GM Watch is notorious for its anti-GM stance.  Anything remotely positive of GM crops is derided on its postings and the character of those who support GM technology is assassinated.  However, anything remotely negative of GM crops is gleefully reported as if it is the gospel truth.  Most of its negative comments on GM crops from a world wide anti-GMO Diaspora and there are many of them in India.  The biggest hoax that GM Watch has been spreading on its listserv is the soup supplied by the Indian anti-GM lobby that Bt cotton is a big failure in India and it is dangerous to animal and human health.  However, the acreage of Bt cotton grows by leaps and bounds in India with more than 150 Bt cotton hybrids available on the market with a just approved Government of India's own inbreeding Bt cotton variety developed by Central Cotton Institute of Nagpur.  There are only two groups of people who are running away to the bank happily: one is MAHYCO/Monsanto and its licensees and the second, the Bt cotton growers all over the country.

 NOTE: We've had a number of comments on the poor quality of recent coverage by the BBC and others on GM and the food crisis. Of particular concern were pieces broadcast last week on BBC radio and TV by Jeremy Cooke. The most recent example was this morning on BBC Radio 4's flagship current affairs programme Today.

Apparently Giles Oldroyd from the pro-GM John Innes Centre wasn't even picked up on the programme when he claimed that GM has been proven to be a 'safe technology', that 25% of our arable land is now cultivated with GM crops, and that millions of people have already been eating GM for decades without a single case of any adverse effects to human health or the environment.

 
Just to pick up the most glaring points. The figure for global GM crop cultivation is nearer 2% than 25%, and even this is based on figures that may have been inflated c/o the pro-GM lobby group ISAAA.

And given that GM soya wasn't grown for the first time commercially before 1996, people can't have been eating GM for 'decades'.

Unfortunately, scientists at the John Innes Centre have a very long history of making false claims of this sort in support of GM, and stand to gain from its adoption.

http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=67

You can catch the piece via BBC Radio 4, listen again (4 June, 8.32-8.38am) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain

And there's a short summary below. The BBC website allows for feedback if you have any concerns about the balance of the coverage or the accuracy of the unchallenged claims made in the programme.