PANTS ON FIRE AWARDS! (29/1/2007) | |
PANTS ON FIRE AWARDS - 2006 In 2006 French demonstrators faced gunfire during one anti-GM protest and protesters have faced violence and intimidation on other occasions, while scientists critical of GM have faced gagging, vilification and even dismissal. But in 2006, as in previous years, the GM lobby did its utmost to put a very different story into circulation. This involves manufacturing attacks on farmers, laboratories and scientists, while claiming it is GM opponents that engage in disinformation and cause appalling suffering in the developing world. But those who have really suffered - like the Bt cotton farmers in India who've taken their own lives after their GM crops failed - have been the victims not of opposition to GM but of the cynical campaign of hype orchestrated by promoters of this technology. This is why countering the massive and deceptive push behind GMOs helps defend the interests of the poor, who also suffer when valuable development resources are diverted as a result of GM industry spin and the disinformation disseminated about more productive alternatives to GM agriculture. Award categories BIGGEST PACK OF LIES MOST MISLEADING HEADLINE FAKE GENOCIDE AWARD PROPAGANDA LAB AWARD KILLER HYPE AWARD ORGANIC SLANDER AWARD AND HERE ARE THE WINNERS THE HOT SHOTS OF 2006! BIGGEST PACK OF LIES - 2006 The award goes to: Dr C Kameswara Rao, Executive Secretary of the Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) of India for the following: "In the event of Golden Rice, research laboratories, trial fields and even scientific workers were attacked, striking such a fear that led to hiding a handful of prototype Golden Rice seed in a bombproof bunker in an unspecified place in Switzerland." Read the offending article MOST MISLEADING HEADLINE - 2006 The award goes to: Farmer quits GM trial after phone threats This was the headline that topped an article by The (London) Guardian's science correspondent, Ian Sample. Sample ran with the story without managing to confirm with anybody other than GM industry sources that these threats had actually occurred. The UK farming press subsequently reported that, according to the police, no such threats had been made. Read the offending article http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,,1973379,00.html GM Watch comment FAKE GENOCIDE AWARD - 2006 CS Prakash's AgBioWorld for persistently posting on its AgBioView list articles with claims such as: "In Zambia, where people are starving to death, Greenpeace unleashed their political agenda and probably killed many people." (Why We Need Genetically Modified Crops - Hegemony in Science) http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7092 But the material p |