues that the voluntary system of regulation must be scrapped.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
CSPI also said the FDA cannot
guarantee the safety of GM foods because it is unable to obtain all the
scientific data it needs from companies like Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow which
have all declined to provide requested scientific data to the FDA
http://www.abc.net.au/news/scitech/2003/01/item20030108090120_1.htm
NO
SAFETY TESTING BY FDA - COMPANIES POLICE THEMSELVES!
CSPI's findings were
more than confirmed Friday by Consumers International when Dr Michael Hansen
revealed in Brussels on Friday that the FDA has never actually safety tested GM
food for human consumption but has simply accepted whatever it is told by the
companies. Dr Hansen says the FDA does not even do a thorough review of the data
that is provided. This is despite the FDA having admitted that there is a
fundamental difference between conventional breeding and the genetic engineering
of foods and the risks it generates, eg new allergens.
http://www.biotech-info.net/MH_CI_statement.html
http://www.biotech-info.net/CI_PR.html
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"US ready to
declare war over GM food"
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So ran a
Financial Times' headline on Thursday over a report that the top US trade
official is ready to launch a World Trade Organisation challenge against the
European Union over its refusal to lift a de facto moratorium on the approval of
new genetically-modified crops.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1039524376470&p=1012571727088
also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34857-2003Jan9.html
SEE *QUOTES OF THE WEEK* BELOW FOR COMMENTS
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India
rejects US GM food aid
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India has
rejected a $104 million shipment of food aid from the US because it contained
GMOs. Officials say there is strong opposition to GM crops and uncertainty about
GM food safety.
http://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
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Government
Officials Uproot GM Maize in Malawi
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Malawi has
been the country in Southern Africa most accepting of GM food aid but now
officials are having to uproot aid grain that has been planted to try and reduce
the predicted contamnination
http://allafrica.com/stories/200301100562.html
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Traditional
Foods in Abundance in Zambia
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Despite the
fixation on maize brought about by its promotion during the Green Revolution,
the Zambian government says there are more than enough traditional grains to
feed the hungry, including a surplus of over 300,000 tonnes of cassava ''crying
out'' for a market.
http://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
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US embassy
misinformation
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Pro-GM scientist Klaus Amman was delighted when he came across a letter from
the US embassy published in The Guardian stating "exactly 0% (ie, none at all)
of the maize food aid offered by the US and refused by several African
governments actually came from the US. Little US maize was available at that
time, so we sold surplus wheat and bought South African maize locally with the
funds generated."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,862396,00.html
Ammann got
busy circulating the good news that it had all been a fuss about nothing. Sadly,
however, it was all untrue. There was no sale of US wheat in exchange for
South African corn. 100% of the corn donated to the World Food Program by the US
was US GM-contaminated. The US embassy in London appears to have made the story
up to try and halt the wave of adverse publicity the US has been getting in the
UK and elsewhere for its forcing of GM onto the hungry. SEE ALSO QUOTES OF THE
WEEK on the food aid crisis.
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Japan corn
trade paralysed by GM StarLink corn
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After
Japan's Health Ministry discovered traces of gene-spliced StarLink corn in a
19,234 ton U.S. shipment, Japanese officials have announced they will be
boosting testing on US corn.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
Japanese
corn buyers are reluctant to start import deals because of fears of possible
further contamination of U.S. cargo by the banned corn, and Japanese food makers
are wary of buying U.S. corn due to safety concerns. "The discovery has shocked
Japan's food industry, which believed there was little chance of contamination
after U.S. farmers stopped planting StarLink corn in 2001. One trader said, "It
appears that corn seeds contaminated by StarLink were planted in the United
States last year. Japanese importers feel reluctant to buy U.S. corn for food
use, and they are looking into the possibility of sourcing corn from other
countries." JAPAN CORN-TRADE PARALYSED BY STARLINK FEAR, HIGHER COSTS
Reuters, January 10, 2003
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Rejected GM
corn dumped in Australia
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A 48,000
tonne shipment of US corn likely to contain GM grain is to be crushed and
steamed to prevent the uncontrolled spread of GM seed in Australia. The
GeneEthics Network has called on the Government to return the shipment, as
GM-free supplies were available. Democrat agriculture spokesman Senator
John Cherry said that Japan, India and Zambia had recently rejected such
shipments and Australia should follow suit. "Once we begin unloading,
transporting, treating and distributing it, accidental release is likely to
occur."
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
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Australian
GM rules are ludicrous
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Conservationists and farmers say rules just released for growing GM canola
in Australia (including a laughable 5m buffer zone between GM and non-GM crops -
canola pollen can travel 2.5 km) will lead to contamination of organic and other
produce. Scott Kinnear, a spokesman for Biological Farmers of Australia,
said, the 5 metre buffer zone was ludicrous, and that 16 km buffer zones would
be more realistic.
http://ngin.tripod.com/060103a.htm
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Monsanto
Canada asks Ottawa for permit to sell GM wheat
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Monsanto
Canada has asked the Canadian government for permission to sell GM Roundup Ready
wheat commercially. This is very contraversial, because wheat is Canada's
largest agricultural export, and accepting GM canola has cost the country its
European market. Holly Penfound of Greenpeace wonders why anyone should bother,
"There's no good reason to release this crop. Nobody wants it except
Monsanto." Greenpeace has called on Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief to nip
Monsanto's application in the bud.
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
The 100,000-member Council of Canadians has said it will launch an all out
attack against GM wheat. "There is absolutely no evidence that GE crops have
higher yields and are in any way beneficial for farmers", they pointed out, and
"the potential for contamination is so high that the future of organic farming
would be truly threatened".
http://www.canadians.org/news_updates.htm?COC_token4@@97df3183fb3ed6fa02dd07a3c60c6814&step=2&id62
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Roundup
Resistance
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According to independent US agronomist Dr Charles Benbrook, there is a major
article due out any day in the New York Times. The Des Moines Register is also
doing a piece. Weed resistance in RR crops was, according to many attendees, the
dominant issue at the recent weed science society meetings. And just in the last
month, Benbrook says, several land grant weed scientists have started to talk
freely about the resistance and weed shifts they are seeing in more and more
fields, in multiple states. An "Industry News" report in the Jan. 9, 2003 "Plant
Management Network News" surveys what weed scientists are finding in Iowa,
Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee and other states. Access this report at
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/news/waterhemp/
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Japanese
expected to lift ban on cloned beef
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The Japanese
government is expected to lift a ban on selling beef from cloned cows after a
safety report is compiled, probably in the spring. If so, it will be the
first such case in the world.
http://ngin.tripod.com/060103b.htm
AND
Lab-grown steaks nearing the menu - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993208
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Cloned
animals could pose hazards to human health and the environment
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Genetically
engineered animals - which could be in US food markets by next year - could pose
hazards to human health and the environment, according to experts convened by
the National Academy of Sciences. "We don't know as much as we'd like to about
potential unexpected changes that can occur in animals with genetic
engineering," said Douglas Gurian-Sherman, of the Center for Science in the
Public Interest in Washington. The Center for Food Safety in Washington
says that elevated levels of growth hormones genetically engineered into salmon
and other animals could create risks or unintended effects.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
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Biopharming
touted as good idea for Iowa
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Iowa
lawmakers are likely to consider legislation to allow biopharming, touted as a
way out of the economic doldrums for Iowa farmers. All the reports on GM
crops to date suggest the opposite is likely.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
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Grower
awaits possible $1.78 million damages in Monsanto patent case
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A West
Tenessee farmer may have to pay Monsanto $1.78 million in damages for breaching
the company's grower license agreement or $803,000 for patent
infringement. Defense lawyer Robertson said the judge did not allow the
defence to present all its evidence, including what it claims is proof that
Ralph's signature was forged on the grower licence agreement. Other farmers have
made similar claims.
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
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Opposing GM
patents is possible
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Dr. John M.
Conley, professor of law at UNC, believes that a century-old "product of nature"
doctrine could be used to fight patents of genes in the US courts. The
flat rule is that one cannot patent naturally occurring products. "We think it
may be a hook people who want to slow the whole process down can use to their
advantage. Every other hook they have tried so far has not worked."
http://ngin.tripod.com/060103d.htm
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Controversial pro-GE author guilty of 'scientific dishonesty'
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Bjørn
Lomborg, author of the controversial anti-green critique 'The Skeptical
Environmentalist', has been found guilty of scientific dishonesty by the
well-respected Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty. The book was
favourably reviewed in much of the non-specialist media, especially the
Economist, the New York Times, and the Sunday Times. The Guardian ran
extended extracts in its G2 supplement. And at the recent Johannesburg
Earth Summit, Lomborg was given a slot on BBC2 to expound his theories. Jeff
Harvey, a former editor of the scientific journal Nature said, "Lomborg has
failed time and again to rectify the egregious distortions he makes... this
judgement goes at least some way to underlining Lomborg's dishonesty."
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103b.htm
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GM protest
charges dropped
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Charges were dropped against another GM crop trashing - this time from
Colchester. This follows the December 2002 decision by Dorset Police to
drop charges in a similar case. A Greenpeace spokesman said, "People are
still getting off with this but the government is still pushing ahead with GM
crops - the resistance is there but the government doesn't realise that."
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103c.htm
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Anti-terrorism laws used against US GM campaigner
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In a clear
case of repression, using the new Australian 'anti-terrorism' laws, a nonviolent
US GM campaigner has been refused entry to the country.
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103c.htm
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REPORT OF
THE WEEK - WHO infiltrated by food industry
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The food
industry has infiltrated the World Health Organisation (WHO), just as the
tobacco industry did, and succeeded in exerting "undue influence" over policies
intended to safeguard public health. The report, by an independent consultant to
the WHO, finds that: *food companies attempted to place scientists favourable to
their views on WHO and U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) committees
*they financially supported non-governmental organisations which were invited to
formal discussions on key issues with the UN agencies *they financed research
and policy groups that supported their views *they financed individuals who
would promote "anti-regulation ideology" to the public, for instance in
newspaper articles.
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103a.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,2763,871250,00.html
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ARTICLE OF
THE WEEK - Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
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A highly
readable article by Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the
University of Illinois School of Law, on the history of biological weapons
developed in the United States, including genetically engineered agents,
revealed how the U.S. sent "at least 40 shipments of weapon-specific biological
agents to Iraq... knowing full well that Iraq was going to develop [and use]
biological weapons".
http://web.greens.org/s-r/30/30-12.html
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TOPIC OF THE
WEEK - The great GM report coverup etc.
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CONTENTS
KEPT FROM WELSH ASSEMBLY MEMBERS:
Not only was a damning GM report only
released by way of summary by UK Government (Environment) Dept. Defra on
Christmas Eve but Defra also appears to have kept the contents away from Welsh
Assembly Members, who were debating the issue just a week before the summary of
research completed some two years earlier, was finally put onto Defra's website.
ACRE'S RESPONSE TO REPORT UNFORGIVABLY COMPLACENT:
The UK's Advisory
Committee on Releases into the Environment (ACRE) advice on the Report was that
gene flow was expected and no further action was necessary. "The ACRE
response to the report . is ...so complacent and irresponsible that we are
calling for it to be disbanded. It is now so compromised and so heavily involved
in defending the GM industry that it is actually operating against the public
interest." - Dr Brian John, of GM Free Cymru. Friends of the Earth
said ACRE's advice was "in direct conflict with the findings" of the report and
that ACRE "appear to be more interested in defending their earlier advice than
listening to the science. Such complacency is completely unacceptable. The
Government must resist the pressure from the biotech industry to approve GM
oilseed rape for commercial growing in the next 18 months and consider the full
facts... Surely the only sensible course is to abandon GM and instead help
British farmers get off the agro-chemical treadmill by investing in sustainable
farming."
KEY INFORMATION FROM THE FINAL GOVERNMENT REPORT:
Other key information
emerging from the final report includes:
. Seed spillages and failure to
clean combine harvesters are likely to be a significant source of GM
contamination.
. One volunteer GM plant per square metre in a field of
oilseed would produce contamination rates of between 0.6% and 1.5% depending on
variety.
. The discovery of weedy population of wild turnip co-existing and
hybridising with oilseed rape in England. One plant sampled had 81 GM seeds out
of 167 (48.5%).
. 0.5% contamination rates in crops at distances up to 200m.
. 3.2% contamination rates at 105m in some oilseed rape varieties.
. GM
oilseed rape volunteers (weeds in following crops) survived for at least four
years (up until the research was terminated in 2000).
. Wild oilseed rape
close by crop fields was also contaminated.
http://ngin.tripod.com/020103a.htm &
http://ngin.tripod.com/020103c.htm:
WAS GM CONTAMINATION DELIBERATE?:
"Sir: The Environment Minister, Michael
Meacher, tells us that the findings of widespread and irreversible contamination
of oilseed rape crops and related weeds with artificial [GM] DNA is information
which has been known since the early 1990s (report, 31 December). If this has
been known for over a decade, the Government has been deliberately contaminating
our environment throughout the Farm Scale Evaluations of GM crops."
- Joanna Clarke, Glasgow, Letter to The Independent, Jan 6, 2003.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103b.htm
UK SUPERMARKETS MAINTAIN STRICT GM-FREE POLICY FOR 2003:
gmfoodnews.com
has completed its annual survey of UK supermarkets for their position on GM food
and ingredients for 2003. The results show that opposition to GM foods is as
strong as it was in 1999, when supermarkets removed GM foods and ingredients
from their shelves. Just as in 1999, no UK supermarket includes GM food or
ingredients in their own-brand products. Increasingly, supermarkets are also
specifying GM-free feed for animals producing their meat, milk and eggs.
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103b.htm
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QUOTES OF
THE WEEK
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"I
find it immoral that people are not being able to be supplied food
to live
in Africa because people have invented dangers about biotechnology" - U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick on why he supports WTO action against the
European Union, 'US chief warns Brussels over GM ban',
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2644015.stm
"Insulting and threatening someone is no way to go about winning over their heart let alone their mind, especially when they suspect that their own health and the environment may be at risk and that you, the supplicant, are motivated purely by commercial considerations.
"Yet, bizarrely, America seems to think that just such behaviour is exactly what is needed to persuade a sceptical Europe that genetically modified (GM) food is 100% safe and that Europe should rescind a four-year ban on new GM products.
"...If anything is "immoral", it is the status quo whereby desperately hungry poor countries are offered GM grain by the US which much of the developed world would not touch with a bargepole." - Andrew Osborn in The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,872515,00.html
"WFP [the US-dominated World Food Programme] gives us maize because that is what the farmers in the north grow and they have to keep them in business by buying up their stocks." - Charles Banda, an agricultural scientist in Lusaka, Zambia. http://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
The Radio Times says of Radio 4's programme about GM foods, "SEEDS OF
TROUBLE," "This story suggests you cross the biotechnology industry giants
at your peril". Read the PROGRAMME TRANSCRIPT here:
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
"Our policy is boy, the more countries we can get on board who can stand up
and say biotechnology done responsibly is good, it's good for us, it's good for
our country, our economy, the more countries we can get up and stand with us,
it's to our advantage." - US councillor for agriculture, William
Brandt, at the US Embassy in Mexico, speaking on the Radio 4 programme, 'Seeds
of Trouble'. TRANSCRIPT HERE:
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
The $25 million grant from biotech company Novartis, which signed up a whole
(public) Berkeley University department, was so controversial that the
California Senate held a special hearing. Sen Tom Haydon called the deal,
"a usurpation of democracy by the biotech industry."
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
"I've taught patent law for most of the past 20 years... The first time you
expose law students or lawyers without any background in the topic to the idea
that you can actually patent genes, they all have the same reaction -- 'You've
got to be kidding! You can't do that.'"
http://ngin.tripod.com/060103d.htm
"I ran into Hofmann after the trial. He apologized to me for lying about
supplying Monsanto with a sample of clean Roundup Ready canola seed for use in
court. He told me that Monsanto had taken him on trips, to lunch and given him
free products to use on his farm." Percy Schmeisser, Monsanto Lying about 98% of
Crop Being Genetically Modified"
http://web.greens.org/s-r/29/29-21.html
THE FOLLOWING QUOTES ARE ALL FROM Kevin Clarke's "Heed the Hungry" in the U.S. Catholic (Vol 68, Issue 1, January 1, 2003):
"Forcing genetically modified food on unwilling people makes us corporal dorks of mercy. ...the Africans aren't sure if the U.S. largesse arrives as a white knight or a white blight. The Americans want the desperately poor to accept a product some corporations in the U.S. are desperate to get rid of: genetically modified corn.
"It's fair to wonder who really is the beneficiary of these shiploads of GM food aid: hungry Africans or American corporations hungry to open new markets. Africans are right to question an aid program that promises to turn the continent into a vast lab experiment or "accidentally" introduce a commodity that would have been rejected otherwise.
"The South African Bishops' Conference has called for a regional moratorium on test plantings of GM crops. In a recent letter, they wrote: "The long-term health effects of consuming [GM] food have not been assessed .... Moreover, the damage to the environment would be largely irreversible. Once released, genetically engineered organisms become part of our ecosystem."
"...we don't have to treat the Zambians like beggars, and we do have a choice when it comes to establishing an effective relief program that will feed the hungry while respecting the long-term interests and sovereignty of the nations we say we want to help.
"We are stewards of a common agricultural heritage that is being put at risk
in the name of the poor and the hungry in Africa. Surely they already have
enough burdens without being asked to carry that additional responsibility on
behalf of the likes of Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland."
http://ngin.tripod.com/070103a.htm
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FACTS OF THE
WEEK
-----------------------------------------------------------
71% of
European consumers say they wouldn't touch GM foods.
http://ngin.tripod.com/030103b.htm
68% of Australians reject GM foods,
93% want all GM foods labeled.
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
As
many as 30% of domestic animals cloned die at birth or within 24 hours.
http://ngin.tripod.com/060103b.htm
GeneEthics Network Director, Bob
Phelps said, "breeding sows in the USA fail to conceive when fed GE corn
containing insect toxin."
http://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
Mexico
already imports 6 million tonnes of maize from the US every year, and around a
1/3 of that is GM.
Two studies from respected Mexican laboratories found
contamination in 6% of samples from Oaxacan corn.
There are thousands of
acres of GM soyabeans being cultivated in Mexico, despite there being a supposed
ban on growing GM crops.
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
In Canada,
researchers estimate it could cost farmers an extra $4 a tonne to keep GM and
conventional wheat separate.
http://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
India
now has more than 60 million tonnes in food surpluses but there is widespread
hunger due to poverty.
http://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
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LIES FROM THE GM LOBBY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Schubert, professor of neurobiology, puts biotech boosters Alex Avery
and Wayne Parrott et al in their place. Here he answers their letters of
criticism of a piece he wrote in The October issue of Nature Biotechnology: "The
impetus for my commentary was my repeated laboratory observation that the
slightest genetic modification of a cell leads to completely unpredicted
phenotypes. A careful reading of the plant literature supported my conclusions
from animal cells. I had no a priori commitment to a particular technology, no
pre-existing political ideology, and I did not deliberately ignore any pertinent
published material. I do believe, however, that both replies suffer from
these problems. **They make claims about technology and safety-testing
requirements that do not exist, use my statements out of context, and are rather
adroit at the use of tenses to skirt questions regarding testing."**
http://ngin.tripod.com/050103a.htm
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Correction:
DOW PRESS RELEASE ON BHOPAL WAS SPOOF
-----------------------------------------------------------
The press
release from gene giant DOW featured in Private Eye and covered in last week's
GMWATCH no 5 has turned out to be a spoof. But the real story is even more
extraordinary than the one we reported, with the full legal might of PR giant
Burson-Marsteller pitted against a college kid.
The spoof press release was written by college freshman Paul Hardwin and posted on a fake Dow website set up by Hardwin. In the release, Dow's president was quoted as explaining why the company could not accept liability for killing 20,000 deaths with its chemical leak in Bhopal, India. He was quoted as saying that Dow's duty was to its shareholders, which liability claims would impact, and that paying compensation would set harmful precedents for other health-damaging industries.
The Eye's first reaction was to assume the release was a spoof, so they rang Dow to find out. According to the Eye, a Dow spokesperson confirmed that the release was genuine and that the company was proud of it!
Since then, and too late to stop the Eye running the story, Dow has learned to tell its ass from its elbow and has realised that it has been had. The company is trying to contain the damaging publicity that spread worldwide from Hardwin's 'Dow' site, issuing legal threats against the Internet Service Provider that hosted the site. The ISP closed down Hardwin's sites, downing many other unrelated sites in the debacle, but the site was quickly copied and resurfaced on activist sites across the world. http://theyesmen.org/dow/#threat
Hardwin also set up a spoof site appearing to belong to Burson-Marsteller, the PR company, satirising its role in helping Dow to spin the Bhopal disaster. B-M has now launched a lawsuit against Hardwin.
Hardwin, unable to afford a lawyer, has composed a 57-page rebuttal to the PR
giant's lawsuit:
http://www.reamweaver.com/bmwipo/response.htm#reality
In response to the suit's claim that "a substantial degree of goodwill is
associated with [the Burson-Marsteller Trademark]", Hardwin offers much
"evidence to the contrary" including "a newspaper headline in which the
Complainant is characterized as 'the Devil.'"
DOW SUES PENNILESS BHOPAL VICTIMS
In a stomach-turning post-script to
this unsavory story, it is sad to say not a spoof that Dow has tried to sue
survivors of the Bhopal poison gas leak disaster. On December 2 a peaceful march
of 200 women survivors from Bhopal delivered toxic waste from the abandoned
Union Carbide factory (Dow now owns Union Carbide) back to Dow's Indian
headquarters in Bombay with the demand that Dow take responsibility for the
disaster and clean up the site. Dow obviously had other ideas because it
threatened to sue the penniless survivors for about US$10,000 for "loss of
work". That's US$10,000 compensation for a two-hour peaceful protest where only
one Dow employee briefly ventured out of the Mumbai corporate business park to
meet the women protestors.
http://ngin.tripod.com/020103b.htm
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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the NGIN archive
http://ngin.tripod.com/jan03.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 January 2003
WHO 'infiltrated by food industry'
Rejected GM corn
dumped in Australia
Anti-terror laws used against GM campaigner
GM
protest charges dropped
8 January 2003
Monsanto plans to transfer
technology to Cotton,Inc.
Pro-GE author found guilty of 'scientific
dishonesty'
Great GM disasters of 2002
Seeds of Trouble transcript
7
January 2003
Heed the Hungry - 'U.S. Catholic' on the foodaid crisis
UK
- crop trials/supermarkets/ radio prog TODAY
FDA missed obvious errors with
harmful GM compounds/confidencein US food chain nears meltdown
More on India
says 'No' to food aid from US
A Global Village
6 January 2003
Scientists - Zambia Should Maintain Stand On GMOs
GM ruling sparks fears
Cloned beef nearing Japanese market
Lab-grownsteaks nearing menu
Hot
shots of 2002 - the Pants are back!
Farmers' Rights
Monsanto Lying
Opposing patents
5 January 2003
GE/pharming - can they be done
safely?
Bio-Warfare in the United States
3 January 2003
India
rejects U.S. food aid over GM content
GM protesters accused of increasing
contamination
2 January 2003
Call for ACRE to be disbanded
Our seed,
their profit
Dow Chemical's Biotech Greenwash
Gene giant sues penniless
Bhopal survivors
GM contamination - government experts disagree
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