Green Creation 

Working from home this afternoon, I just finished listening to the programme Rothamsted Research on BBC Radio 4. The programme info mentions "This use of GM as a 'tool' in experiment has been very successful." This is deceptive (and have thus complained to the BBC!) as it implies it's a solution (in the making); it may be an interesting 'toy' for scientists, but it's NOT a solution and this has been shown by research including that of IAAST (the IPCC of agriculture but with even less teeth), Austrian Gov't research (even if last month pro-GM bullied them into withdrawing - and the study has even been taken down from the Austrian Government website: why not leave it for people to read? Reference still is: Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice, Velimirov A et al. Bundesministerium für Gesundheit, Familie und Jugend Report, Forschungsberichte der Sektion IV Band 3/2008, Austria, 2008) etc. The 'downside' of GM is NOT just that people are currently 'just' worried about it's safety... it's playing with the start of the food chain, of the web of biodiversity, it's corporate ownership, increased dependency of farmers on outside input. I would REALLY appreciate it if the BBC stopped being a mouth piece of GM pushing (note two people - Dr Wallace and Prof. Wynne - resigned from the UK Government's Food Standards Authority's GM group in the past week because of this - even if I didn't hear about this from the BBC!).

On another note (where UK Government wants to allow new nuclear plants in the UK): we're still finding bills for the ones already there... and it's NOT just for a coffee and bun.

In peace, Rianne

I just wrote the following e-mail to the BBC (as it's public radio and a science programme, I didn't bother adding the great faith-objection against GM: playing God, as GM is NOT the same as 'selective breeding, but proactively in a lab mixing species; e.g. in the Quran: "so eat of the sustenance which God has provided for you, lawful and good" [16:114]):

Hello BBC Feedback team,

May this message find you in the best of health and spirits.

From the programme brief of Frontiers (7 Dec '09, 9pm) it is blatantly obvious that the programme 'Frontiers' to be aired on Monday 7 Dec '09 at 9pm will be a half hour free PR/ advertisement for the GM private industry. Even the links at the end of the brief make no attempt to be balanced (3 of the 5 are biotech companies or their industry promoters [e.g. objective "protect intellectual property"], only 1 link to environment organisation).

The programme takes the starting point that GM are positive and good, without questioning this info, e.g. their view that if the EU would relax its rules "developing nations will be more likely to accept them too". Many developing countries do NOT want them as it makes farmers MORE not less dependent on outside input, e.g. as GM seeds need to be bought every year anew due to IP rights of GM companies. A South-African farmer group even summarises the debate in the most succinct way: "There is enough food in the world to feed everyone on earth over a kilo of a good quality mixed diet daily. People go hungry because they do not have money, access to food, or land. GE will not change this. The problem is economic, political and practical, not technical. Most farmers will never be able to afford technology fees and the chemicals to grow these new GE seeds. It is even possible now to genetically engineer plants to produce sterile seeds, stopping farmers from saving their seeds for replanting the next year. About a third of humanity depends on saved seed for their survival. Genetic engineering in its present form cannot form part of the solution; it is part of the problem."

In 1998 a delegation representing EVERY AFRICAN COUNTRY except South Africa put a joint statement to a UN conference on genetic research. The delegates had been 'inspired' by a Monsanto campaign that used images of starving African children to plug its technology. The statement read "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 beneficial to us. We do not believe that such companies or gene technologies will help our farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st Century. On the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge, and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia, and that it will undermine our capacity to feed ourselves."

Also UN research has found organic farming and using indigenous species are MORE effective/ promising than GM in increasing yields and sustainbility.

And then I haven't yet mentioned the objection (by farmers and consumers) to GM based on research (e.g. by Austrian Government) that it has negative health effects, so again objection is not about some kind of unwarranted fear or an argument by hair-shirted lefties.

BBC, PLEASE stop being the puppet of the GM industry and bring a fair debate instead - indeed something we don't have often enough!

In peace,

Rianne
Ms R.C. ten Veen MA (Law) MA (Int'l Politics) PGDipEnvPol
Birmingham, UK

SOURCES/ LINKS:
Farmers in Pakistan protest against Monsato's GM trials
http://www.hungerfreeplanet.org/news/pakistan-farmers-protest-against-gm

Farmers stage demo against GM crop trial
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/04/03/stories/2009040351880600.htm

A brief overview of SCIENTIFIC objections to GM by farmers
http://www.non-gm-farmers.com/news_details.asp?ID=2013

Canadian Farmers Against Corporate Serfdom
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/CFACS.php

South African Freeze Alliance on Genetic Engineering (SAFeAGE)
http://www.safeage.org/

1998 African request to UN
http://www.safeage.org/docs/issues/African-gm-res-aug05.doc

Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice
https://www.dafne.at/dafne_plus_homepage/download.php?t=ProjectReportAttachment&k=1292

American Academy of Environmental Medicine statement on GM
http://www.aaemonline.org/gmopost.html

Comparative Analysis of Organic and Non-Organic Farming Systems: A Critical Assessment of Farm Profitability (2009), UN FAO
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/ak355e/ak355e00.pdf

Ms Linn Cohen-Cole wrote an important (and worrying!) article giving insight into power of genetic modification (GM) lobby has over our food chain. She suggests that to begin reversing GM contamination will require ending the power biotech companies such as Monsanto exert over our [US] government and through that, over our food. HR 875, was introduced by Rosa DeLauro whose husband Stanley Greenburg works for Monsanto.