THE WEEKLY WATCH number 68 (15/4/2004) | |
------------------------------------------------------------ Dear all, Another victory this week! Well done all those who asked California Governor "Arnie" and other officials to terminate Ventria's GM pharma rice (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL). Your efforts have paid off and the rice will not be grown - for this season at least. Let's hope, unlike the Terminator, it won't be back! Please keep the momentum going by saying no to GM wheat - see our very important CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK. Well worth reading is an article from the avidly pro-GM New Scientist, which details the tragic story of Argentina's economic and ecological meltdown as a result of the country's widespread adoption of GM soya (HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - GLOBAL). Claire [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------ HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - UK ------------------------------------------------------------ + PROF HILLMAN BLASTS ORGANICS - AGAIN! According to Hillman's startlingly asymmetrical analysis, organic farming has no benefits but multiple problems and risks. It means low productivity, a high dependence on poisonous copper salts, blemished crops, the risk of mycotoxins and reduced vitamin C levels, reliance on faecal fertilisers, raising concerns about food-poisoning, eggs of parasitic nematodes and pollution of water-courses; and reliance on tilling leading to soil structure damage and release of greenhouse gases. Any benefits, he says, "cannot be validated" while its marketing is based on criticism and scaremongering. Furthermore, it has high production costs and cannot meet the increasing demand of global food supply without encroaching on natural habitats. By contrast, GM crops, he says, "encompass strategies to control pests, weeds and diseases; by, for example, eliminating allergens and anti-nutritional factors they can modify shape, colour, size, aroma, texture, taste and yield; can generate, at low capital cost, pathogen-free, high-value, nutraceuticals, vaccines, antibiotics, enzymes and growth factors; engineer plants to treat wastes and contaminated land; produce industrial feedstocks from specialist proteins; and create renewable sources of energy". Find out more about Prof Hillman and his total failure to provide the evidence to back up his Dennis Avery style smears. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3276 + HIGHLANDS DECLARED FREE OF GM CROPS ------------------------------------------------------------ + SEED GIANTS ACCUSED OF SABOTAGE Rono said the multi-nationals have particularly been keen on introducing GMO seeds into the Kenyan market and urged the government to be on the alert over their activities. "They will not rest until the have wrestled the Kenyan market from KSC," said Rono, the firm's former marketing and processing manager. Reacting to last weekend's inferno that razed down the Kenya Seed's administration block, Rono said investigations into the fire should be widened to include the multinationals. In the meantime, he said, the Government should establish strict security measures at Kenya Seed and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) where the firm's seeds are produced. He was particularly emphatic that Kenya Seed's Elgon Downs, where the country's strategic seed reserves are kept should be heavily guarded. http://allafrica.com/stories/200404150342.html + ARGENTINA'S BITTER HARVEST - NEW SCIENTIST In a spin-off article on the front page of the Daily Mail, Colin Merritt, biotechnology manager for Monsanto, which markets Roundup Ready soya, said it had been an "exemplary success" in South America, both environmentally and economically! Read on and see if you agree. Excerpts from the New Scientist article: When genetically modified soya came on the scene it seemed like a heaven-sent solution to Argentina's agricultural problems. Now soya is being blamed for an environmental crisis that is threatening the country's tragile economic recovery. Sue Branford discovers how it all went wrong A year ago, |