29 January 2003

MORE SMELL OF BURNING TROUSERS  PART 2: PANTS: THE BIG ONES

Here's part 2 of the GM WATCH end of year report on the smelters of 2002's choicest lies, disinformation, PR chicanery and unfounded abuse. It includes 2 of the top 3 of 2002's PANTS ON FIRE AWARD WINNERS.

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THE SMELL OF BURNING TROUSERS  - PANTS ON FIRE HOT SHOTS OF 2002

Part 2: PANTS - THE BIG ONES!

Yesterday we announced the following award winners:
in 6th place: GARY BIVINGS of the Bivings Group
in 5th place: ANDREW NATSIOS of USAID
in 4th place: The NEW Monsanto Corporation

The final selection:  TWO OF THE BIG ONES...

In reverse order, here are 2 of the top 3 of 2002's hot shots, all of whom are being acknowledged with the coveted PANTS ON FIRE AWARD - incendiary underwear made from the finest GM cotton.

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In 3rd place:

Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute, old napalm knickers!

Another year in the hot seat for the man with the asbestos-lined drawers included a speech to the British Crop Protection Council in  London where he claimed that organic agriculture, if widely adopted, would lead to "an environmental catastrophe". Avery, whose work at the Hudson Institute is supported by Monsanto, DuPont, Novartis, ConAgra, DowElanco and others who profit from the sale of products prohibited in organic production, also previously claimed organic farming would lead to mass starvation, and that it is more likely to poison you.

Avery's anti-organic claims, which have given rise to such newspaper headlines as "Organic food -- It's eight times more likely to kill you",  are so ludicrous that even Greg Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has criticised Avery's grasp of statistics. Conko told Avery's  son Alex that the extreme selectivity of their figures, "doesn't seem to be convincing anybody who doesn't already have a predilection to believe you in the first place".

While in London, Avery also claimed anti-biotech activists "sided with terrorists" and formed "human shields for Arafat, leader in chief of the suicide bombers." And in a newspaper article Avery claimed that the rest of the world would soon be so grateful to the U.S. for its GMOs that the terrorists would turn their attention exclusively to GMO-resistant Europe.

Dennis certainly knows how to smoke out a good story!

Find out more:
Bogus Research from Dennis Avery
https://ngin.tripod.com/averylies.htm
Avery's comic highlights / Avery over London
https://ngin.tripod.com/291102b.htm

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In 2nd place:

Luther Val Giddings of BIO, cheerleader to the fake parade

Beneath this suit there's a pair of fuming frillies! And the stench from Giddings' gusset arose throughout 2002.

Back at the start of the year the man from the Biotech Industry Organisation assured us all that there was absolutely nothing to substantiate concerns over GM pharma crops. BIO ended the year under fire from the Grocery Manufacturers of America over the Prodigene pharma-contamination incidents and the total lack of credible safeguards.

More smoke signals were spotted in April when an Associated Press article on "corporate meddling" pointed the finger at BIO for instigating the campaign of pressure on the journal Nature over the Mexican maize study and the attacks on its authors.

But the Giddings smoke 'n' mirrors finale came in Novermber when he  used an issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology to write about an event at September's Earth Summit that would make us "look back on Johannesburg as something of a watershed event - a turning point." This momentous event in human history was a pro-GM protest march which, Giddings told the journal's readers, was the very first time that "real, live, developing-world farmers" had been seen "speaking for themselves". Giddings singled out the statement of "farmer" Chengal Reddy who said India's farmers needed biotech to avoid further starvation. Giddings also claimed the farmers dedicated a "Bullshit Award" to those who were deepening their poverty by denying them biotech. According to Giddings this was all "something new, something very big."

And so it was - a very big pack of lies!

Find out more:
The Fake Parade
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=254
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COMING SOON: Part 3 - *THE* 'PANTS ON FIRE' HOT SHOT OF 2002

"The deceit that this man has been involved in has been on a monumental scale."

WHEN IT COMES TO PANTS, MEET *MR BIG!* - NUMERO UNO