Syngenta's corporate crimes
BY DR BRIAN JOHN
BY DR BRIAN JOHN
GM Free Cymru has discovered that Syngenta, in its promotion of GM crops and foods, has been involved in a web of lies, deceptions and obstructive corporate behaviour that would have done credit to its competitor Monsanto. It appears to be quite unfazed by the UN decision in Curitiba in March to maintain the moratorium on terminator technology. This is an updated list of some of the proud moments in the corporation's recent history:
** Syngenta knew about the contamination of Bt11 by the illegal variety called Bt10 several months before the story was broken by "Nature" magazine (1) on 22 March 2005. For at least four months Syngenta and the US regulatory authorities connived to keep the contamination incident under wraps, while contaminated grain continued to be distributed on the world market.
** The corporation at first failed to reveal that Bt10 contains antibiotic resistance marker genes, but then had to admit it under pressure from independent scientists (2). It also failed to reveal that it has a different promoter.
** The corporation pretended at first that Bt10 is "basically identical" to Bt11, but it was later pointed out that it was sufficiently distinctive to have been used as a "control" for the testing / identification of Bt11. The pretence was perpetrated by DEFRA, as indicated by a press statement which included these words: "Food or feed derived from a mixture of Bt 11 and Bt 10 maize seeds would not reveal the two original sources of Bt protein as they are identical." This is an unsupportable contention, and has no scientific validity (3).
** The corporation failed to point out that BT10 was clearly an "experimental GM variety" which never entered the US approvals process, probably because it was found to be defective or genetically unstable (4) (5).
** The variety has never had its genetic "character" described in the literature, which means that even if the EU countries had had effective import monitoring in place (which they had not) the GM testing laboratories would not have known what they were supposed to look for (6).
** At first Syngenta stated that "several hundred tonnes" of contaminated maize had found its way into the food chain (1). This was a lie, and following revelations by GM Free Cymru and other bodies, the corporation had to admit that the real figure was around 150,000 tonnes (7). We stand by our calculation that the real figure was around 185,000 tonnes.
** Syngenta has refused to give any figures relating to the amount of contaminated grain exported, and it has refused to identify the countries involved. At least twelve contaminated cargoes have been stopped at Japanese ports, and two in Ireland (8). It is a fair assumption that other contaminated cargoes have been imported, without being identified, through ports in other EC countries, and also in South Korea.
** The corporation has persistently peddled the line that all of the contaminated Bt10/Bt11 maize was intended for animal fodder and other products incorporated into processed animal feed. However, the Syngenta web site makes it clear that the Bt11 event (and hence Bt10 event also) is used in "yellow field corn", which goes into a wide range of processed foods with maize ingredients intended for human consumption (9).
** In an Email to DEFRA, dated 5th April 2005, and obtained by GM Free Cymru through the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, Syngenta admitted that the contamination incident was neither simple nor small in scale. It admitted that no less than five Bt10 breeding lines were involved (10).
** GM Free Cymru discovered that as at 5th April 2005 Syngenta was still holding 19,000 sacks of Bt10 seed "in quarantine" (10). It has never said that this seed has been destroyed, and it is therefore quite possible that it has quietly been slipped back into the food chain and planted as Bt11 maize.
** It has also been admitted by the company that one of the Bt10 breeding lines "was commercialized in a very small amount" -- which would have been illegal even in the USA, since consent for Bt10 lines was never requested or given (10).
** Following the admission that a major contamination incident had taken place, Syngenta embarked upon an energetic damage limitation exercise. Spokesmen said over and again that the tonnage of contaminated maize was but a minute fraction of total US maize production, and they suggested that Bt10 maize would have been diluted evenly through the food chain (11). This is totally dishonest. Since maize is bought in the market place in batches and shipped to food processors in Europe, there is a chance that some food products on supermarket shelves will have had high concentrations of Bt10 in them.
** While regulators in Japan and the EU attempted to establish a reliable test for Bt10 so that incoming cargoes of maize products from the US could be monitored, Syngenta refused absolutely to provide information about the genetic makeup of the variety which could have enabled GM testing labs to start work. After a considerable delay, Syngenta worked out a testing method with a company called GeneScan in May 2005 which was suspected to have been carefully designed to provide "false negatives" -- in other words, to ensure that shipments with low or moderate contamination would not be identified no matter how much sampling was done (11).
** On the political front, it has now been established that Syngenta was very active in the Brazilian delegation that derailed the Cartagena Protocol biosafety negotiations in Montreal in June 2005 (12). In pursuity of its corporate objectives Syngenta has been active in Brazilian political circles for a number of years. It has also (as a Swiss-based company) been heavily involved in the pro-GM campaign prior to the Swiss referendum on 27 November 2005. (18)
** In the first "Corngate" scandal in New Zealand in 2000, illegally imported GM maize seed was planted on 178 ha of land. Mystery still surrounds the fate of the crop. Later, when this leaked out, Syngenta refused to allow access to the GeneScan laboratory which carried out the testing that identified the contamination. (13)
** Syngenta has been actively involved in the promotion of "Golden Rice" in rice-growing countries, and has used its development and "gift" of Golden Rice 2 in its promotion and publicity work, as flagging up its humanitarian concerns and philanthropic instincts. NGOs and consumers and farming groups have pointed out that the Golden Rice project is a gigantic scam which will bring virtually no benefits in terms of hunger alleviation. (14)
** The corporation is the developer and owner of another maize variety called Bt176 which was implicated in the deaths of 12 cattle in Hesse, Germany, in 2001-2002.(15) Bt176 is unstable and non-uniform, which means that it is illegal under EU law. When news of that scandal broke, the investigations relating to the animal deaths were short-lived and profoundly unsatisfactory, involving the mysterious disappearance of animal tissue samples that should have been examinued. Syngenta gave the farmer partial compensation in 2002 but refused to provide more support in making a full investigation into the case and to recognise the GM maize as being the cause of his problems. The corporation was then implicated in attempts to attribute the cattle deaths to mismanagement and other factors. (16) This was classic corporate behaviour ...............
** Syngenta is currently involved in the acquisition of patents for "terminator technology" around the world, in clear breach of the commitments given some years ago by the GM multinationals that this technology would be abandoned because of the host of biological, ecological and agricultural dangers involved. Syngenta now owns more "terminator" patents than any other company.
** In March 2006 South American farmers wrote to the head of Syngenta, Michael Pragnell, pleading with him to abandon Patent 6,700,039 which could directly threaten the 3,000 potato varieties native to Peru. It is not known whether Pragnell has replied. If potatoes modified with the "terminator gene" were to cross with other cultivated varieties, Syngenta could effectively take control of the Peruvian food supply through the sales of proprietory chemicals required to "switch on" the potato germination process (19).
** Syngenta and DuPont (Pioneer Hi-Bred) have joined forces in GreenLeaf Genetics with a view to extending their GM business and competing more effectively with Monsanto. It is inevitable that more maize and soya varieties with multiple GM traits will soon be introduced, no doubt with similar disregard for testing and quality control that characterised the Bt10- fiasco (20). The new company will seek to "out-license" GM traits, which probably means that the new licensee seed companies will be even less concerned about health and safety issues than Syngenta. Sales of glyphosate-resistance and other GM traits are already being discussed with more than 100 companies. This can only mean an extension to the marketing and use of glyphosate in the growing of GM soya and corn including those known as "NK" varieties.
**Pressure from GM Free Cymru has at last resulted in a request from Commissioner Kyprianou to Syngenta for further information about the test method for Bt10, following concerns expressed by the EU's Joint Research Centre about anomalies and the possibility of "false negatives". (21) We have warned about this for the past twelve months. We have grave doubts that Syngenta will cooperate as requested.
** Over one thousand farmers occupied the site of an illegal field trial of GM soybeans planted by Syngenta on the edge of the National Park of Iguacu in Parana, southern Brazil in March 2006. The site of the illegal trials was occupied by protesting farmers from "Via Campesina", an organisation representing small farmers in the region. Ironically, the illegal crop was planted near to Curitiba, where 132 countries met to agree measures to prevent illegal movement and planting of GE crops and to protect biodiversity - the so-called Biosafety Protocol. Brazilian legislation prohibits the release of GMOs in protected areas and their surroundings. (22) The country's Environmental Protection Agency has fined Syngenta $461,000.
** Syngenta is pressing ahead with its plans to market at least one GM wheat variety "early in the next decade." (23) This is in spite of massive opposition worldwide, and in spite of the fact that competitor Monsanto (not normally known for being sensitive to public opinion) has dipped out of the "GM wheat race." As ever, Syngenta shows itself to be quite impervious to anything said outside its own boardroom, and seems hellbent on selling its products initially into the American large-scale, high-input GM farming industry prior to a gradual contamination of wheat-fields worldwide.
** At the UN meeting in Grenada in January 2006, and at the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8) in Curitiba, Brazil in March, Syngenta lobbied very aggressively for the abandonment of the moratorium on terminator technology. Also involved in the lobbying were Monsanto, Crop Life International, Delta and Pine Land, and the International Seed Federation. Syngenta pressed for a "case by case" approval of terminator technology, and was even supported in this, at one stage, by the Swiss government. In spite of this shameful action, the ban on terminator was upheld largely because of the incredible resolve of the poorer nations. (24)
--------------------------------------** Syngenta knew about the contamination of Bt11 by the illegal variety called Bt10 several months before the story was broken by "Nature" magazine (1) on 22 March 2005. For at least four months Syngenta and the US regulatory authorities connived to keep the contamination incident under wraps, while contaminated grain continued to be distributed on the world market.
** The corporation at first failed to reveal that Bt10 contains antibiotic resistance marker genes, but then had to admit it under pressure from independent scientists (2). It also failed to reveal that it has a different promoter.
** The corporation pretended at first that Bt10 is "basically identical" to Bt11, but it was later pointed out that it was sufficiently distinctive to have been used as a "control" for the testing / identification of Bt11. The pretence was perpetrated by DEFRA, as indicated by a press statement which included these words: "Food or feed derived from a mixture of Bt 11 and Bt 10 maize seeds would not reveal the two original sources of Bt protein as they are identical." This is an unsupportable contention, and has no scientific validity (3).
** The corporation failed to point out that BT10 was clearly an "experimental GM variety" which never entered the US approvals process, probably because it was found to be defective or genetically unstable (4) (5).
** The variety has never had its genetic "character" described in the literature, which means that even if the EU countries had had effective import monitoring in place (which they had not) the GM testing laboratories would not have known what they were supposed to look for (6).
** At first Syngenta stated that "several hundred tonnes" of contaminated maize had found its way into the food chain (1). This was a lie, and following revelations by GM Free Cymru and other bodies, the corporation had to admit that the real figure was around 150,000 tonnes (7). We stand by our calculation that the real figure was around 185,000 tonnes.
** Syngenta has refused to give any figures relating to the amount of contaminated grain exported, and it has refused to identify the countries involved. At least twelve contaminated cargoes have been stopped at Japanese ports, and two in Ireland (8). It is a fair assumption that other contaminated cargoes have been imported, without being identified, through ports in other EC countries, and also in South Korea.
** The corporation has persistently peddled the line that all of the contaminated Bt10/Bt11 maize was intended for animal fodder and other products incorporated into processed animal feed. However, the Syngenta web site makes it clear that the Bt11 event (and hence Bt10 event also) is used in "yellow field corn", which goes into a wide range of processed foods with maize ingredients intended for human consumption (9).
** In an Email to DEFRA, dated 5th April 2005, and obtained by GM Free Cymru through the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, Syngenta admitted that the contamination incident was neither simple nor small in scale. It admitted that no less than five Bt10 breeding lines were involved (10).
** GM Free Cymru discovered that as at 5th April 2005 Syngenta was still holding 19,000 sacks of Bt10 seed "in quarantine" (10). It has never said that this seed has been destroyed, and it is therefore quite possible that it has quietly been slipped back into the food chain and planted as Bt11 maize.
** It has also been admitted by the company that one of the Bt10 breeding lines "was commercialized in a very small amount" -- which would have been illegal even in the USA, since consent for Bt10 lines was never requested or given (10).
** Following the admission that a major contamination incident had taken place, Syngenta embarked upon an energetic damage limitation exercise. Spokesmen said over and again that the tonnage of contaminated maize was but a minute fraction of total US maize production, and they suggested that Bt10 maize would have been diluted evenly through the food chain (11). This is totally dishonest. Since maize is bought in the market place in batches and shipped to food processors in Europe, there is a chance that some food products on supermarket shelves will have had high concentrations of Bt10 in them.
** While regulators in Japan and the EU attempted to establish a reliable test for Bt10 so that incoming cargoes of maize products from the US could be monitored, Syngenta refused absolutely to provide information about the genetic makeup of the variety which could have enabled GM testing labs to start work. After a considerable delay, Syngenta worked out a testing method with a company called GeneScan in May 2005 which was suspected to have been carefully designed to provide "false negatives" -- in other words, to ensure that shipments with low or moderate contamination would not be identified no matter how much sampling was done (11).
** On the political front, it has now been established that Syngenta was very active in the Brazilian delegation that derailed the Cartagena Protocol biosafety negotiations in Montreal in June 2005 (12). In pursuity of its corporate objectives Syngenta has been active in Brazilian political circles for a number of years. It has also (as a Swiss-based company) been heavily involved in the pro-GM campaign prior to the Swiss referendum on 27 November 2005. (18)
** In the first "Corngate" scandal in New Zealand in 2000, illegally imported GM maize seed was planted on 178 ha of land. Mystery still surrounds the fate of the crop. Later, when this leaked out, Syngenta refused to allow access to the GeneScan laboratory which carried out the testing that identified the contamination. (13)
** Syngenta has been actively involved in the promotion of "Golden Rice" in rice-growing countries, and has used its development and "gift" of Golden Rice 2 in its promotion and publicity work, as flagging up its humanitarian concerns and philanthropic instincts. NGOs and consumers and farming groups have pointed out that the Golden Rice project is a gigantic scam which will bring virtually no benefits in terms of hunger alleviation. (14)
** The corporation is the developer and owner of another maize variety called Bt176 which was implicated in the deaths of 12 cattle in Hesse, Germany, in 2001-2002.(15) Bt176 is unstable and non-uniform, which means that it is illegal under EU law. When news of that scandal broke, the investigations relating to the animal deaths were short-lived and profoundly unsatisfactory, involving the mysterious disappearance of animal tissue samples that should have been examinued. Syngenta gave the farmer partial compensation in 2002 but refused to provide more support in making a full investigation into the case and to recognise the GM maize as being the cause of his problems. The corporation was then implicated in attempts to attribute the cattle deaths to mismanagement and other factors. (16) This was classic corporate behaviour ...............
** Syngenta is currently involved in the acquisition of patents for "terminator technology" around the world, in clear breach of the commitments given some years ago by the GM multinationals that this technology would be abandoned because of the host of biological, ecological and agricultural dangers involved. Syngenta now owns more "terminator" patents than any other company.
** In March 2006 South American farmers wrote to the head of Syngenta, Michael Pragnell, pleading with him to abandon Patent 6,700,039 which could directly threaten the 3,000 potato varieties native to Peru. It is not known whether Pragnell has replied. If potatoes modified with the "terminator gene" were to cross with other cultivated varieties, Syngenta could effectively take control of the Peruvian food supply through the sales of proprietory chemicals required to "switch on" the potato germination process (19).
** Syngenta and DuPont (Pioneer Hi-Bred) have joined forces in GreenLeaf Genetics with a view to extending their GM business and competing more effectively with Monsanto. It is inevitable that more maize and soya varieties with multiple GM traits will soon be introduced, no doubt with similar disregard for testing and quality control that characterised the Bt10- fiasco (20). The new company will seek to "out-license" GM traits, which probably means that the new licensee seed companies will be even less concerned about health and safety issues than Syngenta. Sales of glyphosate-resistance and other GM traits are already being discussed with more than 100 companies. This can only mean an extension to the marketing and use of glyphosate in the growing of GM soya and corn including those known as "NK" varieties.
**Pressure from GM Free Cymru has at last resulted in a request from Commissioner Kyprianou to Syngenta for further information about the test method for Bt10, following concerns expressed by the EU's Joint Research Centre about anomalies and the possibility of "false negatives". (21) We have warned about this for the past twelve months. We have grave doubts that Syngenta will cooperate as requested.
** Over one thousand farmers occupied the site of an illegal field trial of GM soybeans planted by Syngenta on the edge of the National Park of Iguacu in Parana, southern Brazil in March 2006. The site of the illegal trials was occupied by protesting farmers from "Via Campesina", an organisation representing small farmers in the region. Ironically, the illegal crop was planted near to Curitiba, where 132 countries met to agree measures to prevent illegal movement and planting of GE crops and to protect biodiversity - the so-called Biosafety Protocol. Brazilian legislation prohibits the release of GMOs in protected areas and their surroundings. (22) The country's Environmental Protection Agency has fined Syngenta $461,000.
** Syngenta is pressing ahead with its plans to market at least one GM wheat variety "early in the next decade." (23) This is in spite of massive opposition worldwide, and in spite of the fact that competitor Monsanto (not normally known for being sensitive to public opinion) has dipped out of the "GM wheat race." As ever, Syngenta shows itself to be quite impervious to anything said outside its own boardroom, and seems hellbent on selling its products initially into the American large-scale, high-input GM farming industry prior to a gradual contamination of wheat-fields worldwide.
** At the UN meeting in Grenada in January 2006, and at the meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8) in Curitiba, Brazil in March, Syngenta lobbied very aggressively for the abandonment of the moratorium on terminator technology. Also involved in the lobbying were Monsanto, Crop Life International, Delta and Pine Land, and the International Seed Federation. Syngenta pressed for a "case by case" approval of terminator technology, and was even supported in this, at one stage, by the Swiss government. In spite of this shameful action, the ban on terminator was upheld largely because of the incredible resolve of the poorer nations. (24)
NOTES
(1) "US launches probe into sales of unapproved transgenic corn", Colin Macilwain NATURE, 22 March 2005 http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050321/full/nature03570.html
Useful summary of the Bt10 scandal by Jeffrey Smith, author of Seeds of Deception:
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5177
Bt10 likely in human food chain
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5346
(2) Stray seeds had antibiotic-resistance genes Nature, Published online: 29 March 2005; | doi:10.1038/434548a Colin Macilwain: "Accidental release of genetically-modified crops sparks new worries".
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050328/full/434548a.html
(3) http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=153346&NewsAreaID=2
DEFRA and FSA were informed by Syngenta of the contamination incident on 22 March 2005.
DEFRA Press Release, 23 March 2005
(4) "I have confirmed with FDA that "BT10 never went through an FDA consultation process. Therefore, it was never reviewed for unintended human health effects, at least not by the U.S." Doug Gurian-Sherman, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Center for Food Safety, 660 Pennsylvania Avenue, Suite 302, Washington, D.C. 20003
(5) A search of the EC / EFSA web site reveals that BT10 had, as at 22 March 2005, never featured in any studies or discussions. The Syngenta event Bt 10 is a Lepadopteran toxin Cry1Ab.
Bt10 not the same as Bt11
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5346
(6) http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5069
Scientists Rubbish Official Claim GM Corn is Safe / Syngenta's GM Maize Scandals (5/4/2005)
(7) http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5073
(8) As at December 2005 at least twelve contaminated cargoes have been identified in Japan and Ireland, involving 34,000 tonnes in the former country and 2,500 tonnes in the latter. But in the period 2000-2003 (when most Bt10 would have come into the food chain) a total of c 685,000 tonnes of maize and maize products (excluding seed and popcorn) was imported by the EU from the USA; products contaminated with Bt10 will long since have been consumed.
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5643
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/scandal/index.php
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~cbic/english/2005/journal0510.html
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/scandal/index.php
(9) This type of corn is picked at a mature, predominantly starchy stage, dried to a more hardened state, and used in a multitude of ways--as livestock feed and, after refining, in a wide array of processed foods and drinks, from cornstarch to whiskey (as well as in many nonfood products, such as fuel, paper, and plastics). The full range of manufactured maize products is enormous, including packaged sweetcorn, corn on the cob, baby food, corn oil, corn flour, corn starch, polenta, maize meal, maize pasta, maize based snacks and tortillas (including tortilla chips and tacos).
(10) http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5346
(11) http://www.eurofins.com/news/specials/syngenta-pressrelease-BT10/en
http://www.syngenta.com/en/news/syng_stats_bt10.aspx
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BT10DMA.php
Bt10 Detection Method Unacceptable
The detection method for Syngenta’s illegal GM maize is flawed; there must now be a full disclosure of information and access to reference material for retrospective risk assessment and risk management. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins
(12) http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5345
Ref CARTAGENA PROTOCOL LATEST:
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5345
(13) http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3227702a10,00.html
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5073
(14) Golden rice
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/rice.php
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/failures-of-golden-rice
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7196
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/goldenricehoax.html
THE "GOLDEN RICE" HOAX -
When Public Relations replaces Science
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0331-04.htm
(15) Cows ate GM maize and died
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis21_1-5.pdf
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/CAGMMAD.php
(16) http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/cows121703.cfm
(17) Danish tax on GM crops
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/1458&format=HTML
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5980
(18) The Swiss referendum on GM
http://www.syngenta.com/en/news/swiss_moratorium.aspx
http://www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=11738
The 5-year moratorium is now part of the Swiss constitution SAG and Blueridge-Institute (www.gentechfrei.ch and www.blauen-institut.ch)
Press release/background information 29.11.2005
http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6001
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=107&sid=6270253&cKey=
1133103805000
(19) http://www.iied.org/NR/agbioliv/documents/Carta%20a%20syngenta.pdf
(20) http://www.syngenta.com/en/media/press/2006/04-10.htm
http://pioneer.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=158
(21) http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6410
GMOs : Commission requests information from Syngenta to confirm reliability of detection method for Bt10 maize April 4, 2006, European Commission Media Release
(22) http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/press/releases/pharmaceutical-giant-syngenta
(23) http://www.checkbiotech.org/blocks/dsp_document.cfm?doc_id=12443
(24) News of the (ultimately unsuccessful) Syngenta campaign is found here: http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updates/un_meeting_undermines_
moratorium_on_terminator_goal_to_approve_terminator_is_now_clear
http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/cop8_latest_updates/english
http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updates/un_upholds_moratorium
_on_terminator_seed_technology
However, Syngenta has not shown the slightest concern at the UN decision, and is pressing ahead with its Terminator Technology development programme.
Etiquetas: Syngenta
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