We urgently need your support. GM Watch is about to go into debt. We've become a victim of our own success. Here's what's happened.

In the last 12 months we have not only continued our extensive news and research services but have launched the GM Watch online directory of biotech promoters, providing profiles and background material on hundreds of different front groups, industry-friendly scientists, think tanks and other GM promoters around the world. We've also launched a sister site - lobbywatch.org - to bring the issues to a wider audience.

Both projects have been extremely well received by campaigners, journalists and others involved in tracking the GM debate. Sections of the websites or individual profiles are now regularly cited in press releases and articles around the world.

But what has increasingly taken up our time in the last year has been the need to rapidly respond to the hype, propaganda and diverse activities of the biotech industry and its supporters and lobbyists who - with unprecedented backing from the Bush administration - are conducting an all-out assault aimed at pushing GMOs into countries around the globe.

In response to this onslaught, we have focussed our resources on identifying emerging issues and on assisting hard-pressed campaigners in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These campaigners are often desperate for support and feel they are not getting it from larger NGOs.

As part of this process of solidarity, we've introduced our own direct cyber-campaigning, operating off the GM Watch website, to support the work of Southern activists. We have already run campaigns targeting the governments of Thailand, Brazil and Mauritius. The Thai campaign, in particular, showed how extraordinarily effective this type of campaign can be.

The downside of all this has been that we have not only had greater expenses than anticipated but our small team has had no time to seek funding from foundations or similar donors.

We receive no income from any of our research and campaigning activities. What monies we raised with the support of those of our subscribers who donated in the early part of this year are now completely exhausted, and where we have asked bigger NGOs to support our campaigning, they have been unable to assist us.

As a result, we are now faced with unpaid bills, so this is a request for your help in buying us time. If you like what we do and want us to be able to continue, please make a donation by either:

*donating online to GM WATCH (aka NGIN): http://www.gmwatch.org/donate.asp

Alternatively, you can send a check or money order **made out to 'NGIN'**

GM Watch
26 Pottergate
Norwich
NR2 1DX
UK

Phone: +44 1603 624021

If you are among those who donated earlier in the year, then please consider donating now (for next year) as we desperately need your financial support NOW.

Please give generously so that with your help we can not just sustain but even extend our coverage and support of campaigning around the world.

Many thanks.
Jonathan Matthews/Claire Robinson

WHY SUPPORT GM WATCH?

‘GM Watch is one of the world's most important and effective organizations fighting for the protection of the human and natural environment. The genetic engineering industry spends hundreds of millions of US dollars on global PR, marketing, lobbying and
buying-off of politicians. Sustaining the work of GM Watch is essential to countering this corporate political power and propaganda.' - John Stauber, Founder Center for Media & Democracy (publishers of PR Watch), USA, and co-author of Trust Us, We're Experts; Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, and other works

'GM Watch is the real watchdog relentlessly exposing the machinations of the politician-industry-scientist nexus that is exploiting the hungry stomach for garnering more profits.'
- Devinder Sharma, food and trade policy analyst, India

'GM Watch is remarkably effective and informative. Its comprehensive coverage and penetrating commentary provide activists and the public around the world with essential knowledge about the GM debate. GM Watch does such a good job, I have stopped trying to compile news for my own electronic newsletter. Instead, I put out a syndicated column and recommend to my subscribers to get the news events from GM Watch.' - Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, the bestselling book critical of genetically engineered foods

'Over the past 20 years, I have worked with scores of NGOs and individual whistleblowers, who have provided much of the information I've used as an investigative journalist. But I have never come across one as well-organised, effective and hard working as GM Watch. I have now written four major investigative pieces on the back of their findings, each of which has caused a storm in the media. I have yet to find fault with any of the factual information they have supplied.

'Their work has been a constant inspiration and a primary source of information for the movement opposing GM crops not just in Britain but elsewhere in the world. It is hard to see how these campaigns could have sustained their effectiveness without the information GM Watch has provided. They have assembled the world's most comprehensive database on the impacts and the politics of genetically engineered crops. Their documentation of the corruption of science and the means by which corporations have manipulated public opinion and government policy has transformed the environment movement's understanding of the world in which it operates. Their investigative work is second to none.' - George Monbiot, internationally renowned journalist, broadcaster and author

'GM Watch is one of the most useful information services in an age when we need to counter "paid science" and massive public relations spin by vested interests who put profits before human safety and our planet's sustainability.' - Andrew Taynton, Safe Food Coalition, South Africa

'GM Watch's work is extraordinarily important. You are a great source not only of information but analysis, and I know that many people, including professionals in this field, look up - and look forward - to your mailings. I do believe that were it not for your intelligent tenacity, we would be much more deeply plunged in darkness about all the irregularities, abuses and plain crookedness of so many bankrupt promotors of AgBiotech.' - Dr Ignacio Chapela, microbial ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley and the scientist who exposed the Mexican maize scandal

'I know that GM Watch's work is particularly valued by people working to defend the rights of marginalised farmers both in the UK and abroad.' - Dr Tom Wakeford, biologist and action researcher at the Policy Ethics and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, formerly at the Institute for Development Studies

'GM Watch serves a critical role in countering the power and propaganda of the biotech industry. It is part of the life blood of our global alliance to protect our food and agriculture - communicating our successes, identifying emerging issues and catalysing resistance. Thank you GM Watch!' - Keisuke Amagasa, NO! GMO Campaign, Japan

'GM Watch provides excellent coverage of information and analysis on key genetic engineering issues as they relate to the Global South. GM Watch is my first port of call for any current and historic references on GE impacts on development.'
Patrick Mulvany, Senior Policy Adviser, Intermediate Technology Development Group

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