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Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1998 11:43:20 -0500
To: info@natural-law.ca
From: Richard Wolfson <rwolfson@concentric.net>
Subject: GENews
London Independent July 25, 1998
By Louise Jury
Aid agencies have united to condemn one of the biggest genetic engineering
companies for using the Third World to justify its products.
The company, Monsanto, has been seeking support from leading figures in
Africa and Asia for its claims that biotechnology can "feed the world".
An advertising campaign expected to start later this year says, "Let the
harvest begin". But furious aid agencies have criticised the promotion as
"misleading and manipulative". And African delegates to the United Nations'
recent session on plant genetic resources asked for support in fighting the
biotechnology companies.
In a joint statement, the UN delegates said: "We ... strongly object that
the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant
multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe,
environmentally friendly nor economically beneficial to us."
But despite their opposition, the Global Business Access lobbying company
in the United States has circulated a letter asking for signatories from
the Third World to support Monsanto's claim that we all share the "same
planet and the same needs".
It said: "Many of our needs have an ally in biotechnology and the promising
advances it offers for our future. We know that advances in biotechnology
must be tested and safe, but they should not be unduly delayed ... Slowing
its acceptance is a luxury our hungry world cannot afford."
However, many aid workers believe that recent innovations in farming have
promoted non-sustainable agriculture and done little to help the poorest
countries. Andrew Simms, of Christian Aid, said that people went hungry
because they did not have access to food, not because there was not enough
of it. Ethiopia, for example, was a net exporter of food during its famine
when the fighting prevented produce reaching those who needed it.
"Monsanto's claims of a tomorrow without hunger thanks to their genetically
engineered products are cruelly misleading," Mr Simms said.
The aid agencies are particularly worried by Monsanto, because recent
acquisitions have made it one of the world's most powerful agricultural
biotechnology companies. It has a stake in every stage of the process, from
patented genes to a global seed distribution network. Most significantly,
Monsanto paid $4bn (#2.4bn) for Delta and Pine Land, the company which
developed and patented "terminator technology", which genetically alters
seeds so they will not germinate if replanted.
Fears grew further last month when Monsanto announced a partnership with
the Grameen Bank, a microcredit scheme founded in Bangladesh which provides
credit to small businesses. Aid agencies fear farmers will be encouraged to
buy grain and herbicides they cannot afford.
Liz Hosken, of the Gaia Foundation which works to preserve biological and
cultural diversity, said the poorest countries were being targeted as
potentially profitable markets.
A #1m advertising campaign launched in Britain last month was designed to
persuade people that genetically modified crops were safe and a force for
good in the Third World.
Ms Hosken said: "The fear is if you say something often enough people think
it is true." She said the major issue for developing nations was food
security - having locally grown food locally available. But terminator
technology stopped farmers collecting seeds for use in the future while
encouraging them to buy in seeds and herbicides.
Laura Kelly, of ActionAid, said Monsanto's efforts to convince the public
that its technology would benefit farmers were "morally abhorrent".
...............
Thanks to Judy_Kew@greenbuilder.com (Judy Kew)
for compiling the following
BOOKMARKS ON GENETIC ENGINEERING FOR THE WWW SOME GOOD STOP OFF POINTS WHEN
BROWSING
http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html Campaign for Mandatory
Labelling and Long-term Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods Natural
Law Party, 500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
Mothers for Natural Law, P.O. Box 1177, Fairfield, Iowa 52556
website: www.safe-food.org
http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/97/geneng/finalpet.html Greenpeace
petition against the EPA regarding the approval of BT Toxin.
http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-18472/indexeng.htm Jaan Suurk¸la MD
Chairman of PHYSICIANS AND SCIENTISTS AGAINST GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOOD
An international network for a moratorium on release of GE-products.
To obtain full outline to date of the High Court Judicial Review of the EPA's
granting of a license to Monsanto Plc. to field test GMO sugar beet in
Ireland.
http://www.ul.ie/~biotech/page25.html
Here is the Union of Concerned Scientists Site address. Chart of GE crops.
Great site with a southern perspective called the Third World Network. It is
where I first encountered the writing of Vandana Shiva.
http://raven.umnh.utah.edu/ The Natural History of genes a Science Education
Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah School of Medicine,
Eccle sinstitute of Human Genetics.
http://tdg.linst.ac.uk/technosphere/index.html Assemble a mutant of your
own choosing and see how it fairs.
http://www.acpa.org/public/administration/news/fqpafact.html FYI and
EPA documents on what constitutes food quality.
http://www.biofind.com/rumor/rumor.shtml find out all the scandal within
the industry. Rumours and their source etc.
http://www.oecd.org/ehs/biobin/ Cooperative resource from Unido and OECD.
http://www.oneworld.org/guides/biotech/front.html excellent information on
g/e patents third world issues.
http://www.foe.co.uk/ Friends of the Earth UK information on various
Enviro concerns with release sites in UK.
http://www.notmilk.com/ Excellent expose of the RBGH Scandal from Robert
Cohen and Friends.
http://www.uncaged.co.uk/ animal rights activism against experiments, and
xenotransplantations.
ttp://www.foe.co.uk/camps/foodbio/genetic.html more from Friends of the
Earth,though more on it's anti/ge campaign.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/top_stories/ yahoo/reuters news
headlines.
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/980411/news.html Web pages for the
magazine,covers quite a lot on Biotech
----
The Biotechnology and Development Monitor has reached the
internet. Since March 1998, you can visit us under the URL
http://www.pscw.uva.nl/monitor
It is possible to retrieve whole issues, single articles and a search engine
helps to find relevant information. Your comments are warmly appreciated.
Monitor is a well edited and relieable journal from The Netherlands, in case
you do not already know it. Good discussion and background to issue... Up to
now it has been print only, no charge.
-------
http://www.rafi.ca/moratorium/ Australian plant bio-piracy problems.
http://www.tlio.demon.co.uk/wdm.htm Survey of Commercial/Trans Global
Selfious Interest.
http://www.dti.gov.uk/hgac/papers.htm British Government Advisories
Commision on Human Genetics. 1998 Report Available
http://www.biodiv.org/biosafe/biosafe4.html Convention on Biological
Diversity.
http://www.peg.apc.org/~nexus/ Australian Enviromental magazine exposing
fraud and corruption.
http://www.abbadabba.com/mac.html freeware d/l's of ADOBE ACROBAT. Used on
most EPA/Gov web pages, is universal between all computer systems.
http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg4/stoa/en/ European Parliament G/E Releases
statements for 1998.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/doe/register.html Department
Eviroment/Transport and the Regions UK gov web pages on GMO Releases
http://bob1.ml.org/genetic_concern/ Genetic Concern Ireland, information
on current justicial review and protests on releases in Ireland.
http://members.aol.com/icarus7789/irlinks.htm Ireland's Eco Warriors with
links to other NGO's.
http://users.patra.hol.gr/~cgian/biotech.htm Dr. Costas Giannakenas MD and
the cgian group.
Three excellent mailing Lists are:
GENTECH@ping.de (submissions to the list(s)) OR
GENTECH-REQUEST@ping.de (Adminstrativa like(un)subscriptions)
And also rts@gn.apc.org the very excellent list from Reclaim the Streets
the UK eviromentalist activism network. Put subscribe genetics in main
body.
Ban-GEF@lists.txinfinet.com Thank you to our friends at BanGef.
http://web.its.smu.edu/~dmcnickl/miscell/pfcamp.html Anti-food defamation
laws in USA
http://www.fairfield.com/wuebben/TM/genetic.html Help to avert the dangers
of G/E
http://www.netlink.de/gen/info.html
Combined Web Pages (SWEDISH)
Greenpeeace.NLP Pure Food Campaign . THIS IS AN EXCELLENT SOURCE OF INFO
http://www.t0.or.at/~global2000/gentech.html GLOBAL 2000 German language,
only but worth getting a translator for.
http://www.newspage.com/NEWSPAGE
You can set Newspage to search the whole of the internet for you, so you
have a newspaper e-mail delivered everyday without having to search ,only
catch is $5 dollars a month mine is set with six choices 1. Biotech
Agriculture 2. Bio-tech Companies 3.Enviromental Regulations 4. Animal
testing 5. Bio-Tech Medicine etc. EXCELLENT SOURCE OF INFO
http://www.greenpeace.org/ Greenpeace Homepage As you would expect.
http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbio/geneng.html Greenpece Bio Tech
information and Campaign Highlights
http://lcweb.loc.gov/ Library of Congress Very useful tool when needed all
American Law and Constitution Reform is available here.
http://www.yahoo.com/ Yahoo one of the best Internet Search Engines
http://www.reutershealth.com/ Reuters Health Information. It has a good
Search Engine that specialises in Health issues worldwide.
http://www.netlink.de/gen/biopiracy.html Swedish anti-biotech info
service this article covering Bio-Diversity
http://lcs.usatoday.com/news/court/nscot000.htm Supreme Court Index.
Another excellent tool for information when needed
http://www.greenpeace.org/~comms/cbio/newsindx.html#geneng9 Another good
source of info from G.P on NEWS G/E
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9604/13/agent_orange/index.html CNN article
about the 300,000 Vietnamese children Chemical War Victims from the Vietnam
War. Monsanto as one of the makers of Agent Orange(Dioxin) have not paid out
compensation owing to the Constitutional Protection they received from the
US Government. I myself accessed this article when the picture of the
vietnamese child Thoa was included who suffers from skin cancers(I HAVE
COPIES) IT HAS BEEN REMOVED.at the same time as g/e soya arrived in
Europe. WHY?
http://www.rz.uni-frankfurt.de/~ecstein/gen/biofacts.html Good article about
Intellectual Property Rights.
http://www.reutershealth.com/news/search.html Reuters News Service has good
Search engine to browse for up to date news.
http://www.monsanto.com/ From those Loveable Folks At Monsanto
Homepage. Gives a bit of an insite into their sordid world.
http://ci.mond.org/9619/961910.html Interesting Triple selection of
Web pages from G.P and on the opposing sides Monsanto and Soya Growers.
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~farnswor/ Sustainable Agriculture.
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~stratsoy/expert/resource.html Converse with an
expert on soya politics
http://www.agri-net.com/centralsoya/
Combined pages for growers and exporters of Soya .(US)
http://www.iquest.net/ofma Organic Farmers Marketing Association website -
place for organic farmers and suppliers to connect.
http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/veg/Orgs/VegSocUK/Campaign/genetics.html
Vegetarian Society on Gen/Eng
http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/toxmut/bio.html Earth First
(Devon)Good articles on G/E
http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/toxmut/flavr.html#cflower Earth
First again with an excellent article about the cauliflower mosaic virus.
http://www.cnn.com/SEARCH/index.html CNN Searcher. Good source
of material available on health, enviroment politics etc worldwide.
http://www.ornl.gov/TechResources/Trans/hmepg.html#info Transgenic
animals available for research
http://www.jax.org/resources/documents/pricelist/index.html To order
your transgenic animals for research purposes etc heres the place.
http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/ef/toxmut/dsart.html Earth First Toxic
Mutants etc.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1527/ Pure Food Campaign Homepage
Excellent campaign from Ronnie Cummins and compadre's, old adversaries of
Genetic Engineering.
http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Another US News Service but priceless to guage things US
http://www.natural-law-party.org.uk/ge_index.html Natural Law Party.
Well presented auguments on all issues pertaining to the struggle. John
Fagan, one of the leading speakers on things GMO
http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/projects/doe/doe5.html ACRE Information releases.
http://biosafety.ihe.be/GB/Leg_EurGB.html Euro/British Legislation
http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/economic/esn/codex/codex.htm Codex.
Very important issues decided by this commitee appointed by GATT AND WTO to
overseer the introduction of G/E foods
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~doe/ Department of the Enviroment Our very
own Eco Warrior Force.
http://www.lisco.com/mothersfornaturallaw/ Mothers for Natural Law
Succesful group of concerned mothers instrumental in many campaign endeavors.
http://www.epa.gov/ Enviromental Protection Agency... The place to check on
Legislation and press releases in US of EPA
http://binas.unido.org/binas/ Part of Unido
http://www.hrc.wmin.ac.uk/campaigns/RTS.html Last but by no means least
RTS!
http://www.corpwatch.org/home.html Corperate watch, great team of
enviromentalists
http://www.monitor.net/rachel/ Rachels hazardous waste homepage.
http://antenna.nl/aseed/ ASEED is a Euro-group involved in g/e and other
enviro issues
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/biotech/biorule.htm Euro/Paliament news releases
http://www.greenbuilder.com/ Judy Kew and Friends enviro network
http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/ Paul Mobbs English enviro issues including
g/e
http://dtiinfo1.dti.gov.uk/bioguide/ UK dep/trade industry bioguide
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/shag/genetix.html Super heroes against
genetics
http://www.earthfoods.co.uk/soil.whator.html UK soil association (Organics )
http://www.rafi.ca/misc/courting.html RAFI IS A THIRD NETWORK working
against unfair patenting and bio-piracy
http://www.twnside.org.sg/souths/twn/bio.htm
http://www.europarl.eu.int/sg/tree/en/1l.htm Europarliament news
http://www.bio-integrity.org/ Religious Alliance for Bio-Integrity
http://www.free.de/gentec/97/threads.html#00202 Gentech newslist..good old
friends in Germany. WWW VERSIONS
http://box.argonet.co.uk/users/john.rose/ John Rose Englishman campaigning
on g/e
http://www.pnas.org/ Pesticides Action Network.
http://www.agriculture.com/agpoll/index.shtml Organic poll web
pages..make your mark.
http://www.africa2000.com/ENDX/endx.htm Eugenics watch. UK and USA.
Sender: jim mcnulty <jim@niall7.demon.co.uk>
Subject: List of Bookmarks for WWW.
GRAIN Web page up and running!
It took us a little while before we finally got down to it, but as of today
the WEB page of Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) is up and
running. For the moment we kept it simple and straightforward. You will
find all articles that appeared in Seedling during the past three years,
the most important briefings and ad hoc publications we have been
publishing during the last year or two, as well as the first two issues of
the new 'Biodiversity and Trade in conflict' series we are co-publishing.
While the site is still under construction (we're planning a latest news
section, links to other sites, and a section for Spanish and French materials,
amongst other things), we did not want to withhold it from you
any longer. Have a look and let us know what you think.
The address: http://www.grain.org
_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson, PhD
Consumer Right to Know Campaign,
for Mandatory Labelling and Long-term
Testing of all Genetically Engineered Foods,
500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
tel. 613-565-8517 fax. 613-565-1596
email: rwolfson@concentric.net
Our website, http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/geindex.html
contains more information on genetic engineering as well as
previous genetic engineering news items
Subscription fee to genetic engineering news is $35 for 12 months
See website for details.
__________________________________________________________
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