GM WATCH MONTHLY REVIEW No. 35
Claire Robinson, editor

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MONTHLY REVIEW CONTENTS
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LOBBYWATCH
GM FAILURES
GM BANS / RESTRICTIONS
FARMING
CONTAMINATION
PROTESTS AND RESISTANCE
FOOD SAFETY
RESEARCH
CORPORATE CRIMES
CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF GOVERNMENT
BIOFUELS
GM MEDICINES / GENE THERAPY
CLONING

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ WHAT THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT "THE ANTI-ACTIVIST ACTIVIST"
Katherine Wilson went to a workshop in Melbourne, Australia, run by the Canadian biotech PR consultant Ross Irvine to learn about "the best strategies to win against activists". There, she learned how to create bogus community groups, false statistics, and, in Irvine's words, links with "far-right-wing nutso activists". She learned to conflate "activist" with "terrorist" and "security threat".

Filing in to see him, reports Wilson, was a "Who's Who of powerful industry and government flacks" - several linked to the agrochemical & biotech industries. Economist Clive Hamilton of the Australia Institute told Wilson, "Only an organisation that has wholly alienated itself from the public would even consider attending an event like this." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6738

+ THE LAUNCH OF "ASK-FARCE"
A new pro-GM lobby group -"ASK-FORCE" - has just been launched by Prof Klaus Ammann, the former Director of the Botanic Garden at the University of Bern.

ASK-FORCE is intended to expose "hidden agendas" and "confront" the critics of GM crops over their misinformation, hoaxes and "scaremonger stories".

Given its supposed penchant for exposing "hidden agendas", we wonder why ASK-FORCE does not explain in its launch document that:
***EFB, which is providing the organisational base for 'ASK-FORCE', has an extensive corporate membership.
***the financial backers of PRRI - the Public Research and Regulation Initiative - with which ASK-FORCE intends to work closely, include the biotech industry's global federation - Croplife International - and the US Grains Council, which represents the interests of US producers and exporters of GM crops.
***the financial backers of Africa Harvest with which ASK-FORCE also intends to work closely, also include Croplife International. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6720

+ GREENWASHING GM CLOTHING
At a fashion show at a recent Toronto biotech conference, designers showed dresses made from a new fibre called Ingeo, made largely from GM corn. The Biotechnology Industry Organization used the fashion statement to burnish its battered image as an environmental scourge. NB As far as we can see, there's absolutely no reason this fibre has to be made from GM rather than non-GM corn.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6767

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GM FAILURES
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+ CHINA: FARMERS USE AS MUCH PESTICIDE WITH GM CROPS, U.S. STUDY FINDS
The Independent newspaper reports that one of the major arguments in favour of growing GM crops has been undermined by a study showing that the benefits of cultivating Bt cotton are short-lived because farmers quickly resort to spraying their fields with harmful pesticides.

A detailed survey of 481 cotton growers in China found that, although they did use fewer pesticides in the first few years of adopting GM plants, after seven years farmers had to use just as much pesticide as they did with conventional crops and were spending far more because GM cotton seed is three times the price of non-GM seed. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6811

For the full paper: http://www.grain.org/research/btcotton.cfm?links

+ GM WATCH COMMENT ON THE STUDY
The new study's findings directly contradict the heavy promotion of China as a big GM success story, as well as the use of China's Bt cotton farmers to bolster the frequently repeated claims that millions of resource-poor farmers are benefiting from GM crops. This study shows that millions of resource-poor farmers are actually losing money because of GM crops. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6806
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6807
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6804
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6805

+ INDIA: THE KILLING COTTON
An article with this title looks at the appalling and destructive impact of Bt cotton on India's poor farmers.

EXCERPT:
Cotton in Vidarbha, once referred to as king cotton because of the high price it fetched, has now come to be known as killer cotton. ...

Indian film star Nana Patekar, the brand ambassador of Monsanto, toured this region to promote Bt cotton seeds. In 2004, up to 80 percent of cotton growers harvested Bt, genetically modified seeds produced by Monsanto. The seed, with prices ranging above Rs 1,600 ($34.88) a packet, compared to the normal hybrid variety of Rs 450 ($9.81) a packet, has demonstrated no sustainability in the parched environment of Vidarbha. Meanwhile, the cotton farmers have been destroyed and Monsanto and Nana Patekar have made a small fortune. http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6737

+ POD - CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER IN INDIA
Far more people died, as