11 October 2002

'FRANKENFOODS' CREATE FUROR ON DARK CONTINENT + OTHER STORIES

EXCERPTS:

Many South Africans are upset about the way that their nation has been used as a "Trojan horse" for the introduction of GE foods.

Malawian dockworker Siswe Nbele told WorldNetDaily that his nation is facing hunger because of a "famine that could have been prevented."

 "The IMF told our government to sell off all of our grain reserves to help make loan payments. Can you imagine this?" he asked WorldNetDaily. "Hasn't anyone ever heard the story in the Bible of Joseph saving up grain for the coming famine in Egypt? Now our people are facing real hunger. I have come to South Africa to find work. And that work is now, ironically, to unload GE food relief from ships from America. Malawi will have no choice but to accept GE foods now. When people are desperate, they will accept anything - a dictator, food, sterilization - you name it."

South African farmer Boetha Van Zyl told WorldNetDaily he has thus far rejected the urge to plant GE foods on his farm in the Orange Free State. "Who knows what the effects of GE foods will be 50 years?" he asked. "The jury is still out. It may be a modern quasi-religion, but science does not have all the answers, especially when the greedy corporations don't even want critics to ask the most important questions. Whoever thought a life of farming would bring a lifetime of peace and contentment never faced this issue. Welcome to the 'Brave New World.'"

items below:
*'Frankenfoods' create furor on Dark Continent + shortened items:
*No lifting a 4-year-old EU moratorium
*Asian opposition to biotech spring wheat
*Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed
*Sri Lanka to enforce mandatory labeling for GM products
*Italy: JUSTIFIED WORRIES FOR GMO VINES
*Bayer raided

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'Frankenfoods' create furor on Dark Continent

Despite safety concerns, ANC government embraces altered crops
By Anthony C. LoBaido (c)
WorldNetDaily, US, Posted: October 10, 2002
DISPATCH FROM SOUTH AFRICA
2002 WorldNetDaily.com

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -
Ironically, on a continent beset with starvation, most of it man-made, the newest and most pressing controversy is not "hunger," but whether genetically engineered foods should be used to alleviate the problem and pave the way to a brave new world of food production and consumption.

 Genetically engineered, or GE, foods are those whose DNA makeup has been intentionally altered to produce allegedly beneficial characteristics. Critics charge, however, that GE foods are harmful to both consumers and the environment.

Are GE foods "biological serfdom" - one more cog in the emerging dominance of the U.S. and the West in the developing world? Are multinational seed companies jeopardizing the future of the world's food chain by spawning "Frankenfoods" to the four corners of the earth? And if GE products are so safe, why is there so much secrecy surrounding their use and development, and why are they so strictly monitored?

The answers depend on whom one asks. The U.S., Canada, Argentina and China account for about 99 percent of the world's GE production, with Australia and South Africa filling the other 1 percent. The EU, Latin America, most of Asia and Africa have blocked GE products from their markets. To date, over 40 billion meals containing GE foods have been consumed worldwide. Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, whose confiscation of white farms in that nation has led to wide-scale hunger, has blocked the use of GE food relief from the U.S., which is locked in an ongoing battle with the European Union over granting access to EU and worldwide markets for GE foods.

In a legal sense, the importation and acceptance of GE foods into Africa would strengthen the U.S. case against the EU at the next World Trade Organization court hearing on the issue. In Africa, U.S. biotechnology is widely viewed as its most important strategic weapon in the 21st century. Malawian dockworker Siswe Nbele told WorldNetDaily that his nation is facing hunger because of a "famine that could have been prevented."

 "The IMF told our government to sell off all of our grain reserves to help make loan payments. Can you imagine this?" he asked WorldNetDaily. "Hasn't anyone ever heard the story in the Bible of Joseph saving up grain for the coming famine in Egypt? Now our people are facing real hunger. I have come to South Africa to find work. And that work is now, ironically, to unload GE food relief from ships from America. Malawi will have no choice but to accept GE foods now. When people are desperate, they will accept anything - a dictator, food, sterilization - you name it."

 In 1999, the EU instructed Malawi to privatize its grain reserve. With little capital of its own, the Malawian government had to borrow heavily to support its agricultural sector. Many South Africans are upset about the way that their nation has been used as a "Trojan horse" for the introduction of GE foods. Iman Zulu, a South African farmer from Natal told WorldNetDaily, "Man was not meant to manipulate nature in this way. Man is not supposed to play God. We Zulus believe that our God, Unkulunkula, the God of the Bible, is angry with mankind for using technology in this way. Judgments come in the form of erratic weather, floods, famine, hunger, AIDS, violence, greed and evil leaders."

 Cape Town bio-engineering student Chris Phillips told WND, "The young people in South Africa need to speak out about the future of GE foods. I have this recurring nightmare of scientists aboard the international space station furiously trying to grow new crops and seeds because mankind has destroyed the food chain. Maybe water-efficient organic farming is the safest route to food security."

 One major South African nongovernmental organization, Biowatch Trust, has filed suit at the Pretoria High Court to unearth secrets about South Africa's GE food program. In 2001, the South African government issued more than 120 permits for genetically modified crops. That is a large increase since 1990, when the apartheid regime issued a single permit. In 2002, the ANC government of South Africa approved $18 million for research and development on GE crops. South Africa is the only nation on earth to approve of the use of GE white maize. The ANC has refused to put GE labels on related products, claiming the labeling program would be costly and hard to enforce. The ANC has also formed a partnership with multinational seed giant Monsanto. Monsanto recently held a news conference in Cape Town, in which the company's business relations director for South Africa, Willie Maree, shocked the South African public by telling them they had been consuming genetically modified food for the past five years. Maree cited margarine, ice cream, fish paste, eggs, meat and milk, among other items.

 Biowatch is seeking information about the types of GE foods being grown, consumed and distributed in South Africa. Details of where GE crops are being produced also are being sought. Biowatch feels it is acting in the best interests of the South African public and has expressed concerns about human health issues and the environment. It cites "Terminator Seed Technology" as endangering the economic future of small-scale South African farmers.

 Biowatch often points to a U.S. GE experiment gone awry in which an insecticidal protein was accidentally put into genetically modified maize for animal consumption and eventually made an appearance in the human food chain. No less than nine lawsuits have been filed over that incident. Critics of GE foods claim that cross breeding will lead to "superweeds" that will be resistant to pesticides and that GE plants create increased resistance to antibiotics.

 Biowatch claims the AAD antibiotic marker causes increased resistance to Streptomycin and Spectinomycin, which are used to treat tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other diseases in South Africa. (Genetic engineers put "markers" in various organisms to monitor effects on plants and animals, among other things.) Antibiotic-resistant markers, say scientists, often find their way into fungi and bacteria in the soil. Marker genes, says Biowatch, are lodging in the human digestive system after consumption. The British Medical Association has published a paper advocating the discontinuance of such markers, citing them as harmful to human health. Other anti-GE scientists claim that these markers inhibit the body's ability to form antibodies and fight diseases. This is caused by the formation of new proteins in plants that change their properties, most importantly the amino acid structure. GE advocates claim that increased resistance to antibiotics has more to do with over-prescription than GE foods, seeds and related factors. Cooking, say supporters, will destroy harmful properties before they are consumed by humans. All uses, development, production and development of GE foods fall under the GMO Act Number 15 passed into South African law in 1997. Almost 6 million farmers are currently planting GE foods worldwide on over 50 million acres of land. China has spent over $100 million on GE crops annually for the past decade and is a world leader in planting GE cotton. On the other side of the coin, Africa-Bio, a nonprofit South African group with strong ties to multinational GE producers has been waging a public-relations campaign to counter the concerns raised by Biowatch. Critics of Africa-Bio claim the group suppresses difficult issues raised by Biowatch. However, none of the aforementioned issues, not super weeds, super insects or the alleged resistance to antibiotics, has thus far affected South Africa's embracing of GE foods. In South Africa, tomatoes, wheat, maize, canola, cotton, apples, soy beans and other GE foods have been given approval by the ANC for GE development. South African farmer Boetha Van Zyl told WorldNetDaily he has thus far rejected the urge to plant GE foods on his farm in the Orange Free State. "Who knows what the effects of GE foods will be 50 years?" he asked. "The jury is still out. It may be a modern quasi-religion, but science does not have all the answers, especially when the greedy corporations don't even want critics to ask the most important questions. Whoever thought a life of farming would bring a lifetime of peace and contentment never faced this issue. Welcome to the 'Brave New World.'"

Anthony C. LoBaido is an international correspondent for WorldNetDaily.

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EU PUTS OFF AGREEMENT ON BIOTECH RULES DESPITE THREATS OF WTO ACTION FROM WASHINGTON

October 10, 2002
Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Divided over items from corn oil to pet food, European Union governments have, according to this story, abandoned hopes  of reaching agreement this month on stringent biotech rules despite fears of being hauled before the World Trade Organization by Washington. EU officials and diplomats were cited as saying Thursday the delay means no movement can be made on lifting a 4-year-old EU moratorium on new genetically modified crops, with one diplomat stating that, "Nothing will change," while conceding that the WTO threat was a growing worry. The story says htat U.S. officials have been increasingly strident in demanding that the EU lift the freeze, which they say costs U.S. corn growers alone some US$200 million a year in lost exports.

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Asian opposition to biotech spring wheat ...

RTf 10/09 1758 UPDATE 1
UPDATE 1-Asian opposition to biotech spring wheat steadfast (Adds comment by Monsanto paragraph 3) By Carey Gillam KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct 9 (Reuters) - Asian buyers of U.S. wheat remain largely opposed to the planned introduction of genetically modified wheat, according to a new report by the leading marketing organization for U.S.   wheat. U.S. Wheat Associates found in its survey of wheat buyers, millers and users that "there is currently an overwhelming rejection" of the biotech "Roundup Ready" wheat plant that Monsanto Co.

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Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed

By AyaTakada TOKYO, Oct 10 (Reuters)

- Japan, one of the world's biggest grain importers, is set to tighten regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMO), with plans to ban the import and sale of unapproved biotech crops for use in livestock feed. Currently Japan's Agriculture Ministry, responsible for ensuring the safety of animal feed, asks GMO suppliers to voluntarily undergo its safety assessments. But faced with criticism that lax regulations have led to the use of unapproved GM ingredients in feed, the ministry plans to make the assessment mandatory next April under the feed safety law. Under the new regulations, the ministry will test samples from grain cargoes at its laboratories nationwide to weed out unapproved GM varieties. "We will order importers to destroy or return cargoes to originating countries (if we discover) unapproved GMOs," a ministry official said. The Agriculture Ministry's move follows similar steps taken last year by Japan's Health Ministry, the food safety authority, which has banned imports of foods containing unapproved GMOs.

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Sri Lanka to enforce mandatory labeling for GM products

COLOMBO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) --The Sri Lankan government is formulating regulations to enforce mandatory labeling of all genetically modified (GM) products imported in the future, the official Daily News said on Thursday.

 According to the regulations, consumers are able to take legal action against offenders. The regulations will also include provisions to ban any item of GM product including food, organism, seed or material if tested harmful for human health. The law will also provide for action against transport, storage, distribution, sale of such items. The Health Ministry appointed a special committee in August last year to look into the issue of GM food. The committee said that the Health Ministry would maintain regular and rigorous monitoring of GM food in the markets to ensure the rights and safety of consumers.

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WINE: JUSTIFIED WORRIES FOR GMO VINES

Italy Online english news, Italy

(AGI) - Rome, Oct. 10 - "We cannot ignore the call of 480 fine wine-producing municipalities addressed to the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi nor the words of the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi against the genetically modified vines," said Agriculture Minister Alemmano. The information follows an initiative of the municipalities members of the Cities-of-Wine Association (where DOC and DOCG wines are produced) which distributed 100,000 postcards to Prodi requesting the cancellation of the measure that gives a green light for genetically modified organisms in the wine market. "After all the efforts made to consolidate our worldwide first place in the wine industry, the introduction of these genetically modified organisms can only damage the gem of the made-in-Italy industry. I hope that President Prodi will accept the request made by wine producers who can be penalized due to this European Community measure," said Alemmano.

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ExxonMobil and Bayer raided in EU probe

By Francesco Guerrera and Daniel Dombey in Brussels, Max Smolka in Frankfurt and David Firn in London
Published: October 9 2002 21:58 | Last Updated: October 9 2002 21:58
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1033848842524&p=1012571727162

ExxonMobil, the US oil group, has been raided by European anti-trust investigators as part of a wide-ranging probe into allegations of price-fixing in the petrochemicals sector.

Bayer, the German chemicals group, was also raided as part of a separate investigation into allegations of a cartel in the market for rubber chemicals, used to make tyres.

...Bayer confirmed that its offices in Leverkusen, Germany, had been raided by officials seeking information on chemicals used in rubber manufacture.