GE Free News 11-23-2004

In this issue:

1. Altered crops not taking root: Japan's Farming community rejects GE soybeans due to food safety concerns and fear of lost markets
2. GM firms finally give up on planting in Britain: Bayer CropScience withdraws from Britain
3. Bayer terminates GE work in India: Bayer CropScience withdraws from India

GM firms finally give up on planting in Britain

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

Independent on Sunday, 21 November 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=585086

Industry has dropped its last attempts to get GM seeds approved for growing in Britain, in a final surrender of its dream to spread modified crops rapidly across the country.

Bayer CropScience has withdrawn the only two remaining applications for government permission for the seeds - a winter and a spring oilseed rape, both modified to tolerate one of the firm's herbicides. Supporters of the technology say this will put back their commercial use in Britain for years. Environmentalists cite it as one more indication that they are never likely to be grown here.

The withdrawal of the applications marks a sharp contrast to the situation when The Independent on Sunday began its campaign over genetic modification nearly six years ago. At that time, 53 different GM seeds were awaiting approval, and widespread cultivation was assumed to be only a year away.

The Government had put all its weight behind the technology, aiming to make Britain its "European hub", and Tony Blair privately dismissed opposition as a "flash in the pan".

But rising public concern forced the Government to introduce a moratorium while tests were carried out on the effects on the environment of growing GM crops. The trials - the results of which were reported last year - found that the way GM beet and spring oilseed rape were cultivated damaged wildlife more than the growing of conventional crops (the results for winter oilseed rape are due to be published shortly).

The trials appeared to clear GM maize, but the IoS revealed that the verdict was invalid because a pesticide central to the clearance was about to be banned. The Government still gave approval for the maize to be grown - the only one given to a GM crop in Britain. But shortly afterwards, Bayer announced it would not proceed, saying that the controls on how the maize would be cultivated were too strict.

GM advocates presented this as a temporary setback, arguing that new varieties could be grown as early as 2006. Now, however, industry, ministers and environmentalists agree that the abandonment of the last applications means it will be the end of this decade, at the earliest, before any GM crops can be grown.

Any new application will now have to go through a long process to be approved. First, it will have to be passed by the European Union, an unlikely prospect as it has a moratorium on GM crops. Even if that hurdle were surmounted, the crop would have to go through two years of trials in Britain, and then get government approval - a process that will be fought by protesters.

Last week Bayer said it would not even try to carry out trials in Britain until the Government took strong measures to stop protesters pulling up the plants. And ministers now believe that there is no market for the crops, so they would not be grown even if approval were granted.

Yesterday, Pete Riley, director of the anti-GM campaign Five Year Freeze, said: "This development makes it even less likely that modified crops will ever be grown in Britain. The Government should now abandon its doomed obsession with GM crops and put together a coherent strategy to put the whole of UK farming on a sustainable basis."

Bayer terminates GE work in India

Biotech company falters for third time in one year

Mon 15 November 2004

INDIA/Mumbai

Bayer has pulled out of GE research in India after sustained pressure from Greenpeace; this is the biotech giant's third defeat this year proving just how unsustainable and unwanted GE agriculture is.

Bayer conceded to Greenpeace India that ALL its projects on genetically engineered (GE) crops have been "discontinued" in a letter sent by Aloke V. Pradhan, head of Bayer's Corporate Communications in India.

"We don't need genetically engineered crops to feed India," said Divya Raghunandan, GE campaigner for Greenpeace India. "In fact globally, the promises made by the genetic engineering industry have been unfulfilled, whether increasing crop yields or reducing pesticide use."

She continued: "It doesn't surprise us that Bayer is giving up in India as they saw the writing on the wall - the Indian public was not going to accept their manipulated cabbages and cauliflowers and they cut their losses. It's time for the rest of the industry to give up on this misguided and inappropriate technology."

The letter outlining Bayer's retreat was sent following a protest which saw six activists chain themselves to the Bayer headquarters in Mumbai at the beginning of October. During their protest they demanded to know exactly what the biotech giant was doing in India.

They also presented documentary evidence obtained from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) proving that ProAgro, a Bayer subsidiary, was using the highly controversial Cry9C gene in Indian cabbage and cauliflower.

Greenpeace activists chain themselves to Bayer headquarters in Mumbai, demanding answers to critical questions on GM crops and food safety.Bayer's only response was to issue a statement denying it had any involvement with the Cry9C gene. But it then contradicted itself by stating that "the (Cry9C gene) trials were conducted in a contained environment and were harvested well before flowering. Since these research trials never went to the phase of development or commercial production the question of biosafety assessment does not arise."

"The apathy and indifference of this company is unbelievable!" said Divya Raghunandan. "They took 11 hours to eventually respond with half-truths and an inconsistent statement. This statement only vindicates our stand that we are dealing with an irresponsible corporation with many skeletons to hide."

The use of this gene also proves the double standards systematically used by biotech companies. In the US Cry9C was only approved for animal feed and industrial purposes as there were concerns that it could cause allergies due to shared characteristics of other allergens. In 2000 a scandal involving the gene, which was used to create StarLink GE corn, cost the US agro-biotech industry US $1 billion when traces were found in Taco shells.

This retreat follows other decisions by Bayer earlier this year. In March of 2004, the company announced it would be pulling out of GE crop research in the UK. A few months later, in June, it announced it would not pursue commercialisation of GE canola in Australia.

"It is clear that popular resistance to genetic engineering is not diminishing as hoped for by the industry," said Doreen Stabinsky, GE campaigner for Greenpeace International. "No matter what country we're talking about, consumers are on the same page. They don't want to eat genetically engineered food. That's good news for farmers and good news for the environment."