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Burma Out!!! The Golden Crop?




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Subject: Biological Warfare meets the Drug War

http://www.villagevoice.com/columns/9931/cotts.shtml
Village Voice, August 4-10, 1999

Press Clips 
by Cynthia Cotts

Fungus Among Us

Media coverage of the drug war has been pretty toothless this year, even as
drug czar Barry McCaffrey is asking Congress for a $1 billion "emergency"
budget to destroy the coca and poppy fields in Colombia, while fighting the
left-wing insurgents. In the wake of complaints about chemical herbicides,
drug warriors are contemplating a new weapon of choice: a fungus they think
will eliminate every unwanted cannabis, coca, and poppy plant on the planet.

You don't read much about this kind of biological warfare. But it surfaced
briefly on July 27, when The New York Times published a front-page story by
Rick Bragg about a fungus that was developed specifically to attack
marijuana plants. The fungus is the subject of dispute in Florida, where
Governor Jeb Bush's Office of Drug Control wants to test and deploy it,
while environmentalists fear the fungus will destroy Florida's legal crops
as well.

The Times did a good job with the Florida conflict?a story that had
appeared on July 17 in the St. Petersburg Times. Both papers identified the
anti-marijuana fungus (fusarium oxysporum), the Montana company that
developed it (Ag/Bio Con) and the congressman who is pushing it (Florida's
Bill McCollum, who calls the species the "silver bullet" in the drug war).
Both referred to the $23 million allocated by Congress last year for
developing fusarium, which has the natural potential to destroy cannabis,
coca, and poppy plants. The Times reported that the research into anti-
narcotic fungi has cost taxpayers $14 million.

But crucial information was missing: the fungus money goes directly to the
Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the Department of
Agriculture (USDA), and many consider the research top secret. The role of
ARS in bio-war was first exposed in the spring 1998 issue of Covert Action
Quarterly (CAQ), in an article by Jim Hogshire.

According to Hogshire's story, ARS scientists have been researching the
fusarium species for years, in both its natural and genetically engineered
form, and have discovered that certain strains are safe, while others are
out of control. Citing an ARS press release, he wrote, "A virulent mutation
of fusarium...has been a bane to Florida and Georgia farmers who have
trouble controlling it with even the strongest fungicides." (Hogshire is an
old friend of Press Clips, but did not contribute to this column. His
latest book, on pharmaceuticals, is just out from Feral House.) The CAQ
story offered a crucial lead for any interested reporter?the existence of
an ARS project at Montana State University (MSU). Armed with that
information, Press Clips quickly established that Ag/Bio Con, the Bozeman,
Montana, company that developed Floridaanti-marijuana fungus, is owned by
David C. Sands, an MSU professor, who has received funding for similar work
from the ARS. According to a report on the USDA Web site, Sands and MSU
were involved in a five-year study of "Papaver-specific and
Cannabis-specific mycoherbicides," one of the objectives of which was to
perform "domestic and foreign field tests."

No one wants to talk about the field testing in Montana. In the past,
McCollum declined to reveal the location of domestic fungus research
because of "security concerns." There is no phone listing for Ag/Bio Con in
Bozeman, Montana. Yet, in January 1999, a trade magazine reported that
Ag/Bio Con hired a prominent D.C. consulting firm "to lobby on bills
affecting mycoherbicide development."

An ARS spokeswoman explained that the USDA gets about $3 million to $4
million a year for anti-narcotics research, which includes the development
of naturally occurring fusarium. She acknowledged Sands's participation in
the five-year project, part of which took place in Kazakhstan, but said
that ARS is not involved with Ag/Bio Con. Sands did not respond to repeated
requests for comment.


Follow the appreciations of the Shan Democratic Union, 
film maker John Pilger,  HH the  Dalai Lama, The Free Burma 
Coalition, Dennis Skinner MP, Tony Benn MP, Congresswoman 
Maxine Waters, parliamentarians, Socialist Workers' Party, 
Dr and rugby star JPR Williams, sportspersons, Hendrix 
bassist Noel Redding, Abdullah Ibrahim, musicians,  All 
Burma Students Democratic Organisation, All Burma Students 
Democratic Front, and numerous others.  

             Support a REAL war on drugs : Sydney 2000 : Burma Out!

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sports boycott of Burma for the Sydney 2000 Olympic 
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