» WELCOME
» AN INTRODUCTION
» PROFILES
» LM WATCH
» CONTACT
» LOBBYWATCH LINKS
»


THE WEEKLY WATCH 73 - PANTS SPECIAL! (21/5/2004)

------------------------------------------------------------
from Prof Bullsh*t, WEEKLY WATCH guest editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all,

Have I got a treat for you! It's the latest winner of my very special award given to the smelters of the choicest lies, disinformation, PR chicanery and unfounded abuse - the prestigious PANTS ON FIRE AWARD.

But first, as Claire has let me loose on this week's Weekly Watch, let's put it all in a meaningful context.

The front-page of yesterday's Wall Street Journal said it all, 'Biotech's dismal bottom line: more than $40 billion in losses'. The WSJ noted, 'not only has the biotech industry yielded negative financial returns for decades, it generally digs its hole deeper every year...' http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2004/Biotech-$40B-Losses20may04.htm

Still it's good to be aboard the gravy-train before it hits the buffers! Or as George Rathmann, the first chief executive of biotech firm Amgen likes to put it, 'Take the hors d'oeuvres while they're passing the tray, not just when you're hungry.'

Of course, no part of the industry is more in the doldrums than plant genetic engineering. On the same day that 'Biotech's dismal bottom line' was splashed across the WSJ, the New York Times ran the headline: 'For biotech foods, a dwindling appetite'. http://www.iht.com/articles/520925.htm

The NYT notes that it's not just a case of 'the small number of crops' - just 4 - that have won any significant market acceptance, but that even these are only hanging in there because they are largely invisible - as fibre or animal feed. The NYT also notes that such crops are still limited to just two main GM traits.

The article also points to: the small number of countries involved in growing these crops, the 'sharp drop in efforts to develop genetically engineered fruit and vegetables', and how 'the pace of new product introductions has fallen sharply'. The piece also provides some interesting figures to back all this up. http://www.iht.com/articles/520925.htm

Still, it's not all been bad news for shareholders this week. Monsanto has just managed to scrape home with a 5 to 4 Canadian Supreme Court decision in favour of its being allowed to carry on persecuting farmers for 'violating its patents' on its GM crops like canola (oilseed rape). However, the court has not upheld Percy Schmeiser having to pay damages to Monsanto, and Monsanto will also have to pay its own court costs.

If, however, you're one of those rather old fashioned folks who think it a bit of an outrage that Monsanto can claim rights on anything its genes happen to contaminate, then see the online CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - 'Tell Monsanto where to go.'

And so to my pants. Just a couple of weeks ago, you may remember, we had the US-dominated World Food Programme of the UN actually pretending that USAID never forced GM food aid on countries with food shortages. Now this week we've had the USAID dominated Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN issuing a 200 page report, 'AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY: MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE POOR?', which has led to media claims, especially in the US, of the UN being gung-ho for GMOs.

Some of this (mis)reporting is down to carefully spun industry press releases but the FAO report itself also contains its share of good old biotech-bubble propagandising. For instance, it lists the totally failed GM sweet potato project in Kenya in a section headed, 'Examples of successful technology development'!! (p.97)

This may of course not be unconnected with the fact that one of those acknowledged as a key background researcher for the report is Joel Cohen. It was JC, as he's known to his friends, who while at USAID helped Monsanto get the GM sweet potato project off the ground, using USAID money to have Florence Wambugu trained by Monsanto for the purpose. JC's principal collaborator at Monsanto, Robert Horsch has said his role there is to 'create goodwill and help open future markets'. Wambugu reinforces the point: 'it [the GM sweet potato] has no commercial value to Monsanto, except as PR.'

Over the years Monsanto and USAID, which has introducing GM into developing countries as part of its remit, have more than recouped their PR investment with the help of Florence Wambugu. It's therefore a very great pleasure, in association with the Weekly Watch, to see that Dr Wambugu's remarkable track record properly acknowledged. I refer of course to that most coveted of awards for corporate deception: the PANTS ON FIRE AWARD!

By the way, it may be of interest to note that among the other 'background researchers' acknowledged in the FAO report, is Norman Borlaug. It was Big Norm, of course, who once described Rachel Carsen, the scientist whose book 'Silent Spring' gave birth to the environmental movement, as 'a force for evil'. There are also several other strong Prakash supporters whose background work for the FAO report is acknowledged, including Thomas Hoban. We've therefore included PR WATCH's delightful profile of Tom - THE PROFESSOR WHO CAN READ YOUR MIND.

Some may of course think it apt that the FAO report's author previously worked as an agricultural economic researcher for the US on NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement was touted as an economic boon for Mexico. The reality, however, for Mexico's rural poor has been very different. Heavily subsidised US farm products have helped drive millions of Mexicans off the land. Now, as Devinder Sharma notes, the FAO seems willing to let the GM industry 'drive out the majority of farmers in the developing countries from their meager land holdings'. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3586 For more of the rebuttals of the FAO report see http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3594

And now for my Smouldering Smalls!

Prof B    [email protected]
http://ngin.tripod.com/pb.htm

------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
PANTS ON FIRE AWARD - THE BIG ONE!
THE PROFESSOR WHO CAN READ YOUR MIND
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
DONATIONS
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
------------------------------------------------------------
PANTS ON FIRE AWARD
------------------------------------------------------------
 'The  Pants on Fire award is the prize offered for scientists' services to lying and deception by Professor Bullsh*t, a friendly bloke in a white coat who works in a virtual laboratory on the web.' - Education Guardian

PANTS ON FIRE HOT SHOT OF 2003-4

Wham, Bam Boozle!

How to WAMBUZLE the world!

Wambugu's Whoppers earn her Smouldering (not so!) Smalls award

[f

Go to a Print friendly Page


Email this Article to a Friend


Back to the Archive