GMWatch News Review archive

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from Andy Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear Weekly Watchers,

Welcome to WW39 bringing you all the latest news in brief in the week the Biosafety Protocol came into force, permitting countries to reject GMOs.

Marking the event at a UK parliamentary meeting on Thursday, Africa's chief negotiator for the Protocol described the U.S claim that Africa would accept GM food if only Europe did as "rubbish". (see SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY)

And why would anyone accept GMOs when, as Professor Caroline Saunders from Lincoln University's agribusiness and economics research unit reported this week, *GM CROPS HAVE NOT BENEFITED PRODUCERS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!* (see SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY)

That, of course, does not for one moment stop them being desperately pushed by Monsanto, the U.S. or the WTO, which the U.S. is using - as Ethiopia's Dr Tewolde Egziabher points out - to try and intimidate developing countries and undermine the Biosafety Protocol. (see QUOTE OF THE WEEK)

At the WTO meeting in Mexico this week Oxfam staged a "protest breakfast" with leaders of the main industrialised countries, with huge fibreglass heads, playing with GM food labelled "wholly unfair subsidised surplus product."  In the Mexican port of Veracruz, meanwhile, potesters chained themselves to the anchor of a ship carrying 40,000 tonnes of the genetically modified and heavily subsidized U.S. corn that is not only damaging Mexico's biological diversity but the livelihoods of millions of its farmers. (see HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK)

A WTO protest in southern India this week saw angry farmers ransack a Monsanto facility.  And no wonder!  An official report just released from the government of the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh detailed the extent to which farmers who bought into Monsanto's promises on Bt cotton had been betrayed.  In some parts of the State the net income resulting from Monsanto's Bt seeds was between five and seven times less than from indigenous non-Bt varieties.  A slew of other reports have produced similar findings.  One from the government of the State of Gujarat concluded Monsanto's GM cotton is simply "unfit for cultivation and should be banned". (see REPORT OF THE WEEK 2)

If you don't like George Bush using the WTO to force-feed the world GMOs, 'BITE BACK -- WTO HANDS OFF OUR FOOD!' (see our CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK).

Please circulate widely!

Andy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.ngin.org.uk

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WEEKLY WATCH  number 39 - CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
REPORT OF THE WEEK 1 - People's Report on GM Crops
REPORT OF THE WEEK 2 - Andhra Pradesh government on Bt cotton
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 1 - THE GM BOMB
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
FACTS OF THE WEEK
RESOURCES OF THE WEEK
FAIRYTALES FROM THE GM LOBBY - "You were very good today!"
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - Bite Back!
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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SETBACKS TO THE GM LOBBY
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NO POINT TO GM, SAY ACADEMICS:
A new study from Lincoln University, New Zealand shows that release of GM crops will have no financial benefit for producers.  Professor Caroline Saunders from Lincoln University's agribusiness and economics research unit says GM food releases have not benefited producers anywhere in the world, and economic modelling shows the situation for NZ is no different.
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,218948-1-7,00.html

U.S. SLAMMED FOR "GROTESQUE MISREPRESENTATION" OF AFRICA'S NEEDS:
Africa's chief negotiator for the Biosafety Protocol has said that the idea promoted by the U.S. that Africa would accept GM food if Europe did is "rubbish". In the week in which the Biosafety Protocol came into force, Dr Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher told a UK parliamentary meeting that the U.S. WTO action against Europe over GM imports are seen as a message to Africa not to reject GM foods or face WTO reprisals. Africa led negotiations in the Biosafety Protocol, he points out, which permits countries to reject GM if they deem it risky. "They would not have done so if they wanted unregulated GM foods.  Hunger in Africa is caused by problems of storage, distribution and economic factors," says Dr Tewolde, "GM cannot address this". He was supported by former UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher who accused the United States of "grotesque misrepresentation" in its portrayal of Africa as wanting GM foods. He also condemned the US pressure on Europe to accept GM through accusations of causing hunger in Africa.

COURT ALLOWS ITALY & OTHER COUNTRIES TO BAN GM FOODS:
The European Union's high court has ruled that Italy and other EU member states can place temporary bans on GM foods if they suspect the foods pose a threat to public health or the environment.  The ruling stems from a dispute between the Italian government and biotech giant Monsanto.
http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=55312
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/09/08/daily21.html

INDIAN FARMERS RANSACK MONSANTO FACILITY:
Angry farmers in southern India stormed a building that formerly housed the global biotech giant, Monsanto.  More than 40 farmers ransacked the corporation's former Bangalore facility on Thursday, after staging noisy demonstrations.  They were protesting after more than 70 farmers committed suicide in the last three months - deaths being partly blamed on Monsanto's GM crops.  According to eyewitnesses, the farmers damaged furniture and windows, and shouted slogans demanding Monsanto close down its operations in India.  According to reports, the police arrested somewhere between 15-30 farmers after Thursday's incident.  A leader of the Karnataka State Farmers Association told the BBC the attack was a warning to Monsanto to leave India.  The farmers' association had also torched several farms in the state where Monsanto's new cotton crop was being trialled.  Ranjana Smetacek, a spokeswoman for Monsanto India said, "We had our research facility at the campus (which was) ransacked today... One of the greenhouses, where we grow plants for research, was destroyed... We have lost valuable plants and the result of lot of work by our researchers.  We are seriously concerned by today's attack."  The protesters said GM seeds were environmentally hazardous and could contaminate the genes of native varieties through cross pollination, impoverishing the farmers. "We timed the attack to draw the attention of those attending the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun, Mexico."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1418
Pictures at  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3099938.stm
See also: Brazil activists target Monsanto,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2961284.stm
SEE ALSO: REPORT OF THE WEEK 2, for why Indian farmers are so angry

UK FACES BIG SETBACK OVER GM CROP RULES:
The Financial Times says Tony Blair's hopes of advancing the cause of GM technology are set to be dealt a significant blow because the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission (AEBC), set up by the government to advise on GM issues, is struggling to reach consensus over two crucial issues: how GM and non-GM crops can co-exist and how disputes over contamination can be resolved.  This would leave Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, and Elliot Morley, the environment minister, exposed to possible criticism as they decide whether to back the biotechnology industry or consumer groups and organic farmers without conclusive expert advice.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c
=StoryFT&cid=1059479726992

JAPANESE WARN U.S. ITS MAIN WHEAT MARKET COULD BE DESTROYED:
The premier export market for American wheat could be destroyed if the US approved production of a GM variety of the commodity, a Japanese industry official said this week. In the year that ended March 31, Japan bought nearly 2.5 million tonnes of U.S. wheat, slightly more than half of its import needs.  A Japanese government-sponsored survey conducted a few months ago, showed that almost 68% of consumers opposed GM wheat.  In May, a group of South Korean wheat millers visited the US and delivered a similar message in opposition to GM wheat.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22173/story.htm

BRAZIL COURT OVERTURNS PRO-GM SOY RULING:
A Brazilian court has reversed a ruling that had lifted a ban on the planting and sale of Monsanto's GM soybeans.
http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=55309

MONSANTO'S FRENCH GM MAIZE CROP ATTACKED:
An experimental GM maize crop in southern France, on the approximately half hectare field, isolated in a forest in Magnesq, owned by US seeds giant Monsanto, has been attacked and destroyed.  Another of Monsanto's GM fields, also in the southwest of France near Toulouse, was destroyed in July. 
http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3399158

PUBLIC BITE BACK IN GM TRADE WAR:
The stakes have been raised in the Europe-US trade dispute over GM food and farming as a new alliance of civil society groups pledged to create an unprecedented mass citizen objection to the dispute.  The organisations involved, spanning more than 140 countries, aim to collect objections from citizens from all 146 World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries, as a challenge to the WTO's secretive trade dispute mechanisms. The 'Bite Back' campaign (online at www.bite-back.org) will directly challenge this and put the WTO inadequacies in dealing with food in the public spotlight.
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/public_bite_back_in_gm_tra.html
SEE ALSO: CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK

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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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USDA survey shows biotech rules breached
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The Agriculture Department found that almost 20% of the Midwestern farms growing a pest-resistant GM crop have failed to comply with federal planting requirements.  However, agency officials do not visit Bt crops to check and see if farmers are complying, so this figure might be much higher.
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GM crops policed from space?
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The US environmental protection agency (EPA) is concerned about the overuse of Bt - a natural insecticide genetically engineered into Bt corn and cotton - resulting in the development of resistant insects, rendering the technology useless.  US farmers who plant Bt maize are required to keep conventional maize on 20% of their acreage to minimize this risk but many farmers are flouting this requirement (see above). The agency is therefore hatching a scheme to let it monitor GM crops from space by determining whether subtle differences in the way leaves reflect the sun's rays can distinguish transgenic from conventional maize. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/dispatch/story/0,12978,1039308,00.html
And GM crops are being pushed into the developing world????
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Anti-GM protests at WTO meeting in Cancun
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Non-governmental organizations have been banned from World Trade Organization press conferences at the WTO meeting in CANCUN, Mexico, after protesters disrupted a press briefing on Thursday called by US officials. Minutes after Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier began addressing reporters, Greenpeace Mexico representative Alejandro Calvillo stood up and delivered a brief statement on the negative effect of US genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on Mexican farmers -- to the extreme consternation of the US delegation. "In Mexico we want to protect our corn, our fields, our livelihood from the transgenic contamination imposed by GMO corn from the United States," Calvillo said. He then left the briefing without incident. But moments later several women stood up, carrying signs in English and Spanish with the message: "WTO kills farmers".
http://www.terradaily.com/2003/030912010341.ju908r56.html
This action was met with hostility and screaming at the protesters by a man wearing press credentials. The WTO secretariat then issued a statement, banning NGO entry into the press briefings. It was later discovered that the man wearing press credentials, William Dabaghi, works for Maximus International. Their website claims, "Specializing in Agribusiness and Focusing on the WTO." Prior to this, he worked as a lawyer for a business and corporate law firm for 17 years. At the end of the briefing Dabaghi shook hands with the panelists from the USTR and said, "I will handle the hecklers for you or you would have to do it."
http://www.foodfirst.org/wto/reports/2003-09-11AM2.php
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GM corn blocked in the Mexican port of Veracruz
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In the Mexican port Veracruz, Greenpeace activists chained themselves to the anchor of a ship to demand that poor countries receive fair treatment during the WTO meeting. The demonstration prevented the offloading of cargo from the Ikan Altmira, a Singapore-registered ship transporting 40,000 tons of corn for the Minnesota-based transnational company Cargill Inc. Mexico Greenpeace said a large portion of the shipment comprised genetically modified and heavily subsidized corn, which it said is a threat to Mexico's biological diversity and millions of farmers' livelihoods.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/9/13/latest/14033Protesters&sec=latest
More on the Cancun protests:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/13/1063341806599.html
http://www.foodfirst.org/wto/reports/2003-09-11AM2.php
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Biosafety Protocol caught in crossfire
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>From 11 September 2003, countries will have a right under international law to ban imports of food containing GMOs that they think could be unsafe. Or maybe not.  The UN's Biosafety Protocol - which allows bans where governments fear imported GMOs in food may have an "adverse effect" on biological diversity or human health - comes into force on Thursday. But as it does, the right to impose bans is being attacked by a US WTO suit launched in August against the European Union.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1410
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Mothers lift shirts to stop government lifting GM moratorium
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Women in New Zealand from the group MAdGE (Mothers Against GE in Food and the Environment) tore off their tops exposing hot pink and black bras and waved GE Free flags to astonished Members of Parliament during question time in the house. The mothers were protesting the lifting of the moratorium on GE release due to happen on October 29th.  68% of New Zealanders are saying no to GE.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=968
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More protests in NZ - GM feed not wanted
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About 17 anti-GM protesters shut down an Ingham's chicken factory in Hamilton this week.  "The use of [85% GM] feed does not compromise the absolute GM-free status of livestock or livestock products," Ingham bizarrely claimed.
http://www.lifesciencesnetwork.com/news-detail.asp?newsID=4699
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Voluntary labelling standard made for industry, not consumers
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Non-governmental organizations have slammed the results of the proposed voluntary labelling of GM foods agreed by a government-industry committee in Canada.  "Voluntary labelling of GM frankenfood is a sham and is unlikely to lead to one label on one GM product in one of Canada's grocery stores," said Patrick Venditti of Greenpeace. "This is a bogus standard that has been manufactured by industry and government to avoid a proper mandatory labelling regime for GM foods."  As it is voluntary, no labels on GE foods will be required. The standard also allows for products containing 5% GE material to be labelled non-GM! All consumer groups involved in the consultation either voted against or withdrew. Polls have consistently shown that over 90% of Canadians want labels on GE food.
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/September2003/08/c8339.html
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Greenpeace dumps corn outside US embassy in Athens in GM protest
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Greenpeace activists dumped some 100 kilogrammes of US-grown corn over a mock toilet in front of the US Embassy in Athens in a protest against GM foods.  "The Greenpeace action took place outside the US embassy because its government is pressuring ... farmers and consumers worldwide to cultivate and consume genetically modified (foodstuffs)," the Greek wing of the environmental group said in a press release.
http://www.terradaily.com/2003/030910160510.uio3bjgg.html
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EPA's revolving door
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the two main regulatory agencies for GM crops in the US. Below is the latest news on the revolving door between the EPA and polluting industries. It affects all sectors. As with William D. Ruckelshaus, the  former chief administrator of the EPA who went on to join the board of directors of Monsanto Corporation. More GM revolving doors here:
http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/Green-Revolution-Revolving.htm
For the latest examples involving the EPA and air polluting industries:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/6684143.htm
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/September_2003.html#1062561600
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FDA warns milk manufacturers not to label
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday told four companies which produce milk and ice cream to stop labeling products as not from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered hormone rBST, used to boost milk production. The FDA said there was no need for a label as GE BST "is virtually identical" to a natural hormone. "FDA will continue to take strong action to protect American consumers from products with labeling that is false or misleading," FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said. The GE cattle drug is banned in Canada and Europe.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12207392.htm
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Andy Stirling's clarification
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Dr Andy Stirling from the University of Sussex has clarified why he has not yet publicly named the leading pro-GM scientist who sought to undermine his research funding. "In order for me to confirm the details of this incident, I had to give undertakings to my initial informants - for their own protection - that I would not make public either their own identities or that of the author. It is this promise that has constrained me." 
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,6903,1037168,00.html

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REPORT OF THE WEEK 1 - People's Report on GM Crops
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The People's Report on GM Crops compiled by Newcastle University was published this week, based particularly on two parallel citizens' juries, taking place in different parts of the UK, that have just considered the GM crops issue. 

You can find all the details of the citizens' juries vedicts here:
http://www.gmjury.org/

You can download the press release (96KB), report summary (20KB) or the full report (487KB) as PDFs.

The verdicts of the two independent juries broadly agree, in that both juries call for:

*A halt to the sale of GM foods currently available, and to the proposed commercial growing of GM crops. This conclusion is based on the lack of evidence of benefit and the precautionary principle.

*Long-term research into the real risks of damage to the environment and the potential for harm.

*An end to blanket assertions that the GM crops are necessary to feed the starving in the Third World, given the complex social and economic factors that lie behind such hunger.

Wider concerns expressed by the juries in their verdicts included:

*A concern that the gradual privatisation of scientific research is threatening the independent regulatory assessment of GM technologies, together with a call for future research to be more accountable to the population.

*A condemnation of the way in which the elected Government has merely paid 'lip service' to public debate on such a major issue as GM, together with suggestions of specific mechanisms whereby such debates could be improved.

*Concerns that Government communication and media coverage does not give sufficient weight to the importance and complexity of the GM issue, together with suggestions of organisations whose remits could be expanded to address this.

*Proposals to curb the power of large agro-chemical corporations to impose new technologies on farmers and consumers, with little regard to what those farmers or consumers - whether in the industrialised or Third World - actually need.

*The need to transfer risks that may arise from GM technologies away from farmers - who currently have to sign contracts that make them liable for problems - and towards the corporations that have developed the technology.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1404

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REPORT OF THE WEEK 2 - Andhra Pradesh government on Bt cotton
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The official report of the Govt. of the State of Andhra Pradesh, India, on the performance of GM Bt cotton in the season 2002, "shows that in North Telengana, net income from Bt varieties was five times less than the yield from local non-Bt varieties. In Southern Telengana, the income from Monsanto's Bt crop was nearly 7 times less than what was obtained from the indigenous non-Bt cotton varieties, demonstrating the resounding failure of the Monsanto variety."

The results of the AP report are in fact, very similar to that reported by Gene Campaign, said Dr Suman Sahai, Director of Gene Campaign.

*Both studies report that Monsanto's Bt cotton has consistently done worse compared to local non-Bt hybrids.

*Both studies have reported that the Monsanto cotton plant type is weaker and less vigorous compared to indigenous cotton varieties.

*The cost of cultivation reported in both studies, is higher for Bt cotton compared to indigenous non-Bt hybrids and

*the net incomes are lower in the Monsanto variety, compared to the indigenous varieties.

Both the AP govt. and the Gene Campaign studies report that Monsanto's Bt cotton has:
±smaller boll size,
±shorter fibre length,
±poorer cotton quality leading to low market demand and
±lower yield, leading to an overall loss of income
http://www.genecampaign.org/nebt.html

This ties in with a series of other studies (in the media - Frontline, Outlook, Businessworld) on the first year of commercial cultivation of Monsanto's GM cotton in India by government committees and NGOs which have also supported the claims of farmers that Bt cotton had inferior yields, did not perform well in the matter of pest-resistance, etc.. A six-member panel set up by the State of Gujarat government concluded Bt cotton was simply "unfit for cultivation and should be banned".
http://flonnet.com/fl2011/stories/20030606005912300.htm

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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 1 - THE GM BOMB
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Three years ago, Bush administration insiders Wolfowitz, Kristol, and their colleagues suggested not just germ warfare, but gene warfare is something the Pentagon should be thinking about.

Gene warfare on particular racial groups was enthusiastically endorsed:

"...advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."
From: "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century" by The Project for a New American Century

Given that Kristol, Wolfowitz, and their conservative Project for a New American Century associates like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Eliot Abrams, Jeb Bush, and John Bolton have already brought us two of their early 1998 recommendations - the seizure of Iraq and a huge increase in defense spending - it's tempting to wonder if this is another of their other politically useful ideas being explored by the Pentagon.
                  
Read: The Genetically Modified Bomb by Thom Hartmann
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0910-15.htm

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"We cannot help but perceive that (the) US (WTO) actions are a pre- emptive strike on the Biosafety Protocol and developing country interests... The only African country to support the WTO challenge was Egypt, who soon retracted support on the grounds of consumer and environmental concerns. Developing countries, and African countries in particular, do not want to grow GM crops uncritically and without the due process of their regulatory systems approving them. They will not have their crops contaminated by GM crops".
- Director-general of the Ethiopian-headquartered Environmental Protection Authority, Dr Tewolde Egziabher
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1426361-6078-0,00.html

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FACTS OF THE WEEK
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68% of New Zealanders are saying 'no' to GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=968

Polls have consistently shown over 90% of Canadians want labels on GM.
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/September2003/08/c8339.html

A Japanese government-sponsored survey, conducted a few months ago, showed that almost 68% of consumers opposed GM wheat. Japan is the premier market for U.S. wheat.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22173/story.htm

Tom Hayden, formerly in the California Senate, reveals some telling facts in an article on Cancun: "Bush has been spending more in Iraq than on the United Nations' global anti-poverty initiatives. If $60 billion this year is a conservative estimate for Iraq, that's twice what it would take to retire the debt of the developing nations, and three times the cost of eliminating extreme hunger, meeting the AIDS crisis, or stopping soil erosion. In comparison, the U.S. contribution to the UN global anti-poverty program is 0.13 percent of our gross economic product, about one-tenth the percentage spent during the Kennedy Administration in 1962... While waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Administration has managed to lose most of Europe and Latin America. Bush (and Monsanto's) battle to impose genetically-altered crops on Europe has lost American agri-business $1 billion during the past five years. And $190 billion in U.S. farm subsidies has inflamed discontent from Brazil to Mexico."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16746

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RESOURCES OF THE WEEK
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Corporate Watch UK's GM briefs available online as html pages and PDF downloads:

GM Crops Industry Overview - The Big Three Prepare To Commercialise
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/genetics/commercialisation/comercialisation.htm
Bayer CropScience
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/genetics/commercialisation/bayer.htm
Monsanto
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/genetics/commercialisation/monsanto.htm
Syngenta
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/genetics/commercialisation/syngenta.htm
Biotech Family Tree 2003
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/genetics/familytree.htm

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE NEW BOOKS/REPORTS
*The African Consumer, Volume 3 Number 1, 2003 Consumers International.
*Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, 2003 Marion Nestle.
*Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating, 2003 Jeffrey M. Smith.
*The Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety: Reconciling Trade in Biotechnology with Environment and Development, 2002 Christoph Bail, Robert Falkner, and Helen Marquard (editors).
*Genetic Engineering and the Intrinsic Value and Integrity of Animals and Plants, 2002 David Heaf and Johannes Wirz (editors)
GO TO: Pesticide Action Network Updates Service - September 10, 2003
http://www.panna.org/resources/panups.html
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1414

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FAIRYTALES FROM THE GM LOBBY
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GM-critic Dr Mae-wan Ho has reported on her experience of the great 'GM National Debate' in the UK, which she describes as perfunctory, severely under-funded and poorly publicised. It lasted just six weeks from 3 June to 16 July, with simultaneous events in local communities spread across the country.  It was supposed to provoke real public debate but Dr Ho says that pro-GM scientists, many supported by the biotech corporations, were out in force to spread confusion and disinformation. When Dr Ho debated with the pro-GM scientist Conrad Lichtenstein, he failed to mention he was a member of CropGen, a group funded by Monsanto and other biotech corporations. Just so there could be no mistake, two representatives from Monsanto accompanied Lichtenstein and stayed by his side the whole day, and at a press interview, answered questions on his behalf. At the end of the debate, one Monsanto rep congratulated Lichtenstein, "You were very good today!"
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMNDF.php
For more on the dirty science of the GM debate and the worldwide uprising against GM, read the latest issue of Science in Society.
Details here. http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis19.php

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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the GM WATCH archive
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FOR THE COMPLETE GM WATCH ARCHIVE: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK
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Online campaign: http://www.bite-back.org
Go there and you can sign up to the following letter as a citizen of the world and/or on behalf of an organisation.

George Bush is using the World Trade Organisation to force-feed you GM food. You can help stop them: Bite Back!

To: World Trade Organisation
From: Concerned Citizens around the World

CITIZENS' OBJECTION:
BITE BACK -- WTO HANDS OFF OUR FOOD!

We, wishing to protect our right to decide what we eat and grow, have serious and legitimate concerns about the risks of genetically modified foods and crops (GMOs) for consumers, farmers, wildlife and environments around the world.

By mounting this World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute the US and others are trying to force genetically modified food into the European Union and other parts of the world. They seek to prevent countries from choosing for themselves whether to permit genetically modified food and farming. They also seek to undermine our right to know and choose what we eat and farm.

If successful, this will further the interests of a small number of companies which have a financial stake in this technology at the expense of our interests as citizens around the world.

With this objection we strongly advocate that

1. it's our own right and not up to the WTO to decide what we eat and what crops we farm;

2. governments around the world have the right to develop laws to protect their environment and the well being of their citizens from the risks of genetically modified food and farming, including the right to impose a ban on such products or strict labelling requirements;

3. it is appropriate for such laws to be based on the Precautionary Principle which requires that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage then despite lack of scientific certainty it is better to act now to be safe than wait to be sorry;

4. decisions concerning regulation of international trade in GMOs should be made in accordance with the UN Biosafety Protocol and not by the World Trade Organisation.

Therefore, the WTO must:

1. not deny people the right to know and choose what they eat and farm;

2. not undermine the right of the European Union and others to take appropriate steps to protect their citizens and the environment from GMO food and farming;

3. dismiss the complaints of the United States of America, Argentina and Canada.

Signed by:
sign as an individual.
sign as an organisation.

DO IT HERE! http://www.bite-back.org
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