PANTS ON FIRE AWARDS - 2006

In 2006 French demonstrators faced gunfire during one anti-GM protest and protesters have faced violence and intimidation on other occasions, while scientists critical of GM have faced gagging, vilification and even dismissal.

But in 2006, as in previous years, the GM lobby did its utmost to put a very different story into circulation. This involves manufacturing attacks on farmers, laboratories and scientists, while claiming it is GM opponents that engage in disinformation and cause appalling suffering in the developing world.

But those who have really suffered - like the Bt cotton farmers in India who've taken their own lives after their GM crops failed - have been the victims not of opposition to GM but of the cynical campaign of hype orchestrated by promoters of this technology.

This is why countering the massive and deceptive push behind GMOs helps defend the interests of the poor, who also suffer when valuable development resources are diverted as a result of GM industry spin and the disinformation disseminated about more productive alternatives to GM agriculture.

So here's our pick of some of the most outrageous  lies, disinformation, PR chicanery and unfounded abuse smelted by the GM lobby in 2006.

PANTS ON FIRE AWARDS 

Award categories
BIGGEST PACK OF LIES
MOST MISLEADING HEADLINE
FAKE GENOCIDE AWARD
PROPAGANDA LAB AWARD
KILLER HYPE AWARD
ORGANIC SLANDER AWARD

AND HERE ARE THE WINNERS
THE HOT SHOTS OF 2006! 

BIGGEST PACK OF LIES - 2006

The award goes to:

Dr C Kameswara Rao, Executive Secretary of the Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) of India for the following:

"In the event of Golden Rice, research laboratories, trial fields and even scientific workers were attacked, striking such a fear that led to hiding a handful of prototype Golden Rice seed in a bombproof bunker in an unspecified place in Switzerland."

Read the offending article
From verbalism and vocalism to vandalism
http://www.fbae.org/Channels/Views/from_verbalism_and_vocalism_to_vandalism.htm GM Watch comment
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7244

MOST MISLEADING HEADLINE - 2006

The award goes to:

Farmer quits GM trial after phone threats

This was the headline that topped an article by The (London) Guardian's science correspondent, Ian Sample. Sample ran with the story without managing to confirm with anybody other than GM industry sources that these threats had actually occurred. The UK farming press subsequently reported that, according to the police, no such threats had been made.

Read the offending article http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,,1973379,00.html GM Watch comment
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7422
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7400

     FAKE GENOCIDE AWARD - 2006

Genocide deniers may be about as despicable as it gets in the disinformation stakes, but what about those who manufacture fake crimes against humanity?

The 2006 award for spreading such disgusting smears goes to:

CS Prakash's AgBioWorld for persistently posting on its AgBioView list articles with claims such as:

"In Zambia, where people are starving to death, Greenpeace unleashed their political agenda and probably killed many people." (Why We Need Genetically Modified Crops - Hegemony in Science)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7174

"Already, alarmist groups have exacted tragedy as the price for their exaggerated fears and peculiar reasoning - once by persuading the president of Zambia to decline genetically modified corn from the United States during a famine." (As millions starve, alarmists block famine solutions)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7330

There was no tragedy in Zambia when it rejected GM food. Non-GM food was provided instead. The Zambian Red Cross is unequivocal about this, "We didn't record a single death arising out of hunger." (GM lobbyists' lies over Zambia)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7092

But the material p