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Prof Joe Perry et al's 'sound science' - and other tales (17/3/2004)

PLEASE REMEMBER TO E-MAIL TODAY ALL THE ADDRESSES IN ITEM 4 - *THE VOTE IS TOMORROW* - WHEREVER IN THE WORLD YOU ARE, LET THEM KNOW YOUR CONCERNS

Item 3 comes from Consumer Freedom a Wahington DC based PR front which has had funding from Monsanto and which according to this apparently believes Greenpeae has been trashing GM crops growing in London!! Item 1 deals with how some of the scientists the Blair Government has been relying on have similar problems with reality!

For more on Consumer Freedom and those like Patrick Moore and Norman Borlaug who they quote, see the BIOTECH BRIGADE directory at www.gmwatch.org

1.PROF PERRY ET AL AND 'SOUND SCIENCE'
2.Wales may still hold GM maize veto?
3.UK: Yes To Biotech, No To Scaremongers
4.UPDATE + REMINDER: Scottish Debate on GM. Lobby to keep Scotland G M Free, and veto UK policy.
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1.PROF PERRY ET AL AND 'SOUND SCIENCE'

The British governments says its decision on GM maize commercialisation is to be based on 'sound science'. Pre-eminent amongst those scientists offering their version of 'sound science' for the Government to rely upon is Professor Joe Perry, chief statistician of the FSEs and lead signatory of the letter published in such a timely fashion on Nature's website, 'Ban on triazine herbicides likely to reduce but not negate relative benefits of GMHT maize'.

But there are some who feel that whether or not Prof Perry's academic credentials are A1, his understanding of the countryside is decidedly suspect. At a public meeting held in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire in 1999 and attended by about 400 local people, Prof Perry was speaking for the adoption of GM crops (even though he was one of the scientists charged with setting up the FSEs and accessing the impact of GM crops on the environment).

Questioned about cross pollination and separation distances between GM and non-GM crops Prof Perry responded by declaring that cross pollination was very unlikely. This was around the time that Judith Jordan (later Rylott) of AgrEvo (now Bayer) gave evidene under oath that the chances of cross pollination beyond 50m were as likely as getting pregnant from a lavatory seat! We now know that cross pollination occurs at up to 4km.

Challenged by a local bee keeper on his statement that cross-pollination is very unlikely, Prof Perry stated that bees only fly a maximum distance of 50m from the hive!

Well, this was a rural audience of country people, farmers and gardeners and they all know bees fly a great deal further than 50m. After the howls of laughter had died down, the audience turned on Prof Perry and gave him a very unpleasant time. Some questioners asked what happened when the bees got to the 50m limit - did they just drop out of the sky? He replied by saying that he was a government-funded scientist with a specialist knowledge of entomology and therefore he knew best - to which one questioner suggested that he must subscribe to the well-known scientific opinion that the bumble bee can't fly because he is obviously unable to make observations from the natural world that surrounds him. And so it went on.

Needless to say the audience, which was probably split 50:50 for and against GM before the meeting, voted, thanks to Prof Perry and the growing public disquiet in government-connected experts like Prof Perry, by a large majority to ban GM crops from Lincolnshire.

The public lost confidence in scientific experts long ago but is the government really confident in basing its decision to license GM maize (with all the implications of that decision for health and the environment) on the 'sound science' offered by the likes of Prof Perry - someone who seems pugnacioulsy determined to prove he is right regardless of the ground realities?

Prof Perry is not the only signatory of the Nature letter whose contact with reality (or head for figures!) is open to question. Two of the other signatories of the Nature piee were Mike May and John Pidgeon of Broom's Barn, which is linked to Prof Perry's Rothamsted institute.  May and Pidgeon helped author the paper 'Costs and benefits of GM sugar beet'. However, working farmers belonging to FARM, the independent farmers' group, quickly spotted from their experience of beet-growing that the authors of the paper had exagerrated the costs of a conventional herbicide regime by about 100%!! This had the effect of making the GM herbicide regime appear financially attractive.

FARM were also able to demonstrate that, compared with a realistic cost for a conventional herbicide regime, there was little financial benefit from a GM crop and for many farmers with lower weed burdens a financial penalty! FARM's critique is available at http://www.farm.org.uk/FM_Content.aspx?ID=78
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2.Wales may still hold GM maize veto
March 16, 2004
The Western Mail [via Agnet]
Steve Dube
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/1000farming/content_objectid=14056532_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Wales-may-still-hold--GM-maize-veto-name_page.html

Plans to allow farmers to grow a form of genetically-modified maize in Britain could still be foiled in Wales.  UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett will need the signature of her Welsh counterpart, Carwyn Jones, before the Chardon LL maize, also known as T25, is added to the National Seeds List.

In a deal struck behind the scenes and announced last week, Mr Jones has agreed to listing in principle and Mrs Beckett agreed that Westminster will not stand in the way of co-existence measures, which should keep the crop out of Wales.

But Mr Jones insisted that he would not place Chardon LL on the National Seeds List until a whole raft of other measures are in place.

These include a variation in the conditions attached to the current consent, co-existence measures to protect conventional and organic farming from GM contamination, voluntary GM-free zones and a suitable liability and compensation scheme for anyone damaged by GM contamination.

GM Free Cymru says the measures might take several years to put in place, and might never actually be agreed.
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3.UK: Yes To Biotech, No To Scaremongers
CONSUMER FREEDOM
http://www.ConsumerFreedom.com/headline_detail.cfm?HEADLINE_ID=2410

In Sunday's London Times, genetics expert Charles Pasternak praises Britain's decision to allow commercial farming of genetically enhanced corn. "For once the government has got it right," he writes. "In sanctioning the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize, it is allowing fact finally to triumph over fantasy." Of course, radical environmental groups have done a good job promoting the "fantasy" that GM foods are somehow unsafe. Pasternak compares those duped by biotech scaremongers to folks who once believed the earth is flat.

Fear campaigns against biotechnology are short on truth, ignoring the fact that millions all over the globe have been consuming biotech foods for a decade -- with zero adverse health effects. Nevertheless, green zealots have vowed to fight and destroy biotechnology companies regardless of the truth, the facts, or any life-saving potential. Pasternak continues:

Organic farming is too expensive [in the Third World] and conventional farming produces too low a yield ... Nowhere [is this technology] needed more than in sub-Saharan Africa, where 40,000 people -- half of them children -- are dying from  malnutrition daily. We should be helping them by developing and promoting the relevant GM crops, not hindering their salvation by unjustified criticism of the technology.

The European Union has noted that biotech crops are likely "even safer than conventiona l plants and foods." Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore now laments that his old comrades continue to "stymie progress on so many fronts when their arguments are nothing more than wild, scary speculation." Nobel laureate and father of the "Green Revolution," Norman Borlaug, has scolded "extremists in the environmental movement" for doing everything they can to thwart biotech progress.

Now that England has taken a sensible step forward, Parliament should keep an eye on hell-bent activist groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Extremists from these two organizations, along with other anti-biotech radicals, pledged to "remove GM crops from the ground or support those who take action to remove GM crops," should they ever be planted in England. Unfortunately, this is no bluff. Greenpeace vandals have destroyed biotech crops in London before, and last year they sabotaged a GM wheat crop in Germany.
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4.UPDATE + REMINDER: Scottish Debate on GM. Lobby to keep Scotland G M Free, and veto UK policy.

*** Update + Reminder ***

Thank you to all who have already sent E-mails to MSPs.

This is just a gentle reminder to those who may not have got around to it yet.

Also we have added the following as "targets":

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Original email:

There will a debate in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, 18th March, on Scotland's GM position. The vote will be very close and is winnable.

The debate will focus on Chardon LL fodder maize, as that is the specific issue at the moment, but please write giving all your concerns about GM. To help achieve what would be a very important victory, we need to show the huge amount of public concern by lobbying those most likely to rebel against the Executive.

The opposition in Parliament is now united so we need to e-mail the following potential rebels from the ruling parties to vote on principal and against GM.

We are purposefully not sending out a standard letter, so that each letter either from the public or organisations is clearly seen as an individual committment. (We all know the issues)

Please send arguments and opinions to:

Lib Dems

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Lab:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

We only need 4 or 5 of these to change sides and vote for a GM free Scotland (and also derail UK GM policy!)

PLEASE CIRCULATE AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE TO AND AMONGST GROUPS AND ORGANISATIONS.

Thank you for your support,
Munlochy GM Vigil
(for further info phone Anthony Jackson: 07753865540)

 

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