From MAILER-DAEMON Tue Nov 2 00:44:30 1999 Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 00:44:30 -0500 (EST) From: Mail System Internal Data Subject: DON'T DELETE THIS MESSAGE -- FOLDER INTERNAL DATA X-IMAP: 0938756466 0000003503 Status: RO This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system software. If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created with the data reset to initial values. From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sat Mar 13 11:32:01 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id LAA17639 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 11:32:01 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id KAA27387 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 10:34:19 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from imo12.mx.aol.com (imo12.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.2]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id KAA27382 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 10:34:14 -0500 (EST) From: Sprinkraft@aol.com Received: from Sprinkraft@aol.com by imo12.mx.aol.com (IMOv19.3) id 7KNIa19425 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 10:33:33 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 10:33:33 EST To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: GMO/organic crop insurance Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 206 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu id KAA27383 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 1 I guess my suggestion to inquire about insuring organic crops against GMO contamination wasn't so goofy after all: Spain makes transgenic crop producers pay into insurance fund [BARCELONA] The Spanish government has decided that companies that produce or plant genetically modified crops must contribute to a 90 million Euro (US$100 million) insurance fund intended to cover environmental accidents. The move reflects growing calls for tougher restrictions on such crops from opposition political parties, non-governmental organizations, and consumers' associations. As a result of this pressure, the government's approach to transgenic crops will be debated in parliament this week after two left-wing parties expressed concern that Spain has authorized the planting of genetically modified crops that have not yet been approved in other countries of the European Community. Environmental issues have become more controversial in Spain since last year's ecological disaster, when thousands of tons of toxic waste spilled into the Doñana national park last April after a retaining wall collapsed at the Aznalcóllar mines in Seville. One party, the Bloque Nacionalista Gallego, is seeking either a moratorium or a strict limit on the import of such crops. The movement Ecologists in Action, which includes more than 300 environment-related organizations, has called for a ban on the 22 experimental field trials by the company Monsanto that have already been approved by the country's biosafety commission. Concern has been triggered by the high importation of modified crops, especially maize and soya. Between 15,000 and 20,000 hectares are said to have already been planted with such maize from the company Novartis. The number of licences for test plantings has increased from 36 in 1996 to 124 by January of this year. Transgenic foodstuffs became an issue in Spain in 1996, when seven Greenpeace activists held a protest in Barcelona against a boat containing 45,000 tons of soya, 2 per cent of which was genetically modified. Cristina Narbona, the environment-commission spokesperson of the socialist party PSOE, has urged the government to support demands being made at the biodiversity protocol meeting in Colombia to base the protocol on the so-called "precautionary principle". Xavier Bosch ********************************************************* ********************************************************* Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente Global Secretariat Global Forum on Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security c/o Agora - Associacao para Projetos de Combate a Fome SGAN 905 Conjunto B 70790-050. Brasilia. DF Brasil tel +55 61 347 4914 fax +55 61 274 8822 347 9002 cel + 55 61 972 1455 e-mail agora@tba.com.br *********************************************************** *********************************************************** On Another Front: INDEPENDENT (London) March 12 Land planted with GM crops may fall in value By Charles Arthur, Technology Editor Surveyors warned yesterday that farmers who plant genetically modified (GM) crops could see their land values fall, and that tenants of such land might face bills to make up the shortfall. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) called for the creation of a land register through which potential buyers, and banks, could find out if and when GM crops had been planted or grown on a particular holding. In a separate move, the Government announced that the independent advisory group on planting of GM crops will investigate the effects on British wildlife and biodiversity of commercial growing. Lord Whitty, the environment minister, said that the remit of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (Acre) has been expanded, and a subgroup set up to examine biodiversity issues. "With these regulations in force, British wildlife species should be protected against effects from the commercial use of GM crops," he said in a Lords' written reply. However, the RICS report, sent to the Government's Office of Science and Technology and other departments, warned that growing such crops might lower the value of the land. In the case of tenant farmers, a landlord could, in effect, sue for any shortfall in land value caused by the tenant growing GM crops. Michael Chambers, director of the RICS's policy unit, said that if commercial growing goes ahead, it would require a permanent register of sites where GM crops were or had been. "It's very hard to see how it could be controlled once you grow on a widespread scale in the countryside," he added. ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. ** To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From london@metalab.unc.edu Thu Mar 11 23:29:45 1999 -0500 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id XAA17480 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:29:45 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id WAA25471 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:22:34 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from portal.txcyber.com (IDENT:root@portal.cy-net.net [205.140.147.1]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id WAA25414 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:22:28 -0500 (EST) Received: from FLYLO (ppp230.cy-net.net [208.21.195.39]) by portal.txcyber.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id VAA07548 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 21:22:24 -0600 Received: by FLYLO with Microsoft Mail id <01BE6C04.0136F340@FLYLO>; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 21:13:26 -0600 Message-ID: <01BE6C04.0136F340@FLYLO> From: Martha Wells To: "sanet-mg-digest@ces.ncsu.edu" Subject: prisoners as laborers Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 19:24:48 -0600 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 2 For some reason in Tx anyhow, you have to be grant-funded or some other gvmnt 'charity' org to be allowed prison labor help. I have a friend who runs an environmental outside school for kids, and she is allowed 'trustee' type laborers for most of the heavy work. They do it for community service hours taken off their sentence, and most stay after the term is up, helping her as friends. It is a unique situation here. (martha) To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From london@metalab.unc.edu Fri Mar 12 00:13:06 1999 -0500 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id AAA18232 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 00:13:06 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id XAA01378 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:14:04 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from imo22.mx.aol.com (imo22.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.66]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id XAA01314 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:13:58 -0500 (EST) From: Sprinkraft@aol.com Received: from Sprinkraft@aol.com by imo22.mx.aol.com (IMOv19.3) id 7GFZa12647 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:13:23 +1900 (EST) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:13:23 EST To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Eat In Wichita Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 206 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu id XAA01326 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 3 Eat in Wichita by Steve Sprinkel 11 March 1999 Eat in Wichita, because if you don’t you will starve your way down the Interstate through all of southern Kansas and most of northern Oklahoma. Not that the bloom of fast food logos on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, poking far above the street-side bustle and fumes like mutant electronic dandelions should spur your appetite once you arrive there. Eat in Wichita, when and if the opportunity arises on the southbound route, for you will look nearly in vain for sustenance along I-35 thereafter. However, the short-term fasting may heighten one’s perceptions, but I shall let you be the judge of that. Road Food, which is playfully interpreted as Road Kill in Compostia, Texas, presents for the conscientious traveler a continual meal-time quandary, flanked by dietary and political considerations, time, and the lack of any alternative to what seems like a fabulous array of choices, but in reality are merely the same menu under different trademarks with variously sassy, coy or boisterous marketing strategies. Fried Chunk Food, which is also synonymous with Greasy Junk Food, is the staple design for these vittles and I believe we may have reached a definite apogee concerning their multiplicity as well as their ubiquity. Whole sections of cities are now formatted and zoned to provide for these places. The transportation department serves as their advertising agency on every appropriate off ramp. The entertainment industry pre-links their motion pictures with semi-disposable, quasi-collectable plastic ware, only falling short of creating Jurassic Burgers or DarthVader Dessert Pie. Fast Food, as in: somebody’s pulling a fast one. That other Junk Food outlet, television, and its allies in advertising, mercilessly pound home the message as if it was still necessary. But it's not. I saw the white flag of surrender fluttering in downtown South Haven, Kansas recently one afternoon. It is an agricultural dead-zone to match that big one off the coast of Louisiana.. In towns everywhere across the US Midwest, the echoing emptiness of the failed town-center, where even video-rental and antiques can not subsist, is the sure sign that the battle for the American Appetite is over. The bank doesn’t even post For Rent signs. Make mine Olestra, and keep the TP handy, you freaks. Gimme a double-shot of that fat-free grease, you Zombies! You craven Stalinists! I thought you fought for fifty years to keep us from living under the yoke of Central Planning! And now you say that all you sought was our own convenience. But I could not even obtain convenience. I got off the Kansas toll road at the ramp to Wellington, went through town only noting a crumbling Pizza Hut, turned south on US 81, and figured Rome or South Haven would be able to fix me up. It was after noon, but these small-town café proprietors will usually fry eggs even during the lunch hour. Rome turned out to be a big grain elevator. On the side of the road in "downtown" South Haven was the Blankspace Café. Just "Pepsi" , and then CAFÉ beneath the soda-sell. I walked in, checking first my wallet, and then the walls and the register to see if the magic words VISA or MASTERCARD were glued thereon. I was out of currency and South Haven was a foreign country that did not accept my VISA and which had been passed over by MASTERCARD. I didn’t even bother to ask them about accepting my check, although my bank, NorWest, is nearly as recognizable now as Ronald McDonald . When I said the words" credit card" to the beautiful Kansas matron behind the counter, her reaction was the same as if I had asked her if she had a wine list. Two long-retired couples ate sandwiches and sipped soup, somewhat startled to see anyone new in what was nearly equivalent to their own kitchen at home. Okey-dokey! I returned ravening to my muddy vehicle, thinking. My first thought was that I had been reckless in not loading up on rye bread, nuts and fruit at "Everybody’s" when I left Fairfield, Iowa, the day before. I mean to be pedantic: learn where the safe food is stored across this great wasteland of ours, because the health you protect may be your own. Every day is Y2K on the Interstate, my hippie sisters and brothers. I surveyed the jumbled contents of the Trooper. What do I have in here? I have three bottles of homemade organic pickles that Cissy Bowman made in Indiana. I have two Rye-Krisp ( TM) crackers left over from who knows when, and I have half a head of organic garlic. I also have some TUMS. Natch. I opted for the pickled okra, set aside the garlic as an antidote to my next experience eating a Hardee’s Fish Sandwich, savored the crackers and kept the TUMS in ready-reserve. I thank Providence that I had nearly a gallon of spring water on board. Like a grateful Crusoe, I turned south and headed back down to US 177 which took me to the NAFTAWAY, IH 35, and south towards Texas. Nearly like Dafoe’s hero, I could have called out " Chunks and calories everywhere, but not a bite of food to eat!" MacDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Whataburger, Arby’s, Hardee’s, Grandy’s, Denny’s, Applebee’s, Popeye’s, IHOP, Tastee Freeze, Jack in the Box A and W, In and Out, Long John Silver's, Dairy Queen, KFC, Chick-Fil-A , The Big Boy and Sonic. And that’s just the northern tier. Once you get below 35 degrees North latitude, you hit the Hot Sauce Zone: Taco Bell, Del Taco, Taco Cabana, Chili’s. Only Taco John seems to have carved out a niche for franchised tortilla vending in the northern climes. I could include the parallel food forms, such as those found at Subway, as well as the Italian Flatbread Conspiracy cartel of Pizza Hut, Mr. Gatti’s, and Domino’s. Only Chinese seems to be immune to this twisted menu, probably because fresh vegetables are involved. Beyond Fries, I think the one menu item that really sums up Frytown’s monotony is the battered, fried chicken chunk. I would have said " nugget" but the control on that word is governed by copyright. These generic chunks are what is wrong with not just the food supply, but agriculture generally: the planet is losing its diversity accidentally while greedily pursuing a business plan designed to provide fewer and fewer farmer and consumer choices. It is as if a big Hoover has roamed the countryside, pulling up farms and towns from their foundations. The economic alchemists have emptied the vacuum bag along the Interstates and in the concrete/neon outliers of "civilization". The miraculous recombination of these dissimilar, but formerly interactive and natural parts, being people, farms, animals, soil, merchants, government and service, is unquestioned progress. Libraries and the Lions Club, like the family farm, are endangered species. And the new cable-ready city-states do rule. Scratch cooking is only done for the rich. The homogeneity of the speed-fry menu is mirrored in the sameness of the countryside: its industrial. Its also easy! Its fun! And the kids like it too! Stay all day, and let ‘em wear themselves out in our neoprene playroom. Win free coupons for your favorite stuff, which is also plastic. And best of all, you too can be a stakeholder, with your own easy-to-run, internationally marketed, readily identifiable food product dispensary. Computer: Big Mac! Hold the onions, Hold the lettuce, Hold the tomato. Extra Mayonnaise. Why this is getting to be so darn convenient that someday machines can run the whole enterprise. Just one " partner" at the console, and all he/she has to do is make sure the trucks get unloaded and that the grease stays hot. Keep it cheap though. Got to go for market share and volume of sales in this game. Just like those bushels of corn at the CBOT, fortunes are made in pennies these days. The next idea is entirely contradictory because it relies on technology: Wouldn’t it be nifty to have a website that listed all the sources of organic foods across the country, so that no matter where you were, like in Cantril, Iowa, you would know there was an Amish store in the middle of the block across from the Post Office? Or that every Wednesday and Saturday you could go to Pure Luck Organic Farm in Dripping Springs, Texas, and buy goat cheese and vegetables? Or the location and time of every farmers market? God, I’ll stay off the interstate for that. I won’t mind the STOP signs, the combines and the horse buggies, just so long as I can dodge those chunks. Steve Sprinkel at the corner of Redbud and Bluebonnet Compostia, Texas To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From london@metalab.unc.edu Fri Mar 12 00:13:57 1999 -0500 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id AAA18242 for ; Fri, 12 Mar 1999 00:13:56 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id XAA02070 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:14:40 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from imo25.mx.aol.com (imo25.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.69]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id XAA01970 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:14:35 -0500 (EST) From: Sprinkraft@aol.com Received: from Sprinkraft@aol.com by imo25.mx.aol.com (IMOv19.3) id 7ZIVa13170 for ; Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:13:25 +1900 (EST) Message-ID: <64478596.36e89465@aol.com> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:13:25 EST To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Sinister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonauts Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 206 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu id XAA01987 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 4 Allen Moody writes from La Farge, Wisconsin: All right folks, by popular demand, here are the latest lyrics for the “I’m Fixin’ to Mutate Rag” arranged by Country Joe McDonald, lyrics by Sinister Dane, as performed by "Sinister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonauts" at the Upper Midwest Organic Farmers Conference, with 1200 in attendance. I'm not sure if Country Joe appreciates what we've done because no one asked him. But, if every thing goes right and according to plan, we'll have a big release scheduled for Earth Day in April. Maybe we'll get our fifteen minutes of fame after all, donate all the proceeds to charity, and put Country Joe back on the map. To those of you unaware of what's going on, the following song is sung to the tune of the "I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" (a Vietnam War protest song) made even more famous when Country Joe sang it in front of 300,000 people at Woodstock. If ever we needed a "hip" protest song to rally around, this one is it. As you go through the song, you will find out it is ripe for revision. Write your own lyrics to fit your own mood. There are as many versions to this song as there are people, but the message will always be the same. In the vernacular of the Sixties, "Peace, brother." Allen "I'm Fixin' to Mutate Rag" Verse I D7 Come on all you farming folks G Ol' Monsanto’s blowin smoke D7 They got genetic freaks and corporate greed G You can spray anything but you can't save seeds E7 A7 We’re changin’ Mother Nature’s rules D7 G There’s new genes in the pool CHORUS D/E D/F D/F# G And its one, two , three, what are we spraying for D7 G Don't ask me I don't give a damn, its a chemical promise land D/E D/F D/F# G And it's five, six, seven, get ready to perpetrate (or pollinate) E7 A7 D7 G Ain't no time to wonder why, you can kiss your farm goodbye Verse II Come on farmers, get off your ass Round Up Ready is here at last Sign away your privacy When you buy into technology You can be the first one on your block To grow genuine Frankenstein crops. CHORUS And its one, two, three, what are we spraying for Don't ask me I don't give a damn, its a chemical promise land And it's five, six, seven, get ready to propagate Cause, there ain't no time to wonder why, you can kiss your farm goodbye Verse III Come on scientists don't be slow This world needs GMO’s There's plenty of money to be made Choppin’ those genes with the tools of the trade Ya know we’re not GOD, yeah we’re throwin’ the dice That’s what happens when you cut and splice CHORUS And its one, two, three, what are we spraying for Don't ask me I don't give a damn, its a chemical promise land And it's five, six, seven, let's go exterminate Cause, there ain't no time to wonder why, you can kiss your farm goodbye Verse IV Come on mothers throughout the land Put your fate in Monsanto’s hands Come on fathers don't hesitate To lose your farm before its too late (or, count your sperm, it’s not that great) It’s all right you can trust in me Remember DDT CHORUS And its one, two, three, what are we spraying for Don't ask me I don't give a damn, it's a chemical promise land And it's five, six, seven, get ready to litigate Cause, there ain't no time to wonder why, you can kiss your farm goodbye (This last part is optional and works best in a nice rowdy arena. Don't forget to have everyone singing along with the CHORUS). Repeat FIRST verse and end with following CHORUS twice CHORUS And its one, two, three, what are we FARMING! for Don't ask me I don't give a damn, its a CORPORATE promise land And it's five, six, seven, get ready to TERMINATE Cause, there ain't no time to wonder why, you can kiss YOUR ASS goodbye (repeat twice at end) Allen Moody To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sat Mar 13 17:57:33 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id RAA21974 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 17:57:33 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id RAA17837 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 17:06:54 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from eagle.ACNS.ColoState.EDU (root@eagle.ACNS.ColoState.EDU [129.82.100.90]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAA17813 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 17:06:49 -0500 (EST) Received: from lamar.ColoState.EDU (lamar.ACNS.ColoState.EDU [129.82.100.75]) by eagle.ACNS.ColoState.EDU (AIX4.3/UCB 8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA52032; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 15:06:50 -0700 Received: from edandsue (dialup0195.PPP.ColoState.EDU [129.82.53.39]) by lamar.ColoState.EDU (AIX4.3/UCB 8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id PAA43348; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 15:06:49 -0700 Message-ID: <002f01be6d9d$019cd120$27355281@edandsue.colostate.edu> From: "Ed and Sue Sparling" To: "John Henning, Eco-Echo, McGill U., Montreal, Ca" Cc: Subject: Re: Key foundation offer to "educators" Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 14:59:37 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3110.5 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 5 Thanks to John Henning for pointing out the Key Foundation 'offer.' Not to belabor the obvious, but I can't resist copying the list of sponsors of the Key Foundation. Find the list below the next paragraph. Last Spring I renewed acquaintence with a childhood friend whom I discovered was employed virtually full time in running workshops like the one sponsored by the Key Foundation. She described herself as an 'activist' whose mission is to stem the tide of 'misinformation' and 'junk science' which suggests that agricultural chemicals are dangerous. Below is an excerpt from the Key Founation web page: Corporations Abitibi-Price AgrEvo Canada Agrium Avenor Celanese Contemporary Information Analysis Dow Canada DowAgraScience General Electric Canada IMC Kalium Canada Monsanto Canada Procter & Gamble Rhône Poulenc Saskferco Saskatchewan Wheat Pool Shippers Supply Simplot Tetra Pak Industry Associations Canadian Chemical Producers' Association Canadian Fertilizer Institute Coal Association of Canada Crop Protection Institute of Canada Industrial Biotechnology Association of Canada Ontario Forest Industry Association Ontario Waterworks Association Ontario Crop Protection Associaiton Packaging Association of Canada Packaging Career Council of Canada Human Resources Canadian Food Inspection Agency Industry Canada Natural Resources Canada Statistics Canada Private Foundations Donner Canadian Foundation (Toronto, Ontario) To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sat Mar 13 21:02:37 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id VAA23626 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 21:02:37 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id TAA08602 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:27:22 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from ccshst09.cs.uoguelph.ca (ccshst09.cs.uoguelph.ca [131.104.96.18]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id TAA08572 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:27:12 -0500 (EST) Received: from csnet.nw.uoguelph.ca (csnet.nw.uoguelph.ca [131.104.232.2]) by ccshst09.cs.uoguelph.ca (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id TAA16469 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:27:03 -0500 (EST) Received: from CSNET/MAILQ by csnet.nw.uoguelph.ca (Mercury 1.43); 13 Mar 99 19:25:41 GMT-5 Received: from MAILQ by CSNET (Mercury 1.43); 13 Mar 99 19:25:29 GMT-5 From: "E. Ann Clark, Associate Professor" Organization: Plant Agriculture, Univ. of Guelph To: Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:25:29 EST Subject: Re: Key foundation offer to "educators" X-mailer: Pegasus Mail v3.40 Message-ID: <9D2AD7B83@csnet.nw.uoguelph.ca> Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 6 Ed S. - I didn't want to bias the discourse, so held off commenting. But since you have gone to the trouble of posting the list, I'll mention that I was once (and only once) invited to make a presentation to a Key Foundation event. Not knowing any different, I made just the type of presentation you'd expect me to make about the dangers of pesticides. I wasn't invited back. This annual, all expenses paid vacation is a clever, or perhaps not so clever, effort to inculcate certain values into people who will then pass along the same values to their students. Each time, apparently, they have a token opposition person, like me. Otherwise, it is solid industry propaganda. Buyer beware. Nothing worth owning is free. Ann ACLARK@plant.uoguelph.ca Dr. E. Ann Clark Associate Professor Crop Science University of Guelph Guelph, ON N1G 2W1 Phone: 519-824-4120 Ext. 2508 FAX: 519 763-8933 http://www.oac.uoguelph.ca/www/CRSC/faculty/eac.htm To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sat Mar 13 23:35:09 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id XAA25955 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 23:35:09 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id WAA09270 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 22:03:58 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from amani.ces.ncsu.edu (amani.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.51]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id WAA09257 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 22:03:53 -0500 (EST) Received: from m18.boston.juno.com (m18.boston.juno.com [205.231.101.191]) by amani.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id WAA04560 for ; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 22:03:49 -0500 (EST) Received: (from eweigel@juno.com) by m18.boston.juno.com (queuemail) id D5MX4BP7; Sat, 13 Mar 1999 22:03:36 EST To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 19:51:19 -0700 Subject: nitrogen scavenging plants Message-ID: <19990313.195236.3582.2.eweigel@juno.com> X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0,7-8 From: Edna M Weigel Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 7 Dear SANETers: I recall someone looking for a non-nodulating alfalfa for scavenging excess nitrogen. There was much discussion about why one would want such a plant but don't remember any such alfalfa being reported. I just ran across a statement in Peaceful Valley's catalog description for TriosTriticale (Triticum X Secale) which is described as having an aggressive root system: "Use this crop to uptake excess nitrogen." Maybe this would do the job. --Edna ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sun Mar 14 10:38:36 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA09226 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 10:38:36 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id IAA16502 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:46:02 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from iac20.navix.net (iac20.navix.net [207.91.5.26]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id IAA16437 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:45:45 -0500 (EST) Received: from navix.net (xyp111p1.navix.net [206.158.218.11]) by iac20.navix.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id HAA16721 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 07:42:09 -0600 Message-ID: <36EBDDB0.9361815A@navix.net> Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 08:02:56 -0800 From: Richard Mazour X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu" Subject: Re: nicotine and Nabisco crackers References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 8 Interesting story on RJR Nabisco. As a small investor in IRA's and SEP's, where do I find information on companies who's values are similar to mine? ( organic farmer not even hooked on coffee.) Thanks Rich Maroc wrote: > Misha, here's the NYT article on RJR's breakup, it's all greed and money, > human misery is not part of the equation except as it stimulates > litigation, which is more greed and money for lawyers. > > NYTimes: March 10, 1999 > > End of a Disaster: Dismembering RJR Nabisco > > By FLOYD NORRIS > > It's over. A decade after RJR Nabisco was bought in the > largest leveraged buyout in history, the company is being sliced into three > pieces. It is a sad saga for almost all involved. > "The story is what happens when you really overpay for a > company, and the debt levels are just too high," said Stephen F. Goldstone, > who will be the last person to hold the job of chairman and chief executive > of RJR Nabisco. > When all is finished, the only real winners will be those > who cashed out in 1989 -- primarily the shareholders who sold and the > investment bankers who arranged the buyout. > The losers include R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco, which almost > certainly would have been more vigorous competitors had they not been > saddled with more than $25 billion in debt from the buyout. Kohlberg Kravis > Roberts, the leveraged-buyout firm that engineered the deal, lost more in > reputation than it made in money. > Among the sufferers are investors who bought RJR Nabisco > stock in 1991, when the company went public again, two years after Kohlberg > Kravis took it private. > A $100 investment then is now worth $51. Over the same > period, the Dow Jones industrial average more than tripled. > Kohlberg Kravis gave up in 1994, trading its RJR Nabisco > stock for ownership of Borden Inc., the troubled food company. So far that > looks like a doubtful investment at best. > What went wrong at RJR Nabisco? The tobacco business proved > not to be as good a cash cow as the buyers thought it would be. The great > advantage of selling to addicted customers was reduced when price wars broke > out among cigarette companies. > Tobacco litigation proved to be a significant threat. > Those problems hurt RJR Nabisco more than its competitors. > Philip Morris, the largest tobacco company and the owner of Kraft Foods, has > seen its share price about double since 1991, while RJR Nabisco's price has > been cut in half. One difference was that Philip Morris had enough financial > flexibility to invest in promoting its products, including Marlboro > cigarettes and Maxwell House Coffee, while debt-ridden RJR Nabisco was > forced to cut back on promotional spending for Winstons and Oreos. Over > time, it hurt. > Now RJR Nabisco will sell its international tobacco business > for $8 billion to Japan Tobacco. That money, after taxes, will go to pay > debt. Then the domestic tobacco business will be spun off into a separate > company, with just $1 billion of debt. Shareholders of the current RJR > Nabisco will get the shares in that operation. > The remainder will be Nabisco, which will have two kinds of > common stock. One type, the Nabisco Holdings shares that already trade, will > have a stake in the profits from such products as Chips Ahoy and Ritz > Crackers. The other will have a stake in the same profits. But as the former > parent of the tobacco company, it will also be burdened with the possibility > of residual liability if lawsuits manage to bankrupt the tobacco company. > The discount between those two prices will show just how scared investors > are of tobacco litigation. > When all that is done, things will be almost back to where > they were in 1985, before R.J. Reynolds acquired Nabisco. Nabisco will again > be an independent company, albeit a weaker one than its predecessor. R.J. > Reynolds will also be independent, with a smaller market share in this > country and an international business that had to be sold to pay debt taken > on in one of the most misguided deals in Wall Street history. > In a more just world, the investment banks that made > hundreds of millions from the RJR Nabisco buyout might now join in the > suffering. Instead, they will collect more fees for their services in > dismembering the hobbled company. > > To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command > "unsubscribe sanet-mg". > To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command > "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". > > All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: > http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sun Mar 14 10:42:34 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA09340 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 10:42:34 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA27691 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 09:10:40 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from mail.caribe.net (root@mail.caribe.net [209.91.196.5]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA27651 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 09:10:32 -0500 (EST) Received: from ddworley (ppp192.203dip.netdial.caribe.net [209.91.203.192]) by mail.caribe.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with SMTP id KAA22429 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 10:13:00 -0400 (AST) Message-Id: X-Sender: ddworley@mail.caribe.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 09:37:44 -0400 To: sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu From: Richard Wolfson (by way of Daniel Worley ) Subject: GEN3-11; Fwd, Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 9 [Reposted with permission] On March 11, the Agriculture and Forestry Committee of the Canadian Senate released its interim report on Genetically engineered BGH. They were very much against it. The full report can be found at: http://www.parl.gc.ca/36/1/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/agri-e/rep-e/repint ermar 99-e.htm Here are the main recommendations: LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS 1.The Committee recommends that Health Canada ensure full adherence to its conflict of interest guidelines and, in cases of perceived conflict of interest, publicly declare its reasons for accepting the appointment of any individuals for whom a conflict is perceived. (page 10). 2.The Committee recommends that decisions about the safety of drugs for humans, and the safety and efficacy of drugs for animals, be left with Health Canada evaluators (page 11). 3.The Committee, having heard the suggestion of some witnesses, recommends that the government conduct an evaluation of Health Canada's drug approval process to ensure that it fully safeguards human and animal health and safety. This evaluation should be undertaken by independent experts, either in conjunction with any follow-up activities of the Auditor General of Canada regarding the Health Protection Branch or subject to review by the Auditor General (page 13). 4.The Committee recommends that no Notice of Compliance be issued for rBST until the manufacturer submits the long-term studies identified by Health Canada's rBST internal review team as data missing from its submission and until a review of those studies more precisely determines any risks to human safety (page 17). 5.The Committee recommends that Health Canada ask that the study requested by the evaluators of the former Central Nervous System/Endocrine/Antiparasitic Division be conducted and submitted in order to meet the requirement of section C.08.004.(2) of the Food and Drug Regulations (page 18). 6.The Committee recommends that once human and animal health and safety are assured, the government establish an ongoing mechanism that would stimulate public discussion on economic, trade, social, ethical and other considerations related to drugs and medical devices that are being considered by Health Canada. This mechanism should involve the Canadian Food Inspection Agency where relevant, and may be one outcome of the Health Protection Branch's Transition initiative (page 21). 7.The Committee recommends that Health Canada officials appear before the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry no later than June 1999 to provide information about the initiatives undertaken to resolve the management problems identified in this report (page 22). 8.The Committee recommends that any federal government department asked for information by a parliamentary committee fulfill that request completely and as expeditiously as possible. Information that the department believes to be proprietary should be presented to committees in camera, with a rationale for maintaining confidentiality (page 24). 9.The Committee recommends that Health Canada, and in particular the Health Protection Branch, explore means by which ongoing consultation with the public, and information dissemination to it, can continue following the Transition initiative (page 24). ....... Here is an inspiring personal report from: Paul Davis in UK Fri, 12 Mar 1999 Subject: B-GE: UK TV Brilliant TV program last night!!!! Covered the whole Pusztai story, 'substantial equivalence', Caul Mosaic Virus, lack of control in US, GM in baby food ....... Dr. Pusztai came out like a hero. Putting his reputation on the line because he found something wrong, even though he was the man who originally said the snowdrop lectin was fine. He was very calm, clear and like a shining light in contrast to his devious and unbelievable opponents. Nice touch in an american supermarket. At the check-out, the reporter asked which products contained GM - check-out girl had no idea. 'Has anyone asked you that before?', 'No sir, you're the first'. Good interview with an american scientist pointing out how unpredictable the science is. Also Dr. Howard of Liverpool, a leading expert in child toxology, had a great impact. His concerns for children's & babies health came over as very genuine. Prof. James of the Rowett must be fuming!!! Everyone is now qouting him as saying the current regulations are not comprehensive enough!!!! And Minister Jeff Rooker ranted on again how fed up he is people talking about the potato - 'This potato is not on the market'. However at the end of the program the reporter said that they had research Government & EU papers and had found that a number of crops containing the snowdrop gene are in the pipeline for approval - cauliflower, rice, maize..... and a POTATO!!!!! ....... posted by MichaelP Royal Society sets up inquiry on Pusztai expts. INDEPENDENT (London) March 11 Inquiry into work of GM food scientist By Steve Connor, Science Editor A high-powered team of scientists has been appointed to investigate the work of Dr Arpad Pusztai, whose findings triggered a furore over genetically modified (GM) food. The Royal Society, Britain's most eminent body of scientists, has asked six of the country's leading scientists to review the data that led Dr Pusztai to warn that people who eat GM food are "unwitting guinea pigs in a mass experiment". The six specialists were selected by the Royal Society for their expertise in different disciplines and their independence from the Pusztai affair. None has commented publicly on the controversy. It is almost unprecedented for the Royal Society to establish what is effectively an independent peer review of a scientist's unpublished work. It was brought about because of the intense publicity associated with the Pusztai affair. Last August, the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen suspended Dr Pusztai after he claimed in a television interview that rats fed GM potatoes had stunted growth and a defective immune system. The institute said Dr Pusztai had no evidence on which to base his assertions and claimed that he had become "muddled" over experiments that had not taken place. In February, 20 scientists, mostly friends of Dr Pusztai, signed a memorandum supporting him, citing new evidence. The members of the review team include experts in statistics, nutrition, animal genetics, epidemiology and pharmacology. They will report their findings next month. ........... Here is a recent Natural Law Party Press from release that I was forwarded from Europe: http://www.natural-law-party.org E-mail: nlp@euronet.nl 11 March 1999 SCIENTISTS ALERT MPs TO BAN GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS A special all-party briefing for MPs of the British parliament was held on 8 March in London in a House of Commons committee room, given by scientists concerned about the introduction of genetically modified foods. Professor John Fagan, an eminent molecular biologist with 23 years of experience at the cutting edge of molecular genetics techniques in cancer research, called for greater caution in the introduction of genetically modified foods. "If genetic engineering is to be used in agriculture and food production, its implementation should be guided by the same kind of rigorous science and testing that is now used to assess new pharmaceuticals and food additives. Stringent short-term and long-term safety testing and environmental assessment are essential," Dr Fagan told MPs. An imprecise and uncontrolled process Using detailed charts to explain the process of genetic engineering, Dr Fagan showed how the insertion of specific new genes into an organism is an imprecise and uncontrolled process that may influence biological functioning in unpredictable ways. "There is always the risk that genetically engineered foods may contain unintended allergens and toxins, and may be reduced in nutritional value. Furthermore, genetically engineered crops may disrupt the ecosystem by reducing bio-diversity, damaging soil fertility, inducing the development of new pathogens, pests, and weeds, and increasing the use of toxic and carcinogenic agrochemicals." Dr Fagan is Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He initiated world-wide debate on genetics research in 1994 when he returned almost two million dollars of grants from the US National Institutes of Health because of concerns about the dangers of genetic engineering and the hazards of releasing GM organisms into the environment. Dr Fagan is also chief scientific adviser to Genetic I.D., a company that provides genetic testing services to food, nutritional, and agricultural industries throughout the world. The tests Dr Fagan has devised are significantly more sensitive than any currently utilised by British authorities and can detect the minutest trace of any GMO. Medical and agricultural applications of genetic engineering Dr Michael Antoniou, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Pathology and head of a research group at one of London's leading teaching hospitals, explained the difference between clinical and agricultural applications of genetic engineering. "Genetic engineering in medicine tries to correct a genetic defect that is either inherited, as in muscular dystrophy or cystic fibrosis, or acquired, as in cancer. Strict regulations quite rightly demand that the use of genetic modification (GM) in medicine does not result in the intentional release of viable GM organisms (GMOs) into the environment," Dr Antoniou said. "In marked contrast, the use of GM in agriculture tries to 'repair' plants that have nothing inherently wrong with them. In agriculture, GMOs are produced specifically for their intentional release into the environment. "In medicine a new drug or therapy produced using GM must undergo pre-clinical and, more importantly, clinical trials to assess not only efficacy but also to detect any unexpected, undesirable side-effects. However, for GM food no tests with human volunteers are required by law for either toxicity or allergic reactions prior to marketing. "Medicines are clearly labelled, and they are taken voluntarily, and the effects are carefully monitored. None of this applies to GM foods. Under current EU regulations most foods (90%) containing GMO-derived ingredients need not be labelled. The lack of effective segregation means the public has no choice as to whether to eat GM foods or not, and finally post-release monitoring is non-existent. Any problem that subsequently arises would therefore be virtually impossible to trace," he said. Respecting natural boundaries "If BSE has taught us anything it is that we should think twice about using a technology in a manner that violates well established natural boundaries. Nature works according to the principle of 'least action' (maximum economy) suggesting that everything exists for a purpose. Natural boundaries or laws can be seen as the means by which the evolutionary direction and integrity of life is maintained. "We should not lull ourselves into a false sense of security: we should not think that by regulating something which is inherently unpredictable and uncontainable it automatically becomes safe," he said. Dr Antoniou is the author/co-author of more than 50 publications and is biotechnology adviser to many organisations including the Soil Association and the Society for the Promotion of Nutritional Therapy. A total ban Dr Geoffrey Clements, leader of the British Natural Law Party and a physicist by training, emphasised that the scientific knowledge behind the so-called technology is totally inadequate to guarantee that the GMOs now being produced are free from hazards. "It is like expecting a physicist trained under Newton to operate a nuclear reactor," Dr Clements said. "The actual methods employed are intrinsically dangerous and highly unnatural," he said, referring to the fact that genetic modification can involve pieces of DNA from scorpions, fish viruses, bacteria and other species being implanted in the DNA of cereals, vegetables, fruits and animals. "Contrary to the arguments being put forward, these are mutations of the DNA that could never occur in nature. They are being made to occur in isolated species over a time scale of one or two years. In nature, evolution of the DNA usually takes place over millions of years, in a natural environment of all species living together in balance. "This means that we have no way at all of predicting any adverse results that may happen. When the methods of genetic modification are understood - that they involve pieces of virus and bacterial DNA, for example - it is clear that we are unleashing potential disaster for all life forms. "The only safe way forward is a total ban on all new GM crops and foods, and a recall of all crops and products already being grown and prepared." The Natural Law Party was the first political party to declare itself opposed to GM foods, and it is now actively campaigning on the issue in 80 countries. ........ GM Farmers have Grounds for Concern Experts warn of fall in land values similar to effect of contamination or disease CHRISTOPHER CAIRNS Environment Correspondent Scotsman 11th march 1999 GENETICALLY modified crops could reduce the value of agricultural land across Britain and leave tenant farmers open to legal action, the Government has been told. In a warning which has sent tremors through the already crisis-hit farming industry, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has said GM crops could have the same effect on land values as contamination or the outbreak of disease. The RICS has sent a report to the Office of Science and Technology and several other Government departments calling for the setting up of a land register through which potential buyers and banks could find out if and when GM crops had been grown on a particular holding. Environmentalists have backed the RICS and warned of disastrous consequences for British agriculture if the Government presses ahead with commercial scale GM crop trials. ....... [This is top story for Mar 11, 1999 on OneWorld News [http://www.oneworld.org/news ] AGRICULTURE: Death To Monsanto, Say World Scientists By Ranjit Dev Raj NEW DELHI, Mar 11 (IPS) - Conscientious genetic engineers and activists from across the world Thursday called for a slow but sure death for Monsanto, the U.S seed giant they say threatens life on earth with its genetically modified crops. ''It must be death by a thousand cuts,'' said Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute in Canada which assists social movements to develop tools, skills and strategies for fighting economic globalisation and corporate power. Clarke was among participants selected to devise future strategies against 'Genetic Engineering and Patents on Life' at the close of the two-day 'Biodevastation II' meet here. Monsanto figured high on the agenda because of stiff resistance put up in this country by farmers and activists to field trials in 40 widely separate locations of genetically engineered Bt cotton carried out by the corporation on doubtful authorisation. Said Pushpa Bhargava, a distinguished India biotechnologist who has the French Legion d'Honneur to his credit, ''clearance for the trials should have come from Indian Council of Agricultural research (ICAR) - instead clearance came from the Department of Biotechnology and after the trials had begun.'' ........ The Christian Science Monitor March 10, 1999, Wednesday SECTION: USA; GLOBAL REPORT; Pg. 1 Signs of the food fight to come BYLINE: Laurent Belsie, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor DATELINE: ST. LOUIS HIGHLIGHT: Gene-spliced plants and hormone-treated beef raise ethical questionsabout how much to fool with nature. BODY: Geneticists are on the verge of revolutionizing agriculture and medicine in much the same way computers have transformed business. Labs around the world are working on crops that could feed a growing planet, plants that could clean up contaminated soils, and pigs whose organs may one day get trans-planted into people. But to do these things, scientists are fooling with nature's basic building blocks. As they do, they are kicking up dissent around the world as one nation tries to sell its genetically altered foods to another's grocers. The current food fight between the United States and Europe - over hormone-treated beef and genetically altered soy beans - could be just a prelude of arguments to come. That's because the greatest risks probably don't lie with today's simple genetic alterations. Future rounds of exotic agriculture pose bigger threats because they will put organisms to completely new uses. The fundamental question: How much should science manipulate nature to care for mankind? And there's no going back, scientists say. Consider the US experience. While Europeans debate how far to proceed with the new technology, Americans are quietly ingesting the new foods, often without knowing it. "The genie can't be put back," says Marshall Martin, an agricultural economist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. "Anyone who eats pizza or cheese on their hamburger has consumed genetically modified food.... We pulled the cork out of the bottle in a sense with the discovery of DNA." For example, three-quarters of America's cheese gets its start with a bioengineered enzyme. Nearly 1 out of 6 dairy farmers injects his cows with a genetically engineered growth hormone to boost milk production. And genetically modified crops are increasingly taking over farmlands - with some 70 million acres planted worldwide, 60 million of it in North America. This planting season promises more inroads. For example, half of America's soybeans, perhaps more of its cotton, and a third of its corn could be genetically modified - a remarkable adoption rate in the four years since the new seeds were introduced. Other countries are also moving rapidly to incorporate the technology. Last year, some 650,000 farmers in China planted genetically modified cotton. And this year Monsanto, which produces the cotton seed, expects to double that number. Even the European Union has approved bioengineered soybeans and corn. Small quantities of corn, genetically modified to resist pests, are being grown in Spain and, if approved by France's high court, could start showing up in the fields of Europe's largest corn producer. ....... Daily Express 12 March 99 Why soya is a hidden destroyer Exclusive by Mark Townsend Fresh fears over the safety of genetically modified foods surfaced faced yesterday after new research revealed that food allergies relating to soya Increased by 50 per cent last year A study by Europe’s leading specialists on food sensitivity found health complaints caused by soya - the ingredient most associated with GM foods - have increased from 10 in 100 patients to 15 in 100 over the past year. Researchers at the York Nutritional Laboratory said their findings provide real evidence that GM food could have a tangible, harmful impact on the human body. The findings were sent to Health Secretary Frank Dobson last night as scientists urged the Government to act on the information and impose an instant ban on GM food, while further safety tests are carried out. Dr Michael Antoniou, senior lecturer in molecular pathology at Guy's Hospital, Central London, said: "This is a very interesting if slightly worrying, development. It points to the fact that far more work is needed to assess their safety. At the moment no allergy tests are carried out before GM foods are marketed and that also needs to be looked at." John Graham, spokesman for the York laboratory, said: "We believe this raises serious new questions about the safety of GM foods because it is impossible to guarantee that the soya used in the tests was GM-free." It is the first time in 17 years of testing that soya has crept into the laboratory's top 10 foods to cause an allergic reaction in consumers. __________________________________ Richard Wolfson, PhD Consumer Right to Know Campaign for Mandatory labelling and long-term testing of genetically engineered food 500 Wilbrod Street, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N2 email: rwolfson@concentric.net http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html subcription to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months. __________________________________ To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sun Mar 14 18:01:07 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id SAA22912 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 18:01:06 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id RAA03616 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:05:56 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from igc7.igc.org (igc7.igc.org [192.82.108.35]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAA03546 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:05:46 -0500 (EST) Received: from igce.igc.org (igce.igc.org [192.82.108.49]) by igc7.igc.org (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id OAA29689; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 14:05:10 -0800 (PST) Received: from [4.9.244.107] (PPPa21-PhiladelphiaA1-3R76.saturn.bbn.com [4.9.244.107]) by igce.igc.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA10583; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 14:04:52 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: libby@pop.igc.apc.org Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:08:34 -0500 To: OGL@LSV.UKY.EDU From: "Libby J. Goldstein" Subject: Spring Garden Rally Cc: Sally Wendkos Olds , sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu, Blaine Bonham , COMFOOD-L@SARDONYX.TUFTS.EDU, community_garden@ag.Arizona.EDU, jeg30@columbia.edu, SeyNah@aol.com Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 10 >Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 14:06:51 -0500 >From: Rachel Treichler >Subject: Spring Garden Rally >To: cyberpark@treebranch.com >Cc: Ted Lewis >X-Sender: ecobooks@pop.interport.net >Reply-To: cyberpark@treebranch.com > >===================================================== >The CYBERPARK mailing list >===================================================== >WHAT WOULD SPRING BE LIKE WITHOUT GARDENS? >IF WE DON'T ACT NOW, WE MAY FIND OUT! > >>From Mayor Giuliani's Plan to Auction Off >Community Gardens, To The Admission Fee at the >Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Our Access to Urban Green Space >Has Never Been So Threatened! > >JOIN US FOR AN EQUINOX CELEBRATION ADN RALLY! > >Rally to Save Our Community Gardens >Protest the Entrance Fee at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden >Celebrate the Arrival of Spring > >MUSIC (BRING AN INSTRUMENT!) GAMES, INFORMATION AND MORE > >WHEN: Sunday, March 21, 2:30 pm >WHERE: Eastern Parkway Entrance to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden > (between the library and museum) > Take the #2 Train to Eastern Parkway > >Sponsored by the Park Slope Greens >Call Ted Lewis at 718-437-2758 for more info > > > >=================================================================== >You are in Cyberpark, a public place. All opinions expressed here >are of the authors themselves, and not necessarily those of the >associations hosting this list. To remove yourself from Cyberpark, >send e-mail to listserv@treebranch.com with only the words >UNSUBSCRIBE CYBERPARK in the body of the e-mail. >To join send SUBSCRIBE CYBERPARK >=================================================================== >Add your events to the Treebranch Network Calendar! >http://www.treebranch.com/cgi-bin/calendar/calendar.cgi >=================================================================== >Cyberpark is a project of Neighborhood Open Space Coalition, Friends of >Gateway, and the Treebranch Network. Visit http://www.treebranch.com. >=================================================================== > libby@igc.apc.org Libby J. Goldstein phone & fax: 215-465-8878 Philadelphia USDA zone 7A Sunset zone 32 My garden must be n-dimensional if it's out here in cyberspace. To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sun Mar 14 18:51:08 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id SAA24288 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 18:51:08 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id RAA04540 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:58:57 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from rs1s2.datacenter.cha.cantv.net (rs1s2.datacenter.cha.cantv.net [200.44.32.51]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id RAA04536 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:58:52 -0500 (EST) Received: from redfox (nas4-103.ras.mbo.cantv.net [161.196.247.232]) by rs1s2.datacenter.cha.cantv.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1/1.0) with SMTP id SAA27204; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 18:58:42 -0400 (VET) Message-ID: <0ed401be6e6f$802cd6c0$11ecc4a1@redfox> From: "Red Fox" To: , "Libby J. Goldstein" Cc: "Sally Wendkos Olds" , , "Blaine Bonham" , , , , Subject: Links to the World Labor Markets Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:07:48 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.0810.800 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.0810.800 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 11 http://members.tripod.com/lagofox Links to the World Labor Markets, Bolsas Electronicas, and Information on Career Planning and its Life Cycle. To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Sun Mar 14 20:05:06 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id UAA26186 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 20:05:06 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id TAA19943 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:13:32 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from amani.ces.ncsu.edu (amani.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.51]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id TAA19875 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:13:27 -0500 (EST) Received: from UNLVM.UNL.EDU (unlvm.unl.edu [129.93.200.1]) by amani.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id TAA20873 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:13:26 -0500 (EST) Received: from phcglen (12.2.59.7) by UNLVM.UNL.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R4) with TCP; Sun, 14 Mar 99 18:14:27 CDT Message-Id: <2.2.32.19990315000719.00697860@unlvm.unl.edu> X-Sender: phrc031@unlvm.unl.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.2 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 17:07:19 -0700 To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu From: Jane Sooby Subject: answers to simple-minded question Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 12 Following are some of the direct responses to my question, > Can someone briefly explain why antibiotics are used as > growth promoters in livestock? Aside from controlling minor diseases, certain antibiotics increase feed use efficiency, presumably by reducing the amount of energy spent growing big crops of bacteria in the gut. Dale Wilson It seems to have something to do with a thinning of the intestinal layers-of course has not been well studied, but it was found that the animals absorb more caloric value from their feed. I think you'll have trouble finding much of a mechanistic explanation, given the hostility toward basic science research which has persisted now for many years. They noticed faster weight gain, so they decided to feed antibiotics. L. Muldowney Antibiotics are used in livestock for a higher feed efficiency. The livestock have a better rate of gain meaning the farmer will not have to feed the animals as long. What it all translates to is that in these highly competative times, if the farmer's neighbor is using it he better use it as well or he won't be farming very long and the other farmer will get farther ahead and be in a better position down the road to make purchases such as equipment and additional land and leaving him in a stronger position all around. Paul To use antibiotics as weight gaining substances seems bizarre to me. If the payoff is that the antibiotics we need to fight infection in humans are losing their effectiveness, is this a choice our society wants to make? It intrigues me how this issue brings together so many disparate factors. Jane Sooby University of Nebraska-Lincoln alternative crops research technician Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society western organizer High Plains Ag Lab 3257 Rd. 109 Sidney, NE 69162 308-254-3918 308-254-2402 (FAX) 308-254-0725 (HOME) To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:10:26 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA18886 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:10:25 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id IAA15767 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 08:46:28 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from igcb.igc.org (igcb.igc.org [192.82.108.46]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id IAA15697 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 08:46:22 -0500 (EST) Received: from igce.igc.org (igce.igc.org [192.82.108.49]) by igcb.igc.org (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id FAA12349 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 05:46:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from [4.9.122.69] (PPPa47-NewYorkB2-1R163.saturn.bbn.com [4.9.122.69]) by igce.igc.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id FAA25810 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 05:46:08 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 05:46:08 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: corevaluesne@pop2.igc.org Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu From: corevaluesne@mothers.org (CORE Values Northeast) Subject: Job Opening Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 13 Job Opportunity: Please Post EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Leading green consumer education and advocacy organization seeks dynamic, hands-on Executive Director that's always looking over the next hill to orchestrate all phases of organization development and growth, including long-range and programmatic planning, staff and board development and management, fiscal management, public relations and communications. Requirements: strategic leadership skills in non-profit fundraising, organizational and financial management and administration/operations; strong communications and interpersonal skills; proven team building and problem solving skills; demonstrated interest in environmental health issues, food and agriculture, and consumer activism; high level of motivation and drive; lots of energy; creativity, and a zest for what you do. Apply: Send resume to ED Search, Mothers & Others, 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011; fax, 212-242-0545; email, wgordon@mothers.org Francine Stephens Program Associate Mothers & Others "Take Your Planet Personally" To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:39:07 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA19859 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:39:07 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA15886 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:36:53 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from alpha.matrixinet.com (alpha.matrixinet.com [205.254.232.10]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA15806 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:36:46 -0500 (EST) Received: from [205.254.241.214] (term6-22.vta.west.net [205.254.241.214]) by alpha.matrixinet.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA18016 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:35:02 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: colibri@west.net (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:36:24 -0700 To: From: colibri@west.net (Beth von Gunten) Subject: Spain: Transgenic Crop Producers Must Pay into Insurance Fund Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu id JAA15819 Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 14 Spain makes transgenic crop producers pay into insurance fund [BARCELONA] Saiu na Nature v397n6721, pp636.... The Spanish government has decided that companies that produce or plant genetically modified crops must contribute to a 90 million Euro (US$100 million) insurance fund intended to cover environmental accidents. The move reflects growing calls for tougher restrictions on such crops from opposition political parties, non-governmental organizations, and consumers' associations. As a result of this pressure, the government's approach to transgenic crops will be debated in parliament this week after two left-wing parties expressed concern that Spain has authorized the planting of genetically modified crops that have not yet been approved in other countries of the European Community. Environmental issues have become more controversial in Spain since last year's ecological disaster, when thousands of tons of toxic waste spilled into the DoÒana national park last April after a retaining wall collapsed at the AznalcÛllar mines in Seville. One party, the Bloque Nacionalista Gallego, is seeking either a moratorium or a strict limit on the import of such crops. The movement Ecologists in Action, which includes more than 300 environment-related organizations, has called for a ban on the 22 experimental field trials by the company Monsanto that have already been approved by the country's biosafety commission. Concern has been triggered by the high importation of modified crops, especially maize and soya. Between 15,000 and 20,000 hectares are said to have already been planted with such maize from the company Novartis. The number of licences for test plantings has increased from 36 in 1996 to 124 by January of this year. Transgenic foodstuffs became an issue in Spain in 1996, when seven Greenpeace activists held a protest in Barcelona against a boat containing 45,000 tons of soya, 2 per cent of which was genetically modified. Cristina Narbona, the environment-commission spokesperson of the socialist party PSOE, has urged the government to support demands being made at the biodiversity protocol meeting in Colombia to base the protocol on the so-called "precautionary principle". Xavier Bosch To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:39:12 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA19868 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:39:12 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA16096 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:37:19 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from alpha.matrixinet.com (alpha.matrixinet.com [205.254.232.10]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA16006 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:37:07 -0500 (EST) Received: from [205.254.241.214] (term6-22.vta.west.net [205.254.241.214]) by alpha.matrixinet.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA18081; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:35:27 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: colibri@west.net (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:36:49 -0700 To: , From: colibri@west.net (Beth von Gunten) Subject: Canada: Climate Change Called Farm Issue Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 15 Canada: Climate Change Called Farm Issue Western Producer March 11, 1999 Internet: http://www.producer.com/current_news/this_week/news/03111999news03b.html Imagine farming with more drought, more wind and more hail. Those are some reasons farmers should worry about climate change, natural resources minister Ralph Goodale told the recent Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting. "Most of the available models predict that the world can expect more severe and more frequent climatic change," he said. "We all need to move more decisively to mitigate the threat." Goodale urged more participation by the agricultural industry in meeting the climate change challenge. He said producers should be concerned because they could face a significant amount of adaptation. Agriculture generates at least 10 percent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing climate change, he said. Identifying agricultural soils as carbon sinks is one way Canada can help meet its Kyoto Protocol commitment to reduce emissions to six percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. "Work done by Agriculture and Agri-food Canada indicates that, within a few short years, agricultural soils will have shifted from being a net source of greenhouse gases to a net sink," Goodale said. He added that Canada has made progress in having agricultural soils recognized, but officials need more research and arguments to convince other countries. "The Canadian position is clear," Goodale told delegates. "We see the carbon-storing capacity of the soil as a tremendous opportunity for farmers around the world to be part of the climate change solution." He said agriculture research needs to be broadened to include climate change factors. For example, work on soil conservation, the use of pesticides and fertilizers, water quality and manure management all have greenhouse gas implications. Research has shown that reduced tillage and less summerfallow help soils incorporate carbon dioxide. Goodale said including sinks in the climate change equation would be incentive for sound land management, and an accompanying improvement in soil quality, plant production, water conservation and the bottom line. Ken Kelly, a delegate from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, asked Goodale if there would be any tangible compensation for early action by farmers. Goodale said that is being discussed as part of a crediting system for early action by any sector. "If we can produce such a program ... that would be a very green program," Kelly said. Delegates passed a resolution calling on the CFA to lobby for minimum-till agriculture to be recognized as a carbon sink, and to lobby against increasing input costs through a carbon tax without compensating farmers for the carbon they are removing. OFA delegate Sharon Rounds said large corporations shouldn't be given credit for work done in other countries. "We feel that we have the best carbon sink mechanism," she said. "We're dreaming in technicolor when we think we can plant rainforests in other countries." Bob Down, also from Ontario, said it's "time to get our oar in the water on this issue." Delegates heard that same message from Chris Pierce of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. He told them to be innovative in how they plan to live and work in a carbon-constrained world. "Make sure your voices are being heard in Ottawa," he said. To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:44:24 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA20296 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:44:24 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA15885 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:36:54 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from alpha.matrixinet.com (alpha.matrixinet.com [205.254.232.10]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA15807 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:36:46 -0500 (EST) Received: from [205.254.241.214] (term6-22.vta.west.net [205.254.241.214]) by alpha.matrixinet.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA18022 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:35:05 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: colibri@west.net (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:36:26 -0700 To: From: colibri@west.net (Beth von Gunten) Subject: CARE Rejects Plan to Work with Monsanto Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 16 CARE Rejects Plan to Work with Monsanto St. Louis Post-Dispatch; 03/12/99 After meetings in St. Louis this week, the international relief agency CARE said it would not enter a partnership with Monsanto Co. because of worries by farmers in developing countries about Monsanto's genetically engineered crops. Milo Stanojevich, CARE's chief of staff, said Thursday that it became clear at the end of two days of discussions that brought CARE representatives from around the world that his organization had no interest in an alliance that St. Louis-based Monsanto was suggesting. The partnership could have meant contributions from Monsant for CARE's projects. The rejection is a setback for Monsanto, which stood to boost its image around the world and perhaps counter suspicion of its genetic technologies that exists widely outside of North America. But Stanojevich said his organization wasn't persuaded that genetically modified crops would benefit subsistence farmers in developing countries where CARE works. He said the concerns reflected fears by many farmers that they could become dependent on Monsanto if the use of modified seeds becomes dominant in farming. "There are concerns about the dependence it may create on one company," Stanojevich said, speaking by telephone from Atlanta. "What we said was that at this point, there are open questions about this technology and that we didn't really see how continued bilateral talks would be fruitful." But he added that CARE hopes to involve other organizations in future discussions about genetic engineering with biotechnology companies. CARE is one of the world's largest privately run relief and development organizations, operating in 60 countries. It was founded in 1946 as a means to help European survivors of World War II. Monsanto's chief operating officer, Robert B. Shapiro, had suggested the St. Louis meetings, which drew a 10-member CARE delegation to St. Louis from as far away as Africa and Asia. Shapiro also took part in the discussions. Monsanto asserts that its technologies can help farmers in developing countries to combat pests and drought, and that farmers will always have a choice in the seeds they plant. Philip Angell, **Monsanto**'s chief of corporate communications, described the meetings with CARE as preliminary. He said that they were not aimed at reaching an agreement on details of a partnership, although such an arrangement might have evolved later. "It was designed to start these two organizations talking to each other," he said. A partnership, Angell added, "would only have been a decision after dialogue and more back and forth." Soybeans, corn and other crops modified by genetic engineering are rapidly taking root in the United States. But in most of the rest of the world, it is another story. Europe and many developing countries have erected barriers to commercial production of modified crops. They worry that the safety hasn't been demonstrated over time and that its introduction could disrupt their farm economies and give a few companies too much control over their food and farmers. Those concerns were voiced loudly last month at U.N. biosafety negotiations in South America. In those talks, the United States, Canada and a handful of allies blocked a drive to establish global regulations governing the trade in modified organisms. Monsanto tried last year to establish an alliance with another respected international entity - the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank is famous in development and lending circles for "microcredit" - loans to small farmers and the disadvantaged. But after being scolded by advocacy groups around the world, the bank backed out of an arrangement in which Monsanto had promised $150,000 to support its activities. Exactly what kind of partnership that Monsanto and CARE were talking about was unclear. CARE's Stanojevich said that "philanthropy" by Monsanto had been discussed but that the talks hadn't reached the point of specifics. CARE has a range of partnerships from licensing agreements in which companies use CARE's name on their products to simpler deals in which companies donate to help with projects in parts of the world where they do business. Two of CARE's best-known partnerships are with Starbucks and Delta Airlines. The main critic of **Monsanto**'s attempted alliances is Rural Advancement Foundation International, an advocacy group with offices in the United States and Canada. With its e-mail and fax network, the foundation already had begun to pressure CARE to avoid an alliance with Monsanto. Rural Advancement's executive director, Pat Mooney, said: "I think some of this is quite genuine on Monsanto's part and that they might have something to help solve problems. The danger in working with farmers who are the poorest of the poor is giving them loans tied to Monsanto's technology." To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:47:49 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA20405 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:47:48 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA16123 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:37:22 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from alpha.matrixinet.com (alpha.matrixinet.com [205.254.232.10]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA15987 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:37:04 -0500 (EST) Received: from [205.254.241.214] (term6-22.vta.west.net [205.254.241.214]) by alpha.matrixinet.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA18057 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:35:19 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: colibri@west.net (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:36:40 -0700 To: From: colibri@west.net (Beth von Gunten) Subject: LA Times: Japanese Choke on American Biofood Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 17 Sunday, March 14, 1999 Japanese Choke on American Biofood Genetically altered produce reaps opposition. But moves to label it threaten $11 billion in U.S. sales. By SONNI EFRON, LA Times Staff Writer TOKYO--The video whirs, and an American food exporter's nightmare rolls across the screen. A potato bug is shown munching on the deep green leaf of a potato plant--genetically engineered in the United States, the narrator says, to produce a toxin that kills Colorado potato bug larvae. The bug falls off the leaf, flailing its legs in the air in what looks like insect agony. "They say this is safe, but I don't want to eat it. Do you?" asked the filmmaker, Junichi Kowaka, in an interview. Surveys show that most Japanese do not. In this land where food is considered most delicious when eaten raw or as close to its natural state as possible, genetically manipulated food is seen as synthetic, unwholesome and definitely unappetizing. To blunt a nascent consumer rebellion, the Japanese government has proposed labeling bioengineered food to give consumers the freedom to reject it. That in turn has alarmed the United States, which fears that the move could threaten its $11-billion annual sales--including about $1.3 billion from California--to Japan, the No. 1 market for U.S. agricultural exports. Japan is not the only nation gagging at the idea of genetically altered fare. A truly global food fight is underway. The outcome of the regulatory, marketing and public perception battle that has been joined in Japan could have far-reaching effects on what U.S. farmers plant next year, on the skyrocketing U.S.-Japan trade imbalance and on the struggle between biofood promoters and foes for the hearts and palates of consumers around the world. At issue in the emotional political debate that has erupted worldwide is how much to regulate and whether and how to label genetically modified organisms, known in biospeak as GMOs. These organisms are created when new genes--sometimes from another species--are introduced into a plant or animal to produce "desirable" traits, such as resistance to cold, pests, disease, spoilage or even a particular brand of herbicide. While U.S. farmers are quickly increasing the acreage planted with GMO seeds--to 40% or more of some crops--there is growing opposition in Europe, Japan and in some Third World countries on environmental, health, philosophical or religious grounds. The European Union has slapped restrictions on genetically modified plants and passed a law requiring GMO foods to be labeled. Well-organized environmental groups are crusading against what they have branded "Frankenstein food," fanning doubts about the products from Iceland to New Zealand. Anti-GMO protests have been staged in the Philippines, India and Hungary, according to activists, who are flooding the Internet with virulent attacks on biofoods. In London, where foes dumped bags of bioengineered soybeans onto Downing Street in protest last month, a poll by the Independent newspaper found that 68% of Britons were "worried" about eating GMO food. Only 27% said they were happy to eat it. Not all countries are hostile to foods altered by gene-splicing: GMO seeds reportedly have received a warm welcome in Russia, China and Argentina. And plenty of consumers have nothing against GMO foods so long as they know what is on the menu. A 1994 poll in Australia, for example, found that 61% were happy to try GMO foods, but 89% wanted them labeled. Australia and New Zealand are now trying to set up a common labeling system. New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said earlier this month that consumers have a right to know whether their food contains GMOs. Nevertheless, a heated battle broke out last month at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Cartagena, Colombia, where delegates from more than 130 countries failed to agree on an international treaty to govern biosafety and trade in GMOs. The U.S. government warned that the restrictions being debated in Cartagena would paralyze international trade. According to media reports and conference participants, the United States and five other agricultural exporters that opposed labeling GMOs were bitterly accused by the other nations of torpedoing a global environmental pact to safeguard the interests of their farmers and biotech firms. The debate is by no means limited to food. Genetically modified material is being used in a wide range of products, from textiles to pharmaceuticals. Food Draws the Most Emotional Response Yet it is food that seems to generate the most emotional response. Consumer advocates say that people must have the right to know--and thus reject--food that has been subjected to genetic "tampering." Biotech backers say that requiring such labels is tantamount to branding demonstrably safe food as inedible and would raise food prices for all consumers. Proponents of bioengineering also say "genetically enhanced" species are essential to generate the crop yields needed to nourish the world's exploding population and to reduce use of herbicides and pesticides. They say the foods have been exhaustively tested and demonstrated to be safe enough to pass muster with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as international regulators. Foes assert that long-term studies on the effects of eating GMO foods have been inadequate. They question the environmental risks of developing pest-resistant or chemical-resistant crops, and they fear that bionic organisms could crowd out native species. A subtext in many countries is suspicion of scientific "miracles," new technologies and imperfect regulators, and the perception that the U.S. biotech industry has been heavy-handed in trying to shove new foods down frightened consumers' throats, said Beth Burrows, president of the nonprofit Edmonds Institute in Edmonds, Wash., who attended the Cartagena conference. Europeans have been sensitized to food-safety issues by the outbreak of "mad cow" disease. In Japan, the credibility of the Ministry of Health and Welfare was severely damaged by the 1996 revelation that its bureaucrats had knowingly allowed the sale of HIV-tainted blood products--a scandal that broke the same year that the ministry approved the first of 22 GMO crops for human consumption here. Availability of GMO foods in Japan has not led to acceptance. More than 80% of those questioned in a 1997 government survey said they have "reservations" about such foods, and 92.5% favored mandatory labeling. Unease is beginning to translate into action. The city of Fujisawa, near Tokyo, has banned all GMO foodstuffs from its school lunches. A tofu maker has begun advertising its product as "recombinant-DNA-soybean free." And a number of powerful food-buying co-ops--which claim nearly 20 million members, or about 1 in every 6 Japanese--are trying to screen out or label GMO foods. "It seems Americans only care about the quantity of their food, but Japanese are concerned about the quality," filmmaker Kowaka said. "Nobody wants to eat this stuff." Kowaka is a food-safety activist with the Japan Descendants Fund, a nonprofit group that has succeeded in provoking widespread concern among Japanese consumers about chemical-emitting plastics in food packaging and the use of post-harvest chemicals on food. Last year, a number of ramen makers changed their packaging after Kowaka's group reported that chemicals suspected of disrupting the human endocrine system leached from the plastic bowls when boiling water was poured over the dried noodles. Kowaka's current video, titled "The Dangers of Recombinant-DNA Food," has sold about 1,000 copies at $130 each and is being shown at lectures and gatherings by consumer, environmental and religious groups, he said. The Japanese government is countering anti-GMO groups like Kowaka's with a campaign to convince a skeptical Japanese public that genetically altered foods are not only safe but desirable. In fact, despite its draft proposal for a GMO labeling law, the Japanese government has been actively promoting biotechnology as a vital technology for the coming century and is investing billions to try to turn Japan into a world-class competitor. It is even attempting to genetically engineer strains of rice that will be tastier and hardier than conventional varieties. The politics of genetically engineered food here have been complicated by the fact that all the GMO foods offered for sale so far have been imported. Japanese companies have not dared introduce gene-spliced foods of their own, and although farmers can legally plant GMO seeds, so far none has chosen to do so, said Kazuhiko Kawamura, who deals with the labeling issue at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Foreign food producers complain that Japan's powerful agricultural interests are trying to scare off consumers from GMO foods as part of a campaign to boost domestic agriculture. "Over the last 30 years, there has been a concerted effort here in Japan to paint imported foods as being dangerous, as being less desirable," said Dennis Kitch, Japan director of the U.S. Grains Council. The effort has included everything from asserting to Japanese that their intestines are ill designed for digesting Western beef to convincing them that foreign produce is more chemical-laden than home-grown fare. Though false, U.S. officials and industry sources say, such claims have succeeded in instilling alimentary xenophobia. Kowaka's video is no exception. As the narrator warns that "we Japanese are being used as guinea pigs" for inadequately tested GMO foods, the camera shows unwitting children eating French fries--by suggestion, those made from genetically altered plants that kill potato bugs--at that archetypal American eatery, McDonald's. "They think all imported food is bad. That gets to be protectionist," said a U.S. government official who argues that GMO labeling should not be used to reinforce unfounded consumer fears. U.S. Wants Japan to Accept Standards The United States has decided to require labels on genetically altered foods that are nutritionally different from traditional fare, that might contain allergens or that pose religious problems--such as a plant containing a pig gene--if and when any are introduced. Yet it doesn't require labeling of foods whose chemistry is essentially unchanged, solely on the basis of genetic origin. GMO foes in the United States have filed suit in an attempt to reverse that decision, but meanwhile, the U.S. government is lobbying Japan to accept its standards. "We're asking them not to have a labeling requirement that stokes the fear that these foods are bad without any basis in fact," said a U.S. official, adding that there is no evidence these foods are unsafe. Kowaka insisted, however, that a potato with an inborn insecticide is no ordinary spud, and should bear a warning label if it cannot be banned altogether. The Japanese committee studying labeling for the Agriculture Ministry has not yet ruled on the issue or decided what any label would say. The influential American Chamber of Commerce in Japan warns that GMO labeling "will create new nontariff trade barriers to imports." And while U.S. officials are trying to keep their criticisms scientific and low-key, they also have hinted to Japan that they may protest any mandatory labeling requirement to the World Trade Organization--as they have done over the European Union law. Japanese consumer advocates are outraged by the American stance. Setsuko Yasuda, who runs the "No! GMO" campaign for the Consumers Union of Japan, said Americans should not meddle with Japan's right to regulate food safety and quality. If Americans truly believe in free trade and consumer choice, she said, they should label GMO food for what it is and let international customers make up their own minds. "But to try to hide information [about product origin] and force-feed people what they don't want to eat . . . is wrong," Yasuda said. "It is American arrogance, and it will provoke anti-American sentiment here. You will lose hearts around the world." For Japan and the United States, the stakes in the GMO battle are high. Japan absorbs nearly 20% of all U.S. food exports. With the American farm economy ravaged by the Asian economic crisis, the affluent Japanese market is one that farmers and food processors can ill afford to lose, grain lobbyist Kitch said. Japan's decision on labeling will be vital, and not just because of the size of its market; Tokyo's decisions tend to influence regulators in other Asian capitals. For Japanese, who must import more than half of the calories they consume each day, the increasing prevalence of GMOs in their food supply reinforces a feeling of food vulnerability. For example, 97% of Japan's soybeans are imported, mostly from the United States, and are turned into tofu, fermented miso, natto and other staples of the Japanese diet. However, 28% of last year's U.S. soybean crop came from GMO seeds, according to the American Soybean Assn. That percentage could double when farmers plant this spring's crop. "We will have to find non-GMO sources," Yasuda said, adding that if American farmers want Japan's business, they will have to segregate crops. Trouble is, U.S. farmers often plant GMO and traditional crops in the same field, use the same machinery to harvest and transport them, and pour their grains into container ships that bring a river of food across the Pacific to Japan. However, DNA testing is so sensitive that it can detect one GMO part per trillion, Kitch said. That means a few stray kernels of GMO corn could "contaminate" bushels. To certify a product GMO-free would require costly testing and segregation at every stage in the processing and distribution chain, he said. These obstacles have so far prevented Europe from fully implementing its labeling law, industry sources said. As GMO crops or livestock come to dominate the U.S. market, genetically pristine products will become scarcer and more costly. No one knows how much more expensive--though some estimate a "GMO-free" label could add 30% or more to the price, and wonder whether Japanese consumers will be willing to pay it. Japan's draft proposal on labeling does not specify how pure a non-GMO product would have to be. But without a threshold standard, a can of California tomato paste containing a smidgen of cornstarch that might have been made partly from GMO corn could wind up with a warning label--even if the tomatoes are all natural, Kitch said. Consumer advocate Yasuda and her allies say that imperfect labeling is better than none. And the fewer the "food miles" from farm to dinner table the better, they argue, even if home-grown fare is more costly. "Now, with globalization, we don't know where our food comes from, how it is produced, and what kind of contaminants it might contain," Yasuda said. "Does free trade automatically mean that the cheapest food is the best food? We don't think so." Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail From owner-sanet-mg@shasta.ces.ncsu.edu Mon Mar 15 10:49:17 1999 Received: from shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (shasta.ces.ncsu.edu [152.1.45.61]) by luna.oit.unc.edu (8.8.6/8.8.6/rchk1.19) with ESMTP id KAA20459 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 10:49:16 -0500 (EST) Received: by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id JAA15976 for sanet-mg-outgoing; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:37:03 -0500 (EST) X-Authentication-Warning: shasta.ces.ncsu.edu: majord set sender to owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu using -f Received: from alpha.matrixinet.com (alpha.matrixinet.com [205.254.232.10]) by shasta.ces.ncsu.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id JAA15913 for ; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 09:36:56 -0500 (EST) Received: from [205.254.241.214] (term6-22.vta.west.net [205.254.241.214]) by alpha.matrixinet.com (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with SMTP id GAA18032; Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:35:08 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: colibri@west.net (Unverified) Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 15 Mar 1999 06:36:30 -0700 To: , From: colibri@west.net (Beth von Gunten) Subject: Genetic Engineering, Factory Farming, & Organics Sender: owner-sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Precedence: bulk Status: O X-Status: X-Keywords: X-UID: 18 Genetic Engineering, Factory Farming, & Organics Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston Rural America / In Motion Magazine URL: http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/geff.html News from Europe, India, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston Little Marais, Minnesota In what the Financial Times of London characterized on February 23 as a "public relations disaster for transgenic foods," global resistance to Monsanto and genetic engineering (GE) has sharply intensified over the past 60 days. As reported previously Monsanto Under Attack: Global Pressure Builds Against Monsanto, the international anti-GE movement is rapidly developing into a serious threat to Monsanto and other biotechnology titans. The growing crisis over gene-foods has reached the point where financial analysts are warning the Clinton administration that the European Union will not back off on efforts to label untested GE foods. Many believe this controversy could spawn a major trade war within the World Trade Organization (WTO). In Britain, commentators have similarly warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that his cozy relationship with Bill Clinton and Bill's favorite corporation, Monsanto, could do severe damage to Blair. It has been a rough last several months for Monsanto and the ag biotech special interests. Here is a chronological blow by blow account: * The Fall/Winter 1998 issue of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Gene Exchange warns of recent US research showing that genetically engineered Bt crops are building up Bt toxins in the soil, thereby damaging the soil food web and harming beneficial insects. * On December 15, 1998 attorneys from the Center for Food Safety, on behalf of a broad coalition, filed a legal petition in Washington, D.C. against the FDA to have rBGH taken off the market. The legal action received major attention from the mass media, including a widely-viewed segment on ABC TV national news. The CFS petition cites mounting evidence that the original testing of rBGH was flawed. In 1990 the FDA said BGH was "safe for human consumption." Part of its findings were based on 90-day rat feeding studies in which they reported "no toxicologically significant changes..." Based largely on this conclusion, FDA did not require human toxicological tests usually required for a veterinary drug. However in April of 1998, researchers from Health Canada, the Canadian equivalent to FDA, issued a report which contradicted FDA's findings. Canadian researchers found studies showing that rats were absorbing rBGH after all. In fact, between 20 and 30 percent of the rats were developing distinct immunological reactions. Additionally, cysts formed in the thyroid of some male rats and infiltrated the prostate--both warning signs for potential cancer hazards. "These are toxicologically significant changes in the rats and they should have triggered a full human health review, including assessment of potential carcinogenic and immunological effects," said Dr. Michael Hansen, an expert on rBGH and a scientist with the Consumer Policy Institute, a division of Consumers Union. According to CFS attorneys it is "unclear" how or why these results were overlooked in the original FDA review of rBGH. Monsanto says it submitted the studies to the FDA, while the agency says it only saw summaries of the rat tests. "We're going to go to the courts and say--you were lied to," said Andrew Kimbrell, lead counsel for the CFS. "Essentially it was fraud by the agency and fraud by Monsanto in telling the court that there were no human health effects possible from consuming these products made with rBGH treated milk." The EU has already banned rBGH, but this policy comes up for review later this year. The US government has warned that they will file for damages under the WTO if the EU continues to ban Monsanto's rBGH. * Australian trade authorities announced on Jan. 8, the largest shipment of canola (rapeseed) ever exported from Australia. The $16.5 million dollar shipment is bound for oilseed crushing plants in Europe. According to Graham Lawrence, managing director of the New South Wales Grains Board, "Europe has moved to become a major buyer this year because Australia is the only country to guarantee non-genetic modified canola." Canada has lost $300-400 million in canola sales to Europe over the last year because government authorities have followed the US model of co-mingling GE and non-GE grains. This year over 50% of Canada's 13.4 million acres of canola are genetically engineered. * The mid-January 1999 issue of the California Farmer magazine reports that Bt resistance has emerged among pink bollworms, a major cotton pest, in Arizona cotton fields Biotech critics have warned for years that genetically engineered Bt crops will cause major crop pests to develop resistance to Bt, thereby destroying the usefulness of the world's most important natural biopesticide. * On Jan. 14 Canadian government officials announced that they were not going to allow Monsanto's controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH or rBST) to be injected into Canada's dairy cows. The ruling came after nine years of heavy lobbying by Monsanto and a major nationwide debate. Although the Canadian government and the media stressed that the permanent ban on rBGH was based primarily on animal health concerns, the data posted on their web site by the Canadian scientists who reviewed the drug made it clear that human health hazards were also a consideration, namely increased antibiotic residues and elevated levels of a potent human growth hormone factor and cancer promoter called IGF-1 found in rBGH-derived milk and dairy products. (For further information on the hazards of rBGH, see and ) * * On Jan. 22, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that financial difficulties were forcing Monsanto to slash 1700 employees from its global workforce of 28,000. As indicated in previous Food Bytes, Monsanto now finds itself strapped for cash in the wake of last fall's failed merger with the American Home Products Corp. Monsanto's recent aggressive multi-billion dollar acquisitions of seed companies, research labs, and grain trading operations have increased their power and control over world markets, but have drastically reduced their available capital and lowered their stock values, leaving them potentially vulnerable to an unfriendly takeover by Dupont or Dow or another mega-corporation. Wall Street investment analyst William Fiala told the St. Louis Post Dispatch, "It seems like they (Monsanto) bit off more than they could chew after the merger collapsed. They are taking a risk that they could cut too deep in terms of personnel or could sell things out of necessity that are still good investments. Their debt is beyond Monsanto's comfort level and beyond most analysts' comfort level." * * Almost 200 cotton farmers in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are suing Monsanto for damages after crop failures of Monsanto's Bt and Roundup Ready cotton seeds, according to a news story in the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle on Jan. 25. In a separate lawsuit 25 cotton farmers in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Louisiana are suing Monsanto for fraud and misrepresentation--also in regard to Bt cotton crop failures. * * On Feb. 5, Carrefour, France's largest supermarket chain, announced that they were taking all genetically engineered foods off their shelves. A representative from Greenpeace France, Arnaud Apoteker, told anti-biotech activists at an conference in Cuernavaca, Mexico on Feb. 7 that Greenpeace and their allies were planning on driving all GE foods and crops out of France by the end of next year. * * On Feb. 12 front-page headline stories in the British press revealed that Dr. Arpad Pusztai's explosive research findings on the potential human health dangers of genetically engineered potatoes--first aired in the UK media last August--had been verified by a panel of 20 international scientists. Dr. Pusztai, a world renowned researcher on plant lectins, was fired last August from the government-funded Rowett Institute in Scotland, under very suspicious circumstances, shortly after he went public with research indicating that laboratory rats fed genetically engineered potatoes had suffered significant damage to their immune systems, thymuses, kidneys, spleens, and guts. According to press reports, Pusztai's firing and the ensuing scientific coverup by the UK government were a direct consequence of ongoing White House pressure on Tony Blair to keep the door open to Monsanto and other biotech companies to market and grow GE products in Britain and across the EU. * When Dr. Pusztai fed conventional potatoes and snowdrop lectin (GNA) to rats, no damage occurred. But when Pusztai fed the rats an equivalent amount of potatoes which were gene-spliced with the snowdrop lectin, significant and startling damage became quickly evident. Despite deliberately false U.K. government allegations that Dr. Pusztai's experiments were purely theoretical, a number of biotech companies are currently carrying out similar lab and field tests on gene-spliced potatoes, rapeseed, rice, and cabbage, calculating that snowdrop-spliced food crops will repel crop pests. * Perhaps even more alarming than Pusztai's mutant potatoes, scientists have subsequently pointed out that Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis), a gene routinely spliced into millions of acres of US corn, cotton, and potatoes is now considered to be a form of lectin. And more alarming yet, another scientist, Dr. Stanley Ewen, said that a commonly used vector or production aid in gene-splicing, the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus, may have caused serious damage to the stomach and internal organs of the rats in Pusztai's study. If the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) is confirmed as being hazardous to mammals, this could literally become the "Chernobyl of Biotech"--since Roundup Ready soybeans, Bt corn, and most other GE crops are produced using the CaMV as a genetic splicing vector. * On Feb. 13, eight days after Carrefour's announcement in Paris, a major British supermarket chain, Asda, announced that they were going to remove all genetically engineered ingredients from their own-brand goods. Asda's move comes in the wake of similar moves by other UK retail chains, including Iceland and Marks and Spencer. As Sheila McKechnie of the UK Consumers Association pointed out in the Daily Mail newspaper on Feb. 11, grocery chains banning GE foods like Carrefour will now "have an enormous competitive advantage" in the marketplace. * Bloomberg News reported on February 13 that EU authorities had rejected Monsanto's request to grow GE Roundup Ready and Bollgard Bt cotton plants in Europe. Two days earlier the European Parliament voted to tighten GE regulations, demanding that GE corporations be compelled to purchase liability insurance to cover any and all damages resulting from gene-altered crops or foods. The Parliament also demanded stricter measures for the prevention of gene transfers from GMOs to other crops or wild species, as well as a ban on antibiotic-resistance marker genes in genetic crops. * On February 18, an international coalition of public interest organizations, led by attorneys from the Center for Food Safety (Food Bytes and the Campaign for Food Safety are affiliated with the CFS) filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. to have all Bt crops taken off of the market because of the hazards they pose to the environment and public health. The February 18 Bt lawsuit was announced at a well-attended press conference in Washington, and generated significant coverage in the US press. Last May (see Food Bytes #13) the Center for Food Safety sued the FDA to have all genetically engineered foods taken off the market on the grounds that they are neither properly labeled nor safety-tested, and that lack of mandatory labeling illegally restricts the freedom of choice of those who would choose--on religious or ethical grounds--to avoid GE foods. * "Genetically engineered crops are a threat to farmers, consumers, and the environment," said Charles Margulis, a spokesperson for Greenpeace, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety stated, "EPA has shown a blatant disregard for federal law and its own regulations by approving Bt crops without fully assessing their environmental safety. Their continuing failure to regulate this untested technology forces us to turn to the courts for protection." For further information on these lawsuits see * On Feb. 23, the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK reported that three of Britain's fast-food giants--McDonald's, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken--are responding to customer pressure by eliminating genetically engineered soya and corn ingredients from their menus. According to McDonald's spokesperson Jackie Graveny: "Our aim is to have McDonald's GM (genetically modified) free as soon as possible." Similarly Burger King stated: "The company is set to ban GM food as soon as possible." In a related development the Agriculture Minister in the UK, Nick Brown, announced on Jan. 31 that UK restaurants will soon be required to start labeling "meals which contain certain types of genetically modified food." * With more and more major food retailers, restaurants, and processors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Scandinavia, the UK, and other nations going "GE-free" a tremendous market now exists for certified "non-GE" and organic products. This makes it increasingly difficult for governments such as the US, Canada, and Brazil to keep telling farmers that their "no labeling and no segregation" policies on co-mingling GE and non-GE grains and crops make good economic sense. * On Feb. 23 India's Supreme Court ruled that all field trials of Monsanto's genetically engineered Bt Cotton must be halted. The court ruling and temporary legal injunction came in response to a legal petition filed by veteran Indian activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. According to Dr. Shiva, "This case does not merely have national significance, it has international significance. Around the world scientists, environmentalists, consumer groups and farmers are calling for a moratorium on commercial releases of genetically engineered crops because of growing evidence of ecological hazards and threats to food safety." The court ruling comes in the wake of months of protests by Indian farmers and consumers, many of whom have organized themselves into a Monsanto "Quit India" movement. Dr. Shiva and other activists brought together over 100 grassroots organizations in Hyderabad on Jan. 7 to launch a nationwide campaign against Monsanto. * A major backlash has developed against the United States and major transnational biotech corporations after an international Biosafety Protocol treaty was sabotaged in Cartagena, Colombia. The Biosafety Protocol, supported by over 135 nations and public interest groups worldwide, would have tightened regulations on the international transfer and trade of genetically engineered seeds, grains, and foods. In a vote on Feb. 24 the US and five of its allies, the so-called "Miami Group" (Canada, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile) managed to prevent the passage of the internationally binding treaty. As US biosafety expert Beth Burrows of the Edmonds Institute told the New York Times, "The