from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

This week we have news of an important new paper summarizing the woeful state of GM food safety research (FOOD SAFETY). It's one of those items we should forward to all our friends and contacts.

The New Zealand government is getting into GM brassicas. Evidently they can't think of any way of keeping pests off cabbages apart from making every cell of the plant express a toxic insecticide (AUSTRALASIA).

And protests are mounting in India as the Indian government appears hell bent on killing off the lucrative rice industry by releasing a GM variety (ASIA).

Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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FOOD SAFETY
ASIA
EUROPE
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
RESEARCH
INDEPENDENCE OF SCIENCE
BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
BIOWEAPONS
BIOFUELS
KFC COSY UP TO THE MONSTER
FOOD SECURITY

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FOOD SAFETY
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+ GENETIC ENGINEERING AND OMITTED HEALTH RESEARCH
A new paper points out that many scientific questions concerning the health effects of GMOs that were raised 20 years ago still remain unanswered. The paper discusses - in remarkably clear and readable terms - the health hazards related to GM plants used as food or feed, with mention of GM vaccines including si RNA- and nanobio-technologies.

Amongst the many points the authors note:

*very few studies on the possible effects of GM food/feed on potential animal or human consumers have been published in peer-reviewed journals

*a consensus has emerged that the effects observed in some published studies must be experimentally followed up but THIS HAS NOT BEEN DONE.

*most of the animal feeding studies performed so far have been designed exclusively to reveal only husbandry production differences [e.g. do animals gain weight satisfactorily on a GM feed compared to a non-GM feed?]

*studies designed to reveal physiological or pathological effects are extremely few

*these studies demonstrate a quite worrisome trend - studies performed by the industry find no problems, while studies from independent research groups often reveal effects that should merit immediate follow-up, confirmation and extension

*such follow-up studies have not been performed

*studies are inhibited by lack of funds for independent research *studies are also inhibited by the reluctance of producers to deliver their GM materials for analysis

*the transgenic DNA sequences provided can differ from the inserted sequences found in the actual GM plants

*the differences between the transgenic DNA sequences given by producers and the actual inserted sequences found in their products means that risk assessments made prior to approval do not necessarily cover the potential risks associated with the products

*the Bt-toxins expressed in GM plants have never been carefully analysed, and accordingly, their characteristics and properties are not known.

The authors conclude, "We are left with a high number of risk issues lacking answers, adding up to a vast area of omitted research, and this falls together in time with a strong tendency towards corporate take-over of publicly funded research institutions and scientists."

The paper is by Terje Traavik (scientific director, GENOK-Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology) and Jack Heinemann (NZIGE-New Zealand Institute of Gene Ecology), and is called "Genetic Engineering and Omitted Health Research: Still No Answers to Ageing Questions".

To read the article in full (including references) online, go to: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7219

To download the article in full in Word or PDF formats go to: http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=409

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ASIA
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+ PROTECT RICE EXPORTS FROM GM CONTAMINATION: INDUSTRY
Leading commodity exporters have urged the Indian government to take lessons from the big losses being suffered by the US rice industry and US farmers on account of the contamination of American long grain rice by GM grains. They have said that policy measures should be put in place to see that GM rice is not developed in India so as not to imperil Indian exports.

RS Seshadri of Tilda Riceland said, "India exports good quantity of long grain basmati and non-basmati rice to Europe, West Asia and Japan at premium prices. Consumers in these regions do not accept GM rice. The US and Chinese exports of rice have taken a heavy beating as their rice is contaminated with GM grains."

Seshadri and other exporters held a joint press conference with Greenpeace and with the leading Indian farmers' organisation Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU), which recently led local farmers in destroying Monsanto-Mahyco's Bt rice. The burning of Mahyco's Bt field trials in Ramapura village in Karnal, Haryana, took place on October 28.

R S Seshadri, who is also a member of the All-India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA), which represents exporters like Satnam Overseas, Sunstar, and Kohinoor, said, "Indian rice is GM-free and we want to keep it that way."

Amira Foods India's managing director Karan Chanana echoed similar sentiments. "GM basmati could spell the death knell for the industry... We are not prepared for its consequences. Hence India should not allow GM rice on its soil."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7203
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