============================================================
THE WEEKLY WATCH NUMBER 12
============================================================
------------------------------------------------------------
from Andy Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear all
Welcome to the first WEEKLY WATCH of 2003 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.
Look out for some great QUOTES OF THE WEEK, especially from an article published in the "U.S. Catholic".
Andy <andy@gmwatch.org>
www.ngin.org.uk
------------------------------------------------------------
WEEKLY WATCH number 12 - CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK - India rejects GM food aid/FDA GM safety a
farce/U.S. corn trade with Japan paralysed/Rejected GM corn dumped on Oz/Roundup
Resistance in corn belt/Monsanto moves on GM wheat
TOPIC OF THE WEEK - The great GM report coverup continues in the UK
REPORT OF THE WEEK - WHO/FAO infiltrated by food industry
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK - Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
FACTS OF THE WEEK
SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
LIES FROM THE GM LOBBY
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
Correction: DOW PRESS RELEASE ON BHOPAL WAS A SPOOF
PANTS ON FIRE!
SUBSCRIPTIONS
------------------------------------------------------------
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------
U.S. GM regulation "full of holes"
-----------------------------------------------------------
Excessive levels of harmful compounds could show up in GM foods because
the government has failed to put sufficient safeguards in place to catch
them, according to a report from The Center for Science in the Public Interest
(CSPI - previously cautiously pro-GM), which contends that the American
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) missed "obvious errors" in reviewing
some GM crops. The group said the FDA's procedures are so full of holes
that safety cannot be ensured. CSPI argues that the voluntary system of
regulation must be scrapped.
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
CSPI also said the FDA cannot guarantee the safety of GM foods because
it is unable to obtain all the scientific data it needs from companies
like Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow which have all declined to provide requested
scientific data to the FDA
http://www.abc.net.au/news/scitech/2003/01/item20030108090120_1.htm
NO SAFETY TESTING BY FDA - COMPANIES POLICE THEMSELVES!
CSPI's findings were more than confirmed Friday by Consumers International
when Dr Michael Hansen revealed in Brussels on Friday that the FDA has
never actually safety tested GM food for human consumption but has simply
accepted whatever it is told by the companies. Dr Hansen says the FDA does
not even do a thorough review of the data that is provided. This is despite
the FDA having admitted that there is a fundamental difference between
conventional breeding and the genetic engineering of foods and the risks
it generates, eg new allergens.
http://www.biotech-info.net/MH_CI_statement.html
http://www.biotech-info.net/CI_PR.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
"US ready to declare war over GM food"
-----------------------------------------------------------
So ran a Financial Times' headline on Thursday over a report that the
top US trade official is ready to launch a World Trade Organisation challenge
against the European Union over its refusal to lift a de facto moratorium
on the approval of new genetically-modified crops.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1039524376470&p=1012571727088
also: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34857-2003Jan9.html
SEE *QUOTES OF THE WEEK* BELOW FOR COMMENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------
India rejects US GM food aid
-----------------------------------------------------------
India has rejected a $104 million shipment of food aid from the US
because it contained GMOs. Officials say there is strong opposition to
GM crops and uncertainty about GM food safety.
https://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Government Officials Uproot GM Maize in Malawi
-----------------------------------------------------------
Malawi has been the country in Southern Africa most accepting of GM
food aid but now officials are having to uproot aid grain that has been
planted to try and reduce the predicted contamnination
http://allafrica.com/stories/200301100562.html
-----------------------------------------------------------
Traditional Foods in Abundance in Zambia
-----------------------------------------------------------
Despite the fixation on maize brought about by its promotion during
the Green Revolution, the Zambian government says there are more than enough
traditional grains to feed the hungry, including a surplus of over 300,000
tonnes of cassava ''crying out'' for a market.
https://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
US embassy misinformation
-----------------------------------------------------------
Pro-GM scientist Klaus Amman was delighted when he came across a letter
from the US embassy published in The Guardian stating "exactly 0% (ie,
none at all) of the maize food aid offered by the US and refused by several
African governments actually came from the US. Little US maize was available
at that time, so we sold surplus wheat and bought South African maize locally
with the funds generated."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,862396,00.html
Ammann got busy circulating the good news that it had all been a fuss
about nothing. Sadly, however, it was all untrue. There was no sale
of US wheat in exchange for South African corn. 100% of the corn donated
to the World Food Program by the US was US GM-contaminated. The US embassy
in London appears to have made the story up to try and halt the wave of
adverse publicity the US has been getting in the UK and elsewhere for its
forcing of GM onto the hungry. SEE ALSO QUOTES OF THE WEEK on the food
aid crisis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Japan corn trade paralysed by GM StarLink corn
-----------------------------------------------------------
After Japan's Health Ministry discovered traces of gene-spliced
StarLink corn in a 19,234 ton U.S. shipment, Japanese officials have announced
they will be boosting testing on US corn.
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
Japanese corn buyers are reluctant to start import deals because of
fears of possible further contamination of U.S. cargo by the banned corn,
and Japanese food makers are wary of buying U.S. corn due to safety concerns.
"The discovery has shocked Japan's food industry, which believed there
was little chance of contamination after U.S. farmers stopped planting
StarLink corn in 2001. One trader said, "It appears that corn seeds contaminated
by StarLink were planted in the United States last year. Japanese importers
feel reluctant to buy U.S. corn for food use, and they are looking into
the possibility of sourcing corn from other countries." JAPAN CORN-TRADE
PARALYSED BY STARLINK FEAR, HIGHER COSTS
Reuters, January 10, 2003
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rejected GM corn dumped in Australia
-----------------------------------------------------------
A 48,000 tonne shipment of US corn likely to contain GM grain is to
be crushed and steamed to prevent the uncontrolled spread of GM seed in
Australia. The GeneEthics Network has called on the Government to return
the shipment, as GM-free supplies were available. Democrat agriculture
spokesman Senator John Cherry said that Japan, India and Zambia had recently
rejected such shipments and Australia should follow suit. "Once we begin
unloading, transporting, treating and distributing it, accidental release
is likely to occur."
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Australian GM rules are ludicrous
-----------------------------------------------------------
Conservationists and farmers say rules just released for growing GM
canola in Australia (including a laughable 5m buffer zone between GM and
non-GM crops - canola pollen can travel 2.5 km) will lead to contamination
of organic and other produce. Scott Kinnear, a spokesman for Biological
Farmers of Australia, said, the 5 metre buffer zone was ludicrous, and
that 16 km buffer zones would be more realistic.
https://ngin.tripod.com/060103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Monsanto Canada asks Ottawa for permit to sell GM wheat
-----------------------------------------------------------
Monsanto Canada has asked the Canadian government for permission to
sell GM Roundup Ready wheat commercially. This is very contraversial,
because wheat is Canada's largest agricultural export, and accepting GM
canola has cost the country its European market. Holly Penfound of Greenpeace
wonders why anyone should bother, "There's no good reason to release this
crop. Nobody wants it except Monsanto." Greenpeace has called on
Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief to nip Monsanto's application in the
bud.
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
The 100,000-member Council of Canadians has said it will launch an
all out attack against GM wheat. "There is absolutely no evidence that
GE crops have higher yields and are in any way beneficial for farmers",
they pointed out, and "the potential for contamination is so high that
the future of organic farming would be truly threatened".
http://www.canadians.org/news_updates.htm?COC_token4@@97df3183fb3ed6fa02dd07a3c60c6814&step=2&id62
-----------------------------------------------------------
Roundup Resistance
-----------------------------------------------------------
According to independent US agronomist Dr Charles Benbrook, there is
a major article due out any day in the New York Times. The Des Moines Register
is also doing a piece. Weed resistance in RR crops was, according to many
attendees, the dominant issue at the recent weed science society meetings.
And just in the last month, Benbrook says, several land grant weed scientists
have started to talk freely about the resistance and weed shifts they are
seeing in more and more fields, in multiple states. An "Industry News"
report in the Jan. 9, 2003 "Plant Management Network News" surveys what
weed scientists are finding in Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee
and other states. Access this report at
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/news/waterhemp/
-----------------------------------------------------------
Japanese expected to lift ban on cloned beef
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Japanese government is expected to lift a ban on selling beef from
cloned cows after a safety report is compiled, probably in the spring.
If so, it will be the first such case in the world.
https://ngin.tripod.com/060103b.htm
AND Lab-grown steaks nearing the menu - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993208
-----------------------------------------------------------
Cloned animals could pose hazards to human health and the environment
-----------------------------------------------------------
Genetically engineered animals - which could be in US food markets
by next year - could pose hazards to human health and the environment,
according to experts convened by the National Academy of Sciences. "We
don't know as much as we'd like to about potential unexpected changes that
can occur in animals with genetic engineering," said Douglas Gurian-Sherman,
of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. The
Center for Food Safety in Washington says that elevated levels of growth
hormones genetically engineered into salmon and other animals could create
risks or unintended effects.
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Biopharming touted as good idea for Iowa
-----------------------------------------------------------
Iowa lawmakers are likely to consider legislation to allow biopharming,
touted as a way out of the economic doldrums for Iowa farmers. All
the reports on GM crops to date suggest the opposite is likely.
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103c.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Grower awaits possible $1.78 million damages in Monsanto patent case
-----------------------------------------------------------
A West Tenessee farmer may have to pay Monsanto $1.78 million in damages
for breaching the company's grower license agreement or $803,000 for patent
infringement. Defense lawyer Robertson said the judge did not allow
the defence to present all its evidence, including what it claims is proof
that Ralph's signature was forged on the grower licence agreement. Other
farmers have made similar claims.
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Opposing GM patents is possible
-----------------------------------------------------------
Dr. John M. Conley, professor of law at UNC, believes that a century-old
"product of nature" doctrine could be used to fight patents of genes in
the US courts. The flat rule is that one cannot patent naturally
occurring products. "We think it may be a hook people who want to slow
the whole process down can use to their advantage. Every other hook they
have tried so far has not worked."
https://ngin.tripod.com/060103d.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Controversial pro-GE author guilty of 'scientific dishonesty'
-----------------------------------------------------------
Bjørn Lomborg, author of the controversial anti-green critique
'The Skeptical Environmentalist', has been found guilty of scientific dishonesty
by the well-respected Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty.
The book was favourably reviewed in much of the non-specialist media, especially
the Economist, the New York Times, and the Sunday Times. The Guardian
ran extended extracts in its G2 supplement. And at the recent Johannesburg
Earth Summit, Lomborg was given a slot on BBC2 to expound his theories.
Jeff Harvey, a former editor of the scientific journal Nature said, "Lomborg
has failed time and again to rectify the egregious distortions he makes...
this judgement goes at least some way to underlining Lomborg's dishonesty."
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103b.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
GM protest charges dropped
-----------------------------------------------------------
Charges were dropped against another GM crop trashing - this time from
Colchester. This follows the December 2002 decision by Dorset Police
to drop charges in a similar case. A Greenpeace spokesman said, "People
are still getting off with this but the government is still pushing ahead
with GM crops - the resistance is there but the government doesn't realise
that."
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103c.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Anti-terrorism laws used against US GM campaigner
-----------------------------------------------------------
In a clear case of repression, using the new Australian 'anti-terrorism'
laws, a nonviolent US GM campaigner has been refused entry to the country.
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103c.htm
------------------------------------------------------------
REPORT OF THE WEEK - WHO infiltrated by food industry
------------------------------------------------------------
The food industry has infiltrated the World Health Organisation (WHO),
just as the tobacco industry did, and succeeded in exerting "undue influence"
over policies intended to safeguard public health. The report, by an independent
consultant to the WHO, finds that: *food companies attempted to place scientists
favourable to their views on WHO and U.N. Food and Agricultural Organisation
(FAO) committees *they financially supported non-governmental organisations
which were invited to formal discussions on key issues with the UN agencies
*they financed research and policy groups that supported their views *they
financed individuals who would promote "anti-regulation ideology" to the
public, for instance in newspaper articles.
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103a.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,2763,871250,00.html
------------------------------------------------------------
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK - Bio-Warfare and Terrorism
------------------------------------------------------------
A highly readable article by Francis Boyle, Professor of International
Law at the University of Illinois School of Law, on the history of biological
weapons developed in the United States, including genetically engineered
agents, revealed how the U.S. sent "at least 40 shipments of weapon-specific
biological agents to Iraq... knowing full well that Iraq was going to develop
[and use] biological weapons".
http://web.greens.org/s-r/30/30-12.html
------------------------------------------------------------
TOPIC OF THE WEEK - The great GM report coverup etc.
------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS KEPT FROM WELSH ASSEMBLY MEMBERS:
Not only was a damning GM report only released by way of summary by
UK Government (Environment) Dept. Defra on Christmas Eve but Defra also
appears to have kept the contents away from Welsh Assembly Members, who
were debating the issue just a week before the summary of research completed
some two years earlier, was finally put onto Defra's website.
ACRE'S RESPONSE TO REPORT UNFORGIVABLY COMPLACENT:
The UK's Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environment (ACRE)
advice on the Report was that gene flow was expected and no further action
was necessary. "The ACRE response to the report . is ...so complacent
and irresponsible that we are calling for it to be disbanded. It is now
so compromised and so heavily involved in defending the GM industry that
it is actually operating against the public interest." - Dr
Brian John, of GM Free Cymru. Friends of the Earth said ACRE's advice was
"in direct conflict with the findings" of the report and that ACRE "appear
to be more interested in defending their earlier advice than listening
to the science. Such complacency is completely unacceptable. The
Government must resist the pressure from the biotech industry to approve
GM oilseed rape for commercial growing in the next 18 months and consider
the full facts... Surely the only sensible course is to abandon GM
and instead help British farmers get off the agro-chemical treadmill by
investing in sustainable farming."
KEY INFORMATION FROM THE FINAL GOVERNMENT REPORT:
Other key information emerging from the final report includes:
. Seed spillages and failure to clean combine harvesters are likely
to be a significant source of GM contamination.
. One volunteer GM plant per square metre in a field of oilseed would
produce contamination rates of between 0.6% and 1.5% depending on variety.
. The discovery of weedy population of wild turnip co-existing and
hybridising with oilseed rape in England. One plant sampled had 81 GM seeds
out of 167 (48.5%).
. 0.5% contamination rates in crops at distances up to 200m.
. 3.2% contamination rates at 105m in some oilseed rape varieties.
. GM oilseed rape volunteers (weeds in following crops) survived for
at least four years (up until the research was terminated in 2000).
. Wild oilseed rape close by crop fields was also contaminated.
https://ngin.tripod.com/020103a.htm & https://ngin.tripod.com/020103c.htm:
WAS GM CONTAMINATION DELIBERATE?:
"Sir: The Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, tells us that the
findings of widespread and irreversible contamination of oilseed rape crops
and related weeds with artificial [GM] DNA is information which has been
known since the early 1990s (report, 31 December). If this has been known
for over a decade, the Government has been deliberately contaminating our
environment throughout the Farm Scale Evaluations of GM crops." -
Joanna Clarke, Glasgow, Letter to The Independent, Jan 6, 2003. https://ngin.tripod.com/070103b.htm
UK SUPERMARKETS MAINTAIN STRICT GM-FREE POLICY FOR 2003:
gmfoodnews.com has completed its annual survey of UK supermarkets for
their position on GM food and ingredients for 2003. The results show that
opposition to GM foods is as strong as it was in 1999, when supermarkets
removed GM foods and ingredients from their shelves. Just as in 1999, no
UK supermarket includes GM food or ingredients in their own-brand products.
Increasingly, supermarkets are also specifying GM-free feed for animals
producing their meat, milk and eggs.
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103b.htm
------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------------------
"I find it immoral that people are not being able to be supplied food
to live in Africa because people have invented dangers about biotechnology"
- U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on why he supports WTO action
against the European Union, 'US chief warns Brussels over GM ban', http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2644015.stm
"Insulting and threatening someone is no way to go about winning over their heart let alone their mind, especially when they suspect that their own health and the environment may be at risk and that you, the supplicant, are motivated purely by commercial considerations.
"Yet, bizarrely, America seems to think that just such behaviour is exactly what is needed to persuade a sceptical Europe that genetically modified (GM) food is 100% safe and that Europe should rescind a four-year ban on new GM products.
"...If anything is "immoral", it is the status quo whereby desperately hungry poor countries are offered GM grain by the US which much of the developed world would not touch with a bargepole." - Andrew Osborn in The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,872515,00.html
"WFP [the US-dominated World Food Programme] gives us maize because that is what the farmers in the north grow and they have to keep them in business by buying up their stocks." - Charles Banda, an agricultural scientist in Lusaka, Zambia. https://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
The Radio Times says of Radio 4's programme about GM foods, "SEEDS OF
TROUBLE," "This story suggests you cross the biotechnology industry
giants at your peril". Read the PROGRAMME TRANSCRIPT here:
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
"Our policy is boy, the more countries we can get on board who can stand
up and say biotechnology done responsibly is good, it's good for us, it's
good for our country, our economy, the more countries we can get up and
stand with us, it's to our advantage." - US councillor for
agriculture, William Brandt, at the US Embassy in Mexico, speaking on the
Radio 4 programme, 'Seeds of Trouble'. TRANSCRIPT HERE:
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
The $25 million grant from biotech company Novartis, which signed up
a whole (public) Berkeley University department, was so controversial that
the California Senate held a special hearing. Sen Tom Haydon called
the deal, "a usurpation of democracy by the biotech industry."
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
"I've taught patent law for most of the past 20 years... The first time
you expose law students or lawyers without any background in the topic
to the idea that you can actually patent genes, they all have the same
reaction -- 'You've got to be kidding! You can't do that.'"
https://ngin.tripod.com/060103d.htm
"I ran into Hofmann after the trial. He apologized to me for lying about
supplying Monsanto with a sample of clean Roundup Ready canola seed for
use in court. He told me that Monsanto had taken him on trips, to lunch
and given him free products to use on his farm." Percy Schmeisser, Monsanto
Lying about 98% of Crop Being Genetically Modified"
http://web.greens.org/s-r/29/29-21.html
THE FOLLOWING QUOTES ARE ALL FROM Kevin Clarke's "Heed the Hungry" in the U.S. Catholic (Vol 68, Issue 1, January 1, 2003):
"Forcing genetically modified food on unwilling people makes us corporal dorks of mercy. ...the Africans aren't sure if the U.S. largesse arrives as a white knight or a white blight. The Americans want the desperately poor to accept a product some corporations in the U.S. are desperate to get rid of: genetically modified corn.
"It's fair to wonder who really is the beneficiary of these shiploads of GM food aid: hungry Africans or American corporations hungry to open new markets. Africans are right to question an aid program that promises to turn the continent into a vast lab experiment or "accidentally" introduce a commodity that would have been rejected otherwise.
"The South African Bishops' Conference has called for a regional moratorium on test plantings of GM crops. In a recent letter, they wrote: "The long-term health effects of consuming [GM] food have not been assessed .... Moreover, the damage to the environment would be largely irreversible. Once released, genetically engineered organisms become part of our ecosystem."
"...we don't have to treat the Zambians like beggars, and we do have a choice when it comes to establishing an effective relief program that will feed the hungry while respecting the long-term interests and sovereignty of the nations we say we want to help.
"We are stewards of a common agricultural heritage that is being put
at risk in the name of the poor and the hungry in Africa. Surely they already
have enough burdens without being asked to carry that additional responsibility
on behalf of the likes of Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland."
https://ngin.tripod.com/070103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
FACTS OF THE WEEK
-----------------------------------------------------------
71% of European consumers say they wouldn't touch GM foods.
https://ngin.tripod.com/030103b.htm
68% of Australians reject GM foods, 93% want all GM foods labeled.
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
As many as 30% of domestic animals cloned die at birth or within 24
hours.
https://ngin.tripod.com/060103b.htm
GeneEthics Network Director, Bob Phelps said, "breeding sows in the
USA fail to conceive when fed GE corn containing insect toxin."
https://ngin.tripod.com/090103b.htm
Mexico already imports 6 million tonnes of maize from the US every
year, and around a 1/3 of that is GM.
Two studies from respected Mexican laboratories found contamination
in 6% of samples from Oaxacan corn.
There are thousands of acres of GM soyabeans being cultivated in Mexico,
despite there being a supposed ban on growing GM crops.
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103d.htm
In Canada, researchers estimate it could cost farmers an extra $4 a
tonne to keep GM and conventional wheat separate.
https://ngin.tripod.com/080103a.htm
India now has more than 60 million tonnes in food surpluses but there
is widespread hunger due to poverty.
https://ngin.tripod.com/030103a.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIES FROM THE GM LOBBY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Schubert, professor of neurobiology, puts biotech boosters Alex
Avery and Wayne Parrott et al in their place. Here he answers their
letters of criticism of a piece he wrote in The October issue of Nature
Biotechnology: "The impetus for my commentary was my repeated laboratory
observation that the slightest genetic modification of a cell leads to
completely unpredicted phenotypes. A careful reading of the plant literature
supported my conclusions from animal cells. I had no a priori commitment
to a particular technology, no pre-existing political ideology, and I did
not deliberately ignore any pertinent published material. I do believe,
however, that both replies suffer from these problems. **They make claims
about technology and safety-testing requirements that do not exist, use
my statements out of context, and are rather adroit at the use of tenses
to skirt questions regarding testing."**
https://ngin.tripod.com/050103a.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
Correction: DOW PRESS RELEASE ON BHOPAL WAS SPOOF
-----------------------------------------------------------
The press release from gene giant DOW featured in Private Eye and covered
in last week's GMWATCH no 5 has turned out to be a spoof. But the real
story is even more extraordinary than the one we reported, with the full
legal might of PR giant Burson-Marsteller pitted against a college kid.
The spoof press release was written by college freshman Paul Hardwin and posted on a fake Dow website set up by Hardwin. In the release, Dow's president was quoted as explaining why the company could not accept liability for killing 20,000 deaths with its chemical leak in Bhopal, India. He was quoted as saying that Dow's duty was to its shareholders, which liability claims would impact, and that paying compensation would set harmful precedents for other health-damaging industries.
The Eye's first reaction was to assume the release was a spoof, so they rang Dow to find out. According to the Eye, a Dow spokesperson confirmed that the release was genuine and that the company was proud of it!
Since then, and too late to stop the Eye running the story, Dow has learned to tell its ass from its elbow and has realised that it has been had. The company is trying to contain the damaging publicity that spread worldwide from Hardwin's 'Dow' site, issuing legal threats against the Internet Service Provider that hosted the site. The ISP closed down Hardwin's sites, downing many other unrelated sites in the debacle, but the site was quickly copied and resurfaced on activist sites across the world. http://theyesmen.org/dow/#threat
Hardwin also set up a spoof site appearing to belong to Burson-Marsteller, the PR company, satirising its role in helping Dow to spin the Bhopal disaster. B-M has now launched a lawsuit against Hardwin.
Hardwin, unable to afford a lawyer, has composed a 57-page rebuttal
to the PR giant's lawsuit:
http://www.reamweaver.com/bmwipo/response.htm#reality
In response to the suit's claim that "a substantial degree of goodwill
is associated with [the Burson-Marsteller Trademark]", Hardwin offers much
"evidence to the contrary" including "a newspaper headline in which the
Complainant is characterized as 'the Devil.'"
DOW SUES PENNILESS BHOPAL VICTIMS
In a stomach-turning post-script to this unsavory story, it is sad
to say not a spoof that Dow has tried to sue survivors of the Bhopal poison
gas leak disaster. On December 2 a peaceful march of 200 women survivors
from Bhopal delivered toxic waste from the abandoned Union Carbide factory
(Dow now owns Union Carbide) back to Dow's Indian headquarters in Bombay
with the demand that Dow take responsibility for the disaster and clean
up the site. Dow obviously had other ideas because it threatened to sue
the penniless survivors for about US$10,000 for "loss of work". That's
US$10,000 compensation for a two-hour peaceful protest where only one Dow
employee briefly ventured out of the Mumbai corporate business park to
meet the women protestors.
https://ngin.tripod.com/020103b.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the NGIN archive
https://ngin.tripod.com/jan03.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 January 2003
WHO 'infiltrated by food industry'
Rejected GM corn dumped in Australia
Anti-terror laws used against GM campaigner
GM protest charges dropped
8 January 2003
Monsanto plans to transfer technology to Cotton,Inc.
Pro-GE author found guilty of 'scientific dishonesty'
Great GM disasters of 2002
Seeds of Trouble transcript
7 January 2003
Heed the Hungry - 'U.S. Catholic' on the foodaid crisis
UK - crop trials/supermarkets/ radio prog TODAY
FDA missed obvious errors with harmful GM compounds/confidencein US
food chain nears meltdown
More on India says 'No' to food aid from US
A Global Village
6 January 2003
Scientists - Zambia Should Maintain Stand On GMOs
GM ruling sparks fears
Cloned beef nearing Japanese market
Lab-grownsteaks nearing menu
Hot shots of 2002 - the Pants are back!
Farmers' Rights
Monsanto Lying
Opposing patents
5 January 2003
GE/pharming - can they be done safely?
Bio-Warfare in the United States
3 January 2003
India rejects U.S. food aid over GM content
GM protesters accused of increasing contamination
2 January 2003
Call for ACRE to be disbanded
Our seed, their profit
Dow Chemical's Biotech Greenwash
Gene giant sues penniless Bhopal survivors
GM contamination - government experts disagree
FOR THE COMPLETE NGIN ARCHIVE: https://ngin.tripod.com/nginlist.htm