------------------------------------------------------------ From Claire Robinson, GMWATCH editor ------------------------------------------------------------ Dear all,
The big news this month is the publication on July 10 of journalist Andy Rowell's new book, 'Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat'. http://www.andyrowell.com/dont_worry_PR.htm
Rowell interviews scientists and government insiders, many of them whistle-blowers who were removed, sidelined or vilified when they refused to toe the government and industry line. He describes the inside stories behind the Pusztai and Chapela affairs and even avid readers of GM WATCH will find remarkable material that has never been disclosed before.
Rowell shows how our food crises - GM, BSE, Foot and Mouth - are not bolts from the blue but the inevitable outcome of policies that put secrecy, self-protection and the interests of big business before those of the public.
The publisher (Earthscan) has a 10% discount on all its agriculture titles at the moment, so order this one while stocks last! http://www.earthscan.co.uk/agriculture.htm
'Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat' is one of the most important books I've ever read and I'll be making clear why in my forthcoming GM WATCH review. If you don't subscribe to our daily list, then you'll be able to find it in our new archive where you can view all the material that's gone out on our lists in 2003 and the latter half of 2002. This will eventually be developed into a comprehensive and fully searchable database of postings on the NGIN/GMWATCH lists over the past five years.
Check it out: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive.asp
Claire Robinson <[email protected]> www.ngin.org.uk
----------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS ----------------------------------------------------------- AMERICA'S WAR ON HUMANITY ENVIRONMENT FARMING THIRD WORLD RESISTANCE TO GM COMPANY NEWS FOOD SAFETY CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE MAN OF THE MONTH: MICHAEL MEACHER HYPOCRITE OF THE MONTH: LORD SAINSBURY QUOTES OF THE MONTH JOKES OF THE MONTH CAMPAIGNS OF THE MONTH SUBSCRIPTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICA'S WAR ON HUMANITY ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As Bush prepares for his mission to Africa with a mouth stuffed full of promises, it's important to remember the record to date in terms of both honesty and humanity.
USDA BREAKS RULES AGAINST TOBACCO AID The US Departement of Agriculture (USDA) and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative are not only set on breaking down barriers to GM crops in the name of easing famine in parts of Africa, it's emerged that the USDA has also been busy helping Big Tobacco identify and get round weak tobacco control laws in Third World countries like Zimbabwe. It has also been supplying information to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to help it ease trade barriers to selling US tobacco products abroad. Under Congessional law the USDA and the office of the US Trade Representative are specifically forbidden from "promoting the sale or export of tobacco", ie exporting death and addiction. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60321-2003Jul1.html
US BEATS EGYPT WITH TRADE STICK... The Financial Times reports that when President George W. Bush announced plans last month for a Middle East free trade area by 2013, Robert Zoellick, his trade representative, said Egypt would be the linchpin. "Egypt has for centuries been the heart of the Arab world." For the US, Egypt's participation in the WTO case was also critical to support its claim that the EU ban on GM cops is hurting poor countries. But now Egypt has decided not to join the US in a World Trade Organisation complaint against Europe's ban, Zoellick is reported to be furious and has now called off the free trade deal. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1021
US DUMPS ON OTHER ALLIES Even countries who are supporting the US in its WTO complaint are feeling the heat. The US has just launched a WTO complaint against Mexico, one of its supposed allies, over its anti-dumping duties http://newsobserver.com/24hour/business/story/918495p-6400128c.html
"ROGUE NATION" At the same time as heavily subsidized US corn exports are driving Mexican campesinos off their land, exports for one of Mexico's main crops, sugar, are severely restricted by US quotas. Thus, Mexican sugar farmers, like West African cotton growers, who face similar American restrictions, face penury and hunger. A former Reagan advisor recently wrote, "It is these sorts of American inconsistencies and double standards, far more than envy of our success or hatred of our freedoms, that cause alienation from America and that make the United States appear to many abroad as a rogue nation." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26765-2003Jun6.html
IRAQ: EVERYONE NOW NEEDS FOOD AID The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27 million dependent on food aid, leaders of aid programs say. The United Nations WFP (World Food Programme) chief representative in Baghdad Torben Due says the crisis is unprecedented. http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=19026
THE RAT IN THE GRAIN - DAN AMSTUTZ AND THE LOOTING OF IRAQI AGRICULTURE According to the Associated Press, "a Bush administration appointee was dispatched to Baghdad, tasked with, among other things, figuring out whether genetically modified crops have a place in Iraq." http://www.thehollandsentinel.net/stories/062203/bus_062203080.shtml
Dan Amstutz was appointed as Iraq'a Ag Czar by U.S. Ag Secretary Ann Veneman who is keen to see U.S. agribusiness play a significant role in Iraq's future where "the opportunities are immense". http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1005
In 2000, the biggest food companies in the world, Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland, Cenex Harvest States Co-op, DuPont and Louis Dreyfus, got together to form Pradium Inc., a kind of secret, internal grain market that offered cash commodity exchanges for grains, oilseeds and ag by-products. It also offered ways to fix grain prices on a global scale. Iraq's new Ag Czar Amstutz served as chairman of Pradium Inc.. http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07042003.html
EUROPEANS NOT AMUSED BY BUSH'S RHETORIC EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has attacked US president Bush for accusing Europe of worsening starvation in Africa by opposing GM foods. "It is one thing to disagree," Lamy said. "It is another thing to use starvation to advance a position in this debate." Lamy said that US policy was being driven by farmers who feared they would no longer be able to dump surplus food on Africa in the form of food aid. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1004 The head of the European Parliament also dismissed US claims that that by blocking the i
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