Il Papa: counterweight to the Owen Paterson-fronted GM onslaught

As Monsanto (renamed in Windscale damage limitation mode) plans a British HQ for its new company – if it can acquire Syngenta – former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson [below right] once again trots out tired myths about the virtues of genetic modification of crops.

He is said to be assisted by his brother-in-law, Viscount Matt Ridley, a genetic scientist who is a visiting professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York which has received funding from Monsanto and Novartis. His long-term support for the technology, first highlighted in a ‘civilian’ September 2012 speech at the Rothamsted Research facility, inviting GMO innovators to take root in the UK, was followed by his DEFRA appointment.

Minister Paterson, in partnership with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, financed by GM companies Monsanto, Syngenta and Bayer CropScience, frequently lobbied the EU on the desirability of GM crops. Last April he refused a Freedom of Information Act request to supply details about meetings between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the GM industry trade body. He had to leave DEFRA, having extolled Britain’s shale gas reserves, ‘an unexpected and potentially huge windfall’, and mishandled the summer floods and badger culls.

He then set up a think tank UK2020. Millionaire-founded, it steers clear of direct funding from GM industries but vigorously promotes the technology at events such as last year’s South African agricultural biotechnology media conference, hosted by ISAAA which receives donations from both Monsanto and Bayer CropScience.

Murdoch’s Fox News: “the most anticipated and feared papal document in recent times”

Reports are coming in about the leaked papal encyclical on dangers to the environment but many failed to mention the references to genetically modified crops. It adds to the call for dialogue on this and other environmental issues voiced by the Vatican in 2013.

Farming Weekly Online does report the thoughts of Pope Francis on GMOs and pesticides, voiced in the draft of this major environmental document. He has called for a “scientific and social debate” on genetically modified foods that considers all the information available: “[I]t is necessary to ensure scientific and social debate that is responsible and large, able to consider all the information and to call things by their names. GMOs is an issue which is complex; it must be approached with a sympathetic look at all its aspects and this requires at least one effort to finance several lines of independent and interdisciplinary research.”

FW reports that he highlighted “significant problems” with the technology that should not be minimised, such as the “development of oligopolies in the production of seeds” and a “concentration of productive land in the hands of the few” that leads to the “disappearance of small producers”. Did it refer to GM herbicide resistant weeds and GM insecticide resistant insects?

The pontiff said the spread of GM crops “destroys the complex web of ecosystems, decreases diversity in production and affects the present and future of regional economies”. On the use of pesticides in agriculture – and GM cultivation – he warned that many birds and insects useful to agriculture are dying out as a result of pesticides created by technology.

We end with comments from a Nebraskan:

 

I see the landscape in farming country in Iowa & Nebraska – not a tree or bush in sight. Not one weed. The pesticides & weed killers spayed on the crops have killed off everything except the GMO crops! There go the butterflies, the bees & all other beneficial insects that pollinate our crops. It’s a sickening thing to see & it spells total disaster. I applaud the Pope for taking a world view of our problems. No other Pope has ever bothered with anything other than spiritual problems.

And from Brian John – on our mailing list:

Good for Pope Francis! The religious leaders — of all faiths — have been very slow to enter this debate, partly because they have been put under intense diplomatic pressure by the GMO/agrichemical industries and by the US and other governments. But the Christian understanding of the word “stewardship” is a very important part of the faith, and it’s great that Pope Francis is now prepared to explain it in terms of a global responsibility to look after the poor, to look after the environment and to maintain the purity of food and water. The GMO industry, and its acolytes, bang on all the time, quite cynically, about GMOs being needed to “feed the world” in a future full of uncertainties. It’s nonsense. of course, and the Pope’s intervention at this stage is of vast significance.

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You can find the full draft encyclical here (in Italian): speciali.espresso.repubblica.it/pdf/laudato_si.pdf and comments on a translation.

DEFRA on GM technology

Shortly after a controversy reported in the Farmers Guardian, on 1^st  November 2012, a new entry about GM technology was placed on the DEFRA website.

It is pleasing to see a commitment to clear GM labelling and we hope that this will be retained. However the undertaking that “we will implement pragmatic and proportionate measures to segregate these from conventional and organic crops” appears to be promising the impossible.

And what is meant by this: “the Government believes that regulation of this technology must be proportionate”?

Extracts

• The Government will only agree to the planting of GM crops, the release of other types of GM organism, or the marketing of GM food or feed products, if a robust risk assessment indicates that it is safe for people and the environment.  GM product applications should be assessed for safety on a case-by-case basis, taking full account of the scientific evidence.

• The Government will ensure consumers are able to exercise choice through clear GM labelling rules and the provision of suitable information, and will listen to public views about the development and use of the technology.

• The Government supports farmers having access to developments in new technology and being able to choose whether or not to adopt them.  If and when GM crops are grown in England commercially, we will implement pragmatic and proportionate measures to segregate these from conventional and organic crops, so that choice can be exercised and economic interests appropriately protected.

• The Government recognises that GM technology could deliver benefits providing it is used safely and responsibly, in particular as one of a range of tools to address the longer term challenges of global food security, climate change, and the need for more sustainable agricultural production.  (Here we would recommend Dr Michael Antoniou’s GM Myths and Truths to our DEFRA reader.

• Developing countries should have fair access to such technology and make their own informed decisions regarding its use.

• To encourage innovation, fair market access for safe products and economic growth, the Government believes that regulation of this technology must be proportionate.

David Burrows reports that the  Government has reacted angrily to claims it is brokering ‘secret deals’ with biotechnology companies to push genetically modified (GM) foods.

The claims were founded on information in a document, obtained through Freedom of Information, which is linked to a meeting back in June between various biotechnology companies, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), Science Minister David Willetts and the then Defra Minister Lord Taylor.

A summary of notes highlighted the need for, among other things, ‘increased investment in biotech’ and the ‘start of a public debate about the role of biotech’.

The following response by farmer Michael Hart was triggered by three articles

Yesterday senior reporter, Elinor Zuke, wrote about a peer-reviewed study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Caen, which has just been published in the scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, though a link to the study is not yet online there.

More on: http://political-cleanup.org/?p=5920

Yesterday a French research team claimed exposure to the herbicide Roundup – produced by biotech giant Monsanto – caused tumours to develop in lab rats and led to premature death. The Agricultural Biotechnology Council – a pro-GM body with many members who represent biotech companies – led the criticism

More on http://political-cleanup.org/?p=5931

A formal complaint has been made about the BBC’s coverage of the recently reported peer-reviewed research published in the scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology – ” an “expert furore” smokescreen . . .Dr Brian John wrote:

“The BBC should have accorded this new Seralini study (in a top peer-reviewed American journal) great respect, instead of which it was buried, with no news coverage, and only a biased piece by Jonathan Amos put on the BBC web site.

More on http://political-cleanup.org/?p=5934

The insidious ‘softly softly’ approach to GM – aka ‘progressive agriculture’

George Freeman MP: unlock the full potential of our agricultural science base

 In the Fresh Produce Journal, MP George Freeman urges that ‘we’ unlock the full potential of our agricultural science base. We urge him to watch Hart’s film recording US experience  of this potential.

Mr Freeman has a personal vested interest in the GM seed industry and biomedicine – see the extracts from his entry in the register of MPs’ interests at the foot of this post. Are the needs of his constituents being met?

A bonanza in huge new markets – cloud cuckoo land?

He asserts that the pace of development in the developing world is creating huge new markets which we are perfectly positioned to service:

“I believe our world-class life sciences sector (biomedicine, clean-tech and agri-science) can help us ‘seed’ the markets and allies the UK will need for a sustainable economic recovery.”

Myth: food insecurity and sustainability can be met by government attracting inward investment from industry

Deprecating the long ‘neglect’ of agriculture ‘in this respect’, he declares that “the challenge of food insecurity and sustainability demands a new strategic response from government”, which should use the resources at its disposal to help get the most out of key sectors by attracting inward investment and working more closely with both industry and global partners.

Economic decline: ‘we’ are being ‘left behind’ by countries who are all ‘developing their research’ – a coded phrase

The MP notes that the far-from-independent Agricultural Biotechnology Council, in their June report Going for Growth, highlighted that we are being left behind by India, China, Brazil and the US, who are all developing their research and reaping the rewards.

In February this year Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council[BBSRC] – based in Mr Freeman’s constituency – announced a £7 million initiative to bring researchers and industry together over sustainable farming practises [sic] that take into account the disruptive effects of climate change and deliver higher yields of better-quality fruit and vegetables. See more on BBSR funding on a sister site.

DEFRA’s proposal: a ‘Leadership Council’ to target funding for agri-food research

He ends by strongly welcoming the government’s consideration of DEFRA’s proposal for a ‘Leadership Council’ to target funding for agri-food research:

“A clear agricultural science strategy would encourage private investment and provide a solid foundation for a new partnership between government, research institutes and growers.”

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FREEMAN, George (Mid Norfolk)

1. Directorships

• 4D Biomedical Ltd, 21 Hill St, Feltwell, Thetford, Norfolk IP26 4AB; biomedical innovation advisory business.
• Iceni Advisory Ltd (non-executive), University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk R4 7TJ; the Advisory Board of the Iceni Seed Challenge Fund set up to support the commercialisation of new technologies.
• Elsoms Seeds Ltd, Spalding, Lincs PE11 1QG; agricultural and horticultural seeds business.
• Biomedical Ltd, September 2009-August 2010. Payment made to 4D Biomedical
• Ltd.

2. Remunerated employment, office, profession etc

• I provide strategic support to the Technology Practice of PA Consulting, Cambridge Technology Centre, Melbourn, Royston, Herts SG8 6DP. This company has taken over all client engagement and business development work for 4D Biomedical Ltd

9. Shareholdings

• 4D Biomedical Ltd