WEEKLY WATCH number 241
from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Claire [email protected]
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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UNSPINNING ISAAA's HYPE
NEW REPORT: GM CROPS HAVE FAILED
SELECTIVE CENSORSHIP OF SCIENTISTS
EUROPE
ASIA
AUSTRALASIA
THE AMERICAS
GENETIC CROSSROADS

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UNSPINNING ISAAA's HYPE
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INTRO: Every year the biotech industry lobby group, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) holds a big media event at which it launches its annual report on the global acreage of GM crops grown in the previous year. Every year the report features a list of headline-grabbing statistics that show GM crops are transforming world agriculture. The only problem is that ISAAA's claims, and the figures that back them up, turn out under scrutiny to be either inflated, exaggerated, misleading or just plain wrong! Here are some of ISAAA's latest claims.

+ HALF THE WORLD'S POPULATION BENEFITTED FROM GM CROPS IN 2007
This figure is arrived at by adding together the entire population figures of China, India and all other countries where GM crops are grown, despite the fact that these crops are only grown on a very small scale in the vast majority of those countries. In China, for example, GM represents only 2.9% of China's agriculture area, in Europe it's only 0.119% of the agricultural area! (Expert report shows that GE won't feed the world - Louise Sale)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8765

+ 2007 SAW A 12% INCREASE IN THE UPTAKE OF GM CROPS
This double digit figure is claimed by ISAAA to be 'the second highest increase in global biotech crop area in the last five years,' but ISAAA's 2007 data includes for the first time a large number of GM poplar trees in China that have been planted there for many years! This makes the area of GM planting since 2006 in ISAAA's report look much bigger than it really is. (Industry grossly exaggerates GM importance - GM Freeze)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8764

+ THE AREA UNDER GM WILL REACH 200 MILLION HECTARES BY 2015
This means that even by the biotech industry's own best estimate, well over 95% of crops will still be produced from seeds bred without GM technology well into the future. Industry data puts the current area under GM crops (including trees) at 114 million hectares in 2007, which represent just 2.2% of global farm and commercial forestry land. GM Freeze point out that this means that nearly 98% of crops grown are non-GM. In addition, the vast majority of crops, such as wheat, barley, rice, potatoes, fruit and vegetables, are conventionally bred non-GM varieties. (Industry grossly exaggerates GM importance - GM Freeze)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8764

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NEW REPORT: GM CROPS HAVE FAILED
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+ GM CROPS HAVE STALLED
Bob Phelps of Australia's GeneEthics group points out that:
*In 1996 GM soy, corn, canola and cotton were launched, with two new traits - tolerance to lethal weed killers or built-in Bt insect toxins, but in 2008, just the same four crops and two traits are commercially available.
*Seven countries grew 97.5% of GM crops in 2007, the same as 2006.
*And five of those countries are in North and South America, where most GM crops are used for animal feed or biofuel production.
*No-one, anywhere, wants to eat GM foods and if they were fully labelled as they should be, GM food crops would not be grown at all.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8763

+ GM CROPS INCREASE PESTICIDE USE
The just released 'Who Benefits from GM crops?' report concludes that GM crops on the market today have caused an increase rather than a decrease in toxic pesticide use.
*4 out of every 5 acres of GM crops worldwide are Monsanto's Roundup Ready varieties, designed specifically for use with glyphosate, the weed-killing chemical that Monsanto sells under the name of Roundup. Weed-killers, or herbicides, are the largest class of pesticides.
*U.S. government data reveal a huge 15-fold increase in the use of glyphosate on soybeans, corn and cotton in the U.S. from 1994 to 2005, driven by adoption of Roundup Ready versions of these crops.
*In 2006, the last year for which data is available, glyphosate use on soybeans jumped a substantial 28%.
*The intensity of glyphosate use has also risen dramatically. From 1994 to 2006, the amount of glyphosate applied per acre of soya rose by more than 150%.
*Rising glyphosate use has spawned a growing epidemic of weeds resistant to the chemical in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil.
*Weed scientists have reported glyphosate-resistant weeds infesting 2.4 million acres in the U.S. alone.
*Increasing weed resistance to glyphosate has led to rising use of other toxic chemicals, examples:
*In the U.S., the amount of 2,4-D applied to soybeans more than doubled from 2002 to 2006. 2,4-D was a component of the Vietnam War defoliant, Agent Orange.
*The use of the pesticide atrazine, banned in the EU because of links to health problems such as breast and prostate cancer, has increased by 12% on maize in the U.S. from 2002 to 2005.
*In Argentina, it's projected that 25 million liters of herbicides other than glyphosate will be needed to tackle glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass.
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/WhoBenefitsPR2_13_08.cfm
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8755<

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