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THE WEEKLY WATCH number 27
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from Andy Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all
Welcome to WW27 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue in the week in which Bush said he was fighting a GM trade war against the EU for the sake of the countries of Africa. Bush also claimed this paralleled the way the US was leading the fight against AIDS in Africa. But it also emerged this week that the US is cynically trying to link help with AIDS in Africa to acceptance of GMOs! (see TOPIC OF THE WEEK 1)
It is, of course, the US that, because of its wish to defend the interests of its patent holding corporations, has provided the major obstacle to the provision of cheaper generic drugs to AIDS sufferers in Africa. As for the US's current claims about its generosity over AIDS, development experts say, "the promised aid increases will be far more modest than announced, and that U.S. aid remains well below historical standards and far below other donor countries." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20030522/wl_oneworld /118151053610546
As Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth-Nigeria, said this week, "Having attempted to use USAID's famine relief programme to dump unwanted GM maize in Southern Africa they are now resorting to even more unacceptable methods. African nations should have the right to decide what their people are fed. It is immoral for the US to exploit famine and the AIDS crisis in this way". FoE launched a detailed new report this week on these issues - see TOPIC OF THE WEEK 1.
Meanwhile, figures have emerged on the extent of Monsanto's involvement in child labour in its cottonseed production in India. "Around 17,000 children work for Monsanto and their Indian subsidiary Mahyco. These children get no education, earn less than 40 Eurocents (Rs. 20) a day and are exposed to poisonous pesticides like Endosuphan during their work. More than 11,000 children work under similar conditions for the multinationals Syngenta (Swiss), Advanta (Dutch-British) and Proagro (owned by Bayer from Germany)."
And these are the companies that say they want to transform the lives of the poor? Finally , watch out for TOPIC OF THE WEEK 2 on what Monsanto's really up to in South Africa, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Please circulate far and wide!
Andy <[email protected]>
www.ngin.org.uk
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WEEKLY WATCH number 27 - CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
TOPIC OF THE WEEK 1 - The US's dirty war to force feed the world GM
TOPIC OF THE WEEK 2 - Monsanto in South Africa, Indonesia and the Philippines
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK- The Bt cotton flop show
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE CALLS FOR LEGISLATION ON CO-EXISTENCE:
More bad news on Thursday for the biotech industry from the EU. The Environment Committee voted for the EU legislation on "co-existence" even though the Commission has been trying to fob off any EU responsibility onto member states. Co-existence is the issue of how to protect organic and conventional farming from contamination by GM crops. From the biotech industry's perspective not only is such legislation highly unwelcome but it will further slow the lifting of the EU's moratorium.
In addition, the committee is calling for the labelling threshold to be lowered from 0.9%, as proposed by the Council, down to 0.5% as proposed by Parliament in the 1st reading. Parliament voted also in favour of amendments which delete the transitional (3 year) tolerance level of 0.5% for unauthorised GMOs. The plenary vote will take place during Parliament's plenary session in July (1-3 July). http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/news/news.html For more background: http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/conference/issue.htm
BRAZIL: PROTESTERS INVADE MONSANTO BIOTECH TEST FARM:
Members of the Landless Peasant Movement (MST) in Brazil invaded a Monsanto test farm last week in a bid "to expel" the US biotech giant and set up an organic farm on the site. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20827/story.htm
HUNDREDS PROTEST GM FOODS IN ST LOUIS DESPITE INTIMIDATION:
Several hundred people opposed to GMOs protested outside the World Agricultural Forum in Monsanto's home town of St. Louis despite a campaign of police intimidation, "pre-emptive" arrests and bogus charges. For the previous two weeks, the St. Louis police had been predicting violence in order to ratchet up the levels of tension and support their procurement of riot gear and new crowd control weapons. All "weapons" said to have been found on protesters conveniently disappeared. http://www.biodev.org/archives/000089.php
GREENPEACE HOLDS SIT-IN AT MONSANTO'S OFFICES IN BRUSSELS:
Monsanto's European/African Headquarters in Brussels were occupied for over six hours by protesters calling for the world's leading producer of genetically modified crops to be held responsible for spreading genetic contamination and to stop hiding behind the US government and the WTO. http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=252666 http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/05/19/daily65.html
PROTESTERS DESTROY LAST SCOTTISH GM-CROP FIELD:
Protesters cut down areas of the last field of GM crops in Scotland, at Wester Friarton Farm, Newport-on-Tay, near Dundee. No arrests have been made. The rapeseed crop was the second in a week in Scotland to be attacked. http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/scotland.cfm?id=564682003
AUSTRALIAN FARMERS SUPPORT NSW STAY ON GM CANOLA:
Australia's largest farmers' group, NSW Farmers Association, welcomed a three-year ban on commercial GM food crops in the state of New South Wales, where the state government was introducing legislation next week to impose the moratorium before the federal Gene Technology Regulator approved a commercial release of GM canola. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20829/story.htm
GM WORRIES GROW IN CANADA:
A recent study shows Canadians are becoming "increasingly cautious" when it comes to biotech goods. A survey of 1,500 Canadians conducted by researchers at the University of Calgary found little appetite for GM food. "While much of the processed foods on our grocery store shelves contain GM ingredients, Canadians are hardly enthusiastic about them and a substantial minority - about 4 in 10 - are definitely uncomfortable about it," said Edna Einsiedel, professor of communications studies at the U of C. http://www.producer.com/articles/20030515/market_quotas/20030515mkt02.html
GENETIC SEED RULES IN VERMONT FEE BILL:
The Vermont Senate has passed a bill requiring the labelling and registration of GM seeds. http://timesargus.nybor.com/Story/65565.html
GM SEEDS LOWER COTTON QUALITY IN US:
A report from the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences released in June last year concluded that GM Bt cotton designed to combat the bollworm, is damaging the environment by killing the natural parasitic enemies of the insect and encouraging other pests. Worse still, is the effect on cotton quality; according to leading US cotton growers, GM cotton seed was to blame for deficiencies in length and strength in mid-south US cotton. http://www.dawn.com/2003/05/19/ebr12.htm
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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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GM crops might be given go ahead in GM-free Wales (& elsewhere) via EU
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The future of Wales' GM-free status was thrown into confusion after the Government suggested Britain may not be free to decide on the issue. Environment Minister Michael Meacher said refusing a licence for GM farm crops might not be an option under European Union legislation. A ludicrous situation, given that opinion polls suggest less than 15% of the population supports GM and only 3% strongly support it. But, in fact, the European directive for GM crops includes an opt-out clause for areas with concerns about negative environmental consequences. http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/page.cfm?objectid=12974971 &method=full&siteid=50082&headline=GM%20crops%20may%20be%20given%20the%20%20 go-aheadunder%20EU%20legislation
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Meacher admits GM crops threaten organic output
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Michael Meacher also said that ontamination from GM crops threatens the drive to increase organic food production. "The coexistence of organic and GM crops is a very real problem," he said. "Whatever decisions the government comes to about the commercial growing of GM crops in Britain, it has to be compatible with allowing the growth of organics." Mr Meacher said Tesco, the UK's biggest food retailer, sold organic food worth GBP250m a year, and intended to sell GBP1bn a year by 2005. All supermarkets in Britain had a no-GM policy. The government claims to favour organic production because it uses less energy, causes less pollution to air and water, and less nitrate loss from soil. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,959641,00.html
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FSA accused again of "manipulating the GM Debate" and the public's views
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Nine leading organisations, including the National Federation of Women's Institutes and the UK's biggest trade union, UNISON, have written to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) chair, Sir John Krebs, again accusing him of manipulating the GM Debate and misrepresenting the views of the public. In their letter they say, "The FSA is clearly guilty of bias and manipulation of the facts on GM issues. As the FSA was established in part to restore consumer confidence in national food policies we wish to know how you intend to redress the situation, represent the real views of consumers and restore the trust of all the consumer and citizen groups that you have now lost on the GM food issue."
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Meacher rages at inaction on organic food
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A refusal to promote or endorse the merits of organic food by Sir John Krebs, head of the UK's Food Standards Agency, has enraged Michael Meacher, the environment minister. Sir John, a historic supporter of GM foods, has stalled Mr Meacher for seven months, despite a meeting between the two men. In a handwritten addition to his most recent letter, seen by the Guardian, Mr Meacher says: "I am disappointed at your response following our meeting, and had expected, and am still expecting, a much more substantive and robust statement from you of the particular value and merits of organic production." Meacher's irritation follows months of requests to Sir John to organise scientific research to test whether organic food could have nutritional or safety merits over conventionally produced food, some of which has high pesticide residues. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,961936,00.html for more on Krebs' pro-GM, anti-organic drive: http://ngin.tripod.com/pants1.htm
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Concerns over GM crop liability
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British growers would leave themselves open to unlimited liability and huge legal costs if they sign up to GM crops under the same terms as US growers. According to senior National Farmers' Union legal adviser Robert Madge, Monsanto's US grower contracts would be unacceptable under English law. Monsanto, which could commercialise crops in the UK as early as 2004, limits its liability under the US agreement to just the cost of the seed. "This would include claims based on negligence on Monsanto's part," said Mr Madge.
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USDA accused of knowingly selling toxic corn (again)
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Evidence shows that, for a second time, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) sold corn that one of its own researchers said might be toxic - suspected of causing severe reproductive problems in pigs in Iowa. The suspect corn may end up being used as animal feed or even in grocery products, posing a risk to health. The corn was delivered to the Cargill plant in Blair, Nebraska, a depot where Cargill has an explicit policy to reject Roundup Ready corn, since the European Union and other export markets won't accept this type of GM corn. "It appears that the USDA violated an Iowa farmer's grower agreement with Monsanto and they may have sold Cargill truckloads of corn that nobody would want to get caught using as food," said Lori Sokolowski a member of the Iowa Farmers Union. "This is worse than USDA oversights involving biopharmaceutical corn contamination of soybeans last year. In this case, the USDA is the party responsible for putting a crop with a potentially harmful substance into food and feed channels," said Larry Bohlen, director of Health and Environment Programs at Friends of the Earth. http://www.ea1.com/CARP/
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GM conflict of interest at the WTO
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An interesting side issue concerning the US WTO suit against the EC on GMOs, is that of conflict of interest in the WTO Secretariat. Rufus Yerxa, the most senior legal official at the WTO, to whom the legal affairs division reports, worked as European then International Counsel for Monsanto immediately before being appointed to his WTO post.
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Philippine hunger strike ends
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"We have done everything that is humanly possible to stop the poisoned seeds of genetically modified corn from being planted in our farms," stated Verzola. The agriculture department has a contract with Monsanto to buy the GM corn seeds, for free distribution to farmers. "This is what we call the unholy alliance between the government and Monsanto," said Verzola. Conrado de Quiros wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of the protest, "If a hunger strike seems an unreasonable way to talk, it is only because government has stuffed its ears with wax which needs prying loose. The only reason the Department of Agriculture is talking now is because of the hunger strike. The only reason media have taken notice of Bt corn is because of the hunger strike. The only reason the public has heard of genetically modified organisms.... is because of the hunger strike." ('Three Things,', May 19,2003)
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American Peace Corps volunteer sacked for joining hunger strike
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American Peace Corps volunteer Andrew Haralam was sacked for joining the hunger strike in the Philippines against Bt corn. http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/bag/2003/05/14/news/american.continues.hung er.strike.vs.bt.corn.html
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Prakash vs Philippines hunger strike
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Prakash's AgBioWorld lobbied the President of the Philippines to ignore the hunger strike. Prakash said his position was all about sound science, but GM corn only won approval in the Philippines without proper public knowledge of what was occurring, let alone debate, and with the help of a campaign of misinformation led by CS Prakash and his supporters - see: CS Prakash, the great deceiver, http://ngin.tripod.com/pantsoftheyearaward.htm
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Thai IPR decision draws farmers' ire
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Farmers' rights advocates blasted a decision by a government committee to provide intellectual property rights to seeds used in local crops, saying it favoured the interests of multinational seed companies. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.arcview.php3?clid=5&id=78833&date=2003- 05-17&usrsess=1
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India to institutionalise GM crops
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India has decided to set up an institutional framework for promoting researches and applications of transgenic crops. This institutional framework would channelise the expected assistance from the US meant for promoting transgenic crops in the country. This is a part of the recent US attempts to rope in developing countries for promoting GM agriculture. http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=34530
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Don't cry for Clare Short's departure from the DFiD
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International Development specialist, Brian Sims wrote of the "profound disillusionment" of many with Clare Short who recently resigned from the Blair Government. Sims complained of the Department for International Development's "acquiescence in allowing neo-liberal policies to be forced on third world countries". George Monbiot puts it another way, "[Short] was more Blairite than Blair. She would emote with the wretched of the earth for the cameras, then crush them quietly with a departmental memo." Her portfolio at the DFiD included a scheme in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh which will help push 20 million subsistence farmers off their land; an oil pipeline across pygmy land in Cameroon, which would destroy their lives; and a project in China that would displace 60,000 farmers. As George Monbiot writes, "There was... no conflict between Clare Short's work at DFiD and that of the government as a whole. The central project of Blair's foreign policy is the appeasement of the powerful. Short ensured that this principle informed the business of her department." http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/comment/0,9236,955564,00.html
Short also presided over a government department that quietly funded a GBP13.4m programme to create a new generation of GM animals, crops and drugs via at least 80 projects in over 24 countries, with up to another 22 set to be involved. Not many are grief stricken now that she's gone.
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TOPIC OF THE WEEK 1 - The US's dirty war to force feed the world GM
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GM FOODS JUST THE FIRST STRIKE OF BUSH-LED EU TRADE WAR:
Washington is coming under mounting pressure from big business to use the transatlantic trade spat over GM crops as a test case for an all-out assault on EU health and safety rules, environmental campaigners warn. They fear EU rules on recycling, animal testing and chemicals will all be targeted by the Bush administration. "These are not obscure laws, they're about the food we eat - something that Europeans really care about; and it looks as if there's a hit list out there for them," said Liana Stupples, the policy and campaigns director at FoE. "Unless the EU fights back hard and stops further expansion of WTO rules in Cancun in September, much of what Europe holds dear will be systematically attacked," said Ms Stupples. http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,959659,00.html
FIRST IT WAS 'EAT GM OR STARVE' IN AFRICA; NOW IT'S 'EAT GM OR DIE' IN US AIDS GAMBIT:
Friends of the Earth is demanding that the US stop using hunger as a political and marketing tool to benefit giant agri-biz. The press release also notes the US AIDS spending legislation bill, which passed the US Senate May 15th, and which includes a GMO amendment tying US assistance to AIDS victims to acceptance of GMOs. In other words, the US is prepared to hold a GM gun not just to the heads of the hungry but to those of the desperately ill. Either way, for governments in Africa and elsewhere the US message is the same: accept our GMOs or we'll leave your people to die. A new report from Friends of the Earth International highlighting the US's promotion of GM food as food aid, Playing with Hunger, is published on Friday 23rd May 2003 - embargoed copies of the report and accompanying factsheet are available at www.foei.org/publications/gmo
The report also gives more evidence about cynical US policy over GM food aid, and criticizes the food aid system. Ricardo Navarro, Salvadorean chairman of Friends of the Earth International said: "Food aid is being used, particularly by the US, as a marketing tool to capture new markets. Big agribusinesses are huge beneficiaries of the current food aid system. There is a need for stricter regulation of food aid to prevent it from being used as a way to open up new markets for GM products."
"The US should stop playing with hunger. Having attempted to use USAID's famine relief programme to dump unwanted GM maize in Southern Africa they are now resorting to even more unacceptable methods. African nations should have the right to decide what their people are fed. It is immoral for the US to exploit famine and the AIDS crisis in this way," said Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth-Nigeria.
MEANWHILE BUSH ACCUSES EUROPE OF EXACERBATING AFRICAN HUNGER WITH STANCE ON GM CROPS:
With trans-Atlantic relations still strained by the Iraq war, President Bush opened a new front by accusing Europe of impeding American efforts to combat famine and poverty in Africa and beyond, by blocking the use of GM crops, which he said could "dramatically" boost productivity. "Our partners in Europe are impeding this effort. They have blocked all new bio-crops because of unfounded, unscientific fears," Bush said. "This has caused many African nations to avoid investing in bio-technologies for fear that their products will be shut out of European markets. European governments should join -- not hinder -- the great cause of ending hunger in Africa."
Which contrasts starkly with: "If the problem is the specter of [world] hunger, the solution is not Bt corn, it is redistributing wealth. There is something cynical about the search for scientific breakthroughs to feed the world when the world can be easily fed simply by using, according to UN estimates, a tenth of the money the United States currently spends for arms." - Conrado de Quiros, Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 19,2003
DEVINDER SHARMA SAYS US FORCE-FEEDING THE WORLD - GM FOOD WILL LEAD TO MORE HUNGER NOT LESS:
As America launches its global GM trade war, New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst, Devinder Sharma concludes that, far from reducing starvation in the developing world, GM foods "will further exacerbate the food crisis - eliminating in the process not hunger but the hungry."
Much of the existing hunger, destitution, and poverty in the world is because of lop-sided trade and economic policies that keep the farmers in rich countries plump with massive subsidies, which then creates more hunger, malnutrition and destitution in the majority world. As a result of the 2002 subsidy hike in America, millions of small and marginal farmers in the developing world will be driven out of agriculture to move to the urban slums in search of a menial living.
The noose is slowly tightening. An all-out offensive has been launched, using the three most important instruments of economic power - the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - along with the badly bruised but democratically elected governments. This time, the target is not oil but to force the world to accept GM food and crops. The battle for controlling the global food chain has begun.
The US administration fired the first missile this month by formally launching a complaint with the WTO against the European Union for its five-year ban on approving new biotech crops. Devinder Sharma's writings and analysis can be viewed at www.dsharma.org This article was published in the South African press: http://www.businessreport.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=149356
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TOPIC OF THE WEEK 2 - Monsanto shows its true character II
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THE CARING ('WE WANT TO FEED THE WORLD') MONSANTO USES CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA:
A recent report on child labour in India, exposes how the companies who say they want to transform the lives of the world's poor really behave: "around 17,000 children work for Monsanto and their Indian subsidiary Mahyco. These children get no education, earn less than 40 Eurocents (Rs. 20) a day and are exposed to poisonous pesticides like Endosuphan during their work. More than 11,000 children work under similar conditions for the multinationals Syngenta (Swiss), Advanta (Dutch-British) and Proagro (owned by Bayer from Germany)."
"Take Narasamma. She is 12 years old and she worked in the cotton seed fields for the last three years. She sleeps in a cattle shed with other migrant children and works more than 13 hours a day with two breaks. She regularly gets ill after being sprayed with pesticides. She is paid Rs. 800 (16 Euros) a month." See: http://www.indianet.nl/cotseed.html
MONSANTO DIRTY TRICKS IN THE PHILIPPINES:
"We have done everything that is humanly possible to stop the poisoned seeds of genetically modified corn from being planted in our farms," stated Verzola, leader of the Philippines hunger strike. But the agriculture department has a contract with Monsanto to buy the GM corn seeds, for free distribution to farmers. In other words, irresistable offers to peasant farmers, that will result in the contamination of local corn varieties. "This is what we call the unholy alliance between the government and Monsanto," said Verzola.
The biggest peasant farmers' group in the Philippines, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), accuse Monsanto and the US Aid-funded lobby group Accelerating Growth, Investment and Liberalization with Equity (Agile), of blocking bills in Congress that are against GMOs like tBt corn.
EVEN WITH DIRTY TRICKS, MONSANTO CAN'T MAKE A PROFIT IN INDONESIA:
It took a media blackout and the help of the Indonesian military for Monsanto to get its GM cotton seed into Indonesia. But now in a letter to Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture, Monsanto pleads it's not making any money out of it and demands lighter regulation for its products. "Although we have already invested heavily in the Bollgard Cotton business since 1999 we have never generated profits," the letter complains. To keep GM crops in play (ie contamninating) while Monsanto seeks lighter regulation Monsanto's letter proposes that Monsanto supplies "Bollgard Cotton seed to the Ministry of Agriculture, free of royalty fees and at a nominal value for the seed"; and that "the Ministry could offer the seed to farmers through its own distribution network and/or appoint a private partner of assist."
AND THEN THERE'S SOUTH AFRICA:
South Africa's government - unlike any other in Southern Africa - is willingly working hand in glove with Monsanto. It faces severe criticism for its lack of regulatory transparency, accountability and for its complete failure to inspect, monitor or oversee GM crops. These criticisms are being renewed amidst worries over Monsanto's recent application to use South Africa as a testing ground for a novel type of GM cotton involving multiple 'stacking' genes.
The new cotton contains three genetic constructs (rather than all crops to date, which only have one); two insect resistant genes and one herbicide resistant gene. This raises deep concerns as regulatory data from the rest of the world are almost non-existent. Moreover the complexity of the stacked triple gene demands the highest levels of regulatory oversight. Issues of liability, post harvest follow-up and other implications have been insufficiently addressed.
NGO Biowatch voiced its concern about the manner in which this application was released to the public. "The release of an unknown GMO into the environment is an event of national importance, yet this company is required to place only an advert in a small local newspaper," said spokesperson Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss. http://www.safeage.org
MORE LIES FROM MONSANTO - MAKATINI FLATS: GM CROPS ARE GOOD FOR AFRICA:
When Robert Zoellick launched America's GM trade war, he had TJ Buthelezi, a GM cotton grower from Makatini Flats in South Africa, by his side as an emblem of what GM crops could do for the Global South - an African success story for GM crops. To that end Buthelezi - and now a group of farmers from the Makatini Flats - has been flown around the world by the biotech lobby to tell their story. Glenn Ashton prepared a short report on the Makatini Flats for the the South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE). It suggests the reported "successes", in reality, have very little to do with Monsanto's product and a great deal to do with increased human inputs (financial, educational and so on), not to mention wholesale intereference with the water management of the Flats, where an entire floodplain management regime has been altered, with major ecological implications and detrimental effects to many farmers downstream, to suit the growing of the cotton.
Monsanto's claims of increased yields and profits, with a drop in chemical use, are highly questionable since they were funded indirectly by Monsanto themselves; their science is open to many questions too. By contrast, an article by Prof Jules Pretty shows the startling results that can be achieved sustainably by resource poor Southern farmers without any of the risks of GM crops. http://www.safeage.org
According to Haidee Swanby of Biowatch South Africa, TJ Buthelezi and his cronies, have had huge assistance from Monsanto in terms of machinery, irrigation, crop management and access to credit. Only this small group will get such assistance which will ensure their yields are good. Others simply find themselves in a debt trap. This technology is yet another short term fix which will create long-term problems. This bulletin is definitely worth a read. http://www.biowatch.org.za
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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK - The Bt cotton flop show - Devinder Sharma
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Only a year back, The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), were upbeat saying that Bt cotton would bring in an additional income of Rs 10,000 per acre for the cotton growers. Brushing aside all criticism of the faulty technology, the DBT had gone to the extent of claiming that the crop yields would increase by 80%. ICAR had given a quiet burial to all norms of scientific experimentation to turn a blind eye to the murky projections of 'scientific data'. India's first experiment with a GM crop eventually flopped. And once again, the cost of the faulty experimentation has been entirely borne by the farming community. Farmers have become modern India's new breed of guinea pigs. Reports pouring in from the southern States point to an estimated Rs 15-20 billion loss incurred by cotton farmers. http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/may15/top.asp
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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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Stop genetic contamination
http://act.greenpeace.org/ams/e?a=789&s=blue2s
Contamination of conventional and organic crops is one of the major problems associated with the growing of genetically modified (GM) plants and one of the reasons why we believe there should be no releases of genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) in the environment.
The European Commission acknowledged this problem and committed to ensuring the viability of conventional and organic farming and their sustainable co-existence with genetically modified crops (Brussels, 23.1.2002, COM(2002) 27 final, Action 17 and Action 20).
However, the current proposals communicated to the Commission by Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler completely fail to address this issue. Ask the European Commission not to dodge its responsibility and to take action against genetic contamination from GMOs. The future of European agriculture is at stake!
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