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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH guest editor
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Dear all,
Welcome to WW32 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.
A week is a very long time in the GM debate: in the last few days we've seen sacked minister Michael Meacher again asking the kind of tough questions on GM in Parliament that have mysteriously eluded the opposition and most of the media for the past several years; and even Blair's advisors are struggling to come up with a good argument for growing biotech crops. It must have been hard to ignore a delegation of farmers from one of the major GM crop-growing countries, Canada, who flew to Britain to warn UK farmers not to go near the crops.
Don't miss a wonderful Article of the Week on Clinton and Blair's involvement in the Pusztai affair, based on Andy Rowell's brilliant new book Don't Worry, It's Safe to Eat.
Please circulate far and wide!
Claire <[email protected]>
www.ngin.org.uk
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CONTENTS
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - India / Golden Rice / Food aid / Africa / Meacher / UK economic report / Superweeds / Monsanto sues / GM wheat
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
FACTS OF THE WEEK
TOPIC OF THE WEEK: The man who changed the GM debate
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK: Sinister sacking leads to Blair and White House
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
CAMPAIGNS OF THE WEEK: GM Nation?/Day of Action to Free Jose Bove
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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GOLDEN RICE NOT EVEN OFF THE STARTING BLOCKS
Attempts to start research into GM vitamin A 'Golden Rice' in India have still not got off the ground after three years. Seed supplied to the Institute that was to develop the rice has failed. Dr B. Mishra, Director of the Directorate of Rice Research, said, "the first lot of seeds which were given to the Institute were found to have problems, hence they were not utilised for research and burnt."
It's interesting that Ingo Potrykus, the inventor of Golden Rice, has for some time now been denouncing Greenpeace and others for causing untold death and suffering in the Third World by not supporting Golden Rice, when this untested technology hasn't even got off the starting blocks!
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1056
MONSANTO SUES DAIRY OVER LABELLING
Portland, Maine: Oakhurst Dairy Inc. is being sued by Monsanto, which alleges that Oakhurst's labelling its milk as not from cattle treated with GM growth hormones is misleading. Monsanto officials said Oakhurst's ads and labels are deceptive and disparage Monsanto's products with the inference that milk from untreated cows is better than milk from hormone-treated cows. Monsanto claims that "Numerous scientific and regulatory reviews throughout the world'" have declared its genetically engineered cattle drug (rBST) as safe. But in fact, the GM drug failed such reviews in both the EU and Canada, where it is banned.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1048
'KINDLY TELL OUR AGONIES TO YOUR SCIENTISTS . . .'
By Katharine Ainger, New Statesman June 30, 2003
Slightly edited version of article at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1042
When you say you are trying to feed the poor, it can be embarrassing to have poor farmers turning up on your doorstep saying you are doing no such thing. In the summer of 1999, 30 farmers from Gujarat and the Punjab turned up at the Nuffield Foundation's office in Bloomsbury, London and demanded to see the director. They wanted to challenge a report claiming that the development of genetically modified crops was a 'moral imperative'. They were infuriated that Nuffield had consulted no farmers from the developing world. Eventually Anthony Tomei, the director, agreed to speak to them, though not before calling the police!
.Around the table sat the leaders of five of India's largest farmers' unions.. 'We understand,' began Manjit Kadran, an imposing man with a large turban, 'that you have issued a report insisting that there is a moral imperative to develop genetically modified foods to feed the world.' He leant forward, sternly.
'Perhaps you believe that India needs genetically engineered seeds, or there will be famine? I am from north-west India. India has a surplus of food, and we have a problem of storage, not of shortage. What we need are facilities and political will for the distribution of this food.'
The director said he hadn't written the report himself, and that they couldn't engage in debate then and there . . . 'This very bio-engineering,' interrupted a white-haired man in a dhoti. 'What about our ecological and cultural biodiversity? When you limit seed varieties to one or two? Now we have hundreds of varieties. If one fails, we have many others we can use. If we have only one and it fails, all fails.'
Hashmukh Patel added: 'Seventy per cent of Indians rely on agriculture . . . Our past experiences, for example with hybrid seeds, show they are useless after one or two or three crops, and require huge amounts of pesticides and fertilisers.
'Your report gets heard. But we don't have a voice that gets heard. This is why we came in a crowd. It is the only way to show our agony. No one hears us. We are frustrated. Kindly tell our agonies to your scientists.'
As we were getting up to leave, Patel added, with a smile: 'You paid a lot of expensive researchers and consultants for that report. But we have given you our good opinion for free.'
BUSH TOUTING GMOS ACROSS THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA
From a White House press release:
BUSH: The other part of the problem is the lack of technological development in agriculture. And we talked about the need for genetically-modified crops throughout the continent of Africa.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030710-3.html
AFRICAN LEADERS CHALLENGE BUSH OVER "RUINOUS" TRADE PRACTICES
African leaders gave George Bush's tour of the continent a rocky start by blaming US trade practices for impoverishing millions of farmers across the continent. The US president was challenged over the huge subsidies to US cotton growers, a dispute which threatens to overshadow a trip intended to trumpet Washington's generosity to poor countries.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1045
BENBROOK ON WHY GM FOOD AID MAY NOT BE SAFE
Excerpts from "GMOs, Pesticide Use, and Alternatives: Lessons from the U.S. Experience" Presented at the Conference on GMOs and Agriculture by Dr. Charles M. Benbrook, Paris, France, June 20, 2003
Full text and slides available from:
http://www.biotech-info.net/lessons_learned.html
more excerpts here:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1044
.when the companies advanced Bt corn through the regulatory process in the U.S. and Europe, it was known and understood that 98 percent plus of the corn would be fed to animals or processed. If regulatory authorities believed that a sizable share of the American consumers eating Bt corn would consume it directly
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