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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH guest editor
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Dear all
Welcome to WW40 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.
This week saw the heroic action of the African countries who walked out of the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun, refusing to capitulate to the bullying of the U.S., E.U. and Japan and the multinationals that lurk behind them. The Africans did the same in Seattle, and we hope they can stand firm until the rich world agrees to genuinely even-handed trade practices. (see HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK)
But watch out! While the rich world stalls on making the policy changes so desperately needed, the U.S. is working flat out to force open markets for its genetically engineered crops and other goods, whether via the WTO, regional trade pacts or bilateral agreements.
As U.S. agriculture correspondent Alan Guebert reported from Cancun, "If they don't want to talk, [U.S. trade representative Zoellick] added darkly, then the U.S. is prepared to move forward bilaterally, meaning outside the multilateral WTO, with nations that do."
It's a tactic the U.S. is using increasingly. Already Australia's Prime Minister has offered to consider U.S. proposals for unfettered investment access for U.S. multinationals and "relaxed labelling for genetically modified food" in exchange for a bilateral "free trade agreement".
http://www.smh.co.com/articles/2002/11/14/1037080851435.html
So the pressure's on from Brazil to Burkino Faso with even some of the world's poorest countries in the U.S.'s sites. Zoellick and Bush haven't been touring Africa for nothing. This is where the Americans can extract the maximum PR advantage from GM crop acceptance (see REPORT OF THE WEEK).
This is why, as George Monbiot suggests, George Bush may be among those who'd be happy to see the back of the WTO "because it impedes his plans for direct U.S. control of other nations' economies" (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK).
But global resistance just keeps growing. This week saw the 3.2 million strong Congress of South African Trade Unions call for a moratorium on GMOs in the only African country whose government has really been pushing the Bush/Monsanto agenda on GM. (see SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY)
WW40 may be of particular interest to any friends or contacts finding it hard to keep up with all the breaking news, so please circulate widely!
Claire <[email protected]>
www.ngin.org.uk
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CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
FAIRYTALES FROM THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
REPORT OF THE WEEK: GM Crops Irrelevant for Africa
QUOTE OF THE WEEK + WTO FACTS OF THE WEEK
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
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CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS CALLS FOR MORATORIUM ON GMOS
While the South African Dept. of Agriculture has capitulated to US corporate interests and blindly promotes GMOs at every opportunity, the 3.2 million strong Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has called for a moratorium.
http://www.cosatu.org.za/cong2003/congweb/res.pdf
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1421
DANISH WATER CONTAMINATED BY ROUNDUP, TEMPORARY AND PARTIAL RESTRICTION IMPOSED
Glyphosate, Monsanto's "Roundup" herbicide - for which its GM crops are designed to be resistant - has been banned in Denmark because it is contaminating water supplies.
Denmark has imposed a temporary ban on the autumn spraying of glyphosate as of 15 September 2003, on sites where leaching is extensive following heavy rain. The ban follows the release of data which found that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, has been contaminating drinking water.
The chemical has been sieving down through the soil and polluting ground water at a rate of five times more than the allowed level for drinking water, according to tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological Research Institution (DGGRI).
"When we spray glyphosate on the fields by the rules it has been shown that it is washed down into the upper ground water with a concentration of 0.54 micrograms per litre. This is very surprising, because we had previously believed that bacteria in the soil broke down the glyphosate before it reached the ground water," says DGGRI.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1424
FOLLOWING GM PROTEST, SHIP TURNS BACK TO U.S.
The first attempt to undermine the Biosafety Protocol - an international law which came into force September 12 2003 allowing countries to reject GMOs - appeared to have failed as the captain of a ship carrying GE contaminated US corn bound for the Mexican port of Veracruz, turned back to the US after a 13 hour Greenpeace protest.
Climbers from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Australia from the Greenpeace ship MV Arctic Sunrise, sustained a daylong protest on the anchor chain of the Alta Mira, which contained a 40,000 ton shipment of US GM corn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1422
GM ANIMALS NOT WANTED
Excerpts from interesting article at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1426:
"Despite 20 years of effort in private and public laboratories around the world and millions of dollars spent, no genetically modified farm animals have made the leap to the marketplace."
"An American company in Massachusetts, Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc., has been widely anticipated to be the first to serve consumers genetically modified meat. It makes salmon engineered for speedy growth. Company President Elliot Entis expressed hopes in an interview with The Bee in 2001 that the fish would be ready for sale in 2002. But today, the company still is in the midst of studies to demonstrate to the US Food and Drug Administration that its fish are healthy, safe to eat and won't harm the environment."
"Animal Science Professor James Murray ... said in an interview that the [GM animal-produced] milk killed harmful E. coli bacteria in petri dishes. It also killed a type of bacteria that's responsible for spoiling milk. That suggests, Murray said, that the lysozyme-containing milk would have a longer shelf life." [GMWATCH comment: yet another brilliant "fix" for contaminated agrichemical-produced food. What else does this bactericidal milk kill?]
PPL GIVEN THE CHOP
Dolly-the-sheep firm PPL Therapeutics, once seen as the darling of the Scottish biotech sector, has put itself up for sale and announced the departure of most of its board after failing to find a way to move the ailing firm forward. In June, the Roslin-based company said it was shedding most of its workforce after its partner, German pharma/biotech giant Bayer, put on hold the development of a key lung disorder treatment. During the summer, PPL began a mass slaughter of its flock of GM sheep to cut costs. It has scrapped plans to build a multi-million pound manufacturing plant at Gowkley Moss in Midlothian.
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