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GMWATCH number 13 (6/9/2003)

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From Claire Robinson, GMWATCH editor
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Dear all,

At times it might seem that the GM companies have bought and now own our governments, scientific institutions and even the Catholic Church, and there's plenty of news this month to support that view. However, we only have to lift biotech's costly veneer an inch or so to reveal the crumbling rot beneath - see, for instance, our FARMING section for the GM farming crisis brewing in the biotech heartlands of Canada.

It's increasingly obvious too that the chief political proponents of GM - Bush, his 'gofer' Blair in the UK and his patsy in New Zealand, Helen Clark - are on the back foot as their destructive policies rebound on them. Even while they are legislating to force-feed us GM, resistance is growing ever stronger (RESISTANCE TO GM).

Does that mean there's nothing to worry about and that the battle is won? No. It's amazing how much harm a few bozos in leadership can do before they finally bow out, and this lot look set to contaminate the world's food supply in a remarkably short time.

We have to stop this madness unleashed at the behest of a few giant corporations and at the expense of our land, our health, our rights, and of justice for the poor.

Our new archive is at: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive.asp

Claire Robinson <[email protected]>
www.ngin.org.uk

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CONTENTS
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THIRD WORLD
FOOD SAFETY
ENVIRONMENT
FARMING
EUROPE
RESISTANCE TO GM
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF GOVERNMENT
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF SCIENCE
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE VATICAN
GM ANIMALS
COMPANY NEWS
QUOTES OF THE MONTH
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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THIRD WORLD
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US CHALLENGE ON GMOS THREATENS AFRICA
(article from South Africa's Business Day, 6th September 2003)

The United States' challenge to the European Union in the WTO courts over Genetically Modified Organisms primarily presents a threat to African and developing countries' food sovereignty and the Biosafety Protocol, the director-general of the Ethiopian-headquartered Environmental Protection Authority, Dr Tewolde Egziabher, said.

He said those in African countries who had fought long and hard for the agreement and ratification of the Biosafety Protocol, felt that the US actions were intended to send a strong and aggressive message to them: "that should we choose to implement the Protocol and reject the import of GM foods, we may also face the possibility of a WTO challenge."

"We cannot help but perceive that (the) US actions are a pre- emptive strike on the Biosafety Protocol and developing country interests," Tewolde added.

The Protocol is due to come into effect on September 11, coinciding with the WTO's 5th Ministerial Meeting IN Cancun, Mexico.

At Cancun, the US/EU GM debate is expected to be high on the agenda.

Part of the US argument for forcing the EU to accept GM without any kind of labelling restrictions, is that the EU rejection creates hunger in the developing world.

"Supposedly, we would willingly grow GM crops if we weren't afraid of losing our lucrative European markets.

"But this premise is untrue. The only African country to support the WTO challenge was Egypt, who soon retracted support on the grounds of consumer and environmental concerns.

"Developing countries, and African countries in particular, do not want to grow GM crops uncritically and without the due process of their regulatory systems approving them.

"They will not have their crops contaminated by GM crops, for many reasons other than market access to Europe.

"The one important consideration is safety to human health, domestic animals and the environment.

"This can only be assured, as provided by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, only through informed risk assessments and decisions based on the Precautionary Principle," Tewolde asserted.   "Secondly, we reject the patenting of living things, as had been made clear by our negotiations in the WTO.

"Otherwise, Article 34 of TRIPs would, in combination with the natural processes of cross pollination, not only contaminate our crops, but also turn our farmers into patent infringers.

"This would remove control of food production into the hands of multinational corporations, thereby wresting away food sovereignty into the hands of these companies.

"Besides paying royalties, we would lose food sovereignty," Tewolde stated.

He added that developing world agriculture systems were adapted to their geography, economy and culture, and GM farming systems that required capital and chemicals threatened the continent's agriculture and food security.

"Ethiopia is strongly against the hasty introduction of GM crops, for, as a centre of origin and diversity of crops, we recognise the assets that come from a biologically diverse, locally adapted, small- scale agriculture.

"This is why African nations have fought so hard for the Biosafety Protocol, which can provide us with a legal basis on which to protect our own food sovereignty.

"We suspect that Africa is high on the agenda for the US' next push for GM acceptance. And we resent the way that the stereotyped image of the hungry in developing countries has been used to force a style of agriculture that will only exacerbate problems of hunger and poverty.

"The arguments that the EU must give up its right to label, or even reject GM, because of the developing countries must stop.

"We have the right to implement the Biosafety Protocol, and we must do so without delay."

Tewolde was one of the architects of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1426361-6078-0,00.html

CARTER CALLS AFRICA'S LEADERS "GULLIBLE AND ILL-INFORMED"
A Reuters article called "Ex-US President Carter Says Africa Needs GM Crops", reports how Jimmy Carter used a speech in Tokyo to attack African leaders who question GM crop acceptance as "sometimes gullible and ill-informed".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1397

According to another media report, Carter also 'said there was nothing wrong with using GM food with "a reasonable precaution and proper labelling".
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/030905053725.szq6e36l

But none of the GM food delivered to Africa as food aid had labelling and America does not label any GM food.

US STATE PROPAGANDA ON GM AND FOOD AID
The latest issue of the U.S. Department of State's electronic journal 'Economic Perspectives' is entirely given over to statements of support for GM foods: http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/ites/0903/ijee/toc.htm

The articles include ones on the GM food aid issue. One is by Tony Hall, the US ambassador to the FAO, who last year suggested the leaders of any African country that rejected GM food aid should be charged "for the highest crimes against humanity in the highest courts of the world."

Although Hall's article is more moderately worded than his earlier inflammatory attack on African leaders l

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