[pf] [Fwd: RAFI Geno-type: Calendar of Calamities 2000]

by Betsy Barnum

16 December 2000 00:01 UTC

Some info on genetic engineering's current status from one of the
international organizations that has been opposing the way GMOs are
being developed and sold mainly from the standpoint of protecting
farmers and the independence and diversity of seed stock.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RAFI Geno-type: Calendar of Calamities 2000
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 14:53:56 -0600 (CST)
From: Rural Advancement Foundation Intl <rafi@rafi.org>


Rural Advancement Foundation International - RAFI
Geno-type
December 15 2000
www.rafi.org


CALENDAR OF CALAMITIES - 2000

Biotech's "Generation One" - Travails of a Misspent Youth

The RAFI Revue  ("tongue-in-cheek") of the scientific, political and
media disasters that struck the Agbiotech industry since the BioSafety
Protocol was adopted in January.


January, 2000

- Soiled reputation: As delegations readied for the Montreal biosafety
meeting, US and Venezuelan researchers confirmed that the Bt toxin in
transgenic maize could (contrary to industry expectations) escape into
the soil killing larvae up to 25 days after the break-out.(1)

February, 2000

- Hard to resist:   Canadian scientists acknowledged that Monsanto's
Roundup, Cyanamid's Pursuit, and Aventis's Liberty herbicides lost their
effectiveness against  weeds only 2 to 3 years after an Alberta farmer
planted the companies' GM canola seeds. (2)

March, 2000

- Vowel language:  A long-suppressed U.S. Government  memo dating to 
1993 revealed an experiment in which 4 of 20 female rodents fed the
FlavrSavr (a GM tomato now owned by Monsanto) suffered gross stomach
lesions.(3)

- "Play possum" penis plot: New Zealand scientists proposed to develop
GM carrots engineered to sterilize possums when eaten.  Possums are
threatening the country's crops.(4) Scientists pooh-poohed concern that
the carrots might have the same effect on people, and insisted  the
carrots could be kept separate from the human food chain if necessary.

- The "Which Blair Project":   Tony Blair reversed his position of a
year earlier ("the Prime Minister is very strongly minded that these
[GM] products are safe.") and told readers of The Independent that
"there is no doubt that there is potential for harm from GM food."(5)
Further flip flops are widely predicted.

April, 2000

- Weevil wars:  It was found that GM cotton that "volunteered" in GM
soybean fields may be bringing the dreaded cotton boll weevil back into
the USA as a major pest.(6)

-  A-maize-ing  pace:, American maize growers were shunning GM seeds
because  their 1998/99 exports to Europe had dropped to 137,000 tonnes
from 2 million tonnes one year earlier.(7) The announcement came on the
heels of media reports that major potato processors and fast-food chains
were warning growers to avoid GM potatoes.

May, 2000

- "Safe" … wherever they are? GM seeds were routinely - though
accidentally
- shipped to Europe by U.S. and Canadian seed companies who couldn't
seem to keep their conventional seeds separate from their GM lines.(8)
In the following days, the sloppy inventory management problem spread
throughout Western Europe as country after country found their fields
contaminated with illegal and unwanted GM crops.  (New Zealanders were
assured that such stock management problems could never occur with
carrots.)

- "Safe" … whoever they are: Monsanto advised U.S. officials that it had
detected an unidentified strand of DNA making "mystery guest"
appearances in its GM soybeans, Monsanto assured officials that the
unknown DNA was perfectly safe (and was not a virus playing "possum").

- German Bee Bellies: A researcher in Saxony found that a gene had
transferred from genetically engineered rapeseed to bacteria and fungi
discovered in the gut of honeybees.  Industry had previously claimed
such a transfer was highly unlikely or impossible.

June, 2000

- Spider man: A "jumping gene" being used in genetic engineering has
crossed the species barrier at least seven times, including one jump
between flies and humans.  If organisms modified using this footloose
gene are released, there is risk of further unexpected jumps.(9) (New
Zealanders were assured the gene would not be used in developing
transgenic carrots).

- "Safe" … whatever they are: The New Zealand Government admitted that
there were at least 100 illicit GM crop experiments underway in the
country.(10) After checking on half the experiments, the Government
announced that (as with Monsanto) everything was okay  (and that none of
the experiments could possibly involve either possums or carrots).

July, 2000

- No safe refuge: Non-GM maize "refuges" planted by farmers near their
GM maize fields in order to slow resistance to the bacterial toxin in
the GM fields just don't work.   The vulnerable insects in the refuge
plots refuse to breed with the resistant insects from the larger GM
fields. (Possums, however, are understood to find the corporate designed
plots to be ideal breeding grounds.)

- Wander-lust?  A large-scale study of the UK's oilseed rape crop and
indigenous weedy relatives proved that crosses can occur and that traits
such as GM herbicide-tolerance could leap to weeds. (11)

- Still mad:  UK authorities reported a new case of Mad Cow disease in
one cow born after stringent new controls were established in 1996. (12)
Public distrust of government and scientists over GM crops in Europe
began with their failures in handling Mad Cows.

August, 2000

- And madder still: Human deaths from Mad Cow Disease in the UK were
reported to have increased markedly in the first half of 2000 compared
to 1999.  There were 15 deaths to August 2000 compared to only 18 in all
of 1999.(13)

- The real Golden Rice: A U.S. university study of "sticky" rice
varieties in China and the Philippines showed that planting a number of
diverse varieties increased yields by 89% while reducing disease by
98%.  Their conclusion: diversity outperforms genetically uniform GM
varieties.(14)

- Better flee butterfly! - Researchers in Iowa (USA) confirmed a
controversial Cornell study proving that GM maize is a threat to Monarch
butterflies.  Industry had disputed the earlier Cornell findings.(15)

- Possum labels? - Bowing to public pressure, both New Zealand and
Australia announced they would require labeling for almost all GM foods.
This brought the two countries close to Europe and further isolated
Canada and the USA who still oppose labeling. (16)

September, 2000

- Taco bulls:  A GM maize variety ("Starlink") banned in the USA for
human consumption (because of fears of allergic reactions) but permitted
as a livestock feed, showed up in taco shells served at Taco Bell
restaurants. The Aventis variety raised new concerns about industry's
and government's capacity to regulate and manage GM products.

- Golden fleeced:  The May surrender of the public sector's Golden Rice
technology to AstraZeneca due to fears that the Vitamin A enhanced GM
cereal contravened up to 105 intellectual property arrangements was
shown to be false.  At most 11 patents could be implicated and all would
likely be surrendered upon request.

- "Safe" … whatever part it is?  U.S. researchers warned of a loophole
in biosafety regulations for GM crops such as tomatoes and potatoes
where the rule of "substantial equivalence" applies only to the edible
portion of the plant and neglects changes that might occur in roots or
leaves.  Failure to test for significant genetic alteration of the
inedible parts could risk the environment they warned. (17)

October, 2000

- Power Ranger epi-needles: The Taco Bell scandal spread to Kellogg's
corn flakes as the giant cereal company closed down one plant for fear
that the illicit GM StarLink maize had infected breakfast cereals.
(StarLink was approved for animal feed but not for human consumption.)
In a panic, the White House sent emissaries to Japan and Europe to try
to calm concerns that Aventis's "Starlink" had illegally entered their
countries.  Consumers joked that breakfast cereal makers would have to
give away epi-needles or epi-pens (injections to treat anaphylactic
shock) in cereal boxes instead of Power Rangers or StarWars toys, for
fear of allergic reactions in children.(18)

- Super sugarweeds: German researchers reported that a GM sugarbeet
designed to resist one herbicide accidentally acquired resistance to a
second herbicide.  EU biosafety rules do not permit double-resistance
because of the increased possibility of gene diffusion into weeds and
the creation of superweeds.(19)

- Slow learners: Mad Cow disease = the food crisis that sparked distrust
of scientific judgement and government regulatory competence, appeared
to be taking hold in France with new reports of diseased animals. (20)

- Possum patent policy: A policy change that would have allowed the
world's largest agricultural research network devoted to Third World
food security to patent genes and gene sequences was turned down when
the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
met in Washington. The move would also have encouraged a shift toward GM
crops. (21)

November, 2000

- Unethical monopolies:  The first meeting of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization's Ethics Panel (a group of world-renowned
agronomists and ethicists) concluded that  GM crops are risky,
Terminator technology is immoral; and that patenting genes and other
genetic material leads to crop genetic erosion and unacceptable
monopoly. (22)

- Biotech's billion dollar mistake: With the Aventis "Starlink" scandal
spreading to hundreds of food products and companies, the company
estimated that its clean-up costs would be less than $1 billion.  Then
the GM maize turned up in Japan and Korea…(23)

December, 2000

- Montpellier's Monsanto rescue: The world's "biocrats" gathered in
France to debate biosafety rules and rescue Monsanto. Never before have
so many gathered to debate biosafety for so few!  In essence, the $2.5
billion GM seed market involves 4 major industrial crops (soybean,
maize, cotton and canola) grown in 3 countries (the US, Argentina, and
Canada accounted for 98% of the total GM area in 2000). In 1999,
Monsanto's GM seed traits accounted for over four-fifths of the total
world area devoted to GM crops.(24) Demand for GM seeds almost flattened
in 2000 with an increase of only 8% after years of doubling and
redoubling.  Analysts predicted that, at least until 2003, demand would
remain flat or decline.  In other words, the purpose of Montpellier was
to rescue Monsanto, the USA, Canada and Argentina from their GM blunder!
- Possums'  "pay"-TV: Australian researchers may have found the answer
to New Zealand's possum problems.  Reports earlier in the year that
Aussie possums!
 were dropping like flies from above-ground cable TV wiring has stirred
speculation in the island country that a similar emphasis on overhead
wires could eliminate the need for GM carrots.


Watch for RAFI's "Generation 3" Communique!


Notes

1. 'Toxic Leak', New Scientist, 4 December 1999, p. 7.
2. 'Resistance is useless', New Scientist, 19 February 2000, p. .21.
3. Edwards, Rob, 'Is it or isn‚t it?', New Scientist, 4 March 2000, p.
5.
4. Graham-Rowe, Duncan, 'Possums on the Pill', New Scientist, 4 March
2000, p. 18.
5. Editorial, 'Just give us the facts', New Scientist, 4 March 2000, p.
3.
6. Coghlan, Andy, 'Pocket of resistance', New Scientist, 15 April 2000,
p. 17.
7. 'Maize malaise', New Scientist, 15 April 2000, p. 17.
8. Coghlan, Andy,  'Sowing dissent', New Scientist, 27 May 2000, p. 4.
9. Edwards, Rob,  'Look before it leaps', New Scientist, 24 June 2000,
p. 5.
10. 'Red faces all round', New Scientist, 10 June 2000, p. 5.
11. Sample, Ian, "Modified crops could corrupt weedy cousins", New
Scientist, 15 July 2000, p.6.
12. New Scientist, "Young, nut Mad", July 8, 2000, p.5.
13. New Scientist, "CJD creeps up", 12 August 2000, .p.19.
14. New Scientist, "Triumph for Diversity", 19 August 2000, p.21
15. Kilman, Scott, "Modified Corn a Threat to Butterfly, Study Says",
Wall Street Journal, August 22, 2000.
16. New Scientist, "Stick a Label on it", 5 August 2000, p.5.
17. Coghlan, Andy, "Killer Tomatoes", New Scientist, 23 September 2000,
p.9.
18. New Scientist, "Shells off the Shelves", September 30 2000,
p.5.Noelle Mennella, PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) .
19.MacKenzie, Debora, "Stray genes highlight superweed danger". New
Scientist, 21 October 2000, p.6.
20. MacKenzie, Debora, "La folie francaise". New Scientist, 28 October
2000, p.6.
21. RAFI attended the CGIAR meeting in Washington October 23-27 and
participated actively in opposing the draft "New IPR Guiding
Principles".
22. FAO, Panel of Eminent Experts on Ethics in Food and Agriculture,
First Session, Rome, 26-28 September 2000.
23. Noelle Mennella, PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters.
24. Monsanto Press Release, Feb. 10, 2000.