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Mothers for Natural LawInternational News on Genetic Engineering in AgricultureBiweekly News 00/06/18
Articles have been aggressively shortened. ------------------ From: The AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER, Issue # 77, June 6, 2000
A.V. Krebs
Former Monsanto Lobbyist Carol Foreman
Ignoring the unanimous recommendation of many consumer and agriculture groups concerned about biotechnology, the White House, with input from the U.S. State Department, recently appointed its own "consumer advocate" to the global Biotech Consultative Forum on May 31. "I'd say that the massive PR counter assault against biotech activists has just scored its most important victory with this appointment of one of them as our consumer activist," charged John Stauber, PR Watch Managing Editor in reacting to the appointment of Carol Tucker Foreman of the now very dubious "Consumer Federation of America" (CFA) to serve on the panel. Although a number of groups had forwarded the name of Dr. Michael Hansen of Consumer Union's Consumer Policy Institute, Dr. Hansen, who has testified before Congress and many other bodies exposing false claims made by the Monsanto Corporation pertaining to the company's manufacture of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone and other products, was passed over in favor of Foreman, a recent former lobbyist for Monsanto. ------------------ 6/13/00 Study Concludes Biotech Food Losing Ground with Consumers (13 June - Cropchoice News) -- New numbers on consumer acceptance of biotech are out. In a survey released late last week, market research firm Angus Reid Group says biotech foods are losing ground in the US and abroad. A majority of American consumers now see biotech food negatively, according to the study. Reid says "Americans are growing more disenchanted with the concept [of GMO food]. Forty-five percent of Americans held a negative view when polled by the Angus Reid Group in 1998, compared to 51 per cent earlier this year." The majority of American and Canadian consumers surveyed said they'd like to learn more about biotech. The study also polled consumers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Like the US, in 7 of the 8 foreign countries surveyed, the majority were worried about biotech. In Canada, the number concerned has jumped from 45% two years ago to 59% this year. Ironically it was in Brazil, which is benefitting from increased demand for its non-GMO soybeans, where biotech was viewed most positively. Only 45% of Brazilian consumers were worried about biotech, compared to 71%, 73%, and 82% in France, Germany, and Japan, respectively... Reid surveyed 5000 consumers in the study. More information on the study can be found at the company's website, www.angusreid.com. SOURCE: Angus Reid ------------------ 6/12/00 Japanese Snack Company Switches Sweeteners (12 June - Cropchoice News) -- Citing concerns about consumer rejection of biotech products, one of Japan's leading snack makers has announced it will stop using corn sweeteners. Bourbon Corporation, with $850 million in 1999 sales, said on Friday that it will move to cane sugar and potato-based sweeteners for its biscuits and confection products. SOURCE: Reuters, Wright Investors Service, ACGA ------------------ Brazil Turns Away GM Argentine Corn BUENOS AIRES, June 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian port authorities have turned away two shipments of genetically altered Argentine corn, officials said on Friday, underscoring the two neighbours' starkly different approaches to the crop technology. Brazil officially bans genetically modified crops while Argentina is the world's second largest producer of them. Two ships carrying 26,000 metric tons each of Argentine corn were held in the southern Brazilian port of Sao Francisco on Monday and left without unloading Friday, port authorities in Brazil said. A third ship transferred its 18,000 metric tons of Argentine corn to three river barges in the Brazilian port of Rio Grande and the cargo was held in silos pending lab tests to determine whether it was genetically modified. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. ------------------ June 15, 2000 6:49pm Egyptian Minister Complains about GM Food Exports REGINA, Alberta (Reuters) - A top Egyptian minister Thursday said poorer food importing countries stood in danger of becoming unwilling recipients of genetically-modified (GM) products, which they could not afford to turn away. "The question is how to avoid using LDCs (less-developed countries) as guinea pigs for genetically-modified products," Hassan Khedr, Egypt's minister of supply and internal trade, told delegates to an International Grains Council conference. Egypt is the world's second-largest grain importing country, Khedr said. He said consumers in wealthier countries could afford to choose whether to buy GM products, made from plants altered genetically to grow better or resist herbicides, for example. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. ------------------ Swiss Ease Import Barrier for Gene-Modified Seeds BERNE, June 5 (Reuters) - Switzerland said on Monday it was easing import barriers for genetically modified seeds and environmentalists said the decision would open the floodgates to altered foodstuffs. The government said it had decided to allow a tolerance level of 0.5 percent for genetically modified seeds such as maize, soja, rape and sugarbeet due to the "inevitable contamination" of such seeds with gene-modified varieties. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London) June 14, 2000, Wednesday Buffer Zone for GM Crops 'Does Not Work' By Melissa Kite and Valerie Elliott THE row over genetically modified crops deepened last night when ministers said that there was no safe planting distance to prevent contamination of normal crops. Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, admitted that the best that could be hoped for was to minimise the level of contamination. It would then be up to consumers to decide what level of contamination was acceptable... At present the Government has laid down 200m (650ft) as the minimum distance between sweetcorn and GM maize, 50m (164ft) for oil-seed rape and forage maize, and 6m (20ft) for sugar and fodder beet. Anti-GM campaigners have persistently argued that GM pollen can travel over wide distances. Organic farmers believe that there should be a buffer zone of at least six miles between their crops and a GM crop. This distance is based on the distance that a bee is likely to travel, usually no more than four to five miles. Pete Riley, a Friends of the Earth Real Food campaigner, said yesterday: "At last a government minister agrees with us. What we need now is action to prevent the current farmscale trails and test sites contaminating crops." ------------------ Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Limited The Times (London) June 16, 2000, Friday GM seed purity rule rejected as unsafe By Nick Nuttall A GOVERNMENT plan to allow seeds labelled as conventional to contain up to 1 per cent of GM seed has been rejected by its wildlife advisers as "totally unacceptable on food safety and environmental grounds", it emerged last night. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods has issued proposals setting blanket thresholds for GM levels in conventionally sown crops. The move, which is backed by the European Seed Association, would allow imports to be classed as GM-free if there were no more than 1 per cent genetically modified seeds present in a batch. It follows the uproar, triggered in April, when some 600 farms in Britain and others across Europe unwittingly planted oil seed rape from Canada which contained some GM seed. The plan, seen as an admission that guaranteeing 100 per cent purity is impossible because of cross-pollination and the mixing of GM and non-GM seeds in shipments, is being challenged by English Nature. Brian Johnson, a wildlife biotechnology expert, said a blanket threshold scheme made "total nonsense" of the GM regulatory system in Britain and Europe. "You have potentially different impacts depending on the gene involved. Seeds tainted with a gene that codes, for say, an industrial glue may be completely different from one that codes for herbicide tolerance," he said. Dr Johnson said the process for approving GM crops was organised on a case by case basis, so that the possible impact on health and the environment could be assessed. He said that the same system should be deployed for GM-mixed seed rather than a blanket threshold for GM levels in a mixture. English Nature would be writing to the ministry to object to the proposals before the early July deadline, he said. ------------------ Copyright 2000 Business Intelligence International Pty Ltd.
June 10, 2000 Saturday 'Secret' Genetically Modified Crops Rife Throughout State SOURCE: The Courier-Mail ABSTRACT: Trials of genetically modified crops have taken place throughout Queensland without reference to residents. Organic Federation of Australia chairman, Scott Kinnear, said there had been an explosive growth in GM plantings without proof of their safety. According to Kinnear, "we're part of an extraordinary experiment that's going on". The field trials are among more than 130 nationwide reviewed by the Australian Government regulator, the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee. Kinnear claims existing buffer zones around GM crops are "hopelessly inadequate". ------------------ Greenpeace Canada June 2000 Review on Non-Target Organisms and Transgenic Bt Plants Greenpeace commissioned EcoStrat GmbH, a Swiss scientific consultancy specializing in ecological assessments of biotechnology, to review studies conducted by biotech companies Novartis and Mycogen for regulatory approval purposes. EcoStrat's report, "Review on Non-Target Organisms and Transgenic Bt Plants" was published in April 2000. It shows the studies, intended to determine if genetically modified (GM) corn would cause harmful impacts to non-target organisms, were inappropriate and scientifically questionable. The regulatory studies were so poorly designed that there was virtually no chance that adverse effects would be observed. None were published or offered for peer review, a standard scientific practice that provides a mechanism of quality control and accountability... The full report is available online at:
------------------ Growth Stimulation of Beetle Larvae Reared on a Transgenic Oilseed Rape A recent study finds a genetically engineered crop has the opposite of its intended effect. A line of oilseed rape was genetically engineered to produce a protein considered to be toxic to a larval pest. However, it not only failed to kill the pest but caused increased growth in the larvae. Because this increased growth suggests that the larvae were driven to eat more plant material as a result of the generation of the new protein in the rape on which they were feeding, the study concludes that the genetic modification would increase, not reduce, crop losses from the pest. This situation would appear to clearly demonstrate what a 'try-it-and-see' business the genetic modification of plants is when trying to anticipate the 'downstream' biological effects of any new proteins generated by them. Editor Ref: Journal of Insect Physiology 44 (1998) 263 - 270 "Growth stimulation of beetle larvae reared on a transgenic oilseed rape expressing a cysteine proteinase inhibitor" Cecile Girard, Martine Le Metayer, Bruno Zaccomer, Elspeth Bartlet, Ingrid Williams, Michel Bonade-Bottino, Minh-Ha Pham-Delegue, Lise Jouanin. ------------------ Monsanto Company Press Release Tuesday June 6, 5:03 pm Eastern Time Scientists Publish Study on the Safety and Nutritional Value of Monsanto's Biotech Corn ST. LOUIS, June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists from Monsanto Company, Early Development Services at Covance and Colorado Quality Research will publish research in the June 15th online edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (volume 48, issue 6, pages 2305-2312) which demonstrates the safety of Monsanto's Roundup Ready corn. Throughout a series of comprehensive safety and nutrition studies, the scientists established that Roundup Ready corn is "as safe and nutritious as conventional corn for food and feed use." The results are just now being published following the standard process for peer-reviewed, scientific publications... The composition study featured in the Journal was conducted at Covance's laboratory in Madison, Wis., and focuses on the safety of Roundup Ready corn by comparing its compositional equivalence -- including fat, protein, amino acids, minerals and fiber -- to that of conventional corn varieties. The results of the study were confirmed, from a nutritional perspective, with a feeding study with broiler chickens, conducted by Colorado Quality Research, in Wellington, Colo. Broiler chickens grow very rapidly and therefore provide a very sensitive indicator for nutritional equivalence. Both the compositional assessments and the nutritional feeding study showed that Roundup Ready corn is substantially equivalent to conventional corn varieties. The results of composition and animal feeding studies represent an important component of the complete set of information on which international regulatory agencies have concluded that Roundup Ready corn is as "safe and nutritious as conventional corn for food and feed use." SOURCE: Monsanto Company ------------------ In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is compiled for educational use only. |
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