from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear all:

This week's Weekly Watch is a bumper issue covering two weeks' worth of news, since technical problems prevented our producing last week's issue. Apologies to all our readers and supporters.

There's particularly happy news from Ireland - BASF has pulled out of their threatened GM potato trials.

Claire This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

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CONTENTS
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EUROPEAN UNION
AROUND EUROPE
ASIA
THE AMERICAS
AFRICA
CHURCHES
FAO
LOBBYWATCH
LABELLING
GENE THERAPY
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
CORPORATE CRIMES

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EUROPEAN UNION
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+ ONLY 125 MEPs WANT GM-FREE EUROPE?? TAKE ACTION!
Please lobby members of the European Parliament to sign a statement which calls for every region and country in Europe to have the right to refuse the import and trading of GMOs. Only 125 MEPs have signed thus far. Another 225 MEP signatures are still needed in order to make this a law.

You can find ready list of the e-mails to the MEPs and also example of letters which you can use at http://icppc.pl/pl/gmo/index.php?id=224

There is a list of MEPs who have already signed at http://www.icppc.pl/nowy/panel/files/gmo/pe-listapodpisow.pdf

+ EU NATIONS DIVIDED OVER ORGANIC FOOD RULES
European Union agriculture ministers were divided over plans on Monday to set up new EU-wide labeling of organic and GM foods.

Several nations, including Belgium, Austria, Italy and Greece, demanded that any new rules on what constitutes organic should ensure that biotech content of the product be near zero, and not the proposed 0.9 percent limit, which EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel argued was needed to account for accidental contamination.

Austrian Farm Minister Josef Proell, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said EU ministers agreed they "are keen on protecting the farmers that wish to stick to GMO-free methods."

Several EU nations, including Poland, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Germany, have voiced concern over the lack of rules on that issue. Those countries have also instituted bans on EU-approved GM crops and some, like Poland and Greece, want a total ban on the growing of GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6553

+ COULD GM ISSUE TOPPLE EU CONSTITUTION?
We recently reported a statement by an Irish Member of the European Parliament, that if the European Commission persists in its misguided policy to force GM seeds and crops onto the market, the people of Ireland will vote against adopting the European Constitution and against further EU integration.

We've received the following comments from Craig Sams as to how Europe got itself into the position whereby its people and elected representatives are overruled by an unelected and unaccountable European Commision.

Craig writes:

A bit of background on EU politics and GM.

In 1991, when the EU regulation 2092/91 was passed by the EU Parliament it contained an absolute prohibition of genetically engineered seeds or other material. It didn't cover feed as the livestock rules were part of subsequent legislation.

After the Parliament passed the regulation, which was the product of consultation via the "competent authorities" of each member state with the representatives of the organic movement in that member state, it went to the Commission for final approval.

The Commissioners amended the ban on genetically engineered seeds to say that it was not an absolute prohibition and could be amended at a later date under the provisions of Article 14, which sets out the process that enables the regulation to be updated.

The Parliament were furious with this ex post facto alteration of legislation that they had already passed and a motion of censure of the Commission was passed.

The Commission then reminded the Parliament of the constitutional facts of life within the EU, i.e. that the Parliament is a talking shop and the real power rests with the Commissioners. If Parliament wanted to overrule the Commission, they could only do so by dismissing the entire Commission, a nuclear option they were reluctant to exercise.

In 1999 a report of independent experts stated that the Commission, particularly Edith Cresson's youth training department, had lost control of their finances and their staff activities and that fraud was rampant. At this stage the Parliament, remembering the confrontation of 1991, gathered up their nerve and sacked the entire Commission, led by Jacques Santer at the time.

The GM issue is the pressure point where the power of lobbyists over the Commission is outweighed by the power of the democratically elected MEPs - with even more MEPs from countries where Monsanto's lobbying power is pretty weak, I'd hope that the Parliament could be more rigorous in stopping the Commission running away with things again, but the lack of any intermediate step between sacking the lot of them and just standing up to them is a real constitutional problem. Set alongside the refusal of the EU's auditors to approve their accounts for the past decade, one wonders if perhaps a rotten and powerless government is not such a bad thing (the "best government is the least government" principle).
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6529

+ GM CROPS IN EUROPE: AT WHAT COST
An incisive article on "coexistence" of GM and non-GM crops in Europe from the International Herald Tribune is at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6575

+ NEW WTO CHALLENGE CALLED FOR AGAINST EU LABELLING AND TRACEABILITY
Fulfilling a long-standing GM Watch prediction, American agribiz appears to be promoting a U.S. attack EU labeling and traceability laws regarding GMOs. On behalf of its 25,000 US soybean producer-members, the American Soybean Association (ASA) says it is outraged by the conclusions adopted by the European Commission on the impact of EU traceability and labeling laws for GMOs on US exports.

"The EU's biotech labeling and tracing rules have had a significant negative effect on US exports of food and agricultural products to the EU," said ASA President Bob Metz. "For the report to say that the rules have had a positive effect by providing relevant information, consumer choice and safety guarantees is nothing short of a whitewash and a betrayal of the very consumers the EU claims to care about. We are amazed that the Commission would write such fiction when market realities and trade numbers tell a very different story."

US farmers and food companies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost sales due to the EU's trade-restrictive and non-science based biotech labeling and tracing rules," Metz said. "We believe the time has come for the United States government to mount a WTO-challenge against these rules."

For more on the ASA and its close relationship with Monsanto and other biotechs: http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=10

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AROUND EUROPE
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+ ITALY: ONE TOWN IN FOUR IS GMO-FREE
In Italy, one town out of every four has joined a "GMO-free" campaign.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6577

+ ITALIAN FARMERS' ASSOCIATION: WE DON'T NEED GMOs
Italy's agriculture doesn't need GMOs, says Italian farmers' association president, Giuseppe Politi.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6540

+ BASF ADMITS DEFEAT OF GM POTATO EXPERIMENT
The world's largest chemicals company, BASF, said it will not go ahead with its controversial patented GM potato experiment in Co. Meath this year, and may cancel it altogether.

BASF said it made the decision because of the conditions imposed in the provisional consent given by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The cancellation may also have been influenced by nationwide opposition from more than 100 farm and food industry groups, resistance by TDs (members of the Irish Parliament) from all the parties, two motions passed unanimously by Meath Co. Council, and the threat of further legal action on planning and constitutional grounds.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6577
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6563

+ IRELAND: EPA URGED TO WITHDRAW LICENCE FOR GM POTATO TRIALS
The Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw BASF's licence altogether, saying the people of Ireland do not want anything to do with GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6568

+ GERMAN GROUPS TO PROTEST AGAINST GM CROPS
During an action-day for a GM-free county in Vaterstetten, the Society for the Protection of Nature announced the formation of a German-wide association of farmers and bee-keepers.

They are planning to organize an international demonstration against GM contamination in Angelbrechting. They're also planning to destroy a GM cornfield.

Franz Lenz, the district leader of the Bavarian Farmers Union, commented, "It is not right to waste taxes on something nobody wants."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6546

+ MORE GERMAN FARMERS AND POLITICIANS TURN AGAINST GM
The Bavarian Farmers Union (BBV) has changed its hitherto lenient position on GM and is urging its members to "avoid planting transgenic corn". According to an assessment by the BBV, transgenic technology currently offers "no benefits" to farmers.

More and more farmers in Bavaria have been supporting the establishment of GM-free zones similar to the Austrian model.

According to the BBV, it now appears that the CSU-party is also changing its policy... the CSU general secretary, Markus Soeder, recently emphasized in an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper his opposition to outdoor experiments with GM plants.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6571

+ GREEKS DO NOT WANT GM
A report from Greece in the International Herald Tribune says, "In this famously fractious country, there is one thing on which almost all Greeks agree: They do not want genetically modified crops grown, sold or eaten here ... all 54 Greek prefectures have passed local bans, testing international regulations and patience."

Theodore Koliopanos, a legislator and former deputy environment minister, is quoted as saying, "All political parties are opposed to GMOs, which is odd because we disagree on everything else," said.

The report notes US pressure to accept GMOs. Koliopanos says, "The first visit any new minister in Greece gets is from the US ambassador saying you need to have GMOs. The pressure is incredible."

The report quotes Nikos Lappas, head of Greece's largest farmers' union, as saying, "I started with an open mind on this, but now I think the answers are clear. If our market doesn't buy it, and insurers won't insure us, how can we grow it?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6566

+ GM FOODS TO BE BANNED FROM MOSCOW SCHOOLS
Foods containing GM products will be banned from Moscow schools and pre-school childcare centres, the Moscow Mayor's office has announced. Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's statement said, "Scientists have not fully studied the effects of genetically modified products on the human body yet. The city authorities have decided to take precautions to protect the city's population, in particular, youngsters, from the unfavorable effects the use of such products may have, and to ban the GM foods from children's diet."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6538

+ POLAND'S GM SEED BAN A BIG STEP TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
A ban on the sale of GM seeds has been signed into law by the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski after being approved by both chambers of the Polish Parliament.

One of the amendments of the new act states that "genetically engineered varieties will no longer be registered in the National Seeds Catalogue". Another adds that trading of GM seeds is forbidden within Polish territory. These regulations constitute a big step towards keeping the country's agriculture free of GM crops.

There are now 12 GM bans in 7 EU countries, more than in 2003 when the US presented its case against the EU to the WTO. The Polish announcement is a blow to US agrochemical giants, as Poland is the second biggest agricultural food producer in the EU.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6552

+ UK: BIOTECH QUITS CAMBRIDGE BECAUSE OF GM OPPOSITION
Around 25 scientists will lose their jobs following the closure of one of Cambridge's longest established biotechs - Biogemma. Entrenched opposition to GM crops is understood to be at least partly to blame for the decision, which will also see one of the company's three French labs closed down.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6548

+ NETHERLANDS: SPINACH SOWED IN GM MAIZE
Greenpeace activists sowed spinach in a test field of Bt GM maize on 3 May. Wageningen University and Research Centre, which planted the test field, has reported the "vandalism" to the police.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6535

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ASIA
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+ INDIAN FARMERS BURN BT COTTON
Concerned over the adverse impact of Bt cotton cultivation in the country, Indian farmers burnt stacks of the harvest produced in Amravati region in Maharashtra.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6536

+ BT COTTON RESPONSIBLE FOR DRIVING FARMERS TO SUICIDE
Bt cotton is responsible for the increased cost of farm production and indebtedness of farmers, leading them to end their life, Vandana Shiva said at a press conference in Hyderabad.

Vandana called for a moratorium on cotton planting and an independent study of the socio, economic, environmental and health impacts of Bt cotton.

Ms Shiva attended a three-state meeting to promote sustainable agriculture, as well as GM-free, patent-free, debt-free and suicide-free zones.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6547

+ MONOPOLIES COMMISSION COMES DOWN HARD ON MONSANTO
In a major setback to Monsanto, India's Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission held that the company was indulging in restrictive trade practices and asked it to revise its huge charges.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6536

+ CORRUPT GM POLITICS IN INDIA
The Andhra Pradesh government has taken robust action against Bt cotton companies like Monsanto, including seeking compensation for farmers, due to the poor quality of the companies' products and their fraudulent claims. But the Maharashtra government, instead of seeking compensation from Monsanto, has paid out compensation itself in order to try and protect Monsanto.

Why is this, when there have been so many suicides and so much destitution among Bt cotton farmers in Maharashtra?

According to farmer pressure group Vidarbha Janadolan Samiti (VJS), it's to give cover to India's agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, who personally promoted Bt cotton in Maharashtra, where he was formerly chief minister and where he has his power base.

VJS also notes that one brand of Bt seeds that have been on sale - "Ajit Bt" - is owned by Pawar's nephew, Ajit Pawar.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6545

+ INDIAN IMPORT POLICY ON GM A SHAMBLES
According to a story from India's news agency Sify, the country's policymakers seem to have suddenly woken up from deep slumber and realised that large quantities of GM food are entering the country.

The story says that though the Environment (Protection) Act and its Rules have been in place since 1989, no one in the government bothered to implement the rules.

The latest policy announced by the commerce minister mandates pre-import clearance of GM foods from Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). It is conceivable that the decision was at the insistence of the environment ministry.

A senior official in the ministry of environment and forests admitted that even though the rules (mandating pre-import approval) have been in force since December 1989, "no requests for commercial import and marketing of GM food have been received by the Ministry".
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6536

+ MORE GM MISERY INFLICTED ON INDIA
Despite all the suffering and suicides it has already inflicted via GM crops, India's GM regulatory body - the GEAC - has just approved the commercial release of 36 more varieties of transgenic Bt cotton and is also considering approving Br brinjals!

Details of all GEAC's decisions are at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6580

+ THAILAND: GREENPEACE HELPS PLANTER DESTROY GM-CONTAMINATED ORCHARD
A papaya planter in Rayong's Klaeng district sought help from Greenpeace activists to demolish his orchard to stop the spread of GM papaya. Teerasak Bamrung, the orchard owner, is among 2,669 farmers in 37 provinces who obtained papaya seeds from the Department of Agriculture's Khon Kaen research station in 2003 and 2004. The seeds turned out to be GM.

''I have waited for almost a year for concerned agencies to get rid of the GM papaya trees and clean up my orchard to prevent the further spread of the GM papaya, but no one has turned up. So I decided to ask Greenpeace for help,'' said Mr Teerasak.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6550

+ ANTI-GM ACTIVISTS ON TRIAL IN BANGKOK
A biotechnology scientist and Hawaiian farmers will testify in Bangkok Criminal Court in the historic hearing of a case on GMOs. Activists Patwajee Srisuwan and Jiragorn Gajaseni face criminal charges for their role in exposing that a government research station in Khon Kaen province illegally sold and distributed GM-contaminated papaya seeds and seedlings to farmers in at least 37 provinces.

The Agriculture Department, which ran a field trial of the GM papaya, sued the two activists for theft, trespassing and destruction of its GM papaya orchard.

In court, Banthoon Setsirote, a representative of the National Human Rights Commission, testified that GM tests in Khon Kaen posed a significant threat to the public. The NHRC had studied the effects of GMO contamination and how it threatened the environment and human rights, Banthoon said.

The commission found that the contamination threatened consumer rights, farmers' rights and other rights related to environmental, social and cultural issues, he said.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6560
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6568

+ TAIWAN STRESSES BAN ON GM PAPAYAS
Taiwan's Council of Agriculture has reiterated its ban on the sale of GM papayas, saying that anyone found growing or selling such fruits could face a fine of between NT$1 million and NT$5 million. The COA has directed city and county governments to check on papayas on sale in markets under their jurisdiction to see if there are any GM fruit.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6572

+ JAPAN: SURVEY FINDS STRONG CONSUMER OPPOSITION TO GMOs
A panel entrusted by the Japanese government to promote acceptance of GM products has released details of a poll that shows a majority of Japanese firmly against GMOs. The survey showed only 9% of those polled had a good image of GM food. Sixty-one percent of respondents declared themselves to be reluctant to eat GM food.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6574

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THE AMERICAS
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+ UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PAPAYA SEEDS STILL GM-TAINTED
A group of farmers and community members who oppose GM plants have said that some GM papaya seeds are still mixed in with packets of papaya seeds being sold by the University of Hawaii.

The group is concerned that the seed supply is still contaminated after the problem was flagged two years ago, and that this could create major problems for organic farmers.

A report titled "Hawaiian Papaya: GMO Contaminated," written by Melanie Bondera and Mark Query, said that the group bought three samples of 10,000 seeds of Solo Waimanalo, Solo Sunset and Solo Sunrise papayas and sent them to the Genetic ID laboratory.

Bondera said there were between one and 10 GMO seeds in the Solo Waimanalo sample and none in the other two. Although that number seems small, she said, it has the potential to expand exponentially - if each of those became a tree that put out one to two fruits a week, and each fruit averages at least 100 seeds that could grow into other trees.

Professor Richard Manshardt, of the University of Hawaii's Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, is one of those credited with genetically engineering papaya. He said UH does work to avoid contamination by growing papaya in different areas of the farm "so that we don't get direct contact between different varieties." [How ignorant is he?! Does he think that trees practise safe sex?]
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6559

Click here for the full 19 page report by Bondera and Query in pdf format http://www.gmofreemaui.com/press_releases/Contamination_Report.pdf

+ NATIVE HAWAIIANS PROTEST PATENT ON SACRED PLANT
Hawaiian activists and farmers are demanding that the University of Hawaii (UH) give up its patents on three lines of taro (a tropical plant with a starchy edible tuber) whose lineage extends back to Polynesian taro first brought to the Islands centuries ago. The University was granted US patents on the varieties in 2002, and has also sought worldwide patent rights.

"UH needs to show more respect for native Hawaiian culture," activist Walter Ritte said. "Hawaiians would never dream of patenting or genetically manipulating kalo (Taro is known as "kalo" to native Hawaiians). Kalo is a gift handed down to us by our ancestors. Hawaiians believe kalo is the first born (named Haloa), and is our elder brother. We have a Kuleana or responsibility to honor, respect and protect Haloa, so he in turn will sustain us."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6551

+ GM COWS FOR GM DRUGS
Mastitis is a nasty disease of the mammary gland to which cows in industrial agriculture are particularly prone. Mastitis is said to cost the US dairy industry approximately $2 billion annually - and the problem is made considerably worse by Monsanto's GM cattle drug, aimed at boosting milk production, rBGH (also known as BST and commercially "Posilac"). For this reason Monsanto's GM drug is banned in Europe not only on human health grounds but also on animal welfare grounds. The GM cattle drug is also banned on animal welfare grounds in Canada.

But never fear, a US Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-led team are developing transgenic dairy cows that are engineered to have a built-in defense against mastitis. This, of course, means it will be easier to give these cows a GM hormone to give more milk ...

We've published several items relating to this technological breakthrough, including comment from the geneticist Prof Joe Cummins who thinks kids who drink the resulting milk may suffer injury or death from allergy, at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6579

+ BIOTECH UPSETS JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY
An Associated Press story tells how Ventria Biosciences has made an astonishing number of powerful enemies because it grows an experimental anti-diarrhoea drug in rice genetically engineered with a human gene.

Environmental groups, corporate food interests and thousands of farmers across the country have succeeded in chasing Ventria's rice farms out of two states. And critics continue to complain that Ventria is recklessly plowing ahead with a mostly untested technology that threatens the safety of conventional crops grown for food.

"We just want them to go away," said Bob Papanos of the US Rice Producers Association.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6539

GM Watch comment: It's worth remembering when Ventria claims the chance of its diarrhoea drug rice ending up in the food supply is remote, that plants in Nebraska carrying diarrhoea drugs have already mingled with food for humans - see "The Three Mile Island of Biotech?"
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20021230/nichols

+ VERMONT GOVERNOR VETOES GM SEED LIABILITY BILL
Vermont Governor Jim Douglas has vetoed a bill that would have made seed manufacturers liable for damages caused by GM seeds that drift into the fields of farms that do not want to use them. Douglas said the measure was unnecessary and divisive and would have caused manufacturers to raise prices or restrict the seed sales in Vermont.

Supporters of the bill accused the administration of bowing to pressure from manufacturers. "Gov. Douglas has chosen hypocrisy over democracy in siding with the chemical giants and not listening to the farmers," said Rep. Dexter Randall, P-Troy, the primary sponsor of the bill and a dairy farmer. "This is a huge insult for the farm community of Vermont, only widening the gap between conventional and organic farmers."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6542

+ DOUGLAS LIABILITY VETO IS DIVISIVE
A piece in Vermont's Rutland Herald comments on Governor Douglas's veto:

EXCERPT:
The governor acknowledged willingness to let corporations write the rules when he conjectured that manufacturers might not sell seed in Vermont under the proposed act. Whom is he kidding? Of course, manufacturers will sell seed into this major market. In fact, at least one seed company urged the governor to sign the act.

The prosperity of Vermont agriculture depends on both strong conventional farms and strong organic farms. Yet the governor wants us to believe that these two types of farmers have competing interests, and that the act divides them.

The governor has it backwards. It is the absence of the protection act that fosters division. Under the manufacturer's rules, a farmer damaged by a neighbor's GE crop is barred from suing the seed manufacturer and has no recourse except to sue the neighbour. So if anything is divisive, it is the governor's veto.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6564

+ SOY STOCKS RUN OUT AT BRAZIL CRUSHER DUE TO FARMER PROTESTS
All is far from well in the GM paradise of Brazil. Soybean stocks have run out during the peak soy export season at Sperafico Agroindustrial, a soy crusher in Mato Grosso, because protesting farmers have successfully closed grain silos.

Farmers are protesting low local commodity prices. In most of the soy belt, soy prices paid by industry do not come close to covering production costs, according to industry consensus. High diesel fuel costs and a weak US dollar have made the current farm crisis one of the worst Brazil has seen in decades.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6544

+ BRAZIL: GREENPEACE SHUTS DOWN SOYA EXPORT TERMINAL OF AMAZON DESTROYER
Climbers are trying to occupy the roof and conveyor belts of Cargill's facility in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Other volunteers are trying to prevent soya being unloaded from barges into the facility. Meanwhile, the Arctic Sunrise is attempting to occupy the dock of the facility, preventing barges of soy from arriving and unloading, but is being rammed by a Cargill vessel. Cargill workers on the dock are reacting violently, and one activist has been thrown in the river. Eight people have been arrested.

Greenpeace's Paulo Adario said: "American corporations like Cargill are eating up the Amazon to grow soya. Meat fed on this soya ends up on supermarket shelves and fast food counters, like Tesco and Kentucky Fried Chicken, across Europe. Our volunteers will stay here as long as possible to prevent soya from the world's most precious rainforest being exported to Europe to feed chickens, pigs and cows."

Greenpeace is calling on Cargill and the European food industry to ensure that the soya and animal feed they buy and use does not contribute to the destruction of the Amazon and that none of their soya products are GM.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6549

+ ECUADOR BANS GMOs IN FOOD AID
The Ecuadorean Parliament has passed a law which bans the presence of GMOs in food aid.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6565

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AFRICA
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+ SOUTH AFRICA, BIOFUELS AND GMOs
In the wake of worldwide rejection of GM food crops, the GM industry hopes that the biofuels movement will save it. Biofuels are being pushed as a solution to global warming; South Africa is being put forward as a place where vast amounts of land can be devoted to growing GM crops for biofuels.

Politicans, keen to be seen to do something about climate change, are swallowing the industry spin uncritically. Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety has written an excellent report, "South Africa, bioethanol and GMOs: A heady mixture", exposing the biofuels scam.

EXCERPT:
Once maize is harvested, three energy expenditures in ethanol production raise the total costs. These include energy to the transport of maize grain to the ethanol plant, energy expended to provide the capital equipment requirements for the plant, and energy expanded in the plant operations for the fermentation and distillation processes. The effective energy balance of ethanol as a biofuels is therefore in doubt.

A study by Pimental and Patzek shows that turning plants such as maize, soyabeans and sunflowers into fuel uses more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesal generate. The researchers demonstrated that sunflower oil requires 118% more fossil energy to refine it than the fuel obtained from it. Likewise, soya requires 27%, and maize 29% more fossil fuels than that obtained from the crops themselves. According to the researchers, it takes six units of energy in corn farming, distillation, and transportation to yield one unit of energy produced by ethanol in an automobile.

Read full report at http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6570#_ftnref30

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CHURCHES
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+ CHURCHES OPPOSE TERMINATOR
A major church organization has said it opposes GM seeds, and placed a call for other churches to follow suit.

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, called upon churches and ecumenical partners to take action to stop "terminator technology".

"Applying technology to design sterile seeds turns life, which is a gift from God, into a commodity. Preventing farmers from re-planting saved seed will increase economic injustice all over the world and add to the burdens of those already living in hardship," stated Kobia.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6543

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FAO
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+ UN FOOD AGENCY DEPUTY RESIGNS OVER LEADER'S "CULTURE OF SILENCE"
The United Nations body which combats world hunger is in turmoil after one of its most senior officials resigned, claiming that her boss ruled through "silence, rumour and fear".

Louise Fresco, assistant director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has handed in her notice, angered at the way the agency was being run by its Senegalese director-general, Dr Jacques Diouf. In a scathing letter of resignation, she criticises him for the direction of the agency and its inability to offer the poorest countries proper advice on agriculture.

One UN insider, who asked not to be named, said: "There is a general perception that Diouf has done very little to work closely with other UN bodies. He seems keener to spend time with the US guys running multinational companies than he does to sort out problems on the ground. There have been tensions brewing over its lack of any clear strategy and they are coming to the surface now."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6554

+ COMMENT FROM GAIANET ON FAO RESIGNATION
Teresa Anderson of Gaianet summarises the contents of Fresco's letter of resignation, which was leaked to the Observer, and comments as follows:

EXCERPT:
Fresco is apparently fed up with the FAO's failure under Diouf to address the real needs of the hungry. Insiders suggest that Mr Diouf is instead more supportive of multinational agribusiness companies.

Many NGOs would support these beliefs, particularly over the report that the FAO produced in 2004 called "Agricultural Biotechnology: meeting the needs of the poor?", which failed to include basic facts about the way that patented GM crops would harm the rural poor and allow companies like Monsanto to create monopolies. The report failed to consult with any NGO groups working directly with farmers on the issue, ignored a wealth of evidence about the problems that GM has brought to farmers around the world, and used controversial data to prove its point. Unsurprisingly, it concluded that GM had the potential to feed the hungry.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6569

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LOBBYWATCH
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+ LEADING RESEARCHER CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL OF "WORMY" CORN PAPER
New Scientist reports on how a leading researcher into scientific ethics is calling for the withdrawal of a paper published in the British Food Journal. The study, carried out at a farm store in Canada, claimed that sales of GM sweetcorn were 50 per cent higher than those of non-GM corn. The journal later awarded the study a prize as its "most outstanding paper" of 2004.

But New Scientist reports that GM Watch has published a photograph that it says shows a large sign suspended above the non-GM corn during the study asking: "Would you eat wormy sweet corn?" The GM corn, it claims, was labelled as "quality sweet corn". The paper (vol 105, p700) claims that the corn was marked simply as either genetically engineered or regular.

If this is the case, "it is grounds for the journal to retract the article", says Richard Jennings, who studies research conduct at the University of Cambridge. The journal's editor has refused to withdraw the paper, but says he is willing to publish a letter condemning it followed by a response from the lead author, Doug Powell of Kansas State University.

To see the picture and for more on the paper go to: http://www.gmwatch.org/p1temp.asp?pid=72&page=1

For the full New Scientist piece:
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025533.300&feedId=gm-food_rss20

+ LMers PUFF INNIS
The LM network-connected and extreme-rightwing website Spiked Online has an article praising Roy Innis, national chairman of the Monsanto-backed Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), for his belief that "environmentalism is one of the greatest threats to Africa".

The black American journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble describe CORE - the organisation Innis heads - as "a tin cup outstretched to every Hard Right political campaign or cause that finds it convenient - or a sick joke - to hire Black cheerleaders". They also report how James Farmer, the heroic former head of the original Congress of Racial Equality confronted Roy Innis on TV for turning "the organization into what Farmer called a 'shakedown' gang."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6578

+ AGBIOWORLD CONGRATULATES GM-BOOSTER FOR BECOMING MEMBER OF ROYAL SOCIETY
CS Prakash's AgBioWorld is in celebratory mood: "AgBioWorld congratulates Prof Calestous Juma (Harvard University) and Prof Rob Martienssen (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) for their selection as members of the prestigious Royal Society (UK)."

Juma is on the AgBioWorld list of "Independent Academic Experts" available to advise the world's media on matters GM. Once memorably described by a well-known journalist as "the most up himself academic I've ever encountered", Juma published a bizarre article on the WTO dispute in which he claimed that the real concerns in Europe about GMOs had little to do with their potential impact on health or the environment: "The focus on safety is largely a smokescreen used to conceal concerns about Europe's loss of competitiveness in biotechnology."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6562

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LABELLING
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+ U.S. FAILS TO DUMP INTERNATIONAL GM LABELLING GUIDELINE
The US tried and failed to dump an international guideline for labelling GM food at a UN food standards committee held May 1-5 in Ottawa, Canada. The labeling guideline suggests a minimum standard of GM labelling for countries to adopt.

After failing to dump the guideline, the US had nearly won a compromise that would shelve discussions on GM labeling for three or five years. Consumers International challenged the US position and many countries followed. Fourteen EU countries and 15 other nations requested continued discussions for a labelling guideline, which left the US and seven supporting countries in a minority. If the US had succeeded in dumping or shelving the guideline, it would have empowered pro-biotech countries to challenge other countries' right to label GM products.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6576

+ KEEPING TABS ON GMOs
A report in the New Zealand Herald says conditions for the international trade of GMOs are to become tougher as a result of changes to the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol.

Buried in the diplomatic language added to this UN agreement is a shift in the rules on food labelling that has deep ramifications for GM food cultivation. The protocol will ultimately require sufficiently detailed labelling of GM content in food exports to make it the norm for GM crops to be strictly segregated from conventional export crops.

While a number of richer nations already have import requirements for identifying GM content, the protocol provides for their wider application to developing countries, and is likely to pave the way for a de facto global standard for labelling.

The report concludes, "Premium export markets will leave no place to hide from GMO contamination and those who cause losses for conventional farmers should not be able to hide from the financial consequences."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6558

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GENE THERAPY
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+ CANCER-PROMOTING GM THERAPIES RAISE ALARM
New animal studies conducted at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California show that the only human gene therapy treatment to date considered to be largely successful, is, in fact, riskier than realized.

The Salk researchers, led by Inder Verma, Ph.D., a professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, discovered that the healthy copy, which replaces the defective gene can itself promote cancer development. Their findings appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

Niels-Bjarne R. Woods, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher in Inder Verma's team followed mice treated with the IL2RG gene three times longer than any study had ever before, and found that one-third of the animals developed lymphoma later in their life. This is the same gene being given to patients with X-linked severe combined immune deficiency (X-SCID) - commonly known as the "bubble boy" syndrome - in small clinical trials being conducted in France, the US, the UK, and Australia.

"We were surprised by the strength of the association between IL2RG gene therapy and development of lymphoma," says Woods. "These results suggest that curing X-SCID by replacing IL2RG in the manner it is currently being done puts patients at an increased risk of developing cancer."

Woods adds that the study could explain why one of three children in the French trial developed T-cell leukemia. Two developed the disease because IL2RG inserted itself into the cellular genome next to a known cancer-causing gene and activated it, but the cause of the third cancer case had not been solved.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6561

+ NEW STUDY SHOWS GM FOODS, TOO, SHOULD BE TESTED FOR HARM
Commenting on the new study, GE Free NZ points out that the damaging effects of transgenes did not show up in trials with mice lasting several months - a significant part of their life span as mice only live about 18 months. It took long-term studies allowing the mice to live through their natural life span, to show up the cancer- promoting effects.

GE Free NZ said, "This indicates that tests evaluating the impact of GM techniques on people are essential. The latest findings show that scientists do not yet understand the full complexities of gene function and regulation and that GM foods as well as medicines may cause unexpected harm."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6561

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SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
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+ GLOBAL COALITION SOUNDS THE ALARM ON SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
A coalition of 38 international organizations, including scientists, environmentalists, trade unionists, biowarfare experts and social justice advocates, called for public debate, regulation and oversight of the rapidly advancing field of synthetic biology - the construction of unique and novel artificial life forms to perform specific tasks.

Synthetic biologists met recently in Berkeley, California where they announced a voluntary code of self-regulation for their work. The organizations are calling on synthetic biologists to abandon their proposals for self-governance and to engage in an inclusive process of global societal debate on the implications of their work.

"The researchers meeting in Berkeley acknowledge the dangers of synthetic biology in the hands of 'evildoers', but they naively overlook the possibility - or probability - that members of their own community won't be able to control or predict the behaviour of synthetic biology or its societal consequences," said Jim Thomas of ETC Group.

"Biotech has already ignited worldwide protests, but synthetic biology is like genetic engineering on steroids," says Dr Doreen Stabinsky of Greenpeace International. "Tinkering with living organisms that could be released in the environment poses a grave biosafety threat to people and the planet."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6556

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CORPORATE CRIMES
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+ SYNGENTA'S CORPORATE CRIMES
Dr Brian John of GM Free Cymru writes 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. Here are just a few of the proud moments in the corporation's recent history:

** 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.

Many more Syngenta crimes at
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6567