permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        [SANET-MG] judge orders disclosure of secret maize report
Date:   Sun, 12 Jun 2005 06:48:30 -0400
From:   jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
Reply-To: 	Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group 
<SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>
To:     SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU


At least on court seems to have honorable judges who recognized that CBI
designation was being used to hide evidence of injury from GM food and feed.

Judges order disclosure of secret study on GM risk.
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor the independent

12 June 2005
Judges have ordered the publication of a secret study which has raised 
fears that eating GM food may harm human health, after it was revealed 
in The Independent on Sunday last month.

A court in Cologne last week granted Greenpeace access to the 1,139-page 
study - by the giant biotech firm Monsanto - which found that rats fed a 
modified corn had smaller kidneys and raised levels of white blood cells 
and lymphocytes compared with those fed a non-GM corn.

The maize - code-named MON 863 - is expected to be approved for human 
consumption in Europe later this year. Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini of 
the University of Caen, who scrutinises the safety of GM products for 
the European Commission and French government, describes the findings as 
"very worrying".

Environmental groups in several European countries have been pressing 
for the report's publication for months. They intensified their campaign 
after The Independent on Sunday's disclosures, and the EC also called 
for the secrecy to be lifted.

Monsanto - which dismisses the differences between the rats as pure 
chance - supplied the study to safety authorities on condition it was 
kept confidential. It has consistently refused to make the study public, 
saying it "contains confidential business information which could be of 
commercial use to our competitors". Last week the dispute ended in a 
German court, where Greenpeace argued the study should be published 
under a European Union law, namely the public should have access to 
documents assessing GM risks.

The court agreed. Greenpeace hailed the victory as "an important 
success". Monsanto appealed. Tony Combes, UK director of corporate 
affairs, said: "Everyone who needs to see [the study] has seen it."

The company denies environmentalists' accusations that it is appealing 
to try to keep the study secret while European ministers decide next 
month whether to allow the corn to be sold for human consumption. If 
ministers cannot agree, the EC has made clear it will wave it through 
anyway, using a loophole in European law.

Dr Brian John, of GM-free Cymru, welcomed the court's decision and said 
it would be "irresponsible and cynical in the extreme" to pass the corn 
for human consumption
judge orders